Engineer and producer Charles Dye, who mixed Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" will be giving a Master Class presentation at this Spring and Summer's DigiWorld shows. Many people have asked about Dye's mixing techniques for the hit single. Below, he goes in depth to reveal many of his secrets.  more4

I had never heard of Billie Myers before receiving this album to review, and I know I have really missed out. Not only have I missed out on an excellent surround remix of her debut album (the original was a hit in 1997); I have also missed out on a simply superb artist who has been out there for several years, completely unknown to me.  more4

Ricky Martin has been stopping traffic lately. Literally. Performances on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and elsewhere, on the heels of the wildly successful "Livin' La Vida Loca," have drawn riotous but adoring mobs smitten by the doe-eyed 27-year-old's good looks and winning style. And while Martin stops traffic, the only thing that finally stopped "La Vida" on the charts was the top. That, and the fact that there are simply a finite number of countries in the world with radio stations.  more4

In the last ten years, DAWs have taken major strides in quality, power and affordability, with a steady stream of "plug-ins" continually expanding their capabilities. Project studios are everywhere, and their output is all over the charts. The price of digital audio processing has fallen dramatically, in part because manufacturers have expanded their markets by pushing the "do-it-yourself" approach to making albums. The upheavals these changes have brought to the studio business have been thoroughly documented, but what about their impact on the field of mastering? Are the same technological and business trends that fueled project studios likely to pose a threat to established professional mastering houses?  more4

These are boom days for the Miami recording community. The pop and Latin music renaissance that this city is experiencing has given the region a profile it hasn't enjoyed since the heady days of the 1970s, when Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers, the Bee Gees, KC & the Sunshine Band and a host of other music giants camped out in Miami recording hit after hit, buying expensive homes, fast cars and, in some cases, premium-grade cocaine. Those fast times set the stage for the mass-market packaging of Miami as a degenerate Sodom in television's Miami Vice, which reduced the city to a pastel and chrome cliche, the last flash of style over substance before the musical lights dimmed for over a decade in South Florida. But all that has changed with the success of Ricky Martin and a host of other Latin and pop artists who have swarmed out of Miami and topped the charts in 1998-99-a creative surge that shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. Not surprisingly, this has been very good news for Miami's studios.  more4

Desmond Child certainly has to be considered one of the most influential pop music composers of recent years. He co-wrote much of Slippery When Wet with Jon Bon Jovi, including the anthem "Livin' on a Prayer" (which essentially defined the hair-band culture of the 1980s), on through cuts for Aerosmith ("Angel," "Dude Looks Like a Lady"), Joan Jett, Cher, Hanson, Trisha Yearwood and Alice Cooper. Along the course of what would turn out to be a very unorthodox career, Child's auteur inclinations came to the fore, and he turned to producing much of what he wrote, including tracks for Cooper, Cher, Jett, Billie Myers and Megadeth, among many others.  more4

Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" is the first single recorded and mixed entirely with a Digidesign Pro Tools digital audio workstation to reach the No.1 position on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart. The magazine's May 15, 1999, Production Credits chart shows Pro Tools at the top of every equipment-oriented entry for Martin's single. This is the first time ever that a single product has filled every Billboard equipment category for a No. 1 single.  more4

Mixer Charles Dye used a variety of Waves Gold Bundle plug-ins (including Renaissance EQ, Renaissance Compressor, Max Bass, and L1) while recording and mixing Ricky Martin's #1 smash hit "Livin’ La Vida Loca," along with seven other songs on Martin's already platinum album.  more4

Two-time Grammy® nominated engineer/mixer/producer Charles Dye continues to work his award-winning VocALign® audio processing software hard. Renowned for mixing C2/Sony artist Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca, Charles regards VocALign as "an essential creative tool and timesaver." His latest projects have included albums for Sammy Hagar, Julio Iglesias, and Jon Bon Jovi. He also worked with Billie Myers on her international hit Kiss the Rain.  more4