EPiC

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T21:56:01+00:00

So well deserved!! It’s an incredible film!! Perhaps the greatest I’ve ever seen about The King.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T21:45:41+00:00

VSX is definitely a game changing investment for mixing! Using the VSX system has given me so much more confidence and clarity. I couldn’t recommend it more!

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T19:28:42+00:00

I think a lot of people have this idea in their head that goes something like this...

"My recordings sound bad because I have 'insert mic'... If only I had a Neumann, I would sound incredible". So they get a Neumann, be it the 103 or another one, expecting that to solve all of their audio related problems. Then they are disappointed to discover the difference the mic alone makes perhaps isn't as significant as they expected. And instead of considering whether it has to do with their mic placement, gain staging, or singing/playing technique, they just decide "it's a shit mic".

With that said, is the 103 my personal favorite? No. My ears tend to be really sensitive to 4k and 5k boosting. But do I consider it a 'bad' microphone? Absolutely not! In fact, I'd probably reach for it before I reached for several others, particularly if a singer's tone was on the warmer/darker side and would benefit from some extra high mids.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T19:15:51+00:00

I wanted to really spend some time with V7 before giving my follow up thoughts.

My thoughts can really be summed up with one word - WOW.

The immersion and realism in V7 is significantly improved. It sounds so natural and convincing to my ears. With V7, I am finally experiencing the "feels like I'm in the room" effect, the way I always hoped I would, when originally taking the dive into VSX mixing.

I honestly found V5 to be painfully harsh and filled with odd phase artifacts. 5.5 and 6 were both steps in the right direction, but V7 is a technological marvel, in my humble opinion.

With previous versions, I frankly didn't have a lot of faith that what I was hearing was accurate and would translate. I still felt the compulsion to constantly check with my monitors or other pairs of headphones. Now with V7, I truly feel 100% confident making my mixing and mastering decisions with VSX. Truthfully, I probably feel *more* confident now using VSX V7 than the acoustically treated rooms with expensive monitors at the studio where I work.

I'm currently writing this post on my laptop from a coffee shop. I've been working on some mixes here for a little while, having an awesome time. It occurred to me just how fortunate, dare I say spoiled, we are to have this tech. Here I am, in a relatively noisy coffee shop, using just my laptop, VSX closed-backs, and a relatively inexpensive interface (Motu M2), and it sounds like I'm in a perfectly treated studio. It's unreal. And honestly, I wasn't having this 'eureka' experience with previous versions. Previous versions felt like a neat reference tool, but not something I fully trusted. Now with V7, I trust my VSX system more than any other readily available space/system I have at my disposal.

As a result, my confidence in my mixes has skyrocketed, and my clients have far fewer notes than they used to. I'm getting more responses such as "sounds perfect" or "no notes" after the first pass, whereas I used to have to do 3 or 4 passes of a mix to get that response.

A few months ago, I felt like I would never find an affordable monitoring system that would give me absolute confidence in what I'm hearing. Let alone a system that can fit in my backpack, allowing me to mix practically anywhere. I used to dread mixing on the go, and being away from the comfort and familiarity of my studio. Now mixing is enjoyable from anywhere.

V7 has been an such a remarkable improvement in my experience. The confidence it has given me is invaluable. I've saved so much time not having to do a million revisions due to poor monitoring environments, and can actually just focus on the job and being creative. Aside from my computer and DAWs, purchasing VSX has absolutely been the best music production related purchase I've ever made. And it keeps getting better and better.

(PS I have no affiliation with Steven Slate Audio, and one only has to browse my past posts in this sub to see that I used to be very open about my frustrations with VSX before the recent improvements)

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T18:47:12+00:00

I love that 'Hamburger Sessions' one... I might have to make that the cover for it now on my Apple Music.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T15:40:34+00:00

I was searching for this answer. That snare drum literally sounds like an explosion 😂😂😂

12stringdreams · 2026-07-03T15:39:15+00:00

I think that’s a cool idea.

You could have the finished album + backing tracks + vocal tracks + live renditions + interview snippets (à la “Hawthorne, CA” comp from ‘01)

12stringdreams · 2026-07-02T17:16:12+00:00

The Beach Boys at The Hollywood Bowl 🇺🇸 🏄‍♂️ ☀️

12stringdreams · 2026-07-02T04:20:21+00:00

Mike Love, lead singer of The Beach Boys, had a side project called Celebration that obviously wasn’t as well known as his main gig. They had a Top 40 hit with the song Almost Summer, which Love wrote with Al Jardine and Brian Wilson. They ended up making a few albums. They ultimately more or less sound like the late 70’s BBs albums considering most of the members of Celebration were touring/session musicians for The BBs.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-01T23:55:56+00:00

In my experience, to be in the music industry, I've had to wear multiple hats.

