In recent years double bassist Yuri Goloubev has lent his rich sound to multiple projects, including the co-led Duonomics (Caligola, 2018) with Michele Di Toro. It was 2011's Titanic for a Bike (Caligola), however, that marked Goloubev's last recording as outright leader... [ read more ]

Truth, the debut album by New York-based trombonist / vocalist Seth Weaver, has its ups and downs, most of which involve the leader himself. The "ups" enter the picture thanks to Weaver's five far-better-than-average compositions, the "downs" whenever he chooses to sing, as he does on three of eight numbers... [ read more ]

What do you want from Wayne Krantz anyway? It's a particularly relevant question when new release time rolls around for the guitar icon(oclast). Not that Krantz himself seems to give the question much thought. He's more known for being preoccupied with things like inventing (and reinventing) himself, exploring and capturing ineffable group mojo, or pushing the envelope toward things he has yet to try or accomplish... [ read more ]

Ive been making music for couple of years now but still cant figure out why my mix doesnt sound professional. Im I doing something wrong? This is the link to my tracks http://www.ourmedia.org/node/300488 Someone please help me out.

The 100% guaranteed way to get your bedroom mixes to sound more professional (and by far the most expensive) is to spend time in a recording studio. Take the raw tracks to something you want to mix, import it into their ProTools setup (or whatever they use) and have a pro engineer (must be a talkative, friendly one, not a grumpy, cynical one) to mix it. ASK A BILLION questions, be a dork and write stuff down if you have to. The worst case scenario is that after 2/3 hours at least you'll know what questions to ask of Google or at the local tech book store. The best case is that your music impresses the engineer and he/she becomes a pseudo mentor for you. Engineering is by far my weakest area (along with playing in tune and in time) so everything that follows is said that caveat: I have found that going cheap on mastering tools (compression, limiters, eq) hurts bedroom mixes a lot. Money I've spent on the top utilities there (I use Waves) dwarfs all my other plugins put together by an order of magnitude. (Reason's mastering suite is pretty good so you may be covered there; although I've applied Waves L2 to mixes done after the 'final' Reason mixdown and there's no question there was a marked improvement in pro-sheen.) I have found tweakheadz site very useful, especially their mixing 101 page. Finally I have been told (and have experienced it myself) that posting often to ccM and asking for real, brutal reviews and feedback has helped a lot of people. I, for one, am very, very embarrassed by several of my uploads from 2 years ago here, while only very embarrassed by more recent ones; all strictly due to people hearing stuff I didn't.

that sounds good. ill look for a studio near my place. at the end you said that the comments from ccmixer is very useful but what shall i do if i want a brutal review of my own original mix? because on ccmixer i can only upload remixes or samples or separate tracks.

being a remix site and short on resources we can't handle original material. so, er, get remixing... ;)

my buddy des has a great blog he runs that can surely help almost anyone here with improving their production. http://www.hometracked.com/ also, his music is worth checking out, just so you can see that he knows what he's talking about. des is a great guy and a really excellent artist. http://www.deshead.com/

U need to have a good pair of monitors, headphones will not do at all! I agree with Fourstones, Waves is a very good suite. I use it within SoundForge and it really does help in cleaning up the frequencies. My mixes really improved when I had monitor speakers included in the set up. Experiment and let me know, I'll give u some quality feedback, no holds, sometimes the truth hurts! LOL! EZ m8 Morr

The best thing I can say is: learn about sound. Learn about frequencies, which ones sound like what and do what to the overall mix. Whether or not to use a low or high pass filter on something. Fiddle with EQs for hours. And more importantly, get criticism. It's the easiest way to learn what sound to look out for, and such. And most importantly of all: Practice. Mix till your ears bleed. (from the time spent listening to the same song, not due to the terrible mix :P) Mixing is one of my strong suits, but most of it is just being able to hear the song, and make the adjustments that I want, to be able to make the necessary changes and just know what needs to be done.

bravo!

That's a very good point- I started with a Mac LC, EZVision and an M1, with the only audio manipulation being Hypercard. I got good at customizing patches and finding seamless loop points manually just to get what I could out of what I had, with mastering being 1/4"-to-RCA from the headphone jack on the M1 to AUX IN on the cassette player, or the same thing with 1/8" adapter for the 'puter sound files. Then I'd record and bounce these cassette tracks to my 4-track, with final routing from 4-track's headphone-out back to the cassette. Ugly stuff, but that's what I had to work with...

