Author: Stuart

Posted on

Mary Spender Breaks Down ‘Only One’

For this week’s Tuesday Talk, Mary Spender walks us through the history and recording of her new song ‘Only One’.

https://youtu.be/juikboGFLTw

This is the first song where Mary has done all the engineering herself. She normally records in a studio, but this time she wanted to have more time to work on the song – and studio time quickly becomes very expensive.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment. It takes a lot of courage to share this kind of information, especially in today’s world of armchair critics and trolls.

Posted on

Sounds Like – Modern Tones Rig

Matt and Rabea are back with another Sounds Like video for Andertons – and this time they’ve built a generic rig for modern high-gain tones.

If you haven’t come across it before, the Sounds Like series is a great way to see how to build a rig to achieve a given sound.

Many of the videos stick to a budget of £1,500, and it’s been educational to watch just how much prices have gone up since the Brexit referendum.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoy Matt and Rabea’s video.

Posted on

How To Sound Like A Gear Demo

Brian Wampler has posted a great video, walking us all through his exact recording process for the amps and pedals in his videos.

It’s incredibly generous of Brian to share this with us. For many YouTubers and professional musicians, recorded sound quality is a competitive advantage – and teaching these techniques is a source of income too.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you found Brian’s video useful.

Posted on

Michael Kelly 508 Demo

Over at Agufish, Hunter has posted his demo of the Michael Kelly 508 guitar – an 8 string djent monster machine.

Even if you’re not looking for a heavy riffage monster of your own, it’s worth checking out his video just for the song he wrote for this demo.

Michael Kelly guitars aren’t carried by the big outlets over here, so I’ve never seen or played one myself. A quick google shows that there are plenty of smaller shops offering them … and I do want a rosewood fretboard T-style of some kind this year …

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Hunter’s video.

Posted on

Donner Black Devil Drive Pedal Demo

Shane’s posted another of his Donner “amp in a box” pedal demos. This time, he’s looking at the Black Devil, which emulates the Peavey 6505 amp.

I’ve never played a real 6505, so I’ve no idea whether or not this pedal comes close. It does have a thick and saturated tone, which might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.

Posted on

Do Microphonic Guitar Pickups Explain Tonewood?

Johan Segeborn is back – and his beard almost is too – with another of his mad science experiments about tone.

Ah, tonewood – and the endless debate of whether wood makes a difference or not. (It does, and so do other things.)

This time, Johan tries an experiment with pickups. How microphonic are they, and does that explain why tonewood makes a difference?

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and join in the lively debate in the comments section there.

Posted on

3 Ways To Get Drums Without A Drumkit

Graham over at The Recording Revolution looks at how you can add drums to your recordings without having a real drummer or playing a real drum kit.

Many of us can’t play drums, and we don’t have the physical space for a drum kit of any kind either – and yet, we play music genres where drums are a major component of the overall sound.

So we need options – and Graham’s video shows 3 common options to fill in (pun intended) for a real drummer.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you found Graham’s video useful.

Posted on

King of Tone – Is It Worth It?

Chris Buck – sporting his new pirate look – has posted a vlog answering some questions he’s had about the King of Tone pedal.

He’s had a much happier time with the KoT to date than I’ve had, it’s fair to say. And it certainly sounds fantastic in his hands on this video.

Last year, I listed the KoT amongst my top 3 disappointing buys of 2017. I’ve still got it. (I’ve still got all 3 things that made the list, in fact.) I need to try it through my new amp setup first before deciding whether to move it on or not.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Chris’ video.

Posted on

Ernie Ball Music Man BFR Steve Morse Y2D HH Demo

Man, that’s a mouthful! N Stuff Music have posted a demo of Steve Morse’s signature guitar.

This is a very limited edition guitar: there’s only 35 of these been made. Watching the video, it’s clear that Gavin really enjoyed this guitar. I imagine they had a hard time prising it out of his hands once filming was complete.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Gavin’s video.

Posted on

5 Mixing Mistakes That Are Easy To Fix

Steven Slate is back with another of his vlogs. This time, he’s taking a look at 5 ways to approach mixing.

His points really resonate with me, especially his first point on envisaging what you’re trying to achieve, and the need for a reference mix to compare against.

Oh, and he also endorses products like SonarWorks Reference 4, which I posted about earlier today.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Steven’s video.