Archives
November 2011
Happy November! Once the tracking's done, we move on to the mix, and getting your tracks to come together into a cohesive and musical whole is a challenge we all face when recording and presenting our music. When it's time to mix, count on this issue of RECORDING to help make your mixes sound their best.
We hear from mixing engineers working in large studios and small, with advice on many aspects of the mix process. How you edit your drum tracks can actually affect how big your mix sounds-in this issue we'll teach you a few tricks of the trade. We also explain how to organize a mix session for maximum musicality and effectiveness, how mid-side recording impacts the mix, and we give you an in-depth look at stereo imaging and how to get the most vibrant and attention-grabbing soundstage in your mixes.
This issue is full of mix-friendly gear reviews, too... From the newest PreSonus StudioLive digital console, bringing its suite of powerful software tools to a new standard of affordability and portability, to the Roll Music Folcrom, a uniquely simple yet powerful analog summing mixer. There's a standard-setting new program for creating high-quality compressed-format digital mixes from Sonnox, high-end headphones from Shure, a powerful multitrack interface from TASCAM, sequencers for iOS (including Apple Garageband), and a variety of Mac and PC software and soundware.
Add in the first part of a 2-part article by engineer/producer/educator Mark Hornsby on what you really need to know to succeed in the music business, our usual slate of monthly features, Readers' Tapes with Marty Peters, and more, and you have an issue that will tickle your fancy and enlighten your studio work, whether you're mixing, tracking, or composing on the fly. Mix with magic, with the help of the November RECORDING!
PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2 |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
The StudioLive family of digital consoles with integrated software now has a model for the small studio or live rig, with a lot of power under the hood.
In our January 2011 issue we took a look at the StudioLive 24.4.2 digit......Expand
The StudioLive family of digital consoles with integrated software now has a model for the small studio or live rig, with a lot of power under the hood.
In our January 2011 issue we took a look at the StudioLive 24.4.2 digital console from PreSonus. This big, feature-rich console was an impressive foray into the world of integrated hardware/software solutions for live FOH mixing, show capture, and recording-studio applications. Not only was it loaded with complex and flexible routing options and way more good-sounding DSP effects than you'd expect for a console at this price point, it came with a suite of three programs that integrated with it seamlessly and provided the user with remote control, multichannel capture of live sessions, and even a quality DAW. A full-on solution indeed.
During my review, I found myself wondering if there was a market for a much smaller and simpler version of the StudioLive console, one with a price that was friendlier to small startup rooms and touring rigs, but still offered most or all of the integration and power of the StudioLive platform. Apparently PreSonus was wondering about that, too, because hard on the heels of the first two StudioLive consoles, we now have the StudioLive 16.0.2, which takes the majority of what made the 24.4.2 cool and puts it in a cute little package...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
TASCAM US-2000 USB 2.0 Audio Interface
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
TASCAM US-2000 USB 2.0 Audio Interface |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
If you need lots of quality analog input to your DAW without fuss or window-dressing, this interface does the job.
TASCAM's audio interfaces, at least to this reviewer who's constantly being bombarded by "more better cooler ......Expand
If you need lots of quality analog input to your DAW without fuss or window-dressing, this interface does the job.
TASCAM's audio interfaces, at least to this reviewer who's constantly being bombarded by "more better cooler newer" hype from a wide range of manufacturers, are among the nicer open secrets in the world of audio. They don't get talked about as much as some other brands, but if you look around, you discover that there are a lot of them in a lot of studios, quietly producing great results day in and day out for very satisfied recording musicians and engineers.
To people who are laser-focused on getting the job done with very high audio quality and reliability, and less interested in add-on features and frills that might benefit some users but merely get in the way for others, TASCAM's interfaces have represented exceptional value for money. They offer high-quality preamplification and conversion, reliable drivers, and good usable feature sets, all for very affordable prices. In simple terms: very little flash... and lots of substance.
With the US-2000, TASCAM offers a step up for studios that are outgrowing their old track counts, while hopefully retaining the quality and affordability that make these interfaces such a bargain. Let's take a closer look and listen....
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Roll Music Systems RMS216 Folcrom
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Roll Music Systems RMS216 Folcrom |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
This 16-channel passive analog summing device takes advantage of your own preamps for sonic character.
The Folcrom is a 16-channel passive analog summing box by Minnesota-based Roll Music Systems. It's been around for a whil......Expand
This 16-channel passive analog summing device takes advantage of your own preamps for sonic character.
The Folcrom is a 16-channel passive analog summing box by Minnesota-based Roll Music Systems. It's been around for a while, but for this special issue on mixing it deserves an introduction to our readership.
