Ah Hallmark would be heart-broken... I almost said "happy valentines" and then came to my senses. After all, isn't every day a love-fest?

Speaking of love: If you search "mastering" on Myspace we are now alternating between the 1st and 2nd listing that comes up (out of 117,000 results)... and for those of you who know me and know that Google powers Myspace's search engine, there's absolutely no computer trickery involved. I'm just not that smart. And while I'm in the self-deprecating mood, I just wrapped up mastering an album by Joy Askew that was mixed by the infamous, grammy-award winning engineer Malcolm Burn. He chose me on a test master.

Music biz news: The massive consolidation continues... Capitol merged with Virgin and they'll probably both continue to suck. According to the RIAA's data, 2006 was the worst year for Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum albums since 1990 (and I'm still trying to forget THAT year). Overall, music sales were relatively flat leading me to believe that more people bought a greater variety of albums and artists instead of rushing out to consume the same 10 albums, force-fed to us by top-40 formats. There's always a silver lining.

Last but most importantly, for anybody who knows who indie artist/producer J. Robbins is, or even if you don't... he and his wife have a very sick baby boy, born with an incurable genetic motor neuron disease called Type 1 SMA. It's debateable how much J.'s health insurance will cover and being that he's a self-employed musician and producer (I can relate), the financial strain will be extreme. His friends and ex-Jawbox bandmates Kim Coletta and Bill Barbot, have set up a page on their Desoto Records website where people can find more information about Cal's condition and donate to his treatment fund. I don't know J. personally but I have been inspired by his music and production since the 80's. He's one of the many reasons I do what I do and it only seems fitting for me to give something back.

Last month I had mentioned that one of the key ingredients to recording a great album is choosing the right studio and engineer and I wanted to elaborate. Here's a decent, general check list:

1. What are you going for? If you're just tracking drums then you want to make sure the studio has a proper drum room and that the engineer has some clear experience/examples of their work. Same goes for mixing, mastering, etc. Even more than credits... examples are key... the proof is always in the pudding.

2. Gear list: Don't paint yourself into an impossible corner with outlandish equipment demands coupled with a limited budget. If you're looking for a NEVE console w/ a 24 track, 2" Studer tape machine for $200 a day... monkey's might just fly out of your ass. Also, while the above mentioned gear is super cool (and who wouldn't want to date a super model?)... it's not necessary. Even 96-192 khz sampling rates are over-rated... if the studio is digital but has great a/d/a converters, a couple of decent mic pres and mics, helmed by a more-than experienced engineer, you're getting a great deal.

3. Style: Whether you're into Danger Mouse or Modest Mouse, if the engineer has never heard of these cats and doesn't seem to care... they're probably not right for you. Find somebody who's in to the same things you are and/or at least shares an enthusiam and willingness to learn.

4. How's the engineers bed-side manner? Do they have positive referrals from people you know and respect? How responsive and attentive are they (returning phone calls, answering questions, being interested in your project)? If somebody acts like you're an annoyance BEFORE you even hire them... take that as a clear indication that they will be 10 times worse when you're spending your hard-earned cash and 8 hours a day with them.

5. This relates to what I just said but I want to stress this point: Paying someone a certain amount doesn't necessarily reflect the quality. I always draw an example of this to buying a car... Mercedes Benz's are great and have loads of curb appeal... but if you want a car that is reliable, well-made, cheap to fix, lasts twice as long and will cost you a quarter of the price... buy a Toyota. Just because someone says they're "the best" and charges a premium doesn't mean it's true (even if they look cool).

How do I make my mixes better?

I've been getting a lot of questions in this vein lately. There's no easy answers but here's a couple more quick tips:

1). Listen to your mixes at low volume. That's the only way you're going to overcome your room acoustics which 9 times out of 10 suck unless an acoustic engineer designed it for you.

2). Don't over-compress (I know I'm a broken record)... when in doubt, create a duplicate track and slam it with compression (fast attack, slow release between 250 and 500 ms, and -20 or more threshold).... then mix it in underneath your main instrument track and like magic, you've got all of the benefits of compression with very few drawbacks. I swear this trick is god-head.

3). Don't over EQ. If something is not sitting right in a mix, don't rule out the importance of panning and volume. And if it is an EQ issue, sometimes it's not what you boost but what you cut. For exp, getting more presence out of a track can be as simple as rolling off freqs below 30 hz (and sometimes higher) or reducing 200 hz. Explore your options.

4). Sibilance. If you hear a shrill, chirpy, sloshy build up of "SSS" on the vox or cymbals... Use a De-Esser on the individual tracks to tame that high-end mess. Use care... you can destroy drum transients and the singers punctuation. Sibilance can go unnoticed due to poor monitoring enviornments (ie excessive bass build-up which can mask high-end... refer to the first entry for a solution). And don't obsess... plenty of great albums have some sibilance but if you don't address it during the mixing stage, it becomes a less than desirable mastering fix with subpar results.

5). Really listen to your levels when you're tracking... don't trust meters (especially when some mic pres don't have meters). Even a NEVE sounds like shit when you drive it beyond it's threshold and you can't fix it in the mix. Be particularly mindful of this tracking vox... if the singer has a huge dynamic range... chances are good that you're going to want A LOT of headroom so that those loud passages don't end up sounding like a thin, Pee Wee Herman performance.

Thanks, gang.