Recording Studio Rockstars

My guest today is Anthony Gravino an independent music maker near Chicago, IL. He has worked with a wide variety of artists across multiple genres as a producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer and musician. Anthony has been on the show before for Episode RSR156 when we talked about how he makes records in the studio capturing great sounds for Indie rock, jazz, and other genres and more mixing tips on episode RSR250. He has recently moved to a beautiful tall new loft studio called High Cross Sound south of Chicago in a space that looks like you might stumble on it strolling through the Hobbit Shire. Anthony loves to work with talented artists and musicians and record using classic vintage studio making records with smooth and beautiful tones. So we will talk about what’s new with the studio and how his recording and mixing have evolved in the past couple of years. Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.

My guest today is Vance Powell, a multi Grammy award-winning producer, engineer and mixer, and owner of Sputnik Sound in Nashville with Mitch Dane. Vance’s credits credits includes Chris Stapleton, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, and Wolfmother to name just a few. Vance is a repeat guest on the podcast and you can hear his origin story on episode RSR002, and great mixing tips on Episodes RSR171 and RSR293. Vance recently did a studio makeover at Sputnik Sound installing a Dolby Atmos surround sound system for mixing into the future of immersive audio. So we will talk all about Atmos and of course, we have a bunch of great questions from you Rockstars in our Facebook group which you can join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/recordingstudiorockstars Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com Use code RSR20 to get 20% off for the first 3 months https://www.Spectr

My guest today is Jay Lauterwasser a video game sound designer and music composer for Darkpaw games in San Diego, CA.  “I grew up in St Louis, Missouri, moved to San Diego in 2004 and started my career in the video game industry in Quality Assurance. In 2016 I got my opportunity to become a Sound Designer and in 2019 I added Music Composer to my job description. I’ve been a musician for the better part of my life. I started playing bass in highschool, joined a band after graduating and got to see the eastern half of the country from the back seat of the tour van. Even though the touring slowed down, I never stopped playing music. I still play bass in the local San Diego band Roger! and sit in for the occasional recording session.  I’ve been a part of countless recording sessions as a musician but never officially as an engineer. Fortunately, I’ve worked with a bunch of great engineers that were always willing to answer questions or explain something along the way. It was those experiences and further explorat

My guest today is Daniel Donato a 25 year old guitarist and songwriter who started out at a young age of 16 playing regularly at Nashville’s iconic honky tonk Robert’s Western World while gigging with the Don Kelley Band. His debut album, A Young Man’s Country, was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium in two days and produced by guitar-ace Robben Ford, the record weaves outlaw country, Grateful Dead-style Amer-icana, and first-rate songwriting into a singular form Donato calls “21st-century cosmic country.” The message of these songs contains Donato’s “Cosmic Country” ethos, which is about finding the courage to blaze your own path. As such, it is an ethos the artist extends beyond music into the channels of social media, where he’s built up a huge following of devoted “DD Heads,” as his fans call themselves. His pod-cast, “Daniel Donato’s Lost Highway,” brings together like-minded creatives to get at the heart of what makes artists tick, for which he’s interviewed Brothers Osborne, Brent Cobb, Orville Peck

My guest today is Steve Ornest a rock multi instrumentalist, engineer, and producer in Redondo Beach CA. Steve learned his studio skills at Total Access Recording under the guidance of Wyn Davis (RSR192) starting at the young age of 15. Steve started out playing guitar for rock sessions by bands like Don Dokken, Minoru Nihara (Loudness), and many others, but fast forward to the present and Steve is now running the studio with Wyn. Steve’s mission has been to reinvigorate the local South Bay music scene by making it affordable for young local artists to come in and work on their song, EP or album and walk away with the same commercially competitive results Total Access has become known for over the past forty years. Aside from working with incredible local talent like Joker’s Hand, Mor Flowrs and Hand Drawn Maps, Steve continues to work on records for legacy artists such as Foreigner and Dio. Steve is currently working on a record with country artist Annie Bosko, which features a duet with country legend Vince

