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Jan 4, 2007 1:34 PM
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Understanding Bass Management
With Bob Hodas, November 20th
Brought to you by Ex'pression College for Digital Arts and Mix
Bob Hodas explores best practices for Bass Management in your studio, explaining how to set up a bass managed system, what features to look for in a Bass Management box and much more.
Read more and register here.
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Mastering Stories
Our December issue will focus on mastering. We'd like to hear from mastering engineersŃtell us about your most interesting mastering project. E-mail us at mixeditorial@mixonline.com.
Remix Hotel News
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Avid Presents: Remix Hotel Los Angeles| Dec. 4-6, 2008 |
Hot off an incredibly successful event in Atlanta, Remix Hotel is gearing up for its final event in 2008: Remix Hotel Los Angeles. We're busy putting together a killer weekend of panels, production and more. Keep it tuned to remixhotel.com for registration and schedule details, and be sure to check out all of the amazing videos from Atlanta and New York! .
This Month in Mix
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead…
So Divided
(Interscope)
As a relatively new convert to this band (I’d never heard them before their 2005 album, Worlds Apart) I don’t have the same historical perspective of folks who’ve seen Trail of Dead change and grow over the past eight years. I gather some longtime fans are less than thrilled with their more recent grand, ambitious productions and their self-conscious eclecticism. The group has been accused of being pretentious, but I guess I have a very high threshold for that—must be all those years of listening to Pink Floyd and early King Crimson on headphones. Anyway, I like artists who dream big, don’t want to be pigeon-holed and aren’t afraid to take some chances. So bring it on!
Worlds Apart, though fascinating and compelling on many levels, was also a bit of a mess—too many ideas expressed too many different ways, when simpler arrangements might’ve worked better in a lot of cases. The same argument could be made about their latest opus, So Divided, too, but for some reason it feels to me like they’ve mostly gotten it right this time. It is still quite an amalgamation of styles and textures, and the occasional kitchen-sink arrangement (Strings! Horns! Timpani! Sound effects!) can be jarring, yet it doesn’t feel overly thought-out (and over-produced), and it all hangs together surprisingly well. Credit the generally strong songwriting of Conrad Keely et al, the air in Mike McCarthy and the band’s production, and the continually creative use of reverbs and other effects; this is one great-sounding album. The lyric themes are mainly dark, but there’s a brightness to many songs that stands in stark relief: “Eight Days in Hell,” for instance, starts with a musical cop from The Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine” and has a vocal passage reminiscent of The Turtles’ bubbly “Happy Together,” but seems to be about a disastrous musical tour of the UK. As whole, the album is filled with Brit-rock and prog-rock trappings and references—it’s hard to believe the group is actually based in Austin. When’s the last time a Texas band produced an epic?
This certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea—it does beg for serious concentration (on headphones preferably) to soak it all in. But these guys are clearly onto something cool—though what it is, I couldn’t begin to say.
Must Play: “Wasted State of Mind,” “Eight Days of Hell”
Producers: Mike McCarthy, ...Trail of Dead…; Engineers: Jim Volantine, Bill Munyon, Will Sandels (mixing); Studios: The Mob House and Big Orange Studios (both in Austin, Texas), Interscope (L.A.); Mastering: Stephen Marcussen.
—Blair Jackson
Modern Recording and Mixing
This 2-DVD set will show you how the best in the music industry set up a studio to make world-class records. Regardless of what gear you are using, the information you'll find here will allow you to take advantage of decades of expert knowledge. Order now $39.95
Mastering Cubase 4
Electronic Musician magazine and Thomson Course Technology PTR have joined forces again to create the second volume in their Personal Studio Series, Mastering Steinberg's Cubase(tm). Edited and produced by the staff of Electronic Musician, this special issue is not only a must-read for users of Cubase(tm) software, but it also delivers essential information for anyone recording/producing music in a personal-studio. Order now $12.95
Delivered straight to your inbox every other week, MixLine takes you straight into the studio, with new product announcements, industry news, upcoming events, recent recording/post projects and much more. 