gear giveaway

Author Archive

Violence plug in – deconstructing the violin

It is really amazing what audio plug ins manufacturers are doing these days to recreate the original sound of acoustic instruments (for a fun article about this, see “The Invasion of the Sound Snatchers” here). Vir2’s Violence is the latest attempt to emulate the sound of a (real) violin through multi-sampling – with some added extras. Even though my personal belief is that no plug in can get even close to the sound a fantastic performer can deliver, this kind of software is extremely useful when what is needed is a quick and great sounding way to add a part to an arrangement – something that sounds realistic enough to be kept in the final mix. Violence also shows promise as a creative tool for original sound design for musicians that are not necessarily interested in a realistic tone. The inspiration for Violence came from the influential American composer John Cage, whose extensive experiments with prepared piano yielded new timbres and effects. According to Vir2, what Cage did on the piano, Violence brings to the violin: an unorthodox approach to a traditional instrument, yielding new textures and sound design elements. Violence combines physical alterations with digital manipulations for a sound […]... Click on the title for more

Violence plug in – deconstructing the violin

Maxon OD-820 Overdrive

The Maxon OD-820’s color—vibrant pea green—announces right off the bat that this pedal is from the same neighborhood as the classic Tube Screamer. But the DNA runs even deeper than that. Maxon pedals come from the same factory that made the original Tube Screamers, which Maxon sometimes built for Ibanez.... Click on the title for more

Maxon OD-820 Overdrive

Octant and the “Unmanned Backup Band”

Octant can be described as a one-man band featuring mainly acoustic robotic musical instruments that back up front man, Matthew Steinke, like a player piano as he sings, shouts, and plays various home brew instrumentation. For the upcoming performance at The Tank (NYC), Octant will perform an initial set of current and old songs ranging from dark melodic melancholy to bursting atomic pop-punk . The second part will include a live soundtrack to a projection of Steinke’s film, “Your Quest for Excellence” , a hypnotic abstract hand-drawn animation inspired by optical illusions and time lapse photography. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).... Click on the title for more

Octant and the “Unmanned Backup Band”

Tube Saturator – Tube Amp Simulation Plugin from Wave Arts

You know how sometimes your amp simulation plugin doesn’t really sound like your awesome tube amp? Even though a lot of software can be pretty cool with options and built-in effects, they sometimes don’t quite get the job done. And then you end up recording your real amp anyway. That happens to me all the time. I think amp modeling has come a long way in the last few years, but there’s still something about tube emulation that hasn’t really quite cut it – until now. Wave Arts just put out a really great tube amp emulator called Tube Saturator ($99.95) that actually cuts the mustard. How did they do it? Without getting crazy technical I’ll just say that they meticulously modeled every nuance of an analog circuit using complicated mathematical equations that are solved on the fly – that is, in real time. The result is a very convincing tube amp sound. Here’s the downside (or the upside, depending on how you look at it) – it’s very simple. It doesn’t model fifty different amps, it only does one model of tube amp and it does it very well. That’s partly because it’s pretty CPU-intensive. Also because of its […]... Click on the title for more

Tube Saturator – Tube Amp Simulation Plugin from Wave Arts

A treat for bass fx fanatics: Q&A with Hank & Cupcakes

Hank and Cupcakes are a NYC duo that plays sweaty and groovy indie pop. If Cupcakes (the girl) provides driven drumming and soulful vocals, Hank’s bass is in charge of everything else – a role that the 4 string instrument rarely takes upon itself. You wouldn’t call Hank’s style “minimalistic”: the man can deliver at once melodic riffs and low frequency lines, mastering left hand dexterity, right hand picking authority, and huge array of filters, flangers and followers to make one of the freshest signature sounds I’ve heard in the bass world. Some bassists will use distortion and call it a signature sound, occasionally turning on a filter for a specific part of a song… Hank seems to dive into filter mode head first for nearly all of his playing, and serve up different shades of filtering – read Benjamin Wigler q&a with Hank here.... Click on the title for more

A treat for bass fx fanatics: Q&A with Hank & Cupcakes

Looping bliss: Akai Headrush E2

My first awareness of looping pedals happened at a rock show back in the ‘90’s. The acclaimed band Don Caballero, an instrumental math rock tour-de-force, had released a new album after losing their second guitarist. Curiosity was high among the indie dweebs pushing to the front at this, their first show as a three piece: how would they pull it all off live with just one guitar? The answer came in the form of not one but two Akai Headrush loop pedals employed by guitarist Ian Williams during the set. At times, the crowd was treated to what sounded like a wall of guitarists thanks to Williams’ pedal arsenal. Other pedals with similar features were already on the scene, but the Headrush had the advantage of simplicity: two switches, an in an out loop option, and 4 outs to simulate tape head echoes. My own musical endeavors had me go through two Headrush pedals in little over a few years. A fantastic little box with two major issues: a weak footswitch assembly and an easily destroyed power supply input. While it does not sport the silver tank look of its predecessor, the Akai Headrush E2 updates these weaknesses and adds […]... Click on the title for more

Looping bliss: Akai Headrush E2

DAW Review: PreSonus’ Studio One + Crossgrade offer

Every now and again, a product sneaks up on the audio public in a way that makes discovering its graces all the more significant. Studio One Pro from PreSonus is one such product. A virtual powerhouse audio editor, Studio One Pro delivers and outshines its competition by leaps and bounds while remaining intuitive, simple and affordable. The timing for this review couldn’t be better. I’d cut all the basic instrumental tracks for my latest record to tape, so without reading or investigation, I installed Studio One Pro with its FireStudio Mobile interface to dump the tracks into hard disc for vocals, overdubs, mixing and mastering. If the DAW wasn’t up to snuff after a day or two, I assumed I could go back to my former well known but frustrating ProTools interface and audio program. Though aversion of the software, Studio One Artist, comes with the FireStudio, I am using Studio One Pro for this review. This version allows VST, Audio Units, and ReWire, as well as video sync and mastering capabilities not found in the Studio One Artist version. – read the entire review here. P.S. PreSonus is currently offering Studio One for $299 for any user cross-grading from […]... Click on the title for more

DAW Review: PreSonus’ Studio One + Crossgrade offer

Mic Review: Shure SM7B, a secret dynamic weapon

Engineers and recording studios have certain favorite pieces of gear that are referred to as “secret weapons.” What’s a “secret weapon,” you ask? It’s an inexpensive, but super high-quality piece of gear that people generally either don’t know about or disregard because of its low price tag. Without a doubt the greatest of the recording industry’s secret weapons is the Shure SM7B. It is a staple in the mic closet of every great studio in the world. For starters, at Clinton Recording Studios we used our SM7B to record vocals for Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Dr. John, and I recently saw a video of Scott Weiland using an SM7B to record vocals on “Big Bang Baby.” I also noticed that SM7B’s are used as vocal mics in the “Live From Abbey Road” series. Obviously, the SM7B is detailed and smooth enough to be used as a top quality vocal mic. But what I find interesting about the SM7B is that it’s a dynamic mic (as opposed to the other two main types of microphones – condenser and ribbon), and dynamic mics are not the usual choice for vocals. For the most part, engineers choose condensers on vocals to get […]... Click on the title for more

Mic Review: Shure SM7B, a secret dynamic weapon

Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy

The classic Electro Harmonix Memory Man series pedals are simply some of the best sounding analog delays ever made. The only problem is that they are HUGE, occupying about a third of the space of an average pedal board!... Click on the title for more

Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy

Upcoming from Tech 21: Red Ripper for Bass

Tech 21 just unveiled a new distortion pedal for bass called Red Ripper, here’s a quick peek at how it sounds + some details about the specks. • All-analog bass distortion with aggressive tones and vintage filter-style effects, • The R.I.P. knob, in conjunction with the drive, can create a range of tones from vintage fuzz to Moog-style synth tones. • Active three-band EQ delivers quality tone shaping options, the added Low Pass Filter switch compensates for full-range bass systems equipped with tweeters. • Hand Built in the US like all Tech 21 pedals.... Click on the title for more

Upcoming from Tech 21: Red Ripper for Bass

Softube’s Trident A-Range Equalizer Plug-in Review

Last night I was working on mastering a song and I was struggling to get the mix brighter without making it harsh – a common dilemma in mastering a track. I’m not a mastering engineer, so this was more of a rough master for the artist to get an idea of the final product. Mastering engineers have all kinds of cool tricks that they use to deal with this stuff, like multiband compression, nice exacting hardware eq’s, etc. But I literally spent about four hours trying to get it right and I just couldn’t push up the high end and carve out the offending frequencies. During one of my ear breaks I was looking around online and I discovered Softube’s new Trident A-Range EQ Plug-in. Holy cows! If you haven’t heard of the Trident A-Range console, let me tell you a little bit. The first Trident A-Range console was made for Trident Studios in England by the legendary tech Malcom Toft. The A-Range console had a revolutionary design and it sounded phenomenal. Once word got out about how this incredible console, Malcom and Co. began producing them for other studios. In total, only thirteen Trident A-Range consoles were ever made, […]... Click on the title for more

Softube’s Trident A-Range Equalizer Plug-in Review

OktavaMod Tube Mic Upgrade Review

So you’re sitting at home recording a vocal track and you think, “Gee, this vocal sounds kind of harsh. And when I try to EQ it, it ends up sounding dull and unnatural. I wonder if it’s this affordable Chinese-made microphone that I’m using that’s causing the problem. Boy, I wish I had a [fill in the blank] microphone, which I can’t afford, to make it sound more balanced.” Now, what if the conversation you had with yourself went like this instead?: “… I wonder if it’s this affordable Chinese-made microphone that I’m using that’s causing the problem. Maybe I should send this mic to OktavaMod to have them modify it to create a killer mic that can hang with the best microphones on the planet!” OktavaMod is a company that offers an aftermarket upgrade service for your cheap Chinese and Russian-made microphones, and they are a hit with top professionals and home recordists alike. Michael Joly, President and Founder of OktavaMod, sent us one of his upgraded large diaphragm tube condenser mics to try out. We shot it out against some of the greatest large diaphragm condensers of all time (including the untouchably expensive vintage Neumann U67 and U47 […]... Click on the title for more

OktavaMod Tube Mic Upgrade Review