January 5, 2020
Yeah. I know. Everyone has a home studio and everyone is a brilliant producer and everyone is a crafty and talented audio engineer. Good on us. And yet, EQ remains one of the most overused— and likely “misused”—elements of the recording and mixing processes. In fact, aggressive tone tweaks will likely serve to tank your […]
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January 24, 2019
Typically, I would advise scrupulously following your muse and let the public be darned to all heck. It’s your album. Screw the haters! That said, after more than 21 years of listening to bazillions of instrumental-guitar albums and making decisions as to whether to review a record and/or cover the artist, I have a small […]
January 22, 2019
You may love album productions from the 1960s and ’70s, but emulating the sound and vibe of those seminal tracks on a DAW can sometimes seem tougher than getting the Davies Brothers to stopping beating the living crap out of each other during a Kinks session, circa 1974. You don’t have the big studios, the […]
“There are always exceptions, but if you compose super-complex instrumental music, you’re limiting your audience,” advises, well, super-complex guitarist Sarah Longfield. “Instrumental guitar music typically appeals to other guitarists, but while you can do whatever you want when you’re not catering to vocal-driven songwriting, the flip side is that your guitar parts still need to […]
“In general, working with loops means you must have good timing and be very precise,” says Italian composer and loop guitarist Sara Ardizzoni, who performs and records under the name Dagger Moth. “But there’s also the risk of becoming too predictable. Therefore, I add some challenges to the game. I avoid the usual structure built on […]
[Photo by Cheryl Alterman] “I think it’s easy to have preconceived notions of what we’re supposed to do as guitarists, or what’s expected of us,” says Gretchen Menn. “But rather than have that be a voice of wisdom guiding us, it can become a burden and a creative limitation. I don’t worry about what people […]
On Conceptualizing What You Play “I visualize things and go off to the galaxy’s limit,” says iconic Fanny guitarist June Millington. “I just let myself be led. I don’t ask questions. I just go. Somebody told me once that Laura Nyro said to her producer, ‘I want it to sound like mist rising over a lake […]
