October 2013
ON THE COVER
Electric Lady Studios
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By David Weiss
You’d be hard-pressed to find a place anywhere in the world more inexorably connected with its founder than Electric Lady Studios. The name Jimi Hendrix is bound to come up, whether the conversation is about this iconic studio’s tomorrow, yesterday or today….
FEATURES
A Series of Fortunate Events: John Storyk on the Birth of Electric Lady
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz
There’s always going to be a first one,” says architect John Storyk, reflecting matter-of-factly on the first studio he ever designed. In other words, everybody has to start somewhere. Storyk was fortunate enough to start with Jimi Hendrix and Electric Lady….
Eddie Kramer and the Early Days of Electric Lady
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Blair Jackson
When Jimi Hendrix and his manager, Michael Jeffries, decided to buy the recently closed Generation Club in Greenwich Village in mid-1968, the plan was to redesign the space from top to bottom and also have a small 8-track studio on the premises. A young architect named John Storyk was hired, and Jim Marron, who had worked over at one of Hendrix’s other favorite clubs, Steve Paul’s Scene, was to supervise the transformation. …
‘Metallica Through the Never’: Sound Helps Tell the Story in 3-D Concert Film
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Blair Jackson
Leave it to Metallica—modern metal monsters with unquestionable integrity and boundless creativity—to come up with a unique twist for their 3-D concert film, Metallica Through the Never. Rather than merely presenting the quartet live in an arena, or peppering concert footage with intimate backstage looks at the band, director Nimród Antal’s film is interspersed with a dark, impressionistic 24-minute story that takes place offstage, out in the streets, depicting a chaotic and violent dystopian world. A great selection of heavy Metallica favorites—shot with 3-D cameras, the band in-the-round in sold-out arenas—still dominate the 92-minute film, but no one is going to accuse this always dangerous band of playing it safe for their epic big screen debut….
The Making of a Monitor: An Inside Look at How JBL Developed the M2 and Re-ignited Its Studio Line
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Tom Kenny
A rich and storied legacy, one associated with integrity, quality, reliability and performance, is obviously a good thing to have for any company in any market. Of course it is. It brings built-in brand recognition, lower barriers of entry to new markets, trusted experience, scale, volume, employee pride and countless other benefits. But having a rich and storied legacy can also be a curse, especially in technology-related industries, where the pace of change has accelerated exponentially in the global market and the pressure from new and varied competitors is constant. Maintaining a legacy in the modern world can be every bit as challenging as building one. The overriding requirements, it seems, are an unceasing drive to innovate and an uncompromised approach to quality….
LIVE
‘Kinky Boots’ On Broadway
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Matt Gallagher
The new musical Kinky Boots made an immediate, triumphant splash in its Broadway debut this year, beginning its open-ended run at the Al Hirschfeld Theater on West 45th Street on April 4 and then garnering 13 Tony Award nominations en route to six wins on June 9….
Q&A with John Shivers and David Patridge
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM
For more about the audio for Kinky Boots’ Broadway production, sound designer John Shivers and front-of-house engineer David Patridge offer their further thoughts….
All Access: fun. ‘Most Nights’ Tour
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Photos and Text By Steve Jennings
Capitalizing on a huge breakout year, the band fun. was out all summer on a Most Nights tour. Mix caught the band—Nate Ruess, vocals; Andrew Dost, keyboards; Jack Antonoff, guitars; Nate Harold, bass; Will Noon, drums; Emily Moore, acoustic guitar and keys—at the famed Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., on September 6….
fun. 2013 Tour Gallery
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM
Check out Mix magazine’s exclusive photo gallery of fun.’s 2013 ‘Most Nights’ Tour from photographer Steve Jennings….
The Bowery Ballroom
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Matt Gallagher
The Bowery Ballroom has been open in Manhattan’s Lower East Side for the past 15 years. Operating under the aegis of Northeastern concert-promotion and venue management company The Bowery Presents, and with a capacity of 550, The Bowery Ballroom is selling out shows every week, presenting up-and-coming indie rock bands alongside the likes of Arcade Fire, The Pixies and Yoko Ono. In July, the readers of Rolling Stone magazine named the Bowery Ballroom one of the 10 best live music venues in the U.S., citing its “consistently great sound and sight lines.”…
MUSIC
Boardwalk Empire Volume 2: Soundtrack Puts Listeners in a Musical Time Machine
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz
In HBO’s stellar series Boardwalk Empire, music may enhance, or undercut, a scene of joyous debauchery, violence or sorrow. But whatever the mood, the songs are always meticulously matched to the 1920s era of the show….
The Clash ‘Sound System’
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Barbara Schultz
The Clash—the seminal English punk band comprising guitarist/singers Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, drummer Topper Headon and bassist Paul Simonon—only made five albums, but they recorded an immense amount of material, some of which is just seeing the light of day on Sound System, a 15-disc box that’s out this fall. …
Classic Tracks: “My Life,” Billy Joel
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Blair Jackson
By 1977, Billy Joel’s career was finally getting off the ground. The Long Island native had been toiling in the trenches for years and put out four albums, none of which was a exactly a hit, but did get Joel on the radio with songs such as “Piano Man,” “The Entertainer” (which cracked the Top 40), “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “New York State of Mind”—all now considered classics. His famously energetic live performances added to his growing reputation, but there was still a lingering sense that Joel’s albums weren’t all that they could be….
