Reviews of the tools of the trade for the Independent Musician
PreSonus Releases Studio One 5 When you invest in a DAW for your studio it is important to remember you are also investing in the company and their ability to continue to develop the software to not only innovate add new features but also to stay abreast (if not ahead) of the technology. PreSonus has […]
Making a Scene Presents a Review of the Pick Slinger There are a lot of gadgets and products for the guitarist out there, but once in a while one comes along that makes you think “Why didn’t I think of that”. The Pick Slinger is one of those products! Simple in it’s design it solves […]
Making a Scene Presents a Review of the PreSonus Eris 3.5 Media Reference Monitors I had gotten an invitation from Peachstate Audio, a local pro audio supplier to attend a PreSonus mixer and live sound demonstration a while back, and being a techno geek I always want to keep up with what is new, so […]
Making a Scene Reviews the Kemper Profiler www.kemper-amps.com When you have owned a recording studio for as long as I have you tend to collect amplifiers as part of the tools of the trade. I have amassed a collection of “Tone Monsters” that run from a 1964 Fender Vibrolux Reverb and a 68 Super Reverb […]
Making a Scene brings you a Review of the Warm Audio WA-273 Preamp What is the Neve 1073? When you think about the sound of the early 1970’s music you cannot escape the sound of Rupert Neve’s 1073 preamp and EQ! Starting at London’s Wessex Studio in 1970 Rupert Neve installed the first console with […]
Making a Scene Reviews The Plugin-Alliance Mega Bundle The Plugin-Alliance The Plugin Alliance is an umbrella company that pulls together a variety of software developers under a single digital marketing and authorization system. The companies that are now under this “alliance” are some of the industries top hardware and software developers with more slated to […]
There are a few essential purchases you can make for your recording studio setup that will impact your sound. One of those is your choosing the right preamps! Today we are going to look at the Warm Audio WA-412 their 4 channel preamp inspired by the API 3124 . Automated Processes Incorporated or API was […]
Making a Scene Presents a review of the Warm Audio WA 47 Microphone For anyone who has or is considering building a home studio, your microphone collection is one of the most critical investments you can make. Many of the classic microphones we would love to have are more often than not priced way out […]
Top 10 Wireless Guitar Systems Under $200 Guitar cables…let’s face it, they can be annoying. I like to think of them more like a leash that consistently gets tangled up. The good news is, these easily tangled inconvenient leashes (guitar cables) are relatively cheap. Especially if you’re in the earlier days of a startup band, […]
Making a Scene Present Top 4 In-Ear Monitor Systems Below $500 One of the most important aspects of a live performance is the ability of the performers to hear themselves onstage. For vocalists this prevents them from having to strain their voices and to feel the groove of the band. For many touring artists many […]
Making a Scene Presents a Review of the MOTU AVB Interfaces! Last Year it became clear it was time to invest in new AD/DA converters for my studio. I have been a fan of MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) interfaces for some time. I had started with their 2408 interfaces back in the early 2000’s […]
Top 4 Microphones For Recording Acoustic Guitar Under $100 Finding the right mic to produce the highest quality sound for your acoustic guitar can be difficult. Making things tougher is when your in the beginning stages of your home studio where budget is limited. The end goal for most is not necessarily to find a […]
Top 3 Wireless Guitar Systems For Bass On top of a high-quality reliable wireless instrument system, there are two solid factors that a wireless guitar system needs to be suitable for a bass guitar. A wireless guitar system needs to have a high dynamic range of at least 120dB. A wireless guitar system for bass […]
Making a Scene Takes a First Look at the Slate Digital “All Access Pass”! When a software company announces they will be having a major announcement in the coming days, one of the first things that come into my mind is “How Much is it Going to Cost Me”. I have been a “Everything” bundle […]
Making a Scene Presents Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp: Full Review About a week ago I was honored to try out the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp for a show. I didn’t know what to expect considering I have never even heard of the Pre-Amp. Overall, my review on The Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp is that it’s probably the best […]
Making a Scene presents a first look at the Audio Assault RM-2 Analog Channel This one has me excited, and not just because that’s my voice on the walkthrough video. I’ve been getting in touch with developers for a while asking if anyone was interested in modelling my Ramsa. I looked into Acustica’s Nebula technology, […]
Choosing the right Microphones for your home studio is one of the most important decisions you are going to make. The quality of your microphone will determine the quality of the sound that you capture. Some of the high end microphones can run you into the thousands, but fortunately there are some really good alternatives […]
Whether you are a home recording musician, or you own a commercial recording studio one of the biggest ongoing investments you make are for good quality plugins. Keeping up with what is new in analog modeling plugin technology can be daunting to say the least. If you are at all like me, you have a […]
The Effect Pedal Bass Players Need For Their Solos Dear fellow bass players, I’m going to speak a bit on the topic that increases our blood pressure. But we must face it, and we must find a way overcome it. It’s the topic of when we take the bass solo, the audience of non musicians don’t […]
Which Wireless Microphone’s Have The Longest Range? We know what you want, you want to jump in the audience as you crowd surf through out the entire Festival as you sing in to your wireless mic. Or maybe, that has absolutely nothing to do with the reason you want a long range wireless microphone. For […]
By Tony Hossri Performwireless.com John Pagano Band What Makes a Good Wireless Guitar System? Here it is, the million dollar question………..more like $500 or so. What makes a good wireless guitar system? When you google this question, what typically pops up are a bunch of payed ads of wireless guitar systems. Yet, never give you […]
