Author Archives: Marc Urselli

About Marc Urselli

7-time nominated 3-time Grammy Award winning engineer, producer, mixer, sound designer Marc Urselli writes, produces and records artists from all over the world. He also composes music for TV and film and does sound design for commercials and mixing for film and TV. In 2008 alone he recorded and mixed more than half a dozen movie soundtracks. Marc Urselli was born in Switzerland and raised in Italy but is based in New York City. His musical education began at age 12. At age 17 he opened his first commercial recording facility in Italy. He later moved to New York City where he began and continues to work at the legendary recording studio EastSide Sound as the resident Chief House Engineer. Between 2005 and 2006 Marc Urselli won 3 Grammy Awards for his engineering and mixing work. Clients include: U2, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, John Zorn, Les Paul, Laurie Anderson, Gotye, Børns, Sting, Joss Stone, Macy Gray, Courtney Love, Michael Franti, Jack DeJohnette (Miles Davis), Esperanza Spalding, John Patitucci, Ornette Coleman, Joan Jett, Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende Neubauten), Lucinda Williams, Beth Orton, Todd Rundgren, Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), Charlotte Gainsbourg, King Khan, David Johansen (New York Dolls), Paola Prestini, DuYun, The Orwells, Devendra Banhart, The Beach Boys, Lila Downs, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Faith No More's Mike Patton, Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, Rufus Reid, Lionel Loueke, Buddy Guy, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora, Bill Frisell, Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Rzeznick, ZZ Top, Sam Cooke, The Black Crowes, Aerosmith's Joe Perry, Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, Luther Vandross and many many more. For a longer list of clients and credits please check out his discography. Marc Urselli is an entrepreneur who wears many hats and besides music he is into traveling, kitesurfing, guitars, art, web design, the internet, writing and more...

50% OFF all MIXES to help artists during Covid

For a limited time only, I’ll be offering my mixing services at 50% of my standard rate in order to help ALL artists and musicians who have been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

In order to take advantage of this offer all you have to do is send me an email through this form and answer a few questions below.

Filling out this form does not in any way force you to use my services or take advantage of this offer, you can decide at any time whether you want to go ahead with this mixing offer or not. I am simply trying to gather the information that I need to give you a quote.

    new Marc Urselli interview in The Holy Filament webzine from Chile

    The super nice and super cool guys from the Chilean webzine The Holy Filament have interviewed me on the occasion of the John Zorn Masada Marathon in Bogota, Colombia, an epic 4 hour long concert event where I mixed 12 of John Zorn’s best bands playing his music, from classical, to jazz, to experimental avantgarde to metal. People from all over South America (Peru, Chile, San Salvador etc) flew in to Colombia to see John Zorn’s first ever Masada Marathon in South America. The whole staff of The Holy Filament flew in as well!

    Here is the interview: http://www.theholyfilament.cl/destacados/entrevista-a-marc-urselli/

    And since the interview is in Spanish, here is the English version of it:

    • How did your love and career in sound engineering begin? Where did that happen?

    I started in Italy where I grew up. I had a band at the time and I wanted to record the rehearsals so I started to buy some recording equipment. First a 4 track cassette recorder, then a mixer, then some microphones etc etc. I started making demo tapes. Eventually a friend of mine who had a studio decided to upgrade his studio console and that is when the light when off in my head and I decided to become a sound engineer. I bought his used console and opened a recording studio in Italy, where I lived, and I was recording lots of punk/hard core bands. Then after a few years of doing that I decided I wanted to extend my horizons and experience and that is when I moved to NYC.

    • What was your vocational training in the art of capturing sounds? Formally and informally.

    I didn’t really have any formal training. I was considering going to an audio school before moving to NYC but then I decided to do some internships and learn by watching other people. I practiced a lot in my spare time and got better and better at it. It took a lot of experimenting and a lot of work but I kept getting better at it and was really loving it.

    • How would you describe the art of mix and capturing sound?

