The Pop Filter is as effective as it is innocuous-looking, and has improved billions of recordings… Despite the very best of design intentions, there always seems to be a set of circumstances whereby equipment is unable to work well. Whether we’re talking about a set of tyres in snow, or a phone screen that’s difficult… Read More
Like all technology, audio editing software is packed with jargon – here’s what the most common functions do… When first using the audio editing features of common DAW software (like Sonar or Cubase), the terminology used can be a bit confusing. As a musician, all you want to do is get the ideas in your… Read More
They’re everywhere you look in the music software world, but what is a plug-in? The technology now available to the home producer for relatively modest sums of money is pretty astonishing these days. But, with great music tech sophistication and power, comes great responsibility…. Okay, that last bit is a lie, but it does come… Read More
MIDI Editing in Ableton 9 was given a bevy of new features – here’s how some of them work… Ableton Live was originally designed to be a live performance tool, based around the use of audio clips. It did this (and continues to do this…) very successfully, with an audio engine that is revered for… Read More
In Dance music production, the use of pump compression is now widespread- here’s how it’s done… Abuse of musical gear (i.e. using it in ways it wasn’t intended) has underpinned nearly every modern musical movement. Rock was born out of players overdriving their amps, Jazz players constantly pushed to find ways of squeezing new sounds… Read More
It’s probably the most commonly used effect of all, but just what is reverb? If you’re a producer, home recordist or guitarist, you’ll no doubt have used reverb effects at some point. If you haven’t, you’ll almost certainly be aware of what it sounds like. Reverb (short for reverberation) is one of the oldest of… Read More
Audio to MIDI in Ableton makes creating a track from nothing but a guitar and random stuff easy and fun When version 9 of Ableton was announced, one of the features that caught the attention of most users was the new audio to MIDI functionality. The idea of audio to MIDI is not entirely new-… Read More
Baffled over the enormous range and variety of microphones for home recording? Here’s a guide to some of the best Over the past 10 years, the number of microphones available for home recording use has expanded exponentially. And, rather more importantly, the more affordable end of the market has vastly increased in quality, whilst falling… Read More
Here’s a great Sonar and Roland Offer – buy any Roland interface, controller or synth, get Sonar X2 Studio for £59! When equipping a home studio to record, the number of bits and pieces that are needed can seem to mount. Controller keyboards, interfaces, and the bit that often gets overlooked, Software, are all essential… Read More
In the world of sound, Shure Microphones are seemingly everywhere… Once upon a time, in a land long ago, live microphones were a notoriously fickle, and fragile bunch. Loud noises could send them squealing with feedback. And if you dropped them? Well, it often wouldn’t end well… Then, in 1966, it all changed. A microphone… Read More
