LATEST LINKS (Last Update: Aug. 31, 2005)

Alesis'Fusion 6HD/8HD Workstations: The Fusion 6HD and 8HD feature four types of synthesis, an eight-channel hard disk recorder, built-in sampler, effects processing, and expandable RAM, the Fusion workstations are powered by a Coldfire processor surrounded by seven high-performance DSPs and are the only synth workstations with integrated 8-channel, 24-bit recording capability.
M-Audio's Ozonic FireWire controller: An integrated FireWire audio/MIDI production and performance tool that turns a computer and standard music software into a complete compact studio.
FireWire Solo for axedudes: M-Audio's FireWire Solo is designed from the ground up as an easy-to-use interface for recording guitar tracks on the computer.
Lifeson's Home Studio: Alex's synth lineup includes a Roland VG-8, MC-505, and MC-303, Korg Z1 and Electribe ER-1, Alesis S4, Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309 and Polymorph, and E-mu Orbit, Morpheus, and e6400 sampler.
Rob Hoffman's Home Studio: Rob is an equal-opportunity synth lover, but does he favor one over the others? "Every synth has its own character," he says, "but I still can't get away from the Minimoog.
Collection of Curved Beauties: Brian Preston's awesome Music Factory loft studio in Atlanta, GA. "
World-Class Remixer: Francis Preve has cranked out gold record material from his modest bedroom studio, the Danger Room.
Better Than Finding Playboy in Dad's Closet: Feast your eyes on Rebar Sound, the San Francisco loft studio owned and operated by David Della Santa.
Home Synthesist: Using the room mostly as a production facility for TV commercial music.
Recording on a Dime: Making a good record in short order is a challenge, but there are ways to help ensure success.
Magical Makeovers: Gibson SG Special Faded and Voodoo V.
Minimoog Voyager: The Voyager can easily approximate the sound of a Minimoog but... SOS's Extensive Review
Stan Webb: The man who formed blues institution Chicken Shack over 30 years ago is still performing to packed houses.
Roy Harper: Guru, mentor, mystic or just plain rock'n'roll bad boy?
Allan Holdsworth, one the greatest musicians on the planet is in good spirits
Paul Weller: Here's a singer-songwriter who doesn't need to unplug.
The Zawa Beat: At 70, Joe Zawinul hopes to keep going for another two decades.
Korg M1 Digital Synth Workstation: The all-time best-selling synthesizer, Korg's M1 laid the groundwork for synths that followed. We go behind the scenes to reveal the secrets of its success.
Reassessing Steely Dan's Aja: A unique record in both the jazz and pop genres laid out with complex horn charts, a variety of synths, blazing solos and oddly timed songs.
Quad for the '90s: That's what some skeptics are calling the imminent release of DVD-Audio.
Sugarman: John Mayer's unique approach to songwriting.
Master Producer: For nearly four decades, Phil Ramone has stood at the forefront of the music industry, first as a recording engineer and later as producer for some of the pop world's biggest stars.
Days of Heaven: Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin's recorded legacy, Part I, Part II, Part III
Mix Fix: How to mix a pop song from scratch.
Korg Debuts XD Series 24/96 Recording Studios: New 32 and 16 track recorders bring high-end capabilities to D-Series recorders.
Korg Upgrades D1600 and D1200 Digital Recorders: Featuring a built-in 40GB hard drive, CD-RW drive, USB port, and striking metallic blue finish, new D1600mkII and D1200mkII are ready to use right out of the box.
John Paul Jones's Home Studio: It's based around a 32-channel Digidesign Pro Tools system on a 9600 Power Mac.
Going 'Soft': Mike Oldfield is now embarking on a pioneering attempt to combine music and virtual reality.
The Fifth Element: We pretty much expect that a certain amount of lying is going to happen while recordings are made.
Black Light: Calexico's John Convertino and Joey Burns, talk about their recordings, bands, the music business, and Tucson.
High & Low Impedance Signals: The output from most electronic devices in an audio system will be of low impedance.
Sunshine of Your Love: It came into being after produced Tom Dowd suggested an American Indian-style tattoo beat.
Rickie Lee Jones' "huck E.'s in Love': Over Steve Gadd's shuffle beat, Jones tells a young woman's tale of how friendship can be changed by love.
The Music Makers: A brief history of popular music from the 1400s to the 1900s.
Missile Incoming: A mic that could eliminate conspicuous consumption.
The Fine Line of Acceptability: How far have we come in the pursuit of perfect recorded sound?
Patch Bays, Part 1 , Patch Bays, Part II
Musician's Friend Tech Tips Archives
Microtech Gefell M930: An innovative and sonically pleasing large-diaphragm condenser.
Home CD Factory: The CD-R Publisher combines all the tasks involved in CD-R duplication in a single, highly-automated package.
Neumann Solution-D: A detailed look at a microphone system poised to redefine what microphones should be.
Master Blaster: With the MasterLink, the Alesis Corporation is seeking to do to the mastering industry what it did to the recording world.
SACD: Music Done Right: What kind of improvements does SACD provide?
Swell Sound: An exhaustive description of SACD technology.
Real World Compressors/Limiters: Some sound-squishing boxes that you will see around the circuit quite a bit.
Jack Endino: At the height of grunge mania, he recorded the stuff that started it all.
Built for Kicks: The Audix D-6 puts up a strong, clear representation of the drum that you put it in front of.
