February 1, 2007

Features

Recording Wild

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Sarah Jones

FIDDLERS ON THE ROOF Last year was my fourth year working as a research SCUBA diver in the U.S. Antarctic Program. I was also moonlighting as producer,…

Keep It in the Stereo Realm

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Matt Gallagher

Known for their ease of use, precision, versatility and ability to quickly deliver high-quality results, dedicated stereo microphones are sometimes preferable…

Mix ‘N Match

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Steve La Cerra

Mixing monitors is like directing traffic in midtown Manhattan: Everyone wants to go first, no one is heading in the same direction, and nobody wants…

InStudio: Ozomatli

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Photos and Text by Mr. Bonzai

Ozomatli is a celebration waiting to happen a fiery brew of jazz-funk, Latin salsa and urban hip hop. Basic tracks for the band’s upcoming album, Don’t…

Technology

Tools of the Trade

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

RUPERT NEVE DESIGNS 5088 Even after promising his wife he wouldn’t, Mr. Rupert Neve (www.rupertnevedesigns.com) has returned to console design with the…

Field Test: SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 4 Software

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Rick Spence

Sonicfire Pro 4 is the latest incarnation of SmartSound’s Sonicfire Pro software series for creating royalty-free music for video and other projects….

Field Test: Avantone AK-Type VII Microphone

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Kevin Becka

The AK-Type VII from Avantone, part of the company’s Signature Series of mics, is a hand-built omni made in limited quantities. The stainless-steel body…

Field Test: API 5500 Dual Equalizer

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Barry Rudolph

The musical-sounding API 5500 Dual Equalizer embodies more than 40 years of tradition, beginning with the original 550 console equalizer module designed…

Field Test: Retro Instruments Sta-Level Compressor

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Kevin Becka

The Retro Instruments Sta-Level improves on the original ’50s Gates Sta-Level via some critical components and added adjustability, while staying true…

Field Test: Schoeps CMIT 5 U Shotgun Microphone

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By George Petersen

For nearly 60 years, Schoeps has been a leader in small-diaphragm microphone design, offering a dazzling array of mics and capsules to fit nearly any…

Ableton Live 6

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Robert Hanson

Over the course of its short history, Ableton Live has moved quickly from a novel live performance/looping tool to a full-featured audio, MIDI and now…

Sound for Picture

Freak Out

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Glen Yard

Freak Out is a comedy/horror film best described as the bastard offspring of Weird Science and any of the Friday the 13th films. It’s the story of two…

Live Mix

All Access: Ray LaMontagne

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Photos and text by Steve Jennings

Since coming out with his second release, Till the Sun Turns Black, singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne has been enjoying critical acclaim, which fueled…

Local Crew: Clearwing Productions

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Sarah Benzuly

Think back to this past holiday season. Rushing from store to store, trying to find the perfect gift. Or did you surf the Web, trying to make sense of…

Tenacious D

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Photos and text by Steve Jennings

Part rock ‘n’ roll show, part comedy act, the tag team of Jack Black and Kyle Gass (aka Tenacious D) whooped it up at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic…

FixIt: Derrick Zieba

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

For the 2006 European MTV Awards (November 2 at the Copenhagen, Denmark-based Bella Centre), sound designer Derrick Zieba worked alongside an audio team…

News

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Denmark’s second-largest outdoor concert event, Danmarks Smukkeste Festival, relied on Nordic Rentals A/S’ Dolby Lake processor for the main-stage Adamson…

On the Road: International Jazz Festival

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

International Jazz Festival Celebrating its 40th year in bringing top jazz musicians to the University of Idaho, the Lionel Hampton International Jazz…

Now Playing: Corinne Bailey Rae, Army of Anyone

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Corinne Bailey Rae Sound Company: SSE Hire (UK) FOH Engineer/Console: Dan Lewis/DiGiCo D5 Monitor Engineer/Console: Duncan Wild/DiGiCo D5 P.A./Amps: Nexo…

NSCA Brings In Fits & Starts

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

The National System Contractors Association (NSCA) has chosen Fits & Starts Productions to conduct its first House of Worship workshops at its annual…