My guest today is Matthew Ross-Spang a twice Grammy winning Memphis record producer and engineer, who started out at the  Legendary Sun Studio as a teenager working his way up from intern to the Chief Engineer. He has since moved on to restore back to its original glory the also legendary Sam Phillips Recording studio across town originally built in 1960 to accommodate the ever growing catalog of music under Sam’s production and label.  The City of Memphis even nominated him one of its “30 under 30” Memphians and in 2016 awarded him a key to the city while proclaiming April 25,2016 as “Matt Ross-Spang Day” in Germantown,TN. Matt has worked with many great artists and producers including: Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chris Isaak, The Rival Sons, Dave Cobb, and John Prine to name just a few. Matt has been an early guest on the podcast previously on episode RSR040 when I visited Memphis for the podcast so you can catch hi background story there. Today we are going to see what's new and hear

My guest today is Chad Copelin an American producer, audio engineer, musician, and songwriter from Norman, Oklahoma. He’s best known for his production work with Broncho, Sports, Wilderado, LANY, Ben Rector, Andrew Belle, Sufjan Stevens, Third Eye Blind and engineering for pop artists Christina Perri, Kelly Clarkson, Sasha Sloan and Avril Lavigne. Chad engineered Christina Perri’s Top 40 song “A Thousand Years” which went 10x platinum. He also was nominated for a grammy for producing and engineering All Sons And Daughter’s record “Poets & Saints.” He works out of his Norman, OK based studio, Blackwatch, as well as spending time in Nashville, LA, and Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, TX. I play synth and have amassed quite a collection of vintage synths, have an obsession with short scale guitars, and play bass on a lot of records as well. I'm always trying to find a new creative process to breathe life into a recording. Which we will talk about Thanks to Ryan Hewitt for making our introduction. Get access t

My guest today is Russell Cottier a producer, and engineer, who has worked with clients such as The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sony, and artists like Sly and Robbie, Don Carlos and Gold, The Roscoes and many more. He creates videos to teach recording and production as well on Youtube and through mixing courses. And he is even responsible for creating cool mixing hardware which we will hopefully talk about today on the podcast. Russel has been a guest on the podcast previously so you can catch his other episode on RSR107 to learn more about his background. Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com Use code RSR20 to get 20% off for the first 3 months https://www.Spectra1964.com http://MacSales.com/Rockstars http://iZotope.com/Rockstars use code ROCK10 for 10% off http://www.thetoyboxstudio.com https://www.sonarworks.com https://apiaudio.com http://UltimateMixin

My guest today is Tyler Campbell CEO the founder of Alder Audio, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based company pushing the boundaries of ribbon mic design.  Alder Audio launched in February 2021 with the H44, a workhorse ribbon mic with a patented capsule and durable herringbone ribbon.   Before founding Alder, Tyler worked in product development as a chemist and engineer.  He specializes in developing products related to materials design and has worked on a diverse array of projects, from high power lithium batteries to automotive communication cable, to adhesives you can find on the shelf of your local hardware store.   Tyler is also a self-proclaimed gear addict and lifelong home recording enthusiast, who grew up with a front row seat to his family’s small manufacturing business in Wisconsin.  The H44 design is a direct result of his scientific background combined with his passion for audio, recording, and small business. I have been trying out the H44 and H44S here at The Toy Box Stusio aka RSR HQ and I have to sa

My guest today is Jon Blass a GRAMMY award-winning mix engineer based in Nashville. His work has also received 9 other GRAMMY nominations, 6 Dove Awards, a pair of Stellar awards, and frequently lands atop the Billboard Gospel charts (including 13 number 1 Gospel Albums).  Jon’s mix credits include India.Arie, Tweet, Marvin Sapp, Donnie McClurkin, Anthony Brown, Jason Nelson, Donald Lawrence, and many others. He currently sits on the Nashville chapter Producers & Engineers Wing committee of the Recording Academy.  Jon is also a former executive committee member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in Nashville, and is an alum of the Society of Leaders in Development (SOLID).  Thanks to Anders and Adam Audio for making our introduction! Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com Use code RSR20 to get 20% off for the first 3 months https://www.Spectra1964.com htt