What's In The Groove?: Here�s how a song recorded in a dingy, warehouse attic on an eight-track became one of the biggest hits of the 1980s.
CD Media Test: Erik Zobler, mix engineer for the likes of George Duke and Natalie Cole, puts a range of CDR media under the microscope.
The Double Deal: A practical overview and appraisal of the main stereo microphone techniques.
Recording in a Nutshell: A short history of the multitrack recording studio.
When Only Real Mics Will Do: While physical modelling preamps may work for electric guitars, you'll still need a mic for recording an acoustic.
Studio Buddy� Recording Tips: Basics on laying down some smooth tracks.
6 Electrifying Acoustics: If you're an acoustic-guitar player who feels a bit left out by the ever-exploding advancements in music technology, fear not.
Active Pink: Nearfields from EMES offer precision monitoring for small rooms.
FM Legend: There was a time when everyone seemed to own and use a Yamaha DX7.
Yamaha 02R96 Digital Mixer: Yamaha has broken out of the gate with a formidable product that works and works well.
Roland Jupiter-6: A trip down memory lane with a classic.
The Incredible Shrinking Studio: A roundup of top-rated portable multitrackers for the masses.
Drum Mics: What goes where and how many do you need.
Tips for Homeys: How to get great sounds from your home studio.
Keys to a Home Setup: Building a studio around a KORG i30 Arranger Keyboard.
A Studio Sage Speaks: Before his nineteenth birthday, Andy Johns was working as Eddie Kramer's second engineer on classic recordings by Jimi Hendrix and many others.
Mixing with Big Mick: Heavy metal depends on lots of volume to make its point, but Hughes notes it can be challenging.
Getting Great Sounds: The ability to mix records is founded upon a mixer's ability to get great sounds.
Distortion of Reality: It's a desirable element that offers saturation, crunch, and grit. Welcome to the glorious world of distortion.
Keeping Your Mix Fresh: The best mixes always have a fresh element to them.
Making Magic Happen with Automation: A great mix happens when you breathe life into those tracks with automation.
The Talented Mr. Shipley: Mix engineer Mike Shipley has displayed his talent across several genres of music.
The Sound of Flaming Lips: What do the Flaming Lips have in common with the Ozark Big-Eared Bat?
Days of Future NAMM: Inside NAMM's six cavernous exhibit halls there was no shortage of cool, futuristic (and retro-istic) gear to check out.
Signal Processing and Methods in Surround Mixing: It has been said that there are no rules when it comes to mixing music in surround.
Fostex DV40 DVD Master Recorder: For years, Fostex has delivered portable timecode DAT decks designed for the nerve-wracking world of location recording.
Tori Amos Live: Tori Amos completed a whirlwind tour of North America, playing 31 shows in only six weeks with sound reinforcement from SSE Hire Limited.
Cardioid-Carrying Member: The proximity effect of directional microphones.
Bryan Ferry 'Frantic'?: Throughout his three-decade recording career, elegant crooner Bryan Ferry has continually broken rules in search of his own musical nirvana.
Live-Mixing the Norman Brown Group: Time was when a jazz performance required little in the way of equipment.
Hard Data on Concert Sound Levels: This data is highly representative of current concert levels practice and shows that we are producing far too much level for way too long.
How to Mic Six-Strings Like a Pro: Three stereo miking secrets guaranteed to make your acoustic guitar tracks shine.
Trivial Pursuit: Only one question: 'How does it sound?'
Will 'Good Enough' Win Out?: In the systems customer's mind, price has increasingly become the most important specification; at the same time, sound quality, reliability and service are slipping down the priority list.
Inter.View with Bob Katz: Words of sound wisdom from the co-owner and mastering engineer of Digital Domain and former technical director at Chesky Records.
Amplifier-to-Loudspeaker Interface: Is there anything special about hooking an amplifier to a loudspeaker?
Signal Processing Fundamentals: In space, no one can hear you scream, because there is no air or other medium for sound to travel.
Getting a Good Mix: Not everything you do needs different signal processing or effects.
The Home Recordist's Challenge: There are two hearing limitations that interfere with mixing.
Equalization Settings: A chart of recommended equalization frequencies.
Loud Speakers Get Attention: When the cone of a loudspeaker driver vibrates back and forth to produce sound, energy flows from the front of the cone into the room.
Sound Forum: OVER-compression and its impact on sound quality.
Katz's Picks: Honor roll of good-sounding pop CDs.
Level Practices in Digital Audio: OVERs, Levels & Headroom -- How to get the most from your equipment.
CDR Test Pages: This table shows the different error levels, and the Block Error Rate for each of those different error rates.
Back to Analog: Why retro is better and cheaper.
Thinking Outside the Boxes: Jon Brion has been busily exploring the infinite realms of music and sound.
5.1 for a Classic: Acclaimed by many as the greatest rock concert film ever made, 'The Last Waltz' was a natural candidate to make the jump to multichannel formats.
Sympathetic Mixing: With mixing, you have to consider the needs of the particular piece of music you're working on.
Why Your Mixes Suck: A well-trained set of ears listening to and evaluating every minute detail of your music.