    They are different arts, but both intrinsically connected as they closely depend on each other. Both are a mixture of science and art. Experience and knowledge are key parts but experimentation is also very important. To me both are incredibly interesting and I take great enjoyment out of both. Mixing is especially creative for me so I love mixing records because in a mix everything is just as important as everything else and you have to make sure everything is heard in the mix and that the mix carries you. It’s an art form that I have been practicing to get better at every day.

    • Tell me about Eastside Studio. How did you begin in the studio? I presume that your professional career there was a long time investment.

    Yes, very long. I started there as an intern under the owner and founder Lou Holtzman who gave me a chance. I was supposed to only stay for 3 months but kept staying longer and longer. I was cleaning toilets, vacuuming the floors and making coffee… That’s before I even got to wrap up cables! It took a long time until I could prove my worth in the control room. It took over two years of commitment to get to where I was allowed to do a session, I went from being a runner/cleaner/intern to an assistant. Then I became an engineer and now I am the chief engineer and manager. I am very grateful for the chance I got to make coffee and cleaning toilets!

    • Were there other jobs before you became a sound engineer? Tell me about your beginnings.

    I never really did much else actually. I had and still have an interest in web design and before engineering completely took over my life I was trying my hand at making a living with web design. It’s a skill that came in handy and that I still use and enjoy today. I designed my own website (www.marcurselli.com), the one for the studio (www.eastsidesound.com), the one for my record label (www.stridulationrecords.com) and other websites like my music magazine Chain D.L.K. (www.chaindlk.com).

    • How do you do it with the equipment to mix and record an album? I imagine that depends on what the musicians want. Do you have to purchase or upgrade equipment/material for that?

    I have some equipment my own but luckily I am not a studio owner anymore and so I am not responsible for buying equipment. EastSide Sound is one of the best studios in the world and they have an amazing collection of vintage analog and modern digital equipment so I get to use a mixture of both to make records and I choose the different pieces of equipment according to the sound I want to achieve. I am very fortunate to be able to work in such an amazing studio!

    • In terms of the “needs” and requirements of the different musicians, how do you adapt to the requirements of the musicians, especially to capture the essence of an album as a rough diamond?

    Every musician is different so I try to cater to the needs of all the musicians on a session and make sure they are comfortable and get what they want and what they need and that they are relaxed so that they can focus uniquely on the music and give their best performance. The more relaxed, happy and focused they are the better will be the performance and so it is in everyone’s best interest that the musicians are happy in the studio!

    • This question will be a little long… Lately you’ve been mixing albums of John Zorn, Dave Lombardo, recently mixed up a live album of Steven O’Malley and so on… The thing is, I imagine that you have a huge responsibility to not “screw up” the music that you tape. How do you deal professionally with the responsibility of that?

    I don’t think about the responsibility so much, I just think about how to do it best without making mistakes. Of course it’s a great responsibility to track a take that will never be played the same way again and it is my job to make a mix sound as good as it can be, but the people I work with trust me with their sound and I have never let anyone down! I am a reliable person and a consumate professional. I cross the t’s and dot the i’s, I double check everything and I am very organized. I never lost a file for example, but this means that I have to be methodical about file organization, naming, dating and backing up. For example I back up every single thing I do to two hard drives while I am working, so even if one hard drive dies I always have a mirror backup copy of everything I am doing. And I save multiple times every minute. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I am half swiss, so I am very organized ;-)

    • So far, including your awards and nominations, what has been your favorite /job on a record?

    Too many to remember! Just this week I did one record with John Zorn, one with Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding and Leo Genovese, one with Don Friedman and one with Ben Allison. That is 4 records this week alone! I am very busy and I never stop working. I love working with John Zorn and I have great memories of working with Lou Reed, Les Paul, Mike Patton and many many others.

    • Now you will be in Colombia with the Zorn Marathon. There are many aspects to ask about in your job, for example how do you make a theater “sounds good”. How do you adapt the acoustic when you enter in a theater and tailor the sound live?

    Live sound is a whole other animal and I love it dividing my time between studio and concerts. Every venue you go to is different and has different acoustics and you have to tune the PA to make sure it reacts as you’d expect it to when you mix. Obviously there is only so much you can do with a good PA or with certain venues which might be too reflective or too boomy. When I walk into a new venue the first thing I do is play some music I know well (music I recorded usually) over the PA to hear what it sounds like in different places of the theater. Then I EQ the PA so that it sounds the way I know that music should sound like. Once I have done that I am more comfortable mixing because I know how my actions will translate.

