| Alter Vista |
Technique : PC Musician |
November 2008 |
Tweaking Windows Vista For Music If you've switched to Vista, or are about to take the plunge, check out our guide to the Vista audio tweaks that work — and those that don't.
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| Choosing An Audio Interface |
Technique : PC Musician |
September 2008 |
| The SOS Buying Guide The vast majority of computer-based musicians will need an audio interface, but with so many on the market, it can feel like an impossible task to decide which to buy. You can narrow down the choices significantly with the help of our essential guide.
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| Buying A Budget PC For Music |
Technique : PC Musician |
August 2008 |
| PC Musician Very low-cost PCs with apparently good spec are not hard to come by these days — you can even pick one up at the local supermarket. But not all computers will work well for music and audio, so how do you avoid making a big mistake?
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| Multi-core Processors For Musicians |
Technique : PC Musician |
January 2008 |
| PC Musician Some music applications will completely fail to take advantage of the multiple cores of a modern CPU — but which ones, and why? We find out, and advise on how you can make best use of however many cores your PC has.
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| PC Freeware Sequencers & Editors |
Technique : PC Musician |
September 2007 |
| PC Musician Not only are these applications easier to use than commercial packages that can be confusingly feature heavy, they're also extremely easy on the wallet...
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| Rackmounting Your PC |
Technique : PC Musician |
August 2007 |
| PC Musician Putting your PC in a rack has a number of advantages. Apart from getting the machine out from under your feet, and making it easier to take on the road in a flightcase, there are security benefits too. Here's how to perform the conversion, and potentially make your PC quieter at the same time.
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| Vista For Musicians: Part 2: What The Developers Think |
Technique : PC Musician |
July 2007 |
| PC Musician If the transition to Windows Vista is a matter of concern for PC-based musicians, imagine how serious it must be to music hardware and software developers. Our Round Table gives some of them the chance to air their views about the new OS and the problems and opportunities it presents.
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| Vista For Musicians |
Technique : PC Musician |
June 2007 |
| Part 1: Is It Time To Upgrade To The New Windows OS? Several months have elapsed since the release of Windows Vista — so is it safe for musicians to assume that most music software and hardware is now compatible with the new OS, and upgrade? PC Musician investigates.
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| PC Spring Cleaning |
Technique : PC Musician |
May 2007 |
| PC Musician Your PC may well be the nerve-centre of your studio, so keeping it in top condition is worth a bit of effort. Read on for the SOS guide to inner and outer PC cleanliness.
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| Exploring PC Spectral Multi-band Plug-ins |
Technique : PC Musician |
April 2007 |
| PC Musician There are now quite a few plug-ins on the market that have the ability to split audio into hundreds or thousands of bands and treat them separately, paving the way for a variety of weird and wonderful effects. Are you brave enough to enter the frequency zone?
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| Installing A Windows OS From Scratch |
Technique : PC Musician |
March 2007 |
| PC Musician As a PC user, one job you're almost sure to have to do at some point is a clean install of Windows, whether because you've built your own PC, as outlined in last month's issue, have suffered a serious crash, or have decided to change to a new OS. Here's what you need to know...
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| Specifying & Building A Dual-core Desktop PC |
Technique : PC Musician |
February 2007 |
| PC Musician If you haven't yet taken the dual-core plunge, there's an alternative to either buying an off-the-shelf mainstream model that may not be quite right for music or paying a premium for a custom-assembled music PC: choose the components and build your own.
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| Stereo Image Trickery With PC Plug-ins |
Technique : PC Musician |
January 2007 |
| PC Musician If you're after bigger-sounding tracks, read on, as we discover plug-ins that manipulate stereo information to play tricks with your mix...
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| Can You Still Make Music With An Elderly PC? |
Technique : PC Musician |
December 2006 |
| PC Musician Many of us feel compelled to regularly change our PCs in line with the demands of the latest software. But, depending on our requirements, an older PC may still be more than capable of doing a great job, as PC Musician discovers this month.
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| Optimising Your Studio Acoustics With PC Utilities |
Technique : PC Musician |
November 2006 |
| PC Musician The subject of studio acoustics can seem like black magic — but don't let it scare you off. You can make easy changes, that could vastly improve your recording and mixing environment, with the help of free or cheap PC software utilities, as we discover this month.
