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How to make sense out of the Microphone Preamp jungle
How to Make Sense out of the Mic Preamp Jungle Cross the Threshold to Greater Sound Quality by Tweak Focusrite ISA One Microphone Preamp As you learn about the recording arts you will find that the topic of the microphone preamp (mic pre) comes up over and over again. A mic pre is a preamplifier for…
READ GUIDE →SoundCravers · How to Buy A Microphone For Your Home Studio, Microphones For Recording Drums, Microphones For Recording Instruments, And The Best Microphones For Recording Vocals
Guides Reviews Catalog zZounds Links - Guitar Bass Keyboard Recording Computers Live Drums DJ Accessories Blowouts Microphones For The Home Studio Mar 27 — By The Tweak Contents ↓ Basics of a Home Studio Mic Cabinet Setting up Microphones Ambient and Close Mics Matching the Microphone to the job. Wh…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Shure SM57 Dynamic Microphone by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Shure SM57 Dynamic Microphone The legendary, yet inexpensive Studio Mic of all time. If you ask nearly anyone who runs a professional recording studio, "Do you have a Shure SM57?" they might look at you and ask, "are you are serious?" Of course they do. Every studio needs at least one,…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Cad E-200 Microphone by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Cad E-200 CAD E200 Equitek Series Dual Single Diaphragm Condenser Microphone Pros: Smooth Sound Switchable directional patterns and pad Look Great Cons Does not come with shock mount The Equitek E200 from Conneaut Audio Devices is a multi-pattern side address microphone designed for re…
READ GUIDE →Tips on Buying Music Gear and Reviews
The Intelligent Person's Guide to Buying New and Used Gear This page can save you from making huge mistakes that could cost thousands of dollars by Rich the TweakMeister My goal is to give you the straight truth as I see it. I've spent years scrimping and saving for music gear and I know how it is!…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Shure SM81 Microphone by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Shure SM81LC Great Mic for Acoustic Guitar by Tweak It has taken years for the SM81 to rise to the top of my GAL (Gear Acquisition List) but it finally did a few weeks ago. The package has arrived and the acoustic guitars are dusted and polished. Expectations high. Plug it in to the Fo…
READ GUIDE →Reviews at SoundCravers Lab
Reviews Review you gear and have it appear instantly at the the Studio-Central Review forum Kaossilator Pro Review Tenori-On Presonus Central Station Behringer ADA8000 BOSS RE-20 Space Echo Stanton C324 Turntable Stanton T90 Korg Electribe EA Mackie HR-824 Monitors Roland VG99, GK3, FC300 Emu Protei…
READ GUIDE →Which Microphones and Preamps are Best for my Studio?
Microphones And Preamps Get the perfect Mics for the Home Studio Get up to speed on Mic Preamps Price List of Home Studio Microphones Home Studio Mic Preamp Price List High end preamps Review of the Shure SM81 Review of the Shure SM57 Review of the Electro-Voice RE20 Review of the Sennheiser MD421 R…
READ GUIDE →Microphones under a Hundred
Mics Under a Hundred Sometimes you can get a lot for a little Ok, so you are on a budget. That does not mean you have to compromise your sound, if you make some good choices. Sometimes we can't afford the best gear. So here's a list of mics under $100. There are a handful of mics under $100 that you…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Electrovoice RE20 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Electro-Voice RE20 Classic Mic for Radio and Broadcast Alternative Broadcast Mics Shure SM7B Dynamic Cardioid Studio Vocal Microphone The SM7B dynamic microphone has a smooth, flat, wide-range frequency response appropriate for music and speech in all professional audio applications. I…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Neumann TLM 103
Review of the Neumann TLM 103 Studio Microphone by Rich the Tweak The search for the all around best home studio mic inevitably leads on the the high end of microphones. The name Neumann has been associated with quality microphones since the 1920's. The German company does not make inexpensive budge…
READ GUIDE →SoundCravers · Review Of The Rode NT1
Guides Reviews Catalog zZounds Links - Guitar Bass Keyboard Recording Computers Live Drums DJ Accessories Blowouts Review Of The Rode NT1 Mar 22 — By The Tweak We all want good sound coming from our studios. We all know that the microphone is an important part of translating acoustical energy into a…
READ GUIDE →SoundCravers Lab's Index of Resources for the Modern Home and Project Studio
