Recording & Mixing (Sound On Sound)

Paul White takes us through the history and evolution of guitar synths, from early attempts at creating onboard sounds and audio to MIDI pick-ups, through to using pedals and plug-ins to emulate synth effects.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:13 - Types of Guitar Synths
04:03 - The Introduction Of MIDI
05:19 - Pitch To MIDI Pickups
08:04 - Alternative Systems
10:38 - Using Pedals To Emulate Synths
13:31 - Introducing Plug-ins
15:10 - The Future Of Audio To MIDI

Paul White Biog
Paul White joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1970s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Vocoders are not just for vocals. In this episode, Eddie Bazil talks about the various vocoder plug-in options and demonstrates six creative techniques.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - A Short History Of The Vocoder
02:15 - How Vocoders Work
03:28 - Example 1: Processing Drum Beats and Pads
07:31 - Example 2: Adding Texture To Drums And Bass
10:41 - Example 3: Creating Rhythmic Bass Textures
13:30 - Example 4: Creating The Borg
16:00 - Example 5: Modulating Sounds Using A Beat
21:20 - Example 6: Adding Delay To Create Motion

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

David Mellor discusses how to create custom effects in a DAW without relying on expensive plug-ins. Here he demonstrates his approach to creating a filter pan effect using an EQ with high-pass and low-pass filters, highlighting how custom effects can help give your music a unique edge.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:05 - Pan Effect

03:02 - Mono Pan

04:30 - Static Pan

06:21 - Music Track

06:42 - Creative Pan Effect

09:00 - Pan Effect Using A Low-Pass Filter 
13:23 - Crossfading Using Filters
17:15 - Effecting Individual Instruments

 
#slatedigital #infinityeq #protools

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. David has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music. Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, also returning to guest lecture at Surrey University. From 2001 until recently David has offered courses in audio online with Audio Masterclass. 

David now enjoys making YouTube videos for his 84,000 subscribers and releasing music on streaming services and Bandcamp for his dozen or so listeners.

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@audiomasterclass

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/6OkaDx4vB4O2ssUA5p4M8g

Bandcamp - https://davidmellor.bandcamp.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

David Mellor, a sound engineer and the founder and Course Director of Audio Masterclass, introduces us to Gain Staging in a brand new series of podcasts. In this first episode he teaches the correct use of terminology and gives his three golden rules of Gain Staging.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:38 - Using The Correct Terminology
05:56 - Why Use Gain Staging?
11:04 - The Benefits Of Gain Staging
15:31 - Working In Digital Audio
27:17 - Three Golden Rules Of Gain Staging

Listen to Gain Staging Episode 2
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 3
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 4

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Distortion can be a surprisingly useful mix effect, if you know what you're doing. Mike Senior reveals several common applications, and explains how to get the best results in practice.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

00:49 - Distortion for tonal change

01:27 - Bringing sounds up front

03:30 - Combatting upper-spectrum masking

06:07 - Distorting rock lead vocals

09:56 - Distorting bass

13:16 - Practical implementation tips

Credits
This month's episode features audio examples from the following productions:

* Alex Giddens: 'Get Blown'

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's October 2009 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-alex-giddens

* Flags: '54'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Flags

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's March 2011 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-flags

* Zeno: 'Signs'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Zeno

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's March 2010 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-zeno

* Actions: 'Devil's Words'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Actions

For lots more mixing tips and audio examples relating to this project, listen to the February 2018 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast for free at https://www.patreon.com/posts/17201141

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this fourth and final episode, David Mellor, a sound engineer and the founder and Course Director of Audio Masterclass, delves into Gain Staging your plug-ins and how to avoid clipping during the mixing and mastering stages.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:50 - Gain Staging Your Plug-ins
08:08 - 32-Bit Float
11:35 - Mixing And Mastering
16:27 - Gain Staging The Mix
19:32 - Headroom
21:50 - Mastering Using LUFS

Listen to Gain Staging Episode 1
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 2
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 3

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul and Hugh wax lyrical about the things they dislike about today's gear.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:18 - Power Supplies
02:32 - USB Connectors
03:07 - Software
04:37 - Audio Specifications
06:15 - Digital Meters
08:02 - Detented Potentiometers
09:01 - OS Upgrades
10:28 - Non-Removable Batteries
11:39 - Impractical Hardware

Paul White Biog
Paul White joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

David Mellor, a sound engineer and the founder and Course Director of Audio Masterclass, introduces us to Gain Staging in a brand new series of podcasts. In the second episode David focuses on gain staging during recording, by balancing mic input, preamps and gain within your DAW to achieve the optimal sound level.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:40 - Dynamic Microphones

05:19 - Capacitor Microphones

11:25 - Gain Staging First Step

14:00 - The Pre-amp

16:39 - Headroom

20:49 - Audio Examples

Listen to Gain Staging Episode 1
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 3
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 4

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Grammy Award winning engineer Bob Clearmountain details his unique approach to mixing music in Dolby Atmos using an analogue desk.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - Mixing In 5:1
04:16 - Setting Up Studio Monitoring
06:24 - Upgrading For Atmos
08:24 - How To Approach Atmos
11:14 - Placing Sounds
15:25 - Beds And Objects
19:11 - Working From An Analogue Console
23:11 - Using The Centre Speaker
27:23 - Incorporating Plug-in Effects
28:40 - Adding Compression In Surround
34:29 - Checking The Mix
37:21 - Frustrations With Atmos
41:34 - Recommended Listening

Bob Clearmountain Biog
Bob Clearmountain is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen (mixing Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. and 25 other projects), The Rolling Stones (re-mixes of the singles "Miss You" and "Out of Tears" ) as well as their Tattoo You album amongst  over 20 album, movie and concert video projects, Bryan Adams (producing and/or mixing nearly all of his albums since 1983), Robbie Williams, Huey Lewis & The News, Toto, Bon Jovi (These Days, Crush, Bounce), Simple Minds, The Pretenders, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, INXS and 235 other artists. Bob has released some signature plug-ins with audio hardware and software manufacturer Apogee Electronics.

https://www.mixthis.com/

Apogee Electronics Biog
Apogee originally made their name with special anti-aliasing filters that solved many of the early problems associated with digital audio. Later, Apogee’s complete conversion systems pushed the envelope of digital audio quality and established Apogee as a key innovator in the field of professional digital audio. Today, Apogee converters and audio interfaces are regarded as the reference standard in the audio industry.

Products such as Symphony I/O, Big Ben, Ensemble and Duet all set the benchmark by which digital audio recording hardware is judged. Now with their latest products JAM and MiC, designed especially for Apple’s iPad, iPhone and GarageBand software, Apogee continues to be at the forefront of recording technology. Apogee’s mission is to build products that offer ultimate sound quality and innovative design to all music creators from the aspiring artist to the discerning audio professional.

https://apogeedigital.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In the first of this two-part series, David Mellor gives us an introduction to mic polar patterns, explaining the best type of mic to use for various recording situations.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
00:43 - Influenced By The EMI Emiguide Tapes
04:08 - What Is A Polar Pattern?
06:46 - Omnidirectional and Figure Of 8
08:43 - Cardioid, Hypercardioid and Super-Cardioid
11:14 - Pressure-Sensitive and Pressure Gradient
11:58 - Imperfections In Higher And Lower Frequencies
13:01 - The Decca Tree
14:06 - Abbey Road Demonstration
15:32 - 0 degree axis Figure Of 8
16:10 - 90 degree axis Figure Of 8
16:48 - 180 degree axis Figure Of 8
17:30 - 270 degree axis Figure Of 8
19:01 - Multi-Pattern Microphones
19:58 - Best Usage
24:26 - Interference Tube, Parabolic Reflector
26:23 - Experimenting With Off-Axis

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Introducing the Sound On Sound Podcasts. Yes, that’s podcasts, because we’re launching three dedicated channels each with their own series of episodes to keep you entertained throughout each month.

You’ll hear interviews, features, discussion, opinion and occasional demos of the gear we’re reviewing from many of the SOS magazine staff and our expert Freelance team.

The Recording & Mixing channel takes the practical approach and will keep you inspired with expert hints and tips.

You’ll hear interviews, features, discussion, opinion and occasional demos of the gear we’re reviewing from many of the SOS magazine staff and our expert Freelance team.

The Recording & Mixing channel takes the practical approach and will keep you inspired with expert hints and tips.

You should also hop over to our other channels and subscribe there for even more shows.

The Electronic Music channel is for everyone interested in synths, samplers and the world of electronic music.

The People & Music Industry channel will feature the great and good in engineering, production and manufacturing.

