some real inspiration

Finally, after tonight is through I will be able to say that I have heard Radiohead live. I'm sure it will be glorious and inspiring. See you on the flip side...

Final Mix

Finally finished recording and mixing this track with my wedding band Fabrengen. The song is a classic Chabbad niggun called Kol Beya'ar, and our drummer, Zvi, is singing in the original Yiddish. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

New Song, Free Download

Hey guys, check out this new song I recorded with my cousin, Adam. Download it for free from the soundcloud page.

http://soundcloud.com/ben-wallick/weve-got-killer-resumes-adam

In other news, lots of other exciting new tracks are in the making. Stay tuned to "tune in."

The Loudness War

In case you're not familiar, or you are familiar but you don't fully get it, here's a video explaining the "Loudness" or "Volume" war going on in the music industry.

Most of the problems stem at the mastering level where tracks are brought up to the fashionable levels, wherein perceived loudness can theoretically make a CD more marketable. Unfortunately, this can severely reduce audio quality.

Ely Jaffe Meets Sonic Itch

Hey guys,

Here's a song recorded, mixed and shot right here in the studio a couple weeks ago with guitar wiz and good friend Ely Jaffe.

The song is a cover of X-Factor contestant Chris Rene's song "Young Homie." The backing track is a combination of Midi (including sequenced drums using UltraBeat), Bass (Music Man Sterling through Aguilar DI) and guitars. All guitar tones were achieved "in-the-box" using logic's guitar amp and pedalboard designers (which I've found to be pretty convincing as far as these thing go), along with compression and delay plug-ins. Mix feedback welcome :)

Soundcloud

Soundcloud may be the greatest online file-sharing site since YouTube. In enables artists and hobbyists alike to upload and share music files of any format (until you've run out of your free time - minutes, not megabytes - of which you can buy more by making a premium account) and organize them into sets (playlists). I've been using it to upload and share my latest mixes in order to give clients and friends a sampling of what I'm doing in the studio. If you're not on it yet, check it out and send whatever juicy files you find our way.

And We're Back!

It's been a while since my first post, but I think it's time to get things rolling again. This ain't gonna be your regular vanilla blog. Only the stuff worthy of your precious eyes and ears will be shared. Consider it Mocha-Cookie-Dough-Supreme. So be sure to stay tuned-in for exciting mixes, music-production-ideas, personal picks and loads of other Very Important Things emerging from the Studio.

For starters, check out my cousins' hilarious new rap song, recorded and mixed here last night (explicit lyrics). The groove is based off "The Crab King," a tune by my old band, Dank Skullkap.