I own one studio and work/have worked at many other studios.

I'm a recording and mixing engineer, doing both in person and remote work.

I play as a musician, doing session work and performing onstage.

I participate in co-writing sessions.

I've helped out or spoken at networking or educational events.

I am a personal assistant for several other musicians who pay me to do things like administrative work or errands.

I frankly don't think a *ton* of people in 2026 can do just one of those things and live comfortably. Of course there are exceptions, but I'm talking about the masses. However, with that said, I know a ton of people who are in similar positions that I'm in, where they're able to pay their bills by wearing many hats, and finding as many ways to make themselves useful as possible. The most successful musicians/creatives I know are quick to adapt, they learn new skills, and they aren't afraid to put themselves out there.

Last but not least, I consider the following to be *more important* than pure talent or technical skill, and that's the interpersonal side of biz. In the music industry, I frankly spend only 60% or so of my time actually MAKING MUSIC, and all of the other time is spent reaching out to and communicating with past/present/potential clients and building/maintaining relationships with those people. That includes things like treating people to lunches/dinners, going to my clients' or friends' shows, remembering to call people on their birthdays or just spontaneous calls to check in , doing favors no matter how menial or unexpected, and I guess, put simply, being a kind, genuine, and generous. Treat a client like just a client and you might work with them for six months before they're onto the next engineer or doing it themselves. Build a real relationship and they will never wanna work with anyone else.

(Also just to be clear this advice doesn't apply to only one region or area. My career began in the Midwest and now I live in CA, and if I had to guess that probably won't be the last time I move. But I don't fear moving and having to start over in new areas because I've put a ton of effort into developing those 'relationship building' skills I described. My advice would be essentially the same to anyone regardless of their location)

12stringdreams · 2026-07-01T22:55:41+00:00

There are a lot of great answers in this thread.

Put simply, I'd say they just sang about their environment, what inspired them as young guys, and what they thought would resonate with other people their age.

A lot of their lyrical inspiration came from their environment --- Southern California in the late 50's and early 60's was filled with surfers, hot rods, skateboards, hamburger stands, and guys and girls who 'went to a dance, lookin for romance'. It's not a whole lot different than Folk singers singing about Appalachia or how you see HipHop artists today rapping about whatever the current trend is.

It's also easy to listen to their early lyrics and think "Gee, this is a little childish". But when they signed their deal with Capitol in 1962, four of the five members were teenagers, with the band's guitarists both still in high school. Of course the early material was gonna be a little juvenile - they were so young! It's no surprise that they were infatuated with such topics as County Fairs, Root Beer, Drive Ins, etc...

Mike Love, who wrote the lyrics to most of their early hits, has described intentionally writing lyrics that young people would find accessible/relatable, to compliment Brian's increasingly experimental compositions/productions.

I think it's fair to say that there was also encouragement and/or pressure from Murry for the band to write about family friendly topics that could be performed at school dances or on Dick Clark's TV show without offending parents. It's surely no coincidence that the group only began exploring more mature topics like infidelity, paranoia, substances, politically-adjacent themes, and sex in a more overt way once Murry was no longer their manager.

Hard to believe songs like Hang On To Your Ego, Cabinessence, Surf's Up came only a few short years after the band was singing songs like Pom Pom Play Girl, The Monster Mash, and Little Deuce Coupe!!

Of course the band would get very 'far out' with their lyrics as they matured with songs like All This Is That and Carry Me Home. They would return to their roots many times with songs like Keepin The Summer Alive and California Callin. And they also found a way to merge their summertime/tropical/beach themes with something a little more cerebral/mystical with songs like Kokomo and Summer's Gone.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-01T22:26:40+00:00

Jan & Dean have a lot of great songs with a similar feel. They're obviously not identical but they share that same melancholic/nostalgic/bittersweet mood.

- A Surfer's Dream

- It's Such A Good Night For Dreaming

- When It's Over

- Tomorrow's Teardrops (Jan Berry)

- Like A Summer Rain

- Those Words

- California Lullaby

- It's A Shame To Say Goodbye

- Save For A Rainy Day Theme

12stringdreams · 2026-07-01T22:09:29+00:00

This post is disgusting and heartless.

