September 1, 2010
Feature
Beyond 5.1
Sep 8, 2010 6:09 PM, By Blair Jackson
New Zealand–based re-recording mixer Mike Hedges has plenty of experience crafting superb multichannel film mixes. He’s earned Oscars for his work on two of director Peter Jackson’s most complex films…
Producer’s Desk: Neil Kernon
Sep 9, 2010 1:28 PM, By Bryan Reesman
Neil Kernon is a man driven by passion. He has worked with acts ranging from Queen to Hall & Oates to Cannibal Corpse, collaborating with musicians he likes, regardless of the dollar signs attached to them. Based in Chicago since 1997, the British native says he has worked on more than 500 albums, including at least 350 that he has produced. …
Ribbon Microphones | The Revival Continues
Aug 17, 2010 4:46 PM, By George Petersen
It’s been nearly 80 years since RCA engineer Harry Olson filed his patent (#1,885,001) for the first ribbon (velocity) microphone, and the audio world hasn’t been the same since. Long a mainstay of instrumental and vocal recordings, the popularity of ribbon microphones is at an all-time high. …
Product Reviews
Audio-Technica AT4080 Active Ribbon Microphone Review
Aug 18, 2010 1:13 PM, By Russ Long
In just more than a decade, the migration of ribbon mics into manufacturers’ product lines has rapidly increased, Audio-Technica unveiled its first ribbon mics—the AT4080 and AT4081—last year….
Focal CMS40 Powered Monitors Review
Aug 18, 2010 1:46 PM, By Kevin Becka
Focal makes automotive, pro audio and audiophile speakers that range from the Grande Utopia EM monitors, which cost as much as a house, to the company’s latest—and most affordable—studio speaker, the CMS40….
2CAudio Aether 1.5 (Mac/Win) Review
Aug 18, 2010 1:56 PM, By Michael Cooper
I’ve been a big fan of 2CAudio’s Aether algorithmic reverb since its introduction last year. Version 1.5 boasts improved sound quality and terrific new features, and is a free update for owners of previous versions…
FXpansion BFD Eco Virtual Drum Instrument Review
Aug 18, 2010 2:14 PM, By George Petersen
Over the years, FXpansion has built up a huge fan base for its BFD virtual acoustic drum module, available libraries and expansion packs in every style. Now the company reaches out to a wider audience with BFD Eco…
Coleman Audio SR7.1 8-Channel Level Control Review
Aug 18, 2010 2:19 PM, By George Petersen
Whether mixing in stereo or surround, finding a DAW with a high-quality monitor control, channel mutes, speaker mutes and instant fold-down checking to stereo or mono is a tough call, especially for 7.1 production. Fortunately, the SR7.1 from Coleman Audio is a single solution that does all that and handles it well. …
Primacoustic Kickstand Acoustically Isolated Mic Stand Review
Aug 18, 2010 2:09 PM, By Kevin Becka
Kickstand takes the concept behind Primacoustic’s Recoil Stabilizer speaker platforms and applies it to a mic stand. While the name hints that it is targeted for recording kick drum, it works for any instrument-recording applications near the floor. …
Shure Super 55 Review Live Vocal Microphone
Aug 18, 2010 2:04 PM, By George Petersen
After more than 70 years in production, Shure’s (shure.com) Unidyne 55 Series is surely the longest-running product in audio history. The story begins in 1937 with Shure engineer Benjamin Bauer looking for a single-capsule approach to create a unidirectional microphone. …
Music
Music: Los Lobos
Aug 17, 2010 5:05 PM, By Blair Jackson
Even though Los Lobos have been around for more than 35 years and cut more than a dozen albums—each a gem in its own way—every trip to the recording studio is still an adventure for this band. That was certainly the case for their newest disc, Tin Can Trust, the group’s first album of original material in four years, and their first on the Shout! Factory label. …
Mavis Staples
Sep 9, 2010 1:22 PM, By Barbara Schultz
The electronic press kit for Mavis Staples’ new album, You Are Not Alone (Anti, out September 14), includes video of Staples and her producer, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, talking about the sessions in Wilco’s Loft studio in Chicago. “This session for me was the most joyful and uplifting and spiritual,” Staples says. “I feel this was meant to be.” …
V-Music Studio Profile
Sep 9, 2010 2:25 PM, By Matt Gallagher
Gilbert Velasquez San Antonio V Music Recording Studio profiled in Mix magazine September 2010 issue …
Post Haste Remasters ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ for 7.1
Sep 9, 2010 1:47 PM, By Barbara Schultz
Post Haste Sound (L.A.)—a five-studio complex focusing on audio remastering and restoration for surround projects—created the 7.1 Blu-Ray edition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show being released by Fox this month. …
American Hi-Fi Rocks on in Los Angeles
Sep 8, 2010 6:03 PM, By Matt Gallagher
In 2008, drummer/guitarist/songwriter Stacy Jones reconvened American Hi-Fi, the powerhouse pop-rock band he formed in Boston in the late ’90s, to record Fight the Frequency…
Classic Tracks: The Smiths’ “What Difference Does It Make?”
