March 1, 2008

Features

Streamlining Hip-Hop Production

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Janice Brown

Hip-hop production is usually a collaborative affair, where numerous contributors work together in various studios across the country. This can also extend…

Midi Mafia

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Elianne Halbersberg

For the average producer, landing a career-making hit can take years of trial and error, mid-level chart positions and what feels like a lifetime of sessions….

Dynamics Processing Plug-Ins

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By David Weiss

While most audio pros will state up front that there’s nothing like hardware compressor/limiters, they can generally talk a lot longer about why there’s…

Upward Mobility in the Club World

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Steve La Cerra

Maybe it’s because high-end audio technology is finally reaching lower price points or simply because generations of outdated, ratty P.A. systems are…

Technology

Tools of the Trade

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

MOTU DIGITAL PERFORMER 6 Mark of the Unicorn’s (MOTU, www.motu.com) flagship audio sequencer software is now up to Version 6 and features a complete user…

Field Test: Yamaha LS9-32 Digital Mixing Console

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Steve La Cerra

Since releasing the PM1D digital console eight years ago, Yamaha’s design engineers have become quite skilled at migrating advanced digital mixing technology…

Field Test: Neumann KM D Digital Microphones

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Kevin Becka

Since the DAW became an audio standard, the idea of a purely digital signal path from mic capsule to storage medium has interested more than a few engineers….

Field Test: Steinberg Groove Agent 3 Software

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jim Aikin

For producers, songwriters and musicans who need to create bed tracks for a variety of uses, Groove Agent 3 (GA3) has a lot to offer: a wide variety of…

Field Test: KRK Expose E8B Studio Monitors

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Bobby Frasier

KRK, the brainchild of engineer Keith Klawitter, has been building studio monitors since 1986. The company’s flagship product, the Expos, has undergone…

Field Test: Creation Audio Labs MW1 Studio Tool

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Barry Rudolph

The MW1 Studio Tool ($995), inspired by engineer/producer Michael Wagener, is an all-analog, bidirectional interface/distribution system for connecting…

Field Test: A Designs HM2EQ Hammer Tube Equalizer

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Michael Cooper

The A Designs HM2EQ Hammer 3-band equalizer ($2,695) takes a different approach to equalization as compared to most other EQs. One look at the supplied…

Akai MPC Series

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Stoni

A driving force in hip-hop production, Akai’s MPC music production center/drum machine has been used in all types of recordings, having crossed over to…

Sound for Picture

U2 3D

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Matt Hurwitz

For the past 30 years, only audiences at U2 concerts have known what it was like to experience one of the band’s live shows. But with the recent release…

Assassin’s Creed

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Blair Jackson

With sales of more than 2 million copies worldwide, Ubisoft’s remarkable Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 formats (with a PC version…

Live Mix

All Access: Foo Fighters

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Photos and Text by Steve Jennings

Touring nonstop to promote their latest album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, knock-out rock band Foo Fighters are taking the concept of stage setup…

Local Crew: Horne Audio

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Sarah Benzuly

In the highly competitive local sound reinforcement field where the market is relatively small and saturated at the end of the day, what helps you stand…

Soundcheck: Blue Man Group

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Sarah Benzuly

You may have seen them at your local theater, but the men in blue are taking their production on the road with their How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.1. The…

FixIt: Brent Rawlings

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Front-of-house engineer Brent Rawlings is relying on a Britannia Row-supplied Turbosound Aspect system during Kings of Leon’s European tour. This is a…

Live Mix News March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Longtime audio provider for the New Year’s Eve Show in New York City’s Times Square, Maryland Sound International, handled both performance stages each…

Installation Profile: Minnesota Orchestra

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The Minnesota Orchestra (Minneapolis) has taken in a Cadac 24-channel S-Type compact live production console as part of a major sound system upgrade for…

Now Playing: Mars Volta, Cobra Starship

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The Mars Volta Sound Company: Rat Sound FOH Engineer/Board: Toby Francis/Digidesign Profile Monitor Engineer/Board: Daniel Bonneau/DiGiCo D5 P.A./Amps:…

Daly Survives With CONEQ

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

For the final live telecast of Survivor: China, sound designer and lead mixing engineer Bill Daly relied on the Real Sound Lab CONEQ tuning process to…

Tour Profile: One Man Band

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Nick Russell

James Taylor’s One Man Band tour isn’t quite as solitary as the name implies. There are, after all, other players onstage: The talented Larry Goldings…

New Sound Reinforcement Products, March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

DBX DRIVERACK PX The first processor in the industry tailored for powered speakers, the DriveRack PX from dbx (www.dbxpro.com) offers an all-in-one solution…

Recording Notes

P.O.D.