My guest today is Bill Mims, a graduate of Full Sail University in the Recording Engineering program. In 2001, he spent a year in Orlando doing live sound, as well as an internship at a post production facility before moving to LA in 2002 and getting hired by Sunset Sound where he worked his way up the ranks and was an assistant engineer by the end of 2004. He became proficient in Pro Tools, as well as analog tape machines. Between 2004 and 2010, Bill worked with some of the most famous artists in the world at Sunset Sound. Bill left Sunset and went freelance in 2011. Since then, he has done engineering and producing work for many artists. He has been lucky enough to have been a part of many Grammy winning projects, two of which Bill earned statues for (Jimmy Cliff-Best Reggae 2012 and Ben Harper/Charlie Musselwhite-Best Blues 2013). Bill has worked on several films, two of which have either won or been nominated for an Oscar (The Theory Of Everything-Best Original Music Score 2015, Sicario-Nominated for Best

My guest today is Eric Bazilian, an original member of The Hooters, producer, and musician writing and recording with other artists liken Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, The Scorpions, Ricky Martin, Jonatha Brooke, Leanne Rymes, and William Wittman to name just a few. Eric has been a guest on the podcast on episode RSR122 to talk about his start in music and writing the song “One Of Us” for Joane Osborne on his kitchen table. So please go check out that episode too. Also, make sure to catch his video series Under The Hood where Eric breaks down all his music and writing methods. Email in 2021 “...Being stuck in Stockholm with limited resources (a 2012 MacBook Pro, Apollo Twin, one Gefell mic, a couple of electric guitars, a mandola, a keyboard controller, and a short scale Gretsch bass that my son bought when was twelve) afforded me the time and motivation to make my first solo album in almost twenty years. Drums were cut by my drummer in Philadelphia (challenging considering his total lack of engineering experie

My guest today is Bill Cheney co-owner with Jim Romney of Spectra1964. Bill designs mic pre amps, eqs, and compressor limiters for studios following in the footsteps of William Dilley who founded the original Spectra Sonics company in 1964.  Bill has been a guest on the podcast before to talk about the history of Spectra Sonics and Spectra 1964 on episodes RSR227 and 269. So you should check those episodes out too and today we are going to talk about what's new at Spectra1964, the importance of understanding Peaks, how they affect your recordings, mixes, productions and ultimately masters and how Spectra1964 handles peak content to make sure your records sound amazing (like the many great records recorded with the Spectra 101 amplifier circuit including Aerosmith, ZZ Top, KISS and John Lennon to name a few. Spotify playlist in show notes) Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://s

My guest today is Matt Baxley, better known to the wider world as Moot Booxlé, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, composer, synthesist, teacher, and funk connoisseur currently based in Fort Myers, Florida.  Moot rose to prominence in the early days of YouTube with his videos demonstrating his abilities on the modular synthesizer and the talkbox, gaining millions of views and many followers. He played his first professional gig at the age of 16, playing drums in a production of the musical “Grease” in his hometown of Morristown, TN. He has played thousands of gigs since then on multiple instruments. He currently plays and sings nightly in several bands in Southwest Florida, producing records, playing on studio sessions, demonstrating musical equipment both live and on the internet and writing books. I stumbled on Moots Youtube channel surfing synth videos when I was checking out the new line of Behringer synths like the Poly D, Odyssey, MS-101, Crave, and Pro-1 where he does a great job of demoing all

My guest today is Trent Jones, a podcast producer, editor, and composer based in  Chattanooga, TN. He has produced over 1,000 podcast episodes in a wide variety of formats and topics, as well as a number of audiobooks. As a  composer, he has written bumpers and music beds for podcasts and midroll advertisements.  Trent is also a strength and conditioning coach, with a speciality in training men and women over 40 using barbells, resistance training, and high intensity interval training. After years of “working out” in public gyms and seeing little progress, Trent discovered the Starting Strength method in 2016 and began training under a Starting Strength Coach.  He gained 40lbs of muscular bodyweight over a year and greatly improved his strength, joint health, and mental health in the process. He began coaching others in 2018, and earned the Starting Strength Coach credential himself in 2020. His passion is teaching people to lift barbells to build stronger, more useful bodies, gain confidence, and improve the

My guest today is David Gnozzi a platinum mixing/mastering engineer and producer, as well as the creator and host of the popular YouTube channel MixbusTV and a Pro Mix Academy Tutor. David is a former professional musician with 2 albums published (Universal Records and Danse Macabre Records), and he has been recording and mixing for almost 20 years, he fully dedicated himself to recording, mix and mastering after ending his career as musician in 2010. David initially started to gain recognition as a mixing engineer after successful remixes for Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. His credits include: Raygun Romance, MC Solaar, Ryan Shuck (Orgy, Adema, Julien-K), Daniel Graves (Aesthetic Perfection), Mad Gallica, Danny Blue, Stonebreed, The Nest, and Italian pop superstar, Valeria Rossi to name a few. He mixed various projects for Universal Records, Nettwerk Records and Virgin Radio and video games such as Fallout 4 and Rock Band 3. In 2017, David worked with one of France’s most famous and influential hip hop arti

