10 of the most interesting and innovative products from… - 10 Cool Products from NAMM
LearningNow that NAMM is over, and we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and get over the jet lag, we compiled a list of the ten products that most impressed us, either because they were innovative, sounded…
How to Use Pre-Delay - A guide to mixing music - Part 67
LearningNow that you've chosen the best reverb presets, the time has come to tinker with the parameters so you can adjust them to best fit your needs. In this article, we'll focus on a very important reverb …
Distortion - Speaker specifications explained - Part 6
LearningIn this final installment regarding speaker specs, I'll address distortion. It's interesting to understand why it's a spec that's seldom specified by speaker manufacturers, unlike with amps, which al…
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…
A Handy Rule for Choosing Reverb Presets - A guide to mixing music - Part 66
LearningMy goal today is to try to make it even easier for you to choose your starting reverb preset...Yes, I know, it's starting to feel a bit like an obsession, but your choice in this regard is so importa…
Keep Your Music Data Safe! (part 2) - How to archive your finished DAW projects for future recall
LearningIn part 1 we looked at a backup strategy for preserving your active and recently active recording files. But what about archiving them when you’re finished? In part 2 of this 2-part series, we’ll tal…
A review of the Electro-Harmonix Cock Fight pedal - A Chicken in Every Pedalboard
Written testWah pedals are useful for more than just the standard “wah wah” effect. Sweeping the pedal’s filter to find a cool tone and then leaving it static as you play is also very effective. Known as the “co…
Sensitivity and Efficiency - Speaker specifications explained - Part 5
LearningKnowing how much power a speaker can handle doesn't tell you anything about how much SPL it can deliver.
Klangfreund LUFS Meter Review - May the Volume Be With You
Written testLet me introduce you to LUFS Meter, a downright clever plug-in that can make life easier to anyone taking the "Loudness War" seriously. And I hope there are many of you out there, considering the pai…
How to Use the Pink Noise Trick - A guide to mixing music - Part 65
LearningDespite everything I've told you, you might still be having some trouble trying to decide which preset is the best starting point for your song. Even more so considering that software makers are usua…
A review of iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced and Ozone 7 - Lucky Sevens
Written testThe Ozone mastering suite from iZotope has gotten better with each major update. The latest, Ozone 7, adds vintage modules to its processing arsenal, which allow you to add warm, analog-like sounds. …
Keep Your Music Data Safe! (part 1) - How to avoid data disasters with a simple backup strategy
LearningComputer experts will tell you that it’s not a matter of if your hard drive will crash, it’s a matter of when. Even solid-state drives (SSDs), though more reliable than those with spinning disks, can…
Power Handling - Speaker specifications explained - Part 4
LearningThe notion of power is always highlighted by manufacturers and users alike. It seems to have a sort of exceptional seduction power, to the point that its actual importance gets diluted in the mental …
It's Just a Matter of Feeling - A guide to mixing music - Part 64
LearningBy now, after several articles dealing with the different reverb types, you ought to be able to determine which families match better the goals you have in mind. Now it's up to you to decide which pr…
Composing soundtracks? Let us recommend some soundware - 5 Top Sample Libraries You Might Have Missed
LearningSampled audio collections have undergone significant change since polyphonic digital sampling first emerged in 1979. In the early days, the emphasis was on reproducing audio snapshots and then on ent…
Understanding Impedance - Speaker specifications explained - Part 3
LearningThere's no way to get around impedance when looking at speaker specs. Its rating is important to avoid frying up your amp, but also because the small details of an impedance curve reveal a lot about …
A review of the Valhalla DSP ValhallaPlate reverb plug-… - What's On Your Plate?
Written testBest Value awardMost software reverbs offer a choice of halls, plates, rooms and other types of virtual spaces, but Valhalla DSP takes a different approach. The company has separated its reverb offerings into indivi…
Mixing with Room Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 63
LearningThis week we'll finish our overview of the different reverb families addressing the biggest one among them: rooms.
Live or in the studio, engineer David Kimmell has you c… - Indy Mix Man
LearningIndianapolis-based David Kimmell worked his way up in the pro audio world through an eclectic mix of music-related gigs such as club sound man; pro audio manager at a Guitar Center; sound company emp…
A review of the Electro-Harmonix Key9 Electric Piano Ma… - EP Sounds in a Stompbox
Written testElectro-Harmonix has followed its B9 and C9 Organ Machine pedals with the logical next step: the Key9 Electric-Piano Machine. This new stompbox uses the same technology as those organ pedals, and off…
Understanding Directivity - Speaker specifications explained - Part 2
LearningThe directivity of a speaker is an important characteristic when defining the size of the listening zone, and it determines how the frequencies will balance, depending on the position of the listener.
Mixing with Chamber and Ambience Reverb - A guide to mixing music - Part 62
LearningToday we'll look into chamber and ambience reverbs.
A review of SampleMagic Magic AB Version 2 - A/B-ing Just Got Easier
Written testWhen the original Magic A/B came out a couple of years ago, I was pretty blown away by it, because it made the important process of A/B-ing a mix a lot easier. Now SampleMagic has rewritten the appli…
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…
Understanding Frequency Response - Speaker specifications explained - Part 1
LearningThroughout the relatively short lifetime of PA systems, both manufacturers and users have thought about ways to evaluate the performance of a system as objectively as possible.
