Dynacord are perhaps best known for their vintage tape delays and the CLS-222 (which is considered to be one the best Leslie speaker simulators ever made). This still active German company actually has a much greater breadth of pro audio offerings from its history which deserve a look, the DRP-20 being one such piece.
Read the rest of this entry »
In Rainbows Review
Its funny, there have always been comments by music fans, musicians, and the press about how Radiohead act so self important. I never really thought that they did really act that way. I always felt that they genuinely believed in what they were doing and worked hard at it. In Rainbows, though, to me, is Radiohead finally acting self important.
I don’t like complicated gear. Heaven, for me, is equipment that is easy to use and just plain hard to make things sound bad with. Enter the Kurzweil Rumour. I bought it out of my frustration of using software reverbs. Granted, I love the way convolution sounds and was fairly satisfied with Space Designer, sonically, but, the thing that killed it for me was how SLOW it is to use. Just wading through the menus to choose a preset could take me 30 to 40 minutes sometimes. That KILLS your creative vibe and, makes the client wonder what the hell they’re paying for! Read the rest of this entry »
One of my less productive hobbies is combing Ebay for mics from the 1940 - 1960s. There were so many odd ball pieces of equipment made in those years that have such distinctive sounds. It seems like most modern mics are focused on having a hyped high end and kind of flat mids. That is all well and good, but when it comes time to get a sound with a unique vibe, modern mics seem to always kind of leave me feeling cold. That is why I was so excited to get my hands on a Copperphone from Placid Audio! Read the rest of this entry »
Groovetubes may be best known for making replacement vacuum tubes for guitar amplifiers and other audio equipment, but they’ve also impressed a lot of people with their ridiculously big sounding Vipre preamplifier. So, when I saw The Brick and its conservative price, I figured that if it sounded even a little like the Vipre, then it’d be one hell of a deal. Read the rest of this entry »
Every budding musician or DJ at some point has to wonder if it’s possible to remove vocals from a song. And to an extent, it is. There are currently a few ways to go about this, and each works with varying results depending on the song and how it’s produced. Read the rest of this entry »
The world of digital audio can be extremely intimidating, and unfortunately for the novice, there’s very little out right now to explain the basics of making music on your computer.
Rest assured it’s not as hard as you might think. Chances are if you’re reading this right now you already have a computer that’s good enough to start making music on. Lucky for you there’s a plethora of inexpensive and even free software that can do some amazing things. Read the rest of this entry »
One look is all it takes to realize that Absynth 1.2.3 is no ordinary software synth. Its futuristic interface and unique tool bar hint at its cutting-edge sounds, editing prowess, and synthesis techniques. Read the rest of this entry »