We launch our first two shows on May 21st so subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

All shows are mastered to the highest quality the podcast channel will support and are in stereo.

Check out our website page for further details www.soundonsound.com/podcasts

Mark Mynett, sound engineer and senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, presents part four of his recording series. Here he details how to prepare a vocalist for studio recording and how to select and set up your recording equipment for optimal results.

Chapters
00:15 - Introduction
00:31 - Preparing For Vocal Recording
05:08 - Recording Vocals At Home
06:53 - Microphone Selection
14:41 - Microphone Placement
24:05 - Printed Compression
30:27 - Headphone Cue Mix

Mark Mynett Biog
As well as Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University, Mark Mynett is a live music front-of-house engineer, and record producer/engineer/mix and mastering engineer. Mainly focused on indie, rock and metal genres, he produces from his own studio - Mynetaur Productions – where he recently completed the latest My Dying Bride album ‘The Ghost of Orion’: referred to by Dom Lawson (The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock) as “…a master class in modern metal production”.
Metal Music Manual (instructional book for producing contemporary metal music)

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Depending on how it's set up, compression can do radically different things to the sound of a snare drum. In this episode, Mike Senior explores three ways in which a compressor can help bring your snare tracks to life.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
00:38 - Inconsistent snare hits
05:24 - Sustaining snare hits
08:16 - Enhancing attack
12:30 - Summary

If you'd like to listen more critically to the audio examples, you can download a high-resolution 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV of this whole episode from the podcast support page for this show https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/three-ways-compress-snare-mike-senior-podcast

Credits

This month's episode features recordings from The Purple Hat Mob's 'Access Denied' and Dunning Kruger's 'Japan Song'. If you'd like to try mixing these projects for yourself, you can download the full raw multitracks for them here:

http://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#PurpleHatMob

http://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#DunningKruger

These projects were also featured in Sound On Sound in the February 2020 'Mix Rescue' column, and in the October 2012 and February 2013 'Session Notes' columns, which can be found in the magazine's article archives here:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-overcoming-room

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-0

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-writing-recording-cello-overdubs

For more general advice about compressing all kinds of drums, check out this Sound On Sound cover feature from February 2017 called 'Drum Compression: Fashion The Sound You Want':

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/compression-fashion-drum-sound-you-want

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns pick their software and hardware highlights from the last 12 months.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:16 - Universal Audio Waterfall Rotary Speaker
03:25 - Boss GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer
04:24 - Tokyo Dawn Records Simulathe Cut
06:33 - PreSonus Eris 3.5 Studio Monitors
07:32 - Prism Audio Dream ADA-128
10:07 - Walrus Audio Fable Granular Soundscape Generator

10:59 - Blackstar St. James Amp Plug-ins
11:55 - Zoom F8n Pro Field Recorder
14:13 - Strymon BigSky Multi Reverb / Deco Tape Saturation
14:49 - Line 6 HX One Pedal

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

An introduction to using sample libraries focusing on the string section. Composer and Producer Sam Boydell talks us through selecting an orchestral sound library, creating a simple string motif and incorporating more realism into the finished piece by using a range of techniques, including articulations, dynamics and panning.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:18 - The Tools Of The Trade
03:13 - Choosing Your Sound Library
06:01 - Starting With A String Motif
10:39 - Allocating Orchestral Positions
11:58 - Humanising The Performance
14:57 - Fine-Tuning Velocity And Timing
17:15 - Adding MIDI Automation
19:56 - Placing The Orchestra In A Space
22:17 - Incorporating Articulations
24:39 - Creating More Dynamics
27:46 - Mixing And Mastering

Sam Boydell Biog
Learning his craft by working in studios with the likes of Gareth Young (Sugababes), Stephen Lipson (Hans Zimmer) and Mark Hill (Craig David), Sam has grown into being credited for Composing many award-winning Commercials and Documentaries such as drift-racing’s, ‘Clipping Point’ (2022) rated at 9.3/10 on IMDb, as well as, prestigious TV shows like, Match of the Day (BBC).

Sam is also considered one of the premiere Sound Recordists & Commercial Mixers in the UK, having worked with the likes of David Beckham, ITV and Ferrari.

Further enterprises include the music label 60hz with Mark Hill and Neil Simpson, which works to nurture talent such as Nat Slater & Kyi in the past.  And, Education, where he works with local universities and schools.

https://boyde.tv/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Auto-Tune may be a common plug-in for fixing vocal pitch, but in this episode Paul White explains the basics and demonstrates 7 tips to help you create a variety of alternative textured soundscapes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:46 - Tip 1: Natural Sounding Auto-Tune
03:07 - Tip 2: Robotic Style Auto-Tune
04:27 - Tip 3: Adding Auto-Tune To Sends
05:12 - Tip 4: Controlling Auto-Tune With MIDI
06:17 - Tip 5: Creating Musical Soundscapes
08:55 - Tip 6: Using Auto-Tune For Double Tracking
09:47 - Tip 7: Using Auto-Tune On Pitch Bends
10:47 - Demo Showcasing Various Auto-Tune Techniques

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

Credit: Vocals by Alice Rose Wild.

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White explains the basic concepts behind FX chain order and gives examples of how these guidelines can be broken in order to achieve new and unique audio outcomes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Basic Rules Of FX Chains
01:11 - FX Chain For Guitarists
03:03 - Phase And Distortion
04:19 - Compression And EQ
05:22 - Compression And Overdrive
06:59 - Reverbs And Delays
08:31 - Reverb And Distortion
09:30 - Parallel Configuration In Your DAW
10:37 - Where To Add Vocal Compression
11:23 - Summary

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil gives six sound design tips, using various plug-in filters to create unique instrument sounds and to add interest and movement to mixes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:56 - The First Filters
02:23 - Modern Filters
04:37 - Example 1: Filtering A Triangle Wave Into A Sine Wave
06:15 - Example 2: Using Self-Oscillating Filters To Generate Tuned And Tracked Tones
07:27 - Example 3: Adding Movement To A Sub Bass
11:44 - Example 4: Filtering A Drum Beat
14:45 - Example 5: Using Resonant Filters On Beats
17:34 - Example 6: Creating Texture With Formant Filters

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In the final episode of this 5 part series, Mark Mynett, sound engineer and senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, gives us an in-depth look at how to process and mix the various elements of a song recorded using live instruments.

Chapters
00:16 - Introduction
01:36 - Mix Preparation: Performance Edits and Mix Groups
01:00 - Polarity Summation
07:27 - Waveform Edits and Gating
09:48 - Multing
10:20 - Drum Sample Implementation
10:57 - Three Approaches To Mixing
12:56 - Master Buss Processing
14:28 - Compression and EQ: Signal Chain Order
16:07 - Compression Topology
19:43 - Drums: Compression, Signal Stability, Transient Design and Colouration
32:53 - Drums: Parallel Compression
37:09 - Drums: EQ
47:45 - Drums: Reverb Processing
49:40 - Bass: Compression and EQ
54:38 - Acoustic Guitar: Compression and EQ

56:19 - Harmonically Distorted Electric Guitar: EQ, Dynamic EQ and Multi-band Compression

60:28 - Vocals: Compression and EQ
65:46 - Vocals: Effects Processing

Mark Mynett Biog
As well as Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University, Mark Mynett is a live music front-of-house engineer, and record producer/engineer/mix and mastering engineer. Mainly focused on indie, rock and metal genres, he produces from his own studio - Mynetaur Productions – where he recently completed the latest My Dying Bride album ‘The Ghost of Orion’: referred to by Dom Lawson (The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock) as “…a master class in modern metal production”.
Metal Music Manual (instructional book for producing contemporary metal music)

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White looks back over the history of the echo effect, from tape loops through to plug-ins, and how modern echo effects can be used as sound design tools.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:15 - Early Echo Effects Using Tape Loops
05:05 - The Introduction Of Solid State Technology
06:43 - High-Quality Results With Digital Delays
10:04 - Vintage Emulations And Sound Design Using Plug-ins

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In part 2 of this 3-part series, Rob Toulson explains how to optimise the drum sound for recording by experimenting with drum head, damping system, tuning and drum shell combinations.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:09 - Drum Heads
01:44 - Mersenne's Laws
04:05 - 1 and 2 Ply Drum Heads
05:45 - Damping Systems
07:10 - Centre Dot Drum Heads
09:27 - Choosing Your Timbre
11:44 - Selecting Your Drum Shells
14:25 - Optimising The Whole Kit
19:41 - Tuning The Kick Drum

Professor Rob Toulson Biog
Rob is Director of RT60 Ltd, who develop mobile apps for musicians and sound engineers. RT60’s iDrumTune Pro app assists drummers with learning the skills of drum tuning and has been the number one music app in over 100 countries since its launch in 2012. More recently, Rob and RT60 developed Songzap, which simplifies the process of recording and capturing musical ideas, enabling songwriters to focus exclusively on their creativity.

