The Wire
Insights In Sound – Jeff Rona, Composer (Episode 34)
His sonic thumbprint is on dozens of film scores and games, and his groundbreaking work in music technology made him one of the founding...
Mix Blog Studio
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Mix Blog Studio: Skewed Critical Focus
The ease with which people can offer opinions online and then call themselves a music critic means that ... well, there are a lot...
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Mix Blog Studio: Be Ready to Record—Wherever and Whenever
You never know when a song idea or a guitar riff is going to pop into your head, so it helps if you have...
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Mix Blog Studio: Track Organization Quiz
There are as many ways to approach mix as there are engineers, ranging from the hyper-methodical, 'must-color-code-now' to the free-wheeling, 'I'll-figure-out-what-I-did-later." Which one are...
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Mix Blog Studio: Cassettes? Really?
Mike Levine, who was there for the emergence of the Portastudio back in the day, is mystified by the resurgence in popularity of the...
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Mix Blog Studio: 500 Series As a Gateway to Analog
After years of mixing in-the-box, Mike Levine discovered a range of 500 Series units; he now employs a hybrid approach to his mixes that...
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Mix Blog Studio: Tear It Down and Build It Up
Mike Levine can't get to his third-floor studio for a few more weeks, so he moved some of it downstairs, all the time thinking...
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Mix Blog Studio: Loops By Subscription
The software subscription model has made its way into pro audio, and Mike Levine finds that the new wave of loop sites provide great...
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Mix Blog Studio: iZotope and NI—One Plus One Equals…?
A new alliance between two powerhouses in pro audio and music production has some intriguing possibilities for creators, including the incorporation of AI into...
The Wire
Insights in Sound – Peter Gorges, Co-Founder, UJAM (Episode 13)
Technology innovator Peter Gorges has long been one of pro audio’s well-kept secrets. As co-founder of Wizoo, he helped build the company into a...
Blog
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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Mix Blog Studio: Happy Feet
Mike Levine checks in virtually for NAMM Believe in Music Week and sets out to sate his appetite for new products and expert panel...
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Mix Blog Studio: Pro Tools 2020.11 Boosts Performance, Adds Features
Mike Levine is loving the host of new features and the reduced strain on his CPU load in the latest Pro Tools update.
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Mix Blog Studio: The Good Kind of Drama
Injecting some storytelling drama into a song can take place anywhere along the way, from songwriting through the mix, and Mike Levine considers it...
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Mix Blog Studio: A Place for Everything
Mike Levine admits his own messy tendencies when it comes to studio odds and ends, which is why he reminds us of a few...
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Mix Blog Studio: Analog Emulation—How Much Is Too Much?
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...
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Mix Blog Studio: AI and Presets
While presets are designed to help you "get close," they carry a certain stigma among pros who want to dial in their own taste;...
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Mix Blog Studio: Virtually There
The 2020 virtual AES Show begins this week and runs through the month of October; Mike Levine took a peek inside to see what...
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Mix Blog Studio: The No-Flow Zone
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...
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Mix Blog Studio: Authoritarians and Music Don’t Mix
Censorship of the arts can take many forms, and as Mike Levine found out with a little research, it is by no means a...
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Mix Blog Studio: A Nice Surprise in Subscription Support
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...
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Mix Blog Studio: 4U Recording Helps Uplift Memphis Music
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...
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Mix Blog Studio: Practice Safe Session
Recording sessions, with musicians, producers and engineers in a room, will happen again. The question is when, and how.
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Mix Blog Studio: Must the Show Go On?
January 2021 is only six months away, and NAMM, as of today, is planning on a January show in Anaheim. Mike Levine asks, Is...
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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...
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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...
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Mix Blog Studio: The 7 Phases of Gear Lust
Do you suffer from gear lust? Many recording musicians do. I happen to have a particularly severe case. For example, I have lately found...
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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...
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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...
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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...