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Planet Waves American Stage Cables 2/22/12 8:27 PM in Guitars by Anderton Anderton
"It’s time to re-think cables for live performance $39.99 - $69.99 MSRP, starting at $29.99 street , www.planetwaves.com   By Craig Anderton   The idea of reviewing cables might seem pretty dumb, unless you’re talking about ..."
Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite QUAD 2/21/12 5:26 PM in Recording & Production by Jon Chappell Jon Chappell
"Give processing power back to your computer through powered plug-ins from this quality FireWire-based DSP accelerator $1899 MSRP; $1499 street www.uaudio.com   by Jon Chappell The UAD-2 Satellite QUAD connects to a Mac via FireWire and powers all ..."
Put a Hex on Your Guitar - Pickup, that Is 2/18/12 12:18 PM in Guitars by Anderton Anderton
"Check out "the final frontier" for electric guitar—hex processing   by Craig Anderton   Okay, I’m a little late for Halloween. But this kind of hex is definitely a lot more treat than trick.   For decades, the conventional ..."
TheGigRig HumDinger 2/16/12 11:37 AM in Guitars by Phil O'Keefe Phil O'Keefe
"Transformer isolation unit with buffered output prevents hum when running two amps MSRP $149.00 http://www.thegigrig.com/usa/acatalog/MAS_Humdinger.html   By Phil O'Keefe     There are times when all you need is one amp, a cable and a good ..."
HC Confidential: Issue 156 2/14/12 6:16 AM in The Music Business by Jon Chappell Jon Chappell
"Issue 156   Topics      News      User Reviews     Foru m s      Articles      Videos      Classifieds     Dear ..."
Onboard Auto-Tune for Guitars 2/14/12 6:15 AM in Guitars by Jon Chappell Jon Chappell
"DSP tuning not only lets you play in tune, it provides you with alternate tunings by Jon Chappell   The Antares Auto-Tune circuitry (inset photo) fits on a board no larger than a business card and comes installed on the new Peavey AT-200. (Click ..."
HC Confidential: Issue 155 2/9/12 11:02 AM in The Music Business by Jon Chappell Jon Chappell
"Issue 155   Topics      News      User Reviews     Foru m s      Articles      Videos      Classifieds     Dear ..."
Enhance Reverb with Send and Return Equalization 2/9/12 2:30 AM in Recording & Production by Phil O'Keefe Phil O'Keefe
"Using EQ on your effects sends and returns can dramatically reduce mud in your mixes   By Phil O'Keefe     Modern music production tends to rely less on actual room ambience and more on "in the box" software solutions. This is especially ..."
Easier Ableton Live Tweaking with Macro Controls 2/8/12 7:01 PM in Recording & Production by Anderton Anderton
"Simplify tweaking rack parameters for smoother, easier live performance or recording   by Craig Anderton   One of the great things about analog hardware is that controls are obvious: If there’s a function, there’s a physical control ..."
HC Confidential: Issue 154 2/3/12 3:18 PM in The Music Business by Jon Chappell Jon Chappell
"Issue 154   Topics      News      User Reviews     Foru m s      Articles      Videos      Classifieds     Dear ..."
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ARTICLE PREVIEWS

Installing an Acoustic Instrument Pickup Yourself

by Jon Chappell

I've made plenty of mods and repairs to my guitars in my time, and am no stranger to replacing pickups, broken jacks, worn and stripped tuning machines, and bridge assemblies. But these operations have all been performed on electric instruments where everything is made from the get-go to be modular (it makes for cheaper manufacturing as well as repair). In electric-land things come apart logically and mechanically — using traditional tools like screwdrivers, hex drivers, and wrenches.

That all goes out the window when you’re dealing with wood and glue, such as you find in the world of acoustic instruments. Shaving a saddle or filing a nut slot fills the normally electric-axe tinkerer with dread because it’s so easy to permanently mess up the instrument (or at least its playability). To borrow a phrase from the digital DAW world, it’s a destructive edit. You can’t get it back. The most common example of permanent, can’t-get-it-back modding is retrofitting an uplugged instrument for an onboard pickup.

The chief reason for this is that you have to drill a big, honkin’ hole in the gorgeous unblemished wood where there previously was none...

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Make Sample Playback Synths More Expressive

by Craig Anderton

Why be normal? With some basic editing, you can create your own signature sound from sample-based instruments.

Both hardware-based sample playback synths (like the Yamaha Motif, Korg M3, Roland Fantom series, etc.) and equivalent software-based plug-ins (e.g., Native Instruments Kontakt, IK SampleTank, MOTU Mach 5, and the like) can do so much more than just play back samples. In fact, with a little tweaking, you can obtain far more expressive patches. Sometimes even a simple parameter change or two is all you really need to customize a sound to fit your needs. Like what, you say? Well, like . . .

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Adventures in Lo-Fi for Bass Players

by Anderton

Yes, it's all the rage: Lo-fi music, where you mess up sound not because you lack experience or can't afford good gear, but because you want to mess it up - and mess it up good. In this article, we'll consider when bad things happen to good basses, and why that can be fun.

In terms of making connections, I like lo-fi sometimes, but there are limits - I still want the bass, along with the kick, to be the driving low-frequency force behind a tune. However, a lot of lo-fi boxes, while delivering cool effects, take away the rich low end we need to preserve.

Lo-fi works best for me when placed "on top" of the main bass sound, like chocolate syrup on a sundae. This requires a parallel effects connection so that the effect is added to the bass...

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