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By Samantha Gilmartin

Ever since broadband was set up and made readily available to the general public, illegal music downloads have gone through the roof. Today, approximately 95% of all downloads are illegal and some 6.5m broadband users illegally download music on a daily basis.

Earlier this year, the music industry decided that enough was enough and that this multi million pound purge needed to stop. Discussions with John Hutton (The Business Secretary), Andy Burnham (The Culture Secretary) and major internet service providers (ISPs) resulted in tough new proposals governing the illegal download scene.

At this point, it is perhaps worth outlining the law when it comes to downloading music. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) is the current UK copyright law and gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which their material may be used. These rights cover broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. By downloading music files illegally, you are in breech of the copying part of this law.

ISPs have been pressurised into clamping down on persistent illegal downloaders and in June of this year, Virgin Broadband (one of the largest ISPs in the UK) agreed to take steps towards culling downloads. Virgin expect to send out more than 12,000 letters over the course of the summer to internet users warning them to stop their illegal downloads or face restrictions on their service.

So what does this mean for internet downloaders? Well, Virgin are keen not to punish their users, they would rather ”educate” them on the wrongs of downloading illegally. Sounds like a cop out and a good way round enforcing the law, but they might not have much choice on this in a year’’s time.

Huttin and Burnham, along with bosses from the music industry want tighter rules surrounding illegal downloads. One of the proposals includes placing a 30 GBP annual charge on people who want to download files. This would give users unlimited access to download files from anywhere on the net, without the worry of facing up to law. 30 GBP may not sound a lot, but as Peter Jenner stated; “If you get enough people paying a small amount of money you can turn around the wheels of the music industry.” The funds from these fees are worth almost 1.2bn GBP and would be channelled back to the industry and distributed proportionally back to the relative rights holders.

Obviously looking for the toughest penalties for repeat offenders, industry bosses are calling for a ”three strikes and you”re out” policy, similar to the scheme currently employed in France. Persistent offenders would be warned and banned if they didn”t stop. Other proposals include preventative filters which stop the possibility of any illegal download activity or, illegal downloaders” details being given directly to the music industry for punishment.

Sites like Napster brought illegal downloads to the masses and were relatively untouched by officials for many years until they realised just how much impact illegal downloads were having on the music industry. In 2001, the company were forced to shut down after being found guilty of copyright infringement laws.

Today, Napster is a legitimate trading company and sells downloads instead of offering them for free. iTunes are the biggest players in this market and dominate the scene with a 70% share of legal music downloads. It took less than five years to reach 1bn downloads, and keen to show that legal downloads are the way forward, the company rewarded the downloader, Alex Ostrovsky, with a brand new iMac, ten iPods and a 10,000 USD (5,700 GBP) iTunes voucher. Not a bad return on his 99p investment.

In 2006, the download market really came up trumps when Gnarles Berkley had a hit with Crazy. The song hadn”t even been released on CD when it hit the top spot in the UK charts after Zane Lowe championed the song on his New Music Show.

So will pressure from the industry actually have any effect on downloads? ISPs have already cleared themselves of any wrong doing as they are merely ”conduits” of information - they don”t personally hold the files.

Illegal downloads will inevitably continue as new methods of file sharing are discovered and employed. At the end of the day, rules are there to be broken and problems are there to be solved. As long as CDs cost as much as they do, downloaders will see no reason to stop what they are doing. If a CD costs less than 1GBP to produce, the question remains: Why are we charged the earth to purchase them?

About The Author

Samantha is an expert researcher and writer in biographies, e-commerce, travel, London and UK short breaks. Currently she is researching UK travel experiences and holidays (http://www.play-and-stay.co.uk/)

By Chris Jensen

A huge studio full of equipment isn”t what you need anymore, in fact, you could do most of the production and post-production elements of a song with just a well-equipped computer! What’’s important is finding a piece of equipment to separately record each instrument on it’’s own track, and there are many such devices priced pretty cheap, and most of them are now specialized to interface with your computer and record directly in!

Let’’s say you are working with a band, aside from that recording equipment, you also need to have proper microphone equipment for each individual piece, and you also should invest in a vocal booth to isolate the vocals for a clean mix at the end. This is especially important with the drums as well, unless you plan on fixing them post-production.

These days, you can find pop-guards, and even movable vocal booth walling that can make this easier than you realize. Sometimes artists only do the vocals, and have all the instrumentation done elsewhere, by a band in a studio or a producer across the world! Home recording makes each take less stressful, as you don”t have to worry about hourly rates when recording your masterpieces. Now you may be curious as to which software to use when doing home recording. Well, it depends on what you want to do really.

Now you see, I”m going to first approach it like you”re the average instrument player in a group. People in that boat aren”t going to be too concerned with post-production, and simply want to record their jam sessions, and perhaps turn the vocals up for their singer. If that’’s all you”re trying to do, your basic set-up with a computer and a recording interface should do it, as it”ll either be a computer add-on or an external addition, either way it’’s job is to record what you”re inputting.

Those devices always come with software like Nuendo or ProTools that”ll be just fine for basic recording. Now if you”re concerned with mastering and a polished sound, that’’s where post-production is absolutely key. Some things aren”t on time as perfect as they should be, post-production can pull sounds and fix any discrepancy left by the live recording.

