May 1, 2008

Features

Nashville Now

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

When I came to Mix as an editor/writer 25 years ago this fall, I remember a feature crossing my desk a few months into my tenure that was titled something…

State of the City

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

Asking some Nashville music pros about the state of the recording industry this spring is akin to asking New England Patriots fans what they thought of…

Nashville Perspectives

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM

PORTER WAGONER BREAKS THE MOLD The sound of was pretty unique for [1973], and part of it is what Larry Londin played. Everybody thinks of him as the great…

Recording Bluegrass Instruments

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

Tradition runs deep in the bluegrass music community. At the same time, no one expects albums today to be made the way they were when Bill Monroe, Flatt…

History Lesson

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

Just out of the Navy in 1946, guitarist Harold Bradley was anxious to record some country music. So he headed to Chicago to meet up with Pee Wee King….

Laying Down “Crossroads”

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

The Country Music Television (CMT) Series Crossroads, now in its seventh season, brings country artists together in concert with mainstream rock and pop…

Nashville Live!

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

Any place where there’s a lot of live music, there’s sound reinforcement, and with all the activity originating from the Nashville Metro area, engineers…

Soundcheck Nashville

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

Soundcheck Nashville does tour pre-production on a grand scale. Not only can clients book video and full-on production rehearsals, but they can also come…

A Tour of Nashville Venues

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

The streets of Nashville are lined with intimate venues that host a wide range of artists wanting to be seen and heard as they showcase their talent for…

Audio for the Ages

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By George Petersen

No trip to Nashville would be complete without a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (CMHOF), which in 2001 relocated to a gleaming, modern…

Label-Studio Combo

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

Not everyone can be Jimmy Bowen or Tony Brown, but not everyone needs to be. The record business offers more definitions of success than radio has music…

Tony Brown’s Nashville

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The Platinum producer has strong opinions about country music’s place in his city and what makes Nashville great. Here are a few of Brown’s off-the-cuff…

Technology

Tools of the Trade, May 2008

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM

SOLID STATE LOGIC MATRIX Furthering SSL’s (www.solid-state-logic.com) reach into the affordable studio market, the Matrix ($25,995) 16-channel, 40-input…

Field Test: IK Multimedia ARC System Plug-In

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

IK Multimedia, in partnership with Audyssey Laboratories, has released ARC System (Advanced Room Correction), the first plug-in room-correction DAW software….

Field Test: Universal Audio 2-LA-2 Twin Leveling Amplifier

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

When Universal Audio reissued the vintage LA-2A Leveling Amplifier eight years ago, I was one of the first people to open my wallet. The LA-2A featured…

Field Test: Sennheiser MKH 8040 Series Microphone

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

Sennheiser’s MKH 8000 line offers three models and a range of accessories that allow for many extension and placement options. The Nextel black finish…

Field Test: Lab.gruppen FP+ Series Power Amps

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

Lab.gruppen has a well-deserved reputation for manufacturing some pretty impressive power amplifiers. Its FP+ Series touring amplifiers incorporate a…

Field Test: JZ Microphones Black Hole

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By George Petersen

Last fall, when I heard about the formation of JZ Microphones, a Latvian company spun off from Violet Microphones, I wasn’t sure what to think. The principal…

Field Test: Mu Technologies Mu Voice 1.1.1

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander

Correcting intonation problems and performing wild harmonic effects are two processes that aren’t often mentioned in the same sentence by most engineers….

Field Test: Peluso 22 47SE Tube Microphone

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

The Peluso 22 47SE (Standard Edition, $1,967) tube mic is designed to look, feel and reproduce sound just like a brand-new, long-bodied Neumann U47. The…

Recording Notes

Emmylou Harris and Brian Ahern

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Rick Clark

Few artists in any genre have created a body of work as substantive and rich as Emmylou Harris. Over the years, Harris has mined great songs from folk,…

Lady Antebellum

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

In this age of Young Country radio and ’round-the-clock videos on country television, it helps to be youthful and attractive. Even so, if you don’t have…

Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter”

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

In her 1976 memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter (written with journalist George Vecsey), Loretta Lynn dispels the myth that all of her song lyrics come from…

Cool Spins

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The Raconteurs Consolers of the Lonely(Third Man/Warner Bros.) It’s hard to know what to say about this bizarre, eclectic and often amazing album. Stylistically,…

Coast to Coast

L.A. Grapevine, May 2008

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

More and more L.A.-based rock producers, engineers and mixers are doing projects in Nashville studios these days, not only because Music City boasts a…

Nashville Skyline, May 2008

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

The trap door is cool, even if Elvis Presley never got to go through it. Oh, yeah, I had a set of stairs with an alarm, security and all that so he could…

New York Metro, May 2008

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

In New York City, a lot of people in the business of building music need something called a music building. There are a few such full-on complexes comprising…

Dennis Scott Productions

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

From Noel Coward to Mr. Rogers that’s the trajectory Dennis Scott’s career has taken, and he couldn’t be happier. Scott began his career as a child actor,…

Behind the Glass: Keb’ Mo’ and WildOates

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

HISTORY SESSION KEB’ MO’ IN DOCUMENTARY Keb’ Mo’ spent time at The Village (L.A.), where he spent a day filming and tracking for Recording: The History…

Track Sheet, May 2008

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

SOUTHEAST Sugarland, aka Jennifer Nettles and Christian Bush, recorded their third album for Mercury Nashville at Southern Tracks (Atlanta). Byron Gallimore…

Mix Interview

Mix Interview: Cowboy Jack Clement

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

Anyone who would criticize Nashville for safeness or homogeneity has never spent any time around Jack Clement’s Cowboy Arms & Recording Spa studio at…

Project Studio

Guidotoons

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Heather Johnson

In 1998, composer/producer/engineer Joe Welsh relocated to Nashville from Kansas City, Mo., in search of a larger talent pool for the corporate-event…

Tech’s Files

The Sound of the Sound

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

I first met Richard Dodd in August of 1999 in Kooster McAllister’s Record Plant Remote truck. That night, he was recording Tom Petty playing the Target…

From the Editor

The Strength of Nashville

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Thomas A.D. Kenny, Editorial Director

There’s no place in the world quite like Nashville. A city so steeped in music that its very name calls up images of singer/songwriters, honky-tonks,…

Feedback

Letters to Mix

May 1, 2008 12:00 PM

TALKBACK: YOUR NASHVILLE STORIES In the March and April 2008 columns and MixLine e-newsletters, we asked readers to tell us about their most memorable…

Current/Industry News

On the Cover

Blackbird Studio

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

There’s something about Blackbird Studio. Producers pop in and out (some of them have their own rooms), and talent comes and goes at all times of day,…