Delay plugins are essential to every mixer’s toolbox! It’s one of the most common effects we use all the time to give instruments dimension and energy. The great thing about delay is that it can be subtle for a little…
14 Best Open Back Headphones for Mixing 2024 [Any Budget]
Searching for the just the right pair of open headphones to mix on? We’ve done some digging and come up with the best open headphones ranging from $50 to $500 — there’s a pair for every budget! What Are Open-Back…
5 Best FREE VU Meter Plugins in 2024
Before people started working in-the-box, VU meters measured the average level of a signal. You’d see them on consoles and outboard gear for measuring input or output level as well as gain reduction on compressors. The default digital meter is…
The 10 Best Guitar Cases for the Road in 2024
Having the right case for your guitar is a prerequisite for touring, gigging, carrying to and from rehearsal, and for safe storage at home. Some are built to withstand heavy duress, like air travel, and others are designed with portability…
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The 6 Best Desktop Synths for Home Use & Live Performance [2024 Guide]
A MIDI controller is often one of the first accessories producers purchase when fleshing out their home studios. This valuable and versatile piece of equipment primarily lets users play their collection of software instruments, as well as provide some tactile…
The 15 Best Dynamic Microphones for Any Budget in 2024
Looking for the best dynamic microphone to fill out your recording arsenal? We’ve tracked down 15 of them for a variety of instruments and applications. What Is a Dynamic Microphone? Dynamic mics are a style of passive microphone that operate…
The 8 Best Wavetable Synthesizers 2024
Wavetable synthesis is a technique used in certain digital music synthesizers to produce natural, note-like sounds. An existing instrument’s note can be sampled and parsed into a sequence of wavetables. Wavetable synthesizers differ from subtractive, additive, and FM/AM synths. In wavetable…
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The 17 Best Home Studio Mics in 2024 [Any Budget]
What differentiates a “home studio” mic from a “pro studio” mic is generally the budget of whoever’s purchasing it. Aside from that, the best mics are the best mics! We usually recommend starting out with the highest quality microphone you…
The 14 Best ASMR Microphones for Any Budget
ASMR is one of the most popular, if not slightly unusual, entertainment trends of the last several years. ASMR creators attempt to trigger the listener’s “autonomous sensory meridian response”—a tingling sensation that begins at the scalp and moves down through…
The 13 Best Studio Subwoofer Options for Music Production
Most of us work on two-way active speakers which include a tweeter and a low/midrange driver anywhere between 5″ and 8″ in size. Many of the larger popular speakers have impressive low-end extension, but even then, they lack the power…
The 8 Best 500 Series Racks for Your Home Studio in 2024
A 500 series rack is one of the best ways to add a bunch of outboard firepower to your studio in a compact form factor. It’s possible to keep a variety of processors like preamps, compressors, EQs, and more all…
Apogee Quartet Review: Is This Interface Worth the Price?
Apogee audio interfaces, a cornerstone of the brand, are revered for their exceptional audio fidelity and pristine sound reproduction. Whether capturing the delicate nuances of a vocal performance or the raw power of live instruments, Apogee interfaces ensure that every…
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The 10 Best Telecaster Pickups [2024 Guide]
The iconic sound of a Telecaster is known for its distinctive and timeless character. Developed by Leo Fender and introduced in the ’50s, the Tele is one of the most influential electric guitars in history, shaping the sound of numerous…
7 Best Laptops for Music Production in 2024
The good news for beginners is that there’s a solid chance you can start recording with whatever laptop you already own. In the event you’re looking for a new laptop for music production, we’ll check out some of the most…
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The Best Condenser Mics for Your Studio in 2024 [Any Budget]
The best condenser mic will see constant use in your studio. There’s so much variety out there that it can be a bit overwhelming trying to sort the good from the bad, so we’ve put together a shortlist of some…
Lauten Audio Eden LT-386 Review: The Ultimate Vacuum Tube Mic?
