Music

iRig Pro

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More iOS music goodness from IK Multimedia.

Pono Music project

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Neil Young has long been working on an alternative to CDs and digitally encoded music formats. His Pono Music project is an attempt to significantly raise the bar on music fidelity.

The key difference between Pono and industry leaders such as iTunes or Spotify is Young’s focus on audio fidelity. An avowed enemy of the CD, Young now wants to “save listeners” from the MP3. “The simplest way to describe what we’ve accomplished is that we’ve liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio,” Young wrote. “Hearing Pono for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theatre on a sun-filled day.”

Perhaps he is tilting at windmills, but he is persistent and getting a fair amount of attention, especially from professional musicians. Time will tell.

The Fox

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This is it, right here. Music video of the year.

Mick Jagger’s letter to Andy Warhol

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Mick Jagger’s letter to Andy Warhol, asking him to design the infamous Sticky Fingers album cover.

In my short sweet experience, the more complicated the format of the album, e.g. more complex than just pages or fold-out, the more fucked-up the reproduction and agonising the delays. But, having said that, I leave it in your capable hands to do what ever you want………..and please write back saying how much money you would like.

One of my favorite Stones’ albums. Great letter.

Nine Inch Nails offers “audiophile mastered” version of their album

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Hesitation Marks was mastered in two different ways – the standard, “loud” mastering (which is what you’ll find on the CD, on iTunes, and everywhere else), and also an alternate “audiophile” mastering, which we’re offering as a free download option for anyone who purchases the album through nin.com. For the majority of people, the standard version will be preferable and differences will be difficult to detect. Audiophiles with high-end equipment and an understanding of the mastering process might prefer the alternate version.

It’s great to see bands getting away from the “louder is best” mentality or at least giving us an alternative.

Platinum Samples

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They released a new Zildjian Artist MIDI Groove Library today, but the best product they have is the Andy Johns Classic Drums. He is the master.

Mastering II EZmix Pack

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After the massive success of the Mastering EZmix pack and by popular demand, here is a second collection of settings completely devoted to mastering. Just like the first volume, Mastering II EZmix Pack was designed by Mats “Limpan” Lindfors, senior engineer at the leading mastering studio in Scandinavia, Cutting Room.

Toontrack really does a nice job with these EZmix packs.

Slowing down the music

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There’s a trend emerging that I find very interesting. It started with people posting complicated guitar pieces, slowing things down a bit so you really get a handle on the complexity. For example, here’s a link to Frank Zappa’s Rat Tomago, slowed by 20%.

Today, I came across this post, slowing down the Dolly Parton song, Jolene, by 17%. I love the new guitar sound, but I was really taken by the change in vocal. What else you got for me internet?

Amazing guitar

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He plays The Police, Slayer, Pantera and a little bit of everything else. Very impressive acoustic playing.

Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” Isolated Guitar Track

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For all of you guitar fans who love history, here’s a look at Jimmy Page’s rhythm guitar parts from Led Zeppelin’s classic hit “Whole Lotta Love.” The song might’ve ripped off Willie Dixon, but it exposed millions of kids to maybe the world’s most basic blues riff.

Jimmy Page is one of my favorite guitar players.

Audio education inside your DAW

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This is very clever. Now if you have a question about changing settings or how to do something, you don’t have to search help, just launch this plug-in and watch a video tutorial from MacProVideo. Of course, you have to be a member to watch, but you can download the plug-in free.

Review: Universal Audio’s ENGL amp plug-ins

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As a guitar player of 25 years, I have quite a bit of analog gear in my studio. Currently I have 23 guitars, eight amps and all kinds of pedals. As a computer nerd, I’ve watched the guitar amp emulation grow to impressive levels over the last decade, but never have I been more impressed with a amp plug-in than I was with the new ENGL amp bundle from Brainworx and Universal Audio.