February 8, 2014 editorial: comments

Welcome to this week’s Audiofanzine newsletter, and thanks for subscribing. I don’t know what it's like where you are, but I’m the Northeast U.S., and it’s FREEZING! So far this winter we’ve had about five snow storms, a couple of bouts of record-low temperatures, and now there’s ice everywhere. Enough already! The spring can’t come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.

This week was anything but cold on the Audiofanzine site, however, as we posted reviews of some hot new products. “Life in Red” is a review of the Nord Lead 4, the latest in the popular synth line. It combines analog modeling, FM and digital microwave synthesis, and has new features like Impulse Morphing, which lets you switch between up to seven different groups of settings on each patch. According to the reviewer, “Just listening to the sounds brought a smile to your face.”

We’re also featuring “Six Inputs of Separation,” a review of the Zoom H6, a 6-track successor to Zoom’s H4n portable multitrack. The H6 is perfect for capturing audio-for-video, and is also really useful for recording live music performances. The reviewer found the unit to be handy and well-priced, and even to have improved sonics. He wasn’t thrilled with the display, though, which uses technology that’s been eclipsed by smartphones.

In the Getting Started department,  yours truly contributed the “Slide Guitar Quick-Start Guide”, which is designed to get guitarists who haven’t played slide guitar before, up and going with the basic techniques. Playing with a slide is very different from standard guitar, and if you don’t start out with correct  left- and right-hand techniques, you’ll make it that much harder on yourself.

Also new this week were the final two parts of the Recording Your DJ Sessions story. Part 3, “Best Practices To Record Your DJ Mixes,” suggests things to do before and during the session that will help you get a better quality result. Part 4, “Polishing and Exporting the Final File,” offers advice on processing and exporting your finished recordings.

And, of course, we encourage you to comment on these and all the Audiofanzine stories on our forums. Have a great week!

Mike Levine