The Lauten Audio Eden LT-386 represents the apex of the brand’s design prowess, and in this review we’ll break down why this high-end tube condenser deserves the title. Lauten Brings Professional Quality Sound to Your Studio From the premium Signature…
11 Best Saturation VST Plugins Available 2024
Saturation is the secret weapon for adding some grit back to pristine digital recordings. Whether you just want to add a bit of body and richness to an instrument, or make it unrecognizable with blazing distortion, saturation is one of…
The 15 Best Small Tube Amp Options for Home Use in 2024
Being a guitar player sets you on a path of tone chasing — there’s no way around it! There are so many ways to tweak the sound of our instrument, from the guitar itself, to pickups, pedals, strings, plectrums, and…
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6 Best Studio Monitor Stands for Your Studio [2024 Guide]
Studio monitor stands can substantially improve your working environment. They’re not the most glamorous of upgrades in the grand scheme of things—considering all of the “fun” studio stuff we could buy—but speaker stands are an easy, effective way to make…
How Much Does Spotify Pay Per Stream in 2024?
Streaming platforms have revolutionized music sales. There’s just no way around it—if you’re an artist, you have to upload your music for streaming. In 2019, digital streams accounted for nearly 80% of total music sales globally, and the number continues…
The 9 Best Drum Mics for Live Sound & Recording (2024 Guide)
We talk about the best microphones for vocals and various instruments all the time, but what about the best mics for drums? As with any quality microphone, there’s always some overlap. You probably already own at least one transducer that…
Best Headphones for Music Production 2024
Finding the right pair of headphones for music production can be tough. There are so many choices that if you ask engineers what their favorite headphones are, you’ll probably get different answers from each one. We’ve done our diligence to…
11 Best Orchestral Strings VST in 2024
Using string samples instead of real ones offers a lot of obvious advantages for the average home producer or songwriter. Just from a logistical standpoint, booking studio time and hiring musicians is costly and time consuming. But with samples, you…
The 5 Best Online Sequencer Options in 2024
Imagine telling a producer or engineer in the ’70s, “Fifty years from now, people will be making music on the internet, sitting on on their couch.” “The what?” would be their obvious response, but time-traveling aside, technology has really revolutionized the…
15 Best Closed Back Studio Headphones in 2024
Closed back studio headphones are an essential piece of equipment to have on hand. They provide the best isolation with minor sacrifice to sound quality. But because they isolate the listener from the room, they’re the ideal option to use…
8 Best Bass Guitar VSTs in 2024 [Free & Paid]
Virtual Studio Technology (VST), developed by Steinberg in 1996, is a plugin format compatible with a majority of DAWs and operating systems. VSTs include both effects and software instruments, and it’s the closest thing we have to a universal plugin…
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The 10 Best Travel Guitar Options in 2024 [Acoustic & Electric]
The best travel guitar makes a perfect companion for busy, on-the-go guitarists searching for playability that’s built to move. There are electric options, acoustic options, and even hybrid electro-acoustic travel guitars. Whether it’s for practice and warming up, or full-blown…
The 20 Best Filter Plugin VSTs in 2024 [Free & Paid]
Filter plugins are one of the easiest effects to use that can have a huge impact on how something sounds. As a form of EQ, filters help you shape the frequency content of an instrument. In the simplest terms, they…
The 15 Best UAD Plugins for Vocals [2024 Guide]
Over 20 years ago, Universal Audio ushered in a new standard for plugins and interfaces. UAD’s plugin catalog is a huge collection of some of the best analog emulations out there. Most importantly, the software runs on dedicated DSP supplied by…
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What’s the Best Microphone for Hi-Hats? [2024 Guide]
To keep time and carry the feel of a song, hi-hats are one of the most important parts of a drum kit. It isn’t enough to capture them with overheads or a nearby snare microphone. In order to get the…
The 10 Best Guitar Tuner Options in 2024
It goes without saying that one of the most important first purchases for every guitar player is a tuner — that bears no further explanation! We’ve put together a list of 10 of the most popular options to help narrow…
The 8 Best Wireless Guitar Systems in 2024
A wireless guitar system is a perfect way to clean up and professionalize your rig. If you’re tired of lugging around long cable runs, then it’s time to go wireless. Why Consider Using a Wireless Guitar System The main reason…
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The 10 Best Eventide Plugins for Your Studio [2024 Guide]
Eventide has been a preeminent name for decades thanks to its innovative approach to powerful digital effects hardware. Among their most significant achievements was development of the original H910 Harmonizer in 1974-75. It became the first commercially available pitch shifter…