In 2003, when the Folcrom debuted, the analog-summing paradigm was in its infancy; since then it has grown into its own industry, with a plethora of multi-featured boxes with the goal of putting the "analog" back into your otherwise digital DAW mixes. Countless tedious Internet debates ensued, second only to the discussion of politics or religion in their fervor.
Interestingly, amidst both the competition and the hullabaloo, the Folcrom is one of the few fully passive options in the field; most of the other passive units are of the homebrew variety, often nothing more than masses of snaked wires...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Wish you had control over the process of making MP3 or AAC files out of your music? This amazing plug-in shows you what goes on and leaves you in control.
Lossy audio is anathema in the pro audio world, and MP3 and AAC files......Expand
Wish you had control over the process of making MP3 or AAC files out of your music? This amazing plug-in shows you what goes on and leaves you in control.
Lossy audio is anathema in the pro audio world, and MP3 and AAC files are part of the evil empire where size and convenience come before quality. Unfortunately, for the time being they are part of our audio landscape -- and the sooner we get a handle on them, the better. While the process of creating compressed audio files for release is simple, tweaking them for maximum impact is not. Frankly most us of tend to live with the built-in encoding in iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, etc.
Occasionally we may use our DAW's built-in encoder to make us feel more "professional", but most products use the same algorithms and process developed by the Fraunhofer group back in 1995. Essentially, be it Winamp or Wavelab, the outcome is more or less the same.
Aside from size, bit depth and quality choices, there is not much we can tweak. So if we don't like the outcome, short of re-working the raw file, all we can do is choose a different codec and/or bit depth and repeat as necessary until satisfied... or at least not too upset... or at least we give up and take what the software gives us. Meh.
Sonnox has a better solution: the Fraunhofer Pro-Codec plug-in (it's not available as a stand-alone program). As the name implies, Sonnox went right to the source, working directly with the Fraunhofer Institute -- the inventors of the MP3 and its modern AAC variant made popular on the iTunes Store -- to bring us the first plug-in to offer real-time analysis of both lossy and lossless codecs, so we can now make informed decisions when creating said content...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Plug-in Outlet
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Plug-in Outlet |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Softube TSAR-1 algorithmic reverb.
If you've read any of my previous plug-in reviews, you'll know that as a sound designer I am equal parts connoisseur and snob when it comes to reverb. A mere two years ago, I was st......Expand
Softube TSAR-1 algorithmic reverb.
If you've read any of my previous plug-in reviews, you'll know that as a sound designer I am equal parts connoisseur and snob when it comes to reverb. A mere two years ago, I was still on the fence about whether a reverb plug-in could ever really compete with a hardware unit.
Well, things change quickly -- nowadays my hardware boxes sit largely in the Off position, thanks to three reverb plug-ins that I now use in almost every session, either alone or side by side. The first two have already been reviewed in these pages: the Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Bundle (October 2010) and the Universal Audio UAD Lexicon 224 plug-in (August 2011). The third one is the TSAR-1 reverb from Softube....
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
iOS Music Tools: For Composers
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay and Devon Brent
iOS Music Tools: For Composers |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay and Devon Brent
Blip Interactive's NanoStudio puts a full MIDI studio, with instruments, on your iPhone or iPod touch, but Apple's GarageBand for the iPad defines "killer app" for iOS music.
There are a lot of music-making programs for iOS ......Expand
Blip Interactive's NanoStudio puts a full MIDI studio, with instruments, on your iPhone or iPod touch, but Apple's GarageBand for the iPad defines "killer app" for iOS music.
There are a lot of music-making programs for iOS available in the App Store. Some of these involve building beats with a playable interface or drum-machine-style grid; some extend the paradigm to include audio loop libraries; some have built-in software instruments; and some-not as many as you might think-can record audio directly, like Sonoma Wire Works' FourTrack (reviewed December 2010). We'll be featuring many of those programs in future iOS Music Tools columns, and do our best to explain what makes each one unique as we try to match products to workflow preferences. But where to start?
For our first look at comprehensive music-composing programs, we did something very unscientific: we looked at the chatter among folks using them already. Devon Brent noticed one name popping up all the time in reviews of a wide variety of iOS apps, and I noticed another... and that's as good a place to start as any. Even non-iOS users will want to see what these two products -- Blip Interactive NanoStudio and Apple GarageBand for iOS -- can do. Let's check them out...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
For Your Bookshelf
|
Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
For Your Bookshelf |
Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
New books on audio production and music publishing.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, By Mike Senior; The Art of Digital Audio Recording: A Practical Guide for Home and Studio, By Steve Savage; The Art of Music Publishing......Expand
New books on audio production and music publishing.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, By Mike Senior; The Art of Digital Audio Recording: A Practical Guide for Home and Studio, By Steve Savage; The Art of Music Publishing: An Entrepreneurial Guide to Publishing and Copyright for the Music, Film and Media industries, By Helen Gammons.