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By David John Farinella

While the masses were wandering around the floor of the 2007 NAMM show, looking for free T-shirts and drumsticks, producer/engineer Jay Baumgardner was…

Jonas Brothers

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Elianne Halbersberg

Forget all those screaming girls, crying and pulling their hair out over Kevin, Joe and Nick. With the exception of their parents, teen sensations the…

Cool Spins

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Shelby Lynne Just A Little Lovin’ (Lost Highway) Musical interpretation is a difficult art; you’re always walking the delicate line between reverent re-invention…

Classic Tracks: Tommy James & The Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now”

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Matt Hurwitz

In early 1966, a dejected Tommy James arrived home in Niles, Mich., from what appeared to be the last road gig with his then-group The Koachmen, just…

Coast to Coast

L.A. Grapevine, March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Bud Scoppa

Talking about gear in L.A. is like being at a muscle-car convention, quips Thom Monahan. A friend of mine once commented that there are more tape machines…

Nashville Skyline, March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Peter Cooper

I get to listen while I write. Right now, I’m hearing Tom T. Hall singing The Girl Who Read the Same Book All the Time. In a few minutes, I’m going to…

New York Metro, March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By David Weiss

Keep the horse you rode in on, or switch to a new steed? For New York-area audio facilities where a mainframe analog or digital desk remains the center…

Readeez Studio Puts Audio First

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Barbara Schultz

The home studio that John Storyk designed for Michael Rachap is built into a loft in an 80-year-old building in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood. The studio…

High Fidelity Mastering Opens

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

Engineer Andy Rogulich’s new studio, High Fidelity Mastering (Albuquerque, N.M.), went online near the end of 2007. High Fidelity is a 7.1 surround facility,…

Broken Radio

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

Matt Boudreau’s Broken Radio Studios (San Francisco) recently took delivery of a new pair of Klein & Hummel 0300 monitors. Boudreau, who took over the…

Jazz At Avatar

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

Jazz trombonist Clifton Anderson is self-producing an upcoming album, which will feature performances by numerous jazz greats. Anderson and friends were…

Track Sheet, March 2008

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Compiled by Barbara Schultz

NORTHEAST Emily Lazar, chief engineer of The Lodge (NYC), is celebrating 10 years in the mastering business with several Grammy-nominated clients, including…

Project Studio

Rudy’s Studio

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Barbara Schultz

Let’s get this out of the way: Rudy is a little dachshund, not an engineer. Mark Obermeyer, the owner of Rudy’s Studio (and of the dachshund), is a musician/engineer/producer…

AudioNext

Let’s Play Peek-a-Boo

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Alexander Brandon

It wasn’t too long ago that videogames represented an interest of less than 10 percent of the nation’s population. That meant if you sold 1 million copies…

Tech’s Files

Hard Drive Tales for a Rainy Day

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Eddie Ciletti

Between my wife, my kids and myself, there are 10 computers in our house three Macs, six desktop PCs and a lapdog. My wife, Polly, and I both work from…

From the Editor

The Music Life

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Tom Kenny Group Editorial Director

The ongoing state of confusion and borderline despair in the music industry and, by association, the recording industry is not really about a nosedive…

Feedback

Letters to Mix

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

STUDIO RECORDING: A DYING ART? I had to chuckle when I saw the cover of your January 2008 issue: Live Sound Issue. What Mix issue is not about live music…

On the Cover

Red Bull Studios

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Tom Kenny

Does it really surprise anyone in 2008 that Red Bull would build a world-class recording studio in the heart of Santa Monica, Calif., a few miles down…