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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Learning Audio Post Production

December 26th, 2010

One of the newest trends in music is recording your own music at home. Though not everyone can do this, and those that do have to have some knowledge of what they are doing, it is easier than ever for a musician to get their ideas down into song form for personal satisfaction or for promotional use. Some can even make recordings at home that are so high quality they can be sold. Whatever the case, preparing a song and recording it are only part of the process. You have to know something about audio post production as well. That is what makes a good song sound amazing.

Some people like to add effects like reverb while they are recording. The problem with this is that you can not take that reverb off if you do not like it without re-recording those tracks. If you wait to add your effects in audio post production, you can take it off, put it back on, change the type, or tweak it in any way until you are happy with it. This can save a lot of time and can also save you from a lot of mistakes. What may sound good while recording may not sit well with you in post production, so keep the in mind.

Some make mistakes during audio post production by limiting how they listen to their mixes. You can use headphones and everything sounds good, but that is not where you should stop. Have a pair of poor speakers there, and listen through those. Some who are listening may only have a set of cheap speakers, and you want to know that your tunes will sound good through those. You should also burn a copy on a CD and listen to it in your car, in your own CD player, and anywhere else that you can. This helps you decide if you have created a good all around mix or if you have to start over with your audio post production.

In order to put all of these tips into use, you have to have the right equipment. This means buying a small mixing board that you can use with your home PC layout for recording at home. The right software is essential as well, so do some research to see what others are using, what they have found to be useful, and what industry pros recommend for home recording endeavors. You are going to spend some money, but you are not going to spend as much as you think.

Mastering audio post production is a lot like mastering every other part of making a song. You have to have a good song, you have to know how to make quality recordings, and you have to know how to make it sound just right. It can take a lot of practice. Your first try is never going to be great, but remember that this is the nature of recording. Learn as you go and don’t get discouraged. No one gets it right without a lot of practice, knowledge, and time.

How To, Music , ,

The Ultracurve DEQ 2496 – An All-Digital Behringer Equalizer Shakes the Game Up

October 25th, 2010

Anyone who is enthusiastic about audio quality – an audiophile music fan or a musician for instance – needs a full-featured modern equalizer in their audio arsenal. There are just too many places in the typical home studio or home theater where a few tweaks in the right frequencies can truly bring about unbelievable results – to pass this up.

To most people who will buy a Behringer Ultracurve DEQ 2496, the machine is practically an all-in-one audio tool bag – first off, you get your standard 31-band graphic EQ, you get your parametric EQ spread out over 10 bands, an RTA analyzer, an FFT (61 bands), a stereo width adjuster that can take your stereo signal and let you narrow or widen the sound stage at will. The best part is, the whole thing is digital – and it empowers you like nothing you can imagine.

Any lover of sound on a limited budget lives in a world of intolerable sonic imperfection. Any room you must choose to set your system up ends up being irregular, with the wrong kind of corners, or made of material that vibrates and buzzes. Unless you have the money to order a pair of half-ton Genelecs or Westlakes, your speakers probably have areas of irregular response too. And unless you’re young and healthy, your ears can stamp their own frequency response of anything incoming. This is where having an inexpensive DSP-filled digital EQ can be hard to pass up on.

Let’s get to some real world examples of how getting a Behringer equalizer can actually help you out. Let’s say that you buy a pair of speakers to set up in a large bedroom at home. You’d like to buy a sub to go with it, but getting the satellites and the sub to play together can be quite a tricky affair. Set up your Ultracurve DEQ2496 and you can find exactly where to have the satellites’ low-end fall off, and have the sub pick it up right there without getting a big hole in the crossover region. Do you play an electric guitar that’s a bit harsh in the midrange, only you don’t know what to do about it? Use this Behringer equalizer to zero in, and correct the offending frequency.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of using an all-digital equalizer before, you don’t know what you are missing. The surgical precision with which you can zero in on any part of the frequency field and do with it as you please is about the most empowering musical experience anyone has ever had. On Amazon, the device costs less than $300; but don’t let the low price discourage you – this is the most transparent, the most clean-sounding equalizer you ever saw. And that is a fact.

Music, Technology ,

The Electric Guitar Neck

October 23rd, 2010

Every musician will have a different way of explaining how to connect the guitar neck to the body of the instrument. In fact this act actually varies from one instrument to the other. There are many differ types. This can greatly differ and ranges from necks that are simply screwed onto the body of the instrument. An example of this would be such as in an electric guitar neck like the Fender Stratocaster to various types of glued joints.

Among all the professional repair people I have met over the years, I have discovered that there are essentially only four correct ways of attaching the guitar neck to the body using glued joints.

I have listed the 4 ways below:

1.) The first way is to use a dovetail joint. You would do this where the dovetail is cut into the very end of the guitar neck assembly and fits into a mating mortise in the instrument’s endblock. This is generally and most commonly used on acoustic and hollow-body electric guitars.

2.) Another great way is using a simpler mortise and tenon joint. This is in fact very similar which is similar to a dovetail joint. The only difference is that the tenon is straight instead of vastly tapered. In some instances, these joints are reinforced with many screws, nails or pins. However, since this joint is inherently weaker than a dovetail joint, it can usually only found on violins and other instruments with less string tension that that of these. Although, you can make this happen if you put in the time and work and energy to gee the job done.

3.) Another way is to use a double neck guitar with a neck that ends in a “foot” that is glued to the instrument body proper. This method is most commonly used in creating a more classical style and flamenco guitars. HINT: (The “foot” is on the bottom of the neck)

4.) By making guitar necks part of the body. This method is used on some solid-body electric guitars. In this situation, its when the piece of wood that is the neck runs the entire length of the instrument and is laminated to the entirely rest of the body. This makes an extremely strong and powerful joint.

The two main deciding factors on what exact type of neck joint to use:

1. Strength: The strength is a very important pat to consider. A great question to ask is will the joint hold under the instrument’s string tension without pulling out?

2. Reparability: This is another very important aspect to think about when your intros process. Can the actual and specific joint be simply repaired if needed?

Once you have this skill down, you can apply to any guitar neck or bass goat neck and get jamming on you guitar amp or bass guitar cabinet.

Music , , , , ,