2009 December | Home Recording Studio Guru

Alan Parsons’ Art & Science Of Sound Recording – Now Available!

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

It’s been awhile coming, but the first six chapters of Alan Parsons’ Art & Science Of Sound Recording DVD are now available online. It was written by Julian Colbeck and Alan Parsons,
produced by Julian Colbeck for KEYFAX NewMedia Inc. and narrated by Billy Bob Thornton.

I just got mine and I’m enjoying them very much. And the pricing is nice too! You can stream each chapter for 99 cents, or download it in MP4 format for $4.95. You can download all six chapters for $19.95, which makes each of them just over three bucks (that’s what I did).

Check out the trailer:

Using screen reader? Click here for the video.

The rest of the star-studded team that’s involved in this project:

Chuck Ainlay
Producer, Engineer, Sugarland, Dire Straits.

Andrew Barta
Inventor, SansAmp

Niko Bolas
Engineer, Neil Young, Melissa Etheridge.

Tony Brown
Producer, Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, George Strait. Piano player, Elvis Presley.

Kim Copeland
Nashville Producer, Consultant.

Richard Dodd
Recording/Mastering Engineer, Kings Of Leon, Dixie Chicks,

Jimmy Douglass
Producer, Engineer, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Bjork, Jay-Z

Jack Douglas
Producer, Engineer, Aerosmith, John Lennon, The Who.

Nathan East
Bass player, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Dionne Warwick.

John Fields
Producer, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Rooney.

Jackie Greene
Microphone Designer, Audio-Technica.

Gavin Haverstick
Senior Acoustical Engineer, Auralex Acoustics.

Taylor Hawkins
Drummer, Foo Fighters. Alanis Morisette.

Rami Jaffee
Keyboardist, The Wallflowers, Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Johnny Cash.

Carol Kaye
Legendary session bassist/guitarist, The Beach Boys, Quincy Jones, Frank Zappa.

Hal Ketchum
Celebrated country artist.

Ledfoot
Gothic Blues artist.

Patrick Leonard
Writer, Producer, Madonna, Elton John.

Sylvia Massey
Producer, Engineer, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, System Of A Down, Beck.

Steve Marcantonio
Engineer, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban.

John McBride
Producer, Engineer, Martina McBride.
Owner of Blackbird Studios, Nashville.

Michael McDonald
Recording Artist.

Chris Pelonis
Studio Designer.

Simon Phillips
Legendary Drummer, The Who, Toto.

Tim Pierce
Top LA session guitarist, Crowded House, Michael Jackson, Goo Goo Dolls.

Bill Putnam Jr.
Chairman of Universal Audio.

Jack Joseph Puig
Producer, Engineer, John Mayer, Green Day, Weezer, U2, No Doubt.

Simon Rhodes
Senior Film/Classical Recording Engineer, Abbey Road Studios (Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone and countless other movie classics.)

Craig Russo
Producer, Writer, Robbie Williams.

Elliot Scheiner
Producer, Engineer, Foo Fighters, Steely Dan, Bruce Hornsby.

John Shanks
Producer, Christina Aguilera, Natasha Bedingfield, Sheryl Crow.

Allen Sides
Producer, Engineer, Phil Collins, Joni Mitchell, Fergie. Owner of Ocean Way Recording.

Dave Smith
Designer, Prophet-5. Mopho, and ‘father’ of MIDI.

David Thoener
Engineer, AC/DC, Santana’s “Smooth”, Bon Jovi.

Click here to visit the official web site

23.12.2009 Tracking and Mixing No Comments

Abbey Road And Native Instruments Team Up

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

The Abbey Road plugins that have been on the market already are some of my favorite plugins, And now it looks like they are expanding the Abbey Road experience via a partnership with Native Instruments.

Apparently they’ll be producing software instruments based on the sound of the famous studio. Abbey Road is known as one of the world’s greatest recording studios, and still houses gear used to record the Beatles, including some one-off items created especially for EMI.

Though details relating to the nature of the planned instruments are scarce, it’s known that they will use Kontakt Player sample engine, and will likely be based around painstaking multi sampling.

Below is a short teaser video showing some great shots inside Abbey Road including imagery of a Challen piano, a Steinway grand piano, a drawbar organ and a Ludwig drum kit, leading to much speculation as to which instruments the Native Instruments and Abbey Road products will attempt to emulate.