This is a very good point. I think that it's easy to keep adding new gear, and thus miss the richness of existing gear and software. I like to work with more limited software sometimes, so that I can feel as if I am exploiting it to its fullness.

Ive been making music for couple of years now but still cant figure out why my mix doesnt sound professional. Im I doing something wrong? This is the link to my tracks http://www.ourmedia.org/node/300488 Someone please help me out. The first thing I noticed was the lack of higher frequencies in your mix... My mixes always end up being bass heavy (because I suck horribly) so I can see we both have the same problem... There's is (however) an over-abundance of frequency-fighting in your track... A lot of distorted things competing for my attention (at least in my ears). Dunno if any of this has been helpful, but we could all learn things...so hopefully you'll have advice for me in the future ;-) Good luck, and we me luck too! -Joel

This is a useful thread. Im just in the middle of mixing a new ccmixter-based song and its just not coming together for me. The tweakheadz and hometracked sites are great. A couple other useful sites: tips and techniques at gearslutz - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html ; Live tips - http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27120 ; general EQ reference - http://www.idmforums.com/showthread.php?t=11466 Im definitely going to get the mix Im working on up here, I need some blunt advice.

OK, I uploaded Hollywood Picture Book (feat Calendar Girl and Kaer Trouz) and entered a pluggy plug for comments over this weekend.

Borth Audio has released Typewriter, a free sound library add-on for the Native Instruments Kontakt sampler. As the name suggests, Typewriter features a set of audio samples of an actual typewriter. This includes the sounds of typing, individual keys being pressed (Spacebar, Shift, and Caps Lock), levers, and various paper noises(feed, eject, crumple, tear). Six-octave [...]

View post: Borth Audio Releases Free Typewriter Sounds For NI Kontakt

Andreas T. Music has released Crystal Glass, a free melodic percussion sound library for Native Instruments Kontakt (also includes WAV samples). You can now play melodies using a virtual set of crystal glass. Add the sparkly chimes of crystal glasses to your music and use them as the lead instrument or for layering on top [...]

View post: Free Crystal Glass Sound Library By Andreas T. (Kontakt + WAV)

The closest governor's race in Washington state history lurched forward Friday, as state Democrats announced they had raised enough money to start a third count, this one by hand, of nearly 3 million ballots.

A recount by hand of 2.9 million votes began Wednesday to determine the winner of the closest gubernatorial race in state history.

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected the request that previously rejected absentee and provisional ballots be included in the hand recount of Washington state's contested governor's race.

The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that at least 573 previously disqualified absentee ballots -- potentially enough to swing the state's tightest election ever for Christine Gregoire -- can be counted.

Seven weeks after voters went to the polls, Democrat Christine Gregoire won Washington state's astonishingly close governor's contest by 130 votes, according to results of the third and final count.

Election officials finished the presidential recount in Ohio on Tuesday, with the final tally shaving about 300 votes off President Bush's six-figure margin of victory in the state that gave him a second term.

The Republicans, true to their vow to leave no vote unwooed, came to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania hoping to win over the famously reclusive Old Order Amish, along with their slightly less-strict brethren, the Mennonites. Democrats laughed at the very idea. But the GOP effort did the trick.

The freshly inaugurated Democratic governor's grip on the job she won by the tissue-thin margin of 129 votes remains wobbly, as Republicans press state courts to order a new election.

Interviewing for the 2004 exit polls was the most inaccurate of any in the past five presidential elections as procedural problems compounded by the refusal of large numbers of Republican voters to be surveyed led to inflated estimates of support for John F. Kerry, according to a report released Wednesday by the research firms responsible for the flawed surveys.

Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:

Years ago, the federal government spent $117 million on an experimental "clean coal" power plant in Alaska designed to generate electricity with a minimum of air pollution -- but the project never got up and running.

Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee has been studying the electorate, and the party's problem with voters of faith is both worse and better than he feared.

