News Archives | Page 5 of 16

For today’s #TilYouMakeIt, we are back in Nashville at Blackbird Studio to speak with sound engineer and studio owner John McBride (Garth Brooks, Martina McBride, Stevie Nicks) as shares why he built his beloved studio.

Known for its state-of-the-art music production facilities and vast collection of vintage and modern recording equipment, Blackbird gives artists the ability to paint with every color in the palette and has created a space in which iconic acts like Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and countless others have created the records they want to make.

#TilYouMakeIt is a collection of films with audio professionals chronicling those stand-out moments from their careers and capturing wisdom from the game’s most esteemed producers, mixers and engineers.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code TILYOUMAKEIT at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

We have a t-shirt on the back that says “Either you rock or you suck” and all it really means is if you’re gonna do anything, don’t half-ass it. Do it. Right.

Part of the reason I built Blackbird Studio was that LA and New York treated Nashville like a redheaded stepchild, I thought. My goal was I wanna build a studio that’ll kick the shit out of anything in LA or New York.

I look at the artist, producer, and engineer as painters and one of the reasons we have so much gear is because I really wanted to give them every color on the palette with which to paint their picture.

Being a road person, I can’t buy one of something ’cause you have to have a spare. And then the fact that we have nine rooms here at at Blackbird and we have a rental company, well I need to buy at least ten to feel like, okay, we’re gonna be okay.

Plus, Every time I do it, I think they don’t do this in LA or New York. This is good, you know.

If my only contribution to music is building a place in which someone can make the record that they want to make, I’m fucking happy as could be.
Today on #NerdingOut we are joined by Chuck Ainlay, the 4x Grammy-winning music producer, engineer and mixer (Peter Frampton, Dire Straits, Taylor Swift). Chuck discusses the iconic sound of the Solid State Logic Console, the desk that became famous by mix engineers for its distinctive analogue sound, made popular on some of the biggest hits of the 1980s and early ’90s.

#NerdingOut is where we visit studios around the globe to talk about favorite gear, the plugins that never leave their chain, the tools one would save from a burning building, or the instruments brought to every session.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code NERD at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

There’s something about this console that’s just got this real forward sound.

We’re in Peter Frampton’s studio. We’re in Nashville, Tennessee. You and I have been doing a lot of work together over the past few years. This room just super well maintained. Sounds great. You know, as you can see, it’s got a plethora of gear. This is a solid state logic, or SSL this, it’s really known.

This is the kind of like the desk that sort of made pop music. Famous in the eighties, nineties, early two thousands, and then they came out with the later generations of this. But the idea back then was like, okay, we’re gonna track on a Neve console ’cause it had this big, fat, warm sound. And then we’d mix on an SSL ’cause it had the computer automation and, and had that forward sound.

And the two of them kind of was like that, that hit sound, you know, it’s kind of what I grew up on was SSL’s. I was working at a studio called The Castle. We were located outside of Nashville and we were trying to attract business from Nashville. So we went with sort of the latest technology, which this was at the time.

It’s just what I grew up on, so I feel really comfortable on ’em.
From reaching the coveted number-one spot on Billboard’s Top 100 chart to landing his first ever sync deal, Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling mixing engineer Jeff Braun (Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, The Band CAMINO, Nelly) reflects on the many #PinchYourself moments he has experienced in his career to date.

Maybe it’s working or jamming with a childhood hero or hearing a vocal that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

This is #PinchYourself. Create your own once-in-a-lifetime moments with an extended one-month trial of LISTENTO, when you use the code PINCH at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

The first Aldean single that I did was my first number one. That was the first time something I did was on the radio.

I’ve had a couple pinch myself moments. The first one was when I had a mix. It was my very first sink mix that ever landed, and it was a trailer of this. Dragon Age: Inquisitions, Xbox video game. That was the first where it was like, wow, something that I did is actually gonna be seen by more than just like my mom and family or something, you know?

So, so that was pretty cool. Or if you’re in an Uber and then country music’s on the, on the radio, it’s like, That’s when I did. That’s when I did. That’s pretty cool. Anytime like that, that, that’s a pinch myself moment.

My wife’s in artist management and she works with a band called Nightly. We send videos at the speaker, like this Nightly song is playing right now and that’s always a cool thing.
Grammy-nominated mastering engineer and owner of Infrasonic Mastering, Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile) speaks on the raw power of Chris Stapleton’s debut solo album ‘Traveller’.

Now a certified classic, ‘Traveller’ was recorded at RCA Studio A and Blackbird, with fellow veterans of the Nashville scene, producer Dave Cobb and engineer Vance Powell, who would also mix the record. It won Album of the Year at the 2015 CMA Awards, where Stapleton performed album track ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ as a duet with Justin Timberlake, a dramatic moment that shot the album and Stapleton’s career from industry recognition to genuine mainstream superstardom.