Mixing with a Master: Watching Eddie Kramer work and listening to his philosophy about recording can be quite instructive.
How 2 Mix Good: Mixing for dance music.
Hit Men: It's no longer surprising to hear scratching on a rock record or an inverse room reverb on a country-music production.
Spin Doctors; The inside dope from Manhattan's hottest mixers.
Recording Vocalist Playing Acoustic Guitar: A hyper-cardioid mic on the vocal and a mic you can put very close to the acoustic without turning it into a monster.
Big, Loud, Punchy: How to get that massive dance sound.
Mix Mastery: The craft of mixing is all about controlling and balancing the relative levels of different instruments.
Compression in Audio Recordings: The term compression has several meanings in audio
Compression Q&A: How to make music bereft of life -- compress it until it bleeds (to death).
Compression Kickstart: It's easy to know you need it just by watching your meters, but what does each knob and button really do.
Take It to the Limit: How to improve your recording technique, and how not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
In the Cans: One often overlooked aspect of the recording process is the headphone monitor mix.
Ten Powered Nearfields Reviewed: So if you're looking for excellent sound with the best value, trust the Overall score.
The Near-Field Myth: The first step to improve stereo or surround listening is to maintain reasonable levels during critical playbacks, tracking or mixing.
Monitoring Realities: Ninety-five percent of people listen to music in their car or on a cheap home stereo; 5 percent may have better systems; and maybe 1 percent have a $20,000 stereo.
Notes on Monitoring for Surround: Since surround sound is still quite new to the record industry, there remains much to learn about effective surround monitoring for music applications.
More than Meets the Ear: There's a lot more to recording a CD than just pressing 'Record'.
A Beginners Guide to Microphones: It's important to know the different qualities of various mics because each has their own specifications.
Patchbays: How many of us have such a mess of cables behind our gear that we hate to go back there and repatch something?
Performing for the Microphone: An increasing problem in music creation today -- forgetting the audience.
Marketing Your Music to the USA: The largest consumer marketplace in the world is the United States.
What's NAMM All About?: NAMM is the National Association of Music Merchants, whose mission is to 'strengthen and unify the music products industry'.
Phase Relationships: Outboard processing and EQ can also cause phase problems because both delay the signal even further.
Reverberation: If you stand in an anechoic chamber and clap, the lack of reverberation is strange, and somewhat unsettling.
Panning Doubles: The double-tracking of parts for a fuller, more interesting sound and image in the final mix.
Homemade Microphones: Since the dawn of time, audiophiles all over the world have sought after more microphones.
Making Your Own Cables: Well, with a little soldering know how, the correct materials, and a little time, it's really quite easy and definitely less expensive.
How to Mic a Guitar Amp: For micing a guitar amp, a dynamic mic is used because of its ability to withstand high sound pressure levels.
How to Mic Drums: Put new heads on, and make sure there aren't any squeeks or buzzes.
The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials: Sound recordings are machine readable artifacts.
Digital Editing: It is critical that you prepare your original master properly during the mixdown sessions.
An Introduction To Mastering: Mastering can serve anybody who is looking for a more professional sound in their music.
Microphones: A microphone is an example of a transducer, a device that changes information from one form to another.
Dynamics and Condensers: Every microphone is different and imparts its own unique sound to whatever you are recording.
What to Expect from Mastering: The clarity and distinction brought up in mastering is great, but sometimes there can be tics, blips, hiss and flaws that snuck by you at mix time.
Online Audio: In the rush to squeeze big sound through small pipes, we're losing the battle to preserve the audio quality that we struggle so long to achieve in the studio.
Why Omni?: Omnis have positive strengths in terms of recording, measurement and sound reinforcement applications.
Beginning Mic Techniques: Microphones, for a recording engineer, have been likened to a painter's brushes.
The 24-bit Field Recording FAQ: All you need to know about high-quality outdoor digital recording.
48 vs. 96 kHz: There�s nothing higher than around 20 kHz to record. Is there...?
Fundamentals of Digital Audio: Before we can record any waveform, we must first change the signal to an analog voltage.
Hard Disk Optimization: Any improvement in the hard disk performance translates directly into more audio tracks.
The Mobile Recording Studio: A MIDI and audio notebook computer for sequencing anywhere and everywhere.
The Myth of Digital Sound: Bits can sonically byte the dust! Jitter, errors, and recalculations can change the sound.
The Speed of Sound: How Safe is High-Speed CD-Audio Recording?
LP to CD-R: The task of transferring an LP to CDR comprises 3 basic steps.
CD-R Recording: Contrary to intuition, high-speed CD-R writers create discs with fewer errors.
Primer on CD-R: All you need to know about digital audio recording media.
CD mastering FAQ: Making better mixes, tips on compression, EQ, monitors, CDRs.
Hot CD Q&A: Commercial CDs have been mastered by experts who know how to make a CD hot.
