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Guitar / Apr 1, 2009 11:15AM
You patch in a piece of audio equipment, and there it is—hum! This annoying, low-pitched sound is typically a tone of around 60Hz (50Hz in Europe and other parts of the world), as well as multiples of that frequency. Hum is caused mainly by ground loops. A ground loop is a closed loop made of two separated pieces of audio equipment each connected to power ground through a three-prong power cord, and also connected to each other through a cable shield. The ground voltage may be slightly different at each piece of equipment, so a signal can flow between components along the cable shield. Other causes of hum can be guitar pickups, cables, and mics that pick up hum fields radiated by power wiring and transformers—especially if the cable shield connection is broken.
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Guitar / Dec 1, 2008 3:40AM
Making music is an art—but selling music is a science. And all too many times, when I’ve asked someone how they plan to market their music, the answer is “Well, I’m going to get 1,000 CDs made, store them in my garage, and . . . uh . . . um . . . you know, like, sell them.”
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Guitar / May 16, 2008 11:20AM
Yes, you can make great demos without taking forever to do it.
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Guitar / Jan 15, 2008 12:50PM
How To Add that Final Polish To Your Mixes.
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Guitar / Oct 10, 2007 11:20AM
For those who remember the days of the cassette-based 4-track, the shiny modern world of the Digital Audio Workstation is a godsend. Whether computer-based or standalone, DAWs have benefited from faster processing, cheaper memory, and competitive pricing — even the average home computer can handle serious recording.
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Guitar / Jul 1, 2007 12:00AM
Pre-production, pre-production, pre-production.
It’s become fashionable to track a lot of different instruments and takes, then cut them all together afterward to form the completed song. This is especially tempting if you have a home studio and aren’t on the clock, but even so, pre-production is extremely important to the end result. If you’re a band, or even just flying solo, it’s often preferable to commit to the arrangement before you ever press “record,” and rehearse the song until you know it cold (better yet, play it live for an audience to gauge their reaction). This gives the musicians a chance to build tension and dynamics as the song progresses, which is more exciting for both musicians and listeners.
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Guitar / Jul 1, 2007 12:00AM
In each of the conferences I host around Latin America, many questions focus on what a “producer” is — which I define as “someone capable of getting a finished product out of raw materials, with your own signature.” But these days, a lot of people are choosing to be their own producers. You’re probably familiar with how to get the raw materials (recording, using loops, sound design for synths, sequencing, etc.), how to add your own accents (processing, clever use of effects, mixing), and also, how to put this all together with affordable tools, without being in a full blown, multi-million dollar studio.
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Guitar / Jun 1, 2007 12:00AM
We all know the importance of acoustical treatment in our studios, but most of the focus for small project studios is on treating the control room. But what about the tracking room? Do the same principles apply there, and what effect does acoustical treatment have on the instruments’ sonic character?
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Guitar / Jun 1, 2007 12:00AM
Yes, once upon a time there were silent films. Scoring a movie meant having an orchestra, or at least a piano player, performing along with the projected picture. Many years later, scoring became easier but then we started mumbling strange acronyms like MMC, SMPTE, MTC, and SPP . . . say what?
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Guitar / Apr 2, 2007 12:00AM
I know our readers crave real world solutions to their day-to-day work. As so much of this issue involves re-discovering how to capture live performance magic in the studio, I thought it would be interesting to have one of the best mastering engineers in Chile describe how he did exactly that when Moby was on tour.