How much power does your amp need for rehearsals and gi… - Choosing the Right Wattage for Your Guitar Amp
LearningThanks to "Doc" Emmett Brown, everybody knows that you need 1.21 gigawatts for a DeLorean to go back to the future when its flux capacitor runs out of plutonium.
Mastering at Home - Part 7 - A Guide to Multi-Band Compression in Mastering
LearningIn the previous article, we addressed compression within the context of home mastering with a classic compressor. It's time now to tackle multi-band compression.
Working with Drum Loops - Part 2 - Adding Fills, Crashes, and More
LearningPart 1 looked at the importance of variation in a full-length drum loop track, and also gave tips on customizing drum loops by editing. Here I’ll look at two very important aspects of your drum loop …
Which Type of Tuning Machines Are Best for You? - How to Choose Tuners for Electric Guitar
LearningBroken, worn-out or simply ugly-looking tuners are often the cause of complaints by guitarists. If changing them is unavoidable, here is some info that will help you understand the subject better.
Working with Drum Loops - Part 1 - How to Make Loop-Based Drum Tracks Sound As Realistic As Possible
LearningI’m not a drummer, but I often produce tracks in my studio that include drum parts. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to be able to use a real drummer, but in most cases it’s just not practical. Instead…
Cut the Mud from Your Mix - Remove Low-End Clutter from Your Mix with High-Pass Filtering
LearningGuitars, vocals, pianos, drums or virtually any track in your mix, has extraneous low-frequency information that can be filtered out without compromising the sound. While you may not notice anything …
Mastering at Home — Part 6 - How to Use Compression While Mastering
LearningToday we will focus on compression, another important aspect of the mastering process that's often misunderstood.
Buying an Audio Interface - Part 2 - Help Picking the Best Audio Interface
LearningPart 1 looked at how to interpret the specs you see in ads and listings for audio interfaces. This time around, we offer info to help you figure out the audio interface that best fits your needs, pre…
Ableton’s Jesse Terry Talks Live, Push, and What’s Next - Pushing the Envelope
LearningAfter its introduction in 2001, Ableton Live grew rapidly into a major force in the world of music production software. While many of its major competitors at the time were bogged down with legacy fe…
Buying an Audio Interface - Part 1 - Demystifying the Specs and Features of an Audio Interface
LearningShopping for an audio interface can be daunting, due to the countless models on the market and the variations in inputs, outputs, formats, maximum sampling rates, and numerous other specifications. T…
Mastering at Home - Part 5 - How to Use EQ when Mastering — In Practice
LearningThe latest installment of our Mastering at Home series deals with some common situations when using an equalizer.
Tips for Better Soloing - Make Your Solos More Interesting and Musical
LearningWhether you play guitar, keyboard, saxophone or any other lead instrument, there’s more to being a good soloist than just having chops and knowing riffs. Playing fast is great, but speed by itself do…
A Review of Toontrack's Classic Amps EZmix Pack - Classic Amps the EZ Way
LearningToontrack recently released a new collection of amp models with effects called the Classic Amps EZmix Pack, which can be opened as presets in the company's EZmix 2 software. How do these emulations s…
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.
Protect Your Hearing - Don't let your ears get damaged by high sound levels onstage
LearningDid your ears ever ring after you played a gig, and not stop for a day or two? Now imagine that same scenario, but the ringing never stops. Pretty scary, right? And that's not an uncommon circumstanc…
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.
Steely Dan’s Producer Talks Recording, Mixing, and More - Gary Katz on Producing
LearningDuring Steely Dan’s original incarnation, the band produced a string of classic albums that are admired equally for their smart and catchy songwriting, amazing musicianship, and state-of-the-art reco…
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.
