Archives
December 2009
The holidays are coming, and the December issue of RECORDING has something very special for our readers -- our 2009 Holiday Gift Guide, with coverage of 33 products ranging from the fun to the functional to the funky. And please note, these aren't just press releases, these are actual reviews with hands-on test data in studios and on stage. Wouldn't it be nice to shop for music technology gear and know that someone tried it and liked it? Now you can, with the nearly three dozen reviews in our Gift Guide!
Our December issue covers interesting solutions to studio problems, where we take a closer look at common questions and come up with practical and sometimes unusual solutions. Got a vocalist in your studio who's nervous and needs help? We offer tips on getting the best possible performance. Need a way to isolate a vocalist or instrumentalist that doesn't take up a ton of room and can be quickly taken apart and moved without tools? Check out the Colton 7 Booth. Are your mixes muddy and flabby in the low end? Learn the secrets of creating tracks with more Boom and less Muck.
Also in this issue: a look at gear repairs and upgrades for readers who want to get more for their money, and the launch of our new Keyboard Column, where we take a recording-centric look at pianos, organs, hardware synths, rack sound modules, and other black'n'white noisemakers.
We also have reviews of a new condenser mic from Mojave Audio, a classy set of speakers from ATC, a pocket-sized field recorder from TASCAM, and a sneak preview of the Novation Launchpad controller -- we got to work with it before the world knew it existed, and you can learn from our experiences.
You have problems in your studio? We have solutions that are easy, practical, and fun, and you'll find them in the December RECORDING!
Pick it up now on the newsstand... and so you get your next issue early (and save on cost), why not hit the big red Subscribe Now button on this page and have RECORDING delivered to your door each month?
RECORDING's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide
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Reviewed by
Mike Metlay, Scott Dorsey, Paul Vnuk Jr., Lorenz Rychner, and Nick Casares
RECORDING's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay, Scott Dorsey, Paul Vnuk Jr., Lorenz Rychner, and Nick Casares
Not just press releases -- actual reviews of over 30 products, so you can stuff your stocking with presents you can trust, from Alesis, Alien Apparatus, Aphex, Auralex, Big Fish Audio, Blue, CAD Audio, Cakewalk, GForce, Konig & Meyer, Latch Lake, ......Expand
Not just press releases -- actual reviews of over 30 products, so you can stuff your stocking with presents you can trust, from Alesis, Alien Apparatus, Aphex, Auralex, Big Fish Audio, Blue, CAD Audio, Cakewalk, GForce, Konig & Meyer, Latch Lake, Peterson, Puremagnetik, Samson, Shure, Sony, SPL, TC Electronic, Ultrasone, and Vital Arts.
Read the details in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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Mojave Audio MA-201fet
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Reviewed by
Dave Martin
Mojave Audio MA-201fet |
Reviewed by
Dave Martin
Mojave Audio’s latest large-diaphragm condenser mic is a solid-state design with an interesting range of applications.
While Dave Royer is best known as as the designer of ribbon microphones for Royer Labs, he started out de......Expand
Mojave Audio’s latest large-diaphragm condenser mic is a solid-state design with an interesting range of applications.
While Dave Royer is best known as as the designer of ribbon microphones for Royer Labs, he started out designing tube microphones, preamps, compressors and custom electronics. Royer started Mojave Audio in 1985, but the company has only recently begun releasing products to the public. The first two microphones released by Mojave Audio were the MA-200, a large-diaphragm, vacuum tube condenser microphone with a fixed cardioid pattern (reviewed January 2007) and the MA-100, a small-diaphragm tube mic with interchangeable cardioid and omnidirectional capsules (reviewed May 2008). Let’s now look at the latest from Mojave Audio, the MA-201fet...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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TASCAM DR-07
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Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
TASCAM DR-07 |
Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
TASCAM’s tiny successor to the DR-1 puts a lot of portable recording power into your pocket.
TASCAM is a division of TEAC Corporation, and both names have long stood for recording and other electronic gear. If you’re middle-......Expand
TASCAM’s tiny successor to the DR-1 puts a lot of portable recording power into your pocket.
