It’s fair to say that most people reading my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook are mixing songs recorded with live musicians, but it’s a brave new world out there, and sooner or later you’re going to get some hip-hop in to mix. Needless to say, what works with most other genres won’t necessarily work here, especially when […]
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There’s been a lot of talk about the financial health of Guitar Center over the last few years, but it seems like things are going better for the retail giant these days. One example is the fact that its Hollywood flagship store has recently undergone a major $5 million renovation that completely redesigns what was […]
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Ever since mixing went inside the box there’s been a debate over whether outboard hardware processing provides enough of a useful upgrade to the sound of the mix to make it worth the trouble. Outboard gear used for sweeting can include everything from a custom built summing box to individual signal chains for each main […]
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This week I’m going to do something totally different on the podcast. I get a lot of questions about how the Inner Circle Podcast works, so I’m going to answer them all and more. No guest, no news, just pure behind-the-scenes. We’ll cover the almost accidental nature of how the podcast began, why it stays […]
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We all have music that we love, and it seems like the older we get, the less likely we are to love what’s current. That’s because we tend to listen to less music by the time we hit our late 20s, but researchers think they’ve found the real real reason and time when our musical […]
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There are many methods of adding EQ to a mix. EQing for clarity, resonant frequency EQing, and frequency juggling immediately come to mind. That said, one of the most overlooked technique is using the EQ to add size to an element, which is particularly important in sparse mixes. Here’s an excerpt from the 4th edition […]
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I love the sound of Rickenbacker guitars and I love factory tours, so the following video is pretty awesome (IMO) because it contains both. Rickenbacker is actually a very interesting success story in that the company knows its limitations and does its utmost to stay within them. That means that the demand constantly outstrips the […]
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Most engineers love ribbon microphones for their natural sound and the ability to take EQ. Many wouldn’t use anything else in many recording situations like miking brass, percussion or electric guitar amps. Since modern ribbon mics are no longer as fragile as they once were, they’ve found their way into even more applications than ever, […]
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My guest today is guitarist Michael Raphael, who started his career in the 80s hair metal band Jailhouse but turned his experience into a career first as a hit songwriter and later as a television composer. Along the way he’s worked as a songwriter/producer for Disney Records and Disney Mania, and as one of the main […]
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Muse is an interesting band. On one hand it’s a modern power trio while on the other it’s a genre hopping hitmaker unafraid to cross over into any style. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this video, which shows various sessions during the making of the band’s 2nd Law album. You’ll find basic tracking […]
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Like the foundation of a house, the drums are the foundation of a recording. When it’s strong, you can build almost anything on it that you or your clients can imagine. That said, sometimes you just can’t find the right drum sound and can’t figure out why. Here’s an excerpt from the 4th edition of my […]
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For the first time in a good long while, it’s all looking up for Gibson Guitars. The good news is that Gibson made it out of bankruptcy on October 1st – the even better news is that it will remain in business. It was touch and go for a bit as private equity investors KKR […]
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I remember the first time I used the original Eventide SP2016 reverb back in the mid-80s. There was something about the sound that made it instantly useable. Unlike other reverbs then and now, you didn’t have to fiddle with it to make it work in the track. It just sounded “right.” The hardware 2016 was […]
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My guest today is Dan Johnson, who started his career as an engineer at Capitol Studios and Ocean Way, and is now the chief preservation engineer at United Studios Archiving. Dan has transferred over 600 albums and 3000 tapes ranging from mono acetate to 48 track digital including priceless masters by high-profile legacy artists such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi […]
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Streaming has changed music in oh so many ways, but one area that’s overlooked is the basic form of hit songs. In case you haven’t been paying attention (and you might not have), hit songs these days are way different than in the past. If you looked at hits from way back in the 50s […]
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