Rob stared his career as a mechanical engineer with a doctorate in digital signal processing, before following his passion and moving into the field of music technology and specialising in percussion acoustics and audio software development. Rob has held a number of academic research roles in his career, including Professor of Creative Industries at University of Westminster and Director of the CoDE Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. Rob’s also a successful musician, music producer and sound designer, having worked with many artists including Talvin Singh, Wilfy Williams and Mediaeval Baebes, who have previously topped the UK Classical Music Chart.

Rob is author of a number of music related books and articles, including ‘Drum Sound and Drum Tuning’, published by Routledge in 2021, and co-editor of the ‘Innovation In Music’ book series, which is also published by Routledge. His sound design work has been included in films by BAFTA Winner Shreepali Patel and has been showcased at Glastonbury Festival, The V&A and The Natural History Museum.

https://www.robtoulson.com/
https://www.rt60.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In the third and final part of this series, Rob Toulson focuses on recording drums and talks us through the issue of frequency cancellation in a multiple mic setup, details how to choose the recording sweet spot in a room and explains the various stereo mic technique options that are available.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:52 - Phase Coherence
03:00 - Time Delays
05:10 - Comb Filtering
07:53 - Flipping The Polarity
12:22 - Choosing A Recording Space
14:56 - Mic Choice And Placement
17:43 - Stereo Techniques
18:08 - Spaced Pair Technique
19:02 - Glyn Johns Mic Technique
20:12 - Coincident Pair Technique
21:16 - ORTF Technique
22:20 - Mid-Side Technique
24:30 - Comparing The Techniques
25:22 - Other Mic Techniques

Professor Rob Toulson Biog
Rob is Director of RT60 Ltd, who develop mobile apps for musicians and sound engineers. RT60’s iDrumTune Pro app assists drummers with learning the skills of drum tuning and has been the number one music app in over 100 countries since its launch in 2012. More recently, Rob and RT60 developed Songzap, which simplifies the process of recording and capturing musical ideas, enabling songwriters to focus exclusively on their creativity.

Rob stared his career as a mechanical engineer with a doctorate in digital signal processing, before following his passion and moving into the field of music technology and specialising in percussion acoustics and audio software development. Rob has held a number of academic research roles in his career, including Professor of Creative Industries at University of Westminster and Director of the CoDE Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. Rob’s also a successful musician, music producer and sound designer, having worked with many artists including Talvin Singh, Wilfy Williams and Mediaeval Baebes, who have previously topped the UK Classical Music Chart.

Rob is author of a number of music related books and articles, including ‘Drum Sound and Drum Tuning’, published by Routledge in 2021, and co-editor of the ‘Innovation In Music’ book series, which is also published by Routledge. His sound design work has been included in films by BAFTA Winner Shreepali Patel and has been showcased at Glastonbury Festival, The V&A and The Natural History Museum.

https://www.robtoulson.com/
https://www.rt60.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Rob Toulson dives into the science behind how drums produce sound in this three-part series. In part one he talks us through the different pitches, frequencies and overtones, to help producers, recording engineers and indeed drummers to better understand the essentials of tuning.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:16 - Dealing With Multiple Frequencies
05:19 - Tuning The Fundamental Frequency
10:56 - Smoothing Out Modulation
13:31 - Harmonic Overtones
19:12 - Controlling Decay And Damping
23:11 - Summary

Professor Rob Toulson Biog
Rob is Director of RT60 Ltd, who develop mobile apps for musicians and sound engineers. RT60’s iDrumTune Pro app assists drummers with learning the skills of drum tuning and has been the number one music app in over 100 countries since its launch in 2012. More recently, Rob and RT60 developed Songzap, which simplifies the process of recording and capturing musical ideas, enabling songwriters to focus exclusively on their creativity.

Rob stared his career as a mechanical engineer with a doctorate in digital signal processing, before following his passion and moving into the field of music technology and specialising in percussion acoustics and audio software development. Rob has held a number of academic research roles in his career, including Professor of Creative Industries at University of Westminster and Director of the CoDE Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. Rob’s also a successful musician, music producer and sound designer, having worked with many artists including Talvin Singh, Wilfy Williams and Mediaeval Baebes, who have previously topped the UK Classical Music Chart.

Rob is author of a number of music related books and articles, including ‘Drum Sound and Drum Tuning’, published by Routledge in 2021, and co-editor of the ‘Innovation In Music’ book series, which is also published by Routledge. His sound design work has been included in films by BAFTA Winner Shreepali Patel and has been showcased at Glastonbury Festival, The V&A and The Natural History Museum.

https://www.robtoulson.com/
https://www.rt60.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Not everyone has access to a professional studio with bespoke wiring. Here, Paul White and Hugh Robjohns discuss the best practises for avoiding and eliminating electrical noise interference in your home studio.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Arranging Plugboards In A Home Studio
02:09 - Uninterruptible Power Supplies
03:59 - Grounding Issues In Laptop Systems
07:19 - Radiated Interference
08:54 - Isolated Power Supplies
11:10 - Procedure For Eliminating Noise
12:38 - Breaking The Ground Path

https://www.groundology.co.uk/
https://artproaudio.com/

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

A valuable test for recording engineers, David Mellor gives examples of different mic types to emphasise the importance of knowing your mic collection in detail so that you're using the correct one for the recording task at hand. Cardioid, Supercardioid, Figure of 8 and Omnidirectional are compared.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
00:23 - Testing The Schoeps CMC 6
01:44 - Cardioid Examples
05:39 - Testing With Percussion
06:33 - Supercardioid Examples
08:40 - Figure Of 8 Examples
11:22 - Omnidirectional Examples
14:05 - Testing With Percussion
14:58 - Testing Each Mic Type at 0 Degrees
17:00 - Testing Each Mic Type at 45 Degrees
18:19 - Testing Each Mic Type at 90 Degrees
19:42 - Testing Each Mic Type at 180 Degrees
21:15 - Summary

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Matt Johnson of Jamiroquai talks us through five favourite processing tips that he uses to create movement and interest in synth parts.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:53 - Tip 1: Reverb And Sidechained Compression
02:48 - Tip 2: Panned Effects
04:47 - Tip 3: Chopped Audio
06:53 - Tip 4: Adding Effects To Duplicate Tracks
09:55 - Tip 5: Adding Reverb Before Compression

All music composed and performed by Matt Johnson © Matt Johnson Music

Matt Johnson Biog
For the last 20 years Matt has been the keyboard player for Jamiroquai, co-writing most of the band's output during that time and co-producing the last album ‘Automaton’.

In between working with the band he has recorded as a session player with numerous artists in many genres including Duffy, Ashanti, J.P.Cooper, Jax Jones, S.G.Lewis, Purple Disco Machine, Newton Faulkner, Nolwenn Leroy, Will Young and many more.

Now Matt has released his debut solo record ‘With The Music’ under the Splash Blue label, with a retro Jazz Funk feel.

https://www.mattjohnsonproducer.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Many project-studio users seem to go to enormous lengths to reduce spill, but this frequently proves counterproductive, undermining the final mix. In this episode, Mike Senior demonstrates several ways spill can actually improve the sound of your productions, as well as making the mixdown stage quicker and easier.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

01:22 - Tonal Enhancement

05:58 - Blend Enhancement

08:29 - Salvaging Mix Problems Using Spill

10:37 - Top Tips For Mixing With Spill

Credits
This month's episode features audio examples from the following productions:

* Marcus Boeltz, Christian Bolz & Tobias Knecht (band-tracking session)

You can read about this one-room recording session in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' columns:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-multi-purpose-recordings

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-editing-full-band-recordings

* Spektakulatius: 'Forever Young' & 'Is You Is Or Is You Ain't'

Download the full raw multitracks for 'Is You Is Or Is You Ain't' from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Spektakulatius

Read about the recording, mixing, and mastering of all these songs in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' & 'Mix Rescue' columns:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-spektakulatius

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-spektakulatius

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-spektakulatius-0

* Jesper Buhl Trio: 'What Is This Thing Called Love'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#JesperBuhlTrio

Read about my mix of this project in the following Sound On Sound 'Mix Rescue' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-jazz-trio

* Trafficker: 'My Father Never Loved Me'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Trafficker

Read about my mix of this project in the following Sound On Sound 'Mix Rescue' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-trafficker

* Brushes Held Like Hammers (band-tracking session)

You can read about this one-room recording session in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-reducing-spill

* How To Kill A Conversation: 'Mute'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#HowToKillAConversation

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

For musicians and producers that struggle to finish tracks, Eddie Bazil explains the benefits of creating musical snippets and gives us some examples as to how we can tap into different moods, use sound design techniques to create something unique that becomes a useable addition to our musical catalogues and create pieces that stand the test of time.

