Category Archives for "Gear"
- in Gear by Bobby Owsinski
Trouble With A Guitar Center Extended Warranty? You May Not Be Alone
We’ve all heard the pros and cons of extended warranties for everything from appliances to autos, and they’re certainly worthwhile for some and worthless for others. When it comes to musical instruments and audio gear, the manufacturer almost always offers some warranty, while the retailer might offer a third party policy for an additional extended […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Kush Audio REDDI Tube DI Plugin
Anyone who’s spent a lot of time recording knows that the type of DI used on a bass really matters. Use a cheap one and the bass will sound thin and dull; use one with a transformer and the bottom will be big and round, and use one with a tube and there’s a magic […]
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5 Beatles Guitars That You Forgot
There have been entire books written about the guitars and basses that The Beatles played both live and in recording, and well they should, since their sounds have influenced guitar players even to this day. While we’re all familiar with the iconic Hofner, Rickenbacker, Gretsches and Epiphones that the band played during their prime, there […]
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A Look At The Decca Tree Stereo Recording Technique
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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Klevgrand Brusfri Noise Reducer Plugin
We’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 […]
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Beware: Alexa And Siri Can Hear Inaudible Commands
Just 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 […]
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Will Live Looping Become The New Rage In Performing?
For 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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Roadie Automatic Guitar Tuner
Whether 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 […]
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The Reason Why Stradivarius Violins Are Worth Millions
I 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, […]
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New Music Gear Monday: TC Electronic Aeon Guitar String Sustainer
Since 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 […]
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When American Guitars Were Outlawed In England
Considering 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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Radial Engineering Backtrack Audio Switcher
When 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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Focal Clear Professional Headphones
If 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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Audified RecALL Quick Recorder
Having 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 reading- in Book Excerpt , Gear , Microphones by Bobby Owsinski
David Bock Talks Differences Between Vintage And Modern Microphones
After 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, […]
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