Five months after President Bush launched his drive to overhaul Social Security, the difficult, if not impossible, task of drafting legislation begins Tuesday when the Senate Finance Committee holds the first hearing on options to secure Social Security's future.

Eating healthfully can sometimes seem daunting.
"Who are they kidding?" a Lean Plate Club member from Frostburg, Md., complained in an e-mail soon after the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines were released in January. "Two cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables [daily]!"

An exercise demonstrated that middle-age, out-of-shape women who wore pedometers and were instructed to take at least 10,000 steps daily walked more than those who were told to take a 30-minute walk.

A new government study has concluded that obesity causes about 112,000 deaths each year in the United States, far fewer than a previous, highly publicized estimate by another part of the same agency.

The federal government unveiled a makeover of this well-known icon that emphasizes eating a variety of food, including healthful fat, and underscores physical activity.

The Bush administration issues guidelines advising physicians and hospitals that they are obligated to care for fetuses "born alive" naturally or in the process of an abortion.

It's the season to scam.
I think I've used the phrase "low-life bum" more than I care to as I've read story after story this past year of investors being ripped off in new and old scams.

MCI Inc.'s board of directors embraced a cash-rich offer from Qwest Communications International Inc. after months of saying the company was a financially weaker and strategically less desirable merger partner than Verizon Communications Inc.
-The Washington Post

Kanzlerin Merkel hat den Kulturschaffenden in Deutschland umfangreiche Hilfe versprochen. Dies stehe "ganz oben auf der Prioritätenliste". Eine Weltklasse-Geigerin will sich zum Sprachrohr armer Künstler machen.

Zahlreiche Länder lockern nach und nach ihre Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Coronavirus-Pandemie. Das weckt Hoffnungen auf einen Sommerurlaub im Ausland. Ein Überblick, wohin die Reise vielleicht bald gehen kann.

Brasilien wird zum neuen Corona-Hotspot. Derzeit sterben jeden Tag mehr als 600 Menschen. In Rio und São Paulo droht das Gesundheitswesen zu kollabieren. In der Urwaldmetropole Manaus ist das schon passiert. Von Ivo Marusczyk und Matthias Ebert.

Jahrelang fuhr die Bahn Fahrgastrekorde ein. Mit der Corona-Krise kam der Einbruch. Viele Kunden kämen so schnell nicht zurück, glaubt der Chef der Gewerkschaft EVG, Hommel. Das liege vor allem am Rückgang von Dienstreisen.

Fast täglich gibt es neue Erkenntnisse zum Coronavirus. Wie sinnvoll ist die 50er-Obergrenze der Lockerungsmaßnahmen? Wie funktionieren Antikörpertests? Wann kommt die Tracing-App? Ein Überblick von Dominik Lauck.

Russische und US-Soldaten verbrannten ein Bild Hitlers, sie spielte dazu Akkordeon - so erinnert sich Esther Bejarano an das Kriegsende. Als Auschwitz-Überlebende kritisiert sie die aktuellen politischen Geschehnisse scharf.

Mal angenommen, Sterbehilfe ist in Deutschland erlaubt. Würden sich mehr Menschen dafür entscheiden? Droht ein "Geschäft mit dem Tod"? Ein Gedankenexperiment.

Die Folgen der Corona-Pandemie sind dramatisch - nicht nur gesundheitlich, sondern auch wirtschaftlich und politisch. Tausende Menschen sterben. In großen Teilen der Welt kommt das öffentliche Leben im März 2020 zum Erliegen.

Seit April sind im bayerischen Waldkraiburg Anschläge auf Geschäfte türkischstämmiger Inhaber verübt worden. Jetzt nahm die Polizei einen 25-Jährigen fest. Ein extremistischer Hintergrund ist nicht ausgeschlossen.

Wie viele bestätigte Coronavirus-Fälle gibt es? Die interaktiven Karten geben einen aktuellen Überblick für Deutschland und die Welt. Sie zeigen auch an, wie viele Menschen gestorben und wie viele genesen sind.

Freude über die Lockerung der Ausgangssperre? In Frankreich haben viele eher Angst davor. Und anders als in anderen Ländern wächst in der Krise auch das Vertrauen in die politisch Verantwortlichen nicht. Warum ist das so? Von Martin Bohne.