Burn Right: ABCs to a Clean Audio CD Burn.
Decibels: A tenth of a Bel?
Creating Waves: The waveform of a sound is a graph of the way the pressure changes between the wavefronts.
Acoustics for Music: Most of our music making is carried out indoors. In such a situation, the listener's experience is formed almost as much by the room itself as by the instruments.
Soundproofing: Silence is golden, or at least pretty expensive.
Dynamic Windows: The difference between the headroom and the noise floor is the dynamic window.
Hearing & Perception: The mechanics of hearing are straightforward and well understood, but the action of the brain in interpreting sounds is still a matter of dispute.
Basics of Digital Recording: In a digital recording system, sound is stored and manipulated as a stream of discrete numbers.
MacMusic: A Mac running at the same Mhz speed as a PC is often faster.
Microphone Placement: Using a microphone placement chart is the amateur's approach to placing microphones.
Microphonic Machinations: Acoustic sounds occur when something vibrates at a frequency between 20 Hz and 20 kHz in air or another medium.
Elliot Scheiner: Former Van Morrison engineer Elliot Scheiner talks about the 1970s sessions which produced the 'Domino' effect.
How to Prepare for CD Mastering: Tips on how to get your masterpiece ready for mass production.
'Masters' vs. 'Demos': Why the former are preferable to the latter.
Mastering Engineer's Perspective: What does mastering in a professional mastering house bring to a music project that can't be done in a project studio or a traditional recording studio?
Fusion on the Cutting Edge: Herbie Hancock talks about creating 'Future2Future' and touring in Surround.
So Many Choices, So Little Time: Today, in order to create recordings and release them commercially, mixing and mastering engineers have to contend with a dizzying array of formats.
Mastering Magic: If you're serious about your product, you will pay for professional mastering.
FM Decoded: The principles of FM synthesis are actually very simple.
Tips for DIY Mastering: Mastering is something of a 'black art' as far as a lot of musicians are concerned.
Creating Bass Lines: Generally, bass parts shouldn't meander through a song.
Shadowy Space: Reverb is the most commonly used studio effect of them all and it also happens to be the most important.
Paragraphic or Parametric?: EQ plug-ins are ten-a-penny, but it's scarily easy to misuse them.
Vox Populi: The vocals will make or break your tune.
Dynamic Go-Getters: If you want to make your tracks stand out from the crowd, you need to make shrewd use of dynamics processing.
Audio Editing: Like the binary system on which it�s based, nobody is in two minds about digital audio: on or off, you either love it or hate it.
Got the Jitters?: A no-nonsense, step-by-step guide to the essential aspects of CD-R.
Royer R121: For many, the ribbon microphone starts and ends with the BBC-designed 4038.
Master Blaster: More than just another stand-alone box that burns CD-Rs, the Alesis MasterLink also includes a large hard drive to store audio and built-in CD mastering tools.
Automating Fader Levels: The concept of VCA and moving-fader mixer automation.
Stereo Editing: How to compile your stereo mixes into an album master.
Vocal Comps: One of the most time consuming operations performed on many recording projects is vocal comping
Disc-Connected: DVD-A allows any sample rate (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192), bit depth (16, 20, 24), and track number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.1) combination.
Engineer�s Rights: The engineer�s mix is a collection of moves and adjustments that change what is on the multi-track tape into what is on the final mix.
Mics and Preamps: Some choice combinations that the pros use.
Klaus Heyne: An interview with a master of microphone mods.
Matching Mics and Preamps: How to achieve the most crucial combination in audio.
Mic Modelers: A $1 million mic closet in a digital box?
New Year Resolution: Well, you know, we all want to change our world.
Is This the Hole?: Tips on miking a guitar amp.
Brighter is Not Better: If you�re just starting your trek from dynamic to condenser mics, beware of the four steps of disillusionment.
CD-R Media: There are definite differences in quality and some easy ways to avoid bad experiences.
CD-R FAQ: Does the brand of the media really matter?
Mastering DVD Sound: In the film world, little attention has been paid to those who perform audio mastering... until now.
The Art of Self-Production: How you can produce your own band and get better results in the studio.
Don't Blame It on Piracy: It's lack of business vision that's the main cause of the current industry woes.
Ten Tips for Nailing a Mix: Mixing, like any art, can't be reduced to a formula.
The Wide World of Panning: Spatiality is crucial, so put as much thought into placement as you do into levels, EQ, and other elements of mixing.
Pete's Beat: He's known the world over for his acoustic drumming, but Peter Erskine is tapped directly into the worlds of hi-tech musicmaking and recording as well.
Processing Reverb Reflections: A sophisticated reverb will have a ton of parameters, but few people know how to optimize these for specific recording situations.
20 Tips on Using Mics: It doesn't matter how good the microphone; put it in the wrong place and you might as well be using cocoa tins and string.
Recording Guitars: Some tried-and-trusted methods of improving your studio guitar sound.
