What Are Microphone Pickup Patterns
Manufactures of microphones have developed several pickup patterns that are specifically designed for their intended use, so the following is brief description of what they’re called and what they do. Cardioid pattern: The cardioid pattern is best for...
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Why Use A Shock Mount?
Using a Shock Mount (cradle) as opposed to a clip? A very important part of the recording process is minimising the many many little problematic things that add up to just an average or bad result. One such important thing is the isolation of the recording...
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Why Use Quality Monitor Stands?
Well you don’t have to use them but it’s much better if you do. In every recording it’s the little things that either add up to a great result or magnify a problem that is repeated many times during the whole recording process. Basically it’s the...
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How do I Stop the Pops?
Typically it is the Par, Bar, Far & Push, sounding type of consonants that cause the most problem and without the aid of a pop filter will generate massive bottom end spikes in the vocal wave file that are very hard to get rid of once they’re recorded....
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Keeping The Punch In Your Tracks
In this article we just give a quick overview of a couple of things to watch out for during the recording process that could rob your track of punch and presence in the final mix-down. In other articles we will examine these things in much more detail but...
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Mixing From Zero
It’s always better mixing from zero volume.. After you record everything for your song zero all the faders, then bring up the kick drum to a reasonable level (leaving good head room space), then as you add another channel (snare, OH’s, etc) try bringing...
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Creating The Stereo Field
With a little bit of EQ and the right panning you can make your mixes sound almost 3D, that is left, right, forwards and backwards. Here is the tip… Kick drums, Snare drums, Bass guitars & Lead Vocals should be centre positioned in the mix (dead...
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Understanding the Channel Strip
This tutorial is aimed to help beginners so we have kept the descriptions as free from technical hieroglyphics as we can. The strip is taken from channel 3 on the Behringer XENYX QX2442USB Let’s take a closer look at what the buttons, sliders and...
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Using a Compressor in Mix-down
There are many applications and styles of compressors but for the producer wanting to get the most out of a mix-down it is one of the most important tools they could ever have. WHY IS IT SO? In music there is a term known as dynamics. I remember my old...
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Creating a Recording Space
Three points on acoustically treating your room for recording & monitoring…. 1. Making the most of it: As most of us don’t have the budget to build the dream recording space, it pays to know how to work with what you have and generally it’s a spare...
read more
Mixing From Zero
It’s always better mixing from zero volume.. After you record everything for your song zero all the faders, then bring up the kick drum to a reasonable level (leaving good head room space), then as you add another channel (snare, OH’s, etc) try bringing...
Creating The Stereo Field
With a little bit of EQ and the right panning you can make your mixes sound almost 3D, that is left, right, forwards and backwards. Here is the tip… Kick drums, Snare drums, Bass guitars & Lead Vocals should be centre positioned in the mix (dead...
Understanding the Channel Strip
This tutorial is aimed to help beginners so we have kept the descriptions as free from technical hieroglyphics as we can. The strip is taken from channel 3 on the Behringer XENYX QX2442USB Let’s take a closer look at what the buttons, sliders and...
Using a Compressor in Mix-down
There are many applications and styles of compressors but for the producer wanting to get the most out of a mix-down it is one of the most important tools they could ever have. WHY IS IT SO? In music there is a term known as dynamics. I remember my old...
Creating a Recording Space
Three points on acoustically treating your room for recording & monitoring…. 1. Making the most of it: As most of us don’t have the budget to build the dream recording space, it pays to know how to work with what you have and generally it’s a spare...
Cheap vs Quality Signal Cables
Upgrading your cables could really improve your end result. Most of us have a growing collection of broken cables sitting in a box somewhere around the studio. Years ago after throwing out dozens of dud leads I decided to take the plunge and buy some good...
Plain Talk On Studio Monitors
If you can hear it you can fix it.. A good set of monitors in your studio can be the difference between the life and death of your mix, the better the monitor the more you can hear what’s really happening in the playback. The first thing to realise is that...
Auto Tune.. Yes or No?
Is it cheating? As always there is a growing divide of opinion over the advances in music technology and it’s effect on the purity of talent vs the distinctly untalented. Can automatic software band generators and vocal correction tools fool the public...
Explaining Sound Diffusion
You’ve got the right monitors, microphones and plugins and your mix sounds great in your room, but….now it’s time for the car playback test! Your heart sinks as it now sounds very different with all sorts of wayward frequencies swallowing up the clarity...
Still Made In Australia
Still made in Australia In a world where so many of the gadgets that we use in the pro audio industry are coming out of China in little plastic boxes , it’s great to see an Australian company that still does all it’s own design and manufacturing right here...