Your Webmaster Rich the TweakMeister Web Traffic on SoundCravers Audio Interfaces and Soundcards Article Index New products from Namm 2010 Getting into Pro Tools 8.1 New: Subscribe to Tweak's Blogspot New Should we Upgrade to Win 7? NEW Polls Best Mid price Firewire Interface Best $1000 synth New Gu…
READ GUIDE →Review of the M-Audio Solaris by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the M-Audio Solaris Condenser Microphone A Versatile multi-pattern condenser Mic for amps, rooms, instruments, vocal groups by the Tweak Sitting in its durable coffin like case, the Solaris lies safely in state The word Solaris means different things to different people. To an astronomer,…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Sennheiser MD421 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Sennheiser MD421-II A Rather Strange Day in TweakLand by Tweak Appearances are deceiving sometimes. Tweak presses a button on Tweakland's Magic Console and a glass display case of microphones rises out of the floor. Tweak says, "think of the microphone as a marriage". Yes. As something…
READ GUIDE →SoundCravers Guide Index
Guide Index Browse the restored SoundCravers archive by topic. Getting Started Assembling 6 different types of Home Studios Essential Concepts for putting together a Home Studio Guide Index How to make money in your home studio How to Set Up Digital Audio in your Home Studio Pic of Basic Setup Podca…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Shure SM7B Dynamic
Review of the Shure SM7B Dynamic Microphone A Great Dynamic Mic for Vocals by Tweak T he SM7B is one of the better vocal microphones one can buy for a recording studio, home or pro. Its a dynamic microphone, based on a moving coil, and has a cardioid pattern. It picks up the sound it points to, and…
READ GUIDE →How to Record Vocals in your Home or Project Studio
The Art of Recording Vocals How to get great sounding vocal tracks in your mixs by Rich the TweakMeister part 1 part 2 part 3 The Bell rings again. The Tweak briskly enters the classroom armed with coffee and his box of manuals. Some don't wait a second before shouting out newbie questions Tweak sig…
READ GUIDE →What's New and Cool by SoundCravers Lab
What's New (and Cool) page 1 Here's some of the latest studio gear, available from zZounds page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 A Really SCHWEET DEAL KRK VXT8 Active Studio Monitor With a visually striking enclosure design that is equally functional -- providing low resonance, improved structur…
READ GUIDE →SoundCravers Lab Electronic Musician's Hangout
The #1 Site for Learning about Home and Project Studios Follow @SoundCravers More Really SCHWEET DEALz Tweak: New Lower price. Great Buy. Roland JUNO-G 61-Key Synthesizer Keyboard Look familiar? True to its heritage, the new JUNO-G is affordable and user-friendly. But that's where the comparisons to…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Focusrite Platinum Voicemaster Pro
Review of the Focusrite Platinum Voicemaster Pro by Tweak Pros Extremely Tweakable Onboard compressor and optical expander (gate) EQ, Vintage Harmonics, and tube sound for extra coloration when desired De-esser, FX send returns and monitoring section Looks and sounds great Cons Digital outputs are o…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Great River ME-1NV by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Great River ME-1NV Nice Pre-Amp for the serious Home Studio Getting a good preamp is something that is not easy to do. Along the way there are many stumbling blocks, things that get in your way before you finally get down to business and pay. There must be a hundred reasons to not spen…
READ GUIDE →The Guitarists' Guide to DAW Recording by SoundCravers Lab
The Guitarist's Guide to Recording on your Computer Recording Guitars: With Mics, Direct, Amped, Vamped, Re-Amped By Tweak I t might seem strange for some of you to think I might know anything about guitars, with my small claim to notoriety being sampling and programming, but the truth is, I was ori…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Behringer ADA8000 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Behringer ADA8000 by SoundCravers Lab Its been known quite a while that one of the better Behringer values, in addition to their fine Direct Box (the DI-100) is the ADA 8000. Officially, the product is named the Behringer ADA8000 Ultragain Pro 8-Channel A/D D/A Converter If anything, m…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Emu XL1
Review of the Emu Xtreme Lead 1 by Tweak Emu XL-1 Extreme Lead 64 Voice Module Its not on my short list anymore. I bought it! Phat sounding analog timbres with knobs. Advanced arpeggiation--up to 16 at once! SuperBeats Mode. Get the idea? Its loops and arpeggios synced within presets so you can latc…
