Happy Monday -
#83! I find it hard to believe I’ve managed to write this thing for 83 weeks in a row. As you can probably tell from the all-over-the-place nature of New Monday, I am all over the place. There are days I feel like I’m doing a recall on a console that has all the numbers and markings worn off.
I’d bet that a lot of you are similar, struggling with that creative brain that likes to do everything and then take a nap after eating a bag of Cheetos. The buzz acronym these days is ADHD, but I prefer to think of it as easily bored... which explains why I am constantly tinkering with the format of NM and changing things, poking around for new things to write about.
Easily bored. I hope I don’t bore you lovely people.
ADHD, CHEETOS, and BOREDOM
Send this article to your significant other, boss, or co-worker the next time you get yelled at for leaving a hammer on the dining room table, forgetting to set the alarm system or working on a new project instead of finishing the one that’s three days overdue.
Screw reading the whole thing—too dull. Here are the juicy bits:
"Incredibly enough, however, among nomadic Ariaal, those with ADHD traits tended to be better fed and healthier than non-ADHD counterparts. He speculated that their fluid attention style would make them more vigilant to potential threats to their herd, to signs of disease or malnutrition, or to sources of food or water."
This explains the Cheetos.
"Chen found, based on genetic methods, that ADHD traits were overrepresented in these early migrants. People with ADHD traits likely spearheaded the move to populate the earth. It’s unclear whether that’s because people with those traits were more likely to initiate migration, or whether they were better able to adapt to new places."
"Perhaps ADHD traits were useful in environments involving nomadism and migration, but in modern society, with its demand on having to sit for hours a day and remain relatively stationary, it is a detriment."
This explains the boredom. Time to migrate the tribe to the Fertile Crescent, a Tigris and Euphrates Riverside gated community.
Less Boring Music
Some interesting stuff, with a decidedly Middle Eastern element to it.
Bab L’Bluz is what you get when a female vocalist from Morocco (Yousra Mansour) meets a multi-instrumentalist from France (Brice Bottin). Take Led Zeppelin, swap out the singer, trade the bass for the Gimbri, the guitars for the Awicha, wrap it in old school funk and record it live to tape. Well, no. I don’t think to tape: it was cut at Real World Studios in England.
Bab L’Bluz is Moroccan blues with a bit of Jorma Kaukonen psychedelia.
The new album is Swaken (well, a year old, but new to me); their first record is Nayda! Nayda is lighter on its feet. Swaken is some heavy stuff!
They can definitely put it down live.
Magnum Innominandum translates to something like, “The Great One Who is Not to Be Named.” So... like Voldemort but as chill trance/vaporwave. Evidently, the name refers back to HP Lovecraft and Cthulhu.
The album is called إمبراطورية مستحضر الأرواح. It translates to “Necromancer Empire."
The music is anything but scary: It’s what’s playing in the lounge before you get on the Star Ship that takes you to Fhloston Paradise. Vaporwave.
Magnum Innominandum is the brainchild of St Louis producer/multi-instrumentalist/beautiful maniac Jim Miles. You gotta love anyone who names their Insta partyfamine. They have a bunch of records out. Whatever Jim is up to, he’s incredibly prolific—an album out in March and an album out in May, each full of songs, grooves, slammed together with samples. Wonderful, interesting cover art. This guy has a lot of creative energy and a real willingness to do what he wants to do and to hell with the world. We need more of that in music.
A Lesson
This week, I break down heavy guitar sounds using our WOW Thing plug-in.
I use the WOW Thing for fixing bass and kick issues—my go-to fast fix for that. But the original reason we made the WOW Thing was to get classic metal guitar sounds. It doesn’t add distortion. It doesn’t add compression. But it does add some magic. And, of course, some WOW.
Listen
Great song, live to either 8 or 16 tracks. Cut at Western Recorders in 1969 on a United Audio 610, or perhaps a UA 2100, which is exceedingly rare. There are 2100 modules on Reverb. Check out the pictures — the last one is “Let me put my console movie shorts on, Eddie."
Back to the song: squint down on the verses. Just about dead center is a rhythmic clicking, on the 8th notes (the song is in 5/4). What the heck is it? Could be a drumstick on a ride or a hihat, but it has no ping to it. Can you hear it? It seems to cut when the drummer does a roll or a fill. My guess is a hihat but, man, is it loud, and once you hear it, it’s really hard not to hear it. I might have wrecked the song for myself!
And that is it for this week. A short one.
