How-To Guides 5
Understanding Speaker Sensitivity
When choosing a passive loudspeaker, one of the most important specifications to look for is sensitivity — a measure of the volume output you can expect from the speaker, relative to its input power. Speaker sensitivity reflects the speaker’s ability to efficiently convert power into sound. Why Does Speaker Sensitivity Matter? Sensitivity matters because a […]
A Beginner’s Guide to Tape Music (1944-1970)
From scholarly and avant-garde beginnings to ambient soundscapes of the 21st Century, there is something for virtually every listener and performer to be found in tape music. What we’re discussing here is not just a performance recorded to tape, but compositions, experiments, and live sets using tape as an instrument. The Beginning It would be […]
Cymbal Anatomy Part 6: Alloys
At the cynosure of your cymbal’s tone, the widely discussed, and wildly differentiating: alloy. The alloy is the blend of metals that makes up your cymbal and shapes its sound possibly more than any other factor. Generally speaking, most cymbals are made from any variety of copper-based alloys. I’m just going to go through some […]
Road-Friendly Recording
Build Your Tour Studio As much as you’d like it to be, sometimes a recording studio isn’t always conventional. When you’re on the road for weeks on end and still need to keep track of your ideas, a recording studio can often be a hotel room, green room, laundromat, or the bench seat of a […]
The Denon DJ SC5000 is Changing the Way We DJ
A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t imagine seeing anyone else stepping into the professional media player/CDJ market. That was before Denon stepped up to the plate. The release of the Denon DJ SC5000 and its matching mixer, the Denon DJ X1800 Prime, have flipped the way live DJing can be done. After months of […]
How to Integrate Triggers Into an Acoustic Drum Kit
Ask a drummer what makes the perfect drum kit and they might say “wood, metal, a little plastic and a blanket.” Keep it simple, stupid. But we drummers aren’t as stupid as we look, and we want to stretch the limits of our sonic profile behind the kit! Electronic drum triggers are a great way […]
Important Akai MPC Updates
Lately, Akai has been releasing some incredible updates for the MPC Live and MPC X. There’s been little talk of these updates, but they are truly game changing and I would like to discuss their importance in case you haven’t hit that update button yet. Update 2.3 When I purchased the MPC Live, I was […]
Changing Electronics on a Semi-Hollowbody Guitar
An important idea came up in my previous post about guitar nuts that can be summed up to something like “a good luthier respects the work enough to ask to be paid more for it.” Legendary theme park entrepreneur John Hammond might say “we spared no expense.” Chances are playing and repairing instruments will not […]
Finding the Right DJ Setup for You
Choosing gear that works best for your goals is just as important as learning the basic techniques of DJing. To help get you started, I’ve provided some of my top picks for four different levels and types of DJ. Each pick includes important features that will make the transition between each of these categories seamless. […]