Digital Audio Reduction: It's been going on a lot longer than you think.
Guide to Building a Mic Cabinet: Building a great mic locker doesn't have to drain your wallet.
Going Hard on Stage: Tips and observations on hard disk recording of live events
Producing with ProTools: A Tutorial Guide on Creating, Optimizing and Maintaining Computers for Audio Recording.
113th AES Top New Recording Gear: New recording gear faves shown at this year's AES Show.
Digital Audio Workstations Part 1: Milestones: A look at where the DAW industry had its origins and how it became so important.
How to Build a Microphone: For around $20 (US) anyone can build an extremely accurate, life-like condenser microphone.
Natural Extreme Compression: When using high amounts of gain reduction, the loud passages start sounding very squashed and unnatural.
Mics for the Home Studio: Sound advice on vital signal-capturing tools.
All about Studio Monitors: A Common Sense approach to uncovering the 'Truth' about Audio.
An Overview of Multi Track Recorders: What you need to know about ADAT, TDIF RBUS and other Connectivity issues.
Where Are We Going With Our Mix?: Its real important having a sound firm in one's mind before getting involved in any serious mixing.
Monitoring Setup: You must be able to hear the music in order to mix.
The Relationship of EQ & Delay: The introduction of delay of a signal will causes certain frequencies to be accented.
Levels, Pans and Listening To Your Mix: After you have setup your monitoring for mixing the next step is to set faders and pans for your mix.
The Function of EQ & Compression: Compression applied to an audio track will, in effect, bring up lower-level passages of the track or bring up the volume of a note played or a word sung.
Dealing with the Dead Room: Many studios built in the 1970's were designed NOT to have any acoustic influence on the recorded sound produced in them.
Hear It!: Your ears are analog devices that convert sound waves into mechanical pulses the brain can understand.
Adventures in Mastering: It's not how loud you make it, it's how you make it loud.
Mic/Preamp Package is a Hit: Studio Projects B1 Studio Microphone comes by way of high-tech Chinese manufacturing which has revolutionized professional audio.
True Systems P2analog Stereo Microphone Preamp: There are lots of microphone preamps out there these days, but the TrueSystems P2analog definitely is one of those high-end preamps that stands out from the crowd.
Remastering the Rolling Stones: The entire 22-title Rolling Stones catalog was recently remastered and released on hybrid CD/SACD discs.
The Effects of Sound: Many of us today have forgotten that a decibel�s increase means doubling a given level of sound.
20 Bit CDs?: Sony has been pushing their new Super Bit Map system, and recently Apogee announced their UV-22 system.
Let's Resolve This: About resolution, dither, noise floor, and cumulative errors in digital audio processing.
Matching Mics and Preamps: Microphones and preamps are the "chicken and egg" of audio.
Whatever Happened to Happy Accidents?: It seems the only reason we make records anymore is to prove to other engineers that we can make a perfect record.
The Ultimate Mic Guide: The microphone is the first link in the chain to get sounds from the real world into your recorder.
Phat Beat: How to get a fat dance sound from a small studio.
Monitoring Explained: Decent audio monitoring is essential for any studio, yet is often overlooked.
To Pre or Not to Pre: Are expensive mic preamps a necessity or a luxury?
How to Record Percussion: What to do to get those pings ringing.
Reference CDs: A subjective selection of commercial CDs useful as a mastering measure.
Higher Frequencies in the 3-18K Region Make All the Difference: When it comes to digital recording, every bit counts.
Roger Nichols' Recording Guide: Outline of do's and dont's for project studio recording.
Can You Hear the Difference?: Are differences in the sound quality of 16-, 20-, and 24-bit converters audible in the real world?
Mastering at Home: Forum discussion on getting the ideal final sound.
Compression Q&A: All it is... is an automatic volume knob that turns down the signal a certain amount, based on the settings.
Secrets of Mixing: There's a lot to mixing than applying EQ, compression and other sound-shaping tools.
The Myth of Digital Sound: Computers crash. Hard drives lose data. If all the one's and zeros worked perfectly every time, none of these problems would occur.
Great-Sounding Commercial CDs: Commercial CDs that allow us to hear the end result of the biggies who are making musical history.
Hotter than Hell: There is one fact that reviewers of Rush's 'Vapor Trails' have all left out: this CD sounds like dogshit!
Vocals And Emotional Dynamic Range: How to enhance vocals by knowing the lyrics and applying some production tricks.
Practical Mixing: Hands-on advice to help you improve the fundamentals of your mixing technique.
EQual Opportunity: Various types of equalizer and tips on how EQ should best be applied to your recordings.
Monitors vs. Hi-Fi Speakers: Loudspeakers are traditionally designed for either monitor or hi-fi applications, but is there actually any difference?
Let Voices Ring!:Techniques and gear for recording vocal tracks.
Rush Rolls Again: The prog-rock trio's four multidisc concert albums showcase their virtuosity more accurately than their well-wrought studio discs.
Akai DPS24: Akai's new 24-track recording and mixing workstation continues the expansion of their DPS multitracker concept with technology derived from the company's renowned post-production machines.