#TilYouMakeIt is a collection of stories chronicling those moments and capturing wisdom from the game’s most esteemed producers, mixers and engineers.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code TILYOUMAKEIT at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever said this in an interview. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I’m gonna say it anyways. Like I heard the record and I’m like, this record is amazing. No one is gonna listen to it. Because it was just too good.

When I mastered Traveler, the first Chris Stapleton record, I remember getting that record and just sitting down and listening to it and it was like, wow, this is amazing. We mastered the record. It came out. And none of us had any idea what was gonna happen, and it just kind of sat there for a while, and then the Justin Timberlake thing happened and then all of a sudden, The roof blew off of it and it’s just been runaway train since that record. Couldn’t happen to nicer people and more talented people.

Dave Cobb is amazing and Vance Powell’s amazing mix mixes on these records. There are quite a few of the tracks on Traveler that are pretty much just flat transfers with no eq. They agonized over those mixes. But it’s been so fun to see this happen ’cause it, it, it just gives me a lot of faith, like, oh, people like good music.

It doesn’t have to just be all of this, like really manicured pop stuff. And not that that’s bad, but it’s cool to see someone get up there and just do something wrong
Having recently reached the coveted number one spot on Billboard’s Top 100 Chart with Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That In A Small Town’, as well as a number one on the Country Radio chart with Jelly Roll’s ‘Need a Favor’, Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling mixing engineer Jeff Braun (Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, The Band CAMINO, Nelly) shares his unique insight into the key components necessary to turn a great song into a number-one selling hit – from the original song, to the production, to marketing and everything in between.

#TilYouMakeIt is a collection of stories chronicling those moments and capturing wisdom from the game’s most esteemed producers, mixers and engineers.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code TILYOUMAKEIT at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

I feel like I’m lucky ’cause I hear all these songs before everybody else does. Sometimes it’s like a year before, like we’re mixing something and it comes out a year later and then it’s like, Okay. That one feels big. That one feels special.

A number one song takes a lot of things to make it work. The song has to be there. I mean, it all starts with a song. There’s a lot of stuff that can be production driven. Maybe the song is being supported by the production more than. The song is actually very strong. You know, a good test is like, can you play it on a piano and just sing it, or a guitar vocal, and if it still feels like a hit, like.

That it needs to have that. So the song itself has to be great. And then the production should enhance and support the emotion coming from the song. And then we hopefully stay out of the way. And what we do, and we just add ideas, delay throws, spins, effects moments that like amplify and sweeten.

And then it’s the business side, the radio team, promotion management, coming up with cool marketing ideas, and then just getting that snowball to really take off.

It’s a lot of stages that have to click for a song to really work. Anytime a session comes in from Jordan Schmidt, Dan Huff, Josh Kerr, all these guys, it’s gonna sound great and it’s gonna be a great song.
In this episode of #NerdingOut, we are back at Blackbird Studios to speak with the iconic studios’ former operations manager and resident drum tech Paul Simmons as he shares what gear he would use to piece together a thrash metal kit.

From Blackbird’s modern custom titanium kits to their hardwood options, Blackbird comes equipped with everything you need to translate your vision and achieve your desired sound.

#NerdingOut is where we visit studios around the globe to ask producers, engineers and artists about their favorite tools of the trade.

The plugins that never leave their chain, the gear they would save from a burning building, or the instruments they bring to every session.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code NERDINGOUT at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

TRANSCRIPT

We have fifty drum kits at, at our disposal, and then another twenty five in storage. So if a producer or an artist calls me and they have a thing they’re looking for, I know the drum kit.

If I were gonna build a thrash metal kit, oh man, my mind goes to Metallica. There’s a lot of attack, a lot of 4K snap on a bass drum, a lot of that, um, kind of pinpointed drum sound. So I would probably go for more modern kit. And we do have a kit that’s titanium. It’s unbelievable. It’s a custom kit that John (Mc Bride) had made that would work well.

They’re really loud, very bombastic. That’s comes to mind. But I have another kit that TOMA placed here for us. It’s really hardwood, bubinga wood would be fantastic for that. Tuning wise, there’s so many directions we could go put on some clear 2 ply drum heads, tight snare, but kind of dead, ’cause there’s a lot of that, this kind of stuff.

For me, I just really love to help them get the sound, get what they want. That’s the fulfillment for me.
In this #WhereIWork, the esteemed, five-time Grammy Award-winning mixer, engineer and producer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson, Gloria Gaynor) shares what it’s like working in Nashville at Infrasonic Mastering and how the collaborative environment fosters a strong sense of community and a willingness to push creative boundaries.

#WhereIWork is where we flash our VIP passes and gain access to the sacred spaces, the hallowed grounds where some of the best producers, songwriters, engineers and artists call home, and explore some of the amazing projects that took shape there.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code WHEREIWORK at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

FULL TRANSCRIPT

I walked out and it was Kenny Chesney and Sturgill Simpson having coffee in the kitchen, which was trippy.

We used to be in studios and people were collaborating and you see people in the hall and you grab ’em and bring ’em in to listen to stuff, and there’s like this give and take and it kind of makes you feel like a community and also helps you challenge your perceptions and break outta ruts and habits.

