The Best Audio Tools to Change Your Life - The Top Software Tools to Simplify Mixing
LearningHere's a list of plug-ins, software and hardware tools that will simplify the life of the home studio owner.
The Best Virtual Electric Bass Guitars - The Top Electric Bass Guitar Software
LearningTogether with pianos and drums, bass guitars ought to be counted among the instruments whose virtual versions can be considered credible today. Here's a selection of the best exponents in the genre.
The Best Virtual Rhodes - The Top Virtual Rhodes
LearningA real legend among electric pianos, the Rhodes has never stopped inspiring software developers and sample publishers. These 16 instruments are proof of that.
The Home Studio Owner Library - The Best Books on Audio Engineering
LearningYou don't know which book to take with you to for the morning commute? Here are some inspiring reads regarding audio...
The Top Commercial Software Guitar Amps - The Best Commercial Guitar Amp Plug-ins
LearningHow do you pack dozens of vintage amps and speaker cabinets in a 130 ft² home studio for less than $500? Just enter the wonderful virtual realm with this article about the best commercial software gu…
How To Get a Fat Guitar Sound - Guitar Doubling Basics
LearningWhen people refer to a sound as being "fat" they usually mean different realities and consequently different practices. Here is an overview of the techniques most commonly used to easily get a fat so…
How to Prepare a Mixing Session - Organizing Before Mixing Audio
LearningThe art of mixing requires technical competency as well as a good dose of creativity. However, often times such characteristics don't get along well inside our brain...
There are varying factors in play, depending on the typ… - DI Boxes For Guitars: Acoustic And Electric
LearningWhen amplifying an acoustic guitar, the use of a microphone can lead to concerns about feedback as well as being able to adequately amplify the instrument. With electric guitars, there are also conc…
Fix Vocal Pitch Without Nasty Correction Artifacts - Transparent Vocal Pitch Correction
LearningThe critics are right: pitch correction can suck all the life out of vocals. I proved this to myself accidentally when working on some background vocals.
Layered Vocals Sound Tighter and Cleaner with these Tec… - How to Tweak Layered Vocals
LearningLayering vocals is a common technique to thicken a vocal part, whether applied to a solo voice or to a massed group of backing vocals. However, there are certain considerations with layered vocals th…
Get a good mix with headphones - Mixing Tips For Headphones
LearningMixing with Headphones can be a viable option to achieving great mixes. Although it’s always recommended to use high quality monitor speakers, sometimes they aren’t a viable option. It may be late at…
How to avoid ground loops - Banish Ground Loop Hum
LearningThere are a few different reasons why a musician might wish to use multiple amplifiers as part of their rig.
Mixing your drums Part 3 : the toms - Mixing Toms
LearningToms are an interesting part of the kit that often add flare and excitement to a drum track, just look at the intro to Enter Sandman by Metallica, or the fill before the chorus of Africa by Toto. The…
Mixing your drums Part 2 : the snare - Mixing A Snare Drum
LearningNext to the Kick Drum, the Snare Drum is the most important component of the Drum Kit. So its paramount that we get it to sound as good as its potential.
Mixing your drums Part 1 : the kick - Mixing The Kick Drum
LearningIn most Genre’s the Kick Drum will be the Low End foundation of the song. So really we should treat it with respect and try and get the best out of it while mixing. If you have recorded the Kick Drum…
Gain without pain: giving the guitar cabinets their own… - Isolating your speaker cabinets for the best guitar sound
LearningFor recording guitarists, one benefit of a head-and-stack configuration over a combo is that you can separate the amplifier from the speaker cabinet and run a long cable between the two.
How to get the levels "just right" - Recording Levels And Gain Staging
LearningOne of the questions that I get asked fairly often by neophyte recording enthusiasts is "how hot should I record?" The amount of signal you record per track can have an effect on not only the sound o…
How to Mix a Bass Guitar - Straight to the Bottom
LearningA good bass line, played on a good bass, can be made into a great Bass track. But you need to know your way around your Bass Guitar Processing. Lets take a look at giving your bass that extra little …
Techniques for Mixing the Space - The Importance of Space in a Mix: Part 2
LearningSo you’ve recorded all your instruments and room captures, you’ve got a basic mix going, and you ‘ve selected your delays and reverbs. Now what?
Tools for Mixing the Space - The Importance of Space in a Mix: Part I
LearningWhen entering a new space, how often do we consider it’s sonic characteristics. And more frequently, when building a mix, how often do we think of space(s) as its own sonic element?
How to Mix Guitar - 4 Steps for Effective Guitar Mixing
LearningThe world may not revolve around guitar music anymore, but there is still a lot of it out there. Whether you’re working on face melting hardcore or a gentle country ballad, the presentation of the gu…
Sidechained Processors Can Give a Variety of Special Ef… - How to Get the Pumping Drums Effect with Sidechain Compression
LearningSidechaining has been around for years; this is the process of using one signal to control another. A couple classic examples are using a kick drum to gate a bass part, or doing de-essing - isolating…
Identify and remove obstacles that get in the way of gr… - Avoid Common Recording Mistakes
LearningWhy is it so hard to get tracks that kill? Mixes that scream with emotional impact--music that holds up to the work of the masters of our craft?
Tips for Mixing Rap Vocals: Compression - Mixing Rap Vocals - Part 3: Compression
LearningTime for the third installment of the Mixing Rap Vocals series: Compression.
Tips for Mixing Toward Loudness - Mixing Toward Loudness
LearningSome people want their music really loud, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If loudness is part of their aesthetic and the audience likes it, then I say let’s go for it. In order to deliver the mo…