Feature articles, lessons and tutorials on audio and music

The home studio environment is usually pretty far from the ideal conditions of a commercial studio, so it's strongly advised to check your mixes outside of your work space. With that in mind, today's…

Last installment dedicated to the kick drum from the chapter on recording drums. Up to now we have been focusing exclusively on our own audio clips, but I'm well aware that not everybody has access t…

After having gone through the critical listening sessions under your normal working conditions, the time has come for some retouches. That's why today I will show you a method that ought to make your…

The Musikmesse 2017 in Frankfurt ended last week and it was a good occasion for the Audiofanzine team to try out new gear.

Today I'll suggest a non-exhaustive list of tools that can make your life easier during the critical listening sessions of your mixes in your home studio.

Second kick drum installment from the chapter dedicated to recording drums.

This time we will look at a very specific way of listening to your mix: comparative A/B listening. I cannot recommend you enough this method – it's hands down the most important way to listen to your…

After having looked at the snare drum, we will focus today on how to close mic a kick drum.

Chronologically speaking, the critical listening stage is divided into two phases for any home studio enthusiast: the first one under his/her usual working conditions and the second one outdoors. Thi…

Succeeding as a freelance mixing engineer in New York City is no easy feat, but Ryan West has done it—impressively. Working predominantly on the hip-hop and R&B scenes, his credit list includes such …

In the previous episode we saw the ABC of close miking a snare drum. Today we'll take it a step further...

In order to approach the critical listening sessions seriously, here are a couple of things you might want to ask yourself while at it. You should focus mainly on two aspects, which I recommend you t…

Now that we've covered the Mono Room and Overheads tracks, the time has come for us to tackle the recording of the different elements of the drum kit with the close miking technique. We'll start this…

Dear friends, I know the closer we come to the end the more impatient you get. What do we have left after the delicate automation phase? Well, quite a few things and not particularly easy ones. In th…

This installment is the last one dedicated to overheads. Yes, I know four articles discussing that topic exclusively seems like a lot. But I insist, the overall result of a drum kit recording depends…

Today I'll give you some final recommendations regarding automation.

After having seen the ORTF, XY and M/S techniques, we'll look now into two other methods to record drum overheads.

To close the chapter on automation I'll start listing today some advice and remarks I haven't mentioned before, but which I nevertheless deem important and useful.

As I told you last week, there are several techniques to record the incredibly important drum overheads stereo track. We already saw the ORTF method and today we'll dive into the XY and M/S technique…

Laura Escudé, who performs under the name "Alluxe," has built a successful and eclectic career in the music world as a producer, performer, and programmer. An expert in Ableton Live—she was Ableton’s…

Today I'll write the second part of our brief compilation of the most common mistakes and issues when dealing with automation.

This week we'll focus on, in my opinion, the most important track when it comes to recording drums: overheads.

As we've seen in the past weeks, automation is no rocket science or black magic. However, when it comes to putting it all into practice there are some pitfalls you should try to avoid. Here's a brief…

In this episode we'll start discussing the recording of drums with what is usually called the Mono Room track, which is much more important than it seems...

With this article I'll close the automation "tips and tricks" chapter by approaching it from a song structure point of view. This time we'll deal with how to put together different puzzle pieces like…