So I just love having people around the studio that we have, it’s not unusual for me to walk out into the lounge and see somebody like sitting on the couch and just having people around where I can run down the hall. Sit down and have a therapy session with Pete, like, go get somebody’s opinion. Ask him if I’m crazy on something like back and forth. Like that. Energy, I think is, is conducive to good art.

People flow through here all the time and it’s fascinating. I love that energy. Being in a place where you just hear people laughing all the time, just makes everything feel better.
While recording with Jack White with just eight tracks of 2” tape at seven inches per second, it became clear to seven-time Grammy Award-winning producer, engineer and mixer, Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, Elle King, The White Stripes) that working with limitations needn’t stifle creativity; if anything, having fewer options at your disposal means you don’t record what you don’t need – you’re that much more intentional with your recording.

#NerdingOut is where we visit studios around the globe to ask producers, engineers and artists about their favorite tools of the trade.

The plugins that never leave their chain, the gear they would save from a burning building, or the instruments they bring to every session.

LISTENTO is the industry standard for remote audio. Get an extended free trial when you use the code NERD at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

FULL TRANSCRIPT

There’s this great joke around Nashville. It’s uh, yeah, that takes sucked. Come on in. We’ve got Pro Tools. Unfortunately, that’s how a lot of people make records now, but you know, I can tell you there’s a lot of people who don’t.

I spent about eight years working with Jack White and there was tons of things that we were doing that were relatively, what I would say you would think unachievable these days where people have a DAW based workflow. We didn’t have that. We had a two inch eight track running at seven inches per second.

We had one drum track. You know, one track of bass, one track of guitar, you know, you start running out of tracks, so you have to make a really great sounding record in eight tracks. And a lot of people would say that’s unachievable, but it’s not. You can do it. The Beatles did it in four. You know, that’s, that’s amazing how great those records sound.

So the limitations made them choose what things to pick and play. And part of what happens today is it’s easy to record more than we need. Do we really need these tom mics? Maybe. Do we need a snare drum? Well, maybe. But the kick drum, the room, the overhead. That’s, that’s pretty great. Cool. Well, what else can we take away and try to work from the subtraction sort of concept?

Limitations always drive creativity
This time on #PinchYourself, Grammy-nominated mastering engineer and owner of Infrasonic Mastering Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile) reflects on getting the gig remastering some of his favorite records with Tom Waits.

We’re uncovering the biggest pinch-me-moments that the world’s most esteemed artists, producers, engineers and mixers have experienced, from working with childhood heroes to winning awards or landing their first hit record, hear the stories that make you #PinchYourself.

Create your own once-in-a-lifetime moments with an extended one-month trial of LISTENTO when you use the code PINCH at checkout.

WATCH VIDEO

FULL TRANSCRIPT

One of the weirdest times in my life was getting parenting advice from Tom Waits.

I’m a huge fan of Tom Waits. I’ve remastered all of his records except for the Island Records. We did that when I was still in LA 2016.

It was about a year and a half project. We did a lot of it remote, but he did attend a couple of the sessions and very, very involved. Tom and Kathleen are very involved in all that.

So it, it was very much a collaborative effort. It’s. Amazing to be able to work on these records that I’m a fan of. Tom waits the God it’s crazy to work with him.

It’s like, okay, I can get hit by a bus tomorrow and everything’s cool. That’s the, that’s as good as it gets.
#TilYouMakeIt is a collection of stories chronicling those moments and capturing wisdom from the game’s most esteemed producers, mixers, and engineers.

Next up, we are joined by esteemed, five-time Grammy Award-winning mixer, engineer, and producer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson, Gloria Gaynor) at Nashville’s Infrasonic Studios as he shares his take on the always looming and ever-present imposter syndrome.

Is it a sure-fire way to count yourself out of the race or an unconventional method of motivation? You decide.

WATCH VIDEO

FULL TRANSCRIPT

If you’re not getting fired, you’re not trying hard enough. The best art comes out of really great people collaborating and taking chances.

If you play it safe, you don’t find the best stuff, but if you don’t play it safe every once in a while, people are like, oh, no, no, no. That was like way off. And it’s, that’s a risk you have to take, but I think the benefits outweigh the risk.

To be honest, with every creative, it actually feels like your career is gonna end. And when you like look at your schedule and there’s nothing on it, you’re like, okay, that’s it. My career’s over. It’s all done. They figured out, I don’t know what I’m doing.

We all feel that, right? Imposter syndrome is just a part of the business, but as it turns out, I’ve been feeling that for 20 plus years and I’m still here.

So maybe it’s not a correct perception. If you are a baseball player and you fail 60% of the time you are in the Hall of Fame.

What was it, Mandela, right? Like I never fail. I either win or I learn. That is totally true. One of the secrets to life is fall down seven times, get up eight. Right? You just try and do the best work you can.

You try and be a good person and be good to other people, and generally it works out.

←Previous Page

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 16

WATCH VIDEO