    • Can it become stressful to be in charge of the sound in theaters or venues with bad acoustics?

    Absolutely! It is not only stressful but it’s also depressing from my point of view. I want every concert to sound perfect and if I am working in a room with bad acoustics or a terrible PA there is only so much I can do to make that happen.

    • What has been your biggest challenge in terms of being in charge of sound live?

    Well the challenge is always making it sound good everywhere you go with limited amount of time and sometimes limited resources. I’ve done sound in 100 people clubs and at festivals with 40’000 people in the audience. I’ve mixed everything from classical music to loud rock shows. I toured with Lou Reed for 7 years and he was one of the most demanding people I’ve worked for, but it was great working for him! I’ve toured with the Black Crowes and the Beach Boys and Mike Patton… Some of the most challenging shows where those where you have a loud band with a string orchestra. The Mike Patton Mondo Cane project has 25 players on stage, 12 of which are strings, and the band can get loud, but those shows are amazing. I did a show where the Beach Boys played together with a Symphony Orchestra: you have a rock band with a loud drummer and a quiet singer standing in front of the PA and on orchestra behind all of that, now that’s a challenge! All of those are challenges and you do what you can do make it all work out!

    • I know, at least I have the feeling that you’re a very enthusiastic person and you like challenges. JOHN ZORN, especially in a Marathon or in the tour for his 60… How is the challenge of making a Zorn show sound good?

    Well every John Zorn show is certainly a huge challenge. I don’t mind challenges as long as I am put in the right conditions to work. With Zorn I am alone doing everything and Zorn likes to do these Marathon shows with 10 of his bands in a row, playing 15-20 minutes each. The stage has to change over quickly between these bands and you can go from a metal trio to a string quartet to a jazz ensemble to an a cappella vocal group to an experimental noise project, all within the same night, on the same stage. There are almost 100 channels of audio and they all have to work. Beyond that the challenge is not only to make it all sound good but also to make it flow effortlessly and quickly.

    • And how has it been in the studio mixing for Zorn in different formats and projects?

    That’s always great, but even there, especially with Zorn, you have to move super fast to keep up with his expectations. I have recorded and mixed more than 50 albums by John Zorn and have been working with him for years. He’s an unstoppable force of nature, he knows exactly what he wants and he’s good at getting it out of people. I always look forward to the sessions with Zorn because he writes such great unique music and he always picks the best musicians in the world and it is a true pleasure and honor to be a witness of how the music is created in the studio by Zorn and those cats.

    • In recent years you’ve been to South America with projects of Mike Patton and John Zorn, in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil… How was your experience in this continent? Now in Colombia, what do you expect from this new experience with the Marathon?

    One never knows what to expect in South America, that’s why I come a day before Zorn to make sure it all is right and to have time to setup everything for the day of the show! Unfortunately the South Americans are not the most organized people you will meet when it comes to concert production and you never quite know what to expect when you get there, but the people are great and the places are great. I’ve been to Colombia 3 times and I love coming to South America. As long as I don’t get robbed (which has happened!) and I have a safe stay I always enjoy coming back.

    • I have many more questions in mind because ultimately you get to hear all kinds of new music and definitely YOU HAVE all the new music… when you mix, and you have an album or a song done, in your point of view of a fan, not only as an engineer, how does it feel to have and listen to a new golden record in your hands before anyone else can? (Can you tell me an experience that excited you?)

