Locking Tuners! A guide for dummies.

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're talking about a piece of guitar hardware that is often overlooked, but that is a very important aid if our guitar refuses to stay perfectly in tune: the locking tuners.

Those tuners are similar to the regular ones, you still pass the string through the peghead, but before starting winding it around the peg, with locking tuners there is a pin or some other type of retaining machine that "locks" the string in place eliminating the need for wrapping the string around the peghead.

If the string is locked there's no need for it to stabilize around the peg, and this is particularly useful with tremolo / Floyd Rose bridges, which needs the maximum stability to keep in tune.


In order to change the strings with locking tuners first we need to

1) Remove the old strings (that's an easy one)

2) Align the pegheads so that the hole is facing the nut (no pun intended)

3) Insert the string in the peghead (without turning the peg) and fix it into the bridge

4) Lock the locking system below the tuner to keep the string in place

5) Wind up the tuner until the string is in tune (a locking tuner should tune the string with half a turn of the peghead, or less)

6) Remove the part of the string in excess (because we care about the looks too)


Hope this was helpful!

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THE BEST FREE VST BASS AMPS (a guide with free Vst plugins inside)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
A bass can be recorded going straight from a D.I. box to the audio interface, going through a preamp (or an overdrive stompbox like the Sansamp) and then into the interface, microphoning the cab or using a combination of these three methods, but today recording engineers usually tend to avoid miking a cabinet due to the difficulty of getting a really good tone taming the low frequency resonances, and because virtual amplifiers have gotten to a point that they sound realistic enough to take the place of a real bass amp, most of the times.

In the market today there aren't for bass as many virtual amplifiers as for guitar, but still we have managed to try some of them and to decide which one to suggest you.
Let us know what do you think and contact us if you have some other simulator to suggest!


Best Free Vst Virtual Bass Amps:

Ignite Amps - SHB 1 - An excellent Vst that simulates a tube bass amplifier

Fretted Synth 3rd Bass - A bass amp simulator with multi effects

Ronald Passion Bass Preamp - a very good and realistic tube bass amp simulator

Studio Devil Bvc - A Tube amp simulator that can be used for both guitar and bass

Amplitube Free - The free version of Ik Multimedia Amplitube also features a good bass simulator

Tse Bod - it's a simulation of the Sansamp Bass Driver DI, often used instead of an amplifier


Best Free Paid Virtual Bass Amps:

Ik Multimedia Ampeg Svx - A very complete and professional suite for bass amp simulation

Studio Devil Virtual Bass Amp Pro - Another very interesting virtual amplifier with a rich interface

Overloud Mark Studio II - A beautiful and complete bass suite, the bass version of Overloud Th2.


Once we have found a tone that suits to our needs, we can mix it using our Bass Mixing Tutorial!


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How choose the right pick for your guitar or bass (a guide for dummies)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're talking about guitar and bass Picks!
Also known as Plectrum, the pick is a small piece of plastic or nylon (or other material) that helps us picking the strings instead of using our fingertips or our nails, and it also gives the tone a hard, clean attack, letting us go much faster on the alternate picking technique and palm muting; for some genres, such as folk, country rock or some type of classic rock (for example Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler often don't use one) the pick can be considered just an option, while for others (heavy metal, blues etc...), the pick it's completely impossible to avoid.
Speaking of bass, instead, picks are used by much fewer musicians, usually only when they require a strongly percussive sound, and it can be found usually in hard rock, punk or metal bands.
The pick's characteristics and the way we strum will mix with all the other rings of our signal chain and it will change dramatically the final result; let's take a look to how the various pick types affect the tone.

Size and shape: Pick size can vary from being quite large to very small, leaving just a tiny part of it outside the grip of our fingers.
The rule of thumb is that wider picks are suggested for playing open chords, while the smaller ones, that gives us more control and speed, are more suited for faster music and solos.
The shape can be equilateral (used especially from beginner players since they can use the pick on any angle), to the classic "drop shape", up to some more uncommon designs such as the "sharkfin shape", for example.
Each design offers a different playing experience, and only by trying them out we can find the right one for us.

Material: In the beginning of string instruments people used to strum with bird feathers, wooden shards or animal bone pieces (ivory, parts of tortoise shell...), then in the 20th century there has been a large production of plastic and nylon picks, and today (in addiction to all the previous types) manufacturers are experimenting also with metal, carbon fiber and stone.
The idea is that the harder the material is, the harder will be the attack on the strings, therefore the sound will become more loud and bright, while using softer materials the sound will be more sweet and mellow.

Thin or Thick: The thinner a pick is, the more is flexible and it will bend while strumming, the thicker it is and the more it will mantain its shape, making more resistance on the strings and therefore making them sound louder.

Now that we've seen how the different specs of a pick will affect the final sound we can choose the combination of features that suits to our playing style, but the only way to really find the right pick is to go to a shop and try some of them on our guitar or bass.
For bass obviously there will be less choice: the strings are so thick that we're going to need thick, wide picks made of a very resistent material.

