Family Force 5

I've become a big fan of these guys. Family Force 5 is really unique, blending tons of influences. Their stuff has energy!!!! It's so entertaining. In the spirit of producing great records, take a look at this article on how they produced their record. There's a major focus on how they tracked guitars. Hopefully you'll get a picture into how they made the record. (Pay attention to the comment about using small amps for big sounds... even a cigarette mini amp!)

Happy guitar tracking!

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/family_force_5_exception_to_the_rules.html

Tips for tracking guitars.... using microphones and don't forget to use strings!! ;)
(on a serious note, I love SM57's blended with a Royer 121 or an ADK S7 through API 512 pres into a distressor or LA-3A limiters! Peace out!)

REPOST: Buss Compressors and Parallel Compression

This post was published originally on May 3rd, 2009 but I realized that the link was bad. It was worth posting again. Check it out and learn :)
*****

There are SOOOO many ways to use compression. I consider Michael Brauer a genius when it comes to mixing with compression. He is unbelievably innovative and has worked long and hard to develop his fantastic technique.

I remember hearing Coldplay's "Violet Hill" and being so impressed with its unique sound only to find out that Brauer mixed it (he's mixed a LOT of Coldplay stuff). I found this article where he talks about the process of mixing this fantastic song. Check it out...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/articles/itbrauer.htm

Also be sure to check our Michael Brauer's website and try to read through all of through and contemplate all of his Q&A stuff. WOW!

Plugins are so dang expensive!!!

As you know, plugins can be very expensive. I think I'd be jaw dropped at the amount of money I've spent on plugins in the last five years or so. Without counting, I must have about 100 plugins and software instruments and I've purchased every single one of them. (I'm a big proponent for PAYING for the tools and music you use... anything else is stealing, right?)

There is hope though! Have you ever considered buying plugins on ebay? Well, if not you should! In the last few years I've purchased many plugins and plugin bundles on ebay at massive discounts. I paid about $60 for Smack!, $125 for the Focusrite Bundle and I purchased the Waves SSL TDM bundle for $600 and the entire Sound Toys Suite for $750. Now, that's still a lot of money, but it's still a great deal! I've purchased the above plugs as well as things like TL Space, the Pultec Bundle, Moog FX, Fairchild Compressors, Auto Tune, etc.

So, before you go spending full price for your plugins, do an ebay search for what you need. You can save your search criteria and ebay will notify you when what you are looking for becomes available.

Merry Christmas everyone. Enjoy giving gifts but I pray you'll spend some time enjoying your families and celebrating Jesus Christ this season.