March 1, 2011
Feature
Effects Plug-Ins | Keeping It In the Box
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By George Petersen
Just last summer, we covered a ton of hot new plug-in debuts in our July issue and figured that would hold back the tide for perhaps another year. In fact, our prediction wasn’t even close—in the past few months alone, a couple dozen cool new effects plug-ins have come to market and we couldn’t wait to spotlight some of these new entries. Here, listed alphabetically, are a few recent plugs that are just the thing for in-the-box mixing and production. And if you’re interested in checking these out firsthand, most are available in downloadable demo versions from the Websites listed. …
Dianne Reeves | Crooning With Strings
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Candace Horgan
A jazz quartet walks into a concert hall and meets a symphony orchestra. That’s not the opening line to a tall tale, but a concert put on at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver on December 14, 2010. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Marvin Hamlisch paired with Dianne Reeves and her quartet to put on a jazz Christmas show. …
Product Reviews
Cakewalk SONAR X1 Producer Edition Review
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Tony Nunes
Cakewalk’s SONAR has been annually upgraded for close to a decade now, evolving into a full-featured Windows DAW that in some instances has been ahead of the competition. SONAR has led with features like surround integration, full 64-bit processing, V-Vocal pitch correction, ACT (Active Controller Technology) and a full roster of included virtual instruments, to name a few….
Pelonis Sound and Acoustics Model 42 Review
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By George Petersen
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I encounter a studio near-field reference monitor that really gets me jazzed about listening. A relative newcomer, the Pelonis Sound Model 42 is ready to make its mark in control rooms everywhere. Created by award-winning studio designer Chris Pelonis, the Model 42 is the newest release in the Pelonis Signature Series…
Airfield Audio Liminator 2 Compressor Review
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Kevin Becka
David Miller’s Toronto, Canada–based Airfield Audio specializes in updates, upgrades and recaps of a wide range of vintage analog gear and consoles from Neve, Drawmer, UREI, Gates and even Dolby 363 SR modules. He also hand-makes the Liminator Series of mono and 2-channel compressors….
iZotope Nectar Complete Vocal Suite Plug-Ins Review
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Barry Rudolph
iZotope expands its line of multiprocessor tools with Nectar, a specifically designed plug-in for lead and backing vocal processing. Nectar uses chains of up to 11 processor modules, and comes with a large library of preset combinations that emulate vocal treatments used in many popular musical genres. Processors include pitch correction, breath control, gate, saturation, EQ, compressor, de-esser, doubler, limiter, reverb and delay. …
Music
Music: Los Lonely Boys
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Blair Jackson
When Los Lonely Boys, a trio of very musical brothers, exploded out of the small city of San Angelo, Texas, in 2004 with the hit single “Heaven” from their eponymous debut album, many wondered, “What can they do for an encore?” After all, rare is the band that hits the jackpot first time out: “Heaven” rocketed to Number One on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, made the Top 20 on the pop charts and won a Grammy; the album sold more than 2 million copies. The appealing and versatile Garza brothers—guitarist Henry, bassist Jojo and drummer Ringo, all in their mid-20s when the album hit—turned up everywhere, it seems, for the next couple of years, including TV awards shows and on other people’s albums (such as Santana’s All That I Am and the Amnesty International John Lennon tribute album, Instant Karma). …
Music: Miller Unites Guitar Masters for ‘The Majestic Silver Strings’
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Barbara Schultz
Musician/composer/producer/engineer Buddy Miller is celebrating a couple of deserved Grammy noms for producing Robert Plant’s Band of Joy album and Patty Griffin’s gospel record Downtown Church. He’s also getting ready to release his latest project, The Majestic Silver Strings, which he produced in his home studio, and which brings together four eclectic guitarists…
Music: Northern Lights Integrates Sound and Picture
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Barbara Schultz
Northern Lights is one of a new breed of multifaceted, creative companies that offer comprehensive graphics, video and audio services under one roof. Relatively new to the company is sound designer/composer/engineer/musician Damon Trotta, whose audio studio within Northern Lights went online this past August. …
Music: You Hang Up in Off the Wall
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Barbara Schultz
Producer/engineer Robert Venable spent the month of January in his Off the Wall Studios (Nashville, co-owned by drummer/engineer Lester Estelle) tracking alternative rockers You Hang Up. Based in Phoenix, the band is fronted by singer/songwriter/musician Aaron Brown, and features a famous drummer: Frankie Muniz, the actor/musician best known for his role as the star of the hit TV show Malcolm in the Middle….