    You are right, I get to hear a lot of amazing music before anyone else does. It’s a blessing and a privilege and it’s an honor for me to be in this position. However, people will get to hear it eventually so I don’t really pride myself or get excited about the fact that I can hear it a few months before anyone else. What is much more exciting is being there when it is created in front of your eyes and seeing and being part of this process of creation. That is the true privilege that I enjoy as a fan of music in general. What also happens is that some time some amazing great music is made in the studio and then for whatever reason it does not get released… That is when it really becomes special to have been part of something because not only you hear it first but you might be the only one to hear it… I just did a record with Miles Davis’ drummer Jack DeJohnette playing the piano. The record is going to be on vinyl only (on Newvelle records) and Jack recorded more songs than can fit on one vinyl so nobody will get to hear all the other songs he recorded, at least not for a long time. The same has happened many other times. The Les Paul tribute album I did in 2005 (which won 2 Grammy Awards) had a lot of cuts that did not make it to the final album track list so I have some unreleased gems in my files that nobody else has heard! That’s a true special privilege.

    • Finally. a brief brief question about Stridulation Records. Why the decision to start a label? How are you doing with that? What comes in the future of Stridulation? Is it difficult to enter the labels market? That’s a major challenge, isn’t it?

    Actually nowadays everyone can start a label because the tools are out there for everyone. The hardest thing is getting people to buy the records. I’ve always wanted to start a record label honestly. It stems from my desire to support the music that I love. I would love to release 50 records a year like Zorn does on his label Tzadik but unfortunately I am too busy and the economic reality is a big factor of course. Stridulation records (www.stridulationrecords.com) is an attempt to make a small contribution to the world of music that I want to support. The first two releases were my experimental noise project Craesher and my label mate’s electronic-black-metal band Aborym. However I would like to release other music as well, when I find some that me and my label mates all like and believe in. In the future we might possibly release a very interesting release by an established musician I have worked with who has a very cool side project, but I won’t say anything more until it is confirmed.

    • Another final question… New projects and records for this 2015/2016?

    I have a ton of ideas and projects but very little time for my own music. I am working on a doom metal record with members of Japanese taiko super group Kodo and members of Khanate and Blind Idiot God and I have ideas for a whole other doom metal solo record and an electronic/dark record and other things. All of my own personal projects always get put on the backseat because I spend my time making records for other people. This year, besides doing many records with John Zorn, I started working with this new vinyl only record label called Newvelle records who is putting out some really cool jazz records. I’ve been mixing a bunch of jazz and blues records as well and some records for the Japanese market and even the new Curupira record, this great Colombian world music band that came to New York to record with me. On top of that I am constantly mixing other records by artists from all over the world so check out my website to see what other releases that I am involved with are coming out: www.marcurselli.com

    Thanks for all your patience and care Marc!

    Thank you for the interview! Your magazine rocks!

    New Marc Urselli interview on italian rock magazine “Tutto Rock” by journalist Maurizio Donini

    I just did an interview for the italian rock magazine “Tutto Rock”. The questions were by journalist Maurizio Donini. The interview is in italian but if any of you would like to read it or attempt a definitely-incorrect google translation of it, here is the link:

    www.tuttorock.net/interviste/marc-urselli-intervista-ad-uno-dei-maggiori-sound-engineer-nel-mondo-3-grammy-awards

    Sym Proceed SM-MP4 is my latest piece of studio equipment

    SymProceedSPMP4I want to briefly speak about the latest piece of studio equipment I’ve acquired.

    It is a brand new pre-amp built without compromise in Japan and meant to be an ultra-transparent high fidelity pre-amp for when instead of a colored sound with extra sonic characteristics (something you often might want) you just want to hear EXACTLY what is being picked up by your microphones (which is something you also often want!).
    I’m endorsing this product because it delivers sound impeccably, it offers loads of gain (great for ribbon mics for example!) and it is built like a tank (and weighs as much as a tank too – which for a pre-amp is always a good indication of high quality construction and no compromise in choice of components on the part of the manufacturer!).

