On vacation without your DAW computer you can’t really work on your mixes or recorded songs. You can, however, work on songwriting. I have an acoustic guitar where I am, so I can noodle around creating new riffs. I don’t have a drumkit though. And honestly, not being a drummer I’m not sure it would […]
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I have never had any problems speaking in front of a crowd. I’ve been a teacher and held classes for paying students with high demands. I’ve done impro in front of spectators without breaking a sweat (OK, maybe a little sweat). So why is it that I get nervous playing guitar with an audience? Every […]
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There are numerous sites for backtracks (like http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com and http://guitarbt.com), i.e. songs with no guitar tracks that allow you to jam over them yourself or make a cover of a known song. The best backtracks are originals with all other tracks, even vocals. These are quite hard to come by as no artists (at least […]
Read more Now that we know there’s a way to emulate monitor output in rooms when mixing, wouldn’t it be cool if you could add room simulation to the cabinet or cabinet simulation you are using? Well, you can – using impulse responses. An impulse response is the recording of a special kind of sound – a […]
Read moreTo make a song as a bedroom guitarist you need someone to play the other instruments, you know the ones us guitarists don’t care so much about: bass and drums. For drums there are excellent VST plugs, foremost the Swedish Drumkit from Hell (which I use myself) and it’s big brother Superior Drummer. There are […]
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On the site Ultimate Metal there’s a forum dedicated to one the metal world’s great producers, Andy Sneap, who has produced Nevermore, Megadeth, Machine Head, Accept and many more. Even though the great Sneap himself doesn’t frequent the forum it’s a great meeting place for other skilled producers. One of them, Ermz, is currently writing a […]
Read moreThe equalizer is your best friend when it comes to mixing. The EQ can’t fix a bad source material, but even perfectly recorded tracks often need to be EQ:d to play well together. Here are good cliff notes on what changes in different frequencies will accomplish.
Read moreAll who have seen the Simpsons know of the Kübler-Ross model for coping with grief and tragedies (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). I go through a similar process (albeit a bit more positive) each time I record my playing: 1) Expectation – during the actual recording session spirits are usually high, and it always sounds good […]
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One of the most characteristic pieces of equipment in a studio is the gigantic control surface with a lever for each track. It might not be the first thing you put in your bedroom though. There are smaller control surfaces for home use, but they still take up space and cost at least €150 (and […]
Read more Everyone who makes music needs a computer program for recording and editing. A full-featured music application that handles recorded sound, midi and VST-plugins is called a DAW – Digital Audio Workbench. Protools, Cubase and Logic are popular DAWs. Out of these I’ve only tried Cubase, and I think it is really, really bad. In spite of […]
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