Even skeptics agree that once you’ve heard a recording on a well-cut piece of vinyl, it’s hard to go back to listening to anything else, especially to the digital streams that we’re all now used to. The problem with vinyl is that it’s not all done well, sometimes using inferior vinyl, and that it ultimately […]
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Many engineers believe that miking a grand piano is the most difficult thing they’re called on to do. Getting it to sound natural can drive an engineer a little crazy sometimes, although that’s not always the sound we’re going for. That said, there are 4 main techniques and multiple variations of each outlined in the […]
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Every few years musical conspiracy theorists push forth a new iteration of how our A = 440Hz tuning standard was actually meant to be 432Hz instead. I’ve written about this in the past, but every so often a new video comparison shows up that makes it worth at least looking at and listening to. Just […]
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One thing you can say about Universal Audio is that the company is always coming out with new products, and most of them are designed to be simple and easy to use. The philosophy seems to be “Let’s make it as easy as possible for the user to get a great sound and not complicate […]
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My guest on the Podcast this week is Ron McMaster, who recently retired from Capitol Records Mastering after 38 years with the company. During that time he specialized in cutting vinyl and mastered a wide variety of genres and artists that include everyone from Frank Sinatra to George Harrison, Radiohead, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones […]
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Do you listen to as much music as you used to? Do you search for new songs and artists anymore? Do you think that new music isn’t as good as the music you grew up with? Congratulations! You hit both your musical peak and paralysis ages. A new study by the streaming platform Deezer found […]
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Chuck Ainlay is one of the new breed of Nashville engineers that brings a rock approach to a country music sensibility. With credits like George Strait, Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Waylon Jennings, Wynonna and even such rock icons like Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler, Chuck’s work is heard world-wide. Here’s an […]
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If you’ve ever lived around an airport you know how impossibly loud it can get. I live in the flight path of the Burbank/Hollywood Airport on days the winds blow north/south, even with some pretty good insulation it can still be distracting. Imagine what’s it’s like to live near the 3rd busiest airport in the […]
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Multiband compressors are a powerful tool in any mixing or mastering toolbox, but they’re usually a little finicky to set up. As a result, many engineers don’t want to spend the time it takes to tweak them properly. Anything that makes that process easier is welcome, and that’s one reason why the new Leapwing DynOne […]
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You’ve undoubtedly heard the music from this week’s guest, because his band’s music has been on the radio continually somewhere in the world for the last 40 years or so. Buck Dharma is lead guitarist and one of the founders of Blue Oyster Cult. He also wrote and sang lead on some of their biggest […]
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We haven’t done an isolated track for a long time, but I thought that this one would be good to get us back in the swing of things. It’s the isolated lead vocal and lead guitar tracks from Derek And The Domino’s (Eric Clapton) classic hit “Layla.” On it you’ll hear snippets of the 6 […]
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We all love big wide stereo soundfields, especially the ones that come from the stereo output of an electronic keyboard. If you pan too many elements hard left and hard right however, you end up with “Big Mono,” which is a term that my friend Ed Seay likes to use. That means that you actually […]
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We hear it all the time. “Why is music so bad today?” I’m not so sure it is actually. If you’re past 30, your musical tastes are pretty much set in stone, so it gets more difficult to accept new music with each passing year. That doesn’t mean what’s new is better or worse than […]
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In a perfect world, we’d all like our projects mastered by one of the A-list mastering houses, but budgets being what they are, that’s not always possible. If that’s the case, self-mastering is the only alternative. That said, tere are a lot of mastering tools on the market these days and most of them are […]
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I’ve gotten so many questions about the Music Modernization Act bill now making its way through Congress right now that I thought I’d bring on an expert to get us up to speed. Daryl Frydman is the Recording Academy’s chief industry and government relations officer based in Washington D. C. He’s also been with us […]
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