Top 10 Transient Shaper Plugins [2024 Guide]
A transient shaper lets you control the attack and sustain of a signal. Unlike a compressor, they do not affect the level or the entire envelope of a sound. Transient shapers (also called ‘designers’) can increase or decrease the attack,…
The 9 Best Ribbon Mics for Your Home Studio in 2024
Ribbon microphones first emerged in the 1920s. In 1931, RCA began commercially manufacturing the PB-31, which had a huge impact on the recording and broadcast industries. Ribbon mics remained popular throughout the ’50s, though gradually started to see less use…
The 8 Best Fender Amps for Any Guitar-Playing Style in 2024
For over 70 years, Fender amplifiers have been the sonic bedrock upon which countless legendary performances have been built. From smoky blues clubs to sprawling rock arenas, Fender has consistently delivered a distinct and unforgettable tone that has shaped the…
The Best 11 Amp Simulator Hardware & Plugins [2024 Guide]
There are a lot of benefits to going the amp simulator route as a guitarist. Cost and versatility are both huge advantages over real amps, because modelers can give you access to hundreds of different heads, cabinets, and effects sims…
The Best Guitar Picks for Any Playing Style in 2024
Experimenting with different guitar picks is one of the best and simplest ways to completely change the sound and feel of your playing. It’s often an overlooked accessory, especially if you’re new to playing, but the difference it can make…
The 20 Best Reverb Plugins in 2024 [Free & Paid]
Reverb is one of the most commonly used effects in mixing. It’s part of a broader category of processors we sometimes call “time-based effects,” which also includes delay. Before digital, reverb was recorded using actual rooms called echo chambers. A…
The 7 Best Boost Pedal Options for Your Pedalboard
Boost pedals have been around since the 1960s. While not quite an overdrive, a quality clean boost is meant to get more decibels out of your guitar and amplifier. The most common use would be to selectively click on a…
The 8 Best Guitar Strap Locks to Protect Your Axe
Guitar drops are an unfortunate mishap, often the result of a twisted strap or an otherwise insecure connection to the existing strap buttons. One accessory prevents disaster altogether, so you can protect your investment from potential incidents. The best guitar…
Tone King Gremlin Review: Is This Stylish Combo Worth the Price?
The Tone King Gremlin is a compact yet robust tube combo amp that offers old-school tones in a convenient and manageable package. Nothing sings as sweetly as a boutique tube amplifier. How does the Tone King Gremlin hold up in…
Vox AC15C1 Review: Level Up Your Home Practice Amp
Vox is a renowned British manufacturer of musical equipment, including guitars, drums, keyboards, and most highly regarded of all, amplifiers. Founded by Thomas Walter Jennings in the late 1950s, Vox quickly became an iconic name in the world of music…
How to Use Auto-Tune for Vocal Tuning
The really interesting thing about Antares Auto-Tune is that just about everyone has an idea of what it is. For engineers, it’s a very useful tool and effect; but the fact that it’s recognized by almost everybody, beyond studio pros,…
Fender Champion 40 Review: An All-Around Powerful Practice Amp
In the realm of musical amplification, Fender has held an unwavering reputation for shaping the sounds of generations. From revered vintage models to modern innovations, Fender’s amplifiers have continuously evolved to meet the diverse demands of musicians across genres. In…
Fender Rumble 100 Review: A Versatile & Reliable Bass Amp
With a legacy spanning decades, Fender has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation while retaining the timeless essence that musicians have come to rely on. Enter the Fender Rumble 100 Bass Amp — a formidable addition to the esteemed Rumble…
Mackie Thump 15A Review: Are These Affordable Speakers Worth It?
Mackie is a well-known brand in the professional audio and music industry, specializing in the design and manufacturing of audio equipment. The company was founded in Washington in 1988 by Greg Mackie, who aimed to create high-quality audio products that…
How To De-Ess Vocals | Settings for a Pro Mix
Sibilance is what we call the hissing noise made by ‘ess’ and ‘shh’ sounds in the voice. We don’t notice it in conversation, but it can get really harsh on a recorded vocal. A de-esser can take care of excess…
Lace Sensor Hot Gold Review: Why You Should Consider These Single-Coil Pickups
As long as the electric guitar exists, Stratocasters, S-type copies, and their associated triplet of single-coil pickups will as well. Strats created the blueprint for single-coil pickups, and various iterations have been done countless times over by the finest designers…
Pioneer DDJ 1000 SRT Review: The Ultimate Serato DJ Controller
Pioneer has a reputation for producing exceptional DJ equipment — particularly controllers and mixers — and their products are ubiquitous among amateur and professional DJs alike. Similarly, Serato is synonymous with current-gen DJs, providing substantial control over beat-matching, mixing, applying…