Happy Thanksgiving!

Its Thanksgiving Day here in America. I have so very much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful just to be alive. I havent talked about it at all in my blog but enough time has passed now. This year i almost died. I wont get into the details, but it was an absolutely crazy thing to go thru, and i would be dead right now if i didnt have major surgery. Fortunately, I am now feeling very healthy and taking great care of myself. I'm trying not to work completely insane hours, trying to get enough sleep, eat well, workout, and make sure that i'm on this planet for many decades to come, with a great quality of life. I am so Thankful. I have an all new appreciation for life and living it.

I am also thankful for all of the great friends and family i have. you have all been a tremendous support network this year and throughout my life, and I am so lucky to have you all. Thank you so much.

I am Thankful for all of my great clients, artists, and music industry colleagues. I enjoy my work so much, due in large part to all of you. I am incredibly lucky to have such a diverse and successful career, and i still pinch myself every day that i get to wake up and make music for a living. Its a great feeling, and you all have alot to do with that feeling.

I hope all of you today have much to be Thankful for. I sure do.

Happy Thanksgiving! Now bring on the Turkey!!!!

-Ken Lewis

AMAZING New Plugin

OK, this is going to be kind of an advanced tech post, even alot of newbie engineers wont understand this.....yet. So, recently i got a new plugin from a new company called brainworks, check them out at this link... BRAINWORX

This is the Holy Grail of EQ plugin's. This is the Equalizer I've been waiting years for someone to design as a plugin. Alot of people probably don't know that top Mastering engineers have very different equipment than top mixers do, until now. This is where it gets a little difficult to understand at first.

Mastering engineers can affect the sides of a mix completely independently of the middle of the mix. For instance, if a mastering engineer wants to add more presence to the lead vocal without adding more presence to the whole mix, he can simply EQ ONLY the center of the mix without affecting the sides, and vice versa, say he wants to brighten up the wide guitars and cymbals without brightening the vocal and snare which are in the center, the mastering engineer can do this. How? Well, it blew my mind the first time i saw it done. Ted Jensen at Sterling showed me his custom Muth Console many years ago that gave him these abilities, and I have been envious ever since. until now.

So....I am currently producing an indie rock band from New York City named MAN ON EARTH I was mixing a song i just finished producing called "Intentions" and i decided to put the BX Digital plugin to the test. I was just blown away. This EQ will allow you to EQ the side information completely independently of the middle information and vice versa. So, i've attached a screenshot of my settings on the BX Digital as well as an MP3 which i have random edits on. I printed a mix where i randomly bypassed and inserted the BX digital plugin. you might wanna listen thru headphones to really hear the full ability of this thing. So, basically whenever you hear the mix get bigger, the BX is in line, whenever you hear the mix collapse a bit and get a bit darker and smaller, the BX is bypassed. again, i'm switching randomly about every 2 to 4 seconds between having the BX Digital in and bypassed.

My screenshot at the top shows you what i did. now this is a bit tricky to understand, but the LEFT side of the EQ ONLY affects the middle of the mix. So for instance, the kick, snare, bass guitar, lead vocal are all panned in the center. The left EQ is affecting these elements. The right side of the EQ is ONLY affecting the side information, basically anything not panned in the center. in this case, mostly the cymbals and guitars, as well as the delays and reverbs, and some of the hi hat.

you'll notice i'm warming up the sides a bit adding 4dB at 391Hz (which gives the guitars a bit of extra body) and adding 1.9dB at 7.3K as well which lets the cymbals shine a bit more. The Middle EQ, i added 1.6dB at 213Hz to fatten up the bass guitar and kick a bit, as well as adding 2.3dB at 3.8K to give the vocal and snare a bit more presence, and then i added 3dB at 20K just to give the hats a bit of extra crispness.

you can listen to the A/B comparison MP3 by clicking here BX Digital A/B Comparison.mp3

This plugin is amazing!

-Ken Lewis