Tales From the Top: Van Halen’s ‘Van Halen’ (1978)
The air-brushed album cover looked silly, an over-the-top rendering of "You Really Got Me” disgusted many a Kinks fan — and yet on their massive-sounding Warner Brothers debut, Southern California’s Van Halen offered proof positive that this was no run-of-the-mill heavy rock band. "They cut 28 songs in about two hours,” recalls engineer Donn Landee. “That's when we knew we had a band that could play."
3977 hits | 8 comments | artists | added on 09.05.08

Room Adjustments
When treating a room for sound, never overdo it; you’re looking to strike a balance between absorption and warmth. A space that’s completely padded down might be less voluminous, but you don’t want to suck all the life out of your room completely.
5481 hits | 6 comments | tech | added on 07.24.08

Tales from the Top: Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush
An affiliation with pals David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash left guitarist Neil Young poised for superstardom as he made plans to cut his third solo album in early 1970. Anyone else might have gone for something big; instead, Young set about recording After the Gold Rush in his basement.
5244 hits | 2 comments | artists | added on 06.11.08

Eliminating Vocal Phobia
There are a handful of strategies that can help alleviate the tension and tedium of vocal recording while greatly improving the sound of the finished product
11010 hits | 22 comments | tech | added on 05.08.08

Tales from the Top: Johnny Cash’s ‘At Folsom Prison’
Forty years ago this month, Johnny Cash connected with a live captive audience — and the resulting effort, At Folsom Prison, helped the Man in Black find his way back.
5509 hits | 2 comments | artists | added on 04.18.08

The Lowdown on Audio Uploading
Though we’ve all benefited from the boom in digital-music technology, dealing with the abnormalities of Internet audio remains an ongoing challenge. Learning to navigate the various audio-compression formats is key to uploading your music successfully — and without all the unwanted noises.
6447 hits | 8 comments | tech | added on 03.20.08

©C in a Circle - You Put It Up, They Take It Down - or Not
The rules of the dance for online removal (and restoration) of unlicensed copyrighted material.
7456 hits | 5 comments | c in a circle | added on 02.12.08

More Essentials for the Home Studio
Though we’ve all been guilty of spending too much on silly audio toys from time to time, there are of course a number of items on the market that make recording more enjoyable and productive and are well worth the investment. The following is a list of some of these studio essentials, widely considered tops in their field by a cross-section of experts, using price (the lower the better) and durability as partial criteria. Happy tracking.
8776 hits | 2 comments | tech | added on 01.22.08

Tales From the Top: George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass
Meticulously orchestrated and containing over a dozen songs left over from the end of the Beatles era, the triple-disc All Things Must Pass demonstrated that not only could George Harrison play choice lead guitar, he could also write, arrange, overdub, produce, mix and edit—and reach No. 1 with a song about a religious cult.
4278 hits | 5 comments | artists | added on 12.21.07

Submixing Made Easy
Even if you’ve got loads of space on your nice digital recorder, combining common parts through submixing can make the job a whole lot easier.
4881 hits | 4 comments | tech | added on 11.30.07