AGF MEMBERS GEAR LIST, TUTORIAL VIDEOS, PODCASTS, & COMPREHENSIVE BEGINNERS GUIDE

[TBman]

I've upgraded my gear. Two large condensers - WA 47Jr and WA 14 mics. Zoom F3 (a step up from the Zoom H5). I'm also using 3 of the ATS 2'x4'x4" acoustic panels.

[jim1960]

A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide

So you want to record yourself, eh foolish mortal? Let’s see if we can avoid some common pitfalls, landmines, cataclysms, nuclear events, etc.

Quick note… Although I use my own personal experiences throughout, the information here is the result of a group effort.


Recording Goals
Many of us start with modest goals and quickly outgrow them. With that in mind, it is really important to your sanity and your wallet that you try to assess yourself honestly on this front.

Personal Use/Simple – You’re only interested in creating audio files for yourself or to share with the soon-to-be-suffering people in your life and having great quality audio isn’t the most important thing; it’s really just about sharing what you’re doing with your guitar.

Medium Quality/More Work - You want to post your tracks for the general public. You don’t need radio quality but you want to have them at a level of quality that will keep the torches and pitchforks to a minimum when people start commenting.

Higher Quality/More Complicated – You see your name in lights and people standing in line. You want to get as close to radio ready as one can when recording in a home studio because you never know who’ll hear your song or when opportunity comes a-knockin’.

In case it hasn’t occurred to you already, generally speaking, the price goes up as the quality goes up. There are some ways to save money without diminishing the quality of your studio. I’ll cover them later. And if you’re interested in video, as well as audio, I’ll cover that later too.


Budget
If you’re brand spankin’ new to this, I suspect you’ve already done a bit of research and have identified some gear items that you might want to purchase and think you have some idea about what you’re willing to spend. I’m also willing to bet that if you’re brand spankin’ new, you’ve left a bunch of things off your list that are going to add up. Things like microphone stands, audio cables, etc. It will all be covered by the time you finish reading this but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re eyeballing the important pieces and not accounting for the things that generally go unnoticed in any studio.

Solutions can be found at every budget level provided you have enough budgeted to get your feet wet. If you fall into the “Personal Use” group, you can get started for as little as a couple of hundred dollars. But figuring out a realistic budget based upon your goals is important in avoiding what I call “The Slow Creep.”

The Slow Creep is when one inches their way up the quality ladder, one small step at a time. This winds up costing a lot more in the end because you’re likely going to lose a bit of money every time you sell off a piece of gear in order to replace it with something better. It’s a lesson I wish I had learned a lot sooner; however, there’s no need for you to learn the same lesson if it can be avoided. Figure out what you’re really willing to spend and if you’re one of those people who isn’t easily satisfied, you might want to budget higher in the beginning and avoid the slow creep.


Time Commitment
Be warned, mere mortal, the learning curve is steep for most people dipping their toes into these waters. Recording audio has its own language and you will have to develop a reasonable degree of technical prowess in several areas in order to get past the Personal Use stage. I don’t say this to scare you, but rather to prepare you, young padawan.

To give some sense of that curve, there will be both hardware and software to manage. You will need to learn about mic placement, room acoustics, the differences between types of audio gear (even if you don’t own the hardware units themselves because plugins are a thing… more on that later), the difference between types of audio cables, etc. You’re also going to have to develop your ears. When we prepare music to release into the wild, there are a lot of things we listen for before we declare the track listener-worthy. Training your ears to listen for those things will take time. There’s a lot to learn and you’re not going to learn it all in a week or a month or even a year. This is a long haul thing, ten-four good buddy?

...continues into next post...
FYI - This guide spans five posts, from 92 through 96.

[jim1960]

Basic Systems
Portable Digital Recorder – If you’re simply recording for Personal Use, you might opt for a Portable Digital Recorder. These are devices, usually from two to four preamps (there are some with more) that have built-in microphones and will let you record pretty much anywhere you’d like to record. By themselves, the sound quality of the built-in microphones isn’t always great but that can often be improved upon by adding external microphones and bypassing the built-ins.

Different portable digital recorders will offer a variety of functions. Some, but not all, will include the ability to punch-in and overdub (I’ll cover those terms later). One important thing to note about using these devices, the LCD screens are small, so if working on a small screen feels like you’re trying to squeeze your eyeballs through a straw, this might not be your best option. The user can, however, move the files created on a portable digital recorder to a computer where DAW software can be used to do additional editing.