Tour Profile: Gnarls Barkley

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David John Farinella

Tim Engwall and Stephen Curtin are tucked safely behind their respective Digidesign VENUE desks at monitor world and the front-of-house position, watching…

New Sound Reinforcement Products

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

TURBOSOUND ASPECT TA-500 SPEAKER, TSB-118 SUBWOOFER Turbosound (www.turbosound.com) expands its Aspect line with the TA-500 wide-dispersion speaker and…

Recording Notes

George Jones and Merle Haggard

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Elianne Halbersberg

When it comes to laying the cards on the table, few can do it like Merle Haggard and George Jones. They built their careers on straight-shooting lyrics…

Five for Fighting

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Blair Jackson

The is called Five for Fighting, a term that comes from the world of hockey, as in a five-minute penalty for fighting. But in truth, Five for Fighting…

Classic Tracks: John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses”

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Heather Johnson

Early one summer morning in 1983, a 32-year-old John Mellencamp, dba John Cougar, drove himself home to Bloomington, Ind., from the Indianapolis airport….

Coast to Coast

L.A. Grapevine

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Bud Scoppa

A wave of mortification swept over me on a late-fall evening as I approached the gleaming new home of Levels Audio Post (http://levelsaudio.com) at 1026…

Nashville Skyline

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Rick Clark

I’m sitting in a pub in Bolton, England, trying to finish my Nashville Skyline column. It’s the only place in town where one can get a Wi-Fi signal, but…

New York Metro

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David Weiss

Like Bentleys and Ferraris do for serious drivers, major recording facilities serve as an elite source of inspiration to musicians, engineers and producers….

A Year at London Bridge

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Barbara Schultz

It’s been a little more than a year since Seattle-based producers Jonathan Plum and Geoff Ott purchased the city’s legendary London Bridge Studio (www.londonbridgestudio.com)…

Jazz It Up

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

The longtime Duke Ellington Orchestra drummer, Louie Bellson, recorded a 16-bar solo for the New Orleans Congo Square Charity at Mad Dog Studios in Burbank,…

New Studio

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

Producer/engineer/songwriter Jimmy Daniel’s JDM Mobile company (www.jdmmobile.com) announced the launch of its new digital broadcast/recording facility,…

Track Sheet

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

NORTHEAST At Blue Jay Recording (Carlisle, MA), producer Sean Garrett worked on a collaboration between Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls) and…

Insider Audio

Get Your Game On

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Paul D. Lehrman

If you’ve been playing (or watching your kids playing) any new videogames recently, you’ve probably noticed that the soundtracks have become incredibly…

Producer’s Desk

Butch Walker

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David John Farinella

Butch Walker has a hard time standing still. It’s not a medical thing; it’s a demand issue. The singer/songwriter/producer/engineer is jumping between…

Project Studio

Echo Mountain Recording

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Rick Clark

It only takes a few hours hanging out in downtown Asheville, N.C., to realize this small mountain city of 70,000 has become a magnet for thousands of…

AudioNext

Setting the Bar

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Alexander Brandon

For those of us who tend to seek the cutting edge, I am about to pull a Bill Gates. Yes, the richest man in the world once looked into the future and…

Tech’s Files

Micro-lution

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Eddie Ciletti

My focus this month is on the AKG C-414, a venerable studio condenser mic that has about as many permutations as the Universal Audio 1176. At first glance,…

From the Editor

Breaking the Rules

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, George Petersen Executive Editor

History is filled with cases of inventions that either happened by accident or yielded results that were far from the original intent. In 1928, researcher…

Feedback

Letters to Mix

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

HOW ABOUT A LOUD? Blair Jackson’s Issues in Modern Mastering (December 2006) touched on a very important issue: Loudness wars rage on. As a broadcast…

On the Cover

BiCoastal Music

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David Weiss

The reason Hal Winer named his gorgeous new Ossining, N.Y., recording room BiCoastal Music (www.bicoastalmusic.com) may have to do with the long road…