“Snippets and the creating of, serve to strengthen sound ideas, hone mixing and production skills, help to understand timing and flow, act as a testbed for song structuring ideas and are the playground for testing and mastering all manner of plug-ins”.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - What Is A Snippet?
01:53 - The Benefits Of Creating Snippets
04:26 - Planning Your Snippets
06:07 - Sound Design
06:53 - Example 1: Phased Pad
17:33 - Example 2: Happy, Mood-Lifting
22:01 - Example 3: Drama And Tension

#SoundtoysPhaseMistress #FabFilterTimeless2 #EventideBlackhole #SteinbergGrooveagent #GforceimpOSCar3 #WavesOvoxVocoder #SteinbergHalionTrip #RobPapenAlbino #Kontakt #NIMaschine2 #AirHybrid3

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Canadian Producer and Educator Mat Gendreau shares his top 5 tips on processing reverbs to fit with your song tempo and to avoid overpowering a mix.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Treating Reverb As A Track
00:53 - Tip 1: EQ Your Reverb
04:38 - Tip 2: Adding a De-Esser
08:05 - Tip 3: Changing Reverb Tonality
09:50 - Tip 4: Adding A Gate
13:22 - Tip 5: Delaying A Reverb

Mat Gendreau Biog
Mathieu "Mat" Gendreau, is a Canadian-born and Philadelphia-based music producer, composer, recording artist, label owner and educator. He is the founder and program director of the Rowan University Bachelor of Science in Music Industry in Glassboro NJ, USA, and he records under the names JAXX DE LUXE, Expo 67 and Plastic Operator (with bandmate Pieter Van Dessel).

While graduating with an MA in Audio Production from University of Westminster in London, Gendreau cut his teeth as an in-house engineer at Mute Records in the early 00’s, He was also the main studio engineer for producer Arthur Baker. Over the years his music productions have been released by labels such as EMI, Mute, Virgin, Sony, Tommy Boy, Ministry of Sound and Universal, and he’s worked with many artists including Lenny Kravitz, Goldfrapp, New Order, Arthur Baker, Tommie Sunshine, CLIENT, Erasure, King Britt and Josh Wink. 

His band Plastic Operator caught the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank with the song "Folder" in 2005 and the single was signed to Sunday Best Recordings. In 2007, Mathieu launched his own label, Fine Day Records, and released Plastic Operator's album "Different Places" to critical acclaim. The band performed live in many of Europe's largest clubs, events and festivals including Bestival (Isle of Wight), Razzmatazz Club (Barcelona), Petrol, Culture Club (Belgium) and Paris Fashion Week. Mathieu has produced numerous remixes, including "Chains of Love - Plastic Operator remix" for chart-topping band Erasure (Mute/EMI). His club smash hit Booka Shade vs. Plastic Operator “I Won’t Back Down” was released on Ministry of Sound/Hed Kandi.

In 2018, under his house music moniker JAXX DE LUXE, Mathieu signed to legendary house music label Nervous Records with the single “I’m Taking You High – Feat. Aphra”.  Later that year his JAXX DE LUXE remix of Lenny Kravitz's "Low" was part of a remix package that pushed the single to Number 1 on the Billboard Dance Music Chart. 

Another of his recent efforts as a recording artist is a downtempo instrumental electronica project under the name Expo 67. The Expo 67 EP "Never Without You" was released on Fine Day Records / SONY The Orchard in 2019.

His work as a composer has been featured in films and videos, television programs, advertisements, and video games for Ubisoft, Autodesk, MIT, WYBE, Coca-Cola, Radio-Canada Television and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Awards.

Rowan University Music Industry Program : https://academics.rowan.edu/cpa/music/divisions/MusicIndustry.html

JAXX DE LUXE: https://ampl.ink/em4YP

Expo 67: https://ampl.ink/Qo4NK

Plastic Operator: https://linktr.ee/PlasticOperator

Discography: http://www.finedaymusic.com/p/discography.html

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Cardioid mics are tremendously popular amongst recording musicians, but can also work against you. In this episode, Mike Senior explains some of the reasons why, and illustrates how omni and figure-eight patterns can often give more useful results.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:39 - Proximity-effect bass boost
04:44 - Spotlighting 
05:48 - Low-end response at a distance
06:40 - Off-axis tonal coloration
09:06 - Insufficient spill rejection
10:56 - Plosives and handling noise
12:33 - The hand-held LDC trick
14:11 - Summary

If you'd like to listen more critically to the audio examples, you can download a high-resolution 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV of this whole episode from the podcast support page for this show https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/why-not-use-cardioid-mics-mike-senior-podcast

Credits
This month's episode features recordings from David Tyo's 'Long Way Home'. You can check out more of David's great music here:

https://davidtyo.bandcamp.com/

If you'd like to try mixing 'Long Way Home' for yourself, you can download the full raw multitracks here:

https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#DavidTyo

To read more about the low-spill figure-eight guitar-recording method, check out Neil Rogers's January 2014 'Session Notes' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-thomas-rumbold-reds

For more general advice about microphone polar patterns, try this March 2007 article by Paul White:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-microphone-polar-patterns-effectively

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this episode, sound-designer Eddie Bazil looks at ways of enhancing a variety of individual tracks and full mixes using plug-ins that are designed to achieve the retro warmth and cohesion of tapes and valves.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

01:32 - What Is Harmonic Distortion

02:32 - Advances In Music Production Quality

04:47 - The Introduction Of CD

05:59 - Triodes And Pentodes Vacuum Tubes

06:47 - Analysing Harmonic Content

07:56 - Example 1: TR-808 Sub Bass

10:35 - Example 2: Affecting A Whole Mix*

12:39 - Example 3: Adding Saturation

15:07 - The Benefits Of Tape

17:26 - Example 4: Applying Tape Effects To A Bassline*

20:59 - Example 5: Adding Tape To Beats

23:47 - Example 6: Enhancing A Piano Track

26:56 - Summary

* Demonstration track ‘Puppet’ (Examples 2 and 4), written, performed and recorded by John Walden. Vocals sung by Yvonne McKeown.

#voxengospan #SummitAudio #T-RackS #Kraftur #Aphex #SSL

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Howard Gray gives us a fascinating look behind the scenes of recording and engineering some of the biggest tracks of the 80s. James Gardner chats to him about his journey, starting out as a tape op through to becoming a highly regarded freelance engineer.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:48 - A Tape Op At Manor Studios
02:25 - A Typical Day At The Manor
03:45 - The Engineers And The Bands
06:01 - Tape Editing
07:56 - Switching To Digital
09:18 - From House Engineer To Freelance
09:42 - Hugh Padgham and Steve Lillywhite
12:24 - Early Sampling
13:03 - Using An SSL Desk
17:45 - Scritti Politti Cupid and Psyche
18:25 - Synchronising MIDI and Tape
22:24 - Getting The Scritti Sound
23:48 - Working With UB40
28:01 - The Age Of Chance
28:15 - From Tape To Digital To HD Recording
29:09 - Working With Slave Reels
30:48 - The Change To Digital Tape
31:58 - Preferred Recording Medium
33:02 - Engineering Apollo 440
34:31 - Recording A Jazz Quartet
35:59 - Using Logic and Plug-ins

Howard Gray Biog
Howard started out in the early 80s as a teenage razor-sharp tape operator at The Manor - Virgin Records’ quintessential getting it together in the country recording facility, before graduating to house engineer at one of the first Solid State Logic console equipped studios, west London’s legendary Townhouse. Sessions there included Kate Bush, Phil Collins, XTC, OMD, PIL, The Stranglers, Japan, Rip Rig & Panic, Van Morrison and ABC. He worked on countless classic 80’s records with producers like Mick Glossop, John Leckie, Hugh Padgham, Steve Lillywhite, Adrian Sherwood and Trevor Horn, engineering albums such as Simple Minds’ Sparkle in the Rain, and the paradigm shifting Cupid & Psyche for Scritti Politti.

His first production credits with UB40 (Red Red Wine) led to more, including The Cure, Terence Trent D’Arby, Danny Wilson, Manic Street Preachers, Age Of Chance, Screaming Blue Messiahs, Pete Wylie, Tom Jones and Art Brut - at the controls in seminal London studios Air, Trident, Roundhouse, Sarm, Metropolis, Eden, Strongroom, as well as New York, Paris, Tokyo, Munich, Oslo, Baltimore and more.