Audio Interfaces – To get to the next level, you’ll want to acquire an audio interface. An interface works in conjunction with your computer and a software program known as a DAW (digital audio workstation). Interfaces convert the analogue signal coming from a microphone or instrument into a digital signal which is sent to your computer. That signal will be recorded into your DAW where you can then manipulate it (I’ll cover that later). It is then converted back to analogue and sent to your studio monitors (fancy audio term for speakers).

Interfaces are available with a very wide variety of features and the cost of interfaces can go from around $100 to interfaces costing thousands of dollars. For the purposes of the novice recordist, the two most important features will be connectivity and the number of channels/preamps.

Connectivity simply means "Can this interface be hooked up to and communicate with your computer?" You’ll want to make sure the interface you’re considering is able to connect to the computer you’ll be using. This may involve a single cable, a cable and a convertor, or it may not be possible at all. Always make sure before you buy to avoid the headache.

Technically, there’s a difference between channels and preamps, but when you’re first starting out, the difference isn’t likely to matter unless you’re building a very large and expensive system. For our purposes, the number of channels/preamps refers to how many microphones and/or instruments you can connect to your interface at the same time. So how can we determine the number of channels you’ll need?

First, who’s going to be using this? Just you? You and a friend? You and more than one friend? Will you be laying down vocal tracks? Will there be someone harmonizing with you when you lay down vocal tracks? There are lots of variables so it might be easier to say how each number of channels/preamps can be utilized:

1 preamp = 1 microphone/instrument – If you only have a single preamp, you can only record in mono, not stereo. If you’re going to sing along, you’ll either have the guitar and vocals on the same track or you’re going to have to record the guitar and then record the vocals separately while listening to the guitar playing back in a set of headphones. Needless to say, a one-channel interface is not ideal for most people. Now you might be thinking, “Hey, mono was good enough for the Beatles!” Yeah, when mono was the only thing it was good enough, but none of the Beatles were recording mono once stereo came around.

2 preamps = 2 microphones/instruments – If you can hook up two microphones to your interface, you can record your guitar in stereo by attaching two microphones, positioned differently. If you want to sing at the same time as you record guitar, you can have a single mic on the guitar and another on your vocal. However, in that scenario, your guitar track will be mono since you’re only using one mic. It’s possible to create a stereo guitar track and a vocal track on a two-preamp device but it will require recording the guitar first and overdubbing the vocal later. A two-channel interface can be ideal for the solo guitar player who does not sing.

4 preamps = 4 microphones/instruments – For the guitar player who also sings, a four preamp interface allows for a lot of versatility. You can use two channels to record your guitar in stereo and at the same time record your vocals on a third channel. For the singing guitarist, a four-channel preamp is usually the best option if the idea of overdubbing seems intimidating.

Interfaces can also be bought with 8 channels/preamps if you feel you’ll need more than four, like if you’re mic-ing up a drum kit, Ringo.

Computers – This is strictly a personal choice but the right choice can avoid some headaches. Your computer needs to be powerful enough to handle the interface and DAW you choose. How powerful your computer is will also determine how many tracks you can create inside your DAW and how many virtual instruments you can handle (more on that later).

I don’t want to get into a Mac vs PC debate. You’ll choose what you choose. Generally speaking, Macs are fairly uniform in that you can count on them working well for audio right off the bat with few modifications. PCs can also work well right off the bat but there are going to be times when they don’t and you’ll have to put on your Deerstalker cap, light your pipe, and start detecting to figure out why.

Something to note… I don’t know of an interface that will not work with a Mac but not all interfaces will work with PCs. Also, I know of at least two DAWs, Logic Pro and UA Luna, that won’t work on a PC. Conversely, Cakewalk will not work on Macs.

Note... Most computers produced in the past 7 years or so will be adequate for basic audio production. If video is your jam, you’re going to need a more powerful machine. However, if you’re not sure what your computer is capable of, just create a post in the Record subforum and ask. We really are a helpful group despite what our parole officers say.

DAWs – Your digital audio workstation …or DAW as we refer to it… is the software that lives on your computer and allows you to turn your recordings into the stuff of legend (hopefully). It’s where you can manipulate tracks and employ the use of plugins (programs within the DAW) to perform various tasks such as equalization, compression, saturation, etc. Just about every record/tape/cd you’ve ever heard has been manipulated after recording the tracks to make it sound better than the raw tracks. Many DAWs come with stock plugins that are, in some cases, quite good. Learning how to effectively use those plugins will help you achieve better results.

