Category Archives for "Gear"
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Softube Harmonics Saturation Processor Plugin
I must admit I’m an old school engineer in that I was brought up trying to avoid distortion at all costs, but that’s not the world we live in today. It’s now pretty common to add texture to a sound by adding distortion and saturation, something that I’ve generally stayed away from in the past. […]
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Using A Cave Impulse For A Truly Natural Sounding Reverb
The world is currently flooded with reverb plugins and just about all of them are usable with a few that are truly fantastic. That said, most are based on the impulse response of either some excellent sounding recording environments, or early hardware reverb gear. What you don’t see much is some truly natural spaces, especially […]
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DIY Subkick Info – Bobby Owsinski’s Music Production Blog
The subkick microphone phenomenon has been with us for a while now and it seems like you won’t find a tracking session without one anymore. It all started due to the burning desire to get more bottom end from the kick drum without having to crank up the low-end EQ. That being said, the trend is […]
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The Bionic Mushroom Could One Day Power The Music World
As musicians and engineers virtually every piece of gear that we use requires power of some sort. From studio outboard gear to effects pedals to the computers we rely on, we’d be dead in the water without a means to power them. And it’s something that we hardly ever think about unless a battery chooses […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Rupert Neve Designs 5211 Two Channel Preamp
Whenever the name “Neve” comes up, an audio person immediately envisions a high quality signal path that’s big and colored in a most pleasing way. The problem is that Neve vintage modules and even many of its clones carry a heavy price tag and tend to provide that one sound, which as great as it […]
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New Music Gear Monday: SSL Fusion Stereo Buss Processor
Ever since mixing went inside the box there’s been a debate over whether outboard hardware processing provides enough of a useful upgrade to the sound of the mix to make it worth the trouble. Outboard gear used for sweeting can include everything from a custom built summing box to individual signal chains for each main […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Guitars by Bobby Owsinski
Take A Rickenbacker Factory Tour
I love the sound of Rickenbacker guitars and I love factory tours, so the following video is pretty awesome (IMO) because it contains both. Rickenbacker is actually a very interesting success story in that the company knows its limitations and does its utmost to stay within them. That means that the demand constantly outstrips the […]
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New Music Gear Monday: AEA KU5A Directional Ribbon Microphone
Most engineers love ribbon microphones for their natural sound and the ability to take EQ. Many wouldn’t use anything else in many recording situations like miking brass, percussion or electric guitar amps. Since modern ribbon mics are no longer as fragile as they once were, they’ve found their way into even more applications than ever, […]
Continue reading- in Computer , Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Eventide SP2016 Reverb Plugin
I remember the first time I used the original Eventide SP2016 reverb back in the mid-80s. There was something about the sound that made it instantly useable. Unlike other reverbs then and now, you didn’t have to fiddle with it to make it work in the track. It just sounded “right.” The hardware 2016 was […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Guitars , Video by Bobby Owsinski
Building A Hofner Beatle Bass
We all know the Hofner 5001 violin bass guitar thanks to Sir Paul McCartney, and if you’ve ever played one you know that it’s a unique instrument. First of all it’s extremely light – kind of the anti-Les Paul in that you can wear it all day and your shoulder won’t get tired. It also has […]
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New Music Gear Monday: SPL Crescendo 8 Channel Microphone Preamp
There are microphone preamps that we use when we need some color, and there are preamps that we use when we need transparency. There are plenty of colored mic pres around and they seem to get the most attention especially when recording most pop-style music, but there are many times when we want the proverbial […]
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Does 50 Years Make A Difference? Comparing A Vintage With A Modern Guitar Amp
Every day we’re presented with a choice – whether to use or buy a vintage piece of gear versus it’s modern equivalent or clone. Most of the time there’s a difference between them, although to many it may be small enough not to matter. In other cases it’s so blatant as to make the modern […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Centrance MixerFace R4 Mobile Recording Interface And Recorder
Like you I see a lot of new products and so many of them I like and can find a use for. There aren’t many that I really get excited about though, which is why the new Centrance MixerFace R4 mobile recording interface and recorder is so unusual. It’s really a cool little piece of […]
Continue reading- in Acoustics , Gear , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Etymotic Research MP9-15 MusicPro Adaptive Electronic Earplugs
If you’re in the business of audio then hopefully you don’t take your hearing for granted and use some sort of hearing protection when around high-SPL situations. I’ve been a huge fan of Etymotic Research ER-20 ETY’s for a long time and have used them with great results. The new ER20XS earplugs updates the original […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Guitars , Production by Bobby Owsinski
The History Of Electric Guitar Distortion
Ah, guitar distortion. It seems like we can’t get enough of it. From the very first time it appeared on records in the 50s, we’ve been hooked. I’ve posed a little about the history of guitar distortion in the past, but the video below takes the history back even further to Bob Willis and his […]
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