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This is where you will find information, tips and advice about using audio interfaces, along with announcements about the latest models as they are released. We also provide news and information of general interest to musicians, producers, and engineers.

Home Recording Vocals with Acoustic Guitar

Sander Briones's picture
Recording vocals & acoustic guitar

Thanks to online sharing sites like Soundcloud and YouTube, recording vocals simultaneously with acoustic guitar has become a common routine for many independent artists. If you play and sing and you want to get your music heard, here are some tips and recommendations to help you get great sounding tracks by capturing your live singing and guitar playing performance.

My Best DI Box Recommendations for Recording & Live

Jason Horton's picture
Radio Pro D2 Stereo Di Box

Whenever you're recording instruments directly, rather than through a mic, you'll get better results using a DI box rather than plugging directly into your audio interface. If you're unsure which DI Box is best for your home recording situation then read on...

Although the recommendations I've provided below are from the perspective of recording, I've presented versatile direct input boxes which can be used for live performance as well.

Indie Artist Summit

Jason Horton's picture
Indie Artist Summit Nashville 2015

I received an email from Dave Kusek who is the former CEO of Berkleemusic and founder of New Artist Model, telling me about their upcoming Indie Artist Summit which will take place in Nashville from February 20th through 22nd.

I really like their approach stating "No panels or bitching and moaning about the music industry - just live presentations on how to get things done."

Universal Audio Wins 2015 TEC Award - 3rd Year in a Row!

Jason Horton's picture

This is an amazing achievement - for the third year running Universal Audio has won the audio interface category which is called "Computer Audio Hardware" at the 2015 TEC Awards.

This year it was the Apollo Twin that won it for them - it's their 2x6 Mac Thunderbolt audio interface.

What makes this feat even more impressive is the competition they overcame to win the award. The other nominees were MOTU's 1248, RME's FireFace 802, Focusrite's RedNet 6 MADI Bridge, Antelope Audio's Zen Studio, and Lynx's Aurora TB.

BeatStep Pro from Arturia

Jason Horton's picture
BeatStep Pro

Arturia really hit the ground running this year at NAMM!

Their new combined MIDI controller and Step Sequencer, BeatStep Pro, is an interesting improvement on the popular BeatStep which they launched at last year's NAMM.

This year they're showing off the upgraded version which was based upon user feedback.

As people have observed at NAMM this year, with the two main sequencers and the separate drum sequencer it's almost like having three sequencers in one.

Here's the official announcement from Arturia...

Pro Tools for Free - Pro Tools First

Jason Horton's picture
Free Pro Tools

It's been a very long time since there was a good free version of Pro Tools - it was back on Mac OS9 or Windows 98/ME.

However at NAMM 2015 Avid have announced a new free version of Pro Tools to coincide with the release of the commercial 12.0 version - they're calling the free version Pro Tools First.

Les Paul Reference Monitors

Jason Horton's picture
Les Paul Reference Monitors

Not only did Les Paul revolutionize the modern electric guitar, he also did the same for multitrack recording, overdubbing, phasing effects and tape delay. His technical achievements also had him admitted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame in addition to being admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

New Home Studio Workstation Furniture from Zaor

Jason Horton's picture
Zaor's new Miza Jr Workstation

Ordinary office desks have a few problems when it comes to home recording setups with dual computer monitors, multiple sets of speaker monitors, music keyboards and computer keyboards. Zaor are a company that specialize in making furniture specifically designed for use in professional and home recording studios, and their latest offering makes it much easier to set up a less cluttered work environment.

Warm Up Your Sound With Affordable Tube Preamps

Andy Atkins's picture
ART Tube MP OPL Microphone Preamp

Why are Valve or Tube Mic Preamps So Revered?

A much sought-after addition to a recording setup, home or professional, is a tube pre-amp/channel strip. This is generally added to inject some colour, or character to the vocal sound recorded, bringing a sense of analogue warmth.

Even within DAW recording set-ups, a classic preamp software plugin is usually regarded as a 'must-have'.

5 Tips On Songwriting

songwriting tips

One of the hardest parts of being a musician is definitely songwriting. It is really a skill that isn’t that easy to teach and you really need to find you own unique ways of getting inspiration.Yet it is also something that you should try to constantly improve to ensure you don’t run out of fresh idea.

Here are five tips that might give your songwriting a boost.

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