Two suggestions…
1. In the first post of this thread is a list of DAWs that members here use. Take a look at some basic “getting started” videos for them on YouTube. Try to find one that fits your budget but also makes some sense to you, or at least gives you some confidence that you can learn it.
2. In posts 9, 11, and 14 in this thread are lists of plugins and video for specialty plugins. Investigate some of them on YouTube so you’re familiar with what they can do.

How to Choose? – When deciding between a portable digital recorder or a computer/DAW combination, there are pros and cons to both.

Portable Digital Recorder
Pros – As the name implies, it’s portable, the learning curve is less steep, and it’s a cheaper way to get your feet wet if you don’t have an available computer that can handle the load of audio production.
Cons – The microphones may not be very good and working on a small screen may be hard on the eyes.

Computer/DAW
Pros – Once you get past the initial learning curve, this will yield the best results because you’ll have much more freedom and better tools with which to manipulate your recorded tracks.
Cons – If you don’t already own an adequate computer, this is the more expensive route. Learning how to use a DAW will take a bit of time.

...continues into next post...

[jim1960]

Expense
Let’s put this right out there… this is not an inexpensive hobby. You can get your feet wet cheaply but by the time you start buying microphones, stands, and cables, you can see that initial $100-$200 investment jump quickly to $400-$500 or a whole lot higher.

There are some ways, however, to minimize the expense and the losses you might eat:

1. Avoid The Slow Creep mentioned previously. In the beginning, it’s easy to amass a collection of cheap gear. Some of it may sound good to you, some may not. By the end of my first few years, I sold off nearly everything I bought initially and replaced it with gear of a better quality. I sold the old gear for substantially less than I paid for it. Those kinds of losses are unrecoverable. It may make more sense in the long run to invest in better quality gear from the beginning.

2. If buying new, don’t be afraid to try to negotiate a lower price. A lower price may not be doable on every piece of gear, but pro audio stores have leeway on most of the gear they sell. I’ve been able to negotiate discounts of as much as 20%. It doesn’t hurt to ask and I promise your discomfort will go away the first time you save several hundred on a purchase.

3. Try to cultivate a relationship with a store or a salesperson. I’ve been into this for 20+ years and the majority of the gear I’ve purchased new has come from just two salespeople who I only knew from speaking over the phone. That saved me thousands of dollars over time. When you know someone and they know you, they’re usually more willing to give you a better deal because they want you to keep coming to them when you’re looking to make a purchase.

4. Don’t be afraid to buy used gear. Just like with a car, once you buy a piece of brand new gear, it’s value is less the first time you take it for a spin. And not only do you save money by avoiding the hit you’d take off the retail price, you’re also not likely to lose much should you decide to sell it later. Most used gear doesn’t see very much fluctuation in price.


Gear as a Financial Investment
This works about the same as with guitars. For most pieces of gear, you’re going to lose money when you sell. There are some exceptions for gear of the highest quality. For example, 7-8 years back, a vintage Neumann U67 microphone could be bought for $7-8K. Today, that same mic can sell for twice that.


What Else Will I Need?
Microphones – Microphones come in various forms: dynamic, condenser, ribbon. They also come in a wide range of price points. You can find mics for $50 and you can find mics that costs multiple thousands of dollars. For more information on microphones, check out post #2 in this thread.

Microphone Stands – If you’re using microphones, you’re going to need mic stands. Stands range in both price and quality. Some do a much better job than others at handling the weight of a microphone and protecting a microphone from falls. I used cheap mic stands for years, until one day when a $2000 mic took a header on the wood floor because the stand tipped. I’m not saying you need to invest $300-$600 in a mic stand to protect a $100 mic, but you should use good judgment when purchasing stands so that the cheap stand doesn’t cost you more should you need to repair or replace a microphone.

Cables – To hook your microphones up to your recorder or your interface, you’ll need audio cables. Cables are made both balanced and unbalanced. When connecting microphones to your other gear, you’ll need balanced cables. For connecting instruments (acoustic guitar pickup, electric guitar, bass, etc), you’ll need an unbalanced cable.

