Bass! How low can you go? Sam talked about studying with Bruce Swedien, the best way to record vocals in a home studio, the importance of phase, how to mix kick & bass for huge low end, when distortion is good, and the secrets to a killer vocal mix.

My guest today is Sam Sherbin, a mixing engineer based in Los Angeles, California. First cutting his teeth at various studios in New York City, he went on to develop his skills under the mentorship of the late Bruce Swedien at his home studio in Florida. Since then, Sam has scored cuts with international stars like CL, Stray Kids, Rachel Platten, Ebony Obsidian and more. He collaborates closely with the likes of multi-platinum producer and composer Nick Lee, expanding Sam’s footprint in both music and network television shows like NBC’s Grand Crew.

I ran into Sam at NAMM and am excited for us to dive into learning more about mixing and particularly mixing pop and bass music. Knowing how to get the low end just right is crucial whether you are mixing 808 kick drums and sub bass or just getting a rock band to sounds great. And Sam clearly knows how to get the low end to sounds awesome!

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Register for the FREE Awesome Mix Workshop with Bobby Owsinski:

https://go.bobbyowsinski.com/musicmix/#a_aid=LShaw

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

LISTEN TO DISCOGRAPHY
ON
SPOTIFY

Website Links:

Instagram: @samsherbinmusic
In The Zone Podcast

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Sometimes it's better to conform! Jermaine talked about hybrid composing music for film, making the music fit ever-shrinking film edits, switching to Cubase, how to create an orchestra in your home studio, and the secret to realistic-sounding scores.

My guest today is Jermaine Stegall, a film composer and conductor. With over 50 projects to his credit, Jermaine most well-known for the score to “Coming 2 America”, the highly anticipated sequel to the Eddie Murphy classic, with Murphy, Arsenio Hall and James Earl-Jones all reprising their roles. Jermaine recently completed the score for "Praise This" for Universal Pictures. Other scoring and conducting assignments have included “Senior Year” (2022) for Paramount Pictures, and the upcoming film “Oracle” for Universal Pictures.

As a musical conductor, Stegall led a live string orchestra alongside Grammy-winning artist Tori Kelly at the televised 2019 ESPY Awards. A year prior, he conducted the orchestra to Camila Cabello’s performance of “Consequences” on ABC’s American Music Awards. In addition to scoring 2 seasons of "Our Star Wars Stories,” an original digital series from Lucasfilm and StarWars.com, in which host Jordan Hembrough uncovers heartfelt tales of fans and families who have found inspiration in the galaxy far, far away, Jermaine was also nominated for a MPSE Golden Reel Award for scoring the animated Netflix short film "Canvas" directed by Pixar's Frank Abney III.

Thank you to Chris James for the introduction!

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

LISTEN TO DISCOGRAPHY
ON
SPOTIFY

Website Links:

https://www.jermainestegall.com
Instagram: @jermainestegall
Twitter: @jermainestegall
YouTube: @jermainestegall1

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Cutting edge technology vs technically cutting edges... Nick and J talked about mixing and mastering vinyl records, Atmos vs Sony 260AR, how to listen to immersive audio, mixing for Halloween, old school vs modern low-end, and how to rescue a snare.

My guests today are Nick Townsend and J Clark joining us from Infrasonic West in Los Angeles. 

Nick Townsend’s musical prowess is rooted in the punk rock scene. He began drumming for punk bands at the age of 16, and has been playing professionally ever since. His trained ears, and passion for music production, is owed to recording bands in his grandmother’s garage. He attended the Audio Engineering School at Citrus College in Glendora, CA. He then landed his first audio job with Infrasonic Mastering in 2012 where he assisted Pete Lyman, while simultaneously learning the craft of vinyl mastering and lacquer cutting. Soon thereafter, he started his own Townsend Mastering until 2021 when he rejoined Infrasonic Los Angeles. Nick has mastered records for The Egyptian Lover, Militarie Gun, No Pressure, Fleshwater, Spanish Love Songs and many more, and specializes in vinyl mastering and lacquer cutting of over 2,000 vinyl records including artists such as Cheap Trick, Paramore, Weezer, Iron Maiden, Bad Religion, Garbage, Dr. Dre, 2pac, Grimes and more. His work can be identified by the hand scribed “NT” found on the lock groove of each vinyl.

