Why Headroom is Important - Keep Your Levels Down and Your Headroom Up, and Your Music Will Sound Better
LearningYou’ve probably heard the term “headroom” thrown around a lot. What it is, essentially, is a margin of safety between the loudest peaks of your track — or tracks, in the case of a mix — and 0 dB on y…
Mastering at Home - Part 4 - How to Use EQ In Mastering — The Theory
LearningIn mastering, EQing could be your best friend or your worst enemy. Which of the two depends on your grasp of the word: subtlety!
Mixing: A 12-Step Program - A Helpful Approach for Efficiently Mixing Music
LearningHere at Audiofanzine, we’ve covered many individual aspects of mixing, and offered detailed information on what to do in preparation for a mix. But we've also gotten requests for an overview of the e…
Learn From Other Mixes - How to Analyze a Mix
LearningJust like painting, photography and, obviously, music — mixing is an art in itself. And, as such, it also requires some training.
Long-Distance Collaboration - Work Together Remotely via DAW File Sharing
LearningSharing tracks over the Internet makes it possible for musicians to work together remotely, whether they're around the corner from each other or around the world.
Mastering at Home - Part 3 - A Great Workflow for Mastering Music at Home
LearningIn this third part of our Home Mastering series, we will write about the process to follow in order to make the right decisions at the right time.
Mastering at Home - Part 2 - Prepare for Your Mastering Session
LearningIn this installment, we'll offer some tips that will simplify your life when mastering.
Comparing Two Approaches to Drum-Track Creation - MIDI Drums vs. Audio Drum Loops
LearningIf you’re not a drummer, but you need drum tracks for your productions — and assuming you don’t have the budget and facilities to hire and record a real drummer — you’re going to need to use either M…
Before You Buy that Acoustic Guitar - Tips for Evaluating an Acoustic Guitar Before Purchase
LearningBuying a steel-string acoustic guitar is an investment that you don’t want to go into lightly. Unless you plan to purchase a super-cheap entry-level model, you’re likely to spend a fair bit of coin f…
The 10 Top Brands of Musikmesse 2014 - Best of Musikmesse 2014
LearningAfter a big NAMM, you would've expected a quieter Musikmesse. Notwithstanding, Europe's largest audio trade show had a couple of nice surprises in store.
Mastering at Home - Part 1 - An Introduction to Mastering Audio
LearningIf you're fortunate enough to be able to afford professional mastering with a dedicated engineer in a well-designed and equipped mastering studio, that's clearly the route to the best quality results…
Minimize Drum Bleed in Your Home Studio - Reduce or Eliminate Leakage When Tracking Drums and Other Instruments Together
LearningSo, you’ve got a band, you’ve got some recording gear, and you’re ready to start cutting your album in your home studio. If you’re recording with a drummer and you want to do a “live” basic-tracking …
Panning Strategies - Advice For Placing Elements in the Stereo Soundscape
LearningPanning seems like a simple enough task. You turn the panning knobs to the positions you want your tracks to be situated in the stereo image and you’re done, right? Well there’s more to it…
Phase – The Solutions - Everything about Phase Problems - Part 3
LearningAfter having seen the theory and the cases where you could have phase issues, in this final installment we will see different ways to identify eventual problems. And we will also go through the vario…
Helpful Advice for Before, During, and After the Show - 10 Tips for Successful Gigging
LearningAs a musician, you've probably experienced the near-euphoric feeling of playing a gig in which everything is going right: you’re playing well, the crowd is into it, and the sound is good. Conversely,…