The part of the music industry that uses semiconductor chips was already reeling from the AKM factory fire last October, and now there’s been another – this time at the giant Renesas Electronics factory in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan – just north of Tokyo. While on the surface the AKM fire seems to be more […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Jennifer Batten, who played lead and rhythm guitar on Michael Jackson’s Bad, Dangerous and HIStory world tours. She’s also appeared on 2 Jeff Beck albums and was a member of his touring band for 3 years. Jennifer continues to give clinics and master classes all over the world, and […]
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Headphone room simulation plugins are all the rage these days and for good reason – they really do help provide a reasonable simulation of a good playback environment so you can get better mixes using just headphones. While most of the plugins in this category focus on simulating one particular studio environment, Acustica Audio has […]
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It all started last Friday evening when I started getting emails saying that my various sites were redirecting to other places on the Web. Most of the redirects were trying to sell something (like the Google Play Store) but none of them were pointed at my blogs, podcast or personal website URL. I tried to […]
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If you’re around electric guitars at all (and who isn’t), you’ve probably encountered your share of Gibson electrics with a humbucking pickup. But did you ever wonder how the humbucker came about as compared to the much simpler single coil ones that Fender used? There’s more to the story than you might think, but this […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Scott Hull, who started his illustrious career in mastering at New York’s famed Master Disk studios. Rising from an assistant to chief engineer, Scott then took a series of jobs at some of New York’s other excellent mastering facilities including Classic Sound and the Hit Factory before striking out […]
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If you’ve ever tried to connect your laptop to a console, monitor speakers, or other outboard gear you know that you need some sort of computer interface to do so. The problem is that almost all of the ones available come with mic inputs as well, so the box is larger than might be convenient […]
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If you’ve ever wondered what makes a great solo, Total Guitar has broken it down nicely by analyzing what it thinks are the 50 greatest guitar solos of all time. Not surprisingly, the solos range from a time period from 1958 (“Johnny B Goode”) to 1997 (“Floods”), as nothing recently has cracked the list. You […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Ellie McNeil, who’s the general manager of the audio software company Audionamix. Audionamix uses advanced signal processing and artificial intelligence technology to extract specific elements from an audio file, including speech, vocals, drums and bass. Their top-of-the-line audio separation tech is reserved for major film studios, television networks, and […]
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There are times when a standard EQ just doesn’t get it and the mix element doesn’t sit in the mix the right way. Saturators can be very effective, but many times you don’t want to add distortion, just some edge. When that happens, Neold’s BIG AL dual-stage tube saturator might be just the thing you […]
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A while back I read a great post on the Daily Beast about how the old RCA company (Radio Corporation of America) was actually Apple way before Apple came into existence. Of course, that means that there were numerous similarities between the company that were pretty impressive. For instance: RCA founder David Sarnoff was the original Steve Jobs. He willed his company to be the […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Vasja Veber, who co-founded Viberate, a platform that gives artists important analytics about musical trends, events, venues and festivals. It makes performing acts’ life easier by giving them a better version of an EPK or even a traditional website. Viberate features over a million profiles of musicians, venues, events and […]
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You don’t need it often, but when it’s time to track down an audio anomaly having an audio analyzer at hand is a must. There are many really good analyzer plugins available, but most are single or dual function, or only provide a view of one analysis instrument at a time. SPL’s new Hawkeye plugin […]
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It’s surprising how often handclaps are used, either as an enhancement to the backbeat or as a standalone mix element. That said, getting a great clap sound can be elusive, as the huge effect that everyone expects is more difficult to achieve than you might expect. Here are 5 techniques that you can use for […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is music attorney Kamal Moo, who has represented artists from various genres of music as both personal manager and attorney. He has negotiated several types of entertainment contracts, including recording, music publishing, and producer agreements, with clients include legendary recording artist Janet Jackson, The Hallmark Channel, indie artist Lil B, and […]
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