Unless you were around back in the mid-70s when the first harmonizer was introduced (the Eventide H910), you can’t appreciate what an impact it had on mixing. This was a device that did something that couldn’t be done before. It was hard to explain exactly what that was, but you knew it instantly when you […]
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You’ve probably wondered how musicians get hired to play on film and television sessions, and who takes care of all the paperwork. My guest on my latest podcast episode is Deb Chase, who’s a contractor for musicians playing on movies and television scores, and even acting in them as well, and she’ll tell us how […]
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Harrison consoles were a big part of the sound of the 70s and 80s, helping shape the sound of everyone from Michael Jackson to ABBA to Kenny Rodgers and so many more music legends. The company’s most popular console back then was the 32C, which was renowned for it sound and musical EQ section. SSL, […]
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I’ve covered studio etiquette rules here in the past, but they were primarily for when a session was in progress. When the session, or your part in it, is completed, the etiquette doesn’t stop though, as this excerpt from The Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with ace studio bass player Paul ILL) illustrates. It’s perfectly natural […]
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The latest episode of my Inner Circle Podcast features Marek Stycos, who’s company Audio Alchemist acts as a brand manager for a wide range of pro audio manufacturers. He’s also the president of high end pro audio creators Dangerous Music and Chameleon Labs. Prior to starting Audio Alchemist Marek worked as Director of Pro Audio […]
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Sibilance is the bane of any mixer since many times it’s so hard to correct. While modern de-esser plugins work admirably, they usually only hit one frequency band, while most sibilance occurs at two frequencies or more. Enter the Antares Auto-Tune Vocal De-Esser that not only affects multiple frequency bands, but also uses artificial intelligence […]
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“How do I choose a set of studio monitors?” This question comes up a lot, and although I’ve addressed it before, it’s never a bad time to do it again. When it comes to monitor speakers, there are certainly plenty of choices, and currently there’s no single favorite that dominates the industry. A Standard? It […]
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The latest episode of my Inner Circle Podcast features 5 time MPG mastering engineer of the year Katie Tavini, who’s work includes Rudimental, Bloc Party, Ash, We Are Scientists, Nadine Shah, Arlo Parks, Los Bitchos and many more. Katie is also a founding member of Weird Jungle, a collective of independent mastering engineers in the […]
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We all love channel strips, whether they be real hardware or a virtual plugin version – and what’s not there to like? For one thing you usually get the saturation and control of the original preamp, a modeled EQ, and a compressor/limiter/gate, at the very least. The whole trick is to base it on a […]
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I’ve found that it’s always a good practice to record a direct signal as well as the amp/simulator signal when recording guitar. That way you have the ability to change the sound later if you need to, and the clean waveform makes it so much easier to edit distorted guitars. Even if you have a […]
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The latest episode of my Inner Circle Podcast features Erik Himel, who expanded his touring guitar career into hosting the hottest jam night in Hollywood, to producing a Las Vegas show, to custom music programming for private and corporate events. During the interview we talked about playing music with lyrics you can’t understand, the hack […]
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I get a lot of questions about panning, especially about hard panning and the resultant “Big Mono,” so I thought I’d provide an excerpt from The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook to address them. This applies only to the stereo soundfield as most musicians haven’t entered the immersive world yet. “One of the most overlooked or taken […]
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On my latest podcast episode: Listen to it at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Mixcloud, YouTube Music, Spotify, Deezer, TunIn Radio, and RadioPublic. Enjoy the show!
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There’s nothing better than a real reverb chamber as anyone who’s ever used one can attest to. The problem is that they all sound different since it all comes down to acoustic design and some construction luck. Many rate the chamber in Studio A of Blackbird Studios in Nashville as one of the best, and […]
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Before you can even delve into creating a great mix, it’s good to be aware of the traits of one that isn’t there yet. These 8 traits of an amateur mix come from the 5th edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook and are useful in picking out problem areas, looking at it from a global […]
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