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Reviewed and Revisited: iZotope RX 2
|
Reviewed by
John Rossi III
Reviewed and Revisited: iZotope RX 2 |
Reviewed by
John Rossi III
New modules and refinements take an already world-class audio repair program to new levels of capability.
It's hard to believe that it has been three years (June 2008) since I had the chance to review iZotope's initial relea......Expand
New modules and refinements take an already world-class audio repair program to new levels of capability.
It's hard to believe that it has been three years (June 2008) since I had the chance to review iZotope's initial release of the stellar audio restoration suite RX. Being of the belief that RX represented about the best it could possibly get, I was very surprised to find that iZotope had released a completely new version of the suite, with a name that suggested the new package was somewhat more than just a major revision of the original RX. Well, they did, and, it is!...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Shure SRH940 Headphones
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Shure SRH940 Headphones |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
The new top of the Shure headphone line offers detail, clarity, and beauty.
In our June 2010 issue, I reviewed two new headphones from Shure, the SRH440 and SRH840. The renowned mic maker's first forays into studio headphone......Expand
The new top of the Shure headphone line offers detail, clarity, and beauty.
In our June 2010 issue, I reviewed two new headphones from Shure, the SRH440 and SRH840. The renowned mic maker's first forays into studio headphone design, the two headphones represented a very good value for the money, with slightly different audio "signatures" that would appeal to two different sets of users. The most difficult part of the review was trying to explain the differences between these two similar and both quite appealing headphone designs!
This review of the new SRH940 will be a bit simpler. As a step up in price and specs from the SRH840, the SRH940 stands alone at the top of Shure's headphone line, and I came to it with the simple question: what does this new headphone bring to the table that makes it worth the step up?...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Mixing And The Stereo Field
|
Written by
Michael Nickolas
Mixing And The Stereo Field |
Written by
Michael Nickolas
Getting your mixes to sound like they belong in a proper sonic space isn't just a matter of twirling pan knobs. Learn the secrets of a balanced, breathing final mix.
"Recorded in high-fidelity Stereophonic sound!" is touted ......Expand
Getting your mixes to sound like they belong in a proper sonic space isn't just a matter of twirling pan knobs. Learn the secrets of a balanced, breathing final mix.
"Recorded in high-fidelity Stereophonic sound!" is touted on many a 1960s album cover, and we do think of stereo recordings as originating in the '60s. But the first stereo recordings and patents actually date back to the 1930s. Those were done with two microphones connected to two disc cutters.
It wasn't until the 1950s that stereo recordings started becoming mainstream, but this was mostly in the world of classical recording. Finally, in the early '60s, pop and jazz recordings started to become readily available in the stereo format....
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
The Mixing Workshop: Better Mixes Through Creative Editing-Part 1
|
Written by
Sean Shannon
The Mixing Workshop: Better Mixes Through Creative Editing-Part 1 |
Written by
Sean Shannon
Who knew that great mixes could start with how the raw tracks are edited? We dive into the art and science of editing for great final mixes, starting with drums.
When the big boys make big movies, the computer graphics and i......Expand
Who knew that great mixes could start with how the raw tracks are edited? We dive into the art and science of editing for great final mixes, starting with drums.
When the big boys make big movies, the computer graphics and illusions they create are very important to selling the story. Painstaking care is put into every frame, and the sequence of scenes is calculated to deliver maximum dramatic impact. Every aspect of the movie is scripted and constructed strategically to create the desired illusion of reality.
In the recording studio, that same mindset can be applied to the construction of your mix. Each element of the mix can be processed, and the sections of the song can be balanced to maximize dynamic impact. One basic example would be mixing the verse with sparse instrumentation, to help make the chorus sound bigger through contrast.
Back in the day, bands went into the studio prepared, played together live on the floor as much as possible, overdubbed some parts, and then the tracks were mixed. If there were performance issues, a decision was made to either re-cut the take or keep the imperfections. The path to a tight band sound was practice!
Fast forward to today. Records can be created by one person in a bedroom with a laptop, a keyboard and a microphone, and the sounds are clean and 'drum-machine' tight. Vocals are routinely tuned and processed with powerful tools at the press of a 'preset' button. Performances can be not only corrected, but they can be created in the mix phase.
