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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My guests on my latest podcast episode are Brianna Schwartz and Alexis Schreiber, the dynamic duo behind Schwartz & Schreiber, PLLC. Their innovative approach to entertainment law sets them apart, as they aim to provide a true end-to-end partnership with their clients, becoming a member of their team rather than just a passive or reactive […]
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There are certain analog hardware compressors that are considered classic and have stood the test of time. Most have been modeled in the digital domain and anyone who uses a DAW today (which is almost everyone) is thankful for that, but the fact of the matter is that many mixers still prefer some analog mojo […]
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Most musicians at some time or another are exposed to pink noise as it’s usually used for speaker and room measurements. We’ve all heard white noise in the static between radio channels or on a television that isn’t tuned to a particular channel. Brown noise is low frequency and random like the sound you make […]
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My guest on my latest podcast episode is Lara Chapman, who’s an award winning singer/songwriter turned viral vocal coach and the Founder of VoxTape Studios. Born in Switzerland, her aspirations quickly took her to New York City, where she studied Musical Theatre and Acting for Film and Television. After that she moved to Boston to […]
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If you’re in the music business, you’ve almost certainly encountered a Shure SM57 or 58 somewhere along the way. The 58 has been the go-to microphone for sound reinforcement for almost 60 years, while the 57 has been a staple in recording studios for almost that long. Although many manufacturers have attempted to create a […]
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