“‘Bad’ is not a thing in mixing”: Disclosure justify imperfect mixing in musicBritish electronic duo Disclosure have justified the imperfections of mixdowns in music, arguing that a song can still be “absolutely correct” even if it’s lacking in the mixing department.

READ MORE: Mixing elements of a project is like “playing Tetris”, says Breauski

Speaking on the Tape Notes podcast, the Settle creators discuss production techniques used on their latest album, Alchemy, while revealing insights into how the two brothers work together.

On priorities, the singer-songwriter of the pair, Howard Lawrence, says, “For me, the harmony and the melody – if I don’t love that, I’ll never love the song, ever. It doesn’t matter how good the production is. It’s the same with [my brother] Guy. Even if the harmony and melody are sick, if the production’s not very good, he’s not going to be happy with it.”
Guy adds: “The song’s got to be unbelievably good if the mix is bad. Some of my favourite songs ever, the mixing is a ‘bad’. ‘Bad’ is not a thing in mixing, it’s just ‘this way’ or ‘that way’.
“One of my favourite songs is Let’s Stay Together by Al Green,” Guy continues, “It’s just one mic over the whole drumkit and you could argue its small by today’s standards, but it’s absolutely correct.”

Also in the podcast episode, Guy talks about “glueing the meaning of the song to the production” by adjusting the pitch formant on Howard’s vocals in correspondence to the emotions in the lyrics: “The driving force is Soundtoys’ Little Alterboy,” he explains, “I’m automating the formant to go up and down. I’m raising it when there’s more hope in the lyrics and making it fall when it’s more depressing and sad.”
Guy pinpoints where he uses this technique, highlighting the rise in pitch on lyrics such as ‘looking for love from everybody’ and the fall on ‘I’ve got this hole in my heart’, heard in the song Looking For Love.
“If it makes sense with the lyrics,” Guy adds, “it’s the right move to make. That’s an ethos for the whole record with Howard’s lyrics and the sound choices that are made.”
Also in the episode, Disclosure say how having no samples or collaborations on the Alchemy album made the whole process of finishing tracks much simpler and easier.
Want to see Disclosure live? Head to their website, disclosureofficial.com.
The post “‘Bad’ is not a thing in mixing”: Disclosure justify imperfect mixing in music appeared first on MusicTech.

Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen makes life easy for singer-songwritersSometimes simple is best. Just ask Lewis Capaldi. No, we aren’t suggesting Lewis is simple, but that the singer-with-a-guitar pathway he follows pares away all of the layers of production complexity to leave nothing but the purest, simplest expression of the original musical idea. There are many would-be Lewises strumming and singing away in home studios across the land, and for years they have been well-served by Focusrite’s Scarlett Solo, an audio interface that perfectly meets the needs of the singer-songwriters, podcasters and streamers.
READ MORE: Focusrite’s Scarlett 4i4 is designed for the new generation of recording artists
With Focusrite recently launching the fourth generation of its Scarlett interfaces, we’ve been in a Rush to give the new Scarlett Solo a Tough test to ensure its improvements aren’t Pointless.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen. Image: Focusrite
Guitar and vocals
What makes the Scarlett Solo such a strong match for singer-songwriters is its arrangement of two input channels, with one 6.35mm jack input for line/instrument signals and one XLR input for mics. Obviously, this is ideal for recording guitar and vocal mic at the same time, but is also useful for recording DI’d guitar and mic’d guitar amp simultaneously, not to mention many other solo recording tasks. The recording of stereo signals is a problem, of course, but you can work around this with a DI box.
The mic input, which has been relocated to the rear panel since the 3rd Gen model, feeds into a new preamp that features a redesigned Air mode. The Air mode on the 3rd Gen units introduced a presence peak in the upper mid and high frequencies, useful as a pre-treatment on vocals and other sources that carry a lot of detail in the higher registers. In the 4th Gen preamps, the presence peak has been modified to be useful across a wider range of sources, although its usefulness will depend on what you are recording.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen. Image: Focusrite
A new second Air mode engages a subtle harmonic overdrive that adds fizz and… well… air to the top end. This can sound brilliant alongside the presence peak, giving a very pro-sounding sheen to sounds. However, we think it would be even more useful if there was a third option consisting of just the harmonic drive.
Airless
The line/instrument input, which remains on the front panel, doesn’t have an Air mode. This is unfortunate because it would be seriously effective on a DI’d acoustic guitar which, let’s face it, is what most people will be connecting to that input. Also, as we found with the new Scarlett 4i4, the harmonic drive can serve as a brilliant front-end when feeding an electric guitar to a plugin amp simulator – again, a DI box would solve this by letting connect a guitar signal via the Air-enabled mic input.
You can configure the inputs directly on the front panel, which keeps things nice and easy to use. Your workflow is made even easier by the improved Gain Halo lighting that surrounds the gain knobs. These act as circular level meters that show the input signal level, giving surprisingly detailed visual feedback despite their small size.
At present, the Focusrite Control 2 software does very little with the Solo – it has a pair of input level meters and duplicates the hardware’s front panel buttons. Notable in its absence is an output mixer for balancing the direct monitoring levels of the two inputs with the internal DAW output bus – direct monitoring is either enabled or disabled. This shortcoming is intentional to a degree, as it suits the interface’s easy-to-use ethos. Nevertheless, Focusrite recognises that some users will want more control over monitoring levels and are exploring possible updates to Focusrite Control 2 that would make this possible.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen. Image: Focusrite
All in one
Accompanying the Scarlett Solo hardware is a suite of music production software that contains everything needed to get a new studio up and running.
On the DAW front, there’s a three-month subscription to Pro Tools Artist and Avid Complete Plugin Bundle, along with a 25 per cent reduction on a subsequent annual license, and of course, there’s the ever-present Ableton Live Lite. On top of this, there’s Focusrite’s Hitmaker Expansion pack that includes big-name instruments and effects such as Native Instruments Massive, Softube Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555, and Focusrite’s own Red 2 & 3 plugin suite.
The 4th Gen makeover of the Scarlett range has had less of an impact on Solo than it has had on its larger siblings, but this is just a reflection of the interface’s elegant simplicity – once Focusrite fitted the new preamp and converters, there wasn’t much left to change. As a result, the price has gone up slightly but it’s excellent value for money. Yes, you may need to add a DI box to get the most out of it, but it allows you to do an awful lot of music-making for very little initial outlay.
Key Features

Price: £139.99 / €130.24 / $139.99 (USD) / $199.09 (AUD)
USB audio interface
1x line/instrument input
1x mic input with Air and phantom power
2x line output
Headphone output
High performance converters taken from flagship Focusrite RedNet interface
Direct monitoring

 
The post Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen makes life easy for singer-songwriters appeared first on MusicTech.

TOP POSTS – Last week’s most-read: ASCAP takes on BMI • Stop chasing streams • Live Nation’s pay gap • moreCatch up on what everybody has been talking about with this week’s most-read posts. We’ve got topics ranging from a powerful song causing controversy, ASCAP throwing shade on BMI, to rich. Continue reading
The post TOP POSTS – Last week’s most-read: ASCAP takes on BMI • Stop chasing streams • Live Nation’s pay gap • more appeared first on Hypebot.

Hollywood Fantasy Voices from EastWest Hollywood Fantasy Voices captures singer Merethe Soltvedt performing with full male and female choirs, and includes sustains, legatos, phrases and words.

Mac DeMarco isn’t a fan of the “feature culture” in music production: “It’s kind of gross”Mac DeMarco has had his say on the prevailing trend of music collaborations, labelling the current excessive “feature culture” as “kind of gross”.

READ MORE: Get your music professionally produced and engineered with MusicTech and BandLab’s Final Mix

In a new interview with MusicTech, the One Wayne G creator discusses collaborations and why he and Kenny Beats get on so well on a musical level.
“The whole ‘feature culture’ that we’re living in nowadays is kind of gross to me,” he says in the interview. “It’s like, people put out records that are just all features. I don’t know; I’m happy to record with my friends, but for me to actually artistically write that kind of material can be tough. Especially in the scenario that collaboration usually comes about now, it’s like, ‘yo pull up on the studio, let’s work!’ I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’”
There is one collaboration DeMarco is happy to shout about though, and that’s with producer Kenny Beats. The Canadian added vocals and guitar to Kenny Beats’ 2022 track, Family Tree and is credited as a producer and engineer on MusicTech’s Album Of The Year in 2022, Kenny’s LOUIE.

