Here’s something that I posted a few years ago that I think needs repeating. There are a number of questions that I consistently get from emails, blog comments, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube – you name it. The same themes keep occurring so I want you to understand a few parameters so I can help you […]
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Coronavirus is no joke. Even if you’re not ill from it, you’re still experiencing a disruption in your lifestyle because of it. But like many other things that we’ve seen in the past turned into music, so can the spike protein of coronavirus. A team of scientists from MIT have turned it into a preliminary […]
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It used to be that every mix room had a variety of speakers to choose from so you could understand your balances better across many playback systems. Even so, the car always seemed to be the ultimate arbiter of whether a mix would work, but that meant multiple trips outside for a listen. What if […]
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If you’ve followed this blog, you know that I love to focus on unusual musical instruments. This is because someday one by defy the odds and become a standard in some way, or it just might be used for something otherworldly by a sound designer or composer. One instrument that falls into the “no description” […]
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Regardless of the genre of music, a mix will never be any good unless the song’s groove is emphasized. Sometimes it’s not easy to find and develop the groove, however, so here’s a couple of exercises from the Audio Mixing Bootcamp to help you find it. “The groove is the pulse of the song. While it usually […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Brett Porter, who was one of the lead engineers in the development of the MIDI 2.0 spec. Brett has a big background in electronic music, but he’s also developed software products for the pro audio, broadcast, and musical instrument industries as part of the Art+Logic development team. Musicians have been […]
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I think the first analog delay box that I ever had was a Binson Echorec 2, an Italian machine that was based not on tape but a spinning magnetic disc for its delay sound. It was way advanced for its time, providing multiple echo effects thanks to 4 heads and plenty of advanced parameter settings. […]
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It should come as no surprise that Guitar Center has furloughed more than 9,000 of its employees due to the coronavirus outbreak. The stores can’t stay open while we’re all isolating, and although musicians and artists consider music and music-making tools to be an essential part of their lives, the rest of the world doesn’t […]
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Perhaps the greatest detriment to a session running smoothly is the inability for players to hear themselves comfortably in the headphones. This is one reason why veteran engineers spend so much time and attention on the cue mix and the phones themselves. In fact, a sure sign of an inexperienced engineer is treating the headphone […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Kurt Dahl, who’s not only a successful entertainment attorney but is a busy drummer as well. His band One Bad Son has toured North America with Def Leopard, Judas Priest and even opened for the Rolling Stones. While working as a musician, Kurt decided that he could help his band […]
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Have you ever panned a mix element wide and liked the placement but noticed that it sounded unnatural? How about a bass with a cool stereo effect but no anchor in the middle? The reason for this is that standard every day panning in your DAW or on your console moves all the frequencies of […]
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Most musicians get big and strong from gigging because you’re always humping something. From amplifiers to keyboards to PA gear, when you’re first starting out you learn to grow muscles fast. That’s nothing compared to moving a piano though. They’re big and bulky and I don’t think there’s such a thing as an easy move. […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Ira Ingber, who’s a long time Los Angeles studio musician, composer and producer. Through the years Ira has had multiple major label record deals and toured and recorded with top Southern California singer/songwriters like J.D. Souther, Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Riatt. Ira was also asked to form a band for […]
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We’ve all been using parallel compression for quite a while now as it’s become a standard technique for every mixing engineer. In fact, many compressors now provide a mix control to provide pseudo-parallel compression right from the plugin. The Masterlab DynaQ dynamic EQ takes that concept one step further to provide a sort of parallel-EQ, […]
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If you’re like every else, you’re in forced isolation and looking for things to fill the time. I’m offering my Vocal Mixing Techniques mini-course for free to help you get through the downtime with some new tricks under your belt. You’ll find 7 techniques on balance, EQ, compression and effects, a PDF summary for each, plus 2 bonus vocal […]
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