Witness to the dawn of digital and early adopter of the Sequential Circuits Studio 440, the possibilities of sampling led Howard in the early 90s to form dance/rock/dub combo Apollo 440, prolific producers and remixers of, amongst others, U2, Scritti and Shabba Ranks, Jean-Michel Jarre, James, Hotei, Puretone and Jeff Beck from their Camden Town ‘Apollo Control’ base. The group delivered three albums for Sony Records, numerous top 40 singles, including international hit Stop The Rock, film themes Lost in Space and Charlie’s Angels. He still regularly directs their live performance/Dub sound system at European festivals from FOH. 

Mixer of The Anfield Rap, co-writer and producer of Pass and Move (it’s the Liverpool Groove), and now nearing 500 credits on Discogs. His recent projects include Jazz LPs and Baroque Opera.

James Gardner Biog
James Gardner is a composer, synthesizer programmer, researcher, and broadcaster based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). Born in Liverpool, James played and programmed synthesizers in London during the 1980s, and in 1990 co-founded the band/remix team Apollo 440. Following encouragement from Michael Finnissy, he left the group in 1993 to concentrate on notated composition. Moving to Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1994, he established the contemporary music ensemble 175 East, which he directed until 2010.

As well as composing, he has written and presented many programmes for RNZ Concert including features on Frank Zappa, Morton Feldman, John Barry’s James Bond soundtracks, and These Hopeful Machines – a six-part series on electronic music. 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines

As a teacher, Gardner has lectured on music and music technology at the University of Auckland, Unitec Institute of Technology and the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, where he is an Adjunct Senior Fellow. His primary research topic is the synthesizer company EMS, and the electronic music studio of Peter Zinovieff.

Website: https://www.gardnercomposer.com/

Twitter: @JEGcomposer

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this episode, Canadian Producer and Educator Mat Gendreau shares his 5 top tips for using parallel processing techniques on voice, bass and drums to help you get a professional polish and more energy in your overall mix.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:23 - What Is Parallel Processing?
01:50 - Tip 1: Adding A Professional Polish To Vocals
04:57 - Tip 2: A Hi-Frequency EQ Boost and Compression
06:12 - Tip 3: Compression, Distortion and a Hi-Pass Filter
09:47 - Tip 4: Chorus and a Hi-Pass Filter on Bass
12:43 - Tip 5: EQing New York Compression

Mat Gendreau Biog
Mathieu "Mat" Gendreau, is a Canadian-born and Philadelphia-based music producer, composer, recording artist, label owner and educator. He is the founder and program director of the Rowan University Bachelor of Science in Music Industry in Glassboro NJ, USA, and he records under the names JAXX DE LUXE, Expo 67 and Plastic Operator (with bandmate Pieter Van Dessel).

While graduating with an MA in Audio Production from University of Westminster in London, Gendreau cut his teeth as an in-house engineer at Mute Records in the early 00’s, He was also the main studio engineer for producer Arthur Baker. Over the years his music productions have been released by labels such as EMI, Mute, Virgin, Sony, Tommy Boy, Ministry of Sound and Universal, and he’s worked with many artists including Lenny Kravitz, Goldfrapp, New Order, Arthur Baker, Tommie Sunshine, CLIENT, Erasure, King Britt and Josh Wink. 

His band Plastic Operator caught the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank with the song "Folder" in 2005 and the single was signed to Sunday Best Recordings. In 2007, Mathieu launched his own label, Fine Day Records, and released Plastic Operator's album "Different Places" to critical acclaim. The band performed live in many of Europe's largest clubs, events and festivals including Bestival (Isle of Wight), Razzmatazz Club (Barcelona), Petrol, Culture Club (Belgium) and Paris Fashion Week. Mathieu has produced numerous remixes, including "Chains of Love - Plastic Operator remix" for chart-topping band Erasure (Mute/EMI). His club smash hit Booka Shade vs. Plastic Operator “I Won’t Back Down” was released on Ministry of Sound/Hed Kandi.

In 2018, under his house music moniker JAXX DE LUXE, Mathieu signed to legendary house music label Nervous Records with the single “I’m Taking You High – Feat. Aphra”.  Later that year his JAXX DE LUXE remix of Lenny Kravitz's "Low" was part of a remix package that pushed the single to Number 1 on the Billboard Dance Music Chart. 

Another of his recent efforts as a recording artist is a downtempo instrumental electronica project under the name Expo 67. The Expo 67 EP "Never Without You" was released on Fine Day Records / SONY The Orchard in 2019.

His work as a composer has been featured in films and videos, television programs, advertisements, and video games for Ubisoft, Autodesk, MIT, WYBE, Coca-Cola, Radio-Canada Television and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Awards.

Rowan University Music Industry Program : https://academics.rowan.edu/cpa/music/divisions/MusicIndustry.html

JAXX DE LUXE: https://ampl.ink/em4YP

Expo 67: https://ampl.ink/Qo4NK

Plastic Operator: https://linktr.ee/PlasticOperator

Discography: http://www.finedaymusic.com/p/discography.html

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this show Paul White guides you through seven reverb treatments, from simple to complex, and demonstrates how combining reverb with other commonly available plug-ins can produce creative textures and ambience in your music.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:00 - Tip 1: Using Ambience Simulations
01:46 - Tip 2: Using A Plate Reverb
04:06 - Tip 3: Combining Reverb and Delay
05:10 - Tip 4: Adding Texture
06:43 - Tip 5: Shimmer Reverb
08:31 - Tip 6: Pitch Quantized Reverb
09:53 - Tip 7: Using Reverb To Create Rhythm
10:48 - Combining All Of The Tips

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

Credit: Vocals by Alice Rose Wild.

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns discuss the basics of a good home studio setup, including choosing the right equipment and setting up your space correctly for achieving the best recording and mixing results.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:14 - Minimum Equipment
00:54 - Audio Interfaces
02:46 - Headphones and Speakers
03:21 - Choosing A Microphone
08:55 - Additional Accessories
12:27 - Desks And Monitor Stands
16:21 - Speakers And Acoustic Treatment
21:06 - Choosing Studio Monitors
22:35 - Subwoofers And Bass Traps
26:16 - Cutting Reflections For Vocals
28:48 - Recap

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/studio-sos-making-small-room-sound-good

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns talk us through four essential studio effects that every music producer or mix engineer needs to know for creating an effective mix, placing them in order of importance and giving an insight into how they can be used effectively.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Effect 1: Reverb
02:11 - Convolution Reverb
04:28 - Reverb Controls
05:53 - Using Aux Sends
08:00 - Effect 2: EQ
08:57 - EQ Filters
11:44 - The Shelving Filter
13:40 - Parametric EQ
14:17 - Cutting Vs Boosting
15:26 - Effect 3: Delay
16:21 - Where To Use Delay
17:40 - Effect 4: Compression
18:43 - Setting Threshold and Ratio
19:51 - Soft-Knee Compression
20:33 - Tweaking Presets
22:08 - Other Controls
26:02 - Parallel Compression
30:11 - Creative Modulation Effects
30:58 - Using Effects Sparingly

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Mike Senior delves into some of the most common troubleshooting tasks when dealing with acoustic guitar recordings at mixdown, and shares his own favourite processing fixes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

01:13 - Unwanted subsonics

04:16 - Undesirable resonances

08:20 - Pick noise

10:34 - Fret noise

12:35 - Overbearing percussive components

14:32 - Conclusion

Credits
This month's episode features audio examples from the following productions:

* Ben Carrigan: 'We'll Talk About It All Tonight'

http://www.bencarrigan.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#BenCarrigan

* The Wrong'uns: 'Rothko'

https://myspace.com/wronguns

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#WrongUns

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's March 2013 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-wronguns

* Tom McKenzie: 'Directions'

https://tommckenzie.bandcamp.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#TomMcKenzie

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's April 2013 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-tom-mckenzie

* Fergessen: 'Nos Palpitants'

http://www.fergessen.fr/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Fergessen

* Qupe: 'Ayni Nehirde'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Qupe

* The Long Wait: 'Dark Horses'

http://thelongwait.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#LongWait

* Bolz & Knecht: 'Summertime' & 'Matteo'

http://www.bolzundknecht.de/

Download the full raw multitracks for 'Summertime' from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#BolzKnecht

Read about the recording sessions for 'Summertime' in Sound On Sound's August 2018 'Session Notes' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-recording-acoustic-guitar-duo

