Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode #267 – The Hottest New Social Platform, Guitar And Bass Singing, And Reverb.com Founder David Kalt May 28, 2019

Show notes

David Kalt launched the super popular gear site Reverb.com in 2013 after growing frustrated with the process of buying and selling guitars on eBay. To get it started, David raised more than $47 million in funding from investors ranging from Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and country star Brad Paisley to tech leaders like Eric Ries and Max Levchin.Since then, Reverb has sold more than $1 billion worth of new and used instruments on the platform. In that time David has worked with artists ranging from the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl to Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong to get gear into the hands of fans.In the interview we talked about how he made a pivot from being a studio engineer to the business world, integrating with local music stores, an overview of Reverb’s customers and gear, and much more. On the intro I'll take a look at the hottest new platform for tween and teens Tik Tok and its battle with the major labels, and some tips for singing better while playing guitar or bass.

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Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.

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🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.
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Episode #266 – YouTube’s Streaming Numbers, Major Label Hi-Res Audio, And NBC Supervising Sound Editor Robert Siciliano May 21, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is Robert Siciliano, who started as a music recording engineer, but by almost a quirk of fate got a temp job at NBC that turned into a career.In the interview we talked about making the transition to postproduction, the turnaround time for an audio job, dealing with audio that isn’t well-recorded. On the intro I'll take a look at Google and YouTube’s streaming numbers, and the major labels getting back into hi-res.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Episode #265 – Digital Payola, Minors Playing In Clubs, And Microphone Maker Dave Pearlman May 14, 2019

Show notes

After years as a touring pedal steel guitarist with everyone from Dan Fogelberg and Phil Everly to Pat Boone and Bobby Womack, Dave Pearlman opened his Rotund Rascal Studio in North Hollywood in 1979. To save money on outside techs, Dave began to do repairs and modifications on classic mics like the U47, 67 and AKG C12. His side business became so successful that Dave closed the studio after 25 years and started Pearlman Microphones.He now hand-builds a full line of excellent vintage-style tube mics, including the mostly overlooked Church MGM microphone from the 50s, Telefunken 250, and the U 47, among others.In the interview we talked about how he started building mics, the history of the famous Church microphone, finding vintage tubes, the magic of older parts, and much more. On the intro I'll take a look at payola and how it’s making a legal comeback, and a new well-intentioned law that might end up hurting musicians in Pennsylvania.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Episode #264 – Most Musical Cities, Netflix Quality Audio, And Music Technologist David Frangioni May 07, 2019

Show notes

David Frangioni started his music career as a drummer, but soon became a pioneer in MIDI technology. This lead him into the studio as an engineer and producer for dozens of top artists including The Stones, Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Elton John, Sting, Carl Palmer, Journey, Styx, KISS, Phil Collins, Shakira, Ozzy Osbourne, and more.David is also the founder of Audio One, one of the most successful and awarded A/V firms in the U.S, as well as multimedia design, installation and content company Frangioni Media. Audio One specializes in the super sophisticated home automation, and the company has built hundreds of technology, sound, and automation installations to date. He’s also an author with 3 books to his credit, and he’s extremely active in a variety of charitable foundations.In the interview we talked about David getting his start in the studio with Aerosmith, why credits are so important, the challenges of high-end home automation, writing books about Clint Eastwood and vintage drums, and much more. I spoke with David via skype from his home in Florida.On the intro I'll take a look at the most musical cities in the world today, and Netflix upping the audio ante to hi-res.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Episode #263 – Black Box Money, Background Music And Grammy Audio Co-Ordinator Michael Abbott Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is Michael Abbott, who started in television audio doing front-of-house sound for projects like the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics and the Academy awards, to working for the major television networks as a staff mixer on a variety of shows.Michael now heads the sound design, engineering and consulting company All Ears, where he not only co-ordinates the audio for the Grammy Awards show, but shows like The Voice and Shark Tank, presidential debates and awards shows like the ESPYs, the Country Music Awards, and the Oscars.In the interview we talked about the massiveness of the Grammy audio setup, keeping the performers happy, the super-fast sound checks involved, some of the last minute problems he’s presented with, and much more. On the intro I'll take a look at Black Box money that songwriters aren’t receiving and the fight over it, and how a new study determined that background music doesn’t really help your concentration.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Episode #262 – Digital Music And The Environment, Hearing Loss For String Players, And Music Registry’s Ritch Esra Apr 23, 2019

