Archives for March 2019

Zoom Releases New H1n Super Portable, High-Quality Audio Recorder

March 31, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Zoom North America now offers its H1n Handy Recorder, a compact and versatile audio recorder designed to be an essential tool for creators who are looking to capture professional-quality audio on the go.

The H1n’s rugged, sleek design features a protective mic enclosure, an improved, bright LCD screen, a new analog-style gain control, and easy-to-access buttons and menu options. A newly designed onboard limiter enables distortion-free recording, letting users capture concerts, band practices, or other loud situations without compromising audio quality. The new low-cut filter features selectable cut-off points and helps eliminate pops, wind noise, and other unwanted low-frequency rumble.

Here are six ways to get a rock sound (without a band)

March 29, 2019 by Jake Weston Leave a Comment

While nothing can duplicate the life experience of being in a band, virtual instrument software is getting to the point where it’s a feasible substitute for live musicians in some cases. For example, if you want a Kontakt virtual acoustic guitar, you could go for Evolution Steel Strings or Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic. There are even more great options if you want a Kontakt electric guitar, with Virtual Guitarist IRON and Shreddage 2 being among the best. There are many more virtual instruments available out there as well.

Key Takeaways:

When technology can do it all for someone, the author believes he doesn’t need a band with its egos and disagreements, and also the lifelong friendship it affords.
Technology software can be one’s bandmate in creating music. Granted it won’t give you a shoulder to cry on but it gives you the advantages of a band.
A good software acoustic guitar player is the Native Instruments’ Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic. It helps you to play chords, articulations and just about anything a guitarist can.

“Virtual instruments are now good enough to replace real musicians. Not such good news if you want to join a band, perhaps, but great news if you want to create one… virtually.”

6 of the Best: Software Beat Makers (2018)

March 29, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

There are now more ways to make beats in and out of your DAW than ever before. Here’s a look at the 6 of the best and most varied ways to make beats in software.

Sample Magic is best known for its huge range of sample collections. Klip represents the best of those collections – some 1000 hits and loops from 40 titles – all controlled, sequenced, tuned and filtered within one Kontakt instrument. Toontrack features no less than 230GB of drums sounds recorded in the incredible Galaxy Studios by legendary engineer George Massenburg so you know you’re getting great content.

ADAM Audio Unleash Their T5V and T7V Monitors

March 27, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

The T series of nearfield monitors are designed specifically for engineers, sound designers, DJs, and musicians – just about everyone who works professionally with recording or music production workflows.

Accommodating a 5” and 7” woofer respectively, both the T5V and the T7V profit from the latest audio technology. The HPS waveguide projects sound with high accuracy and precision, while the newly developed U-ART tweeter works to prevent hearing fatigue during long studio sessions. Thanks to their wide sweet-spot and compact footprint, both studio monitors are outstandingly suited to smaller production spaces in the music, audio post, and broadcast industries.

Read more about this here: https://www.musictech.net/news/adam-audio-t5v-t7v-2/

How to De-Ess Vocals: Sibilance De-Esser Plugin Tutorial

March 26, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Mix engineer Dave Darlington shows how he likes to de-ess vocals using the Waves Sibilance plugin. De-essers take away the harsh S, Sh, and T sounds in a voice that sounds irritating and, well, just plain bad.

We need some of those sounds to be able to understand the lyrics and the content. If you totally remove too much of the audio where sibilance lives (between 4KHz and 8Khz on the frequency scale), that sound bad also. It makes the voice sound like it’s lisping. But we don’t want an overabundance of that frequncy either, because especially at low volumes, those non-musical sounds can poke through a mix and be very distracting. The Sibilance plugin separates the sibilance sounds from the rest of the vocal signal. That makes Sibilance especially surgical when it comes to de-essing vocals.

Dave Darlington shows how to do this in his post at waves.com.