More of the Same…but Different
Here’s my second video. A bit more erudite…hence the argyle. Roughly 5 minutes.
Video Vault for ’09
Well, this is an idea that’s been rattling around for quiet some time: create a series of short videos to hopefully be more engaging to people who are less apt to read about technically based musical concepts. So, I’m hoping to get a video vault of good stuff created in the coming year. Here’s my [...]
The Sound of One Year Ending
As 2008 comes to a close, I’d like to recap a few of the highlights the year held for us. With no further delay, here’s a quick look at the year in review. In the mastering department…I was proud to work on a number of great projects. On the national scene we mastered James Sonefeld’s [...]
Secret Sonic Sauce
IMO, if there is a secret sauce for making recordings it’s this: Record the tracks in as short a time as possible Take your time getting a great mix Have a professional master your album Recording your tracks in as short a time as possible is a great way to get a spontaneous feel in [...]
Instrumental Lawsuit
You may have heard that guitarist Joe Satriani has filed a lawsuit against reigning Brit-rockers Coldplay. Seems their new single is pretty similar to a track Satch put out a few years back. I can’t imagine Satriani needs the money, so my assumption is he’s driven by artistic motive not profit. But check out this [...]
Season of Love
A client of mine, The Grams, lost their lead guitarist earlier this year in a car accident. This is a video that was shot while the band was still together in their original incarnation. The track is called Love.
Depth
One element of recorded audio that has been lost little-by-little over the years is depth. People have sort of gone crazy with the width of the sound spectrum: pan-potting everything all over the place in an attempt to recreate true stereo sound through multi-mono techniques. But depth is harder to fake. To get real depth [...]
Sad State of Affairs
Maybe it’s the time of the year…you know, good will toward men and all that. But as I’m “mastering” (term used loosely) a compilation CD of local San Diego musicians, I can’t help but be struck with the abysmal sound quality on so many of the tracks. Many of the songs are great, which makes [...]
Is Art Dead?
While visiting my family over Thanksgiving, my wife and I took a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water: a house he designed for the Kaufmann family in the early 20th Century. It’s a house that you could say is pretty much no-compromise…and a real work of art. I was wondering if an equivalent to [...]
Are Discs Dead?
I recently had a conversation with a musician friend who claimed that “discs are dead.” Hmmm, I thought. If that’s so, why do 99% of the artists in the world still print CDs and DVDs? Let’s take a comparative look. Everyone knows the Web dominates as a disseminator of information. But is print dead? Newspapers [...]
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
We welcome comments from readers...pro or con!
