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Mix Blog Studio: Give Yourself a Break
Frustration has a way of creeping in when you go back into a track to make a small "improvement," only to find yourself hours...
Mix Blog Studio
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Mix Blog Studio: My Review Process
When a reviewer sits down to evaluate a new piece of technology, where does the process begin, and how does one give an objective...
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Mix Blog Studio: Balancing Act
Ever wonder what your mix "looks like," across the frequency spectrum, compared to similar songs or similar styles? Ever wonder if you're slightly off...
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Mix Blog Studio: Headphone Helpers
With the whole family at home—all day, every day—Mike Levine has found himself putting on headphones more often as part of his mixing work.
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Mix Blog Studio: The Spigot Turns Off
The pandemic and the adoption of social distancing measures has hit the music industry hard, and the uncertainties about when, how and even if...
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Mix Blog Studio: Getting the Band Back Together (Sort of)
Live streaming a performance from home is one thing, but recording a song for digital release while each band member in his or her...
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Mix Blog Studio: Live-Streaming Music—A Case Study
With everyone at home, touring has been postponed and staples such as record-release parties either canceled or delayed. So Mike Levine's daughter-in-law and his...
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Mix Blog Studio: Time on Your Hands? Record!
Now that he has plenty of enforced time at home, Mike Levine is coping by heading into his studio more often, taking care of...
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Mix Blog Studio: Write It Down!
There's a simple feature in every DAW that just might the most useful one in the whole set... as long as you take the...
Recording
Mix Blog Studio: Together or Separately?
With two simultaneous recording projects in the works, Mike Levine finds himself working in two very different manners, both of which work just fine...
Recording
Mix Blog Studio: What’s With Avid Updates?
Updating a DAW's software, and hardware, is a big deal, and Mike Levine is not a fan of the perceived push to move users...
Recording
Mix Blog Studio: Finding Beauty in the Dirt
Thoughts on parallel compression got Mike Levine thinking about applying parallel saturation to dirty up his guitar tracks in a mix.
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Mix Blog Studio: The Benefits of Actually Being There
It wasn’t that long ago, maybe 10 years or so, when there was talk bout trade shows being on their way out. People speculated...
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Mix Blog Studio: When Bad Sounds Good, and Vice Versa
There’s a certain irony to the fact that we put so much time and energy into getting the best fidelity possible in our recordings,...
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Mix Blog Studio: Before You Press That Upgrade Button…
In October, Apple will release Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina, and when it does, my Mac will start bugging me to upgrade—and it can...
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Mix Blog Studio: Get Smart
Over the weekend, I read a fascinating op-ed in the New York Times called “How to Build Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust.” Its basic...
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Mix Blog Studio: Of Moods and Mixing
Here’s a thought exercise. Imagine you had to mix the same song twice, in different studios with different monitors (I know that sounds like...
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Mix Blog Studio: Something Is Rotten in Copyright Land
A couple of weeks ago, Katy Perry and some members of her production team were hit with a $2.8 million copyright-infringement verdict, which stated...
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Mix Blog Studio: Separation Anxiety
I have a modular music system in my house that has speakers in three different rooms. It’s super-convenient, allowing me to listen to the...
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Mix Blog Studio: Master of Some
Back in the analog era, it was easier to fully master the gear in your studio because, unless you were working in a large...
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Mix Blog Studio: Chatty Plug-ins
Do your plug-ins have a good working relationship with your DAW? Sounds like a silly question, right? After all, plug-ins by their nature are...
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Mix Blog Studio: Audio—A Second-Class Citizen
This week, I’m going to deviate from the usual studio-related subject matter to talk about a more general issue. Have you noticed how in...
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Mix Blog Studio: Rent-to-Own Gathers Steam
More than ever, you have options for acquiring music software. You can buy it, subscribe to it and, in a more recent development, rent-to-own...
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Mix Blog Studio: Learning By Doing
Did you know that daisy-chaining AC power strips is considered to be dangerous? Neither did I, but when doing some research for my recent...
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Mix Blog Studio: Tear It Down and Start Over
I’ve had my home studio in its current location for about six years, and what started out as a relatively organized setup, has gotten...
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Mix Blog Studio: Son of a Glitch
I was at lunch recently with a bunch of veteran musician/composer/producer colleagues, and I posed this question to them: What is the thing that...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Soul of a Machine?
With the continuing development of artificial intelligence, there’s been plenty of talk lately about robots replacing humans in the workplace. If you’re a musician,...
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Mix Blog Studio: Europe Revamps Its Copyright Laws
I don’t generally get to use the phrase “Here’s some breaking news,” in this space, but, well, here’s some breaking news. Today in Brussels,...
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Mix Blog Studio: Hype Not Necessary
If you’re looking to buy a new audio interface, your choices are plentiful. I don’t have statistics for it, but speaking anecdotally, it seems...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Joys of Multiband Transient Shaping
I had what you might call a “revelation” during a recent mixing project. No, it wasn’t a spiritual experience, but it was eye-opening. I...
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Mix Blog Studio: The Pleasures of Going Commercial
There are plenty of advantages to working in a home studio, both financial and practical, but sometimes it’s more than worth it to record...
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Mix Blog Studio: Mixing by Committee—The Perils and Possibilities
I’m currently mixing an 11-song album project with a band that I play with. I’m the only one in the group who has a...
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Mix Blog Studio: Spend Some Quality Time With the Mute Button
We live in an age of unlimited track counts. We’re no longer restricted to 8, 16, 24 or 48, as in the past. Nowadays,...
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Mix Blog Studio: AES 2018—Let the Games Begin
The AES Convention starts tomorrow, and it’s the organization’s 145th International Pro Audio Convention. No, that doesn’t mean that the first AES show was...
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Conjuring Up a Dead Session
I had an interesting lesson this week in why it’s important to do more than just hit Save—or even hit Save and make a...
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Mix Blog Studio: Test Your Gear Obsession
Have you ever wondered if your love of audio gear goes beyond just normal professional curiosity? Could you be… gear-obsessed? It’s a serious condition...
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