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Mix Blog Studio: Tear It Down and Build It Up
Mike Levine can't get to his third-floor studio for a few more weeks, so he moved some of it downstairs, all the time thinking...
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No Need to Go It Alone
If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year of isolation, there’s no need to go it alone.
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Mix Blog Live: Muscle Memory
After a long hiatus, Steve La Cerra settled in at FOH for his first gig of 2021 and, for a brief moment, found that...
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Mix Blog Studio: Loops By Subscription
The software subscription model has made its way into pro audio, and Mike Levine finds that the new wave of loop sites provide great...
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Mix Blog Live: Vegas Reopens at 50 Percent
While not a long-term solution, the move in Las Vegas to open venues at up to 50 percent capacity (or 250 people, whichever is...
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This One’s a Reader
I entered the graduate journalism program at Indiana University in 1986, about seven or eight lifetimes ago in technology years. In the summer of...
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Mix Blog Studio: iZotope and NI—One Plus One Equals…?
A new alliance between two powerhouses in pro audio and music production has some intriguing possibilities for creators, including the incorporation of AI into...
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Mix Blog Live: GRAMMY Time
Grammy Week and Music's Biggest Night will look a lot different this time around, but as Steve La Cerra points out, the performers are...
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Mix Blog Studio: Console Yourself
Mike Levine is beginning to rethink his mix workflow by looking at console emulation plug-ins rather than mix-and-match dynamics and processing.
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Well, It’s Been a Year Now…
My daughters like to tease me that I use a few too many ellipses in my texts and emails. “Oh yeah, dad, he’s king...
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Mix Blog Live: Well, At Least Someone Cares
While the public cheered recent announcements of limited-capacity venue reopenings, Steve La Cerra looks at the economics and calls it a non-starter; meanwhile, he...
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Mix Blog Studio: Real Drums Change Everything
While producing an instrumental track for one of his bands, Mike Levine suddenly found that he had access to a live, remote drummer—a good...
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Mix Blog Live: RTFM
In teaching a lesson to a student about following the proper steps for a project, Steve La Cerra ends up following his own advice...
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Mix Blog Studio: Hardware Shines at NAMM
Mike Levine ended up spending time with the revival in hardware products at the recent virtual NAMM show, reminding him a bit of a...
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Mix Blog Live: Virtually NAMM
Steve La Cerra really wanted to go to Anaheim this year to find new products and catch up with some colleagues, but mostly he...
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Editor’s Note: Welcome 2021, We’ve Been Waiting for You
It’s been a long, long year. Same number of seconds, minutes and hours, yes, but I think we can all agree that it sure...
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Mix Blog Studio: Happy Feet
Mike Levine checks in virtually for NAMM Believe in Music Week and sets out to sate his appetite for new products and expert panel...
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Mix Blog Live: It Ain’t The Gig, It’s the Commute
Steve La Cerra just had his second gig since the Covid outbreak, and while it went better in the house, the same could not...
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Mix Blog Studio: Pro Tools 2020.11 Boosts Performance, Adds Features
Mike Levine is loving the host of new features and the reduced strain on his CPU load in the latest Pro Tools update.
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Mix Blog Live: Sending Out an SOS
Steve La Cerra reports in on the latest from Congress in Covid relief to help venue operators and those involved in live sound and...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Good Kind of Drama
Injecting some storytelling drama into a song can take place anywhere along the way, from songwriting through the mix, and Mike Levine considers it...
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Mix Blog Live: My First Indoor Gig, Front to Back
In his first indoor gig of the Covid era, Steve La Cerra finds that while the crew and backstage areas followed protocol, it was...
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Mix Blog Studio: A Place for Everything
Mike Levine admits his own messy tendencies when it comes to studio odds and ends, which is why he reminds us of a few...
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Mix Blog Live: Memories of Bruce Swedien
Steve La Cerra recalls the human side of Bruce Swedien, how they met over a story about Neumann M49s and how he ended up...
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Editor’s Note: 10 Months In, We’re All Teachers and Students
I believe in Science. Absolutely. And Science told us back in March that if we didn’t all take this virus thing seriously, by November...
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Mix Blog Studio: Analog Emulation—How Much Is Too Much?
Mike Levine likes adding some analog flavor to his mixes, often through modeling and emulation plug-ins. Still, he wonders if he sometimes goes too...
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Mix Blog Live: Holding My Breath
With only a few weeks to go in the semester, Steve La Cerra is crossing his fingers that the classrooms at Mercy College stay...
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Mix Blog Studio: AI and Presets
While presets are designed to help you "get close," they carry a certain stigma among pros who want to dial in their own taste;...
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Mix Blog Live: The Weirdest AES Show Ever
Steve La Cerra went online instead of driving into Manhattan this year for the AES Show Fall 2020, and he found a wealth of...
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Mix Blog Studio: Dispatch “From” the AES Showcase
Mike Levine has been attending the virtual AES Show for the past week or so and finds that while the number of exhibitors might...
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Mix Blog Live: Business as Unusual
Steve La Cerra jumped on a plane last week, headed for Pittsburgh on his first fly-date since the shutdown in March. The airports, he...
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Mix Blog Studio: Virtually There
The 2020 virtual AES Show begins this week and runs through the month of October; Mike Levine took a peek inside to see what...
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Mix Blog Live: A Steep Climb
With The Met canceling its entire Fall Season, along with others across the country, it's looking more and more like mid- to late-2021 for...
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Mix Blog Studio: The No-Flow Zone
Athletes and creatives call it "being in the zone," while to neuroscientists it is known as "being in the flow." It's that state where...
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Mix Blog Live: Which Group Am I In?
Steve La Cerra returned to school last week, and everything you've been reading about education during the pandemic is true; but he's making it...
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Mix Blog Studio: Authoritarians and Music Don’t Mix
Censorship of the arts can take many forms, and as Mike Levine found out with a little research, it is by no means a...
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Mix Blog Live: Surviving Sturgis
To find out what concert one-offs are actually like these days, Steve La Cerra called a friend who mixed front of house in mid-August...
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Editor’s Note: Forget the New Normal; Normal Is Now Relative
I’m getting on an airplane Saturday morning, a little less than 24 hours from now, for the first time since January, and to say...
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Mix Blog Studio: A Nice Surprise in Subscription Support
While Mike Levine has pointed out his own drawbacks to adopting subscription software plans, Plugin Alliance has introduced a model where your plug-ins are...
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Mix Blog Live: We Need the Good Kind of PR
With uncertainty growing ever greater in the concert touring industry, Steve La Cerra finds that cluster parties and pop-up live events can be damaging...