The Voice Coil
The Wrong Way to EQ?
We’ve all been there before. We’re halfway through sound check, we’ve done our gain structure and we’re neck deep in EQ’ing and compressing and...
Blog
Mr. Bonzai's Music Smarts
|| For the Love of It ||
A few choice words from Mr. Bonzai's MUSIC SMARTS -- The Inside Truth and Road-Tested Wisdom from the Brightest Minds in the Music Business,...
The Tesseract
Home Recording Tip 30: I once heard an over-EQ’d snare described as ‘A stick hitting an equalizer.’
As far as I know, this phrase was first coined years ago when I was assisting my mentor, Bill Schnee in the course of...
Blog
TechTalk: Audio Is More Than Audio
While I’ve always tried to center my career goals around creating music, it hasn’t always worked out that way. Fifteen years ago, the titles...
Blog
SPARS SoundBite | Film Is a Sound Idea
At Ardent Studios, our job is to create entertainment—any way possible. While we are rooted in the foundations of rock ’n’ roll from our...
Blog
Record Sales Up, Driven by Digital
During the recent NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) convention, David Bakula, senior VP of entertainment analytics for Nielsen, reported that digital music sales...
Blog
The Inevitability of the Virtual: The Future Is Now
I knew it was inevitable. I’ve just come tonight from the soundcheck for a major artist gig.
Blog
Steam-Powered Low End
In his Continuing Adventures In Software, Rich Tozzoli takes the low (end) road.
Blog
NRW+E Educates, Entertains
NASHVILLE, TN—The second annual Nashville Recording Workshop + Expo, held March 5-6 at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center, was packed with informative and evocative...
Blog
Is the Age of Specialized DAWs Next?
Since their inception, DAWs had their own arms race going on, with each successive version piling on the features.
The Voice Coil
Budgeting for Church Tech?
I was sitting in a church all-staff lunch, much like we do every Tuesday afternoon. This really is a time to get to catch...
Blog
Book Review: LZ-’75—The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American Tour
Stephen Davis’s 1985 Led Zeppelin tell-all, Hammer of the Gods pretty much defined the modern rock biography, so it was a bit of a...
Blog
Vinyl Is Back…But For How Long?
Over the last few years, there’s been a growing interest in vinyl records—those big, black, round things that everybody over the age of 30...
Blog
John Lennon: Producer
Everyone thinks of John Lennon as a Beatle or Songwriter or Musician or Activist or Wit; today, let's look at his work as a...
Blog
And the Survey Said…
Numbers tracking the sales of recordings are in for 2010. Unsurprisingly, the trends from the past decade continue. You know the litany by now....
Blog
Sypro Gyra Bucks Recording Trends And Hits The Clubhouse
Sypro Gyra is still going strong 35 years after its debut album, and September will find the venerable act releasing A Foreign Affair, a...
Blog
Retro PSN: Rolling with The Cars
After 24 years on hiatus, The Cars hit the road in 2011 supporting their comeback album, Move Like This.
SPARS PatchBay
The SPARS Vision
Re-definition and change are constants in the world, most certainly including the music industry and the world of professional audio. Accordingly, the Society of...
Blog
Sean “Sully” Sullivan’s “Go-To” Microphone
Sean “Sully” Sullivan is the dictionary definition of a Journeyman Engineer, having mixed FOH for everyone from Sheryl Crow to Thom Yorke to Beck...
Mr. Bonzai's Music Smarts
Chad Smith: Portrait of a Red Hot Drummer, Part IV Der End
For this interview and photo session, I visited Chad Smith at his home in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Although he is active as...
Blog
Behind The Bootlegs
When a mysterious Bob Dylan album, Great White Wonder, suddenly appeared on record store shelves in 1969, it single-handedly created a new kind of...
The Tesseract
There Are No Small Gigs
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s no such thing as a small gig. Every job you ever take has its repercussions,...
Blog
Bonnaroo’s Hay Bale Studio
MANCHESTER, TN—Backstage at Bonnaroo, a whole other set of shows was happening behind the scenes, with many of the festival’s acts (including Mumford and...
Blog
Neat Tweets: Pro Sound News’ Twitter Feed for July, 2011
The hot summer months often slow things down, but not the Pro Sound News Twitter feed! We spent July serving up our daily headlines...
The Voice Coil
Darth Soundguy
In the world of mixing for churches, much of mixing is sound reinforcement, that is, you are adding volume to what is...
Blog
TechTalk: Quality, No Matter Where It Is
I remember the first audiophile playback system I ever heard. It was in a high-end Los Angeles home in the ’70s, long before I...
Blog
SPARS SoundBite | What Makes a Quality Recording Studio
SPARS has embarked upon a quest to seek out recording studios that have not only survived but are thriving today, in an effort similar...
Blog
A Chat with Gobbler’s Chris Kantrowitz
There’s no end of talk these days about “the cloud” and the promise of being able to securely keep all your files, data, applications...
The Tesseract
Recording Tip 27: Don’t record in stereo unless your source is truly stereo
Of all the tweets I’ve posted, I get the most questions on this one. People ask, “What do you mean by 'truly stereo?'” I...
Blog
When Saints Go Machine Go Home
Lots of musicians suffer for their art, and plenty of others record their albums at home. Danish experimental electronica act When Saints Go Machine...
Blog
Art, Sound and Science Collide at BioRhythm
Pro Sound News recently paid a visit to BIORHYTHM: Music and the Body, a fascinating exhibit melding art and audio equipment to explore what...
Mr. Bonzai's Music Smarts
Chad Smith: Portrait of a Red Hot Drummer, Part III
For this interview and photo session, I visited Chad Smith at his home in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Although he is active as...
Blog
Links on the Links
This time last week, as I write, I was at the Harpeth Hills Golf Course just outside Nashville, getting prepped for the second day...
The Tesseract
Recording Tip 8: Just because something is analog doesn’t mean it’s better. Bad analog products have been around for decades
This is #8 in my series of tips I post on Twitter and my blogsite: Just because something is analog doesn’t mean it's better....
The Voice Coil
Digitally Steerable Opinions
You don’t have to be in this business long to find out that if you get ten sound guys in a room, you will...
Blog
Madeon Makes Good with “Pop Culture”
It's the viral video of the moment, and maybe a contender for Dance Song of the Summer: "Pop Culture" by Madeon, a French DJ...
Blog
Inside The Music To Know Festival
In recent years, festivals have become an important part of the live sound landscape, creating destination events that provide a bargain for music fans...
Blog
Vintage Gear Under The (Merlin) Moon
Alexander Pizzorni, A.K.A. Merlin Moon, may not be a household name, but his next album, Bohemian Side of the Sky, is currently being put...
Blog
Book Review: The Recording Guitarist
Whether they’re using Apple Garageband or a full-fledged DAW production studio in the basement, ever-increasing numbers of musicians are recording themselves at home these...
The Tesseract
Perception Is Reality?
It’s a well-worn phrase, but not always true, especially in music. And in creating pop music, there are few places where it’s more proven...