REGIONAL: NEW YORK CITY
News & Notes
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix
Producer/engineer/studio designer Christos Tsantilis mixed and mastered the third album from veteran Brownsville, Brooklyn–based rapper/producer Ka, The Night’s Gambit (Iron Works), which received critical acclaim upon its summer release….
Session News
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix
Folk-rock singer-songwriter Jack Johnson was in Studio A for promo recording, including live ISDN radio interviews and a live acoustic performance (produced by Johnson and engineered by Anthony Ruotolo)…DJ Cassidy with Kool & The Gang recorded new material in Studio A with engineer Elliot Scheiner (produced by Cassidy)…All strings on hip-hop artist/producer/songwriter J. Cole’s new album were recorded in Studio A, with Ken Lewis producing and engineering…
The Multi-Stage VMAs: Firehouse Productions Supplies Zone Coverage
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Steve La Cerra
On Sunday, August 26, MTV presented its annual Video Music Awards at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the first major television event held at the venue, featuring performances from Justin Timberlake (solo and with ‘N Sync), Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, and a rather tastelessly controversial performance from Miley Cyrus. Handling audio production and communications for the event was Firehouse Productions (Red Hook, N.Y.), this being their sixth go-round for the VMAs. …
Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet: ‘In the Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2’
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Matt Gallagher
Hammond B3 organ master Dr. Lonnie Smith teamed up with alto saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith (a former member of the Dap-Kings) to re-imagine some of Dr. Smith’s earliest recorded songs for In the Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2, which was released on October 15 on Dr. Smith’s Pilgrimage Productions label. Following five decades with appearances on more than 70 albums, Dr. Smith revisited 12 original songs from his first 10 years as a recording artist….
COLUMNS
Robair Report: Know-It-All
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Gino Robair
I recently played a show at a major performing arts facility on the East Coast, which not only had exceptional sound and lighting, and a multi-camera crew shooting in high-def, the venue streamed the show in real time online, where the performance now sits “in perpetuity.” At the end of the event, we were presented with a DVD of the performance (without having to ask), which looked and sounded great. A person can get used to this!…
TechTalk: The Conversation is Changing
Oct 1, 2013 9:00 AM, By Kevin Becka
I’ve talked about quality more than a few times in this column. I’m a firm believer that quality is cheaper when buying gear, and that great gear can help make great-sounding records. I’m not fooling myself, I know that the best tracked and mixed recording of badly performed or written music will always be an awful experience. But that’s not the point here—it’s the quality mindset….
TECH REVIEWS
Apple Logic Pro X: New Samples, FX, Plug-ins and a GUI Overhaul
Nov 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Geary Yelton
It’s been four long years since Logic Pro 9 launched, and some were beginning to wonder if Apple had abandoned its high-end DAW. Logic has come a long way since its origins on the Atari ST in the 1980s. It gradually evolved into a Mac- and Windows-based MIDI sequencer and eventually into a Mac-only DAW soon after Apple acquired Hamburg-based developer Emagic in 2002. Along the way, Logic’s price has risen and fallen dramatically, while its capabilities have continually skyrocketed….
Antelope Audio Orion 32: Multichannel AD/DA with MADI and USB I/O
Nov 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Chris Grainger
I’ve been getting many clients asking if I can come to them and create a great-sounding recording environment in the comforts of their project studio, live show and other places. While I do have a stable and reliable mobile rig, I’m not motivated to tear apart my studio system, pack it up and take it on the road. …
elysia xfilter 500: Clean, Double-wide 500 Series EQ
Nov 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Brandon T. Hickey
Elysia’s latest 500 Series module is an equalizer that draws from the concepts of both passive and active equalization. The majority of the circuitry is a modern, active, 4-band equalizer. To that, however, they’ve added some bells and whistles that users of elysia’s museq equalizer will find familiar. Then they added the “passive massage” circuit, which provides a little passive EQ flavor for the top end. Altogether, this makes a solid equalizer to apply finishing touches to a mix bus or master, while also offering the versatility to enhance the personality of any individual instrument….
Zynaptiq Pitchmap: Revolutionary Polyphonic Pitch-Shifter
Nov 1, 2013 9:00 AM, Mix, By Michael Cooper
Pitchmap promises polyphonic pitch transposition and correction in real time. This goes way beyond wholly shifting the pitch of a recording up or down to change its key, although Pitchmap can also do that. The plug-in can shift at once the pitch of all sounds in a mix that voice on the same fundamental musical note, transposing it up or down to another note. Do that on four different pitches, and you can make an ensemble that played a C mj6 chord, for example, sound like they played an F mi7 (using virtually any chord inversion you like). Pitchmap can also deliberately dish out synth-like sounds. I reviewed Version 1.1.4 of the Audio Units plug-in in Digital Performer 8.01, using an 8-core Mac Pro running OS X 10.8.2….
