You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2006.
Some treatment ideas for a mono overhead drum kit mic: I drive it hard at the preamp ( I usually use an old Trident Preamp for this) and then Nuke it with a Distressor. It all depends on the feel of each individual song as to how much if any of it gets used in […]
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From Gibraltar Hardware, this page on drum maintenance and repair is handy for addressing annoyances that pop up while tracking drums. If nothing else, the page advances the maxim that drummers (and the engineers who record them) should always carry duct tape. Excessive Footboard Movement If your bass or hi-hat pedal footboard suddenly begins moving […]
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Some failed experiments in audio technology, including the head-mounted turntable and the oxygen-free listening room. If oxygen-free copper is a good thing, then clearly oxygen is a bad thing for audio. The largest quantity of oxygen the sound is likely to encounter is in its passage through the air from loudspeakers to listeners. The only […]
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I’m a member of the band Gert. Until we played together in person this summer, our year-long collaboration was entirely virtual. 6 song writers, a continent apart, connected by musical tastes and the Internet. We’re still a band in the general sense, but in place of schedule conflicts, angry neighbours, and ego clashes, we deal […]
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Nashville tuning (or “high stringing”) a guitar involves replacing the heavier strings with a lighter guage, and tuning them an octave higher. Chord shapes stay the same, but the guitar produces some notes an octave higher (somewhat like a 12-string.) Without the lower strings, the tone lacks body, and as a standalone guitar track a […]
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For critical listening, like mixing and mastering, your speakers are obviously important. Often overlooked, however, is the importance of the stands on which the speakers sit. For best performance, monitor and hifi speakers should be level with the listener’s ears. Good speaker stands improve the bass response of just about every speaker, and a good […]
Read the full post ...Royalty checks not in the mail for artists In September, SoundExchange announced a Dec. 15 deadline for collection of fees generated by Internet plays between Feb. 1, 1996, and March 31, 2000. The company made public a list of the artists with unclaimed funds. Digital music market to reach nearly $14.9 Billion by 2010 The […]
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There’s lots of chatter in this discussion about whether or not matched mic pairs are worthwhile, but lots of great information too. Keep in mind that, if the mic’s specifications are +/- 2dB, that means that there’s a possibility you will find two mics that are 4dB apart at some point in their frequency response. […]
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Sigur Ros discuss their studio in this Sound on Sound article. The Mosfellsbær building is comprised of two levels, the lower of which once housed a public swimming pool and later, an art gallery. “It’s a really peaceful place…” Jonsi recounts. “We had to tear the roof off the house to get the mixer in. […]
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Practical Mixing – from sound On Sound magazine. This article focuses on tracking and mixing via console (with an aside to address the importance of checking a reference CD while mixing.) But Sound On Sound caters to the masses, so the information in this article is broad and still generally useful. It is important to […]
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RIAA president speaks out on Fair Use Sherman took an accusatory stab at the CEA and Digital freedom stating that their campaign is not only based on false and incendiary rhetoric, but tries to sully their name saying that the CEA is not concerned at all with consumer rights. The Beatles will go online ‘soon’ […]
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Ryan Hewitt contributed to the tracking and mixing of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium, and is happy to share his engineering experiences: In an interview with EQ Magazine: “What makes mixing this band so hard is that you have three musicians who are all laying down serious stuff, and the balance between […]
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This graph, developed by Dan Richards of the Listening Sessions, plots the brightness and color characteristics of more than 50 microphones. As noted in the Studio Forums discussion it spawned, the graph says nothing about each microphone’s relative quality (note the proximity of the MXL 603 to the Neumann U87.) However, it’s a useful tool […]
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In this clip from the Nevermind edition of the Classic Albums DVD series, Butch Vig discusses the track Drain You, which had more guitar overdubs than any other track on NeverMind: … a clean sound on the intro with Kurt’s vocal, as well as 1-2-3-4-5 guitars, 2 tracks of the Mesa Boogie, 2 tracks of […]
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Need a good reason to justify not accessing the Internet with your DAW? What Slows Windows Down and the follwup article What Really Slows Windows Down? come to an important conclusion: Antivirus programs tether the performance of your computer [to] that of one three years its elder. In other words, anti-virus software will kill the […]
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A short thread discussing some approaches to “over the shoulder” mic techniques: What is happening when you put a mic ‘over the shoulder’ is that the mic is hearing pretty much what the ear is hearing… except that the ear is able to distinguish between reflections as distinct events and a microphone does not have […]
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