RECORDING

Basic Overdubbing: How to get great results when creating arrangements one track at a time.
Creative Blocks: Maintaining creativity and a positive attitude in the studio.

MIXING/MASTERING

20 Tips for Mixing: Until you've gained plenty of experience in mixing music, the process can seem very frustrating.
Getting the 'Produced' Sound: Why is it that some perfectly well-recorded songs sound like demos, while others sound like top commercial tracks?
Basic Notes on Mixing: Where to start and what to do with different sound sources.
Basic Notes on Mastering: How to get that finished pro sound.
Ten Tips for Nailing a Mix: Mixing, like any art, can't be reduced to a formula. All that counts is the finished product, which means there is, literally, any number of ways to proceed.
20 Tips on Home Mastering: There's more tp making the final stereo mixes than using a good pair of ears.
The Ideal Monitor Setup: Some tips on setting up your room so that your mixes always sound their best.
Mixdown Formats: There are now lots of different ways to make a stereo master recording of your final mix, so how do you work out which one is best for you?
Practical Mixing: Hands-on advice to help you improve the fundamentals of your mixing technique.
Mixing Multitracked Drums: With drum machines and samplers becoming increasingly prominent in music production, mixing real drums is becoming something of a lost art.
When Hearing Starts To Drift: You ever notice that some shows are really bright, I mean "ouch" kinda crazy painful hurt your ears bright and wonder what the engineer is thinking?
DirectX Mastering Tools For PC: Many home and project studio owners are interested in mastering as a way to add that professional sheen to their recordings. The newest way to do this is with iZotope's new DirectX mastering tool for PC.
Improving Stereo Mixes: How you can give your mixes more stereo depth and width.

TECHNICAL PIECES

Understanding and Preserving Dynamic Range: How much dynamic range is enough depends on many factors and is usually a subjective decision.
MIDI Matters: How to sync your MIDI sequences to audio tracks you've already recorded.
How to Set Optimized Gain Structure: The first thing to determine in the system is the amount of loss due to distance.

