Blog
TechTalk: WYSI (Not Always) WYG
One of my rules when writing a product review is to never ask the price until the end. I’ll do everything I can to...
Blog
Blog
SPARS SoundBite | Mentorship
I was lucky enough to have not one but two mentors. These incredible women taught me not only the logistics of my job and...
The Voice Coil
Go-To Guitar Mics: It’s Not What You Think!
It has been fairly industry standard to put an SM57 in front of a guitar cabinet for decades now. In the recording studio...
Blog
Book Review: Rockin’ Your Stage Sound
Rockin’ Your Stage Sound: A Musician’s Guide to Professional Live Audio covers a lot of ground, serving up advice for beginners and near-experts alike...
Blog
Book Review: Le Freak—An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny
There’s no doubting Nile Rodgers’ impressive place in modern pop history, but his new autobiography, Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco,...
Mastering Matters
Mano A Mono & Do No Harm! Prep it baby!
Another warm welcome to you all for joining me in this Mastering Matters blog-journey. Last time, we jumped into a simple math equation:...
Blog
Preaching Miking To The Choir
House of Worship audio is always a tricky beast, because even if a facility has the best gear money can buy, it can still...
Blog
Spotlight on the Board of Governors
Greetings! This time next week, we will be in the midst of the exciting 131st International Convention in New York. For many of us,...
Blog
PA Tuning Tunes with Brian Joseph
All live engineers have favorite songs that they use to tune the PA, whether it’s the ubiquitous Donald Fagan track, “I.G.Y.”, or for a...
Blog
Spotlight on Publications
Greetings!In this hectic time just before the most public event of the AES, our 131st International Convention in New York, I take a moment...
Blog
TechTalk: The Score: Consumers 10, Pros 0
Of all the great gear we use to record and play back sound, the only non-audio product in the signal chain is the personal...
The Voice Coil
The Long Tail
There are different ways to create space in a mix. You can do it by panning sources from the center to one side...
Blog
‘Fix’ Fixated on Infamous Ministry Tour
Billed as a backstage pass to the scariest band ever, Fix – the Ministry Movie, from director Doug Freel and Gigantic Pictures, documents the...
Blog
Spotlight on Regions and Sections
Greetings! There are now just three weeks until the 131stAudio Engineering Society Convention in New York, and we are preparing for another successful event. In addition...
Mr. Bonzai's Music Smarts
Music Makes The World Go ‘Round
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,...
Blog
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
A few weeks ago, the news came from Apple which most of us knew we’d hear sooner rather than later: Steve Jobs resigned...
Blog
Spotlight on the AES Historical Committee
Greetings! Every AES Convention allows the opportunity to take a close look at the present state of our industry, as well as a...
Blog
New York Maker Faire Audio Oddities: MIDI-Controlled Drum Robots
The annual New York Maker Faire returned to the New York Hall of Science in September, bringing with it all sorts of DIY audio...
Blog
New York Maker Faire Audio Oddities: Guitar2-D2
The annual New York Maker Faire returned to the New York Hall of Science in September, bringing with it all sorts of DIY audio...
Blog
New York Maker Faire Audio Oddities: Bottle Cap Contact Mics
The annual New York Maker Faire returned to the New York Hall of Science in September, bringing with it all sorts of DIY audio...
Blog
Spotlight on the AES Technical Council
Greetings & Welcome to AES Viewpoints! We are now only five weeks away from the start of the 131st AES International Convention at the...
Mastering Matters
D=D Digital IS Delicate !
Greetings, my name is Paul Grundman and I am an engineer and support technician at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, CA. In this ...
Blog
AES Tech Tour Video Previews
The AES Convention always offers an amazing line-up of Technical Tours. Visiting famous studios, landmark venues, cutting-edge production houses and more, they are never...
Blog
Spotlight on Education at the 131st AES Convention
Greetings & Welcome to AES Viewpoints! My name is Jim Kaiser, and I am current President of the Audio Engineering Society....
SPARS PatchBay
The NEW Market—Are You Up to the Challenge?
Our industry has changed. The old rules do not work. Everything is upside down. The industry has decentralized, but what has been happening in...
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...
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 'LZ-'75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour' mines a rich tale to reveal the goings on behind the scenes.
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....