I hold no pretense of being a Led Zeppelin expert, however John Bonham’s drum sound is one that practically everybody wants to emulate.  Whether you actually want to play like him is another story, but it would seem like every drummer would love to be as bombastic and aggressive as Bonham. The truth of the matter is that if you want to sound like John Bonham, you really need to play like him. You probably shouldn’t be ripping off 32nd note paradiddles at 140 BPM on your Iron Cobra. Moreover, your playing style, the orchestration of your tune, and your own nuances will directly inform the possibilities for your sound. This isn’t to say that you need to be on the same level as Bonham to sound like him, but there are songwriting elements that anyone can use to help accomplish a desired sound. Listen to any Zeppelin record and you’ll notice that he is very, very simple with his beats in the vast majority of his tunes. Sometimes he only hits the kick drum twice in a measure.... Read More →

You’ve probably heard someone say, “don’t buy [insert hard drive brand]… mine crashed on me and I lost everything.” You may have heard that LaCie drives do not fail. But you’re still not sure, so you do a little research. You check out some reviews online, do a search on Gearslutz.com… maybe you’ll go to Guitar Center and have Joe Shred* tell you what he likes to use, next thing you know you’re leaving confused, half-naked with a bunch of $3,000 Monster cables… Or you ask me and I’ll tell you to pick whatever has cool-looking lights on the front. And I’ll insist that you buy three of them. But we’ll get back to that in a minute. As far as deliverables** go, LaCie is the industry standard. Like Apple and Pro Tools, many people won’t take you seriously if you’re using anything but LaCie. While I was working for Avatar in NYC, we used exclusively LaCie drives for data storage and deliverables... Read More →

Artist: Justice Album: † Released: 2007 Genre: Electro/Dance For Fans Of: Daft Punk, MGMT, Ratatat Stand-Out Tracks: “DVNO,” “D.A.N.C.E.”     After much deliberation, I’ve decided to kick off our Monday music reviews with something you can dance to: French duo Justice. Their album † is a mix between electro, hipster disco and good ole’ fashion pop with samples (probably intended to be ironic) from Three 6 Mafia to Devo to the Brothers Johnson.   Sonically, the brightness of † shocked me upon first listen. It was mastered to be as sparkly as the brightest techno record out there, yet they’re more associated with the hipster/electro scene than anything going on in Europe. It sounds like a harmonic exciter set to STUN in the range of 12 kHz and above.   The arrangements are amazing throughout the whole album. They come together in a way that I full band really can’t, because the depth of instrumentation and tonality... Read More →

We’re very excited about the relaunch of the Fix Your Mix blog, now covering a range of topics including songwriting and production, industry trends, client news and much, much more. Check out the right sidebar for our content schedule. We want to get friends, clients and audio nerds alike involved, so comment whenever you have something to say! Keith  Read More →

Whether you’ve had experience in a “real” studio or not, it may seem intuitively easier to sit in the control room and tap your engineer on the shoulder when you think something needs changing. Quick yes, but this exercise has several intrinsic deficiencies. The most important deficiency is the environment. Coming out of your natural setting to listen to your songs on someone else’s system presents a steep learning curve in terms of getting your ears tuned to the room and monitors. But it is vitally important that you do in order for the decisions you make in the heat of the moment and under the duress of the clock to translate to the outside world. If you’ve been in this business long enough, then you know the pride-swallowing experience of leaving one venue thinking you have a spectacular mix, then taking it home, playing it for friends and family, and finding out that the bass has mysteriously disappeared or the highs don’t quite sing the way they did in the control room. With... Read More →

When Nirvana’s Nevermind came out, it was touted as one of the loudest albums ever released. Today, if that album came onto your iTunes playlist after Death Magnetic, you’d have to turn your speakers up considerably to hear it.* Psychological studies have shown that a recording’s loudness dramatically affects how much people like a song and how likely it is that a person will stop on a certain radio station. The solution? Limiting: a process which effectively turns up the quietest parts of a recording, automatically raising its overall loudness. A limiter is one of the last pieces in the mastering signal chain and arguably the most important. Done properly, limiting can add energy to a song. Taking it too far a la Death Magnetic, however, may cause ear fatigue, a subconscious phenomenon akin to reading under dim light, straining the listener’s ears and making him or her want to turn off the music after extended listening periods. Metallica‘s latest has... Read More →

Refer to this archive of our Theory Lessons as needed while you follow along with our Compositional Analysis series. Key Concepts: Intervals, Triads, & Seventh Chords Modes Bars, Measures, Phrases, Motifs, Riffs, & Licks Solfege Syllables To Intervals Translation Chart Chord Symbols & Shorthand Additional Concepts: Voice Leading Chord Tensions Advanced Reading: Tritones & Locrian Mode  Read More →