Sometimes you need a little more girth from a kick drum, but EQing down at 40-60Hz can make it sound flabby. Back in the early days of dance music we’d use this trick – set an oscillator to a desired low frequency then trigger it via a gate with a sidechain connected to the kick […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Kevin Gray, who specializes in vinyl disc cutting. Kevin has mastered music for every major label in every genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, adult contemporary, alternative, punk, heavy metal, new age, gothic, world ethnic, disco, dance, soul, blues, and hip-hop / rap. His credits include more than […]
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Just about every guitar player is aware of Paul Reed Smith. His PRS guitars and amplifiers have become a major piece of the musical instrument industry and the company seems to becoming more popular every day, thanks to new models being constantly released. What many don’t know is that Paul also created products used by […]
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With the piano samples available in the typical electronic keyboard these days, there’s little need to try to mike the nearest available piano for most projects, especially in a home studio. That said, there’s nothing like the live feel of a recorded instrument. Most small studios aren’t blessed with a grand piano, but an upright […]
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I like to keep this blog pretty focused on music and audio, but sometimes there’s something outside that category that’s so cool that I have to share it. In this case, it’s an ultra-slow-motion video of the actual speed of light. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which, as far as we currently know, […]
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Many mixers have been confused about the LUFS levels that they should be delivering to the various streaming networks, and while this isn’t the big deal that many believe it is, there’s a new tool that should take some of the confusion out of the process. Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd’s company MeterPlugs has developed a […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is producer Michael Beinhorn, who has produced a wide range of artists including Herbie Hancock, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith and Soundgarden, among many others. He is the author of the book Unlocking Creativity, and is an outspoken advocate of the importance of artist development and pre-production […]
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Fans of Lexicon reverbs know that Michael Carnes was involved with their development for 25 years before forming his own company – Exponential Audio to create his own reverb products. Now that company has been acquired by iZotope, and I don’t think you could ask for a better fit. Exponential Audio’s reverbs have been a […]
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Most of us don’t record in stereo much, and when we do we have rounds of frustration and exhilaration. The exhilaration comes from hearing how wide and realistic the recording has become. The frustration comes from the many imperfections that stereo recording can suffer from. These can include a hole in the middle of the […]
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A question that I’ve been getting over and over through the years from engineers who are just starting out is, “How can I get more isolation between my tracks?” Now that’s normally not much of a problem for older engineers who’ve learned to make leakage work for them, but today’s modern recording requires another order […]
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Welcome to the 5th anniversary of the podcast on this week’s episode. Thank you all for your support over these last 257 shows! Recently I had a conversation with engineer Bill Smith about the late great Geoff Emerick and realized that there was a lot that we didn’t know about this audio giant even though he […]
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Recording background vocals is a distinctly different process from recording solo vocals because of how they will eventually fit in the mix. That requires a different technique for both recording and production in order to get the best result. Here are 11 background vocal-related points lifted from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook […]
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When Greg Mackie started the desktop mixer trend in 1991 with his ground-breaking CR-1604, it became quickly apparent that there was a real need for a high-quality, yet inexpensive small mixer. Unfortunately, the 1604 might have been the high-water mark for fidelity in the category way back then, as subsequent products have grown smaller, cheaper […]
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My guest on the podcast today is surf rock legend Bob Berryhill. Bob is a founding member of The Surfaris, and every guitar player since 1963 has learned to play the band’s big hit “Wipeout” sometime early in their career. The song, which Bob recorded when he was 15, sold over a million copies and rose to […]
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Thanks to a book that I wrote and video of a presentation that I did up at Nimbus Recording School in Vancouver, I get a lot of questions about studio building. While I’m not a studio designer and would never claim to be, I understand the basic principles of how isolation and acoustic treatment work […]
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