The name Jim Scott has graced many excellent albums since he made his debut as first engineer on Sting's The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Artists as varied as the Dixie Chicks, Wilco, John Fogerty, the...
From the first moment another engineer raved about a Little Labs DI to me, I knew that this company was onto something special. It turns out Little Labs is Jonathan Little, a man who lives and works...
As we wind our way through the crazy world of recording music and learn more, sometimes we look back and suddenly realize just how great some records we'd taken for granted actually sound. One day...
A few years back I was turned onto a book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. This excellent tome undertook explaining music, how we perceive it, where it comes from and...
Ken Hirsch has had a varied career in live sound, studio recording, product support and electronics. These days he and Josie, his wife and partner, head up their original company, Orphan Audio, along...
Hit songs? Top of the charts? These days most of us involved in recording music rarely get our hopes up for having hits or seeing our work place high on the Billboard charts. But imagine working in...
I first became aware of producer/engineer Tony Doogan by reading the credits on albums. I soon realized the same guy had worked with Teenage Fanclub, Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai, The Delgados,...
Glasgow was once home to a wonderful, but sadly now defunct, band known as The Delgados. They started up a record label, Chemikal Underground, to release their records and others, and also became...
Sometimes you get to meet people who were your heroes back when you were a teen. The first time a 16-year-old me heard Gang of Four, a "post punk" band from Leeds, England, the directness of the...
Years ago I met Pall and his band Black Heart Procession and ended up recording a few single and compilation tracks for them as they came through Portland on tour. I really enjoyed their music and...
If you look back over the history of recording studios, you soon realize that in the '40s and '50s engineers used to have to custom build their own mixing consoles. Nobody was selling "ready-to-go"...
Vic Keary and Nick Terry, along with partner Jon Bailes, are the people behind the UK gear company Thermionic Culture. Larry and I both have several pieces of their gear that we really like, so...