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil demystifies Compression and Expansion with a detailed explanation of their uses and with a range of practical examples using plug-ins.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:22 - Compressors And Expanders Explained
01:33 - Compressor Behavioural Types
02:40 - Common Compressor Topologies
06:06 - Example 1: Boz Digital Manic Compressor On Drums
10:26 - Example 2: FabFilter Pro MB On A Synth Line
13:28 - Example 3: PreSonus Studio One Expander On A Drum Beat
15:26 - Example 4: A Drum Beat Using Different Topologies
20:24 - Example 5: Using Sidechaining On Reverb
23:28 - Example 6: FabFilter Pro MB On A Vocal Line
27:16 - Example 7: Sidechain Compression And Expansion To Create Texture And Motion

Credits
Example 6 - The song and the poem are both called Everyone Sang. The poem was by Sigfried Sassoon and was set to music and performed by Anne Gregson.
www.annegregson.co.uk
Recorded at www.mrpunch.info

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns discuss the evolution of recording from the perspective of their own experiences, starting with analogue tape and ending with computer-based digital systems.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:25 - Early Memories Of Recording
02:47 - Simul-sync
03:40 - First Multitrack Experience
07:03 - Noise Reduction
10:12 - Favourite and Worst Tape Moments
12:07 - Digital Recording
14:15 - Early Computer Recording
16:47 - Digital Storage
18:06 - The Early DAWs
19:16 - Modern DAWs
20:15 - Data Backups and Cloud Storage

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this Behind The Brand feature, Nuno Fonseca of Sound Particles talks to Paul White about their rapid rise in the film and audio industry and how they are using their sound particle plug-in technology to bring exciting new developments to sound design and audio recording.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:13 - Launch In The Film Industry
02:59 - Moving Into Music
04:53 - Controlling 3D Sound
07:26 - EastWest WordBuilder
11:05 - Density
14:07 - The End-User Format
17:04 - Solving Binaural
19:45 - Head Tracking
21:42 - Future Developments

Sound Particles Biog
Sound Particles creates 3D Audio Software that brings the power of computer graphics to the sound world, allowing sound professionals to create breathtaking sounds that simply would not be possible to create in any other way. Sound Particles provides the world’s first native 3D audio software combining CGI and audio techniques to create a new audio standard. The software creates the most realistic sound effects allowing perfect coherence between image and sound due to its true 3D CGI integration, while increasing the productivity of audio professionals.

Based in Leiria (Portugal) and founded by Nuno Fonseca, a former university professor, Sound Particles has been steadily growing since being founded in 2016 and is now composed of a team of over 30 people (with 1 in the UK and 1 in LA).

Sound Particles’ unique software is used in all major Hollywood studios and top videogame companies, in productions like "Dune", “Game of Thrones”, “Ready Player One”, "Frozen 2", "Star Wars" and many others.

https://soundparticles.com/

Paul White Biog
Paul White joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1970s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this episode Eddie Bazil explores the various ways that delay effects can be used and applies these techniques to a finished composition.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:23 - About Delay Effects
01:57 - Example 1: Using Delay As A Reverb
03:38 - Example 2: Applying Depth To Drums
04:39 - Example 3: Using Delay To Create Motion
06:42 - Example 4: Creating Rhythmic Effects
07:58 - Example 5: Creating A Shadow Effect
09:21 - Example 6: Creating Texture
21:08 - The Completed Sequence

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil dives into some of his favourite plug-ins and gives us a series of examples on how to use these tools creatively for designing unique and interesting beats, sequences and mixes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - What Makes A Tool Creative?
03:25 - Example 1: A Cinematic Piano Effect
07:03 - Example 2: Creating A More Dynamic Beat
10:19 - Example 3: Sequencer-Based Multi Effects On A Drum Beat
13:26 - Example 4: Reshaping A Musical Sequence
21:21 - Example 5: A Sound Design Exercise

Credits
‘Puppet’ track written, performed and recorded by John Walden

Vocals by Yvonne McKeown

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this episode, Eddie Bazil discusses using Transient Shapers in place of EQ and provides six practical examples of the ways that each of the various tracks in your mix can benefit.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:25 - What Are Transient Shapers?
01:50 - Example 1: Adding Clarity And Punch
03:19 - Example 2: Highlighting Attack Transients
05:20 - Example 3: Adding Grit And Thickness
06:58 - Example 4: Shaping Attack And Sustain
08:58 - Example 5: Sustaining Short Notes
11:46 - Example 6: Transient Shapers In Sound Design

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

David Mellor, a sound engineer and the founder and Course Director of Audio Masterclass, introduces us to Gain Staging in a brand new series of podcasts. In the third episode David continues looking at preamps, outlines the use of VU Meters and talks about the benefits of balancing a track prior to mixing.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:56 - More About Preamps
05:38 - Preamps With Valves
09:20 - The Mixing Process
16:17 - Using VU Meters
24:05 - Mixing During Recording

Listen to Gain Staging Episode 1
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 2
Listen to Gain Staging Episode 4

David Mellor Biog
David Mellor got his start in pro audio through the Tonmeister course at Surrey University studying music, piano performance, acoustics, electronics, electro-acoustics and recording.

He went on to work at London's Royal Opera House, with responsibilities including sound design, front-of-house operation, stage monitoring and electronic design satisfying the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has also had over 600 works published in the field of production music, including the Chappell and Carlin music libraries (now combined into Universal Publishing Production Music). Notable uses of his music include the BBC's Horizon, Fahrenheit 911, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has been actively involved in Audio Education since 1986, teaching students of City of Westminster College and Westminster University, and also returning to lecture at Surrey University. He also worked with John Cage on the International Dance Course at the University of Surrey. David now specialises in online audio education and has been Course Director of Audio Masterclass since 2001.

https://www.audiomasterclass.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil of Samplecraze gives us an introduction into the creative use of Phasers, with practical examples using drums, vocals and synth pads.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:25 - How Phasers Work
02:34 - Demonstrating The Stages
03:53 - Using A Phaser On Vocals
04:43 - Stereo Panning
05:39 - Phasing a Rhodes
06:35 - Advanced Phaser Effects
09:52 - Adding Delay
12:09 - Adding Reverb
13:45 - Using Automation

Audio Credit
Many thanks to David Plummer and Becky Bremner for use of their content in this podcast.
https://www.smokinggoats.co.uk/

Please Note Update
There is an error at the following time cues where Eddie mistakenly said Kilohertz instead of Hertz when referring to the LFO frequencies.
At 04:04 he says 20 Hz and then 1kHz. They should be 0.20Hz and 0.1Hz.
At 05:47 he says 4.2kHz and this should be 4.2Hz
Sorry for the errors.

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Record producer and educator Mathieu Gendreau shares 6 top tips to help you mix drums like a pro.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:13 - Tip 1: Gating drums like a pro

05:51 - Tip 2: Adding weight to snare drum

08:58 - Tip 3: Ducking overheads to remove snare drum

11:51 - Tip 4: Adding brightness to snare drum using reverb

14:09 - Tip 5: Controlling a large drum kit reverb using a gate    

17:33 - Tip 6: Adding presence to snare drum using distortion and a top end boost

Mat Gendreau Biog
Mathieu "Mat" Gendreau, is a Canadian-born and Philadelphia-based music producer, composer, recording artist, label owner and educator. He is the founder and program director of the Rowan University Bachelor of Science in Music Industry in Glassboro NJ, USA, and he records under the names JAXX DE LUXE, Expo 67 and Plastic Operator (with bandmate Pieter Van Dessel).

While graduating with an MA in Audio Production from University of Westminster in London, Gendreau cut his teeth as an in-house engineer at Mute Records in the early 00’s, He was also the main studio engineer for producer Arthur Baker. Over the years his music productions have been released by labels such as EMI, Mute, Virgin, Sony, Tommy Boy, Ministry of Sound and Universal, and he’s worked with many artists including Lenny Kravitz, Goldfrapp, New Order, Arthur Baker, Tommie Sunshine, CLIENT, Erasure, King Britt and Josh Wink. 

His band Plastic Operator caught the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank with the song "Folder" in 2005 and the single was signed to Sunday Best Recordings. In 2007, Mathieu launched his own label, Fine Day Records, and released Plastic Operator's album "Different Places" to critical acclaim. The band performed live in many of Europe's largest clubs, events and festivals including Bestival (Isle of Wight), Razzmatazz Club (Barcelona), Petrol, Culture Club (Belgium) and Paris Fashion Week. Mathieu has produced numerous remixes, including "Chains of Love - Plastic Operator remix" for chart-topping band Erasure (Mute/EMI). His club smash hit Booka Shade vs. Plastic Operator “I Won’t Back Down” was released on Ministry of Sound/Hed Kandi.