It’s bound to be exciting!

17.12.2009 Cool Gear No Comments

Stephen Colbert Rocks The House With Alicia Keys On Jay-Z’s Hit “Empire State of Mind”

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

Check out Stephen Colbert’s pinstripe suit jacket hoodie…OH SNAP!

Last night he had Alicia Keys on the Colbert Report, where the two of them performed a special rendition of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” (Upper Middle Class Remix).

Check it out. Full lyrics from Stephen’s rap are right below the video.

Yeah, yeah, yeah
I love New York, King of all the Cities
Lived up by the Guggenheim, ’til I got some kiddies
Moved to Connecticut, ‘bye George Pataki
Volvo to the dry-cleaners, pickin’ up my khakis

Shoppin’ mall is close, my community is gated
My shorties are all private school educated
Home theater system, 60-inch plasma
Clean suburban air, much better for my asthma

Still hit the city, Times Square, keep it real
Hard Rock Cafe for the appetizer deal
M&M Store, Disney Store, I’m in heaven
I own this town from 41st to 47th

Take you to The Lion King, that show is fantastic
Leave half an hour early so I can beat the traffic
I can get home really fast, driver rocks an E-Z Pass
Land of cheaper gas and the upper middle class

16.12.2009 Home No Comments

ASCAP Now Demanding License From Venues That Let People Play Guitar Hero

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Wait…what?

Breaking news from Tech Dirt:

from the can’t-listen-without-paying-up dept…

We’ve been detailing how the various collection societies around the globe have been trotting out all sorts of dubious reasoning to try to get more people to pay up for a license. In the US, ASCAP has been particularly ridiculous, seeking public performance licenses for (legally licensed) ringtones as well as the 30-second previews you find on music download stores like iTunes. ASCAP has already succeeded in forcing YouTube to pay up as well. Of course, the end result has actually been harming many up and coming songwriters and musicians, as more and more venues are choosing to forego music entirely, because it’s just not worth having to pay up the fees that ASCAP charges.

In the latest overreach, sent in by reader faceless, ASCAP is demanding a licensing fee from a venue that has the video game Guitar Hero for people to play. While the venue does sometimes have live musicians, it has purposely chosen to only allow original music (no covers) from artists and songwriters not covered by ASCAP, to avoid having to pay the fee. As the venue owner notes, it’s ridiculous to think that the venue should have to pay for a license just to let people play Guitar Hero, saying, “patrons are paying for the entertainment of the game not for the listening value of the music.”

But, of course, that’s not how ASCAP views any of these things, insisting that the value itself comes from the music, and thus the songwriters must absolutely be paid. Of course, this isn’t the first time ASCAP has come down hard on music video games. Earlier this year, it insisted that the video game companies themselves should pay performance licensing fees as well — so in this case it looks like they’re trying to double or triple dip.

Of course, the most likely end result? The venue will drop the game, and fewer people will hear the music. This harms everyone — the songwriters, the musicians, ASCAP and the venue. But ASCAP seems to think it’s the right move. This is why more and more musicians are recognizing that what’s good for ASCAP is not good for songwriters.

Click here to read the original article and see the user comments…

15.12.2009 Music Business No Comments

The Venerable Hammond B3 Organ – What’s The Big Deal Anyway?

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

If you didn’t already know, I’m a keyboard player by trade. More specifically, I’m an organ player. It’s my “axe” if you will. I play piano and synths, but organ is what I was formally trained to play beginning at age five. Actually, let me backtrack a little bit…

The town we were living in at the time of my first private music lesson was a very small farming community, Hurricane, Utah. I’m pretty sure there was only one private music teacher, Ms. Birdie Covington, and she lived next door. My Dad traded some house painting for my first few lessons.

However, she was a piano teacher, but we had a Hammond L-100 (think mini B3). So, I took piano lessons at her house and applied them to organ while practicing at home. She tailored my lessons with this mind.

Enough digression. The point is I’m a bonfide organ player, and I love all things B3 and Leslie speakers! So, what’s the big deal? What makes the sound of a Hammond so special?

Here’s a great three-part video from the BBC series Inside Tracks, where they discuss a little bit about the history and application of this fantastic instrument. I think you’ll discover a little something about this enigmatic instrument you didn’t know before. (Thanks to Musformation where I discovered these.)