Neon Vines’ Music Gear Picks
Multi-instrumentalist Neon Vines climbed into the electronic music production scene in early 2018, poised to outgrow her singer-songwriter roots. In just a few short months, she began to amass a dedicated fanbase on YouTube and Instagram — and an ever-expanding collection of high-tech music-making tools like the ROLI Seaboard, Ableton Push, and Akai MPC X. […]
The Shure SM58: From Flop to Top
It may have been your first mic, or it may be the one you’ll use at the gig tonight — either way, this mic set the standard for nearly every microphone built in the last 50 years. Shure’s SM58 leads the way in the live sound microphone world thanks to years of refinement and development […]
Fender Tone Master Amps: The Cutting Edge of Timeless Tone
If Fender’s new Tone Master Twin and Deluxe Reverb amps only sounded exactly like their tube counterparts, it wouldn’t be enough. That’s because Fender engineers designed these amps to behave exactly the same, too. Three years of hard work designing, programming and engineering has resulted in two amps with circuit topologies that replicate the same […]
Fender Pedals: Behind The Design
At this year’s Summer NAMM show, Stan Cotey, Fender’s Vice President of Product Development, looked at 21 pedals lined up in a neat row inside the Fender booth and smiled. None of these existed about 20 months prior, and designing them was a labor of love. Fender wanted a new line of pedals that set […]
Beat Tools: Generative Music Software for iOS
Where were we before? First, I covered what “generative music” is, and its origins. Then, I wrote of taking generative music out of the sphere of pen-and-staff-paper and into the world of software — and pointed you toward the desktop-computer-based software that can help you add computer-generated compositions into your creative space. Today, we go […]
The Evolution of Drum Sets: The Early Years
Just like humans, the drum kit has evolved over the years. And just like humans, drum kits have made their biggest strides in technology and refinements in the last century. The modern drum kit has only been around for about 100 years, but humans have been drumming forever, so why have the last 100 years […]
Why DJs Are Choosing Rekordbox
DJs who perform live are constantly making choices. Which song to play next? What feeling do I need to create right now? Is the crowd ready to build energy, or take things down a notch? And unless you’re an all-vinyl purist, one of those choices is which digital DJ platform to use for performing and […]
Talking Shop: Albums We’ve Been Digging
We’re deep into the dog days of summer, and one thing that always helps beat the heat is great music. We asked zZounds staffers to share an album they’ve been into lately, and we’ve compiled the results into this Talking Shop piece. Check out their picks below, and share yours in the comments below! Crumb […]
Bass Guitar Recording Methods to Enhance Your Tracks
What do you throw a drowning bassist?…their case. Just kidding! Let’s be real and acknowledge that the bass guitar plays an incredibly crucial role in our music today. A lot of popular music is driven by the bass. So if a bass track isn’t recorded well, it can really hurt the excitement of a recording. […]
