Theory / Technical

I keep reading about the use of ‘negative feedback’ to reduce distortion in audio gear. How does this work and how effective is it?

Intel’s latest CPUs promise big performance gains. But can they topple AMD in our audio benchmarks?

Could you please explain why audio gear uses balanced signals and how they work?

I’m a long‑running technical electronics repair and design engineer working in music for film...

I’m about to be given an old mixer to play with in my studio and am planning to check each input and output, check the EQ does...

I got a separate 1TB drive to use with NI Komplete and told NI’s Native Access installer app to put the plug‑ins/apps on the system drive and the sample data on the external drive, and left it overnight...

The next evolution of Bluetooth contains a number of innovations that should appeal to consumers and professionals alike. And it’s coming to a device near you.

We speak to some of the leading experts in hearing loss to find out why it happens, how to prevent it, and what to do if your hearing fails.

Have you ever wondered what lies behind the intriguing wobbles and lush swooshes of this classic effect?

Whether you are setting up a bedroom studio or the next Abbey Road, choosing the right audio interface for your needs can be brain-meltingly difficult. Editor In Chief Sam Inglis breaks down everything you need to know into 26 bite-sized chunks!

I've just bought a new MIDI controller keyboard that has a selection of velocity curves. How should I go about choosing which...

In the final part of this two-part Net Notes about broadcasting your audio and video on the Internet, Dave Shapton discusses error correction and quality control, helps you to prepare for your webcast and suggests some solutions for broadcasting live events.

After looking at the development of and theory behind mLAN, Paul Wiffen continues his series on the new FireWire-based music and audio protocol with a practical look at the effect it will have on the gear in our studios and how we connect it together.

Monitor speakers affect nearly all the descisions we make when recording and mixing — yet most of us know very little about how they are designed, and why they sound the way they do. In the first of a new series, Phil Ward explains what goes into the design of typical passive nearfields, and the effects they can have on what we record.

Last month, Paul Wiffen explained how he heard about mLAN — a new data-transfer protocol which will allow us to send audio, MIDI, and even video down one FireWire connector. This month, he finds out from Yoshi Sawada of Yamaha's mLAN development team how the system is likely to work in practice.

I have been told that part of the job of 'lining up' an analogue multitrack tape recorder involves using phase to adjust...

Poor studio wiring can lead to hums and buzzes, but you can avoid the worst of these problems by following a few simple rules.

ISDN is a term that you will have certainly have come across in the pages of SOS over the last few years, but perhaps without really knowing what it does and how it works. Hugh Robjohns explains the relevance of this international digital telecommunications network to the modern musician.

In the final instalment of our series on the techniques and technology of digital audio, Hugh Robjohns contemplates plugging it all together.

Following on from last month's look at digital tape recording formats, Hugh Robjohns turns the spotlight on the techniques and technology of disk-based recording.

In the fourth instalment of our series on the techniques and technology behind digital audio Hugh Robjohns looks at digital tape recording formats.