DIGITAL RECORDERS/WORKSTATIONS

DPS24: Akai's top-of-the-line portable DAW promises a host of new features.
Korg PXR4: A fully functioning, palm-sized, four-track personal studio is put to the test.
Akai DPS16: Akai's latest digital recorder offers 24-bit/96kHz potential.
Sweet 16: If you're looking to invest in a 16-track digital multitracker, their extensive feature sets can make it very difficult to decide which to buy.
Akai DPS16: A 16-track hard disk recorder with built-in mixing, effects, and 24-bit/96kHz capability.
A Night with Tascam's Pocketstudio 5: There are a number of excellent features to the Tascam Pocketstudio 5. The size, for one, is a major selling point.
Field of Dreams: The number of hard-disk recorders on the market continues to grow, and there is a recorder for every task and almost every budget.
Pocket Socket: Zoom's PS02 Palm Studio is the same size as a pack of 20, and you can give up smoking!
Roland VS2480: Roland's eagerly awaited new flagship VS workstation builds on the success of the VS1680 and VS1880.
Analog Magnetism: In these digital days, is there still a place for the good old analogue cassette Portastudio? Tascam clearly think so, having just released upgraded versions of two of their most recent models.
Sweet 16: If you're looking to invest in a 16-track digital multitracker, you should check out these five machines.
The Tascam 788's Silver Service: The originators of the Portastudio concept, have updated their idea into today's world of 24-bit digital hard disk recording.
Not another DAW: Yamaha's new AW2816 audio workstation appears to offer much of the functionality of the acclaimed AW4416, but at an even lower price point.
Zoom Power: Zoom's 1044 is a 10-track stand-alone unit packed with bass and drum sounds.
The Hardware Advantage: Digital Audio Workstations integrate everything into one box -- but will future generations reverse this trend?
Tascam CDRW2000 CD Recorder: If you want more professional features for not much more money, then Tascam's new CDRW2000 is well worth checking out.
Track Star: Fostex have broken a price-barrier in this section of the digital multitracker market, providing 16-track recording, editing and mixing within their new, compact VF16.
Yamaha D24 MO: The eight-track digital recorder has become a standard building block at virtually every level of the recording industry.
BOSS BR8: Boss's guitarist-friendly digital eight-track includes not only recording, mixing and effects processing, but also guitar tuner, phrase trainer and basic drum machine.
Akai DPS16: Competition in the world of 16-track recording workstations is hotting up, and Akai's new DPS16 looks to be a prime contender, with its impressive user interface and 24-bit/96kHz capabilities.
Yamaha AW4416: Could this be the machine to put Yamaha at the top of the heap?
Fostex FD4: Though the FD4 doesn't have a built-in recording drive has been designed to be almost as easy to use as a cassette multitracker.
Yamaha MD4s: Yamaha's new MiniDisc multitracker is up there with the best of them in terms of both ergonomics and sound quality.
Roland VS1880: Roland's 24-bit VS workstation again raises the stakes in the all-in-one hardware market.
Korg D1600: Korg have seriously upgraded their original D16, adding a 'double O' for good measure.
Akai DPS12: Akai build on their years of expertise in stand-alone digital recorders with a truly portable personal multitracker.
Tascam 788: Tascam, the originators of the Portastudio concept have updated their idea into today's world of 24-bit digital hard disk recording.
Roland VS1680: In the space of just two years, Roland have doubled the power of their hard disk multitrack concept, going from the eight tracks of the VS880 to the 16 of their latest baby.

MICROPHONES

Shure KSM141: The 141 can capture the nuances of a room without any signs of coloration.
Studio Projects B3 and TB1: Those on a budget cannot go wrong with either microphone.
KSM27 Cardioid: Shure has managed admirably to produce a value-priced vocal mic worthy of the KSM lineage.
AKG C900: Gets high marks for its sonic qualities, handling noise abatement and off-axis rejection capability.
The V69: MXL's most affordable tube microphone yet.
Superlux CMH8 Series: The price war in the budget condenser mic market gets even more fierce with the launch of this new range of large-diaphragm models.
Marshall Mics: Low-cost condenser microphones from Marshall Electronics' MXL range.
Pure Sound: Two new models which make large-diaphragm capacitor and valve microphone sounds more affordable than ever.
Polar Exploration: The differences between mic patterns and the applications to which they're suited.
Mic Mechanics: Answers to some of the most common queries on how to choose and use microphones.
Miking Acoustics: Valuable techniques of miking acoustic instruments.
Electret Dreams: AKG's affordable C4000B is the first dual-diaphragm, multi-pattern mic with an electret capsule.
Considering Capacitors: The workings of capacitor mics and discusses their advantages for studio recording.
Groovy sticks: Groove Tubes' trio of microphones -- the AM11, AM30 and AM40 -- offer a choice of diaphragm and circuit designs at competitive prices.
Shure KSM27: This mic is closer to that of a high-end model than its price might lead you to believe and the standard of engineering is excellent.
Audio Technica AT3031/AT3032 AT's new models prove that back-electret designs can offer performance to rival conventional capacitor mics.
Microphone Shootout: A highly personal approach to finding out which mics work best for your music.
CAD M177 & M179: US mic manufacturers CAD move in on the affordable end of the market with two new large-diaphragm models.
AKG C2000B: AKG's versatile new back-electret, fixed cardioid microphone offers classy performance at an affordable price.
Red5 Audio RV8/RV10: Just when you thought large-diaphragm capacitor mics couldn't get any more affordable, along come these fiercely competitive models.
Audio Technica AT3031/3032: AT's new models prove that back-electret designs can offer performance to rival conventional capacitor mics.

