Writer and entrepreneur Thea Wood describes how hearing Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" while watching the documentary of the same name  reignited her passion for music and inspired her to create the "Backstage Chats With Women in Music" podcast as well as the the Backstage Chats Foundation.

The president craves a nationally televised coronation with cheering supporters, but even Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are expressing doubts it can take place as planned.

We can do nothing by ourselves except make daily the decision to depend on Christ ; by His virtue we can reflect, regret and reform. We are all struggling amid this time of separation and distance, but our Friend is Always there... commune with Him and reach for your Bible with us ! You'll learn about the unpardonable sin and Satan's repentance, and you'll understand which biblical laws are still active for us to obey today, or if we can solely fall under God's grace with no other regard.

The 100% guaranteed way to get your bedroom mixes to sound more professional (and by far the most expensive) is to spend time in a recording studio. Take the raw tracks to something you want to mix, import it into their ProTools setup (or whatever they use) and have a pro engineer (must be a talkative, friendly one, not a grumpy, cynical one) to mix it. ASK A BILLION questions, be a dork and write stuff down if you have to. The worst case scenario is that after 2/3 hours at least you'll know what questions to ask of Google or at the local tech book store. The best case is that your music impresses the engineer and he/she becomes a pseudo mentor for you. Engineering is by far my weakest area (along with playing in tune and in time) so everything that follows is said that caveat: I have found that going cheap on mastering tools (compression, limiters, eq) hurts bedroom mixes a lot. Money I've spent on the top utilities there (I use Waves) dwarfs all my other plugins put together by an order of magnitude. (Reason's mastering suite is pretty good so you may be covered there; although I've applied Waves L2 to mixes done after the 'final' Reason mixdown and there's no question there was a marked improvement in pro-sheen.) I have found tweakheadz site very useful, especially their mixing 101 page. Finally I have been told (and have experienced it myself) that posting often to ccM and asking for real, brutal reviews and feedback has helped a lot of people. I, for one, am very, very embarrassed by several of my uploads from 2 years ago here, while only very embarrassed by more recent ones; all strictly due to people hearing stuff I didn't.

that sounds good. ill look for a studio near my place. at the end you said that the comments from ccmixer is very useful but what shall i do if i want a brutal review of my own original mix? because on ccmixer i can only upload remixes or samples or separate tracks.

being a remix site and short on resources we can't handle original material. so, er, get remixing... ;)

my buddy des has a great blog he runs that can surely help almost anyone here with improving their production. http://www.hometracked.com/ also, his music is worth checking out, just so you can see that he knows what he's talking about. des is a great guy and a really excellent artist. http://www.deshead.com/

U need to have a good pair of monitors, headphones will not do at all! I agree with Fourstones, Waves is a very good suite. I use it within SoundForge and it really does help in cleaning up the frequencies. My mixes really improved when I had monitor speakers included in the set up. Experiment and let me know, I'll give u some quality feedback, no holds, sometimes the truth hurts! LOL! EZ m8 Morr

The best thing I can say is: learn about sound. Learn about frequencies, which ones sound like what and do what to the overall mix. Whether or not to use a low or high pass filter on something. Fiddle with EQs for hours. And more importantly, get criticism. It's the easiest way to learn what sound to look out for, and such. And most importantly of all: Practice. Mix till your ears bleed. (from the time spent listening to the same song, not due to the terrible mix :P) Mixing is one of my strong suits, but most of it is just being able to hear the song, and make the adjustments that I want, to be able to make the necessary changes and just know what needs to be done.

bravo!

That's a very good point- I started with a Mac LC, EZVision and an M1, with the only audio manipulation being Hypercard. I got good at customizing patches and finding seamless loop points manually just to get what I could out of what I had, with mastering being 1/4"-to-RCA from the headphone jack on the M1 to AUX IN on the cassette player, or the same thing with 1/8" adapter for the 'puter sound files. Then I'd record and bounce these cassette tracks to my 4-track, with final routing from 4-track's headphone-out back to the cassette. Ugly stuff, but that's what I had to work with...

