studio

Most musicians who are able to crank out quality recordings spent some time trying to find the best studio for their needs (and budget). If you're ready to hit the recording booth but aren't sure what to look for in a studio, there are some things to know before you invest your time and hard in money on just any location. Below are some of the factors you need to take into consideration before you choose a studio.     Continue reading →

The name closed-back and open-back are used to refer to the casing in which the earpieces of the headphones are located. In the former, the headphone cups have a hard enclosure, while in the latter, the backs of the headphones are left open. While they offer similar degrees of quality, they differ in certain areas. Below, we list the major differences as well as their potential use in the studio.   Continue reading →

[caption id="attachment_2573" align="alignright" width="300"] TASCAM DP-03SD 8 Channel Multi-Track Recorder @ $279.99[/caption] Today’s audio interfaces and music creation software can work with a good selection of bit depths and sampling rates so for those who are not familiar with how they work, it can be downright confusing selecting which to use in a recording. The key device used in digital recording is called an Analog to Digital Converter – or ADC. The ADC is responsible for taking the electrical voltage of an audio line and converting it to a digital number than can be understood by a computer. By capturing a snapshot of the voltage thousands of times per second, you can get a very good recreation of the original audio signal. Continue reading →

[caption id="attachment_1314" align="alignright" width="300"] Double tracking is essentially exactly what it sounds like -- recording the same part twice and panning each out to opposite sides.[/caption] A normal complaint with many guitarists and home studio musicians trying to record that old six-string is that often times the guitar parts are just not as big as they’d hoped for. And what exactly is a big guitar sound anyway? Is it something so prominent that it stands out above the rest of the mix? Maybe it’s something that most people will hear as full? The way to achieve that big sound is by way of double tracking. Even if you’re not one of those people aiming for something “big,” double tracking in a studio setting is a widely used technique that has been around since pretty much the beginning of the professional recording studio. Producers working with traditional “big bands” or full orchestras would regularly double up on the horn section in order to give it a much more complete feel. Pop artists such as the Beatles used it time and time again on not just their instruments but their vocals as well.   Continue reading →

 A soldering Pencil helps keep the repair man away... from your money. A lot of you out there probably know then basics of what it takes to create your own home studio setup. You will obviously need some sort of way to record the instruments, a digital audio workstation for mixing and mastering, amps, cables, speakers and all of that...