Feature articles, lessons and tutorials on audio and music

There is plenty more to say about the possible uses of a noise gate, especially from a creative point of view. However, that would divert us from the subject at hand. Besides, by now, I hope you have…

This week we'll take a look at yet another technique specific to noise gates, namely ducking. Personally, it's not my cup of tea, but when you don't have the time for other solutions, it can really …

This is one of those situations no composer can escape...and the reason for being of this series.

Take a tour through the Gibson guitar factory in Nashville, TN, and watch as Les Pauls, SGs and more are constructed.

While it may be as tough as ever to earn money with music, the bright side remains that it’s become much easier to build a recording studio based mostly around your computer — without spending a fort…

In the previous articles we talked about major and minor chords, how scales are formed and how you can tell the key of a song from its key signature.

Today we'll see how to create a percussive instrument from scratch using an acoustic take.

When you're editing in Pro Tools, whether it's Pro Tools 12 or an older version, you won't get far if you don't understand how the edit modes and the main editing tools work. In this video we'll expl…

In our last episode, we talked about the differences between parameters and parameter values and between acoustic and electronic parameters. We also discussed envelope generators and the relationship…

As we saw previously, the construction of any given scale requires that you respect certain intervals between the notes. To achieve that, and depending on the tonic and whether it's a major or minor …

Melodyne Essential is the least expensive version of Celemony's acclaimed editing software, and though it doesn't have the same feature set of its big brother Melodyne Editor, it's nevertheless quite…

This week I'll show you how to use a Noise Gate to significantly improve your drum tracks.

In this installment, we'll discuss the consequences of volume on music, sound and human ears.

Up to now we have only seen the more typical uses of a Noise Gate. Now we'll start looking into less obvious techniques that can make a gate much more interesting during mixdown.

Imagine if you could break free from the limitations of synthesizer presets and create your own custom sounds to fit your music. The first step toward that goal is to understand the standard synth pa…

In the previous installment, we saw what bleed is, and the problems it can cause during mixdown. Today we'll look at how to remove or minimize this harmful phenomenon with a noise gate.

Today we'll dive into the heart of the matter and tackle the different modes, major and minor (natural, melodic and harmonic), as well as the relative scales.

Adam “Nolly” Getgood is more than just the bass player in the progressive metal band Periphery. He's also a producer and engineer with an extremely intelligent approach to recording, and he played a …

Today we'll talk about the phenomenon of mic bleed, and how it can cause difficulties during a mix.

You often hear that a $1,000 laptop today has the power of a billion dollars worth of computer equipment from 50 years ago. Likewise, the equivalent of thousands of dollars of vintage synthesizer gea…

Now that we've seen the main parameters of a Noise Gate, let's move on to the practical side, starting with its most traditional use: suppressing noise.

Back in the days of analog tape, archiving multitrack sessions was not an easy task. You needed a place to store the bulky tape reels, and if you didn’t “bake” the tapes to get the moisture out of th…

In this new installment we'll continue discussing the consequences of volume on music, sound and human ears.

This week we'll tackle a type of dynamics processing that was used all the time in the analog days, but, bizarrely enough, doesn't get called upon nearly as much in the all-digital era. And yet it's …

Located about 20 minutes northeast of Nashville, Fry Pharmacy Recording is a throwback to the days when tape ruled supreme. Audiofanzine visited the studio recently, and we produced this video tour.