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August 2013

August 2013

WELCOME

August 2013 Editor’s Note: Quality–Music Meets Tech

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Tom Kenny

Producer/engineer Andrew Scheps has been logging miles of late, flying around the country to local Recording Academy chapters to deliver a talk in association with the national Producers & Engineers Wing. The two-hour presentation, labeled “Lost in Translation,” is all about Quality, and fits in with the Academy’s nationwide drive Quality Sound Matters. Last week Scheps stopped in at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Calif., to address the Bay Area pro audio community….

ON THE COVER

Cynthia Daniels and MonkMusic: A Versatile Space for a Versatile Producer

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Tom Kenny

Cynthia Daniels talks fast. She answers questions in an elliptical but always focused manner, returning to the core answer at the precise moment you think a tangent is coming. You get the sense that for her multitasking is a way of life, and you have the confidence that she can get any and all jobs done, on time and under budget. She was born with an Extra Ambition gene; in many ways, she is the prototypical New Yorker….

FEATURES

NASA Audio Finds a Home on Web: The Mission to Archive the Sounds of U.S. Space Flight

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Blair Jackson

John Stoll has an audio job that’s never going to earn him a Grammy or let him spend weeks on the road staying in fancy hotels in exotic ports-of-call. At parties, he can’t say he’s worked on projects involving Bono, Jagger or Jay-Z. But Glenn, Shepard and Armstrong are another story, and they are part of the story Stoll is helping to tell America through his tireless work for NASA the past seven years….

A Conversation With BT: On Composing, Sampling and a ‘Song Across Wires’

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Gary Eskow

Sampling has altered the course of music in obvious and subtle ways over the past quarter-century or so. Integrating snippets of well-known recordings with new ones set off a series of legal ground fires. Jingle demos evolved into full-blown productions, thanks to emulated ensembles. Composers of “classical” music—some—adjusted their techniques to include the new technologies, working with hybrid scores of real and virtual instruments….

Severn Records: Precision Design for Roots-Blues Production

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By John Monforte

David Earl founded the label in 1997, and from the beginning he had a firm hand in the entire recording process, producing or engineering the majority of the label’s releases. In those days, Severn recordings were made in commercial facilities, and business was handled from his house, but Earl always had a desire to be self-contained. Ultimately, he acquired the label’s first formal address, which was a house in an area rezoned for business. The house was fitted with offices and warehousing upstairs and a studio in the basement. …

LIVE

She & Him Tour Profile

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Barbara Schultz

She & Him—the musical union of singer, songwriter and actress Zooey Deschanel and artist/producer M. (Matt) Ward—are on the road this summer, sharing songs from Volume 3, their latest album of Deschanel-penned vintage-inspired pop. At the show Mix caught, on a warm summer night at the Greek Theatre (Berkeley, Calif.), She & Him & band delighted fans with joyous, faithful live versions of their recordings….

She & Him 2013 Tour Gallery

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM

Mix magazine’s photo gallery of She & Him’s 2013 tour of North America features Steve Jennings’ photos of She & Him and their band and live sound engineers in Berkeley, Calif., at the Greek Theatre….

Bonnaroo 2013: Q&A with Joe Keiser

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM

ZZ Top’s front-of-house engineer, Joe Keiser, discusses his experience mixing the power trio at the Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 14, 2013, and how he approaches his mix for the legendary blues-rock band from Texas….

Bonnaroo 2013: Q&A with Sean O’Connell of Music Allies

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM

In this interview with Sean O’Connell, the CEO and founder of Music Allies and Creative Allies in Asheville, N.C., we catch up with the ongoing and expanded reach of Radio Bonnaroo, now in its 10th year at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, and the festival’s HayBale Studios on-site recording studio….

All Access: They Might Be Giants

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Photos and Text By Steve Jennings

They Might Be Giants (John Linnell, vocals, keyboards; John Flansburgh, vocals, guitar; Marty Beller, drums; Danny Weinkauf, bass; Dan Miller, guitar) is still bringing it after more than 30 years. Mix caught them in mid-June, near the end of their North American tour, at The Warfield in San Francisco….

They Might Be Giants 2013 Tour Gallery

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM

Mix magazine presents a photo gallery from photographer Steve Jennings of They Might Be Giants performing in San Francisco at The Warfield as part of their 2013 North American tour….