READ GUIDE →Review of the MOTU Ultralite
Review of the MOTU Ultralite T weakHeadz Lab electronic musicians cafe' Guide | Forums | Rigs | Reviews | Bookstore | Jukebox | Audio-Pro showroom search site Motu Ultralite Review and Info Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) UltraLite 10x14 FireWire Interface with MIDI The UltraLite bus-powered FireWire aud…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Proteus 2000
Review of the Proteus 2000 And Free Patches and Resources by Rich the TweakMeister Pros 128 Voice polyphony Multiple outs 32 MIDI channels 3 expansion slots Hip, clean sounds Cons Pianos and Strings not as good as other synths (can be expanded with better roms though) Not GM Compatible I think I was…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Roland SRX and JV boards
Reviews of the Roland SRX and JV80 Expansion Boards There are two kinds of expansion boards for Roland Synths, the SRX boards and the JV80 boards. The SRX boards are hi capacity 64 megabyte ROM boards while the JV80 boards are probably 16MB though some may be less. The SRX boards are for use in Rola…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Zoom H4 Recorder by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Zoom H4 And other solid state audio recorders The Zoom H4 is one of the many solid state hand held recorders on the market today. This kind of device records directly to a memory card. The advantage is that there is no motor noise that gets recorded along with your intended source. Ide…
READ GUIDE →Review of Waves Mastering Plugins
Review of Waves Mastering Plugins Waves Platinum Review The Waves Platinum contains all of the Gold 3.2 Bundle plus it adds more. You get the Renaissance Channel (along with other plugins that were formerly in the Renaissance 2 collection) and the Masters bundles. They key question: is it worth it t…
READ GUIDE →What's New and Cool Page 2
page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 What's New and Cool page 2 Tweak : Motu's BPM (Beat Production Machine) is a great piece of software. But can this software and an MPD controller really do everything a hardware MPC can do? Check out my review. Akai MPD32 USB/MIDI Pad Controller Great price…
READ GUIDE →Kaossilator Pro Review.html
New ways to shape your sound by SoundCravers Lab Korg Says: First came the Kaoss Pad, an effects processor with a revolutionary touch-sensitive X-Y interface that made sound manipulation more interactive and expressive than ever before. Then came the Kaossilator, a pocket-sized synth with basic loop…
READ GUIDE →Review of Intakt
Review of Native Instrument's Intakt An Easy to use and Powerful Soft Sampler By Tweak Native Instruments Intakt Software Sampler (Macintosh and Windows) Intakt is a state-of-the-art sampler specifically designed for rhythmic loop playback, manipulation, and mayhem. Intakt’s convenient one-screen in…
READ GUIDE →Review of Spectrasonics Atmosphere
Review of Spectrasonic's Atmosphere A soft synth dedicated to textures, pads, and ambient color by Tweak Note: Atmosphere's Library is now included in Spectrasonics Omnisphere It sits there on your computer screen like a like a massive 4 rack unit synth . It's a big one all right. My screen is set t…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Akai MPD16 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Akai MPD16 A Pad controller for your sequencer by Rich the TweakMeister Let me start off by saying I have never owned an MPC2000. And quickly add that I may never have to, now that I have the Akai MPD16 in my arsenal. Is it cool? Yes! But before we get into that, lets start off with a…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Apple TV as an Audio Archiver, by SoundCravers
Review of the Apple TV as an Audio Archiver A novel solution for managing your song catalog By Tweak B y now , everyone has heard of iTunes , the iPod and perhaps even the iPhone. Opinions may vary on the value of these devices. But there is one compelling reason to go with iTunes, which of course i…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Behringer MX9000
Review of the Behringer MX9000 The biggest, best behringer Why go with an analog console these days? You might wonder with all the really hot digital mixers out there. If you are doing a stand alone multi-track, like an ADAT or tascam multi track recorder, digital mixers make lots of sense. But if y…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Behringer V-AMP