A loose band will never lead to a great mix, and will actually make mixing more difficult. With the tools available today, tightening up the band is easy! Here are some tricks of the trade for polishing up the performance to pave the way to a great mix...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
How To Be Successful In Today's Music Business-Part 1
|
Written by
Mark Hornsby
How To Be Successful In Today's Music Business-Part 1 |
Written by
Mark Hornsby
A successful engineer/producer skips the hype and buzzwords and gets down to what really makes for recording success... starting with the most important person on the creative team: You!
Today's music business is all over th......Expand
A successful engineer/producer skips the hype and buzzwords and gets down to what really makes for recording success... starting with the most important person on the creative team: You!
Today's music business is all over the place, isn't it? Producers, engineers, artists, and bands all have to work harder than ever to get ahead, book work, sell product, schedule shows and, of course, make money. So, how do you do all those things? Is it who you know? Is it how good the music is? Is it how big the artist's fan base is?
While all these things are all important, I would suggest that first and foremost the core part of being successful is the interpersonal skills! And yet, they are so often overlooked in all the how-to guides for making music. Only when these skills are in place can we turn our focus outward, on the opportunities that are out there. Think of it like a '65 Ford Mustang. The outer body can have the best paint job in the world and look spectacular. But if the engine is misfiring, or there is something wrong with the transmission, then it's going nowhere. Let's not let our careers sit still in the driveway...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Mid-Side Stereo Recording
|
Written by
Michael Schulze
Mid-Side Stereo Recording |
Written by
Michael Schulze
One mic points forward but the other points sideways? What's up with that? Learn about this powerful miking technique that makes stereo width control as easy as grabbing a fader... even after the tracking session is over.
My......Expand
One mic points forward but the other points sideways? What's up with that? Learn about this powerful miking technique that makes stereo width control as easy as grabbing a fader... even after the tracking session is over.
My initials are MS so some of my students sometimes assume that I invented M/S, which is short for Mid-Side recording. No joke! I let them believe it for a few days, but then when I've had my fun I give credit where credit is due, to Alan Blumlein.
Born in 1903, Alan Blumlein was responsible for some very important developments in telecommunications, sound recording, and radar. And, well, he kind of invented stereo. You may be familiar with the "Blumlein" stereo microphone technique, where two figure-8 (same thing as "bi-directional") microphones are crossed at 90 degrees from each other and panned hard left and hard right. More on that later. This article will focus on Blumlein's M/S technique, which uses some physics that sound much scarier than they really are....
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Organize Your Mix Session
|
Written by
Pat Bautz
Organize Your Mix Session |
Written by
Pat Bautz
Preparation makes the difference between a smooth, focused, effective mix session and a chaotic, messy, unsuccessful one... and fortunately, being prepared doesn't have to be difficult.
I mix a lot of projects for other peop......Expand
Preparation makes the difference between a smooth, focused, effective mix session and a chaotic, messy, unsuccessful one... and fortunately, being prepared doesn't have to be difficult.
I mix a lot of projects for other people, and based on what I often see in the files I receive, I'd like to point out a few practical matters where session organization is concerned. These items may look simple enough, but not everybody seems to realize how much easier the creative workflow of a mix can become if these practicalities are implemented.
Just as good guitarists or keyboardists don't always have to look at their instruments to find every note they want to play, you shouldn't have to keep scrutinizing the screen for every track when you are creating a mix. Whether you are mixing with a mouse, digital controller, or analog console, having a solid setup routine for your mix sessions will allow you freedom to create a better mix...
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Fade Out
|
Written by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Fade Out |
Written by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Hey! Treat Your Room, Stupid!
Preparation makes the difference between a smooth, focused, effective mix session and a chaotic, messy, unsuccessful one... and fortunately, being prepared doesn't have to be difficult.<......Expand
Hey! Treat Your Room, Stupid!
Preparation makes the difference between a smooth, focused, effective mix session and a chaotic, messy, unsuccessful one... and fortunately, being prepared doesn't have to be difficult.
Gee, that's a harsh title! But if you are like me and spend even a minimum amount of time on the various gear forums, it is probably not the first or the last time you will see that statement or some variant thereof.
It usually starts quite harmlessly: you have just saved up enough money for a cool new studio toy. Maybe it's a new compressor, or a new microphone, or better yet a new set of studio monitors. So you wander into your favorite gear forum, and post the question, "I just saved up X amount of dollars, what should I buy?" Spirited answers pour in from owners, users, and dreamers, about that perfect magic box that will set your eardrums atwitter and help you achieve total mix domination.
Then it happens -- the arrival of the thread killer. And he says, "You know you're better off sticking with the gear you already have and taking that money and treating your room!" Tires screech to a halt, civilians run for cover, and although you try and retort, it's too late, debate ensues, your thread is derailed and your excitement crushed.
I know, I was there, I lived it....
Read more in the November 2011 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