    You can check out the pre-amp on the Sym Proceed website or you can come to EastSide Sound and do some recording with me, I’ll be happy to show you the pre-amp and use it on your session!
    Here’s a picture of it before I permanently rack-mounted it:

    DSC01812

     

    The TRUTH about MUSIC Streaming Services and the ULTIMATE AUDIO QUALITY shootout test: Beats vs MOG vs Play Music (by Google) vs Rdio vs Spotify

    After wondering for years which of the big music streaming services truly sounds the best, I decided to take matters into my own hands (I mean, EARS!) and do a SCIENTIFIC audio quality test. This is NOT a subjective test where I or somebody else listened and I judged what they thought might be better or worse. This is COLD HARD DATA, to be precise KiloBits Per Seconds (kbps) of data transfer and MegaBytes (Mb) of downloads. But fear not!!! I will keep the results super easy to understand and you won’t need a degree in anything to know who to pick. I can’t however promise you that you won’t be disappointed when finding out how these streaming companies have been lying to us all along about the sound quality they promise. NO MORE! With actual and factual numbers at hand I will tell you who sounds best and who delivers on their promises and you will be able to make an informed decision knowing that you are supporting the company that supports the BEST SOUNDING audio and that you are not paying full price for half the quality!

    By the way, I plan to do a lot more of these tests, so if you are interested in findings such as these or in the music industry in general, make sure you follow me on Twitter at @marcurselli or at facebook.com/marcurselli

    Without further ado, here we go…

     

    The Problem

    iPhone - appsI am still very much torn on whether to support streaming music services at all or not. Although I do of course support the idea of paying for music, the current payment distribution methods employed by these streaming services are NOT based on actual play counts and do NOT serve (or even fairly compensate) independent artists. These artists therefore absolutely cannot rely on income from these services (more on that at the end of this article) and a lot of even famous artists (like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, David Byrne, John Zorn, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and many others) understood that and took steps to get their music off of streaming services. Should you want to take such steps you will have to rely on a company such as Muso for example.

    This said, in these times when everyone is streaming music from the cloud, if you are a music lover, it is almost impossible not to rely on one of these services for music discovery and because my no.1 concern when it comes to online music streaming is THE QUALITY I decided to set up the THE ULTIMATE AUDIO QUALITY TEST to find out which of these services actually deliver the BEST SOUNDING music. Period.

    Back when there was only Spotify and MOG to choose from, I myself chose MOG because they were the only company that even bothered to mentioned streaming quality and they always claimed that they streamed at the highest quality. I have been a MOG user for a few years now. At that same time I had approached Rdio and asked about streaming quality. They claimed they were “streaming music at CD-quality, and only do lower bit rates over 3G” but when I asked for a more technical answer all I got was “I’m sorry, but we’re not sharing this information”. I honestly do not understand why a company that promises a quality service would not provide customers with all the information about the service and the quality they are promising. Usually corporate secrecy is synonymous with wrongdoing and this lack of transparency was a huge turn off for me. So I passed on Rdio.

    Fast forward to 2014. MOG has been acquired by Dr. Dre’s Beats Music and is going to shut down on April 14th. The new Beats Music is already available and is getting good reviews because of its curatorial aspect, but I was never a fan of the Beats headphones (although I have not tested all the high-end models) and if that was their idea of good sound quality I was afraid I was going to be disappointed with their streaming quality. I went ahead and tested all the most popular music streaming services available today, which include the ever popular Spotify, the disappearing MOG, the new Beats Music, the underdog Rdio and the relatively new kid on the block Play Music (by Google). I have decided not to include iTunes Radio, Rhapsody or Pandora because they are the kind of apps that don’t allow you to listen to a specific song or artist (you can only create stations based around an artist).

    This test will ONLY and specifically be about QUALITY of audio, not about user interface, number of songs or other factors. There are plenty of reviews out there for that and I’ve added links to some of those at the bottom of this page for your convenience.

     

    The Method iPhone Settings

    In order to ensure realistic and reproducible results I tried to be as scientific as I could about this.
    Like so:

