The importance of good tuning - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 19
LearningThis week I invite you to discuss the importance of tuning in a recording situation.
Recording a hardware synth - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 17
LearningThis week we'll tackle a somewhat peculiar case: hardware synthesizers.
Tidy up! - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 16
LearningI'll dedicate the first article of the year in this series to tidiness in your home studio. I know it seems a bit off-topic, but trust me it is much more important than it appears at first sight.
The 3:1 rule - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 15
LearningIn this episode I invite you to discover a trick that every beginner ought to know, the so-called 3:1 rule.
Recording a pizzicato double bass - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 14
LearningAfter having recorded a bowed upright bass last week, today we'll see how to track a double bass played with the fingers, a technique called pizzicato.
Recording a bowed upright bass - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 13
LearningIn this article we'll see how to record an upright bass played with a bow. But don't worry, we'll also see how to record a pizzicato double bass in our next article.
How to organize for a recording session - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 12
LearningThis week we'll see how to make life easier to your "future you."
Acoustic treatment for a home studio - Setting Up Your Home Studio - Part 5
LearningHaving a soundproof home studio is very nice. But that's far from enough to make a room ideal to record and mix music. Enter acoustic treatment.
Setting up the headphone mix - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 11
LearningAs we saw in the previous article, the comfort of the musician is crucial to getting a good performance, and hence a precondition for every good recording. And this comfort depends largely on the sub…
The importance of pre-production - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 10
LearningIn this week's episode we will discuss something that ought to precede any attempt to record your music. Considered optional by some, pre-production is often ignored by beginners. And yet they are th…
Look after the musicians - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 9
LearningHaving the best gear in the world and being an audio engineer without equal is very nice, but unfortunately that doesn't mean you'll be able to make the best records.
Recording a trombone - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 6
LearningThis week we'll start with the first practical case: tracking a trombone.
Working at the source - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 5
LearningYou'll fix it in the mix... right? Wrong! That's why I'll try to make sure that this phrase never makes into your home studio.
Recording levels - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 4
LearningThis week we'll take a moment to discuss the delicate issue of levels during tracking.
What format to use? - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 3
LearningToday we'll discuss a topic that's very important in the all-digital age, namely which format you should use to record your takes.
What is a Home Studio? - Setting Up Your Home Studio - Part 1
LearningHopefully, one day you’ll go to Abbey Road to record your music, just like the Beatles. But since recording in such a studio is prohibitively expensive for most musicians, you might want to consider …
Producer Andrew Wade shares his mixing and guitar-recor… - Studio Tips from The Big Boss
LearningAndrew Wade (aka “The Big Boss”) knows a little something about guitar recording. Wade is a producer/engineer/songwriter who has focused heavily on the pop-punk/Emo genres and has produced music (inc…
Multitalented producer Greg Wells talks about his craft… - Producing for the Art of It
LearningAlthough he spent most of his childhood playing and studying music, it wasn’t until Greg Wells was 18 that he got bitten by the recording bug. “I got my parents to co-sign a loan, and I bought a Mac …
The Last Note - Recording a clean ending is not as simple as it may seem
LearningWhen recording an ensemble or just overdubbing one instrument, there's one part of the song that gets very little attention: right after the very last chord or note has been struck. Especially if the…
We interview the author of “The Great British Recording… - The Golden Age of British Recording
Interview / PodcastIn the early 1960s, at the beginning of the British Invasion, the studio scene in England was thriving, but the British studios used different gear and got a very different sound than their U.S. coun…
We interview the author of "Beatles Gear: The Ultimate … - Fab Four Gear!
Interview / PodcastDid you know that John Lennon’s first guitar was a Gallotone Champion acoustic that he ordered from a catalog, or that George Harrison played a Framus Hootenanny 12-string on “Help," or that Ringo st…
Producer/engineer/songwriter Joe West’s fearless approa… - Never Say Never!
LearningJoe West has never been afraid to take on a project, even early in his career when he didn’t always have the requisite experience. “If you turn a gig down,” he says, “you end up in a situation where …
That's an Order! - How to create a dynamic and engaging song order for your album or EP
LearningLet’s face it: Albums are not what they used to be. I’m not talking about the music (although there are some who would make that argument), and I’m not talking about the production. I’m referring to …
How to track and mix your project so it has a cohesive … - Give Your Album its Own Sonic Signature
LearningA cohesive sonic signature helps make an album, EP or other multi-song project more appealing to listeners. If you listen to a classic album, whether it's Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” The Be…
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…
