Understanding Impedance - Speaker specifications explained - Part 3
LearningThere's no way to get around impedance when looking at speaker specs. Its rating is important to avoid frying up your amp, but also because the small details of an impedance curve reveal a lot about …
A review of the Valhalla DSP ValhallaPlate reverb plug-… - What's On Your Plate?
Written testBest Value awardMost software reverbs offer a choice of halls, plates, rooms and other types of virtual spaces, but Valhalla DSP takes a different approach. The company has separated its reverb offerings into indivi…
Mixing with Room Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 63
LearningThis week we'll finish our overview of the different reverb families addressing the biggest one among them: rooms.
A review of the Electro-Harmonix Key9 Electric Piano Ma… - EP Sounds in a Stompbox
Written testElectro-Harmonix has followed its B9 and C9 Organ Machine pedals with the logical next step: the Key9 Electric-Piano Machine. This new stompbox uses the same technology as those organ pedals, and off…
Understanding Directivity - Speaker specifications explained - Part 2
LearningThe directivity of a speaker is an important characteristic when defining the size of the listening zone, and it determines how the frequencies will balance, depending on the position of the listener.
Mixing with Chamber and Ambience Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 62
LearningToday we'll look into chamber and ambience reverbs.
A review of SampleMagic Magic AB Version 2 - A/B-ing Just Got Easier
Written testWhen the original Magic A/B came out a couple of years ago, I was pretty blown away by it, because it made the important process of A/B-ing a mix a lot easier. Now SampleMagic has rewritten the appli…
Don't Spit the Bit - How to make the right choices when it comes to session bit depth
LearningYou have a number of options when it comes to the bit-depth of your DAW or other digital audio recording session including 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point. But do you know why you’d choose o…
Understanding Frequency Response - Speaker specifications explained - Part 1
LearningThroughout the relatively short lifetime of PA systems, both manufacturers and users have thought about ways to evaluate the performance of a system as objectively as possible.
Mixing with Plate and Hall Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 61
LearningAs we continue looking at the different reverb families, we'll focus this time on plate and hall reverbs.
A review of the Boss SY-300 guitar synthesizer - The Guitar Synth Redefined
Written testIn the past, trying to find a guitar synth that tracked accurately was akin to searching for the Holy Grail. No product, whether it was a guitar synth or MIDI guitar controller was able to accurately…
Customize Your DAW - How to personalize your DAW to fit your work style
LearningYour DAW is your most important piece of software — the heart of your studio. Most DAWs offer a lot of features that you can customize to fit your taste and the way you work. Since you use your DAW s…
Mixing with Spring Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 60
LearningRegardless of whether your reverb is algorithmic or convolution, chances are the plug-in you use provides different types of reverb. And, in my view, the choice of reverb type is crucial to get the e…
Top Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales and Discounts on … - Black Friday 2015: A list of the best deals
LearningBlack Friday and Cyber Monday are back with a vengeance, with manufacturers and developers knocking down the prices of countless virtual instruments, effects, sound banks, and even audio hardware, wi…
A review of the PreSonus R80 studio monitors - True Blue
Written testPreSonus recently added to its growing line of studio monitors with its new R-Series, active near-field monitors that feature AMT tweeters, and come in two sizes, the R80 (8” woofer) and the R65 (6.5…
These synths may be lesser known, but they sound awesome - 5 Top Soft Synths You Might Have Missed
LearningTo help you avoid making music that sounds like everyone else’s, I want to tell you about some premium-quality soft synths you may not know about. Although none of these instruments are terribly obsc…
Reverb: Pre- or Post-Fader? - A guide to mixing music - Part 59
LearningAs we saw in the previous article, it's often better to use reverbs on auxiliary buses. Consequently, it's only logical to ask yourself about the best way to send a signal to those aux buses.
Beyond Passive Pickups - Everything about guitar and bass pickups - Part 5
LearningAn active pickup is a normal pickup ─ but active. Got it?
Reverb In or Aux? - A guide to mixing music - Part 58
LearningBefore you start working with reverb, you need to set up a couple of things. That's why this week we'll look into the different routing options available and examine their advantages and disadvantage…
A video trip to D'Angelico's NYC headquarters - Video: Audiofanzine Visits D'Angelico Guitars
LearningWe recently visited the D'Angelico showroom in midtown Manhattan and got a chance to see and play both electric and acoustic guitars. In addition to all the guitars, D'Angelico has a fully setup stag…
A review of the Soundtoys 5 native effects bundle - Bundle of Joy
Written testFrom EchoBoy to FilterFreak to Crystallizer, Decapitator and more, Soundtoys plug-ins are super-creative tools that offer users the potential to take their music to new sonic places The new Soundtoys…
Pickup Formats - Everything about guitar and bass pickups - Part 4
LearningUp to now we have been talking about what's inside the pickups, but today we'll deal with the physical appearance.
Reverb Don'ts - A guide to mixing music - Part 57
LearningIn this episode we'll point out a couple of things to avoid when dialing in reverb settings.
Add space to your recordings with these free reverb plu… - 5 Top Freeware Reverbs
LearningWe all know that reverb is one of the staple effects in a mixer's toolkit. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a recording or live mix without at least some reverb in it. But does getting a good r…
About Single-Coils, Dual-Coils and More - Everything about guitar and bass pickups - Part 3
LearningTaking the pickup concept we've seen so far (the combination of one or several magnets surrounded by a coil), you get so-called single-coil pickups. This type of pickup produces a characteristic soun…
