Preparing Your Mixes For Mastering

Preparing Your Mixes For Mastering

Today, more and more self-recording musicians and studios are catching on to the value of using an independent mastering engineer to master their finished mixes.  At a minimum, an independent mastering engineer provides an additional, objective set of “ears” in a...
45-degree Angle When Recording Acoustic Guitar

45-degree Angle When Recording Acoustic Guitar

I often recommend that people use a “45-degree angle” on the neck microphone as a starting point for recording acoustic guitar.  Just describing it in words can be a little confusing, so I put together this quick video to illustrate what I mean. I...
Re-learning The Art of Listening

Re-learning The Art of Listening

When I was a kid, listening to music was a ritual. Whenever I got the chance, I would take a vinyl record out of its sleeve (yeah, I know, I’m showing my age!), place it on the turntable, and listen to it from start to finish, usually with my eyes closed, and often...
UPDATED: Cakewalk Lives!!!

UPDATED: Cakewalk Lives!!!

UPDATE, 2018-02-23: Cakewalk SONAR has been rescued from Gibson, and will continue to live on! See the article here. On November 17th, 2017, musical instrument conglomerate Gibson shocked the music-making community by announcing the total shutdown of one of their...
Who’s On First?

Who’s On First?

Nancy and I have just returned from the annual TAXI Road Rally music convention in L.A. (our FOURTEENTH Road Rally in a row – can you tell we like them??? 🙂 ). At each year’s Rally, we do a ton of mentoring and teaching.  For example, at this year’s Rally, I did...
Time To Get Out Of Your Silo: We Need Human Contact!

Time To Get Out Of Your Silo: We Need Human Contact!

The Summer NAMM trade show and convention just ended here in Nashville this past weekend.  If you’re not familiar with NAMM, on the whole, it’s a big gathering of music gear manufacturers showing off their latest goodies to dealers and potential consumers....