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Recording Advice

Pedal Tricks: The Shimmer Effect

"Shimmer" is a word that has become somewhat trendy in the stompbox realm, with many new stompboxes claiming to be able to reproduce the "shimmering effect." This effect, made famous by U2's The Edge, creates an ethereal string-like reverb under your guitar's regular signal and it's actually something that can…... Click for more

Pedal Tricks: The Shimmer Effect

A brief history of Lo-Fi music and DIY recordings

DIY is a word that goes hand in hand with rock music. Read Delicious Audio's brief history of Lo-Fi music.... Click for more

A brief history of Lo-Fi music and DIY recordings

Know Your Filters: Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass, Resonance.

Electronic music wouldn't sound much different from its electric sister if filters hadn't been invented. A filter is a frequency amplifier (or "tamer") device, i.e. an effect that operates on the frequencies of a sound - it can boost them, cut them or mute them, but it can't create ones…... Click for more

Know Your Filters: Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass, Resonance.

Recording Tips: Editing Live Drums

The average indie musician is way sloppier than - say - folk or metal ones, and although music fans into genres like lo fi and garage rock can cope with drumming that's not tight, it's not a good idea to have drums too out of time even on the most lo-fi of…... Click for more

Recording Tips: Editing Live Drums

The Old-Timey Single Mic Technique

If you are into folk music, you may have noticed that more and more revival country bands share just one microphone on stage - we witnessed that ourselves when Spirit Family Reunion (pictured) played our NYC B.E.A.F. at Brooklyn Bowl last June. This is an old-fashioned technique that still works…... Click for more

The Old-Timey Single Mic Technique

5 Tips to Buying a Used or Vintage Acoustic Guitar

Used and vintage acoustic guitars can be your best friend or worst enemy. Obviously nothing is more important than how the guitar sounds and feels in your hands, but here are a few tips to make sure the guitar is in good structural shape. Bridge and Saddle - The first…... Click for more

5 Tips to Buying a Used or Vintage Acoustic Guitar

Human Factor in Electronic Drum Loops

My feeling as a music producer is that in Electronic Music today there is WAAAY too much to-the-beat quantization. For the uninitiated, “quantizing” is the process of aligning the hits of a musical phrase to the song tempo and its subdivisions (quarters, eights of a note etc). Sure, there are…... Click for more

Human Factor in Electronic Drum Loops

Secrets of Mixing: Reverb – Space as Third Dimension

If EQ and pan are the most useful tools to create an “open” mix where instruments don’t step on each other’s frequency or placement in the stereo field, a mix wouldn't sound alive without the use of more subtle depth related effects and techniques. Effects like reverb and echo emulate…... Click for more

Secrets of Mixing: Reverb – Space as Third Dimension

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,…... Click 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! During…... Click for more

Secrets of Mixing: A/Bing

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. With the help of a simple noise gate, a stereo enhancer plug-in, and a virtual sampler (like Drumagog or any of the…... Click 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…... Click for more

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