MUSIC

Classic Track: “Constant Craving,” k.d. lang

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Blair Jackson

When k.d. lang first emerged in the mid-’80s from the plains of Alberta, with her strong, elastic alto and her androgynous look, it was difficult to categorize her. It was country, for sure, but mostly retro, with affectionate nods back to 1950s/early ’60s stars ranging from Patsy Cline (her most apparent influence; lang’s band was even cleverly called the Recliners) to Webb Pierce to Lynn Anderson, among others. There was also a raw, rockabilly edge to some of her material—particularly on her 1987 U.S. breakthrough, Angel With a Lariat, produced by British new wave/rockabilly icon Dave Edmunds. …

Glen Campbell: Hits Gain Poignancy on ‘See You There’

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz

Two years ago, Glen Campbell’s family revealed that he is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and his fans assumed that his wonderful 2011 album Ghost on the Canvas must be his last. Campbell stopped touring this past April due to progression of the disease. It seemed that a long, brilliant career had reached its end. …

Kyle Andrews, ‘Brighter Than the Sun’

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz

Nashville-based engineer/producer Chris Grainger has been collaborating with Kyle Andrews on his albums for nearly a decade, and the pair have developed a workflow that yields joyous, synth-driven pop anchored by Andrews’ expressive voice. Grainger works out of his personal studio, Undertow, where he and Andrews turn homemade demos into final tracks. …

Mandolin Orange, ‘This Side of Jordan’

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz

The sweet, mournful sound of Mandolin Orange—of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz’s tender harmonies and strings—is uplifting to roots music lovers despite some gloomy lyrical themes. The duo’s third album, This Side of Jordan, was made with engineer/upright bass player Jeff Crawford in Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Recordings…

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, ‘Bakersfield’

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz

The late Buck Owens and his compatriot Merle Haggard get the royal treatment on Bakersfield, Vince Gill and Paul Franklin’s salute to West Coast country. Gill, Franklin and band recorded this beautiful, heartfelt collection of gems in the personal studio that Gill built with the help of engineer Justin Niebank. …

COLUMNS

Robair Report: 500 Series and Eurorack–A Call for Stricter Standards

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Gino Robair

While manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make computer peripherals plug-and-play, there is still a lot to be done in the hardware realm. Two modular formats, in particular—500 Series audio products and Eurorack synth modules—are showing such explosive growth that it has led to a gold-rush mentality. As a result, there is a glut of products, an increasing number of which are designed carelessly and, at times, border on being dangerously incompatible. …

TechTalk: Summer NAMM Returns?

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Kevin Becka

Last month, Summer NAMM was held for the first time in Nashville’s beautiful new Music City Center, in what the organization is calling “the biggest Summer NAMM in five years.” Being a new Nashville resident, I was drawn to the event, which I’d not attended since 2004, after which pro audio manufacturers opted out in droves….

REGIONAL: CANADA

Canada News & Notes

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By The Mix Editors

Crew Studios (crew-studios.com) is a state-of-the-art hybrid facility built in the former Bakerstreet Studios location. Crew owner Sergio Cocchia enlisted the help of engineer Mike Cashin and Vancouver-based studio designer/mastering engineer Chris Potter to develop a new layout and workflow for the space, and after a two-year design and build-out, the new facility opened in 2012….

Martin Pilchner: Toronto-Based Designer With International Reach

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Tom Kenny

Martin Pilchner looks like a scientist and an international man of mystery, at the same time. He is equally comfortable with an acoustic guitar playing classic rock songs on a small club stage as he is wearing a hardhat on a construction site. He is a professor at Harris Institute in Toronto and he is one of the world’s leading studio designers. He knows math, and he knows a few jokes….

Canada Session News

Aug 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix

Artist/rapper/songwriter/actor Drake worked on a project in Studio 6 with producer/engineer Noah “40” Shebib on an 80-channel SSL 9080 J Series…Rapper/producer Rich Kidd mixed his new album in Studio 2 on an 80-channel SSL 4080 G+, with Young Guru engineering…Rockers Broken Sons recorded new material, with David Bottrill producing and Kevin Dietz co-producing and engineering, in Studio 1 on a vintage 32x8x32 Neve 8036 console…

TECH SECTOR

Mix Guides: Audio Interfaces

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