//

gear giveaway

Author Archive

Mixing Electro Tracks: Ducking

Purely electronic music (dance in particular) is quite a different beast to mix compared to its electric and acoustic cousins. The lack of uneven “human factors” in the instrumental tracks makes the use of regular compression less crucial, while effects like filters, delays and... whatever’s weird, garner the front stage, together with kick and bass!... Click on the title for more

Mixing Electro Tracks: Ducking

Secrets of Mixing: A/Bing

The easiest and quickest way to learn anything is by watching the pros in action. As far as mixing is concerned, we might not be able to be present in the studio with the best mixing engineers while they work, but we all have access to... their final mixes!... Click on the title for more

Secrets of Mixing: A/Bing

Sonic Youth’s Pedal and Equipment Archive

Sonic Youth is a band that like no other brought innovation to the sound of indie rock – particularly in the guitar tones and playing style departments. But unlike many contemporary Lo-Fi, noise rock bands, Thurston Moore and co. always devoted a lot of resources to researching the sonic possibilities offered by different guitars, amps and pedal effects. So much so, that over their tri-decennial career, they slowly accumulated an incredible equipment arsenal.... Click on the title for more

Sonic Youth’s Pedal and Equipment Archive

Production ideas – replacing snare reverb with gated stereo samples

Many contemporary bands thrive on the creation of new sounds and textures. Here’s a cool idea that’s also CPU friendly – since it implies using samples instead of computer-power-hungry reverb plug-ins.... Click on the title for more

Production ideas – replacing snare reverb with gated stereo samples

Why do mixes sound different on different sound systems or even rooms?

Mixing - an art which takes years to learn and a lifetime to refine - can be a frustrating experience, in particular when there are many tracks to deal with. The most infuriating thing about it is that our mixes sound completely different through different sound systems, and often not in a good way. Beside poor recording and mixing techniques, what causes these dramatic differences is often due to the fact that, in these times of home recording madness, most musicians mix their songs in environments that are somewhat flawed, and with equipment either cheap or badly set up - or both.... Click on the title for more

Why do mixes sound different on different sound systems or even rooms?

Transient Shapers for An Explosive Drum Sound

While all elements in a recording conjure up to create a great sounding track, drums are a particularly important instrument for non lo-fi, punchy rock music, which requires particularly explosive kicks, snares and toms. Great drummers playing great drums in great sounding rooms, and vintage compressors like the UREI 1176 and the Neve 33609 have been not so secret drum weapons for the longest time, but in the last few years a new kind dynamic processor, called Transient (or Signal) Shaper (or Modeler), has become crucial in morphing the modern drum sound.... Click on the title for more

Transient Shapers for An Explosive Drum Sound

Recording Tips: Acoustic Guitar as a Resonant Microphone

To make the music production process more creative and interesting, it's always good to try and record your tracks in ways that are not entirely ordinary. One way to add a new, intriguing layer to any loud instruments (like amped electric guitars or drums or even horns) is to use the pickup of an acoustic guitar as a microphone – and no, you don’t need to take it apart.... Click on the title for more

Recording Tips: Acoustic Guitar as a Resonant Microphone

DIY recording tips: Micing The Snare

No other drum sound conveys as much character to a rock song as the snare (although the kick is a close second). Recording a snare drum is not hard, but getting the right sound is a challenge that might take longer than expected. Here are some tips that can help you get the snare tone you are looking for:... Click on the title for more

DIY recording tips: Micing The Snare

Backwords and the Recording Process

Our friends at The Deli NYC are big fans Backwords' chilled and poli-instrumental approach to psych-folk-pop, and we also appreciate their not too lo-fi recordings (we feel like this "ultra-lo-fi" thing is getting a little out of hand here in NYC... it's time to make things sound decent!). Mixing old timey music with gentle psychedelic pop influences reminiscent of Flaming Lips and Grandaddy, this band creates soothing musing - but weirdly so, in a lo key, unassuming, almost bucolic kind of way. We asked them our usual questions about recording.... Click on the title for more

Backwords and the Recording Process

Foxygen and the Recording Process

A bit of advice: If you've just listened to the first track off Foxygen's debut LP 'Take The Kids Off Broadway' and are a bit puzzled, don't worry! That's just the band shifting your brain cells around to prepare you for what comes next. 'Make it Known' makes Ariel Pink's 'Hold On' sound halfhearted... hell, this song could be our new anthem if we're not careful. But that's probably not what they had in mind. A lot of this duo's music feels entirely off the cuff, even while sounding like a lot of time was spent on these tracks. Occupying that historical space somewhere between hippie psychedelia like 13th Floor Elevators, and glam rock like Roxy Music, it's hard to tell what era this music exists in. Frankly, this is a band that can't seem to make up their mind about much of anything, and it's probably for the best. The twin vocals of songwriting team Sam France and Jonathan Rado seem to switch genre entirely mid-verse or mid-hook, going from a tumult of horns and organs to jangly guitar and back again. Leader-of-the-pack motorcycle rock n' roll gives way to Shirelles fanfare and Beach Boy anthem, all fronted by something close to Mick Jagger... it's retrolicious, through and through. If all this sounds looney tunes, well... it kinda is. But maybe I'm just being old-fashioned. As Foxygen says themselves: "How could I love someone if I'm not willing to change?" Bedroom production aside, this is the clearest representation of something new I've heard in quite some time.... Click on the title for more

Foxygen and the Recording Process

Conveyor and the Recording Process

Brooklyn’s Conveyor presents an intriguing blend of styles and influences on their sonic palette. Combining the percussion of afropop with moody electronics and rhythmic patterned vocal placement, their sound is bouncy and creative. Many of the songs are the result of a collaborative writing process, giving the defined sections an air of intricacy. Time signatures that break out of the 4/4 mold suggest artists not content to rely on the safety of familiar patterns. The band releases their debut full-length album on Paper Garden Records.... Click on the title for more

Conveyor and the Recording Process

People Get Ready and the Recording Process

People Get Ready is a perfect example of what can happen when vastly different personalities come together and become something greater than their sum. James Rickman writes many of the band's guitar parts and writes equally well on many of New York's art house musicians (Playback), while co-conspirator Steven Reker moonlights as a professional dancer for several artists (including David Byrne), and that's just what two members of the quartet are up to. No matter… together the band becomes something entirely different. Referring to themselves as interdisciplinary, you're just as likely to find physical acrobatics and light shows at their gigs as you are to find a schizophrenic jungle of sounds tangled together in a loosely defined version of Afrobeat(y) groove music, complete with sugary harmonies supplied by keyboardist/singer Jen Goma and Reker, and wake-the-dead drumlines supplied by Luke Fasano. ... Click on the title for more

People Get Ready and the Recording Process