Memories of Moog

March 29, 2010

I was about 5 years old and I remember talking to my Dad and my brother on the phone with them both excitedly explaining to me that they ‘got the moog’ – I had no idea what that meant until I arrived at my Dad’s apartment and he unveiled this device with blinking lights, knobs, [...]

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Voice Over Software … A Problem with GarageBand

March 23, 2010

I ran into this yesterday while helping a voiceover actor troubleshoot his setup. He’s using GarageBand and an Apogee duet interface, but this applies to any interface you’d use with the program. The problem is that GarageBand defaults to stereo INPUT. Even if you select one of their guitar or vocal presets it still sets [...]

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Synth Evolution

March 17, 2010

In the 80′s the new hotness for keyboard players was to have a stack of keyboards in front of you, and on the side of you.  That’s how you got all those Flock of Seagulls / Fusion sounds.  Carrying 5 keyboards to a gig got old really quick, and synth modules or “rackmount” synths came [...]

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The Magic Box Part II

March 9, 2010

So you’ve heard what I like on the front, so let me tell you what I lay on the back of my mixes to really make them sparkle. I’m sure that you’ve seen pictures of ‘big’ recording studios with giant recording consoles and tons of knobs. They look VERY impressive and people pay a pretty [...]

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The Magic Box, Part 1

March 4, 2010

When I first started working with rappers I remember guys saying “man I just run EVERYTHING through this and it makes everything sound sweet!” At that time it was the BBE sonic maximizer, then there was the aural exciter, the TC Finalizer held that position for many years, and now I’ve lost track of what [...]

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Double Your Vocals, Double Your Fun

February 28, 2010

When I started producing rap music when I was 19 I was introduced by my rappers into the wonder that is the ‘doubled’ vocal. I came from a world of rock music, where one Robert Plant was all you needed. What’s this deal with the doubled vocal? It only took one track (well two really) [...]

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3 Quick Tips to Improve Your Mix

February 24, 2010

Why do so-and-so’s mixes sound so fantastic? Well to tell you the truth I’ve never even heard of so-and-so, but here is what I do: 1. Record it right to begin with If your guitar has a hum in it, or you left the air conditioner on while you were recoding your vocals- there is [...]

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Recording Studio Software … Don’t Lose Your Licenses!

February 2, 2010

I was working with a client yesterday who upgraded his computer from an old dual G5 Mac to a Quad Core Intel Mac Pro. He works heavily with soft synths and has well over 15 major plugins. If you’ve ever installed a soft synth I’m sure you’re familiar with the minor hassle of authorizing your [...]

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A Natural Surprise

January 27, 2010

The other night while waiting for Zero 7 to come on at the Metro in Chicago, something very cool happened. I was there early and made my way right to the front. The hall was basically empty and some pretty cool music was playing through the house system. The system had INCREDIBLE smooth yet loud [...]

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Why I Hate Tape! (and the Beauty of Hard Disk Recording)

January 20, 2010

God do I hate tape. I am so happy not to have to deal with it anymore. I’m a spoiled brat when it comes to recording. My experience with analog was from age 15-18 with my Tascam 464 portastudio 4 track. I quickly moved to digital hard disk based recording at that point with a [...]

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