Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Podcast

My guest this week is Hayden Maringer, who has performed countless shows and tours all over the world working with artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato, The Band Perry, Carrie Underwood, and many more.  Hayden established himself as a music director and guitarist, but also as an actor, working as the lead guitar player on the Fox hit TV show Glee. He has also worked as a composer, with credits such as “The Scorpion King: Quest For Power,” commercials for Ford, and shows on NBC and BBC.  During the interview we spoke about his audition with Lady Gaga, the importance of reading music, a pressure-packed session with Jennifer Lopez, learning how to become a tour music director, and much more. I spoke with Hayden from his studio in Hollywood. On the intro I’ll take a look at TikTok becoming a music distributor, as well as the upcoming vacuum tube shortage.

My guest this week is Michael Walker, who went from being a living-out-of-his-car touring musician to reaching #2 on the iTunes Alternative Charts in 6 months by using some simple grass-roots marketing techniques. After touring professionally for eight years, Michael decided to set up Modern Musician to teach other artists and bands the skills that he learned to have a profitable music career. Michael now takes clients through a 3 tier system of discovering an artist’s identity, developing a passionate fan base, and then multiplying their revenue. During the interview we spoke about how tour hacking started, how artists can better target their audience, how older artists can have an outlet for their music, and much more. I spoke with Michael via Zoom from his studio in Florida. On the intro I’ll take a look at the real culprit behind low songwriter royalties on Spotify, and if people can really tell the sonic difference between CD and vinyl. var podscribeEmbedVars = {

My guest this week is Daniel Rowland, who’s an audio engineer, producer, educator, Head of Strategy and Partnerships at Montreal’s LANDR Audio, and longtime professor at MTSU in Nashville. Daniel has been part of numerous international tours; produced the music for an Oscar-winning Pixar film; and mastered multiplatinum/Grammy-nominated albums, while working on projects for artists as varied as Nine Inch Nails, Seal, Meek Mill, Phillip Glass, and Gwen Stefani, along with dozens of Disney properties such as Star Wars and Marvel.  Daniel has worked with online mastering service LANDR to refine its AI mastering engine and develop numerous virtual instruments, plugins, and other products, while crafting acquisition and partnerships deals with a wide range of startups and iconic brands/artists. During the interview we spoke about distance audio learning, the unexpected uses for LANDR, his take on the newest music tech, and much more. I spoke with Daniel from his studio in Los Angeles. On the intro I

My guest this week is Steve Genewick, who’s worked at Capitol Studios in Hollywood for 25 years. Steve was one of the very first mixers to get into Atmos music mixing and now has more experience than just about anyone. Among the artists that Steve has mixed in Atmos includes Aerosmith, Miles Davis, Bon Jovi, Carrie Underwood, REM, Maroon 5 and many more. During the interview we spoke about setting up a home Atmos studio, getting thrown into the Atmos learning curve, how he uses objects and beds, the tools he regularly uses, his custom reverb setup, and much more. I spoke with Steve from his home studio in Hollywood. You can find out more about him either here or on Episode 276. On the intro I’ll take a look at the people who don’t like crypto and NFTs and why, and the $200 Kanye Stem Music Player.

My guest this week is Paul Kopf who’s the product manager for the go-to orchestral sample library for most film composers - the Vienna Symphonic Library. A composer, producer, musician and singer, Paul has been a staff member of VSL since the year 2000 when the company was founded, and is an expert for the world’s largest orchestral database with several million recorded samples.  As a Product Manager, he’s responsible for product design, beta-testing, presentation and documentation and is closely involved with customer support. Paul also does many of VSL’s numerous video tutorials, and travels around the world holding clinics and presenting the latest products at music events. During the interview we spoke about the secret behind what makes VSL so popular, the process of recording the samples for the library, virtually placing the players on the stage, the piano robot, and much more. I spoke with Paul from his office in Liechtenstein. On the intro I’ll take a look at a new short run vinyl presser

