Interviews

Long before the 2-BUS summing mixer turned Dangerous Music into a premium brand, the company built its reputation through transfer consoles for mastering rooms like Sterling Sound and The Hit Factory. The System Complete is the logical conclusion of that history: a full tracking and mixing setup assembled from mastering-grade components, with greater routing flexibility than a large-format desk, minus the maintenance headaches. Continue reading →

Nashville-based record label and recording studio South x Sea recently added a new immersive mixing room with a 7.1.4 HEDD Audio monitor system to its East Nashville facility. Before opening the new room to clients, South x Sea invited GRAMMY-nominated producer and engineer Bobby Holland to put the system through its paces by mixing a song from an upcoming project. Having built multiple immersive mixing rigs at his own Pentavarit Studios, helped set up rooms at other studios, and even designed his own studio monitors, Holland was the ideal person to evaluate the new system. After the session, we hooked up with Holland to get his thoughts on mixing in an unfamiliar environment, how he makes mixing in Atmos feel as natural as stereo, and how the HEDD Type 30 MK2 and Type 20 MK2 helped him hear the subtleties of reverb, vocals, and acoustic instruments in an intricate mix. Continue reading →

When Lola Romero, now Senior Director of Audio & Technical Studio Operations at renowned label/studio EMPIRE, accidentally stumbled into an audio recording class on her first day at San Francisco City College, she had no idea that a few short years later she would be working closely with the likes of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kanye West, and Anderson .Paak, winning major music awards, and even playing herself as an engineer in the iconic video game Grand Theft Auto. As the three-time GRAMMY award-winner looks back at notable projects in her discography for our “Five Sounds With” series, what emerges is a portrait of a consummate professional, passionate about sound, dedicated to the craft, and committed to honoring the legacy of the great engineers that have come before her. Continue reading →

Primarily known for their pro-tier interfaces, converters, and master clocks, Antelope Audio is now appealing to home recording musicians, streamers, and content creators with the new Zenith 2. Although it sports an entry-level price point, the Zenith 2 still prioritizes sound quality with console-grade preamps and converters, but also offers four real-time DSP effects, onboard mixing, class-compliant USB, and streamer-friendly features like loopback.   Continue reading →

When we first featured Studio33:3 on our blog last year, it was to showcase a state-of-the-art recording studio successfully brought to life by the team at Vintage King Integration and Haverstick Designs. Behind the top-shelf gear and cutting-edge design was a deeper story. Continue reading →

This article was originally published in a previous issue of Playback Magazine. Subscribe to Playback for free to stay up to date with our latest articles, interviews, product reviews, and more. Sold-out arena tours, guitar-driven mainstream hits, designer death metal T-shirts—there’s no doubt that the resurgence of rock and metal is in full swing, and while the core foundations of the genre remain (live instruments played by real people), the process of making and releasing the music is in the midst of a modern-day makeover.  The result: an exhilarating new era, characterized by the pure energy of a guitar-heavy sound, combined with genre-blurring, world-building, and AI-enhanced creativity.    Continue reading →

Karno's SEPIA is a new audio platform that combines the best aspects of analog processing and digital control. At launch, the SEPIA system consists of the L6 rackmount host unit (available with analog or digital I/O) and 22 SEPIA modules from 15 brands. The L6 fits up to six SEPIA modules and provides comprehensive digital control over the fully analog signal path, allowing you to use real analog hardware with the ease and flexibility of plugins.  Continue reading →

Bob Clearmountain is a mixing engineer’s mixing engineer. Starting out as a staff engineer at Mediasound and Power Station studios in 1970s New York, Clearmountain cut his teeth working with acts like Kool & the Gang, Chic, and Bruce Springsteen. By the 1980s, he was being hired exclusively for his mixing talents by the likes of David Bowie, Roxy Music, and The Rolling Stones, and eventually became the first mixer to receive a percentage of royalties. He was also an early adopter of 5.1 surround sound, mixing countless records in the format before switching to Dolby Atmos—all on his trusty SSL 4072 G+ console.  Continue reading →

Ben Kane is a Brooklyn-based producer, mixer, and engineer who holds three Grammy Awards and a Latin Grammy for his work with D’Angelo, Cultura Profetica, PJ Morton, and CeCe Winans. In 2018, Ben and co-founder Drew Vogelman opened Electric Garden: a colorful, inspiring studio with an eclectic vibe that seems to mirror Kane’s adventurous production style. Kane’s "Five Sounds With" interview offers a blend of creative production, masterful songwriting and musicianship, soulful vocal performances, and occasional psychedelic flourishes. From breathing new life into Bilal’s demo tracks to stacking harmonies with D’Angelo and recording jazz ensembles direct to analog tape, Kane brings unique and thoughtful contributions to everything he’s a part of. Continue reading →

DPA microphones are celebrated for their extremely transparent sound and low-noise performance, and the Danish company’s new CORE+ technology takes that to the next level. Based on the revolutionary CORE technology introduced in 2018, which dramatically reduced Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) levels across the board, CORE+ further reduces THD to levels that can’t even be detected except at the upper limits of SPL tolerance.  To better understand the technology behind CORE+ and its benefits for live and studio applications, we spoke with DPA’s Global Sales Support and Business Development Manager, Paul Andrews.  Continue reading →