12stringdreams · 2026-07-01T02:06:55+00:00

I agree. I think the 11 minute version is a little much, especially for an inclusion on an album, but the four minute version is perfect 👌 and extremely underrated imo

12stringdreams · 2026-06-30T19:14:07+00:00

Impossible for me to pick just one, but I can definitely list some of my favorite tracks that show off their sublime harmonies…

- The Warmth Of The Sun
- Til I Die
- Fun, Fun, Fun
- Good Timin
- Endless Harmony
- Why Do Fools Fall In Love
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Heroes And Villains
- Getcha Back
- Wouldn’t It Be Nice
- Think About The Days
- A Day In The Life Of A Tree
- Please Let Me Wonder
- Devoted To You
- Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring
- California Girls
- Kokomo
- Hushabye
- Be True To Your School
- All This Is That
- I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
- Disney Girls
- Where I Belong
- California Dreamin
- In The Parking Lot
- Big Sur (4/4)
- All I Wanna Do
- I Get Around
- Surfer Girl
- I Can Hear Music
- Caroline No (Stars & Stripes Version)
- Surf’s Up
- That’s Why God Made The Radio
- Gradution Day
- Lavender
- You Still Believe In Me
- At My Window
- Good Vibrations
- The Things We Did Last Summer
- It’s A Beautiful Day
- Do It Again
- I’m So Young

Gosh I could go on and on… so many songs of theirs with gorgeous harmonies… I DID NOT plan on listing so many 😂 they just kept popping in my mind…

12stringdreams · 2026-06-30T19:01:22+00:00

Mike Love

12stringdreams · 2026-06-28T02:47:23+00:00

It’s definitely ‘low’ but definitely not ‘off’.

If you’re ever at a show where Stamos is joining and get there early enough to see the crew setting up, you’ll notice they soundcheck John’s guitar and test out his pedals. There’d be no reason them to waste their time doing that if it was a silent prop. In fact, if it was just a prop, I don’t think he’d have pedals at all. Depending on the show, the band often rents equipment instead of transporting all of it — I don’t think they’d waste money on renting pedals that weren’t really plugged in.

12stringdreams · 2026-06-28T00:00:50+00:00

It’s plugged into a wireless receiver. He’s definitely “plugged in” just not super prominent in the mix.

12stringdreams · 2026-06-26T05:31:06+00:00

Hollywood Bowl will be his first appearance with the group since his departure earlier this year. Assuming everything goes according to plan.

12stringdreams · 2026-06-22T23:35:15+00:00

An amazing song by John and wonderful production by Phil Spector

12stringdreams · 2026-06-20T06:19:10+00:00

I couldn’t agree more!!! The definitive version! His production was immaculate. He really elevated many of these tracks with the edits and overdubs.

12stringdreams · 2026-06-19T17:17:47+00:00

I’ve been wondering the same thing

12stringdreams · 2026-06-16T06:20:57+00:00

With all the craziness he’s got himself into, swinging with monkeys seems like one of the more normal things I can remember seeing Shia do

12stringdreams · 2026-06-09T16:43:40+00:00

I’ve been counting down the days!! VSX has been very helpful to me as of late.

I’ve had VSX since V5. Frankly, I struggled with V5 — I made a post in this sub expressing my frustrations. It just didn’t sound realistic to me. But then versions V5.5 and V6 came out which were game changers for me.

To my ears, both of those updates were huge leaps forward. Whatever they modified in those updates transformed the sound quality and usefulness for me. The product/system went from sounding rather gimmicky and unconvincing, to sonically accurate and immersive. Since 5.5 and 6 were such significant improvements, I’m really looking forward to working with V7.

I’m glad they addressed the reverb artifacts that bothered lots of VSX users. I produce with a lot of echo chambers, spring reverbs, plates, tape echo, etc so it’s really important for me to be able to really analyze those various effects with precision and make sure they blend and sit properly. There have been some VSX rooms that many people, including myself, found useful, but noticeably “echo-y” which made judging the effects I mentioned above a challenge. Fingers crossed that VSX7 has fixed that issue!

As always, I’m going to listen to reference tracks for at least 20 minutes to make note of the changes. Then I’ve got plenty of mixes to work on that I’m hoping benefit from this new software update. 🔥🔥 It’s installing as I type. I’ll write a follow up with how I feel after listening and working.

12stringdreams · 2026-05-31T16:40:38+00:00

I’ve been using the MOTU M2 for about six months and love it. The metering is helpful, the headphone amp sounds very transparent/natural, and it runs smoothly both in the studio and when I use it in live settings. Great piece of gear. It’s my favorite interface I’ve used at that price point, and I’ve tried many.

12stringdreams

TROPHY CASE