Also, how TikTok royalties works, and what will happen to musical instrument sales after the boom during Covid. My guest this week is Ceri Thomas, who’s responsible for content and studio enablement for Dolby Music. He works with engineers, studios and record labels to ensure that they can create music using Dolby’s Atmos Technology. After 15 years in the film and television industry at companies like Danetracks, Todd-Soundelux and Twenty Four Seven Sound, Ceri started as an applications engineer in virtual reality at Dolby. He then made the jump to working with Atmos in 2015, so he has vast experience on the subject. During the interview we spoke about how to get into Atmos mixing, the vast number of devices that are Atmos capable, Dolby room tuning, what makes a great immersive mix, and much more. I spoke with Ceri from his office in Burbank. On the intro I’ll take a look at how TikTok royalties work, and what happens to musical instrument sales after the pandemic. var

PLUS: why the CD sales increase was just a mirage, and the end of the smart speaker era. My guest this week is engineer Lij Shaw, who’s the owner of the Toy Box Studio in Nashville and host of the great podcast Recording Studio Rockstars. Lij has also been battling with the Nashville Metro Council since 2015 on behalf of home studio and home business owners in the city to keep their businesses open.  The city of Nashville, which ironically has the moniker of “Music City,” had a zoning ordinance on its books claiming that a home studio or business is in violation if a customer comes to the house. In July 2020 Nashville finally made home studios and other home businesses legal, but the win also included a sunset clause that would cause the bill to expire three years later unless they vote to keep the law active in January 2023. In 2017, Lij and other Nashville home business owners filed a lawsuit in an effort to provide the right to work from home, which has now made it all the way to the Tennessee

Plus, why the prices of streaming audio should be increased, and the world's fastest cybernetic drummer. My guest this week is Martins Popelis, who’s one of the founders of Sonarworks. The company was one of the first to provide room and headphone calibration software that’s within the reach of the average home studio owner. During the interview we spoke about measurement mics why they’re all different, the company’s consumer offerings, how to get the best results with Sonarworks, the difference between Sonarworks and room modeling, and much more. I spoke with Martins from a studio in Los Angeles that he was visiting. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 82669940, backgroundColor: 'white', font: undefined, fontColor: undefined, speakerFontColor: undefined, height: '600px', showEditButton: false, showSpeakers: true, showTimestamps: true };

Also, the top music moneymakers last year, and some plugins that can do more harm than good. My guest this week is the legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, who may be one of the most unappreciated but exceptionally influential guitarists in rock. He was a co-founder of the seminal MC5, a band that many would argue started the punk rock movement almost a decade before it became popular. In fact, The Clash even wrote not one, but two songs about him! Wayne has collaborated with a who’s who of rock’s most elite artists over the years. As a matter of fact, the list is so long that you can read about it here. His scoring work can be heard on Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, the HBO comedy series Eastbound & Down, ESPN’s 5-4-3-2-1, In My Own Words, and Under The Lights, and even for the “Unlabeled” Jim Beam commercial. Wayne is extremely passionate about his work with Jail Guitar Doors, a program that provides guitars and music lessons for inmates at more than 50 penal institutions throughout the United State

Plus on the intro, a look at how CDs increased for the first time in 17 years, and how voiceovers are being disrupted by AI. My guest this week is Avid Solutions Specialist Jeff Komar. Jeff grew up around music and recording so he naturally gravitated towards the tech world. He joined Digidesign in 2000 before it was bought by Avid, and he’s specialized in helping creators solve problems ever since.  Since there have been so many questions lately about immersive audio, I thought I’d get the info from someone directly connected to the technology. During the interview we spoke about what’s required to get started in immersive audio, where to find sessions to practice with, the difference between bed and object tracks, the different mixing approaches, how it’s affected production, and much more. I spoke with Jeff via Zoom from his home studio. On the intro I’ll take a look at how CDs actually increased in sales last year, and how voiceovers are being disrupted by AI. var po

