October 2020

How do you avoid using too many tracks?

Today's featured FAQ Friday question is: How do you avoid using too many tracks in a song? Led Zeppelin and Yes all recorded on 8 tracks. Yes, those bands did record on 8 tracks early on, eventually getting up to…

Audio Engineering

My favorite reverb settings: Marc Daniel Nelson (Free Presets Included)

Marc Daniel Nelson, a Grammy-nominated music producer, is joining us again to bring you another tutorial. Today, he will be talking about reverbs. Over the course of his career, Marc has worked with many amazing artists, including Jason Mraz, Colbie…

Audio Engineering

The Singular Sound of the Police and “Message in a Bottle”

Written by Caitlin Vaughn Carlos The end of the seventies marked a changing of the guard for music in many ways. Post-disco and post-punk, New Wave offered promises of the future with a seemingly infinite vision of possibilities for what…

Inside The Song

“Ace of Spades” and the Legacy of Motörhead, 40 Years Later

Written by Caitlin Vaughn Carlos On October 27, 1980, Motörhead released their latest single, “Ace of Spades” in anticipation of their fourth studio album of the same name. At its release, Gary Bushnell wrote for Sounds magazine: “The new single…

Mixing

Do plugins suck? Or is it how we use them?

I have opened a lot of different sessions from lots of different people to mix over the years, and there are tons and tons of plugins all over it. Having access to tons of plugins can be a good thing,…

Audio Engineering

Susanna Hoffs and the Joy of Making Music

Written by Caitlin Vaughn Carlos In 1982, when The Bangles were still known as The Bangs and playing at Al’s Bar in Los Angeles, Music Connection concluded: “There is no question that all the elements are here to make the…

Songs That Changed Music

How the Pretenders Became Real: “Brass in Pocket” and the Hit That Almost Wasn’t

By Caitlin Vaughn Carlos “This goes out over my dead body,” Chrissie Hynde told producer Chris Thomas in the fall of 1979. The Pretenders had just recorded their newest track “Brass in Pocket” at Wessex Studios in London and the…

Audio Engineering

What kind of contract should you offer an artist?

Today’s featured FAQ Friday Question is: “Hi I’m an artist and I’ve been offered a production contract. I don’t have the money for a lawyer, can you tell me what the difference is between a production contract and a producers…

Mixing

FREE MIXING COURSE with Grammy-Nominee Marc Daniel Nelson

Marc Daniel Nelson, the Grammy-nominated music producer, and PMA winner has joined us at Produce Like A Pro to give you guys a complete tutorial on how to mix a song from the artist Jerimiah Jones called Tick My Lonely.…

Audio Engineering

Siouxsie and the Banshees – Hong Kong Garden: Songs That Changed Music

By: Caitlin Vaughn Carlos In July of 1978, New Music Express’s Nick Kent found the punk attitude alive and well with a Siouxsie and the Banshees performance at the Roundhouse. Kent pressed: “If Punks are currently being brushed off by…

Audio Engineering

How I got my start in the music industry- Marc Daniel Nelson

Marc Daniel Nelson is a Grammy-nominated music producer, audio mixing engineer, 4-time PMA nominee, and 1-time PMA winner. Marc has had a successful career producing, mixing, and managing multiple artists for almost 20 years. As a protege of the music…

Audio Engineering

Best USB Interface under $200? – Audient Evo 8

Our good friends over at Audient have a brand new product! It is called the Evo 8! It is a 4 input/4output USB interface that costs about $200 and it has the auto-gain function! This is the first one in…

Audio Engineering

My experiences with Eddie Van Halen were always unbelievable- RIP Maestro

This week has been a rough week for the music industry. There are only a handful of people that we can call true pioneers of the music industry. There have been legendary guitar heroes throughout the years, but the one…

Gear Review

The Best Plate Reverb?

Today, we have the opportunity to try out the Perfect Plate from Denise Audio! The goal of the Perfect Plate reverb is to easily manipulate your tracks in supernatural ways with supernatural sound quality. We are very excited to try…

Audio Engineering

Top 10 Metal Amps with Kristian Kohle!

We have our good friend Kristian Kohle here with us today, and he is going to talk about his Top 10 Metal Amps! Kristian is a very successful German metal producer, and I would consider him to be an expert…

Gear Review

Rupert Neve Designs Master Bus Converter

We are very excited get an exclusive first look at a brand new product from Rupert Neve Designs today! The Rupert Neve Designs Master Bus Converter Dual-path A/D Converter & Limiter is a 2-bus converter with a fully functioning limiter…

Audio Engineering

Hit the Road Music: A Travelling Recording Studio

Traveling the world, recording artists on the road with a 4 wheel home studio in the desert? This sounds almost utopian but I never believed in limitations and realised my dream and share with you today a deep insight how…

History

Rock’s Greatest Eruption: How Eddie Van Halen Revolutionized the Guitar

Written by Caitlin Vaughn Carlos “Ed Van Halen is going to change a lot of lives around the world in the next 12 months” - Kim Fowly predicted in Phonograph Record in 1977. Van Halen had only recently been signed…

Audio Engineering

Top Vocal Recording Tips from a PRO Vocalist!

Our good friend Chris Liepe is back with us, and today we are going to be sharing our Top 5 Vocal Recording Tips! This will be a conversation with too different perspectives: mine as a producer and engineer, and Chris's…

Audio Engineering

iZotope Neoverb: The Smartest Reverb Plugin?

We have a brand new plugin today share with you today: the iZotope Neoverb! iZotope has some very clever plugins, so I am very excited to see what they have done with their latest release! Before we go any further…