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8 Recent Music Publicity Stunts Gone Stupid
Let today's post serve as a lesson on how not to execute a publicity stunt to drum up interest and sales in your new album (while our last 'Lessons' post showed a great marketing example by 50 Cent). There’s no such thing as bad publicity, or is there? It’s a cliché, but it tends to carry gravitas. This is especially the case in music, where […]
EQ Cheat Sheet? Frequency Charts for Mixing Hurt More Than Help!
They're designed well and make nice posters for a school classroom. They get a lot of re-pins on Pinterest. Halfway interested amateurs pass them around because they seem profound and packed full of useful information. Except they aren't. Your first clue that these abominations suck are the instrument frequency charts that purport to show the fundamental frequency ranges as well as the harmonics of every […]
What's the Difference Between Mixing and Mastering?
We've all heard the difference between an amateur recording captured in your buddy's garage and a professional recording tracked in a recording studio equipped with all of the best gear available. But that only affects the clarity of the song in general. Those differences in recording environments and access to gear is like the difference between working with a puzzle where the pieces were cut […]
The Best Guitar Tuners to Get You Back in Key Fast & Reliably
If there is one tool you will absolutely need as a guitar player, it's the best guitar tuner you can get your hands on. The importance of having your instrument in the right key can't be emphasized enough. Additionally, guitars going out of tune during use is something everyone has to deal with. So it's a non-negotiable skill; you will have to learn to tune […]
Why Are Some Guitars More Expensive Than Others?
A reader recently asked the question "What makes a guitar expensive?" that seems obvious on the surface until you realize you haven't really considered the details. We all tend to brush questions like these off, as if "well, duh, because they're better" is a sufficient answer. That's actually a non-answer and we'll have none of that here! So let's get to the bottom of why […]
How Does a Guitar Tone Knob Work?
There's nothing like diving head first into a new instrument. We're all as familiar with each various instrument as anyone else, but once you start studying one you realize how much you took for granted. What seemed obvious isn't so clear cut. And that's where the author of today's question finds himself: "What does a tone knob do?" I love these kind of questions because […]
What is Guitar Tone? Understanding & Dialing In Your Sound
Depending on who you're talking to, you'll get various definitions on what tone is and where it comes from. Many purists will even tell you where it should come from, too. The reality is that various genres of music and guitar playing are accepting of more and more layers of signal processing and effects, and the more that they use regularly the more forgiving and […]
DIY Studio Desk Plans - Custom Fit For Your Needs
What you'll discover as you browse the internet is that there's a whole ton of people who have built their own studio desks, but very few ever documented the process meticulously in terms of isometric engineering sketches or even your typical carpentry blueprints on a dirty napkin. This is the same conundrum we face in the world of computer desks and essentially every other kind. […]
Can I Lay My Studio Monitors Down Sideways Instead of Vertical?
Today's question about having your studio monitors on their side relates to a common discussion online that rarely ventures into a real answer. For some reason, there are a lot of people who are convinced that it's a matter of preference, when this couldn't be any further from the truth. Please don't hesitate to email us with any questions of your own, as long as […]
Where Does Audio Latency & Microphone Delay Come From?
We received a question recently that made us realize that we hadn't covered the topic of audio latency. Not only had we not covered it clearly, but we hadn't touched on it at all. And that explains why we received a question that didn't really make sense, related to microphone delay. You'll see why as we correct the misconception and explain latency in haste. You […]
How to Achieve Low Audio Latency While Recording
Let's say you're an accomplished guitarist who has been playing live for nearly a decade, ripping improvised solos alongside your band mates in your city's most celebrated cover band. You realize you don't want to pretend to be a member of Talking Heads for the rest of your life, so you bring it up to your crew and they all confess the same. But rather […]
6 Forced Music Genres that Should Disappear Like the Dodo
Music is more compartmentalized now than ever before. Not only are we well beyond the days of merely designating music as "good" or "bad," several subgenres have cropped up in recent years to further hyper-categorize certain sounds. While some of these sub-categories like indie folk or trip-hop seem to have staying power, others should head toward the dustbin of history with some luck. This list […]
How to Sell Beats Online & Work Your Way Up to Pro Placements
By virtue of being able to make beats, the instrumentalist in the rap and R&B community brings a boatload of skills to the table that provide a sharp advantage to being seen and earning an on-going passive income. The producer must do everything the vocalist does in order to gain success, but they get the compounding benefit of the vocalist doing it a second time […]
The Best Classical Guitars: Our Fave Nylon String Beauties (2023)
Nothing soothes the soul like the warm tone of the best classical guitar commanded by its masterful player. Access to an instrument of this caliber has been rare and expensive, but now there are plenty of budget and middle-tier options that perform just as well. Here, we look at them all and offer a bit of advice for the newer player in terms of what […]
6 Satanic Songs that Aren’t - The Backmasking Panic!
Rock has been known as “The Devil’s Music” since the first backbeat was laid down. It was bad enough when Elvis swiveled his hips, but things went turbo-stupid a couple decades later. The connection between rock and Satan arguably reached its peak in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when an overly-alarmist religious crowd began accusing bands of inserting hidden Satanic messages into their lyrics; one that […]
Yoko Ono Needed Two Takes to Perfect Her “Dead Rat in a Shoebox” Solo
Nobody in music draws the ire of rock fans more than Yoko Ono. While some of this naturally stems from longstanding accusations that she broke up The Beatles, it’s also derived from the fact that she’s done some weird stuff in the name of music (and attention) for decades. Perhaps nothing is weirder than her insistence on recording a "dead rat in a shoebox" solo […]
Radiohead’s Secret Program Hidden in OK Computer Reissue
Radiohead’s “OK Computer” is 20 years old. While this mark of time is bound to make Gen X'ers that bought the landmark album feel ancient, it’s also a perfect anniversary for a re-issue. Of course, since Radiohead is Radiohead, the band can’t be content with merely re-issuing an expanded album packaged with just demos and outtakes. Instead, Thom Yorke and company managed to sneak in […]
Musicians & UFOs - 15 Close Encounters with Flying Saucers
We've uncovered cave paintings, medieval and renaissance artwork, military radar videos, and have sightings of UFOs even up to this day. It's no real surprise that some of our favorite musicians have had their own close encounters with unidentified flying objects. What is surprising is that they've admitted to it, sometimes on national television, since that usually seals the deal on your career. That's how […]
Gain Staging Explanation Through Hardware & Software
When we got this question, it was another in a string of emails asking for more information about gain staging. It's something we've mentioned a lot in the Studio Recording column but hadn't dedicated a full article to it. We since then have written a full investigation into the concept (linked below), but here's the shorter version of how we explained it to Hechter. Please […]
Does Studio Recording Equipment Apply to Podcasting?
The world of studio recording equipment is confusing to the uninitiated trying to get a foothold, and with manufacturers marketing their gear differently to outsiders, it's no surprise that we received this week's question about podcasting... And thanks to Calvin, Justin, Jason, Andy, Doug, Shawn, Dominic, Daniel, Jamieson, Gabrielle, Anthony, Zaiden, and James for the positive comments. There were too many to post here in […]
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