Review of the Behringer V-Amp 2 by Tweak Today was the day. I brought them out of exile, the dusty relics of my past, the skeletons in the Tweak's many closets. No, not the faded photographs of past significant others, but something almost as dear: I brought out my guitars. Shaking my head, in some…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Boss RE-20 Space Echo by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Boss RE-20 Space Echo by SoundCravers lab Boss RE-20 Space Echo Delay Pedal One of the most beloved echo effects ever made, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo, has been reborn as the BOSS RE-20 Twin Pedal! Roland and BOSS have recreated every sonic detail and nuance of the original. Experien…
READ GUIDE →Review of the DBX Digital Dynamics Processor
Review of the DBX Digital Dynamics Processor DBX DDP Digital Dynamics Processor Gating, compression, limiting, de-essing and EQ (both in-path and sidechain) are available in the DDP. The LCD display shows you a digital meter that features peak and average levels at the same time, as well as all pres…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Delta 1010
Review of the Delta 1010 Tweak's Personal Choice of Audio Interfaces I used to think it was just my system that was the problem. Not so long ago, using what I thought was a good state of the art 8 channel soundcard, I was having trouble. I couldn't even get 10 seconds into a song before a dreaded al…
READ GUIDE →Review of the JV1010 and Expansion Boards
Review of the about the JV1010 by Rich the TweakMeister I have it, I love it, I use it in every song I make. If you can afford only one module this is the one. If you are a pro with a rack of synths but no current Roland synths, this is the one, it gives you the entire JV 2080 sound set plus the ses…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Korg Kaoss Pad
Review of the Korg Kaoss Pad by Rich the TweakMeister Don't even think this is just for DJs (though my DJ friends like it) It's like 2 products in one, a midi controller (with teeth) and an audio FX unit. Midi Features: Did you know the Kaoss Pad sends out MIDI for 6 continuous controllers and two s…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Mac G5
Review of the Mac G5 A Great Machine for Creative People by Tweak The amount of effort it takes to switch music platforms is immense, especially if one has been doing it for a while. For me, I had 10 years under my belt on the PC platform using Logic Audio platinum as my sequencer for all of them. W…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Mackie HR 824
Review of the Mackie HR 824 High Resolution Studio Monitor by the Tweak Pros Great clear, powerful sound Requires no amplification Has many settings which can be tweaked to optimize the monitor for placement Excellent Bass for a monitor this size Cons More expensive than other home studio monitors O…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Novation ReMOTE 37SL by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Novation ReMOTE 37 SL With Notes on the AutoMap template for Logic 7.2 by Tweak The Idea behind the ReMOTE SL series is groundbreaking. It attempts to solve the major problem behind all controllers with assignable knobs and faders, namely, how can a the controller automatically configu…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Stanton C.324 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Stanton C.324 by SoundCravers Lab I must admit, I like to w A Rp audio. For me, it is a passion . No doubt its unusual for a person to get their kicks this way. Thankfully, I can justify some of it under the guise of being some kind of DJ producer type. "Oh, I get it", they exclaim wit…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Stanton T90 Turntable by SoundCravers Lab
Review of the Stanton T90 USB Direct Drive Turntable Confessions of a Non-DJ Its been a while since I bought a turntable. So long I'd rather not say. I am a home studio guy, not a club DJ, so take everything I say about them through those colored glasses. But as a re-mixer and a samplist, I am alway…
READ GUIDE →Review of the Triton LE
Review of the Triton LE Korg Triton Le 61-Key Workstation 62 voices .The TRITON Le features both high-quality sounds and an assortment of new Programs and Combinations voiced especially for it. 448 onboard programs (64 user program locations) 128 programs and 9 drum kits The TRITON Le is GM compatib…
READ GUIDE →Review of the World Expedition Rom by Emu Systems
Review of the Planet Earth Module E-MU's sound designers have gathered an amazing collection of authentic rhythms and traditional instruments from the four corners of the globe to give you Planet Earth, the most realistic ethnic sound module in the world. And Planet Earth's powerful synthesis engine…
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