My guest on the podcast this week is David Cole, who started his career as a staff engineer at the famous Capitol Studios in Hollywood, learned the lost art of vinyl disk mastering there, and worked his way up to staff producer at Capitol and MCA Records before going freelance. David’s had a lot of great studio experiences […]
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I was interviewing Dewey Bunnell from the band America yesterday and in doing research, it dawned on me that my buddy Ken Scott had worked with them during his time at Trident Studios and we had documented it in his Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust autobiography. As I reread the chapter that contained info on […]
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One of the things that engineers have always struggled with was getting enough girth frequencies on the kick drum. This was eventually solved by Nashville engineer Russ Long, who mounted a common (at the time) Yamaha NS-10 woofer on a snare stand and used it as a microphone exclusively on the bass drum. The sound […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Kevin Breuner, who’s the SVP of Marketing for CD Baby, the host of their DIY Musician Podcast, and author of a host of helpful articles on the company’s DIY Musician blog. Kevin has spent over 20 years working in the music business, both as an artist and an industry professional. […]
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Accordion is a central instrument in zydeco, Cajun, and polka music, although it’s also found in indigenous music around the world. There are many different types and sizes of accordion, but the following techniques culled from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook cover them all. Just to show that all roads sometimes lead […]
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When I first started to mix in 5.1 back in the early 90s, there were no tools available. We had to jury rig a multichannel monitor controller and panners, and linking outboard gear together was a real pain. Reverb was especially tough because even with identical units, we never could get the feeling of a […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Stu Hamm, who’s one of the world’s premier bass players and clinicians. His unique and innovative two-handed tapping technique proves that even the bass can be a solo instrument in the hands of a virtuoso player. Stu has recorded and toured with a who’s who of guitar heros, including Steve […]
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We’re gradually all getting back to work, and while it’s great to be busy again, it also means that increased precautions against virus infection are necessary. A new level of studio cleansing is required and that especially includes microphones. DPA has some guidelines for disinfecting your microphones and accessories that I’ve paraphrased and excerpted here. […]
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Once upon a time any thought of doing serious mixing on headphones would have been laughable, but we live in a different world now. With artists, engineers and producers constantly on the go and under deadline, having the luxury of mixing in the studio is now a luxury, and headphone mixing is a very real […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is My guest today is Zack O’Malley Greenburg, who’s a senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and author of four excellent music oriented business books. His latest, A-List Angels, is how a band of actors, artists and athletes cashed in on the latest tech boom and changed the face […]
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The voice is just as much of an instrument as any other in the band. That means that it must be looked after the same way even during a session to ensure that the singer provides his or her best vocal performance. While vocalists that have lots of studio experience know this already, they often […]
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Back in 1999 I wrote in my first edition of the Mixing Engineer’s Handbook about how mixers based in New York City used a lot of parallel compression on their rhythm section tracks, which I called, for lack of a better term, New York City Compression. That expression as well as the use of the […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Jack Forman, who’s a senior vice-president at BiCoastal Productions, the New York City-based concerts and theatrical booking agency. Originally spearheading the agency’s coverage of the Western United States, Jack now oversees the core agency staff and global touring strategy. Jack provides an agent’s perspective of working with an artist, as […]
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One overlooked area of mix prep is personal preparation, which means getting yourself into the best physical and mental state to mix. Each mix requires focus and concentration, and this time is where you get yourself into that proper headspace. This excerpt from the 4th edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook can help set the stage […]
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I think just about everybody having something to do with music already has a MIDI controller of some sort. That’s why you probably read the headline and thought, “The last thing I need is another controller,” but I think you’ll find the new Joué Play controller is different, especially if you’re looking for speed when […]
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