Production Advice

I’m so excited I can hardly sit still.

Why ?

Because on Saturday 6th November, in less than a week’s time I’ll be at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh, attending a music-focused TEDx conference with talks and performances by Imogen Heap, Thomas Dolby, Tim Exile, William Orbit, Martyn Ware and others, on some of my favourite musical subjects:

• The creative process
• Music software
• Hardware tools
• Techniques
• Music in the community
• The future of the music business itself.

And a ticket for the entire day costs only £20 !

By the way, just in case you haven’t come across TED Talks already, check out the video above first – it does a great job of explaining the concept, as well as being essential viewing in it’s own right.

But wait – TEDx ? What does the “x” stand for ? A TEDx conference is the same thing as the main TED conferences, but smaller, local and independently organised. If you think that means it’s in any way a poor relation though, you couldn’t be more wrong – just look at that line-up !

Click to continue »

There are plenty of moments to enjoy in this video with veteran mastering engineer Howie Weinberg – not least, proof that mastering engineers really do have a sense of humour !

I want to pick up on just one thing he says almost in passing though, and amplify it. People are always asking “What is mastering”, and it’s a question that lots of people have tried to answer, including me:

What is mastering ?

But Howie’s analogy is short, sweet, and very, very, deep. He says that a mastering engineer is like a photographer who specialises in retouching images in the darkroom to get the very best out of them.

I want to make that statement simpler, and explore the idea in a little more depth:

Mastering is like photoshop for audio

Click to continue »

OK, I think it’s time to come clean. This may shock some of you, so brace yourselves…

I’m not a Pro Tools expert.

…I know ! How can that be ?!? I’m a mastering engineer, a pro audio geek and I write blogs on music production – HOW can I not be a Pro Tools whizz-kid ?

Well, before you unfollow me, block my email address and blacklist my RSS feeds – let me explain.

Click to continue »

[Update - I've posted a video demonstrating many of the techniques I talk about in this post - to check it out, click here.]

Today I’ll tell you how to make your music loud.

Yes, you read that right.

This post will tell you how to get your music really loud. Regardless of the fact that I’ve been interviewed on Radio 4 arguing passionately against the Loudness Wars, even though I’ve always said that the best way to get your song to stand out on the radio is to avoid pushing the level too hard, and despite having started Dynamic Range Day to raise awareness of the fact that listeners don’t care about loudness…

Today I’ll tell you how to make your music loud.

Why ? As a response to this article on MusicRader.com

How to make your music loud

(Subtitled – “Win the loudness war with our step-by-step and audio guide”)

Now immediately I should say – I love MusicRadar. It’s a great site – I highly recommend it. Masses of news, posts, discussion and information for anyone interested in music and music technology. They were one of the first places to pick up and post about how bad Death Magnetic sounded, and link back to my blog. As a result, Wired magazine and the Guardian found the story and started writing about it, and the rest, as they say, is history. The bad press generated by Death Magnetic has done a fantastic job of raising awareness about this issue, and I for one am very happy about that.

So, MusicRadar rocks.

But that post is useless.

Sorry, but there it is. My reasons for saying so though, may not be what you’re expecting.

Click to continue »

I’m curious – what are your favourite sites for music recording or mixing, and why ? Are there any sites you visit every day, or make sure you read absolutely every post from ?

How about forums ? Where do you like to hang out ? Where do you think the best conversations happening ?

I’m interested in quality, not quantity – we all know sites that post huge numbers of posts and only one in a hundred is a gem – I’m interested to know what you think is the cream of the crop.

Click to continue »