J Clark is an engineer, mixer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, CA. He spent the majority of the late 90’s and 2000’s playing and touring in the bands Pretty Girls Make Graves, Killsadie, Jaguar Love, and Sharks Keep Moving. After moving to Los Angeles in 2010, he began composing music for ads and movies before expanding into post production; Re-Recording mixing, Sound Design, and Dialogue editing for film and television. In late 2020 he began mixing and mastering music in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA. His spatial credits include artists such as Jennifer Lopez, MK, The Hold Steady, Nelly, Nicky Jam, Marc Anthony, and many others. J’s studio was designed and built in collaboration with PMC Loudspeakers, Dolby Laboratories, and Sony Home Entertainment and boasts an impressive 24 speakers! It’s built to handle the present and future of multichannel sound for music, picture and gaming offering an 11.1.6 ATMOS and a 13.1 Sony360 array for the most precise playback and detail of your immersive projects.

Thanks to Raelynn Janicke for setting this interview up!

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

LISTEN TO DISCOGRAPHY
ON SPOTIFY

Website Links:

Instagram: @infrasonicsound
Twitter: @infrasonicsound
www.infrasonicsound.com

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

It's gotta slap to be right! Rae talked about mastering everything from pop to hard rock and punk to EDM and respecting the bass drop, how to master Atmos mixes, tips for managing a studio, when loudness matters, and the importance of level matching.

My guest today is Raelynn Janicke, a mastering engineer and the studio manager for Infrasonic Mastering, based in Nashville, TN. Before joining Infrasonic in 2019, Raelynn worked at Tommy’s Tracks, where she fulfilled a variety of roles alongside owner Tommy Wiggins including mastering and archival. Raelynn has mastered and assisted on projects for The Shins, Kayla Hall, Nefesh Mountain, Talia Stewart, Big 50, and Eli Howard.

Raelynn got her Bachelor's Degree in Applied Arts and Sciences, with Concentrations in Audio Engineering and Computer Science, from The Rochester Institute of Technology. Much like her career thus far, Raelynn’s path to her degree was self-made. She was initially drawn to the practicality of a job in computer programming, but switched majors halfway through her program after assisting on a college a cappella record. From there, she discovered the school’s modest audio program, created an individualized degree, and threw in minors in history and music technology, just to keep things interesting.

Raelynn brings this level of enthusiasm and exploration to every project she works on at Infrasonic Mastering, both as manager and engineer.

She describes herself on her website as a “Mastering Engineer Who Loves Tacos and Is Taller Than Danny Devito.” Thanks to F Reid Shippen for connecting us.

Today we will talk about the tech meets art of mastering, running a busy multi room facility, Atmos immersive audio, and how AI in mastering could affect our future of music.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

Instagram: @raelynn_jae
www.infrasonicsound.com

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Why would you put a Pultec on every track? David talked about mixing with fewer plugins to keep the best ones special, how to create a great mix template, the sound and feel of hybrid mixing, compression as tone, and mixing with the SSL UF8 and UC-1.

My guest today is David Vignola, a professional audio mixing engineer with over 20 years experience who has mixed and mastered music for hundreds of artists all over the world. He has been in studios all over the country, working in many analog/digital hybrid studios. He also studied under the mixing engineer Michael White whose credits Include The Rolling Stones, Whitney Houston, Kiss, and the Talking Heads, just to name a few.

