New Gear Added to our Racks!
We're excited to announce that we recently added two very cool analog dynamic processors to our racks. The first is a pair of Empirical Labs "DerrEssers" - amazingly transparent "de-essers" and high frequency limiters that allow us to remove offensive sibilances (the burst of high frequencies that happens sometimes on vocal tracks during "esses" or "t's") without harming the rest of the track. The DerrEssers are also really nice for helping to warm up harsh or overly bright mixes without dulling down other key elements by allowing us to dynamically control the high frequencies.
The other piece of gear we recently added is a Focusrite Blue 330 mastering compressor / limiter that we won at a recent auction of the now closed Sony Music Studio's gear. This is a a rare mark 1 version with transformer balanced inputs and outputs - the top of Focusrite's line and no longer made. The Blue 330 is an incredible sounding compressor, that gives a sheen and clarity to a track, and lets you retain a mixes punch, even while gluing the elements of the mix together - and it has been a secret weapon of numerous other mastering engineers.
Video of mastering for cellist Erik Friedlander
Cellist/composer Erik Friedlander was at TSM in March 2008 and posted on his blog a short video he took while we were mastering for his CD . For those curious of how much of a geek I really am can watch at:
Video Mastering for Erik Friedlander
This is the 3rd album of Erik's that I've had a priviledge of mastering and this definitely was a really fun and easy session. The music is excellent performances of original jazz compositions by Erik for his "Broken Arm Trio" - which features him primarily playing pizzicatto on cello, along with Trevor Dunn (who has performed with folks like Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and Marc Ribot) on acoustic bass, and Michael Sarin on drums.
It was tracked to 24-track 2-inch on a Studer A-800 MK III at Excello - and mixed to 1/2" 30ips 2-track on an ATR-102 at Tiny Telephone by Scott Solter. Scott did an amazing job on the tracking and mixing so generally very little processing was needed for the tracks. I think this album feature some truly amazing sonics in fact.
One thing from looking at the video I realize sometimes I don't speak in complete sentences off the cuff - so to qualify one of my statements I say during the video which is inaccurate - when I point to the Sontec MEP-250EX and descirbe it as "one of the first eq designs ever made" really what I meant to say was "based on one of the first parametric eq designs ever made" - which would be a much more accurate statement.
Hope folks enjoy the video - and you can check out The Broken Arm Trio website for more info on Erik's very cool "Broken Arm Trio" project.
SAWStudio VIP Affiliate Program Discontinued
Unfortunately the SAWStudio VIP Affiliate Program - where certified resellers, such as Total Sonic Media, were allowed to sell RML Labs products (i.e. the amazing SAWStudio recording/editing/mixing/mastering software) at substantially discounted prices - was ended by RML Labs due to the increasing complexities of the book keeping for it. So - we no longer can offer discounted pricing or even resell SAWStudio currently. We however remain avid SAWStudio users and have converted our page that previously gave info on our discounted SAWStudio pricing to be a source of links and information that might not necessarilly be available elsewhere. You can check out the new page here.
We'd like to publically thank Bob Lentini, the author of SAWStudio and the president of RML Labs, for allowing Total Sonic Media to have participated in the VIP program, and to also thank all the great folks who purchased their copies of SAWStudio from us.
We're excited to announce that we recently added two very cool analog dynamic processors to our racks. The first is a pair of Empirical Labs "DerrEssers" - amazingly transparent "de-essers" and high frequency limiters that allow us to remove offensive sibilances (the burst of high frequencies that happens sometimes on vocal tracks during "esses" or "t's") without harming the rest of the track. The DerrEssers are also really nice for helping to warm up harsh or overly bright mixes without dulling down other key elements by allowing us to dynamically control the high frequencies.
The other piece of gear we recently added is a Focusrite Blue 330 mastering compressor / limiter that we won at a recent auction of the now closed Sony Music Studio's gear. This is a a rare mark 1 version with transformer balanced inputs and outputs - the top of Focusrite's line and no longer made. The Blue 330 is an incredible sounding compressor, that gives a sheen and clarity to a track, and lets you retain a mixes punch, even while gluing the elements of the mix together - and it has been a secret weapon of numerous other mastering engineers.
Video of mastering for cellist Erik Friedlander
Cellist/composer Erik Friedlander was at TSM in March 2008 and posted on his blog a short video he took while we were mastering for his CD . For those curious of how much of a geek I really am can watch at:
Video Mastering for Erik Friedlander
This is the 3rd album of Erik's that I've had a priviledge of mastering and this definitely was a really fun and easy session. The music is excellent performances of original jazz compositions by Erik for his "Broken Arm Trio" - which features him primarily playing pizzicatto on cello, along with Trevor Dunn (who has performed with folks like Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and Marc Ribot) on acoustic bass, and Michael Sarin on drums.
It was tracked to 24-track 2-inch on a Studer A-800 MK III at Excello - and mixed to 1/2" 30ips 2-track on an ATR-102 at Tiny Telephone by Scott Solter. Scott did an amazing job on the tracking and mixing so generally very little processing was needed for the tracks. I think this album feature some truly amazing sonics in fact.
One thing from looking at the video I realize sometimes I don't speak in complete sentences off the cuff - so to qualify one of my statements I say during the video which is inaccurate - when I point to the Sontec MEP-250EX and descirbe it as "one of the first eq designs ever made" really what I meant to say was "based on one of the first parametric eq designs ever made" - which would be a much more accurate statement.
Hope folks enjoy the video - and you can check out The Broken Arm Trio website for more info on Erik's very cool "Broken Arm Trio" project.
SAWStudio VIP Affiliate Program Discontinued
Unfortunately the SAWStudio VIP Affiliate Program - where certified resellers, such as Total Sonic Media, were allowed to sell RML Labs products (i.e. the amazing SAWStudio recording/editing/mixing/mastering software) at substantially discounted prices - was ended by RML Labs due to the increasing complexities of the book keeping for it. So - we no longer can offer discounted pricing or even resell SAWStudio currently. We however remain avid SAWStudio users and have converted our page that previously gave info on our discounted SAWStudio pricing to be a source of links and information that might not necessarilly be available elsewhere. You can check out the new page here.
We'd like to publically thank Bob Lentini, the author of SAWStudio and the president of RML Labs, for allowing Total Sonic Media to have participated in the VIP program, and to also thank all the great folks who purchased their copies of SAWStudio from us.
UPDATED November 16, 2008
