Gibson Aging Technology, Neighboring Rights Royalties, And Producer/Soma Breath Founder Niraj Naik On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Niraj Naik, who’s a music producer and self-described renegade pharmacist from the U.K and founder of SOMA Breath, one of the fastest growing wellness movements fusing ancient techniques with modern science.  Niraj is also the founder of Breathe In Beats, a music collective renowned for their legendary conscious music festivals. […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Telefunken TF11 FET Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone

There are certain microphones that stand iconic in the pantheon of great gear. Some are so good that even competitors try to emulate them. One of those is the AKG C12, which has been a favorite of engineers everywhere for decades. Telefunken makes some wonderful microphones itself, with a long history of excellent originals and […]

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10 Changes That Have Made Mixing In The Box Better Than Ever

Mixing in the box got a bad rap early on because the sound of the mixes was a long way from the analog console mixes that everyone was used to. Today that’s not a problem as everything has improved so much that the most hard-core classic engineers have now embraced mixing in the box, and […]

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Sony De-Emphasizing Electronics, Music Piracy Evolving, And Engineer J.J. Blair On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is engineer, producer and musician J.J. Blair, who has a long list of engineering credits including Joe Bonamassa, Kelly Clarkson, Jeff Beck, the Black Eyed Peas, Keith Urban, Weezer, and many more.  He’s also produced and mixed the Grammy winning record Press On, by June Carter Cash, engineered on the Grammy […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Non-Lethal Applications Snapshot 2

Do you use outboard gear when you mix? If so, you probably have a way to document the gear settings so you can repeat them if a mix revision is needed. But what happens if you can’t find the documentation? Snapshot 2 from Non-Lethal Applications is a way that you can attach your documentation to […]

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Has The Guitar Pickup Been Reinvented?

There are some audio devices that haven’t changed much in a hundred years. Loudspeakers and microphones come to mind, as while they’ve evolved and gotten better, they still basically work the same way as ever. Although not quite a hundred years old yet, you can put the guitar pickup in the same category – until […]

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Get Better Mixes Using The Ultimate Mix Checklist

A modern mix can be sophisticated and complicated, so it’s very easy to overlook something in the heat of the moment that can be important to the integrity of the mix and that can help take it to the next level. The Ultimate Mix Checklist provides a number or questions to ask yourself as your […]

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The 2020 Social Universe, Guitars Selling Again, And Songwriter Andrea Stolpe On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is songwriter and educator Andrea Stolpe, who’s written songs for Faith Hill, Julianne Hough, Daniel Lee Martin, Jimmy Wayne, and others. She’s also worked as a staff writer for EMI, Almo-Irving, and Universal Music Publishing. Andrea teaches songwriting at the University of California’s Thornton School of Music, and is the author and […]

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New Music Gear Monday: PSP InfiniStrip FIRE Plugin

If you like to use a lot of plugins, there will come a time when you’re going to run out of processing power. That means you’ll either have to disable a few plugins or try to squeeze in some native processors that you might not like but don’t take up much computer power to get […]

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The Many Ways To Build A Mix

Despite what you might think, there is no standard mix element to start and build a mix from. Modern mixers employ various techniques and they’re all valid, especially in different genres of music. For instance, here are the places from which a mix can be started: From the Bass From a loop From the Kick […]

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An Immersive Audio Format War, Artist Visa’s About To Increase 50%, And Producer/Plugin Developer Dan Korneff On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is producer, mixer and engineer Dan Korneff, who has not only worked with prominent names like Breaking Benjamin, Paramore, Papa Roach, Lamb of God and My Chemical Romance, but has developed some of the coolest audio plugins available. Dan not only knows how to expertly use his audio gear, but he […]

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New Music Gear Monday: UnitedPlugins Front DAW Plugin

Did you ever feeling that the signal coming into your DAW was too clean? Have you struggled to add that little bit of analog mojo to make it more realistic? If you can relate, then United Plugins has a plugin that you should check out and it’s called Front DAW. Front DAW is an input […]

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Online Gear Purchases Might Get A Lot More Expensive

Up until now, if you purchased a product from Amazon, Reverb or Ebay and it somehow caused you harm, you took your case directly to the manufacturer of the product. The big retail distributors were viewed as just neutral intermediaries in the sale. A recent ruling in a lawsuit that went against Amazon could change […]

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What The Heck Is A Yardstick Mix And How Do I Use One?

If you’re really happy with your mix but have to send it off to someone else to work on, how do you make sure that the mix comes back the same. Assuming that they’ll be using the same plugins (although you could burn the processing into the mix), the answer is what’s known as a […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Korneff Talkback Limiter Plugin

I remember being in the studio in the mid-80s and being very influenced by a then-#1 hit by Power Station called “Some Like It Hot.” The drum sound was huge and ambient and I was working my hardest to duplicate it to no available. As the drummer was in the studio playing, someone hit the […]

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