This is a very good point. I think that it's easy to keep adding new gear, and thus miss the richness of existing gear and software. I like to work with more limited software sometimes, so that I can feel as if I am exploiting it to its fullness.

Ive been making music for couple of years now but still cant figure out why my mix doesnt sound professional. Im I doing something wrong? This is the link to my tracks http://www.ourmedia.org/node/300488 Someone please help me out. The first thing I noticed was the lack of higher frequencies in your mix... My mixes always end up being bass heavy (because I suck horribly) so I can see we both have the same problem... There's is (however) an over-abundance of frequency-fighting in your track... A lot of distorted things competing for my attention (at least in my ears). Dunno if any of this has been helpful, but we could all learn things...so hopefully you'll have advice for me in the future ;-) Good luck, and we me luck too! -Joel

This is a useful thread. Im just in the middle of mixing a new ccmixter-based song and its just not coming together for me. The tweakheadz and hometracked sites are great. A couple other useful sites: tips and techniques at gearslutz - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html ; Live tips - http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27120 ; general EQ reference - http://www.idmforums.com/showthread.php?t=11466 Im definitely going to get the mix Im working on up here, I need some blunt advice.

OK, I uploaded Hollywood Picture Book (feat Calendar Girl and Kaer Trouz) and entered a pluggy plug for comments over this weekend.

Interviewing for the 2004 exit polls was the most inaccurate of any in the past five presidential elections as procedural problems compounded by the refusal of large numbers of Republican voters to be surveyed led to inflated estimates of support for John F. Kerry, according to a report released Wednesday by the research firms responsible for the flawed surveys.

The quarterback is expected to be a third-day pick in this week's NFL draft.

Henson played in just 10 of 32 games and logged 72 minutes for the Cougars.

Henson played in just 10 of 32 games and logged 72 minutes for the Cougars.

The quarterback is expected to be a third-day pick in this week's NFL draft.

Earl Thomas was not arrested in the incident, TMZ reported. Nina Thomas, according to the report, was arrested for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault. She was released on bond.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists in response to the treatment of U.S. journalists in China, as tensions flare between the two nations over the coronavirus. The Department of Homeland Security has issued new regulations, set to take effect Monday, that will limit visas for Chinese reporters to […]

The company’s first-quarter earnings report will provide a view of how the pandemic has accelerated trends already working in its favor, and the extent to which coronavirus restrictions on businesses and consumers have boosted Amazon’s sales.

The P-Patch reprieve was announced at a swearing-in ceremony for incoming Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who was elected last month to represent District 7, including downtown, Queen Anne and Magnolia.

The new Fire Station 31 will replace an existing station that shut down last June, due to concerns about unhealthful conditions, including mold.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim Gov. Inslee has not adequately considered targeted measures to protect that population, while allowing others to return to work and school.

In the middle of a pandemic, the subject of the public's health never came up during a 90-minute GOP candidates for governor forum. It's like a metaphor for the alternate realities of our politics — and also why the GOP may be in more trouble than usual in the local elections this year.

Just the second ever meeting between Washington and Mount St. Mary's. Four years ago, the Huskies dominated the first matchup 100-67.

Maine looks to be a tuneup for No. 25 Washington, which hopes to get back on track after suffering its first loss - a 75-62 defeat against Tennessee.

The Redhawks take a four-game winning streak into Tuesday's game at No. 22 Washington where they've lost 14 straight. The Huskies have home-court and a tremendous size advantage, but SU has hot-scoring Terrell Brown.

The Huskies face Ball State for just the second time in school history. They last met the MAC opponent 35 years ago in a game in which Detlef Schrempf scored 20 points in a win.

