Guitar amplifier simulator software (“amp sims”) allows you to effectively have a guitar amp inside your computer, without an actual physical real amp. I have been doing all my electric guitar recording in my home studio exclusively with amp sims for years. But are they really as good as, and can they really replace real…
I have been using Reaper as my recording software for many years. As a guitar player, in that time I’ve used it to record guitar parts many times. Reaper is a great choice for recording guitars, but if you are new to recording it can be a little intimidating. To record guitar in Reaper, make…
The traditional way to get sound out of an electric guitar for almost a century has been to plug it into a dedicated guitar amplifier. Most of the time when I play at home these days, I don’t bother. With the technology available today, there is no need to plug your electric guitar into an…
Mixing and mastering are crucial parts of the music production process, yet they are often confused with each other. It has taken me many years of making music in my home studio and releasing music commercially, to achieve a good understanding of the differences between mixing and mastering. Mixing and mastering differ in their purpose….
I have connected more than one microphone to my PC several times in my home studio over the years. These were generally when I needed to record multiple sound sources at the same time. Depending on what exactly you are trying to do, there are several different methods of connecting multiple microphones to a computer….
Mastering is probably the most misunderstood aspect of music production, particularly by home recording musicians. It was only a few years ago when I had to prepare some of my songs for commercial release, that I really learned what mastering is for and how to do it. To master a song, add EQ and Limiter…
As a guitar player with a home studio, I have connected my guitar to my PC many times over the years. I have done this for both recording and for practice. It did take me a while, however, to work out how exactly to connect to guitar to a computer, and what the best method…
There have been many times throughout my music recording life when I have needed to send or receive a musical project to work on. When doing this it is usual to send either “stems” or “multitracks”. Stems and multitracks are not the same thing, and for many musical collaborations it is essential to know the…
Mixing has always been the most difficult part of home recording for me. I have got better and better at it over the years though. One of the things that has enormously helped me to achieve better mixes is learning how to properly perform gain staging. Gain staging is the process of setting signal levels…
Over the years I have worked with many different audio systems such as audio interfaces, PA systems and guitar amplifiers. Two of the most commonly confused terms applicable to all those systems are volume and gain, and it has taken me many years to fully understand the difference. Volume is how loud the audio output…