Over the last decade David decided to start giving back by helping musicians and engineers learn the craft of audio engineering. He found that teaching was something he really enjoyed and that led him to create Home Recording Made Easy.com and now Mixing Made Easy.net. His main focus is on the beginner/intermediate recording musician and aspiring audio engineer to help students improve their recording/engineering skills. I have enjoyed watching David’s Youtube videos and I highly recommend that you check them out Rockstars.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

Instagram: @homerecordingmadeeasy
www.homerecordingmadeeasy.com
www.mixingmadeeasy.net
www.mixingmusicanalog.com
www.youtube.com/homerecordingmadeeasy
www.youtube.com/mixingmusicanalog

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

The standard guitar tuning is only a suggestion! Joe talked about Mellotron, Cubase and Pro Tools, creative guitar tunings, recording piano and drums, training your ear for eq, headphones vs speakers, home studios and the sound of drywall vs volume.

My guest today is Joe Pisapia a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as a member of Guster and k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang. He co-produced and co-wrote Guster’s 2006 release, Ganging Up On the Sun, an album that cracked Billboard’s Top 25 and was one of the best selling internet albums of the year. He did the same on the band’s 2010 Easy Wonderful. He produced and penned the title track for Lang’s 2011 album, Sing It Loud, and acted as music director for the accompanying tour.

As a producer and mixer Joes credits include: Ben Folds Five’s, The Hush Kids, Zac Clark, Drew Holcolmb, Chuck Mead, Josh Rouse, Courtney Jaye, Matt Wertz, William Tyler, The Silver Seas and The Pierces and when the Grammy Award-winning band Fun needed orchestral recording for its Grammy performance, they called on Joe.

Originally from New Jersey Joe moved to Nashville with his band Joe Mark’s Brother in the 90s with whom he has made beautiful sounding records and Joe has continued to record as a solo artist producing from his own studio Middle Tree in East Nashville.

His 2002 release Daydreams was given four stars and called “stellar” by AllMusic.com. Ron Sexsmith called 2015’s Nightvision, “amazing” and the “best thing” he’s “heard in a long time.”

In 2016 Pisapia collaborated with singer/ songwriter Kate York for the duet E.P. “Kate York And Joe Pisapia.” and in 2018 Joe released two full length solo albums. “Connection” and “Cosmic Christmas”.

In 2019 Pisapia recorded his first instrumental album, “Imbolc.” For a 2020 release of the album, he made music “videos,” which consisted of him making some of his favorite comfort foods. Joe also produced much of, and mixed all of Pam Tillis’ “Looking For A Feeling.” Tillis cut Pisapia’s song “Better Friends,” which was originally released on his solo album, “Connection.” NPR’s Ann Powers singled out Tillis’ version of “Better Friends” calling it a “quintessential country song.” Also in 2019 Joe produced Jillette Johnson’s “It’s A Beautiful Day And I Love You,” and was part of the live ensemble whom recorded the album “Outside Child” by Allison Russell, produced by Dan Knobler which Joe described as “tantamount to a holy experience.”

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

Instagram: @joepisapia
Facebook: JoePisapiaMusic

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Never start anything from scratch! Joe talked about writing songs, using a Presonus Studio Live mixer in a home studio, breaking through writers' block with lyrics, comping vs punching vocals, acoustic room treatment, and promoting your own music.

My guest today is Joe Gilder a musician and entrepreneur from Franklin, TN. As a musician, he's released a number of albums and EPs of his own music. As an entrepreneur, he founded Home Studio Corner in 2009, where he creates free content and paid courses to help musicians learn how to produce their own music at home. These days, Joe creates content for Home Studio Corner, The Recording Revolution, and PreSonus and Fender.

Joe has been a guest on the show way back on episode RSR003 and RSR108! So please check that out to hear his background story. Today we are going to talk about making killer records like his band Staredown, and see what we can learn about writing, creating, mixing and mastering your next record ever.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

www.homestudiocorner.com
Instagram: @joegilder

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Get the most amazing deal ever - 50% Off JZ Microphones at JZMicrophones.com/rockstars. Andris talked about choosing the right microphone for your studio, what makes JZ Mic Golden Drop Capsules so unique, and mic choice for drums, guitars, and vocals.

My guest today is Andris Zemmers, the marketing director and member of the board of JZ Microphones in Latvia, that makes premium-level studio microphones used by many Grammy Award winning producers and world-class music stars such as Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones), Bono (U2), Lady Gaga, Christine Aguilera, Foo Fighters, and more.