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4 THINGS TO DO TO GET YOUR BAND READY TO RECORD

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're going to talk about the 4 most important things to do BEFORE going into the studio, to make a good record!


1) Have the musicians learn the songs BEFORE starting recording!!

This is intuitive, yet some band still walks into a studio with just one member or two that has a clear idea of the song structures. The others sometimes just barely knows their own parts, and sometimes they also need, when tracking, some other band member that tells them the parts of the song or the chord changes IN REAL TIME. This is just a waste of time, money, and it's almost impossible, even for the most skilled engineers, to fix in the mix.


2) Prepare the instruments for the studio:

Another widely overlooked topic. When I have to record a band, the first thing that I ask them, before starting, is to go to a luthier (or to do it themeselves if they are good) and to change the strings and set the octaves on their string instrument.
Basically, before recording, an instrument requires a full setup.
When I hear "well, I don't have the money, I don't need it, the bass just sounds good this way", and other excuses... I already know that the tracking session will be a struggle, the string instruments will sound out of tune among them, and the album will sound DULL (and the dumbasses will blame me).
By the way, the drums should be tuned if possible by the drummer (there are a lot of good tutorials surfing the web), with a set of new skins, if the ones mounted are worn out.
The live sound of the drum should be as close as possible to the final result the drummer wants to achieve, it will MUCH easier to make it sound great!


3) The guys must know how to record with a click from WAY before getting into the studio:

The band that wants to record an album with today's standards, MUST record with a metronome, and the only way to record decently with a metronome is to exercise with it at home, and to have the metronome in the drummer's ear when rehearsing.
If the band starts tracking and nobody, or just the drummer, has any idea of what a metronome sounds like, there is 99% of the possibilities that the record will sound like crap, even with an inhuman editing work.


4) Have everything written down, even the details, to not improvise:

One of the worst mistakes that can be done when recording it's to think "it doesn't matter, I will improvise the solo when tracking", or "I don't know the vocal harmonies intervals, I'll sing what I will feel at the moment", or even "I sometimes insert variation when I play to give the record that LIVE feel".
If you find yourself saying one of those three things and you're not Dave Murray or Miles Davis, you should not enter the studio. You should go home and write down even when you should draw breath, then you can come back and record.


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REVIEW: BOSS NS-2 NOISE SUPPRESSOR

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to review a classic stompbox, present in the live and studio rig (mostly live, though) of many famous artists, such as Slipknot, Machine Head, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage and Linkin Park, basically the major league of modern heavy metal: the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor.

Compared to other modern noise suppression stompboxes the Boss NS-2 today may not result the first of the class in terms of transparency, especially on a head to head comparison with an Isp Decimator; the pedal nonetheless has been the first choice by many professional musicians due to its reliability, and due to the fact that Boss stompboxes are really built like a tank, made for the tour life with the highest level of reliability.

Plus it's cheap and gets the job done fairly well. 

The unit features a dual input and dual output: the first input and the first output are made to stay at the top of the guitar effect chain, while the second input and output are made to go in the send and return of the amplifier (the effect loop), or if there are other effects, from the return of the amplifier to the input of the first effect: this way with the first input and output we clean the sound of our guitar from the pickup hum and unwanted feedbacks, and with the second one we polish the sound even more before going through any modulation effect (e.g. a Delay), to make sure that no noise gets effected. 

Just make sure that the NS-2 it's always on the top of the chain, because for example if we'd set it after a Delay, the noise gate would cut the repetitions. 

My overall judgement on this unit it's very positive, and it's a great bang for the buck, but at the same time I think that a Noise Suppressor should be used only when really necessary, for example playing heavy metal or other hi-gain genres, otherwise, if the signal-to-noise ratio it's bearable, I wouldn't suggest to use it, it would only reduce the sustain of our guitar without a real upside.

Specs taken from the Boss Website:

Input Impedance 1 M ohms

Output Impedance 10 k ohms or greater

Equivalent Input Noise Level -110 dBu or less (IHF-A, Typ.)

Connectors INPUT Jack, OUTPUT Jack, RETURN Jack, SEND Jack, DC In, Out

Power Supply DC 9 V: Dry Battery 9 V type (6F22/9 V), AC Adaptor

Current Draw 20 mA (DC 9 V)

Accessories Dry Battery 9 V type (6F22/9 V)

Option AC Adaptor (PSA-Series)

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THE 5 WORST MIXING AND MASTERING MISTAKES TO AVOID! (Part 2/2)

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2


2) MESSING UP THE GAIN STAGING: moving on to the top 2 mistakes to avoid when mixing and mastering we find the gain staging. This is a topic often overlooked when mixing, but I assure you that is the basic thing to learn if you want to create a great sounding song.
Gain staging means setting the input level of all the processors of each single source before getting into the DAW, then finding the right mixing level so that when we export the track for mastering there is enough headroom to work.
In the analog domain going over 0db means saturation, which is not bad, but In the digital domain, it means clipping, which means that the song will be ruined, and this is a mistake that we need to avoid as much as we can.
Assuming we're working on a 24bit project, thing that I recommend, we don't need to use all the headroom possible, with the risk that the strongest hits will peak and clip: the ideal is to enter in the audio interface with a level of -8/-6 db, and from there to record the signal in the DAW at a level of -12/-10 db, without touching the master buss fader. That way we will have enough signal to mix without problems and without worrying of peaks, at at the same time we will have, when exporting the song, a track that will have around -10 decibels of peak level, which will leave us more than enough room to do a nice Mastering and to have a powerful final track.