Balanced cables most commonly use XLR (external line return) and TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) connectors. XLR connectors are round plugs that have three prongs (male) or three holes (female). TRS are 1/4” or 1/8” plugs which have three sections along the shaft that make a connection inside your gear (there are female TRS connectors but you’re not likely to see them anywhere other than headphone extension cables or breakout cable; you might need the former but the latter not for some time, if ever at all). Cables can have any combination of those connectors. Be sure you know exactly what you need when purchasing. It’s very easy to buy cables with the wrong connectors.

Unbalanced Cables will usually have a TS or RCA connector. Like a TRS connector, a TS connector will be a 1/4” or 1/8” plug. You can tell the difference between TRS and TS by counting the sections on the shaft. A balanced TRS plug will have the tip and two sections behind it. An unbalanced TS plug will have the tip and one section behind it.

FYI – you can use a balanced cable in place of an unbalanced cable but you cannot use an unbalanced cable in place of a balanced cable.

Cables come in a wide range of prices. Cheaper cables usually lack quality shielding to prevent RFI and EMI noise. This is only a concern if you have lots of cables that are going to be laying across each other. For most small home studios, that’s not an issue. The other consideration is quality. In my first years, I had dozens of inexpensive cables. Every once in a while, one of those cables would go bad and I’d have to track down the culprit which is not always an easy task. Admittedly, I’m a little hard on cables sometimes because, for a variety of reasons, I often have to break down my system and recable it. Wear and tear is a thing with cables so it's a good idea to have a spare or two laying around and investing in a cable tester might save you a headache one day.

Helpful Tip: For about the same price as you’d pay for the inexpensive ProCo cables sold by the larger pro audio stores, you can order high quality Mogami cables with Neutrik connectors at the length you need from a company in Connecticut called Redco. I’ve been buying my cables from them for over a decade and I haven’t had one fail in all that time.

Headphones - Headphones play two roles in the studio, during tracking and during mixing. For tracking, you’ll want a pair of closed-back over-the-ear headphones. Closed-back means the headphones have no openings on the outside for the sound to escape. By “over-the-ear” I literally mean headphones that will fit your ear inside the cup. Headphones of this design are necessary to prevent the tracks you’re hearing while doing overdubs or punchins (I’ll get to those later) from being picked up by the microphone in front of you.

Headphones are useful for checking your mix during the mixing stage. For that, however, open-back headphones are usually preferable because closed-back models tend to overemphasize the bass leading to bad mixing decisions unless you learn to compensate for that.

Tip - If you can only afford one set of headphones, get the closed back ones.

Monitors - This is not a reference to a computer monitor. In an audio studio, monitors are what we call the speakers we use to listen back and make critical mixing decisions. A set of good quality monitors will aid you greatly in getting quality results because if you can’t accurately hear your mix, you can’t make good decisions about your mix.

And if you’re about to ask if stereo speakers would make good monitors, the answer is no. Stereo speakers are designed to make music sound sweet/better/whatever word you want to use. Studio monitors are designed to be honest so you can get your tracks sounding their best before you unleash your musical concoctions on the unsuspecting masses.

...continues into next post...

[jim1960]

Room Treatment - Room treatment is boring. There are no lights, no dials, no knobs, no meters. Room treatment isn’t sexy. Room treatment just hangs around looking like it’s doing nothing. But almost everyone who has been at this for a long time will say with absolutely zero exaggeration… nothing will help your recordings sound better than properly treating your recording space. Nothing. Not expensive microphones or interfaces or anything else. Here’s why…

When you play music in a room, you have frequencies bouncing all over the place. All those sounds bouncing around are eventually going to come back to your microphones, all hitting at different times, with the result being your tracks lack clarity and sound gritty.

Now don’t be reading that and rushing out to buy a whole bunch of foam room treatment. Really… do NOT go buy a bunch of foam room treatment because that stuff is essentially worthless. For most of us home recordists, we’re working in an office room or extra bedroom. In short, we’re in a small room. Small rooms share the same problem: low frequency buildup. Low frequency waves are going to build up in the corners and the result will me muddy sounding tracks. To combat that, we use bass traps made of Rockwool, Owens-Corning 703, or some similar material. Usually treatment takes the form of 2’x4’x4” panels that are placed in the corners and other strategic places around the room in order to control the low frequency buildup.

Helpful Tip - Check out post #16 in this thread and go to the section on Room Treatment. There’s much to learn and even a diagram showing an optimum layout in a small room.

