Thursday, April 10, 2014

TDR VOS SlickEQ: free mixing/mastering equalizer plugin.....

Tokyo Dawn Labs has collaborated with Variety of Sound to come up with TDR VOS SlickEQ, a new free mixing/mastering EQ for both Windows and OS X.

Originally developed as an in-house Tokyo Dawn Labs studio tool, this VST/AU plugin is now available for public consumption and, according to the developer, has the following specs and features:

Intuitive, yet flexible semi parametric EQ layout
Full featured, modern user interface with outstanding usability and ergonomics
Carefully designed 64bit "delta" multi-rate structure
Three EQ bands with additional 18dB/Oct high-pass filter
Four distinct EQ models: "American", "British", "German" and "Soviet" with optional non-linearity
Four output stages: "Linear", "Silky", "Mellow" and "Deep"
Advanced saturation algorithms by VoS ("stateful saturation")
Highly effective and musically pleasing loudness compensated auto gain control
Oversampled signal path including stateful saturation algorithms
Stereo and sum/difference processing options
Tool-bar with undo/redo, A/B, advanced preset management and more

You can download TDR VOS SlickEQ here

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

25 pro tips for better home recordings

Turning your house into a recording studio doesn't have to be too difficult, but the same old problems always seem to pop up.

So, MusicRadar has collated 25 home recording tips from the pros. Take their advice, and the quality of your bedroom productions could improve dramatically.

If you want to know more about getting the best out of your project studio, check out Computer Music Specials (Volume 31): Recording Essentials which is on sale in selected UK newsagents now and can also be purchased online.

Improve your recordings here....

Monday, March 31, 2014

7 Tips for Choosing the Right Mic When Recording Guitars...

When it comes to choosing a microphone for the guitar-related job at hand, there’s a few considerations to think about. Not every mic fits every situation—especially when recording things like acoustics. Let’s take a look at a few simple basic guidelines that may help you pick the right tool next time around.

get your tips here....

FREE Loops: 12 Hardware Processed House Loops....

Grab these 12 loops if you want that warm, analog sound pumping through your EDM or House musical creations. Simply login or sign-up (free) and click the download link!

house loops are here....

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Recording Bass Guitar

Tips & Tricks......

Although most modern synths come with good bass guitar patches, there's still nothing quite like the real thing played well -- provided you know how to record it. Paul White examines a few alternative approaches.

There used to be a common joke among musicians aimed at bass guitar players, which ran "What's the similarity between playing a really good bass line and wetting yourself? You get a nice warm feeling, but no-one really notices!". These days, however, bass plays a prominent role in many musical genres. Dub reggae wouldn't get far without bass, and nor would many rhythm-heavy styles such as those found in Latin and South American music. But even outside these styles, bass can be crucial to the sound and 'feel' of a track. A well-played and well-recorded bass is vital to any rhythm section, and it's worth making the effort to achieve the right sound.

Get the skinny here....

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Berklee Shares....

Berklee Shares is an online resource provided by the Berklee School of Music. This site offers music lessons developed by Berklee faculty and alumni that are free to the music community around the world, a library of MP3 audio, and QuickTime movie, and PDF files. The material hosted here is under a Creative Commons license, and you are encouraged to share the lessons with friends.
Free lessons in production...performance...songwriting...

Explore here....

Step inside our online classroom with these free sample courses and experience what it's like to study with Berklee Online. - See more at: http://www.berkleeshares.com/#sthash.gDoRHlIF.dpuf

Welcome to Berklee Shares, a collection of free music lessons from Berklee Online, the award-winning online extension school of Berklee College of Music. Watch, read, download, and share this free and open resource for the world's music community.
Developed by Berklee faculty and industry experts, the free lessons are taken from Berklee Online's music courses, multi-course certificate programs, and online degree programs, covering all areas of music education, including music production, performance, songwriting, orchestration, music business and beyond.
- See more at: http://www.berkleeshares.com/#sthash.gDoRHlIF.dpuf

Free lessons...song writing tips....recording tips....

Learn how to play acoustic or electric guitar. You'll find we have everything and anything to do with guitar, for beginners and experts alike. We've even got stuff for bass players, 12 string guitars, banjo pickers, ukulele lovers and all of you beautiful misunderstood lefties too.

Get the goodies here....

Recording rock guitars

Free audio mini-course

Properly tracking guitars is the cornerstone of modern rock music production.
In this course you get an intensive education on how to capture the best sound when recording guitar tracks.
Join this 3-part minicourse to learn from Andrew Wade about string care, getting the right tones and bringing it all together in the mix.

Thanks creativeLIVE......