“I love Kenny. He’s one of my good friends. I absolutely love this man.” He says.
“I have a nice collaborative experience with Kenny actually – he’s deeply interesting to me. The ground that he covers, musically… Like, he’s always interested in something new, and the genre doesn’t really matter to him, he’s down for whatever. He’s an interesting guy. I’m glad that he’s in my zone.”
“I think the collaboration works in some worlds, like in the beatmaking world and in other different [areas] of music, and it’s great. This is the way that I am but then I’ll be in a studio and a rapper will come through and just be able to, like, fucking unload onto the microphone I’m like, ‘How the fuck do you do that?’ It’s crazy.”
In related news, MusicTech spoke to Benny Sings recently too, who collaborated with Kenny Beats for his album, Young Hearts.
Check out Mac DeMarco, mammoth 199-track album, One Wayne G, via Bandcamp.
The post Mac DeMarco isn’t a fan of the “feature culture” in music production: “It’s kind of gross” appeared first on MusicTech.

The Support Squad - Technical services The Support Squad are a team of audio professionals who offer a wide range of technical services to pro audio manufacturers and developers.

Google brings that cheap flight data and the feds investigate Elon’s glass houseWelcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Kirsten is away, so I’ll be your host this week. It’s been another week of probes into Tesla that appear to be coming from all sides: First, let’s start […]

Web3’s Swiss Army knife of personal finance Changex joins Cointelegraph AcceleratorChangex combines crypto trading and lending with traditional banking features that also include an upcoming Visa debit card.

Spitfire Audio Educational Offer Students and educators are currently able to take advantage of an increased discount on individual Spitfire products until 31 October 2023.

Amazon increases fees, ChatGPT comes to the enterprise, and Apple announces a press conferenceWelcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter that recaps the major happenings in tech over the past few days. If you’ve been too slammed to follow the developments play-by-play, you’ve come to the right place. That’s what WiR is for. In this edition of WiR, we cover Teamshares, a New York–based VC-backed startup […]

“They’re cheap pieces of sh*t with crappy electronics”: Mac DeMarco on why he’s axed guitar pedals from his recording setupIf you’re a guitarist reading this, prepare for some emotional damage. Artist and producer Mac DeMarco has boldly stated that he absolutely can’t stand guitar pedals.
The multi-instrumentalist confessed his disdain for the classic effects that so many guitarists can’t live without while discussing how he has streamlined his recording process, and has stopped buying gear.

READ MORE: “Fix it. Everybody else is doing it”: Mac DeMarco calls on Spotify to add hi-def streaming option

DeMarco’s most recent album, One Wayne G, features over 119 tracks. Yes, that’s over eight hours of music and most of the tracks consist of numbered dates with only a few having actual worded titles. So it’s fair to say he’s not one to do things conventionally.
In his new digital cover feature with MusicTech, DeMarco explained why he decided to axe pedals from his setup in the studio: “I was just talking to my sound guy. I was sitting around the table outside and I was telling him how much I hate guitar pedals,” he says.
“They’re stupid. They’re cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics. It’s just crap in the path. I don’t like crap. I don’t care if it makes you sound like Jimi Hendrix or whatever. I don’t want it. I don’t want it! It just stresses me out thinking about it,” he confesses.
“And the cables that people use in between them. Oh, man. And then the power – crappy. Everything’s crappy. It’s just crappy. And I don’t want them crapping up my shit. No crap.”

For his recent live shows in support of album Five Easy Hot Dogs, he did however have a small pedalboard that consisted of just a tuner, a vibrato pedal and an impulse response effect for his acoustic guitar. “Yeah, no more pedals,” he concludes. “All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light ‘em on fire.”
Read the full cover feature on MusicTech.
The post “They’re cheap pieces of sh*t with crappy electronics”: Mac DeMarco on why he’s axed guitar pedals from his recording setup appeared first on MusicTech.

Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to set up a professional photoshoot, how to get into music sampling, and more… A guide. Continue reading
The post Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewA busy week by any definition, the music industry was no exception, with ASCAP throwing shade at BMI, on-demand streaming finally beating radio, and more… Live Nation’s Rapino enjoys widest. Continue reading
The post REWIND: The new music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

How Web3 can prevent Hollywood strikes - Replay joins Cointelegraph AcceleratorHollywood strikes echoed the unbalanced value distribution in the streaming video industry — blockchain can change that.

MODCAF Test Chamber project Electronic music community MODCAF's latest project centres around a series of recordings and performances in a disused wind tunnel.