    • I streamed the same exact song on all of the services.
    • the song I chose to stream is a song of mine from an old 1995 album by my old italian electro-industrial band The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab that was re-released on CD in 2009 and the reason I chose something of mine is because I own the master and therefore I know EXACTLY how big the file is that we are streaming (whereas if I were to choose some famous artist’s song I wouldn’t know how big the original file actually is!).
    • The song I chose had to be available on all these services and I chose the first song off the record (the song is called “Change (Cambia)”)
    • For the test over the LTE Cellular Data Network (although findings should be the same for 4G, 3G or 2G networks). The original WAV file is 66.3Mb and a 320kbps MP3 version of it is 15Mb.
    • For the WiFi test I chose a different song because I wanted to make sure that the previous song wasn’t in some way cached by the device or the app and therefore altered the results of the test. The song I chose for the WiFi test is the fourth song off the record and it is called “Mind Rape (Government’s Business)” and the original file was 52.1Mb while the 320kbps MP3 version of that is 11.8Mb.
    • Needless to say I never played these songs on these apps on the iPhone before so they were in no way cached on the device or these apps.
    • I set ALL 5 of the AT&T iPhone apps of these streaming services to the highest streaming quality settings they have available (see pictures below) and I streamed the songs over the AT&T LTE network and over my home WiFi network without ever-moving the phone around (it was just sitting on my desk) in order not to affect network reception in any way.
    • I searched for the artist in the app, then clicked on the album and then (that’s the cool part) I double clicked the home button on the iPhone to go to the Settings > Cellular > Cellular Usage page (as described here) and reset the Cellular Data Usage so that it would show zero kb.
    • At this point, for every app, I double-clicked the home button again, went to the app and clicked on the song to start playing it.
    • At the end of the song I would switch back to the Cellular Usage page and take a screenshot of the Cellular Usage page to compile my findings.
    • For the test over WiFi this method does not work because the Cellular Usage page doesn’t record data usage over WiFi (since, as the name implies, it is not cellular) so I downloaded the free iOS app Data Monitor by Nutec Apps LLC  which monitors WiFi traffic.
    • The last test I was interested in performing was the audio quality of the downloads made available for offline listening (a feature that all of these apps provide and call different things like Offline, Sync to App etc and which allows you to listen to music when you have no network coverage and no WiFi). For this test I have downloaded the full 8 track album from which the two above mentioned songs come from. The album is called “Modern Expressing Machines Of Revolutionary Youth” and by looking at the original files I can tell you that the uncompressed WAV files for the CD release were 455.4Mb, the 320kbps MP3 version was 103.3Mb and the 192kbps version was 62Mb. Some interesting findings there, you’ll see.

     

    Beats Music MOG Play Music Rdio Spotify
    Graphics - Beat Graphics - MOG Graphics - Play Graphics - rdio Graphics - Spotify
    Settings - Beat Settings - MOG Settings - Play Settings - rdio Settings - Spotify

    The Results

    Interpreting these results was not as easy as I expected and at times it is downright shocking!!! Because the numbers are so different it is safe to assume to that these apps all apply their own degree of compression to the music before streaming it. In these images and reports below, higher numbers mean higher quality so it would appear that Google’s Play Music and MOG have the best quality while Beats and Rdio have the worst.

    AT&T LTE network in Manhattan
    Beats Music 13.2Mb (slightly lower quality than 320kbps MP3 – the loser!)
    MOG 24.4Mb (much higher quality than 320kbps MP3)
    Play Music 25.1Mb (much higher quality than 320kbps MP3 – the winner!)
    Rdio 13.6Mb (slightly lower quality than 320kbps MP3)
    Spotify 17.2Mb (higher quality than 320kbps MP3)

    Beats Music MOG Play Music Rdio Spotify
    Data - Beat Data - MOG Data - Play Data - rdio Data - Spotify

     

    WiFi network in my home in Manhattan
    Beats Music 54.70Mb  (highest quality – REAL CD quality – the winner of the award “the only company who didn’t lie to us”!)
    MOG 39.18Mb
    Play Music 33.19Mb
    Rdio 18.59Mb
    Spotify 12.15Mb

    Beats Music MOG Play Music Rdio Spotify
    WiFi - Beats 1 WiFi - MOG 1 WiFi - Play 1 WiFi - rdio 1 Wifi - Spotify 1

     

    Full album Download (over WiFi) for Offline listening
    Beats Music 35.8Mb (approximately 96kbps MP3 quality)
    MOG 103Mb (equivalent to 320kbps MP3 quality – as advertised – the winner!)
    Play Music 64Mb (equivalent to 192kbps MP3 quality)
    Rdio 67.6Mb (equivalent to 192kbps MP3 quality)
    Spotify 73.3Mb (slightly higher than 192kbps MP3 quality but still lower than 320kbps – the runner-up and de facto winner since MOG will be disappearing soon)

