I was reading an excellent article on the Sweetwater blog about 10 music products that haven’t changed in a long time, and it got me to thinking about microphones that haven’t changed in at least 20 years. After a little research, here’s what I came up with Shure SM57 – Introduced in 1965, it’s been […]
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I usually don’t post on new guitars in this slot, but the new Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster is just different enough that it deserves a mention. This is the signature guitar from Radiohead’s Ed O’Brian, but it features the inclusion of a Fernandez Sustainer circuit that gives guitarists the ability to create those long ethereal […]
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Jeri Palumbo is a television broadcast engineer, audio mixer and RF tech who’s worked on hi-profile sports shows for more than 25 years. She’s been part of the TV audio team for all of the most celebrated sporting events, including the Super Bowl, NBA and NHL playoffs, and most recently, the World Series. Not only […]
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My good buddy Dave Pensado is always way ahead of most of us in so many areas of mixing, and one area in particular is his use of transient designer plugins. In the video below, Dave shows us how a transient designer plugin can actually increase or decrease depth in a mix. Of course, depth is […]
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“Everything set up? Cool, let’s record. Oh, wait, it doesn’t sound like I think it should.” At this point you can continue to record and deal with the consequences later, or stop and troubleshoot, but you might be chasing your tail and it could take longer than you want to get to where you want […]
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Gibson Brands (formerly Gibson Guitars) has announced that it decided to cease development of Cakewalk products. Cakewalk Sonar has a dedicated following and was one of the DAWs that PC users loved, although the company has recently fielded some Mac products as well. Here’s the company’s official statement: Gibson Brands announced today that it is ceasing […]
Continue readingWe all love a deal and Cyber Monday is the day for it, so I decided to put together my own list of cool gear especially for musicians and engineers. Here are some accessory items that make great gifts for any musician or engineer (even yourself). Etymotic Research ER20 Earplugs – I keep trying others […]
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Nicholas Mishko is an artist manager who brings a blend of old school wisdom to modern management. After a stint at Abkco Music and Records in the New York watching deals for music by legacy artists like The Who and Rolling Stones, Nicholas was well armed for negotiating recording and publishing contracts. That’s a skill […]
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To all my friends and readers, I wish you a happy holiday. I truly appreciate your support and I am humbled and honored that you take the time out of your busy day to read my musings. It’s a good day to take some time off, eat a nice meal, have a cocktail and watch some […]
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I’ve been producing a project where the guitar player has been using a lot of alternate tunings in order to get the overdubbed layers to sound different, so I thought it was time revisit the subject again in a post. Sometimes changing the tuning of a guitar from standard to some alternate tuning can create […]
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The House passed a tax bill last week ostensibly to reduce the amount that the average person pays, but I think most Americans are looking at it as help for corporations and the wealthy and not so much for everyone else. According to the provisions of the bill, musicians would be especially hard hit. As […]
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I remember watching Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Ferrell manipulate his own echo effects on stage by manually controlling a Roland Space Echo. It was pretty cool sounding, but a bit clunky looking, and he it did it like that for his entire career. If you’re a singer that wants the ability to control your own […]
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My guest on this week’s podcast is Mastering engineer John Greenham, who has won 3 Grammy’s and been nominated for 6 others. His client list includes work for Katy Perry, Mary J Blige, Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, Sam Smith and many more. We spoke at length about mastering via phone from his studio in in […]
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Just when you think you’ve heard every musical instrument there is you find that there’s one more. Don’t feel bad though, since no one has heard an aulos in more than 2,000 years. Only 5 complete original instruments are known to currently exist. The aulos is a double pipe with a reed at the top […]
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Many musicians, producers and engineers fight with the click track for various reasons, but most of the time it’s because the player just can’t hear it in a way that’s conducive to playing in the pocket. Here are 6 tips from the 2nd edition of my Music Producer’s Handbook (previously posted on my Big Picture blog) about […]
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