Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of John Bell August 9th, 2010 - Thanks to DigitalLush for the question. As always, please feel free to email me questions and I will do my best to answer them. Stumbled upon your site the other day and have been checking back reading different articles of interest. I came across one you had written on mixing. So here's a question that I don't know if it was covered indirectly, but I'm still curious about: When mixing for live performance or ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Rode February 3rd, 2010 - Darren sent me an email asking for condenser microphone recommendations he could use for recording vocals; he wants to spend between $100 to $200. As I was writing a response, it occurred to me that others might be looking at buying microphones as well. So thanks to Darren for the question, and I hope it's alright that I posted it up! Since you're looking at recording vocals, you'll want to look at condensers with large diaphragms. ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O’Brien November 11th, 2009 - Thomas K. asks "I read your article on school and audio engineering. I'm just wondering where you went to school, where you first started out engineering, and how you made that transition. I'm currently going to school, and learning about audio production, and interning (for free). I have pursued a lot of what have turned out to be dead ends in my search for employment in the field of audio production/engineering. I'm sure you're ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O'Brien July 4th, 2009 - First off, I'd like to wish a Happy Independence Day to our American readers! May your weekend be full of liquor, barbeques, and pretty pyrotechnic displays. Anyways, back on topic...if you have any questions about songwriting, producing, or engineering, post them up! I can't promise that I'll be able to answer them, but if I can't, I'll find someone who knows more than me. If you are experienced in any of those topics and ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O'Brien November 24th, 2008 - As a writer that posts daily, and also has a nine to five, I sometimes find it difficult to come up with topics to post about. I'm certainly not at the level of MusicRadar or Engadget, so I don't have manufacturers or PR people beating down my door to write about their products. That being said, maybe it's a good thing. After all, I am able to write about topics that directly relate to my ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O’Brien October 26th, 2008 - David Dennis writes: "Can you elaborate a bit more (maybe in a follow-up post) on what the Protools features are that you like?" As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Logic. It includes everything I need to take a song from idea to CD-ready. I don't have to fool around with adding new plug-ins or new sounds (unless I want to) because Logic includes a great library of sounds. Apple and Emagic ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O'Brien July 30th, 2008 - 3NOS writes: "Thanks for the advice on what to invest in for a beginner's recording set-up. What I'm wondering now is, instead of buying an audio interface for my PC, is it worth it to purchase a smaller, stand-alone product like the Boss BR-600, or even bigger hardware like the Korg D3200 (which I have at work)? I'm doing "unplugged" stuff, vocals, acoustic guitar, and bass. On a dedicated recording station, there are physical sliders and ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O'Brien July 29th, 2008 - Shav737 writes: "Hey. Love the site. I’ve been playing guitar for as long as I can remember but I’m brand new to recording. A friend hooked me up with Cubase SX and told me to play around with that for a while. I rapidly found out that I have no idea what I’m doing, and my computer mic isn’t cutting it. I’ve looked into MIDI interfaces for guitar and mic but don’t even know ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Shure June 16th, 2008 - In our first readers' questions post, ALF asked the following: "I’ve been experimenting with recording acoustic guitar very recently (aka yesterday) but my recordings are barely audible, even when I stick the mic (an SM57) really close to the soundhole. I have to turn the gain/volume on my (crappy) interface all the way up to get anything above a whisper but that results in excess static and noise. I’ve also tried messing with the Cubase ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O'Brien June 12th, 2008 - This is the first installment of reader questions. Please post questions you might have about anything songwriting or music production related. Depending on the amount of questions, I may or may not be able to answer them all. When submitting questions, please try to think of questions you might have that other people may also want to know the answer to. Answers about specific hardware setups will most likely not get answered because I ... Read More