One of the keys to a great sounding mix in any genre is a big full low end. In some genres like hip-hop or electronic music it’s more important than others, but any mix suffers greatly if it doesn’t have enough of the low bass frequencies. As a result, it’s tempting to boost the crap […]
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Today there are so many different types of audio metering that we can choose that it can be overwhelming if you let yourself get caught up in it. The fact is that today’s many meter choices all descended from the standard analog VU meter, which is a lot older than you think. Here’s an excerpt […]
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My guests on the podcast this week are director of marketing Nate Baglyos and director of acoustics Charles Sprinkle of the speaker manufacturer Kali Audio. Both held executive positions at JBL before joining forces to start the company. Kali studio monitors are built to offer the best possible value to its customers, while providing high-performance […]
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Anyone who’s ever delivered a project to a label knows that the job isn’t complete until all the alternate mixes are bounced and delivered. The problem is that process alone might take another long tedious day of somewhat mindless work. Instrumental mix, acapella, vocals up and down, multiple stems – there might be twenty or […]
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I often get asked what plugins I regularly use, so a few years ago I decided to share my plugin thoughts with a personal Top 10 list. Here’s my latest edition for 2022, which isn’t all that different from previous years except that it has fewer compressors, since I’ve found myself using less and less […]
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Many thanks to Matt Boudreau for having me on his Episode #387 of his long-running Working Class Audio podcast. Matt is a a great engineer and an insightful interviewer, so we had a lot of fun talking about a wide range of subjects. It was fun to be on the other side of the mic […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Peter Sinclair, the CEO of BeatBread. BeatBread enables artists and songwriters to get advances from 1k to 2mil based on strength of the catalogs. Unlike other services, the company allows artist to keep 100% ownership of their masters, publishing, touring, merch and synch. You can design the […]
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If you’ve followed this blog then you know that I’m a big fan of the CLA Collection of plugins from Waves. Chris Lord Alge (the C-L-A behind the CLA) has some of the best finally-tuned analog gear that his plugins are modeled on, and that means that they have more sonic character than other similar […]
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There are a lot of immersive audio formats, and it’s easy to get confused in where they all fit in. In the latest 5th edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook, I’ve made the distinctions between them more obvious by placing the various formats into one of 3 historical generations, as you’ll see in this excerpt. […]
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If you’ve ever tried to get an approval on a mix from someone, you know how hard that can get. You want them to hear it in all its glory, yet you don’t want to send the high-res file without getting paid first. Plus, getting notes that make sense can be a real chore. That’s […]
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If there’s one component that defines Sold State Logic consoles it’s the buss compressor. Although it’s changed slightly over the years depending upon the desk series, the buss compressor has become a standard across mix busses everywhere in both the analog and digital worlds. One of the most interesting things about the buss compressor is […]
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It’s always such a treat to get to hear isolated tracks from big hits no matter how far back they go. We can always learn something from them, and often there are surprises that are covered up by the entire mix. That’s the case here as we can listen to the Paul McCartney’s isolated bass […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is new age pianist Jason Tonioli who’s managed to do something that everyone thought was impossible these days, and that’s crack 7 figures of income with only sheet music sales. He’s recorded 8 albums and created more than a dozen piano solo books as well as dozens of […]
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Over the years the Neumann U87 has become on of the most revered and relied on microphone found in studios everywhere. Even though it’s been a go-to mic for ages, engineers noticed a distinct difference in sound between the two major versions. Some swear by the older version while many like the newer cleaner version. […]
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Recently some employees at Gibson Guitars were looking through the company’s archives and stumbled upon a canister of film. Much to their surprise it was a tour of the Gibson factory dating back to 1967 that’s been unseen until now. Watching the film I was struck by how much has remained the same in the […]
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