TASCAM is a division of TEAC Corporation, and both names have long stood for recording and other electronic gear. If you’re middle-aged you’ll remember the first TASCAM Portastudio that started the home-recording craze to which we’re all addicted now. Some of us are so long in the tooth that we even remember the groundbreaking and liberating TEAC A-3340S Simul-sync 4-track (yes—real analog reel-to-reel tape with overdubbing and layering capability—a ’70s Wow!).
Always keeping up with the times, TASCAM has a fine line of small but potent digital recorders, where the multitracking DP models are the successors to the Portastudio (DP=Digital Portastudio), while the DR models are stereo recorders...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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ATC SCM 11 Passive Monitors
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Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
ATC SCM 11 Passive Monitors |
Reviewed by
Lorenz Rychner
These classy monitors offer clarity and precision for the discerning listener.
ATC hails from the UK and has been going since 1976, initially in the PA component business, and for many years now producing active and passive ......Expand
These classy monitors offer clarity and precision for the discerning listener.
ATC hails from the UK and has been going since 1976, initially in the PA component business, and for many years now producing active and passive monitors of varying designs. A quick look on the net shows that some of its higher-end models are hotly debated by hi-fi aficionados for whom money is no object.
The SCM 11, while not cheap, is the most affordable ATC pro-application monitor available in the USA from its American distributor TransAudio Group...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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Preview: Novation Launchpad
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Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Preview: Novation Launchpad |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
We got this new Ableton Live control surface even before it was announced, and we’re giving you the lowdown just as it hits the streets.
I was given a chance to try Novation’s yet-to-ship Launchpad controller during the mont......Expand
We got this new Ableton Live control surface even before it was announced, and we’re giving you the lowdown just as it hits the streets.
I was given a chance to try Novation’s yet-to-ship Launchpad controller during the month of October, and I’d like to share my initial thoughts with you all. This is a preview, not a full review—the software was still in beta—but you’ll get the gist pretty quickly.
The Launchpad is primarily marketed as a tool for Ableton Live users, a new control surface that combines event triggering in Session View with a set of intuitive mixer control features. Because it ships with Novation’s Automap 3 software, it can also function as a generic control surface for almost any DAW, with even more possibilities in the future...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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Good As New (or maybe better)
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Reviewed by
Paul J. Stamler
Good As New (or maybe better) |
Reviewed by
Paul J. Stamler
We throw away toasters and DVD players when they break, but with audio gear, fixing rather than trashing can bring huge benefits.
Times are gettin’ hard—gee, you noticed it too? Tough times put a crimp in our obsession; even......Expand
We throw away toasters and DVD players when they break, but with audio gear, fixing rather than trashing can bring huge benefits.
Times are gettin’ hard—gee, you noticed it too? Tough times put a crimp in our obsession; even if your name isn’t Lehman, this probably isn’t the best time to spring for a big gear purchase.
Bad times call for creative solutions; we don’t want to give this thing up completely. So it’s time to regroup; maybe haul out the old mixer that’s been in the basement since before the kids arrived. Or maybe look at Ebay with a gimlet eye; it’s possible to get older gear for peanuts if you’re careful. We’re not talking “vintage” here, just old.
Why bother? Because some of that older stuff, properly rehabbed, can outperform a lot of modern equivalents. If you take a gadget in working-but-worn condition and do some simple cleanup and replacement work on it, you can wind up with a more-than-respectable piece of gear....
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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RECORDING'S Keyboard Column
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Reviewed by
Devon Brent
RECORDING'S Keyboard Column |
Reviewed by
Devon Brent
Over 80% of our readers record with them, so it’s time they got a column of their own! Dive into the wonders of great-sounding gear that doesn’t bog down your computer or require installers... just hit the keys and make music.
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Over 80% of our readers record with them, so it’s time they got a column of their own! Dive into the wonders of great-sounding gear that doesn’t bog down your computer or require installers... just hit the keys and make music.