Music: Jason LaRocca Mixes, Masters Mark Isham’s Score for ‘The Mechanic’
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Matt Gallagher
Composer Mark Isham kick-started his new record label, MIM, with an adrenaline-charged film score for the 2011 movie The Mechanic. Isham tapped veteran engineer Jason LaRocca to mix and master the composer’s hybrid creation comprising elements of rock, electronic and orchestral music. “The [original 1972] score was a jazzy, small orchestral ensemble score,” LaRocca explains, “and very different from the one we did. [Laughs] Mark went in a very particular direction with it: lots of metal, detuned guitars, big string sections and giant drums. The main challenge was trying to get it all to speak as one coherent piece, and to make those worlds sound like they made sense together and [have an] impact against car crashes and gunshots. We had our work cut out for us in terms of the competition that surrounded us in the final dub.” …
Classic Tracks: Neil Young “Rockin’ in the Free World”
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Blair Jackson
Pick an era, almost any era since the mid-’60s, and you can make a “Classic Tracks” argument for a Neil Young tune: Maybe “Mr. Soul” from Buffalo Springfield; “Down By the River” from his second solo album; “Helpless” by CSNY; “Heart of Gold” from Harvest; “Comes a Time”; “Hey Hey, My My”; “Like a Hurricane”; “Cortez the Killer”; “Harvest Moon”—stop me ’cause I can think of a lot more. This month’s classic is relatively recent—it comes from his 1989 album, Freedom, but just to show you how prolific this guy is, he’s made more than 20 albums since then! …
Live
The Judds Tour Profile
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly
When mother/daughter team Naomi and Wynonna Judd decided to join forces onstage for their The Last Encore tour, the duo looked within their road family to bring their vocal harmonies to adoring fans. Front-of-house engineer Curtis Flatt has been mixing for Wynonna on and off since 2002, while monitor engineer Pete Parenteau has toured with her since 2005. Both have done a few Judds dates in the interim and so were able to create this tour’s sound design relatively quickly. …
Live: Bowery Boston Upgrades
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly
The Bowery Presents—with assistance from Scorpio Sound Systems—recently retrofitted its Boston venue with a new state-of-the-art sound system, which includes a d&b P.A and Avid Profile boards at both front of house and monitors….
Deep Purple Tour Profile
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly
As Deep Purple travels through Germany and France, we spoke with FOH engineer Gert Sanner about the tour. …
FixIt: Cinematic Orchestra Monitor Engineer Paul Hatt
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM
The Cinematic Orchestra usually uses wedge monitors, but for the Royal Albert Hall performance, almost all the bandmembers had to use in-ears, and we used wedges for the guest vocalists, supporting acts and as a general backup, along with some spot monitoring for the conductor and some sections of the London Metropolitan Orchestra. I took eight returns…
Live: Blues Travelers Deliver to Fans
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly
It began as nightly recordings for archival purposes; for the past couple of years Blues Traveler has been offering concert fans a high-quality recording they can take home after the gig. But for FOH engineer Adam Fortin, who has been with the band since 2006, finding the right combination of gear to get the best multitrack recordings with some digital consoles has been a challenge….