    Beats Music MOG Play Music Rdio Spotify
    Download - Beats 1 Download - MOG 1 Download - Play 1 Download - rdio 1 Download - Spotify 1

     

    The Conclusion

    Google’s Play Music service is the winner when it comes to streaming music quality over cellular network.
    Beats Music is the clear winner when it comes to streaming music quality over WiFi. My hat goes off to them for being the ONLY ones who really deliver the promised CD-quality music, since basically they stream through an uncompressed WAV file!
    MOG is the winner when it comes to high quality downloads over WiFi but since MOG will be disappearing April 15th, the runner up and de facto winner is Spotify, in this category.

    It is important to notice that MOST OF THESE COMPANIES HAVE BEEN LYING TO OUR FACES THIS WHOLE TIME! Most of them claim to be giving you CD quality music, but guess what, the only one who does so is Beats Music and ONLY when you are on WiFi, which still leaves all of us listening to MP3 quality music, and NOT the promised CD quality music. Over Cellular Data the only ones that streams at 320kbps (which is the next best thing to true and pure CD quality) are Play Music by Google and MOG. And surprisingly NOT EVEN when you proceed to download a full album for offline listening you get true CD quality (except for MOG, for what that’s worth).

    At this point it is important to consider what use you will be making of the app. If you are going to be doing a lot of streaming (like driving around listening to new music etc) then you should choose the service that offers the highest quality streaming over cellular, but if you are the kind of person who pre-downloads all your music to listen to it offline in planes or underground subway trains you should go for the app that offers the highest quality streaming over WiFi (since you’ll most likely be doing the downloading at home/work over WiFi).

    I am happy to have supported MOG from the beginning until now however, surprisingly (or maybe not) it seems that the acquisition on the part of Beats has degraded the quality of their streaming over cellular. Therefore I will not be transferring my monthly subscription over to Beats when on April 15th MOG shuts down completely. Now that I have to choose a new service I will start with giving Google‘s Play Music a try because it seems obvious from the numbers that they are streaming music at the highest quality (if you take MOG out of the equation you will notice that Play Music has the most consistently high numbers on average).
    There are also in my opinion a few other added advantages to choosing a colossus such as Google:

    • they will never get bought by somebody else, as it just happened with MOG
    • if anyone has the economic might to acquire more content and make it more widely available, it is Google!
    • if their “Don’t Be Evil” corporate motto can give us any hope, then my hope is that they will find a way to fairly and equally compensate ALL content creators, and not just the ones who are signed by the 5 majors.

    If you don’t really care about audio quality (as sadly most don’t) or you are one of those people who say that they do but then they listen to music with the $5 white ear buds included with the iPhone or iPod by Apple, you might be more interested in the Facebook integration offered by Spotify or the intriguing curatorial aspect (and true CD quality streams over WiFi) offered by Beats Music, but Google achieved the highest average score for quality on this test and my TOP priority is QUALITY. Therefore I will give Google‘s Play Music a spin, mostly because I use music streaming services as a discovery tool. As most New Yorkers, I don’t own a car so I won’t be streaming music on the go very often. More often than not I end up downloading full albums overnight at home over WiFi, then I listen to them on the NYC underground subway trains on my way to the recording studio or on planes on my way to a gig and then I delete those records after one or two quick listenings to make room for new ones. I do this because I try to keep up with what is new out there and keep my finger on the pulse, but, when I do listen to music, I want to be able to listen to the most pure, unadulterated and uncompromising quality I can get. After all, there is a reason I spent almost $300 dollars on my in-ear phones, but that’s another story…

     

    Links to Articles with Feature Comparisons of these Services

    http://www.imore.com/on-demand-streaming-music-services-compared-spotify-rdio-beats-music-slacker-google-play-music

    http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/17/top-5-streaming-music-services-spotify-mog-rdio

     http://gizmodo.com/5750415/the-best-streaming-music-service

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2013/09/24/itunes-streaming-radio-versus-pandora-and-spotify

     http://www.cultofmac.com/265655/winner-best-music-demand-streaming-service 

     

