Arturia Astrolab review - A performer's beast?
Written testInnovation awardEver since the Brutes and Keysteps affair, Arturia has been known to shake up the market with innovative products offering excellent value for money. And this Astrolab, tackling the stage keyboard ma…
Tips for Better Headphone Mixing - Mixing on headphones has never been more important, or easier.
LearningHeadphones are more critical to the mixing process than ever. One reason is the popularity of music streaming. More people than ever are listening to music on mobile devices with headphones. So makin…
Arranging Tips - How to Give Your Songs More Impact
LearningSongwriting and performance are crucial ingredients for producing a great song. Another is the arrangement. That is, deciding which instrument and vocal parts will be in a song, and where they'll com…
How to get the best results when you record vocals - 12 Tips for Better Vocal Tracks
LearningNo matter the genre, a lead vocal track is always the focal point of a song. As a result, you should approach recording vocals with forethought and planning. If you want the best results, you need to…
Interview with Haydn Bendall (Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Gary Moore, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney...)
Interview / PodcastHis name may not ring a bell to you, but you already have heard something recorded, mixed or produced by him. With a career over 5 decades, Haydn Bendall managed to develop his numerous talents in ma…
AUDIO RECORDING - ultimate guide (100 episodes) - Or how to become a pro sound engineer ;)
LearningOnce the mastering series is finished and now that the mixing guide is (finally!) arriving the end, it's only natural that Audiofanzine asked me to extend this tale told backwards with a new series d…
MIXING IN A HOME STUDIO - ultimate guide (150 episodes) - A Guide To Mixing Music
LearningGiven the good response our "Mastering at Home" series received, yours truly has put himself to the task of doing a similar guide dedicated to recording and mixing.
HOME MASTERING - ultimate guide (22 episodes) - Become a master in mastering. In your bedroom.
LearningAfter more than 20 weeks, the time has finally come for the last installment in our series dedicated to mastering at home. Today we won't be making any miraculous revelations. Instead, we'll give you…
THE LOUDNESS WAR (12 episodes) - Why and how levels are always higher. And how to fix this madness.
LearningVolume, more volume! Yes, but at what price? This series of articles will review the origins of the volume race, the physical considerations, new standards and tools, and their impact on public healt…
SOUND SYNTHESIS & SOUND DESIGN (30 episodes) - Make Jean-Michel Jarre sound like a beginner
LearningThroughout history, humans all around the globe have never stopped diversifying the uses of music ─ ritual, recreational, intellectual, etc. ─ and have produced it using their voices and bodies or th…
MUSIC THEORY - ultimate guide (68 episodes) - It All Starts with Twelve Notes...
LearningI know for certain that there are many talented musicians among you, even though the theoretical side of music has always put you off. Some others might have a classical education, but dropped music …
HOW TO EXTRACT VOCALS FROM A SONG - Unmixing a cake is not a piece of cake. But extracting vocals is.
LearningYou've probably dreamed about removing or isolating vocals or instruments from a record to get a single vocal line or sample an instrumental loop. However, is this even possible?
THE TOP 150 FREEWARE TO MAKE MUSIC - No money? No excuse! Make music now :)
TopMaking music with your computer when you don't have a penny is possible. And to prove our point here you have 150+ free software tools many of which don't have anything to envy their paid counterpart…
Award-winning mixer Michael Brauer talks techniques, ge… - The Wizard of Compression
LearningAn eight-time Grammy-award winner, engineer Michael Brauer has put his magic mixing touch on albums for Coldplay, John Mayer, and the Dave Matthews Band among many others. He is known for his unique …
Synthetic scales from tetrachords of altered modes - Pa… - Harmony Basics - Part 68
LearningIn the previous article you learned that Lydian tetrachords were absent from the modes of the melodic minor scale. But since we really like the oddest combinations, I suggest we wrap up this brief re…
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 4 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 99
LearningIn this fourth part you'll learn how to fine-tune the cue mix for the singer by improving the ordinary in no time.
Arturia AudioFuse 8PRE audio interface review - Love & 8
Written testJust over two years ago, French manufacturer Arturia first stepped into the world of audio interfaces. More recently at NAMM 2019, the Grenoble-based company announced two new models, one of which th…
Antelope Discrete 4 Synergy Core review - When Antelope goes for greater Synergy
Written testAbout a year and a half ago, Antelope released the Discrete, a new range of Thunderbolt & USB interfaces including discrete preamps, their famous FPGA module as well as the stack of audio effec…
Black Friday / Cyber Monday Sales at Sweetwater - Everyday is Black Friday this week at Sweetwater
LearningFort Wayne-based retailer Sweetwater is launching a giant week-long Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale. As partners, we are listing the best offers you’ll get online on music instruments and audio gear…
Synthetic scales from tetrachords of altered modes - Pa… - Harmony Basics - Part 67
LearningLast time we started exploring the tetrachords of the altered modes in general and the synthetic scales created from the tetrachords of the melodic minor scale in particular. You saw that apart from …
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 3 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 98
LearningAfter the brief detour last week to discuss a less conventional way to handle the cue mix, today we'll go back to the more traditional way, that is the use of a good ol' pair of headphones. We'll dis…
Synthetic scales from tetrachords of altered modes - Pa… - Harmony Basics - Part 66
LearningAfter having reviewed in our last article the synthetic scales resulting from the taking apart of natural modes and the redistribution of their tetrachords, let's see what you get when you do the sam…
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 2 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 97
LearningLast week I mentioned the preposterous idea of using a speaker instead of headphones to send the cue mix to the singer. This obviously entails the mic picking up a lot of bleed, however as I implied …
Synthetic scales from natural modes - Harmony Basics - Part 65
LearningIn the previous article I introduced synthetic scales, which made us dig up an element of scales and modes which we had already touched upon before: tetrachords. So before we move on I think it's imp…
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 1 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 96
LearningToday's article could've been easily included in the previous section because we are once again dealing with the comfort of the singer. However, I decided to make it part of a new, much larger sectio…