In 2018, under his house music moniker JAXX DE LUXE, Mathieu signed to legendary house music label Nervous Records with the single “I’m Taking You High – Feat. Aphra”.  Later that year his JAXX DE LUXE remix of Lenny Kravitz's "Low" was part of a remix package that pushed the single to Number 1 on the Billboard Dance Music Chart. 

Another of his recent efforts as a recording artist is a downtempo instrumental electronica project under the name Expo 67. The Expo 67 EP "Never Without You" was released on Fine Day Records / SONY The Orchard in 2019.

His work as a composer has been featured in films and videos, television programs, advertisements, and video games for Ubisoft, Autodesk, MIT, WYBE, Coca-Cola, Radio-Canada Television and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Awards.

Rowan University Music Industry Program : https://academics.rowan.edu/cpa/music/divisions/MusicIndustry.html

JAXX DE LUXE: https://ampl.ink/em4YP

Expo 67: https://ampl.ink/Qo4NK

Plastic Operator: https://linktr.ee/PlasticOperator

Discography: http://www.finedaymusic.com/p/discography.html

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mark Mynett, sound engineer and senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, talks us through the setup and recording of live drums.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:36 - Recording Multiple Instruments
01:12 - Pre-Recording Preparation
03:46 - 1. Miking The Kick
12:08 - 2. Miking The Snare
24:24 - 3. Miking The Toms
29:24 - 4. Miking The Cymbals
38:54 - 5. Overheads For Room Ambience

Mark Mynett Biog
As well as Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University, Mark Mynett is a live music front-of-house engineer, and record producer/engineer/mix and mastering engineer. Mainly focused on indie, rock and metal genres, he produces from his own studio - Mynetaur Productions – where he recently completed the latest My Dying Bride album ‘The Ghost of Orion’: referred to by Dom Lawson (The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock) as “…a master class in modern metal production”.
Metal Music Manual (instructional book for producing contemporary metal music)

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White explains how to get the best out of Amp Simulation software, from getting a good guitar input signal, setting up effective monitoring for encouraging the best performance and tips on achieving the desired end-effect.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Getting A Guitar Signal
03:39 - Dealing With Latency
04:42 - Monitoring
05:54 - Using Your Own Pedals
08:15 - Using Speaker Cabinet Emulations
09:11 - Adding Room Ambience
10:00 - Creative Sound Design
10:27 - Using Amp Modelling With Other Instruments

Paul White Biog
Paul White joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1970s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

A rundown of some of the most intriguing product releases reviewed in Sound On Sound in 2021, as chosen by Paul White and Hugh Robjohns. Includes software and hardware from budget to pro audio.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:18 - Zoom F6
01:27 - Logic 10.7
01:59 - IK Multimedia AmpliTube X-Space 
03:03 - Trinnov D-mon 
05:06 - IK Multimedia AmpliTube 5
05:26 - Cherry Audio Stardust 201 Tape Echo
05:41 - Waves Retro Fi
06:14 - Rob Papen DelSane
06:37 - SSL Native X-Echo
06:49 - Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition

08:21 - Boss IR-200
08:41 - Blackstar Dept.10 Dual Drive
09:47 - RME Audio HDSPe AIO Pro
11:19 - SSL BiG SiX
12:42 - Aum Guitars Vibraslide
13:52 - Gamechanger Audio LIGHT Pedal
15:06 - Grace Design m900

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Tony Ni from Soundtoys sits down with Sam Inglis to discuss his mixing workflow and to explain how he uses core Soundtoys plug-ins to achieve his sound.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:54 - 21 Plug-ins
05:44 - Workflow Tools
07:05 - Getting The Balance Right
11:24 - EQ And Saturation
21:22 - Parallel Processing The Drums
28:38 - Using Saturation On Vocals
35:07 - Adding And Automating Echo
47:06 - Getting Started With Soundtoys

Soundtoys Biog
Based in Burlington Vermont, USA, Soundtoys (formerly Wave Mechanics) was founded in 1996 by Ken Bogdanowicz, the DSP effects designer behind the legendary H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer and the DSP4000 line of hardware signal processors from Eventide. Soundtoys develops world-class, creative signal-processing software for audio production, mixing, and sound design.

Soundtoys users include Mike Dean, David Sitek, James Blake, Ariel Borujow, Jamie Lidell, Greg Wells, Dave Pensado, Tony Maserati, Tim Kelley, and Blake Mills.

https://www.soundtoys.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns pick their hardware and software highlights from the last 12 months, plus feature some late arrivals.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:14 - ASM Hydrasynth Deluxe
02:01 - Boss RE-202 Space Echo / IK Multimedia Amplitube X-SPACE Reverb / Red Panda Particle 2 Granular Delay
02:57 - Moogerfooger Plug-ins / UAFX Amp Emulator Pedals
04:12 - IK Multimedia Amplitube TONEX Amp Simulation Software
04:47 - Arturia Efx Fragments Granular Delay / Eventide Physion II
05:25 - PMC6-2 Monitors
07:00 - MiMU Jellyfish Granular Synth
07:45 - The Great Chip Shortage
09:11 - Rob Papen eXplorer-8 Bundle / Sub51 and Soundtrax Drop Pad

10:26 - Sonnect Audio Sound Bullet
11:46 - Eventide H90 Harmonizer® Multi-FX Pedal / Two notes ReVolt Amp Simulator Pedal
13:38 - Waves BB Tubes Plug-in
14:27 - Hardware Recorders
17:05 - Synth Sounds For Guitar

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mark Mynett, sound engineer and senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, details best practices for setting up and recording rhythm and lead guitar parts.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - How To Manage Distortion
06:10 - Pre-Recording Preparation
07:16 - Double Tracking And Quad Tracking
09:07 - Finding A Clear Midrange Tone
14:20 - Isolation And Ambience
15:46 - Microphone Selection
19:23 - Mic Placement
25:17 - Multitracking Tips
34:03 - Recording Guitar Solos
36:39 - Adding EQ At The Recording Stage

Mark Mynett Biog
As well as Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University, Mark Mynett is a live music front-of-house engineer, and record producer/engineer/mix and mastering engineer. Mainly focused on indie, rock and metal genres, he produces from his own studio - Mynetaur Productions – where he recently completed the latest My Dying Bride album ‘The Ghost of Orion’: referred to by Dom Lawson (The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock) as “…a master class in modern metal production”.
Metal Music Manual (instructional book for producing contemporary metal music)

Audio Clips: Baron Carta
Baron Carta at Spotify

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this episode, Eddie Bazil offers tips for creating a signature sound using sound design techniques and offers a range of suggestions on how drums can be processed to add more depth and texture.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - The Role Of A Producer
02:20 - Example 1: Adding Clarity And Bite To Drums
04:10 - Example 2: Thickening A Drum Beat
06:50 - Example 3: Creating Texture
09:58 - Example 4: Adding A Strong Attack To A Kick Drum
12:45 - Example 5: Adding Life To Acoustic Beats
16:22 - Example 6: Adding Ambience
21:09 - Example 7: Altering the Kick Within A Beat

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Pro Audio Design Engineer Andy Bereza summarises his impressive career in a chat with Paul Gilby. Andy founded Allen & Heath Mixers before working for TEAC/Tascam, where he conceived the TEAC Portastudio the portable multitrack cassette tape recorder that revolutionised the home recording market in the 1980s. He then co-founded Bandive-Turnkey where he developed a range of budget signal processors and the famous Great British Spring reverb to sell to the rapidly expanding Home Studio Recording market. At the same time, he was a consultant for the Fostex X15 multitrack cassette as well as helping to steer further product designs.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:34 - Getting Into Electronics
01:45 - Building Custom Desks
04:09 - Allen & Heath Mixers
06:07 - The Minimixer
08:54 - The Pink Floyd Desks
12:24 - Allen & Heath Mod II Mixer
13:20 - Expanding The Company
15:23 - Moving To Tascam
16:58 - Constructing The Portastudio
21:57 - Setting Up Bandive / Turnkey
24:55 - Creating Products For The Home Studio
29:03 - Fostex Releases in the 80s
30:48 - Bandive Seck Mixers
32:08 - Expanding Turnkey
35:14 - Selling To Harman
38:38 - Launching Digital Postcards
41:07 - A Brief Career Summary
42:13 - Proudest Career Moment

Andy Bereza Biog
Andy Bereza started his career as a Audio Design Engineer after moving to London in 1967 to study Electronics at Chelsea University. A chance encounter with Siggy Jackson in Tin Pan Alley gave him his first custom commission and many more soon followed, with Andy building mixers for Bill Shepherd (producer of the Bee Gees), Alan Price, Maurice Gibb and also a location recording mixer for the Clockwork Orange movie.

