We recently scoured scholarly journals, collegiate records, and data collected from self-reported social media profiles to perform a meta-analysis from various angles…
This isn't news to the old-timers. We remember the days when artists all covered each other's songs and wrote for one another. The thing is, they were all capable and proved it time and again. That's not the case today. And it seems the big wigs would like to sweep that little secret under the rug. People are becoming wise to the game though. There's […]
I've over simplified the question in the title above, but that gets to the essence of the discussion between myself and a smart gentleman, who I thank for sending in such a high quality set of questions. Thanks to all of the people writing in. We can't get back to everyone, but we're doing our best. We're performing triage over here, so the goofier the […]
My goal here is to cut through the fog and give it to you plain. We're going to define dither, talk about what it actually is in the context of digital audio (as opposed to printing images or processing video, though we'll mention this), and tell you when and how to use it. What's funny is we've all seen and heard this technique applied in […]
We received a very insightful question recently that requires some critical thinking to explain the answer. You'll enjoy this one if you like puzzles, especially as a studio engineer and/or guitarist. As always, let me thank a couple readers for their help. Frederick notified us of an error in our mp3 compression article and Pepsy supplied us with a picture we needed for another article. […]
The nerve of these people to try to convince us that THEY are the victims here... The State of Youtube's Claim System As everyone knows, Youtube's claim system is severely broken when it comes to music. Not a day goes by when a creator on the video streaming site isn't essentially unfairly robbed of their hard earned money for things as harmless as a car […]
This one has been cooking for years in the background. I caught wind of it years ago and forgot about it, only to see it finally come to a head in the courts. The Background of the Dark Horse Saga In 2013, Katy Perry releases a song "Dark Horse" that features an instrumental and a rap verse by Juicy J, where the final touches were […]
How many young guitarists have you known that dream of hitting it big and getting the fame, adoration, and riches? Perhaps you're one of them. The songwriting despite the writer's block, the grueling years on tour, the album and merchandise sales... that all sounds great if you really want it. But you're in for a big surprise if you think that's all it takes to […]
Many young musicians dream of being a rock star for the fame and adoration, even though it's a grueling lifestyle of non-stop touring. These starving artist types have a big surprise coming if they break into the big time, because you can make an unbelievable amount of money as one of the top 10 richest rock stars in the world. As you read this list, […]
The new data is out! You may not see huge shifts in the list of the top 10 richest country singers in the world due to some established giants, but we've dropped some artists out and added new ones. This is more interesting than the usual static list where everyone just earns more money due to investments and new businesses. And that's one of the […]
Nothing is more fun than the mid-year time when the new data comes out and we can update this list. It's not often that you see a huge shift in the list of top 10 richest rappers in the world. Usually it's the same players and their net worth moving up or down a bit based on investments. No matter how it shakes out, we […]
A friendly fellow sent in a wonderful pre-purchase question that I'm sure many other newcomers to the audio interface world are curious about too. It's a fun ride, so please read along as we learn about... Before you even read this, you can rest easy knowing it had a happy ending: "I purchased the unit. Aside from an issue where I had some latency in […]
We modern guitarists are lucky. Flanging used to be a nightmare of manipulating reel-to-reel machines, but today it can be achieved in analog or digital fashion all from a small stomp box situated at our feet. This means we can now use it during live performances, too. Most listeners couldn't tell you what the flanger effect is called, but they know it when they hear […]
The phaser is among the earliest effects invented. It was actually invented as a way to emulate the sound of a rotating organ speakers and the phase shifting that comes along with that rotation. The sound you hear when engaging one of these pedals is that of peaks and troughs being swept up and down the frequency spectrum, much like a flanger but subtly different. […]
The octave effect is exactly what it sounds like it is. You can pitch shift your signal up or down an octave or more at a time so you can use your guitar to play the role of other instruments like a bass guitar, for example. What many don't understand at first is that you can recombine the original signal with the octave-shifted signal to […]
A lot of us can remember a time where if we wanted to harmonize guitar leads, we'd need two guitarists playing at the same time and hope to the high heavens they can stay in perfect unison. Today, we're far luckier thanks to the invention of pitch-shifting and harmonization effects. One guitarist can shred a lead melody and it can be copied and pitch-shifted to […]
If any instrumentalist can get a lot of use out of the pitch shift effect, it's a guitarist. The uses are endless, from harmonizing one's own lead to filling in for a bassist. Combine it with other pedals like a looper and an entire musical universe opens up before you. And how fortunate we are, because in the old days we had to record to […]
Sometimes, we need a thicker, dreamier sound to accentuate specific parts of songs. Coincidentally a very common part of a song to use the chorus effect on is during the chorus itself. But many guitar and synthesizer players will use the effect for the full duration of a song. By splitting off the original signal and delaying it variably generally from 20 milliseconds up to […]
Loopers have come a long way since they first busted on the scene. What started as novelties and practice tools have become unbelievable workstations that can be used to produce full fledged recordings, acting as a multi-track recorder, to helping master instrumentalists build up entire backing tracks over which they improvise and entertain. Although you can find a looper embedded into a microphone or keyboard, […]
If there's any audio effect that's used the most and had the most impact on music, it is by far the compressor effect. It takes the lead so hard that mastering engineers are even going through "The Loudness Wars" over it. It's influence has been monumental. Whether you're a guitarist, vocalist, synthesizer player, or literally anyone else involved in music, you'll be using compression in […]
One of the worst problems plaguing everyone in a band is being able to be heard clearly by the crowd in the midst of every other band member. Perhaps the second worst problem is leaving this up to the sound guy, who is likely plastered and barely paying attention after sound check. The first method you should approach to solve this problem is equalization. Equalization […]
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