Andris is also a successful musician on a national level in his home country Latvia. Today his pop rock band “Neon Saturdays” has many TOP10 radio singles in nationally.

Andris has been with JZ Microphones for 11 years and is responsible for the big success with JZ direct-to-consumer online store.

Today we are going to talk about how to choose the mic that`s best for your studio and what the differences are between all the JZ mics.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

jzmic.com
Instagram: @andriszemmers @neon_saturdays
JZ Microphone Shootout! - V11, V67, V47, V12, Blackhole BH1S, Amethyst, BB29 - (w/ Audio Demos)
How to use a Mono Mic for a Killer Drum Sound! JZ V11 & Spectra1964
Unboxing the JZ Mics BB29!
JZ Microphones V67 &V11 Review in the Studio
JZ Mics BH1S Review with Lij Shaw (hear the full song at end!)

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

Fully concentrating while mixing is a bad idea! Reid talked about the future of mixing with AI, why the role of music producer will survive the tech, how much cooler Atmos is over stereo mixes, and how to make your vocals and drums sounds amazing!

My guest today is F. Reid Shippen a multiple Grammy Award-winning mixer, engineer, and record producer, whose credits include 10 Grammy Award-winning albums and over 100 #1 singles and artists such as Ingrid Michaelson, Kenny Chesney, India.Arie, Cage the Elephant, Little Big Town, CeCe Winans, Steven Tyler, Colony House, Lucie Silvas, Jessie Reyez, and Dierks Bentley.

He has previously served as co-chair of the Producers & Engineers Wing of NARAS, and currently serves as the Chief Creative Officer for the music production house, The Music Playground. As an advocate for music education, Shippen teaches a class at Middle Tennessee State University where we were classmates in audio school, and is a co-founder of SongFarm, a creative-centered charity that focuses on providing creative curricula for secondary schools. He currently works out of his private Robot Lemon studio, located in the Green Hills area of Nashville

Reid has been on the podcast a few times already to talk about recording and mixing. And today we will dig into some more mixing tips and maybe even talk about mixing in Atmos.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

https://www.robotlemon.com/
Instagram: @robotlemon
Facebook: F. Reid Shippen

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko
Liz Hulitskaya

"You're the cat on the date!" Mark talked about session mindset with Hall Blaine, vocal arranging for the Fairfield Four, a Meat Puppets session in Pheonix, how to play the right bass note, why your headphones matter, and how to rock online sessions.

My guest today is Mark Prentice, a Grammy-winning Record Producer, studio musician, music director, and hit songwriter. His versatile and exhaustive music industry resume includes recording and performance credits with renowned County Artists as well as various Internationally known Pop, R&B, and Rock-n-Roll Artists, including: Elvis Costello, John Fogarty, Jonathan Cain, Desmond Child, The Fairfield Four, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, BJ Thomas, Frankie Miller, Delbert McClinton, Ricky Skaggs, Olivia Newton-John, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Johnny Cash, Don McLean, Crystal Gayle, Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra), Jennifer Nettles, Michael McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Bruce Hornsby, Felix Cavaliere, The Young Rascals, Charley Pride, Allison Morer, Sam Moore, Billy Preston, Ben E. King, Michelle Wright, Jennifer Hanson, John Oates, Pat Boone, Patti Page, Lady Antebellum, Rodney Atkins, Chuck Wicks, Paulette Carlson, Bruce Cockburn, Holly Williams, Bo Diddley, Mitch Ryder, others.

I met Mark in the past couple years through mutual friends who gather to talk about music, life, and what the hell just happened to music and the world recently, and when I was invited to the annual Christmas party and saw how Mark could sit at the piano and play any song just by thinking about how should probably go I knew I was in the company of some serious musical talent.

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

⬇︎⬇︎Scroll down to listen⬇︎⬇︎

Listen TO THE PODCAST here⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Website Links:

AllMusic: Mark Prentice

Additional podcast editing and production by:
Brayden Stremming
Vlad Vasilcenko