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| Eradicating PC Audio Clicks & Pops |
Technique : PC Musician |
October 2006 |
| PC Musician Cicks and pops can ruin a recording, not to mention causing vast amounts of annoyance and wasted time. Tracking down their causes can be far from easy — but our step-by-step troubleshooting guide is here to help.
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| PC Musician: XP Tweaks For Music |
Technique : PC Musician |
September 2006 |
| The Audio Tweaks That Work - And The Ones That Don't! Windows XP works better for audio than any other Windows OS so far, but musicians still seek those ultimate go-faster tricks, so this month we bring you a guide to those that are worth doing and those that are worth avoiding.
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| Software Studios: The Next Generation |
Technique : PC Musician |
August 2006 |
| PC Musician The totally software studio, with sound quality at least as good as that offered by studio hardware, is now more feasible than ever before. But what are the factors to consider if you're going to go completely 'soft'?
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| PC System Overload Problems & Workarounds |
Technique : PC Musician |
July 2006 |
| PC Musician There are many factors that can cause your PC to struggle when playing back your songs — including RAM, your hard drive, your CPU and your system settings. But how do you know which is to blame, and do you have to upgrade or can you work around the problem?
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| Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs For Music |
Technique : PC Musician |
June 2006 |
| PC Musician The Small Form Factor (SFF) PC is a useful halfway house between the flexible but bulky desktop PC and the very portable but expensive and not easily upgradeable laptop. But how well does the SFF PC fit the bill for musicians? We find out.
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| Are PC Musicians ready for Windows x64? |
Technique : PC Musician |
May 2006 |
| The 64-bit Question With advantages such as more efficient processing and the ability to address up to a Terabyte of RAM, Windows XP Professional x64 has a lot to offer PC-based musicians — in theory. We put the fully 64-bit system idea to the test.
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| Quiet Please: Advanced PC Silencing |
Technique : PC Musician |
April 2006 |
| PC Musician If you have to record in the same room as your PC, the acoustic noise the computer produces can be more than a mere irritant: it can also compromise sensitive recordings. We take a look at what you can do to restore peace.
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| Making the change to a Dual-Core PC |
Technique : PC Musician |
March 2006 |
| PC Musician If you've been waiting and wondering whether to 'go dual-core' in your next PC upgrade, which processor to choose is only one of the factors to consider. We discuss the options and implications.
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| Using Multiple Audio Interfaces Together |
Technique : PC Musician |
February 2006 |
| PC Musician If you need more audio interfacing, do you really have to trash an interface that's otherwise perfectly satisfactory and buy a bigger one? Maybe not, as ways of using several smaller interfaces together are becoming easier to find.
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| Avoiding The Blue Screen Of Death |
Technique : PC Musician |
January 2006 |
| PC Musician If you've ever been confronted by the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death, suffered random reboots or faced the frustration of inexplicable PC crashes, read on for some preventative measures...
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| Audio Interface Manufacturers' Round Table |
Technique : PC Musician |
December 2005 |
| PC Musician With interface standards and user requirements changing all the time, the audio interface marketplace is a volatile one. We catch up with representatives of eight leading manufacturers for the inside track on the future of audio I/O hardware.
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| Pointing Devices For The PC Musician |
Technique : PC Musician |
November 2005 |
| PC Musician If you've had enough of chasing a mouse around your desk, there are many other ways of controlling the on-screen pointer of your music software. We examine the options.
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| Hardware Safety Guidelines For The PC Musician |
Technique : PC Musician |
October 2005 |
| PC Musician The new PC interfacing standards of USB and Firewire brought with them the promise of 'hot-plugging' and easy interconnection. But some musicians have discovered, to their cost, that the reality doesn't always live up to the promise. We ask why?
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| Useful Utilities For The PC Musician |
Technique : PC Musician |
September 2005 |
| PC Musician Whether you're running a single PC in your bedroom or a bank of them in a professional studio, sometimes a tiny freeware or shareware utility can make the difference between frustration and elation. We round up some of the best and point you to places where you can find more.
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| Spreading Your Music Across Networked Computers |
Technique : PC Musician |
August 2005 |
| PC Musician Networking computers is now more straightforward than it used to be, there's a good choice of connection protocols, and Macs can get in on the act alongside PCs. The benefits for musicians can be considerable, as we discover...
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