The Living Colour guitarist on film scoring, DAWs, amp … - Vernon Reid Talks Tech
LearningWhen you hear the name Vernon Reid, your first thought is probably of his work with Living Colour, featuring his speedy and inventive guitar playing. But Reid is also an accomplished composer, scorin…
The Wet/Dry/Wet Technique - Improve your sound when using time-based effects in your guitar setup
LearningReverb, delay and all other so-called time-based effects can sometimes "dirty up" your basic guitar sound to the point that you are forced to reduce their level in order to preserve a minimum of audi…
The Prerequisites for a Relaxed Mixing Session - A guide to mixing music - Part 3
LearningThe simple act of clearing certain technical and practical tasks in the earliest stages of the production of a song can have miraculous effects, not only in terms of efficiency, but also from a creat…
Better Tracks Through Editing - Part 1 - How to Fix Rhythmic Mistakes in a Recorded Track
LearningToday’s DAW software — not to mention a slew of third party plug-ins — offers you powerful processing options for manipulating the time and pitch of your audio. But did you know that you can fix a lo…
A Demo of Native Instruments' Innovative New MIDI Contr… - Video: Komplete Kontrol S Series Keyboards
LearningWe recently visited Native Instruments' Los Angeles office, an impressive place where you can see the famous “Hollywood” sign when you look out the window. Though the view was dramatic, we were more …
Filter It Out! - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 7
LearningToday we'll deal with another element that is essential to sound synthesis: Filters. They are widely used in subtractive synthesis, which is the most widespread form of synthesis, making filters pret…
A Video Demo of the New Apogee Thunderbolt Ensemble - A Visit to Apogee's HQ in Los Angeles
LearningApogee just released the newly redesigned Ensemble audio interface for Mac, a 30x34 unit featuring Thunderbolt 2 connectivity. We visited Apogee HQ in Los Angeles on the day it was released to video …
Mixing with Myself…or Not! - A Guide To Mixing Music - Part 2
LearningWe'll devote this second installment of our mixing article series to a bit of advice that is worth its weight in gold: Whenever possible, let someone else mix your songs and/or recordings
Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Pa… - Swing It!
LearningToday we'll begin our exploration of the different elements that constitute a synthesizer. "It's about time!," I hear some of you say... And it's true, but it's important to have a theoretical backgr…
Classic Gear Spotlight: The Teletronix LA-2A - Legendary Optical Compressor
LearningA number of outboard compressors from the analog era are considered legends in the audio world, among them the Fairchild 670, UREI 1176, and the subject of this article, the Teletronix LA-2A. The LA-…
Make Some Noise! - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 5
LearningIn the previous article, we explored sounds based on waveforms with more or less harmonics, but they all had one thing in common: They were periodic. As we saw, if you refer to periodic cycle, you re…
A noise-removal tutorial with the Spectral Repair Modul… - A Unique Tool for Cleaning Up Audio Glitches
LearningThere’s no such thing as magic, but after using some of today’s amazingly powerful DSP software, it sometimes seems like there is. One product that definitely has the magic touch is iZotope RX, an au…
Talking to BT about his upcoming throwback album and hi… - BT Goes Back to the '80s
LearningThere are few musicians who are as skilled with technology and as articulate about it as BT. For his latest project, a band called All Hail The Silence, BT and Christian Burns produced an album as if…
In Search of the Perfect Wave - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 4
LearningIn the previous articles of this series, we explored sound at its core and discovered waves and what defines them. Today we'll look into the main waveforms that are usually adopted as the basic ingre…
Basic Guitar Chords - Guitar essentials for writing songs and playing with other musicians
LearningSome people may just want to learn the basic guitar chords to impress girls (or boys) on the beach or to modestly accompany themselves when singing. Whatever your reasons, here are some basic chords …
Avoiding Feedback with an Acoustic Guitar - Tips for Playing Acoustic Guitar Live - Part 1
LearningCommonly used by electric guitar players, especially to liven things up, feedback is the worst enemy of acoustic musicians. In this series of articles we'll look into the solutions to play a relaxed …
An Interview With Producer, Engineer and Guitarist Eyal… - Production Insights from a Metal Master
Interview / PodcastOver the last 15 years, Eyal Levi has become a highly respected producer, engineer and musician in the world of metal music. He’s worked on 40 albums that have made it to the Billboard Top 200 chart,…
Of Sync Fees, Royalties and Exclusive Deals - Making Money From Music Licensing - Part 2
LearningIn part 1, we discussed what licensing is, and described how music libraries work. In this second and final part, we’ll look at the different ways you can make money from a licensed piece of music, t…
Sound Synthesis, Sound Design and Audio Processing - Pa… - What's the Frequency?
LearningAs we saw in the previous article of this series, if a waveform is recurrent, it is called a periodic wave. From a theoretical point of view, for example, musical notes are all based on a periodic wa…
How to Get Started Licensing Your Music - Making Money From Music Licensing - Part 1
LearningOne of the few avenues left where you can still make money from selling your music is through licensing. Although the market has become saturated over the last several years, there are still opportun…
Surviving as a Hired Gun in the Studio - Advice on How to be Successful as a Studio Musician
LearningBetween the proliferation of home studios, digital music technology, the Internet, and the development of music genres that are programmed rather than played, the amount of session work available, as…
Wave's Anatomy - Sound Synthesis, Sound Design and Audio Processing - Part 2
LearningIn the previous article we saw that sound is made of waves. Like many things in life, they can be simple or complex. You can't find an absolutely "pure" sound in nature. The closest to that is the s…
Classic Gear Spotlight: The Vox AC30 - The Amp That Armed the British Invasion
LearningIn today’s digitally dominated world of music gear, one way to tell how highly a guitar amp is regarded is whether it’s been emulated in major amp-modeling software packages. One of the amps you'll f…
An iPhone, iPod touch, and Especially an iPad, Can Grea… - iOS Onstage
LearningWith the right apps and accessories, an iPhone, an iPod touch and especially an iPad can be a real boon to your live performance setup. Your iDevice can function as a sound source, effects processo…
Getting Down to "Bassics" - Create Authentic Sounding MIDI Bass Guitar Parts
LearningIf you're a recording musician who doesn't play bass, creating realistic MIDI bass guitar parts can be a challenge. The tips and techniques offered in this article will help you put together authenti…
