Mix Blog Studio: Real Drums Change Everything
While producing an instrumental track for one of his bands, Mike Levine suddenly found that he had access to a live, remote drummer—a good...
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While producing an instrumental track for one of his bands, Mike Levine suddenly found that he had access to a live, remote drummer—a good...
Mike Levine checks in virtually for NAMM Believe in Music Week and sets out to sate his appetite for new products and expert panel...
Mike Levine is loving the host of new features and the reduced strain on his CPU load in the latest Pro Tools update.
Injecting some storytelling drama into a song can take place anywhere along the way, from songwriting through the mix, and Mike Levine considers it...
Mike Levine admits his own messy tendencies when it comes to studio odds and ends, which is why he reminds us of a few...
Mike Levine likes adding some analog flavor to his mixes, often through modeling and emulation plug-ins. Still, he wonders if he sometimes goes too...
While presets are designed to help you "get close," they carry a certain stigma among pros who want to dial in their own taste;...
The 2020 virtual AES Show begins this week and runs through the month of October; Mike Levine took a peek inside to see what...
Athletes and creatives call it "being in the zone," while to neuroscientists it is known as "being in the flow." It's that state where...
Censorship of the arts can take many forms, and as Mike Levine found out with a little research, it is by no means a...
While Mike Levine has pointed out his own drawbacks to adopting subscription software plans, Plugin Alliance has introduced a model where your plug-ins are...
Songwriter/producer David Porter has been quietly leading an effort to re-energize the Memphis music industry through the organization MIME and the capabilities of a...
Recording sessions, with musicians, producers and engineers in a room, will happen again. The question is when, and how.
January 2021 is only six months away, and NAMM, as of today, is planning on a January show in Anaheim. Mike Levine asks, Is...
Frustration has a way of creeping in when you go back into a track to make a small "improvement," only to find yourself hours...
When a reviewer sits down to evaluate a new piece of technology, where does the process begin, and how does one give an objective...
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...
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.
The pandemic and the adoption of social distancing measures has hit the music industry hard, and the uncertainties about when, how and even if...
Live streaming a performance from home is one thing, but recording a song for digital release while each band member in his or her...
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...
Now that he has plenty of enforced time at home, Mike Levine is coping by heading into his studio more often, taking care of...
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...
Do you suffer from gear lust? Many recording musicians do. I happen to have a particularly severe case. For example, I have lately found...
With two simultaneous recording projects in the works, Mike Levine finds himself working in two very different manners, both of which work just fine...
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...
Thoughts on parallel compression got Mike Levine thinking about applying parallel saturation to dirty up his guitar tracks in a mix.
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Back in the analog era, it was easier to fully master the gear in your studio because, unless you were working in a large...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...