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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There’s nothing like a good delay on most instruments and it’s even better when it sounds like old-fashioned tape. The very first portable echo delay unit was created in 1958 by Charlie Watkins and called the Copicat delay, and as you’d expect, it was an instant hit. Featured in countless albums from the 60s and 70s […]
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Home studios today are somewhat limited in gear, especially when it comes to microphone selection. That means that many of the tracks end up getting recorded by the same mic sometimes, which isn’t ideal when it comes to fitting mix elements into the mix. Choosing the right microphone for the job can be a crucial […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is studio designer Carl Tatz, who went from being a studio owner in Nashville to designing studios, mixing rooms and listening rooms for some of the biggest clients in the world. He then took that to yet another level by developing his own technology and products. Carl wanted to make monitoring […]
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One of the things I’m most frequently asked is how to get reverb to blend into the mix. One of the problems that beginning mixers have is that there’s usually either too much reverb or not enough. What mixers have done forever to alleviate this is to tailor the reverb to the track with their […]
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Putting together a collection of songs into an album requires additional data beyond what’s needed for an individual song. This applies to any format that the album will be released in, but especially for CDs and vinyl. Follow this album mastering checklist so you don’t miss anything. ◻︎What are the official titles of the album […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Mark Plati, who’s worked with a wide range of major artists including Prince, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, The Cure and many others. Mark was initiated into the New York City music scene working under the tutelage of dance music legend Arthur Baker in […]
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We all have a lot of plugins, usually far more than we can use, so when a new one comes out it has to be especially interesting to get our attention. What if there was one compressor plugin that literally gave you everything you ever could need? Interesting enough for ya? A.O.M’s Nu Compressor might […]
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One of the biggest problems with large sessions that have lots of elements is that there are usually at least a few tracks that can’t be heard distinctly in the mix. Much of this has to do with the fact that one track may be masking another one, caused by frequency bands that are clashing. […]
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