Sign up to get instant access to your free mini-course:

sign up here....

Monday, March 24, 2014

Tape Op magazine...

The best magazine out there for recording ideas, information and reviews....best of all...subscribe for free....

What is Tape Op Magazine about?

Our subtitle says it best: The Creative Music Recording Magazine.Tape Op is about learning how to make great recordings with whatever tools you have access to. Unlike most recording magazines, Tape Op is not focused on reviewing equipment. Lots of mags already do a great job on that front. Instead, Tape Op interviews engineers, producers and musicians who are making great recordings. We sit down and talk with them at length and then run long, in- depth interviews. The reader becomes, in essence, the "tape op" hanging out in the studio and learning the trade from the seasoned vets working in the studio. Tape Op is about education and creativity.

Tape Op is currently the largest circulated music recording magazine in the world.

To get your hands on the best recording magazine out there...

The best iPhone/iPad music making apps in the world today.....

Popular though they are, iOS apps are sometimes criticised for being flashy rather than functional - software that you buy on a whim, use a couple of times and then never bother with again.

But while the App Store certainly contains its fair share of facile releases, many of its music making apps are not only fun, but also powerful, flexible and - yes - useful. Whether you want to create a complete track, play a virtual synth or control your desktop music software, there are countless options.

But which are the very best iOS music making apps? As 2012 comes to a close, we asked for your votes to help us update our list of the top music apps. The results are presented in the gallery that starts here. Unfortunately, with the iOS world moving as quickly as it does, there are a few notable omissions of apps that have been released in the weeks since we reopened voting: Korg Polysix, Steinberg Cubasis and Audiobus, for example, all came just too late to make the cut for this round of voting.

Anyway, read on to find out which apps have made the cut, and also be sure to check out the following:

To read more....

The A to Z of computer music: M (part one)

So massive we've had to split it into two....

Mac OS X

The operating system powering Apple's Macintosh computers, based on Unix and first released for server usage in 1999, followed by the desktop client in 2001.

Up until the latest, each version of OS X has been named after a big cat - Cheetah, Panther, Lion, etc. OS X 10.9, however, unleashed in October 2013, sees a shift in nomenclature to California landmarks, the first being Mavericks, a famous surfing hang-out.

After Microsoft Windows, OS X is the second most popular desktop operating system in the world, renowned for its ease of use and stability.

Macro

An increasing number of DAWs and plugins - including Ableton Live, Apple Logic Pro X and Native Instruments' Massive - feature macro controls. These are customisable banks of knobs and buttons, each of which can be assigned to one or more controls from anywhere within the plugin or, in the case of DAWs, instruments and effects in the channel strip/rack.

Macros enable 'performance' setups to be quickly put together, giving ready access to a custom set of parameters of the user's choice in one handy interface

Beginners Guide To Music Production

It’s MusicTech’s guide to everything you need to know about music production: from recording to mixing to mastering. Welcome to our Beginners Guide

Are you new to music production? Or are you returning to music making and need a refresher in certain aspects of recording, mixing and mastering? If either of these applies, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to explain all of the main principles of music technology and music production in as straightforward a way as possible.
Read the following and you should be in a good place to start (or restart) your music making, whether as a hobby, semi-professionally or even as a career.
So Where Do We Start?
The basics of a composition or song are its constituent parts i.e. the instruments (guitar, drums, bass, keyboards and so on) and the vocals. These are the ‘tracks’ and the core of the music production process is simply how you get the sounds together for each track, arrange them, mix them together and make them sound ‘professional’.
The device that enables all of this – and which has become the heart of the 21st century studio – is the humble computer: a Mac, PC or increasingly, portable devices like tablets and iPads.

Sequencers/DAW‘s
More specifically, of course, it’s the software that the computer runs that turns it in to a music production powerhouse. This software enables the recording, mixing and mastering of music tracks and is called a ‘sequencer’ or the rather grander-sounding ‘Digital Audio Workstation’ (DAW).
Sequencers vary in price from free to hundreds of pounds and, combined with today’s powerful computers, can often allow unlimited tracks of music to be arranged together. You want an orchestra of thousands? You’re mad, but you’ve got it…

click here to get the low down....

Freeware Synths – Ten of the Best

You might be on a tight budget, but you needn’t miss out on some great synths: the freeware community has been happily programming some excellent plug-in instruments and effects over the last couple of decades and the number of synths that you can now download for free is quite staggering.

Quality varies enormously, so we’ve rounded up our ten favourites, trying to include as many for both Mac and PC as possible. Several are emulations of classic hardware, and one or two are becoming classics in their own right, so get clicking and try this lot for free…

Get Synths here....

The Musicians Toolbox