I'm writing this column in February, and here in the UK, half the country seems to be flooded — so terms like 'SOS' and 'Rescue' have taken on a far more serious connotation. Hopefully things will be back to what passes for normal by the time you read this, and we'll be able once again to turn our thoughts to happier things like helping our readers build studios and improve their recordings and mixes. If not, I'll probably be building a large boat and packing pairs of animals into it.
Speaking of helping readers, we have a number of semi‑regular articles in SOS which are designed to do just that. With Studio SOS, we try to help people improve their studio setups, and we've put a lot of foam on walls over the years! Acoustic treatment is a hugely important first step in making a studio space work, but many of the applications we've had in recent months have been solely about acoustics — and we've managed to solve almost all of them via email without having to schedule a visit. This, of course, means they didn't end up in the magazine. So, please, if you have any issues relating to any aspect of your studio or the results you're getting from it, and it's not about acoustics alone, keep those letters and emails coming. If you're having a problem, the chances are that several other readers will be experiencing something similar.
Most of our Studio SOS features are necessarily UK‑based, but we attend a number of overseas music shows such as the Messe in Frankfurt, and the AES and NAMM shows in the USA, so if you live near the location of a forthcoming show and give us plenty of notice, we might just be able to fit you in. We also have contributors around the globe who may be able to help out. And as my daughter has recently moved to New Zealand, you might just give me enough of an excuse to take a holiday there!
We have a number of other 'technique' columns too: there's Session Notes, which aims to help readers improve their recording and session‑management skills, and Mix Rescue, in which our engineers rework your mixes and explain what tools and techniques they used and why.
To apply for a Mix Rescue, all we need to get started is to hear your mix, which you can email to mixrescue@soundonsound.com alone with a few comments on what sound you're aiming for and what it is about it that you're most frustrated or unhappy with. Or, if you're brave enough to expose yourself to the scrutiny of our reviewers, why not send your track to playback@soundonsound.com?
And if you have an audio‑related problem that doesn't fit neatly into these boxes, there are Q&A pages every month, and there's always scope to treat your special case as a stand-alone article. Who knows, you might spawn a popular new series, so don't be shy!
Paul White Editor In Chief