A Supportive Comfortable Chair - No one gets a physical workout in a recording studio. Recording and mixing can find us sitting on our fleshier region for hours at a time. If your back begins to bother you, it might be worth it to invest in a quality chair. The single most popular chair in this group is probably the Herman Miller Aeron Chair. It’s not cheap but it’s extremely comfortable, very adjustable, will support your back, and it will look brand new for years and years. Understandably, that chair is not for everyone but love yourself enough to invest in a good, comfortable, supportive chair (oh, and make sure it doesn’t squeak because, you know... RECORDING studio).

Virtual Instruments - So you think your song is missing something.
Want to add drums but you don’t play drums?
Want to add a bass but you don’t play bass?
Want to add a banjo but you don’t want one in the house?
Want to add a trumpet but you don’t play know a bugle from a sax?
Want to add uilleann pipes but you’re not an Irish plumber?
All that is possible because of virtual instruments.

Virtual instruments are just that… instruments that exist virtually, as software, inside your computer and are accessed either through the software directly or through a midi controller and recorded onto a track in your DAW.

A midi controller is a device that may look like a piano keyboard, a pad with buttons, or a combination of both. The midi controller allows you to add just about any instrument you can think of to your tracks so long as you have enough skill to peck out a melody on a piano.


Some Terms Explained
Overdubs – Overdubbing is when you add additional tracks to a recording. For example, let’s say you’ve already recorded guitar tracks for a song and now you’re going to add vocals as you listen to the guitar tracks coming through the headphones. In that instance, you’d be overdubbing vocals.

Punching In – Sometimes you get through a song and when you listen back, you hear something you don’t’ like. Maybe you hit a wrong note accidentally, perhaps you had a bit of froggy throat, whatever. You don’t have to scrap the entire track to fix that. Your DAW should allow you to record a short segment to replace the part you don’t like. We call that “punching in.”

Preamp – a preamp is what amplifies the signal coming from a microphone. It takes a weak signal and makes it loud enough for recording. In recorders and interfaces, preamps usually can also be set to “line” in order to handle stronger signals such as an outboard preamps.

Outboard – Outboard gear is gear that is apart from your recorder or your interface and include such things as compressors, equalizers, preamps, etc.

Hardware – We use the term “hardware” to refer to gear that exists in physical form rather than in software form. For example, your interface is hardware, your DAW is not.

ITB (In The Box) – After recording, if all the additional processing is done on the computer with no outboard gear involved, that is considered to have been done “in the box.” Working ITB has some advantages, perfect recall being one of them. Any session you pull up will have its levels and plugin adjustments exactly as you left them when you last saved that file. Most outboard gear doesn’t allow for instant recall and requires notetaking in order to recall settings.

Plug-Ins – Plug-ins could be considered programs that operate within your DAW. They often emulate gear that exists in the real world and sometimes have features the real world gear does not. The advantages of using plugins is that you can use as many instances on a song as you’d like and plugins cost a small fraction of the price of the hardware.

Mixing – Mixing is what happens after all the tracks are recorded. It’s the stage where you set your levels, apply effects (also written as "fx" in the audio world), employ panning, etc., and get your mix ready for mastering.

Mastering – Mastering is the final stage, the final polishing of your song. During mastering, the level will be adjusted to conform with the platform on which you wish to release your music, and final effects will be applied if necessary.

Note: There are programs that will mix and master music automatically. The results run the gamut from good to ouch.

...continues into next post...

[jim1960]

Video
Let’s talk about your basic options for shooting video.

Simplest – You are likely carrying the simplest answer around in your pocket… your cell phone. Set it up, hit video record, and play.

Simple with a Twist – The complaint we hear most often about shooting videos with a cell phone is that the visuals are fine but the sound is poor. One way to improve the sound is to get a microphone that will hookup to your cell phone. With a long enough cable, you can position both the camera and the microphone optimally.

Better Visual, Same Twist – If your cell phone doesn’t produce good quality video and you don’t want to upgrade your phone, you can use a digital camera or digital movie recorder to record your video. Most modern digital cameras/movie recorders will allow you to attach a microphone. As before, set up the camera, position the mic, you’re off to the races.