My guest this week is Grammy-nominated mastering engineer Michael Romanowski, who’s the owner and chief mastering engineer at Coast Mastering in Berkley, CA. Michael has over 30 years of experience mastering in stereo, but he’s been a pioneer in mastering for immersive audio, complete with a new purpose-built 9.1.6 room. Michael’s immersive credits include the original motion picture soundtrack for Dune, Hans Zimmer, three albums by Alicia Keys, Eagles “Live From The Form”, and quite a few others. During the interview we spoke about what people expect from immersive mastering, how the loudness wars are creeping in again, the tools he uses and the tools he'd still like to have, what makes a great immersive mix, and much more. I spoke with Michael via Zoom from his studio just in the Bay area. On the intro I’ll take a look at Apple Music finally converting its full catalog to lossless, and the top 20 computer audio interfaces. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 8258

It's that time of year again to take a look back at the influential music business stories from 2021, see how the predictions from last year fared, and have a look forward to the trends and predictions for 2022. Among the things I'll discuss in Podcast 401 include: Music centers shifting to new places on the globe The $9.99 streaming price Spotify getting into video TikTok peaking The future of immersive audio The move towards hi-res audio Artists and their streaming numbers The next big trend in music Music NFTs As always you'll hear not only my outlook on these topics but what I'm seeing that makes me think that way. Here's to the last podcast of 2021. Once again, thank you for your support. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 82562793, backgroundColor: 'white', font: undefined, fontColor: undefined, speakerFontColor: undefined, height: '600px', showEditButton: false, showSpeakers: true,

Yes, it's an old picture, but I thought Edward Colver did a great job taking it We've hit a milestone today with Episode 400 so I'm going to change things up a little. There's new theme music (I'm not sure if I like it - if you have something better please send it), and the upcoming episodes this year will be more theme-based. First up will be a deep-dive into immersive audio as soon as the new year rolls around. By popular demand, this episode is dedicated to a few of my personal studio horror stories, although some are actually about some good experiences (like the Frank Zappa stories) too. During the episode I covered some early sessions that did not go well (and how I handled them badly too), dipping my toe into commercials and jingles, fun times with Frank Zappa, having some songs on a hit TV show (but paying the price), a true Hollywood TV star moment (not), not getting paid and not getting credit, celebrity tapes exploding, and much more. Thank you kindly for all your support and for li

My guest this week is my good friend for many years Dennis Moody, who also appeared on the very first episode of the Inner Circle Podcast as well as number 100, 200 and 300. This is episode #399 and I’m going to be changing things up starting on episode 400 so I wanted to bring Dennis back on to close out an era. Dennis is known as the “drummer's engineer” having worked on projects by master drummers Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, and Michael White among many others. He’s also one of the few studio engineers that also excels as a live concert engineer, having mixed at most of the major U.S. venues from Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden to The L.A. Forum, as well as most of the major concert venues throughout Europe including Wembly Arena, Royal Albert Hall, and other venues for shows having up to 250,000 in attendance. He has also mixed thousands of Broadway style musicals, large and small orchestral shows, plays, and live broadcasts worldwide. During the interview we spoke about working during Covid,

My guest this week is Kati Eismann, who’s the global marketing director for the Adam Hall Group. The Adam Hall Group brands include sound reinforcement company LD Systems, stage lighting company Cameo, stand company Gravity, cable protectors by Defender, and Adam Hall hardware and flight cases. It’s also the distributor to brands like Hofner, EBS, Maiton and Mad Professor Amplification. Before joining Adam Hall Kati spent 10 years with labels such as Warner, Universal and Virgin, and then moved into the fashion sector at brands such as Eastpak and Endemol, before returning to music business with her position with Adam Hall. During the interview we spoke about being one of the few females in live sound, how the music business prepared Katie for the fashion industry, the difference between the US and European audio markets, and much more. I spoke with Katie via Zoom. On the intro I’ll take a look at the minimum wage for working musicians, and some vocal recording tips. var po