While you might not like the drum sounds on Metallica records, or the way the bass is mixed, the guitar sounds are killer, especially the rhythm parts courtesy of James Hetfield. Big. Chunky. Articulate.
Of course, all instrument sounds are about the player, the instrument, the pickup—in that order—and then the amp, the cabinet, the mics and the processing. There are plenty of videos covering these variables. We’ll cover that briefly and then get to a weird, secret sauce contribution to this iconic guitar sound, which is The WOW Thing. Which we just happen to have available as a plug-in for $19.99.
So, the guitars have humbuckers—you won’t get this sound with a lipstick tube or a Telecaster neck pickup—and the amps are a Mesa/Boogie IIC+ and a Diezel VH4. These are both high-gain tube amps utilizing 12AX7s on the pre-amp stage. The Boogie uses 6L6s on the power amp, the Diezel uses KT77s. Both amps have low end equalization centered at 80Hz, so if you don’t own either of these or have a model, boosting around 80Hz will move you into the neighborhood a bit more. The presence region of the Boogie is centered around 2200Hz; the Diezel is at 4000Hz. That’s a big clue as to how you might EQ to cheat yourself closer to these particular amp sounds.
Mics: Hetfield’s 4x12s were mic’ed up with everything—from SM57s to U-87s to Royer Ribbons, with everything you can throw on a cabinet in between. I’m always looking to capture complementary ranges of sound, so a more punchy dynamic mic, which rolls off some of the lows and highs but has a pushed midrange (as well as a gentle clipping of transients because heavier mic diaphragm), combined with the deeper low end and glossy top of a condenser or a ribbon (and their faster transient response). Then in the mix, I can favor the condenser or ribbon to get clarity and articulation, or favor the dynamic for that all-important midrange and roughness. I think of these two sounds as working something like this:
Preamps: If you’ve got a bunch, try a bunch. The main thing with preamps is that their character comes from how they’re amplifying the mic signal, using tubes or something solid state, and how hard you’re pushing them, and thus getting additional harmonic distortion. I find that when I’m already slamming a guitar through a high-gain amp, the last thing it needs is the additional character (and harmonic distortion) of a clipping mic pre. Metallica guitar sounds are very very articulate—the rhythm of the playing is essential to the sound and the groove and slopping that up by further mangling transients isn’t going to get you that sound. Tube preamps don’t help this either, as they do tend to be smeary on transients. Remember, too: heavy metal guitars are distorted guitars recorded cleanly through modern solid-state circuits. Vintage guitar sounds (50s, 60s and early 70s) are kind of the opposite: cleaner-sounding guitar tones recorded through pushed tube or early technology mic preamps.
Compressors: Depending on the engineer, there could be compression going in as well as coming out. 1176s? DBX160s? SSL channel compressors? Korneff Audio Pawn Shop Comp? I might compress a part going to tape, to either even out a loopy performance (a player that was inconsistent with his right hand) or to get some needed transient activity from a guitar set up that seemed mumbly. To even things out, you want a lower ratio (under 4:1) and a longer release (400ms+) to keep that compressor always on the signal and riding it. For additional punch, enough attack to let that transient through and a faster release so that the compressor fully cycles before the next incoming transient. As a rule of thumb, a release around 200ms generally works, but speed it up as the tempo gets faster.
I also tend to compress things a touch on mixdown, so in addition to an overall mixbus compressor, individual channels are likely to be compressed. I love compressors and if I had a choice of which to use, compressors or EQs, I’d pick compressors (especially compressors with EQs snuck in... did I mention our Pawn Shop Comp yet?) but I don’t like the pumping and squashed sounding artifacts of compression, so my philosophy has always been 'compress a little bit often'. Spread the word around.
The WOW Thing - Randy Staub's Secret Guitar Box
The secret sauce on the Black Album was the SRS WOW Thing, a cheap plastic box that used delay and phase to make signals sound wider. It wasn’t designed for use with guitars or in the studio; it was designed for home computers. Black Album engineer Randy Staub found that it worked great on guitars—another one of those quirky misuses of gear, like Tchad Blake’s experiments with the Shure Level-Loc (coincidentally, we have that too as a plug-in) that resulted in pure magic.
So, put The WOW Thing across either a stereo bus of the rhythm guitars, or across a stereo or 2 mic panned out pair of guitar tracks. The WOW Thing is designed to work on stereo things. It doesn’t do mono. Turn up the WOW knob to about 1 or 2 o’clock.
You’ll, of course, notice the guitars step out beyond the speakers a bit, but you’ll also hear them get a little bit brighter and the lower mids sort of scoop away a touch. This is part of The WOW Thing's magic—it lifts the highs for an increase in presence and cuts a chunk out to clear the midrange. And this sort of sonic sculpting is very much in line with what’s typically done on heavy records: an emphasis on highs and lows and a thinning out of the mids. This scoop moves up and down depending on the TrueBass frequency. More about that lower on the page.
TrueBass
The emphasis on the lows from The WOW Thing comes from its TrueBass circuit. This adds back the bass that’s removed by the WOW process. TrueBass is a misnomer: this circuit more reinvents the bass in its own mad image.
Turn up TrueBass to hear it. Now, at upper right is a drop-down from which you can select the emphasis frequency around which the TrueBass will operate. There are choices from 40 to 400Hz—it skips the 80Hz band I mentioned above. Careful setting this too low: 40 and 60Hz is where either the kick or bass live, so pushing guitars out down there will definitely clutter up the bottom end. For heavy guitars, the 100Hz or 150Hz will be your best bet. Now, if you’re throwing The WOW Thing on a guitar solo, depending on the note range of that solo, you might want to go a bit higher to separate out that guitar from the rhythm parts and also to keep the sound from thinning out as the player climbs the neck.
If you’re using The WOW Thing on two different rhythm parts—a rhythm and a double—I’d tend to use two different WOW Things, one on each, and then stagger the TrueBass frequency, 100Hz for one part, 150Hz for the other, to provide a bit more frequency separation, but that is me. I like hearing everything individuated—a charcuterie board as opposed to a pudding.
There’s a switch for TrueBass Dynamics. It basically pops in a frequency-dependent gain reduction—a compressor—which gives you more control down there. Slower attacks and faster releases can eek out a little more punch and articulation on the guitars.
Finally, there’s a DRY/WET blend. I tend to tweak this during mixes—usually have things too wide at the start and need to dial it back. A fun trick is to automate this: pull it a little bit towards DRY to tighten things up during the verses and then open it up during choruses to subtly differentiate these sections in the mix. Another trick to do, either automating this or the WOW knob: open up the width of the rhythm guitars a little bit too much during solos to de-clutter the center of the mix and make some room in the middle for that solo to breathe.
In Conclusion
The WOW Thing is a handy little devil of a plug-in. It’s not just for heavy guitars; it works well on all sorts of mixing issues. I’ll have some more ideas for its use in the near future.
Happy Tuesday!
As promised/threatened, here is another email with usage ideas, inside information, and whatnot on our plug-ins.
El Juan Limiter
The El Juan is the first of our plug-ins using our proprietary licensing system. From now on, all our plug-ins will be using it and we’ll upgrade the original 5 too. Soon.
The El Juan started as a joke. A certain plug-in company changed their business model, switching over to subscription, which pissed a lot of people off. Dan was on Social Media, listening to the complaints, and posted something along the lines of “I’ll make a version of XXX and give it out for free if 1000 people like this post."
A few days later, Dan got to building the El Juan. The origin of the name you should be able to figure out.
The El Juan definitely excels at making things louder, and it does this by limiting and makeup gain. But it also has waveshaping.
Waveshaping
When you change the shape of a waveform, it adds additional complexity, in the form of additional harmonics. A simple sine wave goes in, waveshaping can add an octave to it, or thirds, or whatever you want, really. Waveshaping can add a bunch of sweetness or a bunch of garbage.
The “traditional” analog way to waveshape was to clip the waveform by overloading a component in a circuit or an entire device. Yes, saturation and distortion are forms of waveshaping. Digitally, one can apply math to replicate analog saturation and distortion, and that is waveshaping. Or, unlike the analog world, one can use math to add a very specific, controlled series of harmonics to a waveform.
A simple way to think of this: when I refer to waveshaping, I’m referring to math that adds a limited, very controlled set of harmonics. Saturation uses math to add more than one or two harmonics, and distortion adds tons more harmonics. Waveshaping - simple and a little. Saturation/Distortion - complex and a lot. The El Juan’s waveshaper adds some harmonics, which result in a richer, fuller sound. It doesn’t add saturation per se, it’s waveshaping, it’s adding some of the elements of saturation - the nice ones!
The El Juan has two different waveshaping options, which change the harmonic structure of the signal feeding through it, much the same as feeding the signal through a different console brand will affect the structure of the signal. And this gives you a hint as to how we use the El Juan. Like the PSC and the AIP, we almost always start the El Juan by flipping it around to the back and playing with waveshaping and input eq.
Here’s a video which shows a lot of the power of the El Juan.
The available settings are clearly marked and the effect will be obvious to your ear. Start back here, getting something that you like that fits your mix. Then, switch around to the front and use the limiter section to further process your sound.
Goofy Goofy Secret: the original marketing for El Juan was supposed to be like a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western comic book. The Tale of El Juan was narrated by a robotic turtle named “Old Pedro.” However, when I was typing things out, I made a typo and wrote "Old Pedo.” I thought it was hilarious, so there was a running gag of Old Pedro and various other characters mispronouncing his name and Old Pedo, I mean Old Pedro, having to constantly correct it.
Again, I thought it was funny. But a few people found it less so... and somewhat insensitive, childish, stupid, tone-deaf, etc. So Old Pedro the Turtle got shelved and thus died one of the great marketing ideas in North American history.
Puff Puff mixPass
The Puff makes things apparently louder by using... waveshaping! The Puff Puff is basically a dedicated waveshaper. If something is already compressed and still not sitting there correctly, the Puff will make it a bit louder (and actually undo a bit of the compression by popping out the peaks a little bit).
How does waveshaping make things sound louder? It adds harmonics, and typically, when you add things in audio, there’s a power and loudness, unless things are out of phase. That’s a very simple way of explaining it. Try this: think of additional harmonics as adding density — the signal becomes thicker, richer, and our ears perceive it as louder. Note that the Puff makes things PERCEPTUALLY louder, but there isn’t much of a change on the meters. You don’t get a different LUF reading typically.
Quick Tip: Dan’s basic trick is if something sounds good, do the same thing again. Put a Puff Puff on a channel or a bus, and then add another one, Most of the time the result is a delight.
Both El Juan and Puff are designed as bus processors. That doesn’t mean they won’t work on a single channel, but our development thinking was that these are things you slap on a bus or across a mix. Both do similar things but in very different ways, and there’s also some redundancy. The El Juan also has waveshaping and the Puff also has a clipper on it.
Here’s a thing: You’ve slapped the El Juan across your mix bus, you’re doing some mighty fine limiting and things are sounding good, and you think, “Let’s add the Puff Puff to this and see if we can’t end the loudness wars once and for all.”
Where do you put the Puff? Before the El Juan or after? That’s a good question.
I’ve tried both, and I usually wind up with it after. So, once I limit things with El Juan, then I put the Puff on after it and play around with it a little more. I almost always swap the positions of the two, but generally, the Puff goes after.
Here’s a video where I’m using Puff and El Juan together. Some good ideas here.
Quick Safety Tip: Even though the Puff doesn’t typically change the meters, it doesn’t mean that putting it on last won’t clip your mix bus. One thing I do is have a True Peak meter on the bus after the Puff, and I make sure I’m keeping the true peak value at -1 or even -2, depending. We could have a whole ridiculous discussion of all this stuff and I assure you, we will, and soon.
The WOW Thing
The original WOW thing was a cheap plastic box you could slap on your computer speakers to get things a little wider sounding for, I don’t know, more drama when playing Legend of Zelda. Eventually, the WOW thing found its way onto the guitar tracks of a number of famous albums in the 90s and suddenly it’s a must have guitar secret. And to be honest, it’s great for that. But at its heart, it’s a psychoacoustic processor that uses delay and phase shift to fool your ears into thinking things are outside of the geometry of your speakers.
The WOW gently gets rid of everything below about 1kHz - the more you turn up WOW, the more this frequency cut happens. Hence, the WOW thing by default makes things brighter. And this is where the misnamed TrueBass control comes in, it adds back bass. Actually, it invents bass. It’s not TrueBass at all. All the real bass on the track died in a horrible filtering accident earlier in the signal flow. And this is what I love about the WOW Thing: it’s a great bass/low end enhancer.
I use the True Bass on kicks, bass — anything where I want something kind of big, low and pillowy, rather than something super tight down there. It works great for this. Also, you can’t go wrong putting the WOW thing on reverb returns.
Here’s a video I did a few months back in which I stem mixed a song using only The WOW Thing. There’s a ton of ideas in this video on how to use it to get more bass, more motion, overload it for additional harmonics...!
Pumpkin Spice Latte
This is a surprisingly complex little plug-in disguised as a seasonal beverage.
