2015
Favorite Gear From 2015
Audio pros are passionate about gear, and our tastes tend to be broader than most.
Blog
Blog
The Beatles’ Studio Goes On The Road
The Beatles were nothing if not ambitious, and it seems that every time someone looks to shed new light on the Fab Four’s history,...
Blog
Bob Moses On Bob Moses
Between a rising debut album and near-incessant touring, Canadian dance music duo Bob Moses has made a name for itself, catching a ...
2015
The Making of a Belmont Story
Sometimes a ready-made story, a good one, just falls into my lap.
2015
The Latin Grammys
Certain words bring certain images to mind. In music, when you think of “Grammy” you probably think of the February awards show at the...
Studio Sense
Audio For President
I can no longer sit idly by as this nation’s politics are domineered by outsiders, rogues, technocrats and ideologues. It is obviously clear what...
Blog
Spacelab9 Lands At New York Comic Con
The annual New York Comic Con might not seem like a place you’d find an audio-oriented company, but for Spacelab9, NYCC was a perfect...
Blog
Book Review: Stomp On This! The Guitar Pedal Effects Guidebook
Stomp boxes have seen a resurgence in recent times, and no wonder: Everybody likes cool sounds and pedals provide a wonderfully tactile way to...
Studio Sense
LDCs, IFBs, Jimmie Johnson and the Pursuit of Excellence
For Rob Tavaglione, recording a phone interview with top NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson was a routine audio session—until he heard what the six-time championship...
Blog
Inside Recording Clutch’s Psychic Warfare
Kings of heavy rock since the early Nineties, Clutch went into the studio in early 2015 with producer/engineer Machine (Lamb of God, Every Time...
2015
All Music, No Distractions
By the time I joined Mix in 1988, the heyday of true “residential recording” seemed to have passed.
Blog
View from the Top: Matt Ward, Chief Executive Officer, Plugin Alliance
Overseeing Plugin Alliance is Matt Ward, who brought a lifetime’s experience to the table when he joined the company in January 2014.
Blog
The Sound Company at Ground Zero on 9/11
When the Twin Towers came down on September 11, 2001, one sound company was particularly affected: RSA Audio of Edgewood, NY, which had been...
2015
Big or Small, It’s All Sound for Picture
My first real assignments at Mix, once I was finished copyediting and proofreading for the day, were writing about Sound for Film, starting with...
2015
Sonic Rescue
Although “videographer” is a job classification I’ve never put on my resume, in the new age where anyone can broadcast to the world, I’ve...
2015
For the Birds
This summer I was tapped to teach a Sound for Picture course, which provided an opportunity for me to not only review the range...
Blog
White Noise Wackiness
If system engineers use white and pink noise to tune a concert PA, and audiophiles vehemently insist that everything sounds better on vinyl, how...
Blog
School Days, Then And Now
Stanley Clarke's "School Days" may be a jazz fusion classic from the mid-1970s, but if you go hear him live in concert today, be...
Blog
More On Recording ‘Ricki and The Flash’ Live
When Meryl Streep and Rick Springfield began filming Ricki and the Flash, starring as aging rockers, the film’s music wrangler, Neil Citron, was appointed...
Studio Sense
Cutting The Clutter: My Year-Long Rig Reduction Regime
We audio engineers are notorious for having, collecting and bragging about our rig—our ever-growing and oh-so-precious kit. Producers smile confidently for the...
Blog
Is Recording’s Next Generation at the Library?
Faced with changing demographics, shrinking budgets and yes, dwindling book-circulation numbers, many quick-thinking libraries have begun reinventing themselves by adding Maker Spaces:...
2015
MixTrips: Tom and Kenny at Cold Spring Tavern
On Saturday, July 11, Chris Pelonis picked me up in Los Olivos in his Porsche convertible and said, “You wanna go get a beer...
2015
MixTrips: Chris Pelonis
Chris has been a longtime friend and I’ve thought from day one that he had one of the great creative/technical minds in our industry.
2015
MixTrips: What It Is
I’ve been at Mix since 1988, and I’ve seen a lot in this world of professional audio.
2015
MixTrips: Finding a Groove on the Road
I’ve said it before in these pages: I’ve always wanted to go out on summer tour.
2015
Who’s Keeping Score?
If there is one thing you can say about the digital age so far it’s that there has been a remarkable level of indifference...
Studio Sense
In-Ear Monitors vs. Things In Your Ears
For years I have regretted my pierced tragus. The tragus is that little flap of skin that covers the opening in to your ear...
Blog
VIDEO: The Battle to Capture Battles
Battles has always been an interesting band, staking out a musical space somewhere between the conformity of modern electronic loop-based music and the improvisational...
2015
Where Will We Be?
When I was a kid, I used to play a daydreamer’s game of “where will I be?”—when I’m 20, 30, in the year 2000,...
2015
Reflections From the Bay
“It is represented to us that the universal suffrage, as now existing throughout the Union, is abused; that fraud and corruption prevent a fair...
2015
This One’s for My Buddy Dwight
You don’t know Dwight. There’s really no reason you should. He’s not a recording engineer or live sound professional. He doesn’t make audio products......
Studio Sense
The Care and Feeding of Songwriters: Why “Art for Art’s Sake” Could Have An Unfortunate Future
In a recent Decibel Geek podcast, superstar pop songwriter Desmond Child (whose songs are on well over 300 million albums sold) shared some stats...
Blog
Sneak Peek: AKG’s N90Q By Quincy Jones Headphones
Focused as we are on Pro Audio, we don’t usually wade into the waters of commercial audio products, but when AKG invited us...
Blog
Something Is Rockin’ In The State Of Denmark [Online Extra]
The July, 2015 issue of Pro Sound News features a Live Sound Showcase on the current Volbeat world tour; what follows is a longer,...
Blog
It’s Out With The Big Iron For Veneto West [Online Extra]
The July, 2015 issue of Pro Sound News profiles recording studio Veneto West; what follows is additional exploration into the facility and mindset...
Blog
Fanarchy Vs. The Usual Way
It’s easy to get stuck in "the same old way of doing things," just because that’s how we’ve always done them. If we’re lucky,...
Blog
Seen on the Scene: Sweetwater GearFest 2015
Every year for two days, Sweetwater GearFest turns Fort Wayne, Indiana, into the center of the musical instrument and pro audio world. People travel...
Blog
Book Review: The Insider’s Guide to Home Recording
With an authoritative title like The Insider's Guide to Home Recording: Record Music and Get Paid, an engineering book had better be able to...
2015
What Is a Recording Studio?
Back in 1989 when I walked into John Mellencamp’s Belmont Mall Studios off Highway 46 east of Bloomington, Ind., I had no idea that...