How-To Guides 5
Native Instruments Noire: Set the Mood
A good piano is a must-have for any serious recording space. Whether you are a bedroom producer, studio engineer, or classical musician, just about everyone is searching for the perfect piano tone and value. While there is no “one piano to rule them all,” sometimes there are diamonds that really make a mark on the […]
Drum Workshop: The Beginnings of a Great American Brand
Drum Workshop has been an elite, American-made drum and hardware brand for over 50 years. Their artist roster reflects the high-quality approach they take to their kits, and their time in business is a testament to that fact. But before handcrafted DW drum kits began flying off the line, their sole focus was on drum […]
They’ve Gone Mini! Fishman AFX Pedals Are Back and Smaller Than Ever.
The Fishman AFX line was originally founded on preserving acoustic tone while offering a host of effects and utility to the players using them. Even today, they still carry a cult-like following among players looking to build out a pedalboard with limited options in the acoustic space. Now, Fishman is bringing back their line of […]
TASCAM Portacapture X6: TikTok Audio Hack
Any independent musician in this day and age knows how important social media is. Love it or hate it, the apps are the best way to get your name out there and your talent noticed. It is no surprise that TikTok has taken the world by storm with its massive user base, intelligent algorithm, and […]
Fender Tone Master Princeton vs Tube Princeton
When the Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb was announced, I was pretty intrigued. I’ve played my ’65 Princeton Reverb for a long time now, and it has become one of my favorite guitar amp designs of all time. Nothing on my amp has been modified, so I thought it would be fun to compare the […]
A Full-Stack of Overdriven Marshall Amp Tone in a Pedal?
Marshall’s history of designing guitar pedals dates back to the late 1960s. But in the late ’80s, music was changing, and the need for a dimed-out Marshall distortion tone was higher than ever. Enter the Mark 1 series of Marshall distortion pedals. Within this original lineup, two pedals in particular — the DriveMaster and ShredMaster […]
ASM Hydrasynth Explorer: A Film Score at Your Fingertips
Compact synths are becoming more powerful by the day, and what you can do with a desktop hybrid synth today is astounding! The ASM Hydrasynth is one particular specimen that has been proving this rule over the last few years. After that original model’s release, Ashun Sound Machines had an epiphany: they thought “this…but smaller!” […]
Why You Should Add a PRS HDRX 20 to Your Arsenal
As someone who plays vintage reissue Fender amps, the PRS HDRX 20 was a bit of a different beast at a first glance. After some fiddling with all the controls on their own, I started to figured out where my preferred sweet spots were. Pushing this amp into preamp saturation as well as power tube […]
How Motown Made It Work: Drum Recording
All eras of music teach us lessons about recording, playing, and mixing. When it comes to tracking a drum kit, something changed in the 1950s and early ’60s in Detroit, where the Motown sound was born. Modern recording has migrated from the expensive studio spaces of the past into basements, garages, and bedrooms all over […]
