Take It From Me
by Edward Lapple

I just finished editing a music video for entry into a competition and I was struck by how much I missed some of the analog technology that used to be at our fingertips. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the new digital toys! I’d be as quick to give them up as I would to leave Photoshop behind and return to smelly chemicals in dark rooms. I’m glad to have experienced it, but I’m even happier to be freed from the drudgery.

My current gripe concerns limitations imposed by nonlinear video editing systems that offer no control surfaces other than a mouse and pad.

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Hey sports fans! I’m back and we are going to take another look at some potential problems with levels that may be hiding in your holes and your DAW can’t even spot them. But have no fear, I’ll let you know how to spot them and – you’re going to like this – the answer will be FREE! Some people don’t care for four-letter words and others use them so often that they are a kind of ebonic punctuation, but one four-letter word that should appeal to all of us, in today’s economy, is free.

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By Edward Lapple

Reverb is the stuff of legends. It makes you seem bigger than you really are. The truth be told, almost all musicians like the sound of reverb. One trick that every recording engineer knows is, “Verb In The Cans.” What’s that, you ask. No, it’s not an eighty-year-old English teacher taking a potty break. It’s when a vocalist is having a hard time laying down a good track and you need to coax a performance out of them. To make them feel big and powerful, send their voice into the reverb chamber and then route the reverberated signal back to their headphones. Don’t send it to the recording device; we want that signal to be dry (Dry=Without Reverb) so that we can adjust it in the mix. Only the singer gets to hear themselves with reverb, but they always just love it.

Click through for more more more more

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By Edward Lapple

If you are like most musicians that have recorded and mixed their own songs, you have probably experienced this.

You finish your session late at night and then you do a killer mix. It sounds great and you are thrilled. Thrilled, that is, until the next morning when you play your hot mix for your [Label / Agent / Band-mates / Friend / Significant Other / Mom / insert name here]. Incredibly, your multi-layered mixing extravaganza sounds like it’s all coming through a trumpet and being played over your cell phone.

What happened? All of the individual instruments which you could discern with such clarity at 2 AM have homogenized into midrange at 10 AM. The lead guitar is lost behind the snare, the horns sound like a buzzer in the corner, the backing harmonies are not there at all and your vocal is somewhere inside of the rhythm guitar. What has gone wrong? Have you gone deaf or stupid or both?

Click and Slide to Learn What Went Wrong

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Update: We have updated this post to include a BFMN Exclusive email interview with Paul Taylor, president of Ultrasone Inc

Our favorite little rock star has done it again. He’s in the news again today as Ultrasone Inc. has announced that “T-Man”  Tallan Noble Latz  is their newest performer in a growing list of artist endorsements. The headphone company boasts some incredible technology for great sound and unparalleled hearing protection.

Ultrasone’s HFI-780 is the model Tallan uses as reference monitors in the studio. Ultrasone Inc. has committed themselves to protecting the hearing of this amazing young talent. Kudos Ultrasone! You really stepped up here and we think you are doing a wonderful thing.

Tomorrow we have the great video interview for you from backstage at The NAMM show. It features clips of Tallan from the show and an interview with “Catfish” Butler. They talk about guitars, calluses and playing on the big stage.  

We  reached out to Ultrasone Inc and talked with Paul Taylor, president of Ultrasone Inc., the distributor for Ultrasone products in North and South America. He agreed to answer a few questions for us and explain a little more about their truly innovative technology

Click through for the interview

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