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 […]
Continue reading
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 […]
Continue reading
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 […]
Continue reading
Thanks to the world of DAWs, loops and samples, many producers, engineers, musicians and bands don’t know what the “groove” and the “pocket” of a song is. Because most every recording is placed exactly on the grid, it’s easy to come up with a beat or song that’s perfectly in time, but lacks a groove […]
Continue reading
We all know the Hofner 5001 violin bass guitar thanks to Sir Paul McCartney, and if you’ve ever played one you know that it’s a unique instrument. First of all it’s extremely light – kind of the anti-Les Paul in that you can wear it all day and your shoulder won’t get tired. It also has […]
Continue reading
There are microphone preamps that we use when we need some color, and there are preamps that we use when we need transparency. There are plenty of colored mic pres around and they seem to get the most attention especially when recording most pop-style music, but there are many times when we want the proverbial […]
Continue reading
My guest today is Al Machera, who started off engineering in Miami before moving back to his home city of New York, where he stepped into the middle of the hip hop revolution as the main engineer for Salt n Peppa. Eventually Al made his way to Los Angeles where he worked for Radio and […]
Continue reading
Every day we’re presented with a choice – whether to use or buy a vintage piece of gear versus it’s modern equivalent or clone. Most of the time there’s a difference between them, although to many it may be small enough not to matter. In other cases it’s so blatant as to make the modern […]
Continue reading
Although known more recently as a music publisher with his Artist First Music as well as being the former president of the American Independent Music Publishers association, Richard Feldman has an equally rich history in reggae music production. With credits of amazing reggae music stars like Andrew Tosh, Joe Higgs, Junior Reid, The Congos, I Threes and Wailing Souls, he also won […]
Continue reading
Queen’s epic “Bohemian Rhapsody” has remained a creative marvel every since its release in October 1975. It provides a special insight into the genius of songwriter, lead singer and pianist Freddie Mercury and to the band as this anti-radio mini-opera actually not only managed to go top 10 in most of the world, but still remains […]
Continue reading
Like you I see a lot of new products and so many of them I like and can find a use for. There aren’t many that I really get excited about though, which is why the new Centrance MixerFace R4 mobile recording interface and recorder is so unusual. It’s really a cool little piece of […]
Continue reading
My guest on the Podcast this week is Mike Paul Hughes, who spends his days as a NASA aerospace engineer in the middle of some some of the most advanced space projects the world has ever seen, but after work becomes a bassist, producer, and even a composer for a number of Bollywood films. He also […]
Continue reading
If you’re in the music business or know any of its history you probably know the name Geoff Emerick. Geoff made a name for himself as one of the original 5 Beatles engineers, then went on to a fruitful, yet often overlooked career afterwards, recording Paul McCartney and Wings, Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick, America, Ultravox […]
Continue reading
An overdub session, especially one involving multiple players and parts, can deteriorate quickly into chaos without a plan. It’s easy to spend hours looking for the right performance or sound, but you can spend even more time experimenting if the producer didn’t expect that to happen and allot time for it. That’s why it pays to […]
Continue reading
When it comes to hard rock guitar recording and mixing, producer/engineer Joe Barresi is considered the king. He’s worked with Soundgarden, Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Slipknot, among many others, and his work is widely admired by both artists and other top-of-the-line engineers. In this video he shows how he treats distorted rhythm and […]
Continue reading