Pumpkin Spice was designed to be an all-in-one, a mini-channel strip that could get something rough and chewy out of a vocal track. Of course, people are using it all over the place, not just on vocals. I like it especially, a friend of mine swears by it on brass, and it does work.
There are limiters and compressors all over the place on the Pumpkin Spice, and they’re all interactive with the rest of the controls so that you don’t really know they’re there. You can slap this sucker on a raw vocal track and you’d be surprised by how much things will get under control without touching a knob.
Pumpkin Spice is a quick idea tool. Throw it on a track, play around and get some ideas. Perhaps execute the ideas using more adjustable plug-ins, like swapping out the reverb for something with more adjustments, but often it sounds so good as it is, we just leave it on the track.
Fun Usage: Set the delay time to under 5ms or so. Crank up the feedback and you’ll get crazy comb filtering, a “stuck flanger” effect. Change the delay time to shift the resonance up and down. Then, automate that delay time every now and then to wake everyone up. Fun stuff!
That’s it for this Tuesday. See you next week... on Monday.
Warm regards,
Luke
Happy Monday!
We started our Black Friday Sale today. And we added plug-in bundles, which people have been asking for. SO... 40% off plug-ins and up to 60% off on bundles!
Kim Deal
A few weeks ago I wrote about albums by older guys. I was in some sort of search for meaning, I suppose.
On November 22nd, former Pixie and Breeder Kim Deal, at age 63, released her first "real" solo album, 'Nobody Loves You More'. It's simply wonderful. Might be the best album of the year.
Kim had released a few things on her own in the past decade, things she recorded on eight-track tape — she's an analog kinda gal, but finally hunkered down in Florida, learned Pro-Tools (by bugging her friend, engineer/producer Steve Albini for lessons over the phone) and got to it.
Most of 'Nobody Loves You More' was recorded by Steve Albini, with Kim producing, along with a crackerjack bunch of players ranging from rock musicians to jazzers, to string players, and more. The record is lush, quirky, and ever-interesting. Songs evolve from sparse, punky Americana into a cha cha, or there's a pedal steel, or strings. It's all over the map, but it's held together by melody and Ms Deal's fascinating voice. It takes a bit to get used to — she sounds like an animated cartoon character played by a chain-smoking alcoholic, but it's the perfect voice to deliver the pain and magic of this album.
The record is full of pain. She lost her mom to Alzheimer's, and then, following in quick succession, her dad, her aunt, and her uncle — within one year. And then she lost Steve Albini — he died after 'A Good Time Pushed', the last thing he ever recorded.
But while it's a painful record, it's not sad. There's something gorgeous and content about it, triumphant and wise. And Ms. Deal has a great sense of humor, which comes out in the lyrics and the scatological arrangements. It's such a good record, and so worth a listen. In a fair and decent world, it would sweep the Grammy's.
But it won't. Because it's not something built to fit an algorithm and tweaked to within an inch of its life — there's not even autotune on it. It doesn't have guest rappers, songs written by fourteen people, or Max Martin anywhere near it. Kim has about 7,000 subscribers on YouTube. This music wasn't written with data science and AI pitching in on the lyrics. It's not statistically constructed to increase engagement. It ain't fucking "content."
It's a record by someone doubling down on the one thing all of us can double down on: being one's self. Unapologetically screwed up, vulnerable, perhaps a bit pissed-off, but playing your own damn game.
'Nobody Loves You More'
Some things on YouTube:
A short one this week. Have a lovely time - the holidays are upon us. Love love love.
Warm regards,
Luke
Happy Monday!
If you’re in the US, still working on your taxes or did you get them done?
TAXMAN
I remember hearing this song for the very first time. I had just bought my very first record, which was Revolver, by The Beatles. George Harrison’s song Taxman was the lead-off track. It began out with some strange noises (analog tape decks ramping up to speed) and a weird count-in, and then BANG!
I made a special version of Taxman for you all.
There was an awful Beatles cartoon series in the late 60s. The voices all suck (except for Ringo), the animation is awful, but the music is good. Especially if you swap in better versions of the song... and then run the audio through the El Juan Limiter
It still blows my mind. Damn! That’s PRODUCTION. Guitar solos by Paul McCartney, by the way. The whole album is great.
WOW, man
It has been all WOW WOW WOW Thing at Korneff Headquarters for the past few weeks. Finally, I got a WOW Thing video done. I used it in some non-typical ways — it definitely isn’t a plug-in that only does big guitars. There are a few hacks in the video too, as well as Luke ADHD moments.
Watch the Wow Thing video here.
