news
Mike Shipley: HAVING TOO MUCH FUN TO STOP
Mike Shipley's work is practically a fixture on the Billboard charts. His credits include a wide range of successful artists, such as Def Leppard,...
Profiles
news
WHAT’S NEW IN THE FAMILY FOR ’98/’99
From cost-conscious table-toppers to multi-thousand-dollar mainframes, effects manufacturers have added at least 25 new units in the 18 months since Winter
news
Audio-Technica AT895: DSP-Controlled, Adaptive-Array System Microphones
Microphone technology has advanced steadily (if slowly) over the past century, with changes occurring at an evolutionary-rather than revolutionary-pace.
news
Apocalypse Now from The Hollywood Edge: THE AMERICAN ZOETROPE SOUND EFFECTS COLLECTION
There is no question that Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) ranks among the top films of all time in terms of its sonic...
news
TOM PETTY KEEPS IT REAL IN THE STUDIO
When Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers released their self-titled Shelter Records debut in 1976, few would have predicted that we would still be talking...
news
Fuss and Bother Over Internet Audio: THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED?
Audio on the Internet. Does that intrigue you or scare you? If you work for a large record company, or your business depends on...
news
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT: THE ENTERPRISE SOARS ON
No one would ever accuse Craig Huxley of being timid. In 1985 he opened a sprawling, Memphis-modern decorated, multiroom recording complex in Burbank
news
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT: CONVERTING THE CATALOG: CHACE PRODUCTIONS TURNS MONO TRACKS INTO SURROUND
Find a need and fill it. It's a ready-made success formula for just about any business, and it's worked especially well for Chace Productions...
news
Studio Wiring Options
If audio signals are the lifeblood of an audio production facility, then wiring is the circulatory system through which those signals move. Once installed,
news
IVO WATTS-RUSSELL: 4AD’S AURAL ARCHITECT
Back in 1980, Ivo Watts-Russell aspired to create something new and bold in the music world. Excited by the music he was hearing in...
news
KING CRIMSON: VROOMING INTO THE DVD AGE
Since their formation in 1969, the British band King Crimson has been questing for new frontiers. Now, 30 years down the line, they've delved...
news
RPG Diffusor Systems Room Optimizer: STUDIO SPEAKER PLACEMENT SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS
Many studio listening environments today depend upon near-field or midfield monitors. And many veteran recording engineers make the mistake of placing
news
Ashly Protea: 24-BIT DIGITAL EQ
The Ashly Protea 4.24G is a rackmount digital equalizer featuring four independent channels of 11/43-octave graphic equalization, plus high and lowpass
news
Blondie: Still Dreaming
Seventeen years between albums is an eternity in the pop music world, yet half a minute into the first track on Blondie's greatly anticipated...
news
DOLLY, EMMYLOU AND LINDA: THE TRIO MAKES MORE HEAVENLY MUSIC
Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris could hardly believe they were finally all seated at the large Elektra Records conference table promoting
news
Rockfield Studios: More Than History
To call Rockfield Studios (Monmouth, Gwent, Wales) historic might be accurate, but it doesn't tell the whole story. This legendary facility is said to
news
George Martin: DOING IT ON THE ROAD
In 1971, I wrote a college paper on the use of electronic music studio techniques in popular music. The paper, one of the favorite...
news
Kevin Killen: ON RECORDING PETER GABRIEL, ELVIS COSTELLO AND MORE
Kevin Killen has worked with some of the most brilliant artists in pop music. His diverse discography is evidence that he's an all-around type,...
news
dbx DDP: DIGITAL DYNAMICS PROCESSOR
The last couple of years have seen the birth of several cost-effective, all-in-one digital dynamics processors loaded to the gills with algorithms for
news
The Second British Invasion: UK TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. LIVE SOUND MARKET
When The Beatles played their last concert, at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in 1966, the equipment list for the show could have been written...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”
It's not surprising that decades down the line many people don't realize that Peter Gabriel was once a driving member of Genesis.
