Studio & Recording

Out of all the instruments that exist, the drum kit is arguably the most difficult to record. Then again, a drum kit actually isn’t a single instrument; it’s a collection of loud percussion instruments that cover the entire audible frequency spectrum. As such, it’s not uncommon to record a drum kit using multiple microphones. In this blog, you can find out which microphones are the best for the job and how you should set them up.

More and more people within the music industry are looking to turn their current endeavors into a full-time job. Whether it’s music production for vocalists, music licensing to TV and radio, or even live touring around the world, there are hundreds of ways that artists can make a full-time income from their career.

So you’ve been passionately listening to your favourite artists for years, have recently started making your own mixes and now you’re wondering how you can become a professional and successful EDM or pop music producer? Grand! As you know, the world of music production is home to some really big names and teams, so in this blog, guest-blogger Jens Oosterkamp (Jens East) shares some valuable tips and the story of how he started out in his bedroom and is now often approached by acclaimed record labels.

To make recordings on your computer, you need software. The natural thing to do would be to turn to a DAW, or digital audio workstation, which is used to produce music with the help of samples and virtual instruments. In the DAW universe, there are a lot of teams claiming they have the best software, and if you’ve never used one before, you might think they look quite complicated. To ease you in, I’ve written this blog that can help you find the perfect beginner DAW.

When using effects in your DAW recording software, it’s important to think about the routing. Do you need to sequence the effects as inserts? Does the order matter? And what are the advantages of an AUX send? In this blog, we offer answers to these questions and explain just how to make your music sound just as fat as the last YouTube hit, simply by placing an effect where you usually wouldn’t place it in the effect chain. You might also be glad to know that a lot of what’s discussed here can also be applied to mixing desks.

Have you ever had to fight against a slight delay while recording, where you hear yourself back a fraction of a second after you’ve played or sung a note – a sort of annoying echo? It’s likely that you’re battling a known phenomenon called ‘latency’. This digital-based gremlin is caused by the long journey that the sound has to complete between your audio interface and DAW software and (usually) back again, along with the thinking power it takes your computer to record and play back at the same time. If you’re also applying some sweet effects to the sound, this can cause some really noticeable latency. In this blog, we explain how you can beat latency once and for all, or even just work around it.

If you’re a freelance musician, producer, or DJ, then you probably live a pretty unpredictable live where you’re suddenly travelling for months on end, or you just as suddenly have very little work and a lot of time at home. So, what can you do to make the very best of that in-between-time? In this blog, we offer 10 tips to help you stay productive at home.

If you have an audio interface of your own, or you’ve taken a look through our hefty selection of external audio interfaces, you’ve probably come across the term, ‘direct monitoring’. This mysterious function is actually pretty useful and can be enabled while you’re making recordings using DAW software. While recording, you can use direct monitoring to hear yourself using a connected set of headphones without being bothered by latency (so a delay between what you play or sing, and what you hear back as it’s being recorded). In this blog, I’ll explain how this works and what kind of direct monitoring is possible.

Effects: what’s out there and what do they actually do to sound? There’s a lot of ‘em, so if you’re already struggling to see the woods for the trees (or the other way around), then put the kettle on and make yourself comfy while we give you a glimpse of what’s possible. In this introductory blog, we’re poking our heads into the magical realm of reverb. Sprinkle it over your project to conjure atmosphere or completely submerge your track so it sounds like it’s calling to you from another world.

If you’re nothing but a humble mortal, it’s best not to even touch the mastering process. While this is a wide belief, is it actually a myth? The potential offered by most DAWs and a host of plug-ins certainly makes a DIY mastering job much easier, so why not give it a go? These 5 tips will not only ease your first few unsteady mastering steps but give you better results.

As an artist, you naturally want to share your music with the entire world, and platforms like YouTube, Facebook and even Instagram prove that you can interest and appeal to countless music fans. In this blog, you can find out just how much it costs to produce a music video, as guest-blogger and singer-songwriter Kevin explains that no budget is too small.

Whether you’re a singer-songwriter, keyboard player in a band, composer, or sound technician, sooner or later you might want to record the sound of a genuine acoustic piano. And I’m not talking about any pre-recorded Steinway or Yamaha C7 samples either, because no matter how good these sound, it wouldn’t be your own unique sound. So how do you record a piano, which microphones do you need and where do you even put them? Read on to find the answers to these questions and more!