By the way, the introductory low price goes away April 19th.
Breaking Rules with Moving Coils
The WOW Thing became a thing when engineer Randy Staub used it on Metallica’s Black Album. He also used a Shure SM7 on the hi-hats. Not the usual thing you see.
The SM7 was Michael Jackson’s main vocal mic. Kind of a strange choice, especially since that mic is relatively insensitive and MJ used to make all sorts of weird little noises. Or maybe that was why they used an SM7.
Dan’s go-to acoustic guitar mic is an AKG D160. The Beatles loved this one, too. Luke's go-to acoustic guitar mic was the AKG D224.
Sometimes, actually very often, a moving coil is a better choice than a condenser.
Here’s why you should use Moving Coil microphones.
We love your comments and questions. Please feel free to write us, we love hearing from you.
Happy April 15th!
Warm regards,
The guys at Korneff
PS.. we have a new plug-in coming out soon. I used it on the music on that Taxman cartoon. The voice acting and cartoon soundtrack went through the El Juan, but the Beatles song went through something else. Any ideas as to what? Send us your guesses!
As a challenge, I’ve been remixing songs using just one of our plug-ins. This week I remixed with the WOW.
The video is a bit long, because I explain a lot and have too much fun, but the video is chapter marked and I wrote some quick takeaways below.
Key Takeaways
- The WOW Thing adds a lot of brightness and clarity. Plan accordingly.
- The more you crank up WOW, the more stereo-recorded tracks or submixed things will gain ambiance and reverb. More WOW = More Wet.
- Plan your bottom end a bit. TrueBass has a bunch of different low and low mid frequencies to pick from, so spread things out down there. Don’t add TrueBass to the drums and the bass and guitars and keyboards all at the same frequency. Layer things down there. Like lasagna.
- Don’t ignore the potential for saturation. Overload the WOW Thing (or really any of our plug-ins) and you’ll get saturation. Saturation will add subtle compression and some high harmonics to help a track to stand out without using a compressor or an EQ.
Happy Monday!
First: watch this before you read on any further:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIZD9WFpWZo
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I want to be reincarnated as a high school girl in a sundress and sandals, rocking out to Fugazi.
This thing is so damn HUMAN. This clip embodies the fun and camaraderie of rocking out in the band. Playing in a band. Remember: you don’t “serious" music, you play music.
Lead singer is a killer. She has a sincerity about spelling out how she’s going to do what she wants with her life.
Drummer is a killer, too. I wrote more about why he’s good and what is the takeaway if you’re recording/producing.
TV Themes and Songs
TV themes have gotten REALLY short. This has to be a byproduct of Instagram and TikTok and I don’t think I like it. I remember tv theme songs that were fabulous songs, like this and this.
However, some of these short themes are wickedly good as well as wickedly short.
Two of my faves, Better Call Saul and The Lincoln Lawyer.
Great little, distinctive bits of production/writing.
Perhaps think about getting good at making music like this.
Why are these things so effective?
1) There’s something familiar about them. When we think we’ve heard something before but we’re not sure, our brain tends to lock in on that: It's like a puzzle.
2) Cool sonics and sounds that are interesting. Both of these are using non-standard instrumentation, and again, our brain likes to puzzle out, “What is that?"
3) Strong moods that sum up the show. You can tell from the themes that 'Better Call Saul' is set in the West and has a sense of humor, and that 'The Lincoln Lawyer' is slick and mysterious.
Remember: our brains love questions and a sense of what comes next. Think about that next time you’re writing music or producing something.
AND... I couldn’t help it. I downloaded the themes off Netflix and they sounded AWFUL, like this...
SO I confess... I ran them through our new WOW Thing and then through the El Juan Limiter and they sounded much better! Here’s a before and after I made...
Cutting Vocals
We kinda touched on this a few weeks ago, that vocals need to be thinned out somewhat in the mix to get them to sit right (and easily).
The problem is standing too close to the damn mic. BACK UP.
Click here for more thoughts on this.
The struggle against our eventual robot overlords continues
Another AI product aimed at making creative work fast, cheap and coincidentally, uncreative?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tL5X8kuuGs
Contrast that crap to the Cleveland School of Rock Video we started with and be glad you’re not a robot.
At your request
You can now see back issues of New Monday online here: https://korneffaudio.com/new-monday-newsletter/
We are experimenting with the format a bit. Do you like long emails with a lot in them, or shorter emails with links that lead off to other content, so you can choose what interests you? Please let us know what you like.
Dan and Luke