1) OVERCOMPRESSING/OVERLIMITING: this point is linked to the previous one, but in my opinion it's the single mistake that can completely screw up the whole castle of cards that is a well balanced mix.
This is a topic we've already covered in some other article, especially in the loudness war one, but it's very important: if we overcompress (during mixing) or overlimit (during mastering) we will lose part of the transient, which is, simplifying to the extreme, the snap of the snare, the body of vocals and guitars.
Compression is important but each istrument should be compressed the right amount before losing its snap, and the right amount of compression is obtained when you lower the threshold until you start hearing the transient disappearing, and then back it up a little bit, so that you have the maximum level of transparent compression available before affecting negatively the sound.
Once in the mastering phase, instead, with limiting we should be even more cautious, since the damages we can produce to our song are even bigger, therefore I suggest you to read our basic limiting guide, but the rule of thumb is to never surpass 3 or 4db of gain reduction: if you limit more, the amount of transient loss will really screw up everything.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2



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THE 5 WORST MIXING AND MASTERING MISTAKES TO AVOID! (Part 1/2)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're talking about the 5 worst mistakes that we can make when mixing and mastering! If you find you're stumbling upon one of these, make sure to fix the problem before moving on with your project!

5) Arranging: This is a fundamental problem, that maybe can be properly solved only with some experience. The song may be too crowded at some points, for example we may find on the same guitar+bass+drums riff 3 vocals that sings different lines, a line of piano, a whole orchestra section, a dubstep-like synth and a sampler that shoots drum n'bass loops to give "that modern vibe".
Cut that stuff away.
Jack White of White Stripes (among the other projects) once said that there shouldn't be more that 3 things playing at the same time on a song in order to make it really enjoyable;
I think that there is a way in between: the arranger, that often is the songwriter himself, should be wise enough to know where the listener's attention is going to go, and to drive him the way he intends his song to be enjoyed.
For example if there are too many different lines playing different things at the same time, the focus of the listener may wander to the useless details and miss the important thing we wanted to say.
Take a listen to the radio hits of today and you will discover a return to the essential, for example the Miley Cyrus hit Wreckin'Ball, where for most of the song there are only low lines of synth and some piano.
The more the sound stage is crowded, the more the single instruments will sound thin and tend to hide each other, so we must become wise when arranging in taking away the unnecessary and give weight to the important elements of the mix, making it crowded only when essential, not all the time.
Another mistake when arranging that can really turn any song into crap is drum programming.
If you can't record a true drummer or just prefer to use sampled drums there are no problems, just make it write to a real drummer if you have no idea of how to play drums, since one of the worst things that can happen, especially to a rock or metal song, is to have a "virtual drummer" that does unnatural things, things that a real drummer wouldn't do. If you're in doubt, always choose the most simple, normal, boring drum fill, otherwise the song will result automatically in a ridicolous mess.


4) Panning: Moving on in our gallery of horrors let's talk about panning, which is the disposition of the instruments on the stereo field and that we have already covered in a dedicated article, but that may cause problems if taken too lightly.
The idea is to stack as fewer elements as possible in the same exact place, to avoid overcrowding a particular area. This happens especially at the center: it's the place where lead vocals, snare, kick and bass guitar usually lays, (and often piano and lead guitars too), so it's suggested to move the other instruments around a little bit, for example even just off centering a lead synth of just 5% left or right will leave the middle area of the mix much clearer.
Everything should have its place as if we're hearing the band from the front of the stage or like we're hearing it from the drummer's perspective, just avoid overcrowding the center of the soundscape and the extremes: instruments placed 100% left or right tend sometimens to disappear or sound a bit too far with some device, for example some car stereo, so it's a good rule to use 95% left or right as a maximum panning distance.


3) Boosting: passing to the lower step of the podium we meet this tricky topic, boosting.
Using an equalizer to boost some frequency of an instrument it's not a mistake by itself, since eq is a tone shaping tool by definition, the mistake arrives when boosting before the compression on the single channel (since the compression will lower the boost, the rule of thumb is to use subtractive eq, then compress, then use the additive eq).
Besides that, if we need to add like 10db on the top end of our snare or guitar, maybe we should consider it recording it again changing something, like the microphones used or their position, since twisting an original sound in such an extreme way usually results in having unpleasant, digital sounds, that will kill the performance itself.


CLICK HERE FOR PART 2/2



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