Music

∞ 5 tips for getting better mixes

Written by

My favorite:

It’s very easy to overuse stuff; try to use things like Eq, Compression and Reverb sparingly. Plug-ins are like make-up, a beautiful woman needs little and if you use too much she looks like crap. Great songs are the same.

∞ Fender's Coldplay guitar giveaway

Written by

As part of the contest, one lucky contestant will win a Fender American Vintage series ’72 Telecaster Thinline guitar swathed in a vivid Mylo Xyloto-themed custom graphic finish by noted graffiti artist Paris. Fender ’72 Tele Thinline guitars have long … Continued

∞ Sir Jimmy Page?

Written by

Gibson.com: A member of the British Parliament is moving to make guitar god Jimmy Page a knight, according to the NME. Conservative MP Louise Mensch is suggesting knighthood for the Led Zeppelin guitarist, announcing the news on her Twitter page: … Continued

∞ Scorecerer 5.6 for iPad

Written by

Scorecerer 5.6 for iPad works seamlessly with any DAW, including Cubase, ProTools, Logic and MOTU Digital Performer. For solo musicians using a DAW sequencer to play backing tracks, for example, it’s easy to insert a program change into the Scorecerer … Continued

∞ SoundCloud integrates with Tabletop for iPad

Written by

Tabletop is the first musical environment designed from the ground up exclusively for the iPad. The heart of Tabletop is a modular environment where you can mix and match different devices. Each device has its own uses, characteristics, personality — ranging from classics like drum pad samplers to touchscreen effects. Buy only the gear you need from an expanding catalog and share your creations quickly and easily on SoundCloud

I am really enjoying watching SoundCloud expand. They’re in Pro Tools 10 and countless other apps. It’s all about integration and they get that.

∞ Slam Tracks hard rock MIDI grooves

Written by

The Slam Tracks Hard Rock Grooves Pack 1 features 527 MIDI files divided between 10 different groove genres. All grooves come with multiple variations, allowing users of all popular virtual drum instruments like BFD2, EZdrummer, Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, Cakewalk Session Drummer to create quickly and easily complete hard rock and rock drumtracks. This library also includes multiple drum fills as part of the groove phrases — a dedicated collection of Hard Rock MIDI drum fills can be found in our Slam Tracks Hard Rock MIDI Drum Fills Pack 1.

Nice sounding grooves at the bottom of the page.

∞ Pro Tools beats

Written by

Russ takes you step by step showing you things like how to make beats using Boom and MIDI, getting your virtual instrument sounds down onto audio tracks, how to use basic effects to transform the stock sounds and extract grooves from one beat and then use them on other beats to lock their grooves together. Russ also shows you how to pitch shift beats, use gates and side chains to create fantastic new electro drum beats, how to destroy beats and mash them up as well as slice beats and rearrange them using Structure

∞ New amps from the AmpliTube Custom Shop

Written by

New amps include models from Jet City: the JCA100H and the JCA20H. Two new amps, one new cab and two new microphone gear models have been added as well: the German Gain amp, HiAmp with Cabinet, Bottle 563 mic and Tube VM mic.

∞ iZotope Ships Ozone 5

Written by

“Whether you‚re a musician, engineer, or mastering pro, Ozone 5 lets you master music and other audio simply and efficiently,” says Nick Dika, iZotope Senior Product Manager. “Ozone 5 is the biggest update we‚ve ever offered, with improvements that will … Continued

∞ DigiTech uses iPad for guitar pedalboard

Written by

The iPB-10 Programmable Pedalboard sets a new standard for guitar signal processing. By harnessing the power of the iPad, it combines the simplicity of a pedalboard with the flexibility of a multi-effects. The iPB-10 unleashes the ability to create and … Continued

∞ Metal Essentials EZmix Pack from Toontrack

Written by

The in-your-face-factor is essential in metal. Ask Jason Suecof – one of the essential producers on this side of the millennium and creative mind behind the sound of Trivium, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder. He’ll tell you that, yes, it is essential indeed. So, we simply asked him to bag his most essential tricks for an EZmix Pack, one we’d like to call: Metal Essentials EZmix Pack.The Metal Essentials EZmix Pack comes with exactly what its title implies: instant and essential presets for your metal productions! One click and you get Jason’s take on how to beef up your guitars, drums, bass, vocals and overall master. Essentially easy.

Metal Month continues at Toontrack. You’ve got to love a company that celebrates Metal releases for an entire month.

∞ Apple lossless compression tests

Written by

Kirk McElhearn:

Just as when you compress a text file using zip compression, decompressing returns all the original letters and characters, lossless music compression provides the full fidelity of the original audio you compressed.

Nice compression overview by Kirk.

∞ Multitrack bounces with EZDrummer and Logic Pro

Written by

If you have EZDrummer then you’ll know there is no way to do this natively inside the plugin. There are however workarounds to this and I’m going to show you how to do this in Logic Pro. Although I’m in Logic this concept will work in any DAW that can feed a record input from an internal source.

Step-by-step instructions from MacProVideo.com.

∞ Pro Tools 10 video tutorial

Written by

Pro Tools 10 is chock full of new features and functions that will dramatically speed up your workflow and production time. Pro Tools guru Michael Costa takes you step by step through each new feature and function, in-depth, leaving no … Continued

∞ My iPad guitar setup

Written by

People have asked for my iPad guitar setup, so I thought I’d post a few pictures of what I use. Many of the people that email me ask how I write songs on the iPad. The fact is, I don’t. … Continued

∞ Pro Tools reality distortion field

Written by

Air Users Blog: Avid are sticking to their Pro Tools 10 pricing guns (see what I did there?) and I’m told that they are internally patting themselves on the back for such a great product launch. I’m also told that … Continued

∞ Roger Waters takes The Wall on tour in 2012

Written by

JamBase: Roger Waters, the co-founder and principal songwriter of the archetypal progressive band Pink Floyd, has announced the return of the historic production of “The Wall” to North America in 2012. Tickets for “The Wall” 2012 go on sale beginning … Continued

∞ Pete Townshend calls iTunes a 'digital vampire'

Written by

AP: The Who’s Pete Townshend on Monday branded Apple Inc.’s iTunes a “digital vampire” that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it. Townshend said that faced with the Internet’s demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer … Continued

∞ Yoko Ono to introduce Steve Jobs tribute at MTV Music Awards

Written by

Billboard:

“Like John Lennon, the man I love deeply, Steve Jobs was a dreamer who changed the world,” Ono is expected to say during the online awards ceremony that begins Oct. 31 at 8:30 p.m. PT at www.omusicawards.com. “But of course when we lose a genius of that caliber, they are never really gone. They live on all around us, through our memories, their words, and their work. Their spirit grows in us forever to the end of the days.”

∞ MIDI guitar controllers

Written by

Toby Pitman for macProVideo.com: I’m a good example of a guitarist who is really into synths but finds triggering these sounds from the piano interface very frustrating as technically I’m just not good enough on the piano. As soon as … Continued