Recording software synthesizers and effects from within a DAW is so much easier than recording from outside the box: no microphones, no cable hassles, no poor-quality preamps, no outside noise to mess up a take—the list goes on. But out there in the wild there exist hardware synthesizers, both rackmountable units and keyboards with sound brains, that provide workflows and sounds that have not been emulated in software. Some are highly regarded for their individual sound character, others are simply great gigging tools that can also do a good job in the studio. Whatever your reasons for wanting to incorporate synths' sounds that didn’t come as softsynths—keep reading, the effort will be well worth it....
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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More Boom, Less Muck
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Written by
Scott Dorsey
More Boom, Less Muck |
Written by
Scott Dorsey
We all want good powerful tight punchy bass to impress our clients and wow our audiences, but how do we get there without making our tracks sound muddy? The answers aren’t magic, just good solid engineering.
A lot of musical......Expand
We all want good powerful tight punchy bass to impress our clients and wow our audiences, but how do we get there without making our tracks sound muddy? The answers aren’t magic, just good solid engineering.
A lot of musical styles rely on the low frequencies to add excitement to the sound or to carry the all-important beat. In the case of lots of dance music styles, it’s the whole point of the music. When this is the case, you want it to be loud and you don’t want to sacrifice sound quality for loudness. Lee “Scratch” Perry demands “Maximum bass at all frequencies!” How can you make him happy?
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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RECORDING'S Vocal Column
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Written by
Cliff Goldmacher
RECORDING'S Vocal Column |
Written by
Cliff Goldmacher
A first-call producer’s take on getting the best from vocal performances.
As a producer and engineer, I’ve worked with hundreds of singers from Grammy winning to first time amateurs. Over the years, I’ve discovered several c......Expand
A first-call producer’s take on getting the best from vocal performances.
As a producer and engineer, I’ve worked with hundreds of singers from Grammy winning to first time amateurs. Over the years, I’ve discovered several constants that must be present for a session to run smoothly and yield a great vocal performance no matter who the vocalist may be.
Some of these constants are technical, such as mic and mic pre/compressor choices, headphone mixes, and efficient vocal comping, while others are emotional, like good communication—otherwise described as “ways to tell a singer they’re ‘flat’ without using that word.” It’s with a good balance of technique and communication that you’ll be able to help a singer give you their best...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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The Colton 7 Vocal Booth
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Written by
Frank Wright
The Colton 7 Vocal Booth |
Written by
Frank Wright
This innovative booth design breaks down for transport and goes together without tools. Learn how it works, learn where to get one, or maybe be inspired to build your own.
Lorenz Rychner: "On my latest visit to Orange County......Expand
This innovative booth design breaks down for transport and goes together without tools. Learn how it works, learn where to get one, or maybe be inspired to build your own.
Lorenz Rychner: "On my latest visit to Orange County, Frank Wright proudly showed me around his new studio, and in back there was this impressive vocal booth, at the time still unfinished. He showed me how it was designed to snap together, despite being of quite massive construction, making it possible to dismantle it and carry it to another location if needed.
I wondered out loud if that might be suitable for a home studio? Frank assured me that it could be..."
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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2009 Annual Index
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Written by
Mike Metlay
2009 Annual Index |
Written by
Mike Metlay
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was a lot of cool articles, is what it was!
You'll find it on page 62 of the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was a lot of cool articles, is what it was!
You'll find it on page 62 of the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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Fade Out
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Written by
David Summer
Fade Out |
Written by
David Summer
Creating a Holiday CD.
As I’m writing this, it’s a beautiful warm August day. The birds are singing and the deck still needs painting. Ebullient Christmas dreams should still be just a twinkle in my mind’s eye. So, why am I ......Expand
Creating a Holiday CD.
As I’m writing this, it’s a beautiful warm August day. The birds are singing and the deck still needs painting. Ebullient Christmas dreams should still be just a twinkle in my mind’s eye. So, why am I sitting here making myself think about treetops glistening and children listening? Because it’s time to get started on my annual holiday CD.
A CD of your own holiday recordings would almost certainly be more appreciated than that purple tie, a 108-piece screwdriver set, or (dare I even mention it) the perpetual fruitcake...
Read more in the December 2009 issue of RECORDING!
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