In 1970 Andy became the Founder of Allen & Heath, where he initially developed the black range of mixers, then their first mass market product the Minimix. At the same time he creating custom quadraphonic live desks for The Who along with Pink Floyd's Pompeii and Dark Side Of The Moon touring desks.

In 1975, Andy joined TEAC America and was employed to introduce Tascam into Europe. Then in 1976 he was contracted directly with TEAC Japan where he developed the iconic Portastudio that changed the face of the home recording industry. In 1977 he became one of the founders of Bandive Ltd and helped to develop further products for the home recording market and created the popular Turnkey By Mail catalogue during the late 1970s to mid 80s. Bandive then opened the Turnkey retail store in central London.

Following the sale of Bandive / Turnkey to Harman UK in 1987, he briefly became their Marketing Director, before signing up to become Managing Director of Fostex in 1991. Later in the 90s Andy left the Pro Audio industry and turned his attention to multimedia where he developed interactive product catalogues on CD-ROM.

Paul Gilby Biog
Paul Gilby is the co-founder, along with his brother Ian, of Sound On Sound magazine in 1985. Having written many product reviews and interviews over the years he now heads up the Digital Media side of the business managing the team that looks after the SOS website as well as the video and podcast productions.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mark Mynett, sound engineer and senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, talks us through prepping for and recording a bass session, including ways to generate multiple layered tracks for use in your final mix.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:30 - 1. Intonation And Tuning
02:54 - 2. Active DI Boxes
06:00 - 3. Amp, Cab And Mic Setup
14:01 - 4. Layering Bass Sounds
17:51 - 5. Introducing Distortion

Mark Mynett Biog
As well as Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University, Mark Mynett is a live music front-of-house engineer, and record producer/engineer/mix and mastering engineer. Mainly focused on indie, rock and metal genres, he produces from his own studio - Mynetaur Productions – where he recently completed the latest My Dying Bride album ‘The Ghost of Orion’: referred to by Dom Lawson (The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock) as “…a master class in modern metal production”.
Metal Music Manual (instructional book for producing contemporary metal music)

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil takes us through some of the different uses for Dynamic EQ, including enhancing drums and vocals and separating elements within a mix.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - What Is Dynamic EQ?
01:45 - Example 1: Sidechaining
03:29 - Example 2: Processing Drums
05:33 - Example 3: Corrective EQ
08:03 - Example 4: Creating Motion
11:09 - Example 5: EQing Multiple Vocals
14:24 - Example 6: Separating Elements Within A Mix

Audio Credits

Examples 3 and 4:

Many thanks to David Plummer and Becky Bremner for use of their content in this podcast.

https://www.smokinggoats.co.uk

Example 5:

Many thanks to Chris Timson and Anne Gregson for use of their content in the podcast.

www.eaglealley.co.uk

Example 6: 

Many thanks to artist Anna Kaona.
Track: Every time, recorded by Simone Fedi at Studio Volta Recordings.

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

https://theaudioproductionhub.pivotshare.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns pick their software and hardware highlights from the gear they've reviewed in the last 12 months.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:24 - Lynx Hilo 2
02:49 - Blackstar Polar 2 / Polar 4
03:39 - AEA TRP 3 Preamp
05:40 - Logic Pro 11
07:24 - RME Fireface UFX III
09:57 - Dreamtonics Vocoflex
11:33 - Hum Audio LAAL Limiter
13:43 - FireSonic FireSpacer
14:54 - Crookwood VU Meter
17:03 - Nektar Panorama CS12
17:42 - IK Multimedia Tonex One
18:23 - Sound Particles inDelay
19:19 - Sonnect SoundWire Interface

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Eddie Bazil gives us more pointers on constructing beats, incorporating useful tools such as Drum Replacement Software and pre-constructed Loops, then adding enhancements using timing, pitch and other processing tips.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:33 - Drum Replacement Software
01:41 - Example 1: Using Hit'n'Mix RipX DAW
05:41 - Example 2: Making Loops Your Own
11:36 - Example 3: Enhancing A Kick With Pitch And Timing

Track credit for example 1: Ice Box featuring Omarion, produced by Timbaland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Box_(song)

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Mike Senior explores the subject of Haas delays at mixdown, explaining how they work, how to get the best out of them, and how to avoid the most common traps associated with them.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

00:41 - Perception of short delays

02:46 - From fused delay to Haas delay

04:19 - Haas delays for stereo width

05:25 - Haas delays for blend and distance

09:26 - Haas delays for connecting panned doubletracks

10:56 - Pitfalls with Haas delays

14:50 - Summary

Credits
This month's episode features recordings from Johnny Lokke's 'Promises & Lies', Tom McKenzie's 'Directions', and Trafficker's 'My Father Never Loved Me'. If you'd like to try mixing these projects for yourself, you can download the full raw multitracks for them here:

https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#JohnnyLokke

https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#TomMcKenzie

https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Trafficker

These projects were also featured in Sound On Sound's 'Mix Rescue' column, in the January 2011, April 2013, and July 2018 issues respectively, which can be found in the magazine's article archives here:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-mixing-metal

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-tom-mckenzie

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-trafficker

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In the first of a two-part series, Eddie Bazil explains how some simple adjustments in your DAW will help you to achieve more bounce in your drum beats, by adding syncopation, swing and dynamism.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:20 - A Quick History Of Beat Production
01:07 - Early Programmable Drum Machines
04:33 - Defining A Good Beat
05:15 - Example 1: Shifting The Snare To Drive A Beat
07:55 - Example 2: Altering Dynamics And Note Durations
10:51 - Example 3: Adding Urgency With A Backbeat
12:37 - Example 4: Creating Swing With The Hi-Hats

Eddie Bazil Biog
Eddie Bazil launched his music industry career at the age of 17 as a synth programmer for a range of Electro / New Wave bands including Art of Noise, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys, Bobin, Paul Dee, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Jets Orchestra. By his 20s he was working as a sound designer for Akai, Roland Emu/Ensoniq, eventually signing on exclusively with the latter. Later, due to a growing demand for software instruments and libraries, Eddie started to develop libraries for various software manufacturers, including Native Instruments, Kiesel, Sound Effects Library, Arturia and Propellerheads. A meeting with Phil Allen, a Capital Radio DJ, resulted in the company Samplecraze, which Eddie has spent 20 years developing as an educational resource. At this time he trained in music production and soon gained a number of prominent contracts working with some notable artistes such as Busta Rhymes, Greensleeves, 9 Bar, SFP, Sleeveless, Chris Campbell and Gam Productions. He contracted to Island Records and Chrysalis as a producer and remixer,  plus was commissioned to write the score for Macbeth that ran at 2 Way Mirror at Alexander Palace for the Cambridge Shakespeare Company. His ongoing development of Samplecraze has led to him offering educational workshops and classes, releasing four books via PC Publishing and becoming a contributor and forum moderator for Sound On Sound. Recently he has established The Audio Production Hub for online education and been invited by the Recording Academy to become a Grammy judge.
https://eddiebazil.co.uk/

https://samplecraze.com/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Paul White delves into the fun world of modelled guitars, amps and cabs, that cannot only make your songwriting and studio sessions more creative and unique, but can also greatly assist with streamlining live performances.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:12 - Techniques For Modelling Amps And Cabs
04:22 - Amplifier Cloning
05:49 - Compression To Improve Tonal Quality
07:58 - Adding Room Ambience
09:41 - Cleaning Up The Sound With EQ
10:51 - Guitar Modelling Options
13:05 - Why We Have Split Pickups
16:24 - Non-Guitar Sounds At Your Fingertips
18:12 - Modelled Bass Guitars

#BossVG800 #MODOBass2

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

In this episode, Paul White looks at some creative ways that you can manipulate the standard plug-ins found in your DAW, using them alone or in combination with one another, to create some unique sounds, effects and rhythms.
 
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:08 - Hard Tune Effect
01:39 - Processing Speech
03:15 - Fast Pitch Processing
04:04 - Using Match EQ On Guitars
06:07 - Distortion And Reverb
07:14 - Adding In Pitch Shift
07:41 - Reverb And Distortion
09:07 - Adding More Reverb And Delay
10:02 - Using Distortion On Drums
11:30 - Using A Rotary Speaker On Drums
12:43 - Using An Impulse Response With Convolution Reverb

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. 

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts