gear giveaway

Recording Advice

Production Corner: Experimenting with Effect Plug-Ins

Audio Plug In effects give musicians with experimental tendencies a lot of options to play with. Here are a few cool ways to create some original sonics. EVER CHANGING BACKGROUNDS (OR DRUMS) (pictured): Create three or four radically different effect buses featuring several plug ins as inserts, and using your DAW’s…Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Experimenting with Effect Plug-Ins

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…Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Fun with Arpeggiators

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.” Tremolo, a regular change in volume which can be varied in speed…Click on the title for more

Famous Guitar Tones: the Twang

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. "Structure" is what gives a song its balance.…Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Pop Structure and Bridges

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. When recording a group of people you may…Click on the title for more

Recording Group Vocals & Hand Claps

Production Corner – the “Old Telephone” Effect

The “vintage telephone effect” on vocals has been in vogue, in particular in lo-fi and electronic music, since Beck’s debut album came out in 1994. Although the market is saturated with “lo-fi” plug ins, all you need to recreate this trick is some EQ, compression and distortion. Compress the vocal…Click on the title for more

Production Corner – the “Old Telephone” Effect

Secrets of Mixing: Reverb on slower songs

The sparse arrangements that fit slower songs provide mixing engineers the opportunity to create a perception of space through the use of reverb effects. Reverb, in a mix, allows “placement” of each instrument in a sonic space. But a “realistic” use of reverb is quite tricky to get right. Realistic…Click on the title for more

Secrets of Mixing: Reverb on slower songs

The Secrets of a perfect Surf Guitar Tone

Surf Rock experienced a Renaissance in the last few years, influencing a wave of new indie artists. The ultimate surf guitar tone has several elements: a guitar, the amplifier, reverb, tremolo, and vibrato, but the sound starts with the guitar itself. A Fender Stratocaster, Jaguar (pictured) or Jazzmaster would be…Click on the title for more

The Secrets of a perfect Surf Guitar Tone

The Secrets of Recording Great Vocals

Recording vocals might not seem like the most challenging of tasks when producing a CD, but this delicate and crucial process often ends up being quite draining and taking longer than expected. Producer Larry Hammel, who has just finished shooting some instructive videos focused on this topic, has agreed to share some of…Click on the title for more

The Secrets of Recording Great Vocals

Choosing the right Recording Studio

To the aspiring rock-star who is blissfully unfamiliar with the recording studio, music is undoubtedly a lot of fun – until the idea of recording materializes. This natural transition from a general and “liquid” perception of a live sound to a “solid” and set in stone recording often proves to…Click on the title for more

Choosing the right Recording Studio