My guest this week is mastering engineer Pete Doell, who worked as a staff engineer at the legendary Wally Heider Studios before moving to Capitol Records studio and then to Sony Pictures, where he worked for 15 years. While at Capitol, he worked on a wide range of artists from Miles Davis to Dwight Yokum to the Beach Boys and many more. In the early 2000’s Pete transitioned into mastering engineer first at Universal Mastering Studios, then to AfterMaster Audio Labs, where he currently works. His mastering credits include Ray Charles, James Brown, Puddle of Mudd, Toto, and many more. I wanted to catch up with Pete since his last appearance on the Podcast was in Episode 165 more than 4 years ago. During the interview we talked about the things that have changed in mastering, how streaming has actually been beneficial to music audio, the level of the mixes he asks clients to send him, mastering for The Voice, and much more. I spoke with Pete from his studio in Hollywood. On the intro I’ll take a loo

John Krivit is an audio educator and founder of the extremely popular Facebook group "Hey Audio Student."  He's a past president of the Audio Engineering Society, and served as Chair of the 2018 AES Conference on Audio Archiving, Preservation & Restoration at the US Library of Congress and was Chair of the 2018 and 2019 AES High School Audio Educators Conferences. John is also a senior affiliated faculty at Emerson College, where he’s been the recipient of the Inabeth Miller Award for excellence in teaching and the Norm Prescott Award for outstanding faculty member.  During the interview we talked about not so obvious audio jobs, John’s “Hey Audio Student” community, conducting audio manufacturer factory tours, and much more. On the intro I’ll take a look at how much streaming platforms are paying in 2021, and new uses for spatial audio. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 81947497, backgroundColor: 'white', font: undefined, fontColor: undefine

NEWS How the music industry jobs have changed The ultimate song according to science GUEST Earthworks Audio CEO Gareth Krausser Gareth Krausser, who’s the CEO of Earthworks Audio, one of the premier microphone manufacturers that keeps a relatively low profile. Earthworks was founded by audio pioneer David Blackmer, who also founded dbx, and it was originally set up as a speaker manufacturer. David found the test gear needed in loudspeaker design was lacking so he built a measurement microphone as his first project. It was so well regarded for its sound quality that before long, the focus of the company shifted entirely to microphones. During the interview we spoke about Gareth’s long association behind the scenes with Earthworks, what makes Earthworks mics different, specialty microphones, and much more. On the intro I’ll take a look at how jobs have changed in the music business, and the ultimate song according to science. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 8152

NEWS Vinyl is doing better than ever, and that's why it's in crises Will the latest guitar sales boom collapse? GUEST Music life coach Ariane Paras My guest this week is music life coach Ariane Paras, who started in the business working for record labels and booking acts into large venues before she found that her real calling was helping people. Now through her Olympia Coaching she helps musicians, artists, and industry professionals how to be happy and thrive in their careers. A certified life coach, Ariane uses a variety of self-development tools from fields such as NLP, neuroscience, mindfulness, and positive psychology in her sessions to help her clients create a life they love, and love the life they have. During the interview we spoke about connecting to your creativity, using breath work to overcome a negative emotion, working with artists who feel stuck in their careers, getting beyond the typical artist mindset blocks, and much more. On the intro I’ll take a look at vinyl doing so w

NEWS According to it's own insider data, Facebook has lost young users Metallica has an online band course, but are bands passe? GUEST L-Acoustic's managing director Guillaume LeNost talks L-ISA Studio Guillaume LeNost started in the R&D department at L-Acoustics in 2009 and has risen to Managing Direct in the UK. He’s also in charge of the company’s Creative Technologies division, which includes development of the L-ISA immersive audio system. Prior to that Guillaume researched industrial environmental noise and binaural synthesis (in which he received his PhD), and spent time in audio for gaming space. During the interview we spoke about the L-ISA Studio spatial audio package, how artists are thinking of immersive audio right from the beginning of a project, spatial audio translation from headphones to a playback system, L-Acoustic’s Blue Space, and much more. On the intro I’ll take a look at Facebook losing new users, and the Metallica online band course and the future of bands.