Archive for the ‘Gear’ Category
Speaker Placement: Nearfield Monitors
March 7, 2008 NearfieldsThis post focuses on some of the basics of nearfield speaker placement, where and why and a little how. It used to be that studios had huge wall-mounted speakers that required equally large rooms to work properly. Commercial studios are carefully acoustically tweaked. I won’t go into acoustic treatments here, but needless to say a [...]
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How to Use Visual Audio Analyzers and Scopes
March 4, 2008 Plugins, VisualizationThis post focuses on ways to use visual audio scopes to gain more understanding about what’s going on in your audio. It’s important to state right off the bat that working with audio should primarily be an auditory experience. In general people won’t be looking at visual representations of audio as much as they will [...]
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How to Use Analog Tape as an Effect
March 3, 2008 Tape Machines, Tape SaturationThis post focuses on the use of analog tape’s warm, unique compression as an effect. When engineers and producers started to make the switch from analog to digital, they found that digital was not only cleaner sound, but it was also somewhat unforgiving. Most producers were quite fond of ‘driving’ the tape a bit by [...]
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Synchronization of DAWs with MTC & MMC
March 2, 2008 DAWs, SyncThis post focuses on the use of MIDI Time Code (MTC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC) to synchronize multiple DAWs together. SMPTE timecode was create for the purpose of synchronizing audio systems together, such as tape machines, computers, and other time sensitive audio devices. MIDI timecode is an extension of SMPTE timecode into the MIDI [...]
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Blending in DI for Clarity
February 29, 2008 DIsThis post focuses on the topic of using direct injection/input to bring clarity to traditionally recorded tracks. When you were first starting out in the world of audio, you probably tried something along the lines of plugging a guitar or bass directly into your audio interface or mixer. I know I did this and [...]
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Make Your Own Cables and Save Big!
February 28, 2008 Cables, DIYThis post focuses on how to create your own cables using raw connectors and bulk cable. There are some great advantages to making your own cables: you determine the quality, you choose the length, it’s usually cheaper, and you learn in the process. Cables are one of the most marked-up categories of things sold in [...]
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Adaptors and Connectors to Have Around
February 27, 2008 AdaptorsThis post focuses on what sorts of adaptors or connectors you’ll likely want to have handy in your production studio. It’s usually cheaper and more flexible to have raw connectors and cable than it is to have a ton of pre-made adaptors. Tomorrow’s post I’ll go into how to make your own cables.
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11 Important DAW Maintenance Tips
February 26, 2008 DAWs, MaintenanceThis post focuses on some basic techniques for keeping your DAW running in primo shape. It’s easy to take our computers for granted, but sometimes it seems like if you turn your back for a moment, your computer will destroy itself. The reality is that computers are incredibly complex machines and that small, day to [...]
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Monitoring Diversity for Better Mixes
February 25, 2008 Mixing, SpeakersThis post focuses on how monitoring with different kinds of speakers will help you achieve better mixes. One of the things that sets professional studios apart from hobbyist studios is their collection of monitors. Most studios have at least a couple pairs of monitors, from nearfields to farfields. Many have boomboxes and ‘hi-fi’ stereos to [...]
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What’s this Class A, Class AB, Class B stuff?
February 24, 2008 Amplification, AmplifiersThis post focuses on the basics of the differences between various amplifier (and preamplifier) types, namely class A, B, and AB. When we first start out learning about audio equipment, there’s an awful lot of terms to sort through. One in particular that escaped me for years was what exactly the various ‘classes’ of amplifiers [...]
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