Bruce Swedien was rightfully known as the “Godfather of Recording” because not only did he see it all from almost the beginning, he changed and adapted with the times and technology, breaking ground for the rest of us to follow. From engineering Count Basie and Duke Ellington at Universal Studios in Chicago in the 1950s, […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is engineer Robert Martin, who was a long-time member of Frank Zappa’s band, the musical director for Bette Midler, and toured or performed with Paul McCartney, Michael McDonald, Stevie Nicks, Boz Scaggs, Etta James, Patti LaBelle, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Loggins and many others. Robert also recorded with Prince, the Moody Blues, Lyle […]
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Magnetic recording has been around for a lot longer than you think. Before tape, recording was done on thin magnetic steel wires, an idea that goes back as far as 1898. The technology really came into its own during WWII when the military used it extensively, and its use peaked between 1946 and 1954, after […]
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Every now and then someone asks about getting that vintage sound that bands like The Beatles got way back in the 60’s. There’s no mystery to how that was done in terms of microphones, but the other gear that was used makes all the difference in the end. This video by Boulevard Recording shows you […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is engineer John Cuniberti, who began his music career as the drummer in Eddie Money’s first band, transitioned to mixing monitors for Stevie Wonder, and eventually became chief engineer at San Francisco’s famed Hyde Street Studios. It was there John engineered a long line of seminal records for Bay artists like […]
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Multi-band compressors are falling into disuse these days thanks to the rise of dynamic EQs, but there’s always room for a combination processor with a new approach. The RJ Studios MB3X mastering compressor plugin is a combination of a multi-band compressor combined with simple EQ and a peak limiter in one package that could be […]
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Russ Hughes has had a successful career in multiple areas of the music business, but started a small blog dedicated to helping Pro Tools users that has grown into a group of sites (Pro-Tools-Expert.com, Logic-pro-expert.com, Ableton-Live-Expert.com and Studio-One-Expert.com) that may be the most influential in the digital audio world today. Here’s an excerpt from my […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is mixing engineer Billy Decker, who’s mixed hits for Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean. Jaime Lynne Spears, George Jones and Sam Hunt, among others, that have sold over 25 million albums. Billy is different from most other mixers in that he’s able to mix extremely fast thanks to his templates […]
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Subharmonic generators have been around for years, going way back to the original hardware – the dbx 120A. The problem with this and many plugins that followed is that they generated a sub signal that was out-of-phase so that it sometimes felt detached from the original signal. Modern subharmonic plugins are much better at this, […]
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Guitar strings, piano strings – they’re all the same, right? Not exactly, and you’ll see why in the video below. Mattias Krantz decided to restring his upright piano with guitar strings and immediately ran into a number of problems, as you’ll see. For one thing, guitar strings aren’t long enough, nor strong enough. When you […]
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You can’t say we didn’t see this coming. For a number of years now, Guitar Center has been struggling with massive debt related to financial engineering, and now it appears to have finally caught up with the company. Reports are that Guitar Center is now preparing for a bankruptcy filing as soon as November 15th […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Colin O’Donohoe, who’s worked as a composer, conductor, band leader, drummer, flautist and audio engineer in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Brazil and Turkey. In 2010, his Pangean Orchestra united instruments and musicians from around the world and gained international recognition to where he was nicknamed “World Maestro.” Colin also composes […]
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If you’ve ever longed for an area in your home or apartment where you can sing your brains out without bothering the family or neighbors or them bothering you, then you might already be familiar with the very cool IsoVox portable Vocal Booth. Even if you’re not in the market for a vocal booth, the […]
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For many producers and artists, it’s difficult to balance feel versus perfection in performances. This story from my good friend engineer Dennis Moody (an excerpt from my Music Business Advice handbook) illustrates why one is sometimes preferred over the other. By the way, Dennis has become the “drummer’s engineer,” with all-star drummers Dave Weckl, Steve […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is producer/engineer Gareth Jones, who’s a pioneer in the use of cutting edge digital equipment, sampling technology, and synthesizers. Gareth produced five albums for techno innovators Depeche Mode and six albums for synth-pop superstars Erasure, and many more. As the mixer of John Foxx’s seminal album Metamatic, he realized that an artist could truly define his […]
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