Articles and Interviews from our editorial staff.
COLUMN: Matt Forger. Michael C. Ross. Eddie Kramer. Elliot Scheiner. Joe Chiccarelli. Each one is a huge star in the world of recording. Scott G points out that you probably own albums with their names listed in the credits as engineer, producer, or mixer. Studio Expresso is what they all have in common.
REVIEW: Some music soothes you. Some seduces you. And some swaggers up to you and hits you over the head with a box of skateboard parts. Scott G (The G-Man) writes about an upstart new band called Manic Circuit that slams its way into your skull with songs of raw power combined with progressive structure.
COLUMN: Ever notice that some music artists suck? Sure you have. Ever thought it would be helpful to label these artists so we could avoid wasting time with them? Of course you have. In an interview with Brian Forest, Scott G explains how these worthless performers should all be lumped into a new genre of music that he calls “nada.”
COLUMN: Non-stop rock and roll, aerialists, pole dancing, costumes, wild props and cavorting with hoops are just some of the entertaining things in the current EU tour by Pink. The theatrical presentation is great. I know because I have been seeing it at Powder shows for the past few years.
REVIEW: I was pretty excited to hear about the new disc “Fingerprints” (A&M/New Door/UMe) from Peter Frampton, a seminal guitar god from the ’70s who became enormously famous for his “Frampton Comes Alive” album and for his formant-tube guitar “talk box” sound on that record 30 years ago. I hadn’t really thought about him much lately except when my iTunes jukebox cycled around to his tunes. So, getting the new disc was like hearing from an old friend again.
INTERVIEW: Matt Forger speaks out on everything from working with Michael Jackson to producing new artists like Mutant Radio. G-Man: When people think of Matt Forger, they usually think of your work with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Glen Ballard, and Bruce Swedien, yet when you hand out a CD with examples […]
COLUMN: With the “A&R Registry,” “Music Publisher Registry,” “Music Business Attorney Registry,” “Producer Registry,” and the “Film and Television Music Guide,” Ritch Esra and Stephen Trumbull provide vital connections in a rapidly-changing business. Scott G likes ’em and uses ’em.
COLUMN: Three personal managers of independent artists outline pathways for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace “An artist’s music must be something I love,” stated Jennifer Yeko of True Talent Management. “It has to be music I want to hear in my personal life as well as when I’m working.” This view was echoed by […]
Just when you think it’s safe to go shopping on eBay for used gear, like a vintage tube mic, or analog keyboard, the phishing artists have to ruin my day. Phishing, is the practice of trying to fool you into going to a website pretending to be a legitimate site, like a bank or eBay, or to contact somebody about a product or service through real looking email communications.
Cakewalk today unveiled official details of the latest iteration of their popular music creation and recording suite: SONAR version 6. According to the company, SONAR 6 debuts an innovative feature called Active Controller Technology (ACT) and other features to “tighten up your entire band with the revolutionary new AudioSnap.”
A Special Report by Scott G (The G-Man): Where music meets licensing, there’s money to be made. How much money? “I have synched quite a few thousand songs into productions over the years,” states Peter Jansson of CRC Jianian Co., “and have charged anywhere between US$1.00 and US$250,000 for each one.”
GEAR REVIEW: Gleaming, smooth, player-friendly and finely-crafted guitars are a labor of love for Pat Wilkins, but that’s not how he makes his living. Instead, he’s the master of something that is on every guitar: the finish.
COLUMN: From songwriting to band politics, from rehearsals to touring, and from recording to making money, the Michael W. Dean book $30 MUSIC SCHOOL is superb, succinct and often subversively funny. Scott G thinks it’s worth about a hundred times what you pay for it.
Making money from music online: NARIP and the Hype Council help the advertising, marketing, and recording industries face the facts and expose the fiction – a report by The G-Man.
COLUMN: Jay Flanzbaum wants to change the way every indie band handles touring, promotion, booking, and the management of their careers. His creation is called OnlineGigs and it has the potential to shift the balance in favor of artists who want to do things for themselves.
COLUMN: Audio mastering is widely misunderstood, often mangled, and sometimes mistaken for mixing. It’s the audio step that comes just before manufacturing a CD, and some people would even say it’s a crucial step.
COLUMN: WireonFire is not exactly a record label, but to Earth, Wind & Fire and more than a dozen other artists, it’s not only the next-best-thing, it may be even better. Why? Because WireonFire provides almost all of the same services as a record company, but without the 70-page contracts and the penny-rate royalties.
COLUMN: Sat Bisla, Jeff Blue, Ritch Esra and Perry Watts-Russell have worked with and/or signed artists such as Radiohead, Meredith Brooks, Secret Machines, The Thompson Twins, Linkin Park, Macy Gray, Korn, Dido, Damien Rice and The Chemical Brothers, and they have a lot to say about the current state of the record industry and the […]