Category Archives for "Gear"
Live sound engineers have struggled with the variance in venues ever since the beginning of the discipline. Whether a sports arena, a roadhouse stage, or a house of worship, every space presents its own unique challenges when it comes to sound engineering and speaker placement. And while there are some great analysis tools available, none have […]
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For about a hundred years loudspeaker technology has worked pretty much the same way. An electronic signal is changed into mechanical energy thanks to a magnet and moving coil attached to usually a paper diaphragm, which then moves the air. Sure, there have been other tries at transmitting sound through the air, like electrostatic and […]
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If you weren’t able to attend the 2019 Winter NAMM this year, undoubtedly you’re going to read a number of reviews that will be long on new gear. As usual I’m not going to give you much of that because it’s been covered to death and probably in much better depth than what I could […]
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Have you ever had a great music idea but either didn’t have your gear available, or it took too long to get it set up before the idea disappeared? Yeah, me too. That’s a big part of modern recording technology in that there’s a lot involved with actually getting to the point where you’re recording. […]
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I’ve posted here a lot in the past about music made by various robots. Some of it was pretty good, some of it was marginal, but all of it was amazing in terms of the programming required. Same goes for artificial intelligence – there are some results that are totally acceptable in certain situations and […]
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I know many hitmaker mixers who refrain from using reverb on a mix, preferring delay instead to provide all the ambience they need for the track. As a result, they’re always using a wide variety of delay plugins to achieve different effects. That all may be possible now with just a single plugin – the […]
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Grammy-winning engineer Sylvia Massy is on a quest to write the ultimate book on microphones, and it’s taken her all around the world to find both historical artifacts on microphone design and the designers themselves. One stop was to the famed Abbey Road Studios for a look at their totally unique collection of mics. In […]
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If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that the last thing the audio world needs is another vintage mic clone. There are already so many good ones available at some great prices. That said, Warm Audio has a way with vintage gear copies that seems to capture the essence of the product that many boutique […]
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We could all use a little bit of shopping help when it comes to buying Christmas gifts for the people around us in the music and recording business. If you’re in a quandary about what to buy, you’re in luck as I have a list of recommendations that covers a wide variety of items and price […]
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Gibson is making news again, although not all for the negative reasons of the past. First of all, the company announced that it will be moving its Memphis manufacturing back to Nashville, and that the company will return to the upcoming NAMM show after a very obvious absence last year. When the company announced that […]
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Choosing a set of monitors is a subject that I’ve gotten a lot of questions about lately, and it’s also something that I’m experiencing myself. I posted this before but it’s a good time for it again. It’s surprising that so many monitors speakers are purchased just from a review or word of mouth, since they’re […]
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Really good standalone microphone preamps are expensive, as well they should be. There’s a lot more that goes into a great design than meets the eye, and for quite some time the price on most premium models has hovered between $800 and $1,200 or so per channel. That’s why the Daking Mic Pre II is […]
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When it comes to Apple products I have one of each category from most of the production line. From iPhone to iPad to Macbook Pro to iMac, most of my personal and professional needs are covered. That said, I’ve dabbled in doing serious music on my iPhone and iPad and I could never quite get […]
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Cubase is a DAW that seems like it’s been around forever and has perhaps the largest paid user base of any platform. One of the reasons for its popularity is that Steinberg developers continue to update it on a regular basis with features that are usually a step ahead of the competition. True to form, […]
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While the typical guitar player of yesterday couldn’t wait to join a band, that’s not so much the goal of the guitar player of today according to the latest study by Fender. The consumer research done by the company actually indicates the guitar market is finally looking up after many years of decline, but maybe not […]
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