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Mix Blog Live: SDMF?
A few nights ago, I mixed a show at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash. We’ve played there every year since around 2000,...
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Mix Blog Studio: Europe Revamps Its Copyright Laws
I don’t generally get to use the phrase “Here’s some breaking news,” in this space, but, well, here’s some breaking news. Today in Brussels,...
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Mix Blog Live: Sonic Limitations
I don’t like surprises, at least not while I’m working. I think a lot of engineers feel that way, and that’s part of the...
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The TEC Awards and Leslie Ann Jones
I will always have a soft spot for the TEC Awards. They’re now the NAMM TEC Awards, and they’ve grown in size, stature and...
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Mix Blog Live: A Tale of Two P.A.s (In the Same Room)
February 27, 2019: Tonight I’m working the O2 Institute in Birmingham, England. Originally constructed in the early 1900s as a Methodist congregational chapel, the...
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Mix Blog Studio: Hype Not Necessary
If you’re looking to buy a new audio interface, your choices are plentiful. I don’t have statistics for it, but speaking anecdotally, it seems...
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Mix Blog Live: Follow That Plow!
Friday, January 18, 2019, 2:00 PM I hate touring in the winter. A projected Snowpocalypse has the media in a frenzy. I’m worried about...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Joys of Multiband Transient Shaping
I had what you might call a “revelation” during a recent mixing project. No, it wasn’t a spiritual experience, but it was eye-opening. I...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Pleasures of Going Commercial
There are plenty of advantages to working in a home studio, both financial and practical, but sometimes it’s more than worth it to record...
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Mix Blog Live: AES@NAMM Goes Big
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to a NAMM Show, though throughout that time I’ve consistently attended annual AES Conventions. What I...
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Compact Consoles for Live Sound
Connected and Ready for Clubs, Small Tours, HOW and Installation
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Mix Blog Live: New Year, New Gear
Test driving new gear is always fun, so I was excited to be returning to the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, N.Y., this past weekend....
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Mix Blog Studio: Mixing by Committee—The Perils and Possibilities
I’m currently mixing an 11-song album project with a band that I play with. I’m the only one in the group who has a...
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From the Editor: Learning When to Take Control
I wrote two stories this month about two artists—Carrie Underwood and Esperanza Spalding—strong women from two very different backgrounds and two very different places...
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Mix Blog Live: The Real Deal
Diva: dē-və (noun) 1. An exceptionally talented and famous female singer, usually in the realm of opera music. 2. A famous female singer of...
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Mix Blog Live: Of Microphones and Models
The other day a friend of mine asked me about a microphone modeling system that he recently saw online. The basic idea is that...
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Mix Blog Studio: Spend Some Quality Time With the Mute Button
We live in an age of unlimited track counts. We’re no longer restricted to 8, 16, 24 or 48, as in the past. Nowadays,...
Editor's Note
From the Editor: The Ghosts in the Walls
In putting together this December issue, the past came rushing back during my conversation with producer Eric Valentine and the legacy of the room...
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Mix Blog Live: Life Through the Lens
I’ve never mixed a Blue Oyster Cult show where the band didn’t perform “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” If I recall correctly, about 10 years...
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Mix Blog Studio: A New Way to Buy Music Software
I’ve been ambivalent about software subscriptions ever since the first plans started appearing. On the one hand, they provide access to a lot more...
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Mix Blog Live: A Peek at The Peak
This past Friday I worked a show in Jim Thorpe, Penn., at a venue called Penn’s Peak. Established in 2003, Penn’s Peak kicked off...
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Mix Blog Studio: Take My Files, Please!
Whether you’re a musician, producer or engineer, the odds are that you spend some time sharing audio files with your colleagues online. I know...
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Mix Blog Live: Power Steering
The idea of “steering” a P.A. is nothing new. Renkus-Heinz and EAW have been producing steerable loudspeaker arrays since the early 2000s (the ICONYX...
Editor's Note
From the Editor: The Wide, Wide World of Audio Education
I was introduced to a couple of remarkably disparate yet somehow similar experiences in audio education on the path to this month’s issue. In...
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Mix Blog Studio: What’s in Your Archive?
I was too busy looking at new products to attend many panel discussions at the recent AES Convention, but one I did get to...
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Mix Blog Live: AES—Where Inquiring Minds Go
One of the things I like best about going to an AES Convention is connecting with friends and colleagues in the industry, and as...
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Mix Blog Studio: AES 2018—Let the Games Begin
The AES Convention starts tomorrow, and it’s the organization’s 145th International Pro Audio Convention. No, that doesn’t mean that the first AES show was...
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Mix Blog Live: Someone Is Listening
You’re looking at a not-so-sexy photo of the ceiling in a venue I worked last week. The Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Va.,...
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Mix Blog Studio: Tick Tock and Gridlock
Click tracks are a given in electronic and other loop-based music styles, but when recording with live musicians, they can sometimes be more trouble...
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From the Editor: What Makes a Brand?
I’ve said many times that the smartest thing that Mix co-founders David Schwartz, Penny Riker Jacob and Bill Laski ever did was name it...
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Once in a While You Get Shown the Light…
By Tom Kenny. I never really know when inspiration will hit or when it will run away.
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Mix Blog Live: Put a Toll Booth in It
I’ve lived in New York City for my entire life and I’m noticing an alarming trend. My friend Richie puts it this way: “Take...
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Mix Blog Studio: Two for One?
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you spend countless hours working in your digital audio workstation and countless applications. As you know very...
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Mix Blog Live: Back to School, Put Down the Phone
September is back-to-school time, and the start of a new semester means welcoming new students to my audio courses. The first day, we review...
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Mix Blog Studio: We’re All Gonna DI
As you probably noticed from the photo that appears most weeks along with this blog, I’m a guitar player. So you won’t be particularly...
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Mix Blog Live: You Want Fries With That?
Obnoxious Drunk Person interrupting me at FOH: “Are you the soundguy? It sounds like %#&@.” I refrain from telling this annoying, inebriated individual where...
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Mix Blog Studio: Truly Mobile
The idea of being able to record anywhere is compelling. Whether you do field recording or just want to be able to work on...
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Mix Blog Studio: Farewell to Noise
Recently, two innovative noise-reduction plug-ins, Audionamix IDC (Instant Dialogue Cleaner) and McDSP NR800, have hit the market. Though quite different in design and application,...
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Mix Blog Live: How Big Does a Kick Drum Really Need to Be?
In the past year or so, I’ve witnessed several major internationally acclaimed artists get murdered by their sound person. I won’t mention names because...
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Mix Blog Studio: Residual Knowledge
Recently, a fledgling twenty-something composer named Darren visited an old-folks home outside of New York City to talk to a man we’ll call Grandpa,...