Sep 8, 2010 7:37 PM, By Barbara Schultz
Depending on whom you ask, The Smiths were either the most important British indie band of the ’80s—bringing great guitars back to a synth-weary new-wave audience—or they were self-indulgent posers who disdained their own fans. Love them or hate them, The Smiths made quite an impression when their eponymous first album was released in 1984. …
Live Sound
Rihanna Tour Profile
Aug 18, 2010 12:17 PM, By Sarah Benzuly
Despite sagging ticket sales—a malady that is festering across the majority of this summer’s tours—Rihanna’s Last Girl on Earth tour showed no signs of slowing down when Mix caught the act at Mountain View, Calif.’s Shoreline Amphitheater in mid-July. …
FixIt: ‘Addams Family’ Engineer Nevin Steinberg
Sep 8, 2010 7:47 PM
We are addicted to “auto-update” for our cueing. The show has nearly 200 cues in the [DiGiCo SD7] desk, so we couldn’t imagine tracking through all the changes we make at any given moment. …
Gov’t Mule Tour Log
Sep 9, 2010 2:22 PM, By Sarah Benzuly
Touring for their latest, By a Thread, Gov’t Mule continues to offer “Mule Tracks” for download a few days after the show. Mix recently talked with FOH engineer Ed Hopson about the tour and the recordings. …
Procol Harum Takes Out BlackBox
Sep 9, 2010 1:50 PM, By Sarah Benzuly
The first AES/EBU digital variant of the JoeCo BlackBox Recorder debuted on the recent Procol Harum North America tour, linked to a Yamaha PM5DRH console. Front-of-house engineer Graham Ewins explains how the 24-channel multitrack live recorder proved itself on the road: …
Load In: Sound Reinforcement News, September 2010
Sep 9, 2010 1:13 PM, Compiled By Sarah Benzuly
Read Mix News For the Concert Touring Professional In the September 2010 Issue of Mix …
Road-Worthy Gear: New Sound Reinforcement Products, September 2010
Sep 9, 2010 2:09 PM
Mix magazine new sound reinforcement products column in the September 2010 issue of Mix magazine live sound products section article…
All Access: Keane
Sep 8, 2010 5:56 PM, Photos and Text By Steve Jennings
With three hit albums under their belt, Keane is touring under their latest release, an 8-track EP titled Night Train, which features collaborations with Somali rapper K’Naan. The alt-pop group is playing to packed venues, including the Fox Theater (Oakland, Calif.), where Mix caught up with the crew. …
Soundcheck Nashville
Sep 9, 2010 2:12 PM, By Tom Kenny
Soundcheck Nashville Facility Profiled After Nashville Floods in Mix magazine September 2010 by Tom Kenny …
Sound for Picture
Acoustics in Paradise
Aug 17, 2010 5:50 PM, By Bruce Black
It was a dream come true for a guy like me: Not only would I design the acoustics for a major player’s personal mix room, but I’d be working in a dream location—a wooded hillside in Ojai, Calif. …
A Day in the Life of Reality TV Production
Sep 9, 2010 2:04 PM, By Michael Alexander, CAS
I’m typing this on a break aboard a Canadian frigate in Nova Scotia. The cast of the reality show I’m working on is preparing to do a challenge inside a big metal ship that’s not RF friendly in the least. Imagine thick steel doors and the cast running up and down different decks….
John Coffey and Robert Kennedy of Coffey Sound Q&A
Sep 8, 2010 6:06 PM, By Tom Kenny
John Coffey and Robert Kennedy of Coffey Sound Interviewed by Mix magazine in September 2010 issue by Tom Kenny…
Gear Stories
Gear Stories With Sylvia Massy: Triangles, Tubes and UFOs
Aug 17, 2010 4:06 PM, By Sylvia Massy
I found it up in an oven-hot attic in the middle of summer. The place reeked of bird crap. I was rummaging for treasure in an old music store, tip-toeing around in an area that was strictly off-limits to anyone but shop personnel…
Current
Albert Leccese, 1953-2010
Jul 20, 2010 2:33 PM, By George Petersen
Calrec Audio to Stop Making Analog Consoles
Jun 28, 2010 1:38 PM
Sweetwater GearFest 2010 Draws Record Crowd
Jul 2, 2010 2:36 PM
Industry News, September 2010
Sep 8, 2010 7:49 PM, Compiled by Sarah Benzuly
Read Mix September 2010 Coverage on New Hires, Promotions, Distribution Deals in Pro Audio…
Elephant Symphony = ES Audio
Sep 8, 2010 7:44 PM, Compiled by Sarah Benzuly
After six years in the business, music and post recording studio Elephant Symphony Studios has become ES Audio Recording Studios (Burbank, Calif.), a division of Open Call Productions….
On the Move: Bobby Ferrari
Sep 9, 2010 1:46 PM, Compiled by Sarah Benzuly
Read Mix profile on International Academy of Design and Technology Studio Manager Bobby Ferrari…
Departments
Tech: New Products, September 2010
Aug 18, 2010 12:56 PM
Mix magazine September 2010 tools of the trade article features new pro audio products in September Mix magazine pro audio product section…
Editor’s Note: Coming Back to Nashville
Sep 8, 2010 7:42 PM, By Tom Kenny, Editorial Director
We’ve been regularly calling Nashville from the Mix offices these past few months in anticipation of our third annual Mix Nashville event, to be held September 13 to 14, 2010. …
TalkBack | Letters to Mix, September 2010
Sep 9, 2010 2:15 PM
Read Mix Readers Letters to the Editor, September 2010 issue…
On the Cover: Naughty Dog Puts a Byte into Game Audio
Sep 9, 2010 1:37 PM, By Tom Kenny
Videogame sound production has come so far so fast these past few years that it’s easy to forget it’s still an industry in its infancy. It didn’t come of age within a studio or network system, although dominant publishers and platforms have emerged. It didn’t start out with any rules of production, such as those that might be handed down by a guild or apprentice system, though a guild has been established to boost the level of professionalism and resources industrywide. …
Tech’s Files: Servicing Vintage Audio Gear
Sep 9, 2010 2:18 PM, By Eddie Ciletti
When tube gear is unhappy, the easiest thing to do is swap tubes—not necessarily because they are the problem, but they’re often accessible and (except for subminiatures) are always socketed. The July 2010 column detailed the key components around the tube, but not the schematic. Before picking up that thread, let’s take a few steps back. …