As yet another step in the world of accessibility in home recording, the UK's National Philharmonia Orchestra has made thousands of recorded instrument samples of their orchestra available for free online. Each instrument in the standard orchestra, along with multiple percussion patches, can be downloaded directly from their website.
If you self-publish your music, you may want to consider making your own album art. Creating it isn't as difficult as it seems. By following these three tips you can produce a professional looking cover for your music on your own.
One of the lesser known, but powerful, mixing and mastering tools is sidechaining. Sidechaining allows you to use the audio from an auxiliary track to trigger an effect. In other words, it allows you to pinpoint elements of your mix, and how they relate to each other, much more specifically. Here's an overview of sidechaining and how it can be used.
Following up on our last post on the basic technical rules of vocal recording, here are three basics for getting the best performance from your singer. A better performance makes for a better recording and, ultimately, a better mix and master. Stick to these principles and you'll be on the right track to getting a great sound.
While there are endless ways to record vocals, it's actually not that tricky to get a good, clean recording from a singer. Here are three basic tips for recording vocals that are easy and will almost always get you a great sound.
Professional publications are a great way to keep up with the latest news and get tips on your recording, mixing and mastering. You can glean a lot of understanding from reading interviews of producers and in-depth gear reviews. These three magazines are a great place to start if you want to develop your craft and keep up with the rapidly-changing music business.
The LA-2A takes the top spot in the world of leveling amplifiers. From its first release in the 1960's to the numerous plugins that have been modeled directly after it, the LA-2A has remained to be one of the most sought after pieces of mixing gear in the music business.
Berklee College of Music is now offering free eBooks on various subjects in professional music. With articles written by instructors in Berklee's online education program , the handbooks are full of great information. Here's an overview of the content offered and how you can sign up to get it.
Summer is just around the corner, and that means the music festival season is upon us. Each festivals offers a different lineup and different experience. So we thought to give you a quick rundown of some of the top ones you may want to check out this year.
A leveling amplifier is a dynamics processor that reduces the range between the louder and quieter parts of your track. In many ways it's interchangeable with a compressor, but, with fewer controllable parameters and an internal make-up amplification, it brings it own flavor to your mix and mastering process. Here's our brief overview of what a level amplifier is and how it can become a valuable asset in your studio.
By leveraging the Internet and today's recording technology, you can expand your list of musical collaborators and produce recordings with world-class artists for cheaper than ever. À la carte music collaboration means you can work with drummer in one city and a bass player in another, and have your mixing and mastering done across the world. Here are three practical tips for producing an album with à la carte collaboration.
HD music formats are gaining popularity thanks to more affordable high-end DACs and cheaper hard drive storage space. Mastering your music in an high-fidelity format enables you to put it on SACD, Blu-ray and digital download. It sounds better and enables you to sell your recordings at a higher profit margin. Check out these four reasons why you should consider mastering your music in HD...
HD music service Pono Music launched a Kickstarter campaign last week and reached it's fundraising goal in less than one day. Here's a breakdown of what the service will offer and why it aims to become the iTunes of high-fidelity digital music.
If you're distributing your music in MP3 format, you should take advantage of the ID3 tag technology that allows you to embed track names, album names, artist information, copyright, year and even album art into the MP3 file. This allows your fans to have all of the information they need to engage with your music and share it with others.
Recording music creates a lot of different files fast. This problematic when trying to go between studios with a project or trying to review older versions of a composition. It's easy to stay ahead of issues, though, by adopting a consistent and straightforward system for managing your digital recording files. By properly naming and organizing your content you can make the most of the flexibility and expansive storage space of the digital recording age.