MONITORS

Yamaha MSP3: Speakers for those on a budget in need of nearfield powered monitors.
Indigo Three: A compact monitor from a new British company that gives established names a run for the money.
Studio Monitors 2002: The old standard monitors that were so popular 10 years ago won't necessarily cut it in today's production environment.
Tannoy Reveal: Tannoy's contender in the low-cost active studio monitor stakes is quite a performer.
Yamaha MSP3: Does this affordable new powered speaker from Yamaha have what it takes to handle project studio mixing?
Behringer B2031 Truth: A new active monitor designed to deliver professional studio accuracy at a home-studio price.
Roland DS90A: Roland's DS90 'reference monitor loudspeakers' have recently benefitted from an upgrade.

DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSORS

Yamaha REV500: Yamaha's latest dedicated reverb belies the quality and controllability the unit offers.
Line 6 Echo Pro: Line 6's acclaimed Delay Modeler pedal gets a rackmount makeover.

HEADPHONES

Sennheiser HD600: Sennheiser's flagship open-backed model, representing the state of the art in conventional moving-coil transducer design.
Sony MDR7506/7509: Two pairs of high-quality headphones for discerning studio users.

TIPS/TUTORIALS

Record Company in a Basement: Musicians with their basement project studios are always talking about cutting demos and presenting them to a record company in the hopes of landing a big record deal.
Ten Things to Know Before Recording Digital
Want the Lowdown on How to EQ Your Next Recording Project?
Home Recording Basics: Sound advice on how to get started and which gear to get.
Home Recording Options: It is now possible for almost anyone to create professional quality recordings at home for an amazingly low price.
20 Tips for Creating Realistic Sequenced Drum Parts: Music mythology has it that real drummers are illiterate, beer-swilling louts with about as much musicality as a dead dog. Nevertheless, it can be hard to find an acceptable substitute.
Effective Drum Programming: The debate's been going on for as long as drum machines have been around: can they really sound human?
Choosing a Recording Setup: Where once the only recording option was tape, you can now put a whole studio inside a desktop PC or opt for an all-in-one recording and mixing hardware solution.
Audio Cables & Wiring: All tangled up when it comes to audio leads? Here are the answers to the most common queries on the subject.
The Truth about Demos: how to prepare for recording one and avoid wasting lots of time, tape, and money.
Compiling an Album on CD-R: CD-R recorders and blank CD-Rs are now so inexpensive that it's more cost-effective to archive finished mixes to CD-R than to DAT.
20 Tips on Using Effects and Processors: Good info on the need to listen and apply effects subtly.
Metre & Rhyme: How you can use the sounds and rhythms of words to make your song lyrics more memorable.
It's a Sequencer, Stupid!: Tips and techniques for creating more convincing programmed rhythm parts in a sequencer.
Short & Sweet: How to improve your lyric writing by using fewer words to say more.
Repetitive Strain Injury: (RSI) could curtail your musical career, so it's well worthwhile taking a look at these web sites to find out how you can avoid it.

PROFILES

Left of Cool: Bela Fleck's tale of his release from bondage.
Return to The Centre of the Earth: After many years of planning, Rick Wakeman has succeeded in putting on a show that is a worthy successor to follow his theatrical '70s son et lumi�re extravaganzas.
Recording 'Darktown': The release of a new album by ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is usually a cause for celebration.
Adaptable Pro: As someone who's been hugely successful both in his native Britain and his adopted home of the USA, Peter Collins has a uniquely international perspective on record production.
Wizard of Buzz: One of the original pioneers of electronic music in Britain, David Vorhaus has remained at the cutting edge of the genre for over 30 years.
The Mix Master's Voice: Jon Astley is perhaps best known for his award-winning work remastering classic albums from the likes of The Who, Abba and George Harrison.
From Horse Racer to Home Recorder: Based in one rented room of a large farmhouse in West Somerset, Sarah Edwards' modest studio now allows her to play, record, mix and master all her own material.
Mics for Recording Live Strings: Gregg Jackman has been engineering hit records for a substantial part of his professional life, and has a track record that reads like a Who's Who of pop music.
Composing for TV: A visit to the unique personal studio of Elizabeth Parker, one of Britain's best-known composers of music for television.