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Pedal Review: Pigtronix Fat Drive

In a world where you can’t swing a guitar without knocking 10 Tubescreamer clones off the shelf, new entrants to the oversaturated overdrive market had better have something new to say. Pigtronix’s new Fat Drive (street $140) accomplishes this by exploiting what some might perceive as a weakness in Fender-style guitars—it adds girth to thin-sounding single coil pickups.... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Pigtronix Fat Drive

Production Corner: Fun with Arpeggiators

Arpeggiators are one of the most fun and "ancient" electronic music tools, and consist in editable algorithms that play the notes of a chord following a regular sequenced pattern. Like anything trendy in the 80s, arpeggiators are coming back in the early aughts with a vengeance. If you are not into their mechanical "feel", you can try and use them to build textural background, using more than one of them in different stereo placements, or as random "melody generators", if you slow them down a lot.... Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Fun with Arpeggiators

Level up with these 8 bit guitar pedals

Hearing the term '8 bit audio' probably makes you think of old school arcade games or vintage Nintendo titles, but converting higher quality audio to 8 bits is an effect that can be used to achieve a variety of sounds - including some very cool guitar tones. Reducing the bit depth of a digital audio signal can create sonic artifacts, noise, and distortion that especially affect the overtones of the original audio. While this can certainly produce glitchy, lo-fi, computerized game boy sounds, it can also create crunchy fuzz tones and a wide range of distortion effects. Here's a selection of pedals that use or approximate the sound of 8 bit audio to create their own unique sonic character.... Click on the title for more

Level up with these 8 bit guitar pedals

Pedal video review: Palmer Kaputt Octaver

Our legendary contributor Chris Cannon reviewed the Palmer Kaputt Octaver for us - but he did in in a video - check it out!... Click on the title for more

Pedal video review: Palmer Kaputt Octaver

Famous Guitar Tones: the Twang

In the mid-50s, great guitar innovators like Duane Eddy (pictured) started playing lead riffs drenched in tremolo and echo in the lower registers of the guitar, creating the bass-y sound that since then has become synonymous with “twang.”... Click on the title for more

Famous Guitar Tones: the Twang

Snowmine and the recording process

Like many contemporary Brooklyn based indie rock artists, Snowmine (featured on the cover of the summer 2012 issue of our sister site/publication The Deli) is very interested in the creative possibilities offered by the recording studio, but the results we hear on record showcase a band that masters the production process like few others. We took the time to ask them a few questions about their recording habits. - Read Paolo De Gregorio's Q&A with Snowmine here.... Click on the title for more

Snowmine and the recording process

Pedal Review: VFE Distortion3

The VFE Distortion3 houses three classic low-to-medium gain distortions in one small tweakable enclosure. enclosure. This pedal simulates the MXR Distortion+ made famous by Randie Rhoads as well as the DOD 250 and MXR MicroAmp. While all of these classic 70’s and 80’s pedals have the same basic circuit, the Distortion3 allows the user to toggle... ... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: VFE Distortion3

Pedal Review: TC Electronic Spark Booster

At first glance the TC Electronic Spark Booster looks like it may function as a very vanilla clean boost pedal. Fortunately TC put some bells and whistles into this pedal that make it really fun to play and especially fun to record with. I tested it out while recording an artist that I work with named Jordan Cooper while tracking guitars for his upcoming full length album at The Buddy Project Recording Studio. ... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: TC Electronic Spark Booster

Production Corner: Pop Structure and Bridges

Pop music is a little bit like classic art: it’s all about balance. If Pop had existed at the time of the ancient Greeks, it would have been Apollo’s music — he was the god of the Sun, harmony, order and reason. ... Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Pop Structure and Bridges

Review: Audio Source Multiwave Bass Distortion

Some digital innovation brought to us today from the fine folks at Source Audio with the Soundblox 2 Multiwave Bass Distortion. The bass guitar can be one of the trickiest instruments to record. This may be because of several factors, but one of the more common reasons is that low-end instruments like the bass guitar sit in a very awkward place in the frequency spectrum. The low end is said to be one of the hardest areas to get tight in a mix: things tend to get muddy and lethargic in a hurry down there. Throw some distortion into the mix and you've just made things a bit harder. ... Click on the title for more

Review: Audio Source Multiwave Bass Distortion

News from Summer NAMM 2012

Nashville's Summer NAMM is not the "beast" of a convention its wintry LA sister is, but it's still a great opportunity for manufacturers to showcase their latest products. Of course we were mostly interested in guitar related gear, and we weren't one bit disappointed. See our full article here.... Click on the title for more

News from Summer NAMM 2012

Recording Group Vocals & Hand Claps

Since the turn of the millennium the indie scene has rediscovered the sonic and percussive possibilities of the human voice and body — choral and a Capella parts are back in fashion, together with hand claps, finger snaps, foot stomping etc etc. ... Click on the title for more

Recording Group Vocals & Hand Claps