Tone. At Home.
Regular readers will have noticed that this blog has been very quiet over the last few months. One of the main reasons for this? I’ve been dealing with problematic audio noise which started after we had a solar PV system installed at the house.
What was the problem? And what was the solution? That’s what I’m covering in today’s Studio Diary entry. Grab a drink … this is going to be a long post.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #38: Dealing With Noise And Solar Power”I’ve had a lot of success – and a lot of joy – using my Axe-FX 3 to record guitar pedal audio demos. Heck, it sounds so good, it’s my go-to pedal platform all the time now.
Can I do the same with my Synergy rig? Instead of running my Synergy modules through the SYN-5050 power amp + attenuator, can I run them straight into the Axe-FX 3 instead? Can the Axe-FX 3 add a bit of that power amp tonal magic?
I’m going to experiment, and find out.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #37: Can I Use The Axe-FX 3 As A Power Amp For My Synergy Rig?”For the last couple of months, I’ve been dealing with a problem with my Fryette PS-100 Power Station: it emits an awful squeal.
I’ve figured out why: it was caused by a ground loop. Read on if you want to know the whole story.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #36: Why Does My Fryette Power Station Squeal?”When I listen to any demos involving the Axe FX 3 on YouTube, there’s no noise to be heard. But here, at home, and in my own demos that I’ve posted, there’s a background hiss whenever I let notes sustain.
I thought it was because I’m using the Axe FX 3 with my pedalboard, and it is. But it’s not the pedals causing the noise. And, thankfully, it’s incredibly easy to sort out.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #35: Reducing Noise With The Axe-FX III And The 4 Cable Method”I recently rewired my home studio rack to replace unreliable home-made cables with professionally-made ones that would be noise-free.
Unexpectedly, the rewiring also revealed that I’d been losing some of the treble from my guitar without realising it. While testing all of the different signal paths that I have, I discovered problems with two of the signal chains that I use the most:
In this blog post, I’m going to explain the problem I found, and what I’m doing about it. I’ll also include audio samples, so that you can hear the problem for yourself.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #34: Gigrig G2 Goes For A Service”When I was doing my research into studio monitors, there was a concept that kept coming up time and time again. All the pros said the same thing: you’ve got to learn the sound of your monitors in your space.
This week – almost 18 months after getting my studio monitors – I finally understand what that means.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #33: Things Are Clicking With My Studio Monitors”Last week, I finally did it: I replaced all the home-made wiring in my rack with professionally-made cables. And, seeing as I was taking everything apart anyway, I used it as an opportunity to give everything a much-needed clean too.
Why did I do this? What was involved? How long did it take? And was it worth the trouble and expense? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #32: Rewiring The Studio Rack”I’ve recently switched back from Universal Audio’s LUNA DAW to good old Reaper. Why? Because I need to work on some midi drums, and LUNA doesn’t really support that yet.
This is partly a note to myself, and partly a tutorial, on how I setup Superior Drummer 3 and Reaper to work well together.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #29: Setting Up Superior Drummer 3 In Reaper”We’ve just started band rehearsals again, after a 2 year break because of the global pandemic. That means that my time with LUNA has to come to an end, at least for now.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #28: Returning To Reaper, After 2 Years Of LUNA”