Decades ago, large-diaphragm condenser mics (LDCs) were the Holy Grail of gear acquisition and usually cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to several...
The Drum Rack instrument is one of Ableton Live 7's most interesting new features, and its creative potential is enormous. You can build a virtual drum...
Is your studio contributing to global warming and other environmental problems? Unfortunately, the answer is almost certainly yes. Between the electrical...
Signal and sample processing have progressed by leaps and bounds since the dawn of computer-based music, and Carl Stone is one of the privileged few who...
Producer, guitarist, and composer Michael Brook was looking for a follow-up to RockPaperScissors (Canadian Rational, 2006), a world music album that melded...
EM's first issues were published in 1985, but for ten years before that, the magazine was called Polyphony. Published by PAiA (paia.com), Polyphony presented...
Live drums, no matter how well played, have variations in timing and feel. If you want a drum loop to work with a live drum track and you want to avoid...
Sometimes a sampled beat sounds perfect just the way it is. But a little creative patching can transform it into something wildly new. You can adapt the...
Until around a hundred years ago, the only way to send music over long distances or preserve it for posterity was to write it down on paper. Electronic...
When it comes to the independent music scene, few people are more knowledgeable than Derek Sivers (see Fig. 1). He began his music career as a guitarist...
Why is it that we work longer hours with fewer breaks than we used to five years ago? Computers were supposed to make our jobs easier and quicker, so...
In art, as in life, it's the little things that count. Sometimes that holds true for software updates, too. Cakewalk Sonar 7 Producer Edition is one of...
When I reviewed Sony's PCM-D1 recorder in the December 2006 issue of EM (available at emusician.com), I praised its outstanding metering, ultralow noise...
With its suite of products for graphic design, photography, document creation, and video production, Adobe is no stranger to the pursuit of creativity....
In the last several years, the trend toward in-the-box computer-based recording and the accompanying decline in the use of the conventional mixing board...
Having significantly leveled the MIDI playing field with the introduction of Pro Tools 7.0, Digidesign has since turned its attention to the needs of...
For eight years, Universal Audio (UA) has offered exquisite digital reproductions of classic analog processors to desktop computer users. With the UAD-Xpander...
I had never heard of Cockos Reaper when EM asked me to review it. Reaper's developers don't pay for big advertisements, and the program hasn't been around...
Notion Music has released an entry-level program called Progression ($99) that's designed primarily for notating guitar and bass scores with standard...
Lest anyone think digital audio converters can't get smaller and still maintain good sound quality, CEntrance's MicPort Pro ($124.95) stands ready to...
The interface market is rife with portable, bus-powered USB units. The affordable 2-input, 4-output Novation nio 2|4 ($199) intends to leap ahead of the...
Synaptricity Flashback 1.0 ($199) is a Digidesign Pro Tools plug-in (RTAS and AudioSuite) that runs in the background, recording everything you do into...
Most guitar sample libraries are multiple-instrument collections, and by virtue of their broad-scope nature, they rarely mine the wealth of tonal variety...
Do you have a personal studio and use it for pro-level, for-hire projects? Can you use an assistant engineer on some of your sessions? Got room in your...
Traditional instrumentalists, especially guitar players, should add the video tutorials at iVideosongs (ivideosongs.com) to their arsenal of musical resources....
Spectrasonics Stylus RMX serves up great-sounding drum grooves as fast as you can click, but it also has several hidden time-saving features: 1. Right-clicking...
These albums encompass a diverse range of styles and composition methods, from down-tempo, electro, and chiptune to electronica and acoustic. 46bliss:...
MFM2 ($79) is a reincarnation of Urs Heckmann's first VST plug-in, More Feedback Machine. It could be subtitled Everything you always wanted from a delay...
The Bent Festival is making its way to Minne-apolis, L.A., and New York City for three days (per city) of hardware-hacking fun in late April/early May....
J. PRESEDO MASTER GAITA IT'S IN THE BAG If you're wondering how to hone your bagpipe chops without being evicted, look no further. Master Gaita ($371)...
