944 feature articles found
Key Concepts for Instrument Miking - How to Get the Best Results When Recording Acoustic InstrumentsLearningIf you’ve ever recorded an acoustic instrument, you already know that there’s more involved than just sticking a mic in front of it. Factors that influence how the recording will come out — besides t…
Mastering at Home - Part 10 - How to Use Reverb When MasteringLearningIn this tenth episode, we will tackle an effect that is seldom used by people starting out in mastering, namely, reverb.
Noises Off - How to Use Broadband Noise Reduction Software to Clean Up Music RecordingsLearningMuch as we try to avoid it, there are occasions when noise gets onto our recordings. It could be a live recording where the source was too quiet and background hiss was picked up, or a passage on ele…
Producing a Vocal Session - Part 2 - Help With Producing a Singer in the StudioLearningIn part 1, we looked at mic choices, setup, and creating a monitor mix that’s comfortable for the singer. Here, we’ll delve into some producing techniques that will help you coax the best performance…
Mastering at Home — Part 9 - The Use of Stereo Enhancers While Mastering MusicLearningToday, our journey across the mastering world takes us into the slippery terrain of stereo enhancers.
Producing a Vocal Session - Part 1 - How to Get the Best Results When Recording a Singer in Your StudioLearningProducing a singer for a vocal overdub session sounds like a pretty straightforward task, but to get good results, you not only need good engineering chops, but the ability to coax the best performan…
The Top Digital Reverb Pedals - A Look at the Best Digital Reverb Guitar PedalsLearningIndispensable on the pedalboard of any guitarist — right next to the overdrive/distortion — the reverb pedal allows you to add some ambient or to modify the position of a sound in a mix. Naturally, i…
The Top Guitar Pickup Brands - A Look at the Best Electric Guitar Pickup MakersLearningElectromagnetic transducers play a crucial role in the sound of a guitar player and many of us like to change the original pickups on our guitars. Here are the results of a survey we ran some time ag…
Mastering at Home — Part 8 - A Guide to Using Harmonic Exciters and Enhancers in MasteringLearningThis eighth episode of our home mastering series will deal with harmonic exciters, harmonic enhancers and company.
How to Get Ready for Your First Gig - Part 1 - Getting ready for your first gig as a guitar playerLearningThe time has come, your band is ready for the big jump: Your first live gig as a guitar player is imminent. However, your stress is rising at a rate that would shock any cardiologist. Stay cool — her…
How much power does your amp need for rehearsals and gi… - Choosing the Right Wattage for Your Guitar AmpLearningThanks 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 MasteringLearningIn 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 MoreLearningPart 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 GuitarLearningBroken, 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 PossibleLearningI’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 FilteringLearningGuitars, 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 MasteringLearningToday 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 InterfaceLearningPart 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 EnvelopeLearningAfter 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 InterfaceLearningShopping 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 PracticeLearningThe 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 MusicalLearningWhether 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 WayLearningToontrack 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 BetterLearningYou’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 TheoryLearningIn mastering, EQing could be your best friend or your worst enemy. Which of the two depends on your grasp of the word: subtlety!