Category Archives for "Gear"
Even if you never intend to record an ensemble larger than a standard rock, pop, or jazz rhythm section, a good grasp on the many techniques for stereo recording is essential and will come in handy sooner or later. One basic stereo technique is the spaced-pair, which is two identical mics placed several feet apart and […]
Continue readingWe’ve all had those situations where we’ve had to record a noisy electric guitar or keyboard, or just found the background noise on a track too much to handle. Sure, sometimes the noise gets covered in the mix, but it’s also cumulative, so 4 or 5 noisy tracks can really muddy up a mix. There […]
Continue readingJust about everyone has a smart phone these days, and more and more households are purchasing smart speakers. While some love the convenience of voice commands that these smart devices respond to, it does open up a security hole that only now the general public is becoming aware of. It turns out that both Alexa […]
Continue readingFor the longest time musicians, artists, engineers and producers were used to slaving over songs for long periods of time in the studio. Creation took time, and it went from the more or less 3 hour sessions of the 50s and 60s to the months and even years of the 1990s and 2000s. Thankfully, the […]
Continue readingWhether you’re a guitar or bass player or someone that records them, the one thing that you must deal with almost on a minute by minute basis is tuning. With the proliferation of inexpensive clip-on tuners like the Snark, tuning is less of a problem than ever, but there’s still the manual factor involved where […]
Continue readingI think most of us that play a stringed instrument love instruments of all types, but given a choice, will always pick a vintage instrument over a new one. While it’s true that new instruments are generally better in build quality than old ones in terms of consistency thanks to new computer controlled routing machines, […]
Continue readingSince the mid-1970’s, if you wanted an electric guitar string to sustain forever you turned to an Ebow, the ingenious handheld device that virtually every major artist has used on a recording at some point (case in point, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia bought the very first one). If you wanted that sound, the Ebow […]
Continue readingConsidering the giant influence that British music had on America in the 1960s and 70s, it’s hard to believe that there was a time when American instruments were banned by the British government. This forced English musicians to use a wide range of other Euro-based guitars and somewhat explains why many of our guitar heros […]
Continue readingWhen you need a box to do something that no one has thought of yet, you can be sure it will be soon available from the clever boffins at Radial Engineering. In this case, with backing tracks becoming such a big part of many artist’s live performances, adding a separate mixer onstage just for that […]
Continue readingIf you’re like me then you’re always on the lookout for the ultimate set of headphones. I have about a dozen, all of which I like for one reason or another, and I find myself mixing and matching to the situation. I’d like to trade them all in for one good pair that I could […]
Continue readingHaving your preferred DAW in your studio is never a problem time-wise because we usually have enough time to use it. Song to song setup takes a few minutes, but usually isn’t a problem even in the most time-compressed situations. Setup for recording a live gig is a lot more intense though, since time is […]
Continue readingAfter maintenance stints at such prestigious facilities as the Hit Factory in New York City and Ocean Way in Hollywood, Bock Audio Designs (formerly Soundelux) founder and managing director David Bock went from repairing vintage microphones to manufacturing them. David now utilizes his expertise to produce updated versions of the studio classics 251, U 47, […]
Continue readingFor a good part of the analog audio hardware years of the 80s and 90s, the TC Electronic TC-2290 delay was a standard in every studio. It offered excellent quality delays coupled with some amazing modulation effects to take it leaps and bounds beyond anything else on the market at the time. Since we’ve hit the […]
Continue readingCondenser microphones are fraught with fallacies that often lead to misuse and poor results thanks to unreasonable expectations. This excerpt from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook looks at 5 popular misconceptions about condenser microphones, along with why the real reason might not be what you think. 1. A large-diaphragm condenser has more low […]
Continue readingRupert Neve has a sterling reputation for great sounding audio, and we all want to have at least some of his gear in our audio toolbox. That being said, the one thing that Rupert’s latest company, Rupert Neve Designs, has never offered is an audio interface. Now Steinberg has teamed up with RND to create […]
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