Recording

I’ll soon record a sludge‑metal band and I need some advice. Any techniques for making the guitars sound sufficiently wide in the mix?

In the first of this two-part series, David Mellor gives us an introduction to mic polar patterns.

A valuable test for recording engineers, David Mellor gives examples of different mic types to emphasise the importance of knowing your mic collection in detail.

I want to record some vinyl into my DAW, could a turntable simply be plugged into any audio interface and the EQ applied after amplification?

In the final part of this series, Rob Toulson focuses on mic techniques for recording drums and talks us through the issue of frequency cancellation in a multiple mic setup, details how to choose the recording sweet spot in a room and explains the various stereo mic options that are available including the famous Glyn Johns technique.

Rob Toulson explains how to optimise the drum sound for recording by experimenting with drum head, damping system, tuning and drum shell combinations.

In Part 1, we look at the key principles of drum acoustics and discuss some scientific aspects of drums with respect to making music and creative recording projects.

Recently I had to record a Japanese taiko drum ensemble, but I got a fair bit of distortion even though my recording levels never reached 0dBFS. Why was I getting this distortion/compression?

Ricky Damian is a Grammy Award-winning Engineer/Producer who’s worked with artists such as Mark Ronson, Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Adele, Dua Lipa, Yebba, Jorja Smith and Sampha.

Will Purton is a London-based recording engineer, mixer and producer nominated in the Rising Star category for the 2023 Music Producers Guild Awards.

Daniel Moyler is a freelance mix engineer who was awarded Engineer Of The Year at the MPG 2020 Awards and won a 2021 Grammy for his engineering work on Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia.

Sam Inglis talks to Francine Perry, artist, producer and mix engineer, about her career so far and being nominated in the Rising Star category for her work with Beth Orton, Erasure and HAAi while based at Mute Studio.

Cecil (Adam) Bartlett is a London-based producer who talks to Sam Inglis about his career so far and being nominated in this year's Breakthrough Producer Of The Year category for his work on Here Is Everything by The Big Moon.

Manon Grandjean is a freelance mix engineer who has previously won three Music Producers Guild Awards. This year she's been nominated again for Mix Engineer Of The Year 2023, this time for her work with artists Flo, Fyfe & Iskra Strings and Milk & Bone.

Mikko Gordon is a Grammy nominated mixing engineer and record producer based in London. This year he's nominated by the Music Producers Guild for Recording Engineer Of The Year and Album Of The Year along with Nigel Godrich for The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention.

Catherine Anne Davies, also known as The Anchoress, is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Sam Inglis talks to her about being nominated for Self Producing Artist in the Music Producers Guild Awards 2023.

These gadgets might not be the most glamorous devices, but at some point in your recording adventures you’ll probably find you need each and every one.

Mix engineers used to prefer hardware to software because it sounded better. Is that still true? And if not, is there still a reason to use it?

I’m seeing a lot of conflicting advice about using compression while recording. Some swear by it while others say it’s completely unnecessary with 24‑bit recording and modern converters. Where do you stand on this?

It's 10 years since Focusrite launched their best-selling Scarlett range of audio interfaces, now into its third generation. CEO Tim Carroll and Will Hoult, Head Of Product at Focusrite and Novation talk to Sam Inglis about what's behind the success of the Scarletts.

If I open a 16‑bit, 96kHz audio file, resample it to 48kHz, and then export it again, still at 16 bits, do I need to apply dither?