Load In: Sound Reinforcement News, March 2011
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, Compiled By Sarah Benzuly
Read Mix News For the Concert Touring Professional In the March 2011 Issue of Mix …
Live: Flores Takes PM5D for a Spin
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly
Completing his first leg of his North American tour in mid-November and back out early this year, Jason Derulo’s monitor engineer, Billy Flores, is mixing on a Yamaha PM5D. Clair Global supplied snake and mic package, stage boxes, power, and Sennheiser, Neumann and Shure RF systems. Derulo sings half the show on a Crown 311 head set mic into a Shure UR beltpack and receiver; for the other half of the show, he’s on a Shure UR SM87. “Everyone is on ears, including Jason,” says Flores. “The full band includes drums, guitar, key/bass and keys, as well as two background singers, and Jason sings on top of eight channels of Pro Tools [tracks], so I use about 40 channels of the PM5D when all is said and done. …
All Access: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, Photos and Text By Steve Jennings
Making a name for themselves on the jam-band and festival circuit in 2008/2009, the formerly four-piece Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (the band brought in bassist Cat Popper, who had played with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, and guitarist Benny Yurco in 2009) are touring mid-sized venues for their new, self-titled release. …
Road-Worthy Gear: New Sound Reinforcement Products, March 2011
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM
Mix magazine new sound reinforcement products column in the March 2011 issue of Mix magazine live sound products section article…
Current
Bruce Jackson, 1949-2011
Feb 15, 2011 4:30 PM
Live sound pioneer Bruce Jackson was killed on January 29, 2011, when the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed near Furnace Creek, Calif., in Death Valley National Park. …
Video: SoundWorks Collection
Nov 10, 2009 12:21 PM
Watch a video promotion of Michael Coleman’s SoundWorks Collection audio for picture Website…
PopMark Media
Oct 27, 2009 1:03 PM
Departments
Editor’s Note: Change, Challenge, Opportunity
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Tom Kenny, Editorial Director
Driving into work the other day, the first week of February, I caught a KCBS radio report on double-digit percentage stock drops at McClatchy Media and Warner Music. Traditional ad buyers weren’t purchasing at the start of the year, and apparently neither were consumers. The story veered toward doom and gloom and then it was gone, quickly followed by traffic and weather. It almost didn’t register. It felt a little like background chatter—same song, different players. And it’s been going on for nearly a decade. First Napster, then Google ads. Then YouTube and streaming and subscription vs. download. Media budgets slashed, prerecorded music not selling. It’s scary because it’s true. …
On the Cover: Guilford Sound
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Barbara Schultz
Guilford Sound, Dave Snyder’s new studio in southern Vermont, is at once a blast from the past and the wave of the future. On the one hand, it’s the kind of facility almost no one builds anymore—ground up, big tracking and control rooms, multiple iso rooms and even an echo chamber in the attic…
Tech: New Product Hits of Winter NAMM 2011
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By the Mix Staff
This 2011 Winter NAMM show (held January 13-16, Anaheim, Calif.) was a record-setting event, with 90,114 registered attendees checking out 1,417 exhibitors in the Anaheim Convention Center. There was plenty of new gear and choosing the Mix Certified Hits (our choices for the show’s Top 20 products) proved particularly difficult. Listed here, alphabetically, are our selections. …
Tech’s Files | Back to the Past
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Eddie Ciletti
This month, we’re revisiting analog tape and the physical restoration process—as opposed to using the software restoration apps spotlighted in the December 2010 issue of Mix. If you read no further, your most important step is to not attempt to play or fast-wind any tape before evaluation. For seriously problematic tapes, you may want to consult or hire an experienced professional. Precautions are necessary because fewer people have analog tape experience. …
Michael Abbott Q&A
Mar 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Tom Kenny
Well, so far so good. We are now midday, second day of rehearsals. We started out with Arcade Fire, the white P-Funk as somebody coined them. And then we went right into Barbra Streisand, who was just fabulous, so professional from the first note. Her engineer, Dave Reitzas, was a real pleasure to work with. …