My guest today is Linda Taylor a Guitarist and composer for over 20 years on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” with Drew Carey, and Aisha Tyler. She has Toured, recorded and/or performed with Art Garfunkel, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tracy Chapman, Sheila E., Christopher Cross, Sara Niemietz, Crystal Bowersox, Edwin McCain, Don Was, Jim Keltner, Thelma Houston, and many more. And her recent recordings include Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy winning “Mosaic” and “Love And Soul”; Art Garfunkel’s “The Singer”; Ed Roth’s “Mad Beatnik”; Edwin McCain’s “Mercy Bound”; and Maia Sharp’s “The Dash Between The Dates”.   Currently Linda is collaborating with Sara Niemietz, co-writing, producing, mixing. Film and TV composer with placements including “This Is Us” and “Superstore”. Thanks to Bill Cheney at Spectra 1964 for making our introduction.  Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com U

My guest today is Duane Lundy, a music producer, mixer, and studio owner in Lexington Kentucky. Duane has worked with hundreds of artists from Grammy-Award winners like Sturgill Simpson & Flor de Toloache, to critically acclaimed and eclectic Ben Sollee, Vandaveers, Jim James, and the Horse Feathers. Duane also works on projects that include legacy artists like Ringo Starr, Michael McDonald, Bela Fleck, Robert Randolph, Earl Slick, Duff McKagan, and touring artists like Joe Pug, JDawn Landes, Daniel Rodriguez, as well as emerging buzz acts such as The National Reserve, Ian Noe, Brain Owens, Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts.  Recently he produced and engineered two tracks on the new Ringo Starr album, as well as produced and mixed Saving Country Musics 2016 song of the year “The Dogs” by Justin Wells. He also records his own music for television shows, feature films and advertising like Sons of Anarchy, Weeds, NCIS, and BMW Mini Cooper among many others. I met Duane in 2013 when he produced Americana ba

My guest today is Brian Charles a producer, engineer, plugin designer for Rare Signals from Boston Massachusetts. Brian has been a fantastic guest on the podcast before on episode RSR174 to talk about working with indie rock bands. He’s worked with thousands of artists over the years and has made albums in almost every genre imaginable.  Some of Brian’s many credits include The Vatican Commandos featuring a young “Moby” as the lead singer, Dispatch, pop artist Marina and the Diamonds, Weakened Friends, and his longtime work as a producer and touring member of the band “The Sheila Divine”.  Brian is also an educator working with Berklee College of Music, Emerson College, The Walnut Hill School for The Arts, and The Recording Workshop. And he is the creator of the “Transatlantic Plate Reverb” at his plugin company Rare Signals where he digitally recreated the iconic plate reverbs of Zippah studio. Tragically in December 2021 His Home base studio, Zippah Recording (of 33 years), was destroyed in an 8-alarm fire.

My guest today is Ben Rubin a producer, mixer, bassist, and composer in Brooklyn NY. Whether he’s melding hip-hop and jazz with legends like Masta Ace and Donny McCaslin, playing upright bass at the Newport Jazz Festival with Dred Scott Trio, remixing Karsh Kale or WuTang’s Killah Priest, rockin’ on electric bass with Marshall Crenshaw, or producing Peter Bernstein solo jazz guitar, Grammy-nominated producer/(re)mixer/bassist/composer Ben Rubin (aka Benny Cha Cha) is renowned for making records that are pure or genre-bending or both. Picked seven times as a “Rising Star Producer” in DownBeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Poll, Rubin has well over 100 album credits to his name. Lately, he has been working with a diversity of artists including Queen Esther, Erik Deutsch & Theo Bleckmann, Steve Conte (New York Dolls), Stripmall Ballads, Rachel Eckroth (St Vincent), Lower Power, Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Drifter feat. Lucy Woodward, Buzzed Armstrong, and Jon Irabagon, as well as labels like Ropeadope, Sunnys