The cynical engineer looks at compression these days and says, “It’s all already been done. The world doesn’t need another classic compression emulation.” While the second part of that statement may well be true, the fact of the matter is that there are still new ideas in compressors being released and one of the them […]
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My guest on the podcast today is Robert Marshall, who is sound designer, mixer and partner of Chicago audio post house SUM1. Robert has spent the last 15 years doing sound design, mixes and ADR for film, television and radio, including several Superbowl spots. He’s also a founding partner of Source Elements, a company that provides a number of […]
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For about a hundred years loudspeaker technology has worked pretty much the same way. An electronic signal is changed into mechanical energy thanks to a magnet and moving coil attached to usually a paper diaphragm, which then moves the air. Sure, there have been other tries at transmitting sound through the air, like electrostatic and […]
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There are two parts to recording that many engineers are either super concerned with or completely oblivious to and that’s placement of the room mics when tracking and phase. In my experience, phase is something that you have to be aware of, but sometimes spending gobs of time on trying to get things just right […]
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There’s a lot of controversy over the sound of what many think is the ultimate stringed instrument – the Stradivarius. To some, it can never sound any better, while others feel that much hype surrounds the name and that a new instrument achieves the same results in a blind A/B test. Whatever the case, the […]
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If you weren’t able to attend the 2019 Winter NAMM this year, undoubtedly you’re going to read a number of reviews that will be long on new gear. As usual I’m not going to give you much of that because it’s been covered to death and probably in much better depth than what I could […]
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My guest on the podcast today is Andrew Peters, who started as popular radio personality and eventually transitioned to television as the host of Australian music shows like Rock Arena, Trax, Simulrock, the Live Aid broadcast, and interviewer for the MTV special Australian Made. After 20 years on radio and television he’s become one of the top voice actors in SouthEast Asia, Australia and […]
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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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