Parallel compression is sometimes called “New York” or “East Coast” compression.  It is a technique that involves blending in a duplicated aux track with additional processing, most often a strong compressor, in order to create a richer and fuller sound from an instrument.  This is most commonly used on drums, but can be potentially helpful for any instrument.  Check out the video using Logic:

I’m just starting to put a ton of new content on the site and I’m excited to have partnered up with Jason from musicsoftwaretraining.com and Johnathan from djtutor.com to give us a whole lot of informative and insightful videos. Keep an eye out, because I’ll have many new videos from them and others coming very soon!

Rarely is there a mic collection without a trusty SM57 in its arsenal.  Introduced 45 years ago, it remains one of the best-selling microphones on the market and is consistently a first-choice for high-pressure sound level situations such as snare drums and guitar amps.

It’s hard to define why so many people love this microphone.  Is it truly a superior sounding mic, or has it simply become the mic that engineers reach for without thinking about it?  After all, there are plenty of engineers who chose a ‘57′ above plenty of higher-priced microphones available to them.  Perhaps the inherent sound of an SM57 has become so commonplace in recordings that our ears desire to hear its tone like comfort food.  Another great reason to own an SM57 is that it is legendarily built like a tank.  Take these on a tour, drop ‘em a few times, knock into them, spill some beer on it and you still have a perfectly healthy mic, maybe with a few dents and dings.

Some may not know that the capsule in the SM57 is identical to the SM58 vocal mic.  The biggest difference being that the SM58 has a windscreen to avoid nasty ‘plosives’ when a singer projects directly into the mic.

Some similar and very quality alternatives to the SM57 are the Audix i5 or various Sennheiser mics like the e906.  Even so, nothing has retained such popular status as the famous Shure instrument mic.  Remember that next time you hear a live sound engineer say, “Yeah, I’ll throw a 57 on it.”

Recording using MIDI input has always had the distinct advantage of the ability to change any parameter after the fact – If you screw up a pitch, just drag it to the correct one.  Play out of time, and you can nudge the notes so they match correctly.

Celemony, the software company who developed Melodyne, asked themselves a fascinating question:  What if you could work with audio just like they are MIDI tracks?  Melodyne gives that distictly visual ability, including the ability to adjust pitch, timing, and even improve the intonation of a performance.

The latest version of Melodyne has a distinctly new and revolutionary feature:  Using DNA (Direct Note Access), the user can access specific notes of a chord.  For example, play a chord on a guitar, and the software will allow you access to each individual note.

When using Melodyne, it is important to have a solo track with little to no background noise or it is difficult for the software to devermine pitch, but if you have a clean track, you’ll be amazed at the amount of control and flexibility that it offers.  You can check out Melodyne here.

I’ve had a Studio Projects C1 mic for nearly 10 years and it has become my favorite go-to mic for many applications, but especially vocals. It is a cardioid pattern large-diaphram condenser mic that features a bass roll-off switch and -10dB pad. This is the most common type of studio vocal mic. The C1 in no way tries to hide that it has a very pronounced high-frequency boost that adds a nice pop-friendly gloss to voices. It is smooth without ever sounding harsh which makes it very commercial friendly.

I believe that every good mic has its own place for the various voices or other applications.  The fact that I have used the C1 on more vocal recordings than anything else really says something to me about its quality, and to how it fits my own personal taste in sonic reproduction.  If you are looking for a versatile and sweet sounding vocal mic at a very high price to sound quality ratio, set aside a couple hundred bucks and try out the Studio Projects C1.