Interface/Camera Combo – This is your best of both worlds scenario. Use your camera separately and set up your microphones as you would if you were recording audio through your interface into your DAW. For alignment purposes later, give a short sharp click at the beginning of the recording. That will let you align the audio in your DAW with the audio recorded by your camera’s built-in microphone, leaving your audio and video aligned. You’ll be recording visual and audio separately. You can perform all your processing on the audio and then import the finished track into the movie software of your choice, align, the audio, and you’re golden.


Final Thoughts
To call all this a lot to take in would be an understatement but the information in this long-winded heinous read with an absolutely terrible plot-line puts you miles ahead of what most of us knew when we took our first steps. Use the information to your advantage, figure out in what direction you’d like to head, then feel free to ask questions in the Record subforum. We all wish you luck …you’re gonna need it.

[jim1960]

A comprehensive guide for anyone thinking about getting into recording has been added to this stickied masterlist thread. Much thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts, commentary, and ideas to help pull the guide together.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by jim1960

A comprehensive guide for anyone thinking about getting into recording has been added to this stickied masterlist thread. Much thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts, commentary, and ideas to help pull the guide together.

Very well done! You've created the basic outline for an excellent book on the topic!

A couple of comments on cables:

Many of my cables came with used equipment I've purchased. In my limited experience, as long as a cable meets minimum specs, it will usually work well in terms of EMI/RFI and basic operation, as long as you're not running long distances. I've had one XLR cable that came with a cheap speaker/mic package that had problems in that area. The biggest problems I've had with cables is at the connector ends. I would suggest that anyone using inexpensive or unknown cables (or even if you're using expensive ones) buy a basic cable tester (https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...B&gclsrc=aw.ds), some connectors, and a soldering iron and learn to solder.

Also, no matter what quality cables you use, keep a spare or two around. BTW, since you can daisy-chain XLR cables, two 10ft spares will also work as a 20ft cable.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Very well done! You've created the basic outline for an excellent book on the topic!

A couple of comments on cables:

Many of my cables came with used equipment I've purchased. In my limited experience, as long as a cable meets minimum specs, it will usually work well in terms of EMI/RFI and basic operation, as long as you're not running long distances. I've had one XLR cable that came with a cheap speaker/mic package that had problems in that area. The biggest problems I've had with cables is at the connector ends. I would suggest that anyone using inexpensive or unknown cables (or even if you're using expensive ones) buy a basic cable tester, some connectors, and a soldering iron and learn to solder.

Also, no matter what quality cables you use, keep a spare or two around. BTW, since you can daisy-chain XLR cables, two 10ft spares will also work as a 20ft cable.

Thanks. I meant to say something about spare cables and the thought flew from my head before I could make a note of it. I'll add that and the suggestion of a cable tester in somewhere.

[unimogbert]

..........

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by unimogbert

This may or may not belong here but cheap mic stands are more stable when weighted. I use exercise ankle weights at the bottom of the vertical support to lower the center of gravity of the combination.

The weights are fine as a stop gap but it's not something I would personally do long-term. I'm not going to encourage it because I don't want to hear that someone took that advice from me and their mic took a header anyway. Thanks though.

[jim1960]

Season 5 of iZotope's "Are You Listening?" has been added to the video tutorial "MIXING" section.

This season takes you through the process of mixing a song from start to finish. For those who are creating more involved mixes that include drums, bass, background vocals, etc., this series is well worth watching.

[jim1960]

The latest seasons from iZotope's very well-done and informative "Are You Listening?" series have been added to Post #16. Season 5 has been added to the mixing section and Season 6 to the mastering section.

FYI - I'm probably going to divide Post #16 up sometime soon. There are so many videos linked that the page takes a fair bit of time to load. I'll likely make it into 2 or 3 separate pages.

[jim1960]

Okay, I've done the uncluttering. Post 16 still contains the videos for Room Treatment, Recording Acoustic Guitar, Monitor Placement, Equalization, Compression, Reverb & Delay, Noise Reduction, Cables, and Headphones, as well as the list of recommended podcasts.

Post 18 now has the videos on mixing while post 23 has the videos on mastering.

For anyone jumping to those pages from the Table of Contents, the pages should load faster now.

Also, the Table of Contents was updated to reflect the changes.

[jim1960]

Videos were added to the “CABLES” section. You can now learn about the various cable connectors used in studios, the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables, and a couple of videos that explain quality differences.

Videos were added to the “HEADPHONES” section. You can now learn when it's best to use closed-back or open-back headphones, as well as why the ohm rating might matter to you.