Mixers are frequently presented with 2 dilemmas when it comes to background vocals – make just a few tracks sound like a lot more, and how to deal with a huge number of tracks. In this video, musician/producer Devin Townsend explains how he turns a few of his vocals into a massive wall of sound, […]
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I’ve posted this before a few years ago, but I’ve been getting so many questions on acoustic treatment lately that I thought it was time for a refresher. While soundproofing the space where you have your recording gear set up can be an expensive and time consuming proposition, treating the acoustics of your room luckily […]
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It seems like if we have a data set on just about anything, we can turn it into music. Weather is a little different though in that it’s very organic and changes frequently, sometimes to the extreme, making for an interesting output. Hydrodynamics scientist Graeme Smart for New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric […]
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Have you ever had a great music idea but either didn’t have your gear available, or it took too long to get it set up before the idea disappeared? Yeah, me too. That’s a big part of modern recording technology in that there’s a lot involved with actually getting to the point where you’re recording. […]
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My guest on the podcast today is Denny Seiwell, who went from being one of the top session drummers in New York City to become a founding member of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings, to playing on television and film scores in Los Angeles. Besides McCartney, Denny has worked with artists like Billy Joel, Joe Cocker, James Brown, and Denice Williams, among many others. […]
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This one slipped under the radar for a while, but according to The Tennessean, the Universal Music Group (UMG) purchased the House of Blues studio complex in Nashville back in November for $4.3 million. The purchase now gives the label noted studio facilities in London (Abbey Road Studios), Los Angeles (Capitol Records Studio), and now […]
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It’s the dream of many musicians to get a gig with the touring band of a major artist, but getting the audition is a lot easier than getting the gig. Here’s an excerpt from my Touring Musician’s Handbook that provides some great audition tips from some of the top touring musicians. “Depending on how you look at […]
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I’ve posted here a lot in the past about music made by various robots. Some of it was pretty good, some of it was marginal, but all of it was amazing in terms of the programming required. Same goes for artificial intelligence – there are some results that are totally acceptable in certain situations and […]
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I know many hitmaker mixers who refrain from using reverb on a mix, preferring delay instead to provide all the ambience they need for the track. As a result, they’re always using a wide variety of delay plugins to achieve different effects. That all may be possible now with just a single plugin – the […]
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My guest on the podcast today is Tim Pierce, who’s one of the most widely used and respected session guitar players in Los Angeles today. Tim has a client list a mile long that includes superstars like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Don Henley, Faith Hill, Dave Mathews Band, Mylie Cyrus, and many more. Simply put, he’s the […]
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One of the big announcements at CES so far is the introduction of Sony’s new immersive audio format called 360 Reality Audio. As in past efforts to launch a new format, numerous companies have signed on such as Warner Music Group, Sony Music, Deezer, nugs.net, Qobuz, and TIDAL, and LiveNation, among others. The technical details […]
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You may never work in a studio that has an assistant engineer, and if you own your own gear, you may never be one yourself, but it’s good to find out what an assistant in a major facility such as the Record Plant, Capitol, or United Recording really needs to know. Some of these tips come […]
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Grammy-winning engineer Sylvia Massy is on a quest to write the ultimate book on microphones, and it’s taken her all around the world to find both historical artifacts on microphone design and the designers themselves. One stop was to the famed Abbey Road Studios for a look at their totally unique collection of mics. In […]
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If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that the last thing the audio world needs is another vintage mic clone. There are already so many good ones available at some great prices. That said, Warm Audio has a way with vintage gear copies that seems to capture the essence of the product that many boutique […]
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The work of Al Schmitt is and always has been the gold standard for recording engineers. Capturing the natural sounds going down in the studio isn’t always easy, but Al is the master and makes it look a lot easier than it looks. Here’s a great video which shows Al prepping a big band session. […]
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