So I’ve been working with Elastic Audio since it came out & although I think it’s a fantastic tool, I’m convinced it has a long way to go. I love how it allows me to “under edit” the performance, which is in stark contrast to beat detective, but circumventing all the potential glitches is really a drag. If anyone has found definitive method for using it on multi-tracks drums I’d love to hear about it. Through my own trial & error plus vast online research, I’ve settled on a method but it’s very tedious. In my opinion, this should work way better. Independently adjusting event marker sensitivity works great but the results are garbage. Please fix Digi, this is a seriously great tool & I’ll be all over it once it works better.

So this article was brought to my attention recently. Aside from the stuff about yours truly, I think the author is totally right on about these bands & I’m honored that my band was included in such an awesome list.

You might have already read about this but there’s a bunch of talk regarding the sound of Metallica’s new record Death Magnetic. The main complaint is that it’s “too loud.” Obviously that’s a non-technical analysis. The reason it sounds that way is thanks to excessive compression & limiting. Decreasing the range between the loudest peaks & the quieter stuff in the mix allows for a “louder” mix but it seems in this case the process was used to the extreme. According to Ted Jensen, mastering engineer on the record, the mixes arrived already excessively compressed. Here’s a link to an article discussing the situation that includes a YouTube video comparing 2 different masters of the same song. It’s funny cause I think a lot of engineers were wondering when this would finally happen. Finally I’d just like to add that I print my mixes with as much dynamics as I can. I have good relationships with the people that master my recordings & I’ve come to rely heavily on their talents & judgement to make my mixes loud while still retaining the dynamic punch & the vision for the mix. The picture to the right is a recent mix I did which shows the dynamics well preserved.