Oregon State brings a 12-2, 2-2 Pac-12 record into Alaska Airlines Arena. However, Washington (11-6, 1-3) has won 15 straight games against the Beavers at Alaska Airlines Arena. OSU's last win in Seattle was in 2003.

Seattle Times writers Ryan Divish, Mike Vorel, Bob Condotta, Larry Stone, Jayda Evans and Matt Calkins got together for a roundtable discussion about the latest news in the Seattle sports world. Watch the replay here.

As one of the Northwest's top high-school players, he’s accepted a scholarship to play for Washington State. But under a normal circumstances, Russell and his family would be weighing another option more closely — the 2020 Major League Baseball amateur draft.

Major League Baseball is reportedly considering a plan of restarting spring training in early June with the season starting in early July.

While the focus of the sports world is on the possible relaunch of the major-league season, minor-league teams cling to the hope of competing in 2020 while girding for the increasing likelihood that the season will be dormant.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ernie Els has made it clear he will not be returning as International captain for the Presidents Cup next year. Tiger Woods was a little more vague. Woods, captain of the U.S. team that won at Royal Melbourne for the eighth straight time, says he spoke with Els while boarding the […]

Any course planning to reopen must comply to guidelines developed by the governor's office. The most notable will be the limit of two people per group instead of threesomes or foursomes in groups. The only exception: If all the people are from the same household, a foursome is acceptable.

Rewatch a roundtable discussion with Seattle Times writers Ryan Divish, Bob Condotta, Larry Stone and Mike Vorel on the NFL draft, Seahawks, "The Last Dance" and more.

Ron Harrist, who covered Elvis Presley, black separatists, white supremacists and college football legends during his 41 years as a reporter and editor in Mississippi for The Associated Press, died of complications from leukemia at his home in Brandon early Saturday, his son Andy Harrist said. He was 77. “Ron was absolutely one of the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists in response to the treatment of U.S. journalists in China, as tensions flare between the two nations over the coronavirus. The Department of Homeland Security has issued new regulations, set to take effect Monday, that will limit visas for Chinese reporters to […]

Seattle Times writers Ryan Divish, Mike Vorel, Bob Condotta, Larry Stone, Jayda Evans and Matt Calkins got together for a roundtable discussion about the latest news in the Seattle sports world. Watch the replay here.

Prince Harry and wife Meghan have agreed to give up their royal titles and repay several million in housing expenses, stirring up another sensation in Britain. It wasn’t so long ago that some in the United Kingdom were upset about the renovations of the residence in question: Frogmore Cottage. On Saturday, Buckingham Palace announced the […]

While the focus of the sports world is on the possible relaunch of the major-league season, minor-league teams cling to the hope of competing in 2020 while girding for the increasing likelihood that the season will be dormant.

Ron Harrist, who covered Elvis Presley, black separatists, white supremacists and college football legends during his 41 years as a reporter and editor in Mississippi for The Associated Press, died of complications from leukemia at his home in Brandon early Saturday, his son Andy Harrist said. He was 77. “Ron was absolutely one of the […]

BALTIMORE (AP) — Brutal. Horrific. Tragic. Choose your description. The April jobs report showed, in harrowing detail, just how terribly the coronavirus outbreak has pummeled the U.S. economy. Most obviously, there’s the 14.7% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression. And the shedding of more than 20 million jobs, by far the worst one-month […]

The company’s first-quarter earnings report will provide a view of how the pandemic has accelerated trends already working in its favor, and the extent to which coronavirus restrictions on businesses and consumers have boosted Amazon’s sales.

Washington voters turned out to the polls in nation-leading fashion in March. The reason we were able to do that — even as we were an epicenter of coronavirus — is because we don't actually turn out. We vote from home. The president made clear this week he doesn't like the idea to expand this way of voting, because too many people might vote.

Our feel-good story here of how everybody came together, Democrats and Republicans, to let scientists take the lead in fighting the coronavirus is now starting to give way to some anti-science crackpottery.