Recording

Is ‘burning in’ studio equipment (monitors, headphones, tube gear, and so on) of benefit to certain types of...

I keep reading that it’s a good idea to use reference tracks when mixing, but when should I be referencing other mixes...

A lot of the music I’m enjoying seems to be going back to an old-school sound of being swamped in lush reverb. Examples...

A mastering engineer told me that, when playing back source files from his laptop into a high-quality USB-connected D-A, the...

Yamaha no longer make their Subkick drum mic, so I was thinking of making my own from an old loudspeaker. Does it have to be...

I’ve been trying to find a keyboard, sample library, plug-in or synth that provides superb vocalisations for ‘...

Would it be overkill to add more compression to the EZdrummer kit as a whole on the bus channel?

I work in a facility where AES3 110Ω cables have been used to connect some splitter outputs to mic preamps. What kind of influence, if any, can this ‘impedance mismatching’ have on the signal quality?

Paloma Faith’s new song ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ has been recorded out of tune by about 50 cents. This means that unless you have a keyboard that can be detuned, you cannot play along! What would be the reason for doing this?

If a song is in A, you’ll have lots of 440Hz, 220Hz, 110Hz, 880Hz, and so on — but so what? What are you supposed to do with that information? And what about all the harmonics? And all the other notes in the key of A, and all their harmonics? 

I listen to a lot of well-produced material and it all has an inherent sense of space and positioning.

I know it changes settings according to the source material, but how does the 'automatic recovery' function on a compressor work.

I understand that data-compressing audio files is really just chopping out frequencies we think we don't need, but I don't understand what encoders do to go the other way.

I've recently added some new gear to my PC-based studio and now get low-level whistling noises through my loudspeakers that...

I've been searching to find a sensible answer to this question to no avail...

Can you suggest any free or affordable anti‑virus software for Windows that doesn't keep nagging me with updates and pop-ups?...

I still buy vinyl records simply because I like listening to them, but I'm under no illusion that vinyl is a 'perfect' format...

I'm really interested in mixing, but I need decent material to practice on, and I don't think my performance and recording...

I've tried Nebula (with Reaper) and, sonically speaking, I really like what it can do, but the best libraries have my computer...

In a shop recently, I was almost persuaded to buy some Mogami XLR cables.

I'm a long time reader of Sound On Sound, and a studio owner. A colleague of mine recently discovered that the suite of...