Show notes

Ritch Esra is the former promotion coordinator for A&M Records and director of A&R for Arista Records, where he worked extensively with the publishing and songwriting communities for material for Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Tanya Tucker, Jennifer Warnes and Jermaine Jackson, and various major motion pictures.Since 1992, Ritch has been running the Music Business Registry service, which includes The A&R Registry, The Publisher Registry, The Music Business Attorney Registry, The Artist Managers Registry and The Film and Television Music Guide. He also co-founded MUBUTV, which is an online video channel dedicated to educating recording artists, bands, and musicians on the realities of developing a career in music today. Ritch has also taught various classes on the music business at Musicians Institute, SAE and the UCLA Extension.In the interview we talked about the state of A&R over the years, the most difficult challenge that an artist has today, why fewer American hits go global, the biggest misconception about label A&R, and much more. On the intro I'll take a look at how streaming seems to be worse for the environment than CDs or vinyl, and how an orchestral viola player’s suit against the Royal Opera House for hearing damage has played out.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Episode #261 – Streaming Services Keep The Money, Beamforming Audio, And Producer-Engineer Jack Miele Apr 16, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is producer/engineer Jack Miele, who’s won a Grammy, Emmy, 4 Telly awards and 2 Global Music awards. Based in New Orleans, Jack has a wide range of studio credits that include Rod Stewart, The Roots, Beyonce, Aloe Blacc and the Zac Brown Band, among many others. As a composer, Jack’s work has been featured TV shows like American Horror Story, Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover,” and Toddlers and Tiaras, and commercials for Mercedes, IBT Clothing, Mountain Dew, also among many others.In the interview we talked about the state of recording in New Orleans, how musicians learn on the job there, the unique ways that musicians get paid, recording to tape and staying analog, and much more. I spoke with jack via phone from his studio in Los Angeles.On the intro I'll take a look at how streaming services are keeping more money than they did before, and beamforming audio in the new MSG Sphere Arena in Las Vegas.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Bluesky

Episode #260 – Vinyl Mastering Engineer Kevin Gray, The 3 Inch Single, And Violinists Trained By AI Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

My guest today is mastering engineer Kevin Gray who specializes in vinyl disc cutting. Kevin has mastered music at his Cohearant Mastering studio for every major label in every genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, adult contemporary, alternative, punk, heavy metal, new age, gothic, world ethnic, disco, dance, soul, blues, and hip-hop / rap. His credits include more than a hundred top ten and Grammy award-winning records, and dozens of gold and platinum albums and singlesIn the interview we talked about why he doesn’t take super-compressed projects, the custom-designed analog gear he uses, direct-to-disc recording, half-speed mastering, and much more.On the intro I'll take a look at the new 3 inch vinyl single that Jack White's Third Man Records label is releasing, and the future of music education with violinists being trained by artificial intelligence.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Bluesky

Episode #259 – Producer Michael Beinhorn, CD Baby Sold, And Audio Interface Survey Apr 02, 2019

Show notes

Michael Beinhorn has produced a wide range of artists including Herbie Hancock, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith and Soundgarden, among many others. He is the author of Unlocking Creativity, and an outspoken advocate of the importance of artist development and pre-production within the creative process. To that end, Michael has begun consulting with artists specifically about their pre-production, and we had a lively discussion that delved deep into the subject.In the interview we talked about why pre-production is so important, how it can be done remotely, the psychology of production, and much more.On the intro I look at CD Baby's sale to Downtown Music, and the latest survey on audio interfaces.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

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Bluesky

Episode #258 – 5th Anniversary Geoff Emerick Tribute With Bill Smith, Record Deal For Algorithm, And Counterfeit Gear Mar 26, 2019

Show notes

Recently I had a conversation with engineer Bill Smith about the late engineer Geoff Emerick and realized that there was a lot that we didn’t know about this audio giant even though he was responsible for some huge records that shaped the lives and careers of so many people. Although he’s most famous for recording The Beatles, Geoff recorded songs that we hear every day by The Zombies, Stealer’s Wheel, Supertramp, America, Jeff Beck, Kate Bush, Oasis, Cheap Trick and so many more.Bill Smith was his assistant and best friend for many years and knows about as much about Geoff as anybody, so I asked him to come on the show and to give us some insight to this great man. In the interview you’ll hear some interesting facts about how Geoff miked Paul McCartney’s bass, how he needed to get EMI’s written permission to be able to experiment with some of his miking ideas that are since become the standard way we do things today, why his bass and drum techniques are so influential to today’s music, and much more. In the intro I'll look at how an artificial intelligence algorithm got a record deal, and counterfeit gear that's more prevalent than you think.

Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.

📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books

🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course

🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses

📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:

Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky