About 3 years ago I posted about my top 10 compressors, but things have changed a lot since then, so I thought it was time to post an updated list. Many of the entries haven’t changed, but a few have (especially on the software side). This list is a combination of hardware and software, since most […]
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When it comes to EQing, there are certain frequencies that seem predominant for every instrument. Many call them the magic frequencies, because they do tend to work most of the time. Here’s a chart of those frequencies from the latest edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. Remember that using the magic frequencies might make an […]
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David Bock is the founder of Soundelux Microphones and Bock Audio and there are few people as obsessed or knowledgeable about microphones as he is. His mics exude quality, not only in the way they sound but in the build quality. Put one up against a cheap Chinese clone and it becomes obvious very quickly. […]
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We’ve been hearing about vinyl record manufacturing coming into the future for some time, and here’s another example. Some Canadian design engineers who usually put their R&D talents into things like MRI machines went to work on the vinyl record press. They made some huge improvements and came up with the Warm Tone vinyl record […]
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How many times has it happened where you have a great mix going, but it just needs something a little extra to bring it all together? Of course, there are now a lot of plugins available to add some “glue” to your mix, but they usually bring just one sound to the party. The Black Box […]
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Toto is a band of musician’s musicians, with a precision about their work that’s almost unrivaled. Of course that comes from years of top studio work before the band formed, something that can clearly be heard in Steve Lukather’s isolated guitar part on their hit “Rosanna.” Here’s what to listen for. 1. The precision of […]
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European private equity group Astorg announced the purchase of Audiotonix, the parent company of Allen & Heath, Calrec, Digico and Digigrid, from investor group Epris. The purchase price was reportedly $254 million. Epris (formerly known as Electra Partners) acquired Allen & Heath in 2013, then acquired Calrec in 2014 and merged the companies with DiGiCo to create […]
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Perhaps the greatest detriment to a session running smoothly is the inability for players to hear themselves comfortably in the headphones. This is one reason why veteran engineers spend so much time and attention on the cue mix and the phones themselves. In fact, a sure sign of an inexperienced engineer is treating the headphone […]
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Richard Gibbs has composed the music for over 60 films as well as some great television shows like The Simpsons and Battlestar Galactica. He’s a good friend and a great story teller, so it was time to have him back on the podcast (he was on Episode #38 a couple of years ago). In Part […]
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2,500 years ago the Greeks composed songs where the voice was accompanied by the lyre, reed-pipes, and various percussion instruments. Much was already known about these instruments thanks to the descriptions, paintings from archaeological remains, which Greek scholars then used to establish the timbres and range of pitches the instruments produced. The songs however were lost to time until a […]
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From the beginning of recording time we’ve been aiming microphones at the source by eye when first setting up. For the most part they’re pretty forgiving if we don’t point them exactly perfectly, and a quick listen will tell us if we need to adjust. But wouldn’t it be cool if there was a more […]
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Some might argue that “Staying Alive,” both song and the movie, heralded in the disco age. It’s certainly a song that everyone knows as it was iconic for the time as has seeped into our musical heritage. Whether you like disco or not, the Bee Gees had a sound that was entirely unique and hasn’t been […]
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Here’s a great distorted guitar recording tip that I got from Richard Chycki, engineer for Rush, Dream Theater, Aerosmith and many more. I liked it so much I’ve used it on every session since, and included it in the latest version of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook as well. Distorted electric guitar is notoriously difficult to edit, […]
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I’m proud to announce the fully updated fourth edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook, a complete compilation of the best recording techniques currently used today. Along with the rich treasure trove of information from the previous versions of the book, the latest edition also includes new sections on immersive audio recording, electric guitar recording tricks, and DIY […]
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We pretty much know about life in the studio around us, but how different is it in other countries? My former assistant Joshua F Williams has been one of the top engineer/producers in the Middle East for the past 10 years, and he’ll tell us what the music scene is like in the Dubai area […]
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