Recording

The fact that they achieved little commercial success didnt stop the New York Dolls from making one of the most influential albums in the history of pop music.

The editorial team audition another crop of your submitted tracks. Is yours one of them?

I've been wondering whether sticking a guitar or bass into an effects pedal, preamp or amp modelling pedal to go into a PC...

REMs first single wasnt just an embryonic form of the style and sound that would later make them so successful, it was also a gem of the American new wave. But it took a long time coming...

With a backlog of recorded material to wade through, the intrepid SOS crew brandish their Strictly Come Dancing judges' outfits and proffer their personal verdicts on another bunch of masochistic readers' hard-crafted recordings...

I want to replace the kick drum on our drum kit with a MIDI kick pad, as our kick drum sounds rubbish, and we're now using...

I've just read up about star-quad cable, which has internal cores that cancel each other's interference — like a humbucker?...

The pioneering electronica of I Feel Love didnt just revolutionise disco, it changed dance music forever. This is the story of how it was made...

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I have a PC with a Q6600 quad‑core processor running Cubase 4, and despite clicking on the Cubase 'Multi Processing' switch,...

Can you tell me how to set up a compressor for vocals while they're being recorded, and again in the mix?

Via SOS web...

I've always stuck keyboards straight into my interface, desk or whatever: plenty of level, minimal noise (if any), and no...

I have been involved with our school fund‑raising events for some years now, starting off by doing sound and lighting....

There are very few records whose influence can be so strongly felt after 45 years as the Kinks You Really Got Me. At the controls was Shel Talmy, who tells us the story of a song that changed pop music.

Now that we have digital models and dynamic convolution technology, were spoilt for choice when it comes to classic compressor flavours. But whether hardware or software, which is right for which job?

It can be difficult reading about compression without hearing what it does. Here are a number of audio files to accompany this article, with a detailed explanation of what they demonstrate.

Getting precisely the results you want from compressors can often be the key to a tight, modern-sounding mix. We explain what the controls are designed to achieve and how they relate to what you hear.

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When mixing drums, is it standard practice to try and tighten things up by getting rid of bleed on all but the overheads? I'm...

Just wondering if you could give me some advice on recording acoustic guitars. I'm finding it very difficult to get a clean...

In 1975, Aerosmith stormed into the mainstream with their Toys In The Attic album, and in doing so set the tone for a decade of West Coast heavy metal.