    Links to Articles about Why the Streaming Music Service model is Broken

    http://source.nationwidedisc.com/spotify-pandora-and-streaming-music-should-you-post-your-music

    http://business.time.com/2013/12/03/heres-how-much-money-top-musicians-are-making-on-spotify

     http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/19/zoe-keating-spotify-streaming-royalties

    http://readwrite.com/2013/12/06/streaming-music-competition-pandora-rdio-spotify

    http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/02/21/favoritepays

    http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/12/13/quicksummarystreaming

    John Zorn Marathon at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis 4/6/13

    John Zorn is unquestionably the most interesting and advanced composer of our times. Although he looks 45ish this year he actually turns 60 and to celebrate he is doing a number of concerts all around the world, in different countries every month, all year long.

    I am lucky enough to be the one doing sound for these complicated multi-band shows (think 9 bands in 3-4 hours with 5 min stage changes). As challenging as these marathons are to mix and advance, they are absolutely AMAZING to watch and if it is the one thing you travel for this year I would highly recommend catching one of them in Europe this summer.

    The first one of the series of 2013 Zorn at 60 marathons took place last week at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN.

    I don’t usually repost other people’s reviews, but this enthusiastic concert goer has some good videos and since I was too busy doing sound to be documenting the show I thought I’d post his reviews with videos so you can see what you missed:

    Concert Review: John Zorn Marathon at the Walker Art Center 4/6/13 – Part 1: Book of Heads, Hockey, Cobra, Composer Q&A – Concert Manic!

    Concert Review: John Zorn Marathon at the Walker Art Center (4/6/2013) – Part 2: Masada – Concert Manic!

    Concert Review: John Zorn Marathon at the Walker Art Center (4/6/2013) – Part 3: The Concealed, Nova Express, Aleph Trio and The Hermetic Organ – Concert Manic!

    Lou Reed Summer 2012 tour “From VU to Lulu”

    I’ve just returned from the second and last leg of the Summer 2012 tour of Lou Reed and his band. The tour was called “From VU to Lulu” because they played all sorts of material from the Velvet Underground days to the latest Lou Reed & Metallica record “Lulu”. As always I have mixed the FOH sound and enjoyed doing so and working along one of the best crews I ever worked with (thank you Stewart, Matt, Joey, Gary, Jesse, John, Jacob, Bungie, Peter, Rod, Des, Liam, Stuart!!!).

    The whole tour was a blast and we made sure to make the best of every minute, whether it’d be a concert on a hot sunny day, a load in or load out in the middle of pouring rain (we had a lot of those) or a day off in some beautiful European city where I’d venture out on some exploratory tour!

    There are a million videos of these concerts on YouTube but I want to post one that is special to me. “Junior Dad” is one of my favorite songs of the set and one of my favorite songs from “Lulu” (if not from Lou’s entire discography!). On this particular day in Dresden, Germany, this song got particularly intense because without our knowledge somewhere across town fireworks started in the sky in the middle of the intro to the song and continued for the entire duration of the song. Lou, the band, the techs and probably the crowd were all confused at first but Lou quickly showed the genius he is and started ad libbing and incorporating these fireworks in his lyrics effectively changing the lyrics to match the environment and showing true artistry and creativity to thousands present.

    My own approach was to actually make the whole concert way louder (by at least 10dB!!!) because initially the fireworks were so close and loud that they were ruining the intimacy of the intro to the song. By making everything louder at the mixing desk the concert was still louder than the fireworks and when the drums kick in the whole concert is really loud and grandiose, which is just fine considering it’s the last song of the set too!

    The audio of this YouTube clip is not great and at times distorted too because it’s from some unauthorized camera in the crowd recording with the on board mic, but in spite of all of that, it’s one of those cases where the beauty and uniqueness of this moment is more important than the actual quality of the audio or the video.

    Enjoy!

     

    Hopefully see you in November/December in the far east…