Plugins I’ve Been Using That I Recommend Brandon S Hire The Noise Floor It’s not the tool, it’s the user. But as a blogger and content creator, I get to play with a lot of cool tools. Here’s a few of them that I highly recommend checking out. 1. The Plugins From My Walkthroughs. Obviously […]
You wouldn’t think of a direct box as having a certain character, unless you’ve worked in a facility that has really good character DI’s. After all, in the age of Multi-I/O converters with DI inputs, it’s easy to forget the role that a quality DI box plays. High end DI boxes were used to help […]
4 Handy Guitar Pedal Hacks that You Probably Don’t Know While owning and using a guitar pedal can be a great way to bring new life into your performances, these awesome little devices don’t come without their fair share of problems. From connectivity issues and power problems to residue and faulty dials, there are plenty […]
As many of you may have noticed, the long awaited Paul Reed Smith amp models from Waves were released. From the moment I downloaded and plugged in a guitar (In this instance a cherry red 1998 Godin LGxT) I was completely hooked. Finally the holy grail of smooth satisfying clean tone was available at my fingertips, and […]
Do we REALLY need another EQ? We have stock eq’s, free eq’s, hardware eq’s, dynamic eq’s, analog modeled eq’s, digital eq’s that can do a zillion cool things… I find it hard to get excited about another eq these days, unless there’s something truly new and unique it brings to the table. More developers should […]
SONAR relaunches as ‘Cakewalk by BandLab’: Iconic DAW now free to download for everyone World-leading DAW SONAR, with the entire SONAR Platinum feature set, is relaunching as Cakewalk by BandLab Full authentication and unlimited feature-access will be available free Early access to Cakewalk by BandLab is available now on Windows SINGAPORE, 4 APRIL 2018 — Today, […]
Top 5 Audio Assault Plugins Brandon Shire We all have our favorites, and in this post I want to share my top 5 from Audio Assault! Let’s countdown, starting from number 5. FREAKQ 305 5. FreakQ 305 It’s hard to see what’s so special about FreakQ 305 on the surface, because it looks like a typical […]
Top 5 IK Multimedia Plugins Brandon Shire We all have our favorites, and in this post I want to share my top 5 from IK Multimedia! Let’s countdown, starting from number 5. MASTER EQ 432 5. Master EQ 432 The right amount of the right eq on the master bus can really bring your mix […]
Top 5 Waves Plugins! Brandon Shire We all have our favorites, and in this post I want to share my top 5 from Waves Audio! Let’s countdown, starting from number 5. MY DEFAULT HLS SETTINGS 5. Kramer HLS Channel This thing is just meaty. I use it as a low end enhancer more than anything, […]
In the sea of plugins available to home recording musicians, it is not very often that I run across one that actually becomes part of my “Must Have” Toolbox. The Waves “Abby Road – ADT” (Artificial Double Track) is just that plugin. Since day one, I have found that the ADT to be an essential […]
Why you shouldn’t sleep on Nomad Factory Brandon Shire [I realize this entire post reads like a giant advertisement, but I assure you that it’s my honest opinion about a product line that I am personally passionate about. Nomad Factory have never given me a plugin to review, I have no NFR’s from them, and […]
Recently Boz Digital Labs released Transgressor, which is a transient designer that allows you to eq the transient and the sustain separately. This plugin seems like it was created with my workflow in mind, so when I got the chance to get a review copy I was stoked! Let me explain. I tend to […]
Understanding Drum Sample Libraries From bedroom producers, to the top brass mixing engineers with multiple grammies, there are a lot of people who use drum samples in their mixes. Joey Sturgis is famous for using Kick 10 from Steven Slate Drums in many of his productions (although now Joey Sturgis has his own sample library […]
To Subscribe Or Not To Subscribe Whether you’re an aspiring artist or seasoned industry vet, you undoubtedly have noticed the subscription trend getting picked up by more and more software developers. On December 12th 2016, Softube announced their new subscription model for their plugin collection and it very closely mimics The Everything Bundle promotion that […]
Plugin manufacturers are on a never ending quest to develop the holy grail of plugins…the perfect digital model of a classic analog piece that everyone in the industry embraces as the most accurate, bar none. This is admirable in that it pushes the technology further and further, and now we have top tier mix engineers […]
Back in the day, we had hardware. Since then, we started using software. Over the years, we’ve become better and better at developing this software so that it fools the trained ear into thinking it’s hardware. We make it move, overload, have noise, and try to recreate the exact sonic imprint of the hardware. We’ve […]
I have been working sound for the last 30 years or more, both as a Live Sound engineer and in the recording studio. I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of mixing desks over the years. From the large venue installed systems to small touring systems. Some great desks, some not so […]
If you are a touring musician and you put any time on the road, this is the app for you. WAZE by Google is one of the world’s largest FREE community-based traffic and navigation apps. You are Joined by drivers in your area who share real-time traffic & road info to save time, gas money, […]
EQ Made Easy One of the most mis-understood and mis-used effect in recording and mixing has to be Equalization. Using EQ in recording and mixing is more than a simple Treble/Bass adjustment. If not used properly you can easily take a really good recording and turn it into sonic mush in just a few knob […]
The home recording revolution that started in the 80’s with inexpensive 8 and 16 track recorders has evolved into an industry of recording software, hardware modeling and audio interfaces. The tools that are available to the home recording studio today would be the envy of professional studios of only 20 years ago. The problem is […]
Sonar X3 Lets face it, once you find a DAW that you like and you have gone through the learning curve it’s pretty hard to change. But, if you are looking to get your first full DAW or you feel your DAW is not giving you what you want, you might want to consider Cakewalks […]
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