news
Audio Precision Portable One: TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
Audio Precision introduced the System One in 1985 and the Portable One in 1990. Since then, many features and new capabilities have been added....
news
CLM Dynamics Expounder: STEREO DYNAMIC EQUALIZER
The Expounder, from Scottish company CLM Dynamics, is an analog stereo/dual mono 4-band parametric equalizer with stereo high/lowpass filters that expands
news
DACS MicAmp: MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER
The exhibit floor of an AES show is hardly the place to judge the quality of a mic preamp, but Lew Frisch of Comprehensive...
news
BARENAKED LADIES: SHOWING GROWTH WITH “STUNT”
"The thing about this record is that it was their fourth studio album. I can't emphasize enough how marvelous it was to work with...
news
Cool Spins: The Mix Staff Pick Their Current Favorites
The Robert Cray Band: Take Your Shoes Off (Rykodisc) So many times you read a review of a new R&B release, and the press...
news
DTV and Your Wireless Microphone
There has been much talk about the sky falling down on wireless microphones. So far the RF environment, like the air quality in major...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money”
"For the Love of Money" made it to the Top 10 in the spring of 1974 (Number 9 pop, Number 3 R&B) and catapulted...
news
LOS LOBOS’ CESAR ROSAS: BACK TO THE GARAGE
It was 25 years ago that four guys from Garfield High School in East L.A.-David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez and Conrad Lozano-formed Los...
news
Yamaha DSP Factory: PC-BASED RECORDING/MIXING/SIGNAL PROCESSING PLATFORM
Everyone needs a typical gear story to maintain historical perspective when products like the Yamaha DSP Factory come along to shatter price and performance
news
Zaxcom Audio Deva: PORTABLE DIGITAL RECORDER/MIXER
Since the dawn of time, humans have recorded location audio on analog Nagra recorders. Along the way, brave individuals have made forays into other...
news
Top Ten Product Hits From Musikmesse
Nearly 100,000 industry enthusiasts ventured to Frankfurt, Germany, to see the latest audio and music technogadgets at the 20th annual Musikmesse, held
news
Adgil Designs The Director: SURROUND MONITORING CONTROL SYSTEM
The demand for surround sound releases-in sound for picture, multimedia and audio-only forms-is on the rise, yet most of us work on consoles designed
news
Roy Thomas Baker: TAKING CHANCES AND MAKING HITS
Instead of simply giving rock fans more of the same, Roy Thomas Baker has managed throughout his long and distinguished career to produce audacious...
news
04/01/Y2K: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ=MSFT) announced today a change in the release schedule of its new operating system, Windows 2000, explaining that extra time was
news
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT: “IT’S ALL WE DO”: SOUND FOR ANIMATION AT ADVANTAGE AUDIO
Upon entering the premises of Advantage Audio in Burbank, the first impression is of decks cleared for action. There's nothing extraneous, nothing out
news
Vocal Recording: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
In the whole realm of recording, there's no place where art and technology are more hopelessly intertwined than in tracking vocals. Ask vocal-recording
news
Fairlight MediaLink: Networking for Multiroom Audio Post Facilities
One paradox of technological progress is that advances in functionality are soon outstripped by users' expectations and demands. For example, though the
news
“FOOTLOOSE” ON BROADWAY AND ON CD
Skeptics raised their eyebrows up and down The Great White Way when the Broadway production of the movie Footloose was slated for the boards...
news
Disk-Based Recording To Go: A Guide to Stand-Alone Nonlinear Multitracks
Following is a guide to the top-of-the line offerings from various makers of disk-based recorders-emphasis on recorders. This is not intended to be a
news
Audio Engineering Assoc. R44C: RCA RIBBON MICROPHONE RE-CREATION
For those of us engaged in professional recording on a daily basis, the availability of "classic" microphones is often more a necessity than a...
news
Tascam Digital Dubbers: ON THE DUB STAGE WITH THE MMR-8/MMP-16
Since opening in December 1997, Soundelux Vine Street Studios has been using Tascam digital dubbers as the primary record and playback machines on many