Articles

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.

How Can A Musical Instrument Help Your Love Life?

Females (and males) are very tough creatures to read and understand and gaining the attention of the person that you fancy can often be pretty difficult. There is no disputing that the human form is complex beyond imagination and conventional methods only work on certain people, for others you have to explore rather unusual avenues.

The power of music and the connotations of playing an instrument or being part of a band are extremely positive for anyone looking to woo a member of the opposite sex.

Studio 50USB Monitors from Behringer

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The new Studio 50USB monitor speakers unveiled last week at NAMM are ideal for home recording. Running off USB means you don't have to take up any of your output channels on your audio interface, and they're also specially magnetically shielded so they can be placed right next to your computer monitors (all types including old CRTs) without any interference between the two.

Generating Social Buzz for your Music

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Social sharing music

We've all been told, and correctly so, that building a following on social media is a great way to reach out to new audiences, however this is often a bit more difficult than it sounds.

Perhaps you've tried following people who you feel might like your music, but you get stuck with the follow limits Twitter places on you - daily limits and a total limit of 2,000 follows until your followback ratio gets large enough.

Berkleemusic Founder Launches Online Course for Independent Musicians

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Dave Kusek's New Artist Model

Dave Kusek is the founder and former CEO of Berkleemusic and he has just launched a new venture providing an 8 week course to teach indie musicians "How to think like an entrepreneur".

The new course, which is not associated with Berkleemusic, is called "New Artist Model".

Some of the things the course will be teaching includes:

Is Using Music Loops To Create Original Music Cheating?

music loop

Like everything else in life, music is constantly evolving. To prove this point one only needs to look at the history of music. At some point a stick was picked up and brought down again and again on a rock or a tree to form the very first rhythm. That behavior persisted for a very long time with minor tweaks to the beat and, eventually, a few new and equally crude instruments were added. But still, music, as it was back then, served its purpose and told a story.

How To Maximize Your Experience With A Good Speaker Hire Service

Professional sound systems vary in size from the small units best suited for the living room to more powerful HiFi systems that can rock a concert hall. However, professional sound systems can cost thousands of dollars if not more. This is why if you just need a pro system for a few days or a night a speaker hire service will be your best bet.

Creative Packaging Must Still Be Present As Digital Music Overcomes CD's

digital music cover art

There is no doubt that the UK and the world is moving towards digital music downloads over purchasing the actual CD or compact disc album. As a matter of fact, this year marks the spot for the UK where the digital sales have overtaken CD sales. Before CD's there were tapes and records. Each of these options were physically purchased albums in which customers would browse in person and make their selection. Obviously, modern digital options have been available and evolving for quite some time.

New Portable Vocal Booth Pro 2 Edition from Editors Keys

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Portable Vocal Booth Pro 2 Edition

Building a permanent vocal booth can be a little expensive for many home recording setups, so if your acoustics aren't the best for recording vocals then perhaps you should consider getting a portable vocal booth like this one.

This portable vocal booth comes with a heavy-duty floor stand and desk stand adapters so you can use it both standing and sitting, although I always recommend standing if possible to record vocals whether they be singing or voice-overs.

Paul White's Producer's Manual is now on iPad

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Screenshot from the iPad version of The Producer's Manual

As you may know, Paul White is the Editor-in-Cheif of Sound On Sound Magazine and has been for some years now.

Two years ago he wrote the book "The Producer's Manual" which was a big hit with both budding and professional music producers.

The new iPad version includes all the content from the original paper edition, plus it has a few extras including over an hour of video content.

Three Time Grammy Award Winning Producer David Bottrill

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David Bottrill

David Bottrill is a successful producer who has worked with artists such as Rush, Peter Gabriel, Kid Rock, Godsmack, Mudvayne, Smashing Pumpkins, Coheed and Cambria, and Silverchair.

As you can see from his credits, he's not afraid to work in a range of genres.

His latest projects have been in support of several Canadian artists including The Post War from Vancouver, Ménage, (a second generation Portuguese band of 3 family members), Broken Sons, and Dreamers.

Some Good Websites to Promote Your Music Online

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music promotion sites
So you've just finished recording and producing your masterpiece, which you're quietly confident is good enough to really get things going for your band, but you're sitting there asking yourself the question...

"Where can I promote my music?"

Theoretically, the internet has lowered the barriers and removed the gatekeepers to public attention so it should be easy to get your music heard, right?

TEC Award Nominations for Audio Interfaces

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TEC Awards

The nominations for the 29th Annual TEC Awards have been announced, and the Computer Audio Hardware category, where audio interfaces are entered, is going to be quite interesting.

The audio interfaces competing for the coveted shiny trophy (pictured left) cover a wide range of specifications, performance, and price, which I'm sure will make it difficult for those who are voting this year.

The nominees are:

Steinberg release firmware upgrade for UR824 & UR28M USB Audio Interfaces

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UR28M Desktop USB Audio Interface

Firmware updates often tend to be a little boring - usually they only offer minor enhancements and bug fixes, but this one is quite impressive and will make existing owners very happy and probably entice musicians, producers, and engineers to take a second look at these two USB audio interfaces.

Do I need a DI Box to record with an Audio Interface?

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Di Box
Before I answer the question I'll take a step back and explain what a DI Box is and what it's used for. Most music and audio equipment which receives an analog audio signal, such as mixing consoles and PA amplifiers, are designed to receive that signal at Line Level. This is the level which is output by most equipment such as microphones, keyboards, samplers, drum machines etc.

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