How-To Guides 4
Mix Tips: Cleaning Up the High End
As you may know, the bass frequency area in a mix should be like an exclusive club — only authorized instruments and sounds are allowed in. The reason for this is two-fold: it gives you more headroom to work with in your mix (alleviating some of the pressure from your 2-bus compressor and limiter), and […]
Making Sonic Room in DJ Transitions
In a previous tutorial post, I spoke about three transitions for mixing songs. We are going to take a more in-depth look at making room for tunes in your DJ mix. When I say “making room in your mix,” I mean from a sonic frequency aspect. Imagine you have a container filled with sheets and […]
Directly Mic Your Electric Guitar for Extra Attack
I’ll be honest, putting a mic up on an electric guitar as it is being played is one of the more unusual recording “hacks” I’ve learned about. While owing its roots to the earliest recordings of rock, this trick can help modern guitarists and producers add a bit of dimension and texture to otherwise “ordinary” […]
Mix Tips: Using Slower Attack Times for Compression
Do you like to mix songs to sound huge, loud, and attention-grabbing, even if you have to distort and compress the hell out of them? Well I do. Dynamic range purists and audiophiles, feel free to stop reading here. You’re already using your compressors gently and sparingly, like a French chef uses seasoning. Well done. […]
The Case for the Acoustic Guitar Amplifier
Congratulations, you just bought a brand-spanking new acoustic-electric guitar! You’ve got a gig lined up and can’t wait to show off the amazing tone of this new axe. So you plug in your acoustic to your amplifier and…bleh. Awful, thin, nasally tone emanates from the speaker of your electric amp. A common misconception is that […]
Beat Tools: MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression)
I’m going to ask you to do something today: spare a thought for the old keyboard. Whether at school, in the living room or at a music store, everyone at some point in their life has plopped themselves in front of one and struck a note. Intrinsically, we know how they work. On acoustic pianos […]
Gibson Southern Jumbo Review
The Gibson Southern Jumbo was introduced in 1942 as a more “deluxe” version of the J-45. Of course, the Southern Jumbo has gone through some changes since its introduction in the early 1940s. I got the chance to try Gibson’s 2020 iteration of this classic model for myself. Read below for my thoughts, and listen […]
Comparing iRig Audio Interfaces for Streaming on iOS Devices
It’s easy to “go live” with your iPhone or iPad. But to deliver pro-level audio on your livestream, you’ll need an audio interface that lets you connect microphones, instruments, or the stereo output from your mixer. IK Multimedia makes a variety of iRig audio interfaces that connect directly to the Lightning port on your iOS […]
The LinnDrum: Shaping a Generation and Beyond
The iconic LinnDrum sound revolutionized the way music was made in the 1980s. The ability to have drums-on-demand over 40 years ago was no small feat, not to mention the fact that it shaped the percussive elements and bottom of nearly every song it was used on. How did the LinnDrum come to be, and […]