Drums are typically reworked in post-production to give a louder, crisper feel. Any kind of samples that come to mind can be added on, and rhythmically if the producer has the skill, etc. For that kind of work I suggest using Renoise and Acid. Acid is also particularly useful in doing remixes if you have to know-how to cut your sample pieces into loops.

In general, every song that you are putting out there also needs to be mastered. What that does *basically* is make your song sound similar to other songs on the radio (volume-wise mostly). Now you can pay for expensive mastering services, but the rule of thumb on the issue is to just use a program like Mp3gain and make it too loud. Strangely enough, too loud is the same volume all popular songs you enjoy will register at, try it for yourself!

Also when you have your finished mp3, use Wavelab or Goldwave to cut it down, as you don”t want to have an excessive amount of silence before or after the song.

About The Author

Chris Jensen is a contributing author of Jetfly Shop. For more related articles and views visit http://jetflyshop.com/music-blog now. Also, for the best up-to-date related online products, check out http://jetflyshop.com/pro-audio for todays current online deals.

By Daniel Lehrman

To most people the truth about when Jimi Hendrix got his first guitar and what types of guitars he played throughout his career is somewhat of a mystery. Although, he was unarguably the greatest guitar player ever, and with his fertile musical mind, perhaps the greatest composer of our generation or ever for that matter. No disrespect intended, putting Jimi in company with Bach, Beethoven and the likes. True Genius.

The path that will be described here is what I would consider the most accurate, after a lot of research and a little voodoo-magic. Realistically though, boiling down the mixture may leave some people to disagree with me, and I welcome the input.

The evidence and consistencies suggest that his first guitar was a cheap acoustic his dad gave to him, as early as eleven years old. The story goes as such, that even at a young age of six years, his school teacher mentioned to his dad, Jimi obsesses over having a guitar so much that it may be contributing to some mental health issues. Not to discount todays teachers, but that was a very perceptive statement at that time.

His first electric guitar was bought from Myers Music in Seattle in 1959. Professed to be a white, single pickup Supro Ozark. The next axe that Hendrix played was a red Danelectro single pickup Silvertone, nicknamed Betty Jean. In”62, while doing some gigs with the King Casuals in Tennessee, he traded his Danelectro for an Epiphone Wilshire, which had dual pickups and a glued on mahogany neck with a solid mahogany body, as opposed to the bolt on Fender Stratocaster guitar necks.

In 1964, Jimi would play rhythm guitar for the Isley Brothers. During this nine month gig, he finally got his first Fender guitar, a blond”59 Duo-Sonic. He next played with Little Richard in ”65, and briefly played a Fender Jazzmaster. However, he switched back to a Dou-Sonic when he played with Curtis Knight and the Squires. Even though Jimi later returned to the Jazzmaster.

A point of interest is that none of the gigs he had with the bands mentioned above lasted very long, because Jimi’’s guitar work stole the show. His unbelievable guitar abilities were noticed by all immediately, which took the focus away from the musical-icons he worked for.

Jimi purchased his first Strat from Manny’’s Music in New York in ”66 in the summer. Early on he would use a variety of CBS Strats with rosewood fretboards. While he was staying in Greenwich Village in late ”66 and ”67 he narrowed down his choices to a ”60′’s era Reverse Fender Stratocasterblack or white Fender Strats using maple fretboards. Which, most likely is the reason the Fender Stratocaster is the most important guitar in the history of guitars and music.

From then on he played Fender Stratocasters with large headstocks. One of his many unusual playing techniques was to play a right handed guitar backwards, or in the left handed position, obviously because Jimi was left handed. In order to do that one must reverse the strings and (bone) nut so the low E was still on the top. My understanding was that he preferred the controls on the top of the guitar. Apparently he could work his magic easier with the voluminous amount of tricks he performed, partly by messing with the volume control knob. Jimi was not much on tone controls or guitar setup. Mostly Jimi spent the bulk of time modifying his tremolo to do things like lower the pitch more than usual and create trem sounds otherwise unheard of.

Naturally Jim Hendrix had purchased and played a tremendous assortment of guitars in his lifetime. During my fact finding mission, this is the list of the other guitars Jimi most likely owned and played; a Gibson ES-330, a Gibson Firebird, a Mosrite electric resonator guitar, a Guild 12 string acoustic, a Black Widow Spider acoustic, several Rickenbacker’’s including a bass Rick, a double neck Mosrite, a Hagstrom 8 string bass(it was the on played on Spanish Castle Magic from the Axis Bold As Love album”, a ”67 Gibson Flying V, a ”67 Gretsch Corvette, a lefty Guild Starfire Deluxe, a Hofner electric, a ”55 Gibson Les Paul, a Gibson Dove acoustic, a Martin acoustic, a ”68 Gibson SG Custom and a black lefty Flying V. Wow!

It is not surprising that Jimi owned so many guitars. The depth of knowledge and pure unadulterated playing style was not limited to just electric guitars and Stratocasters. His unique abilities allowed him to play any guitar with the deep soul jarring vibes that were all his. It would be unrealistic to think he was limited to one style of guitar. Or for that matter, one type of music. Jimi’’s interest in music extended to the world of classical music as well.

Lost to many, is the fact that Jimi was one of the best rhythm guitarists ever, most folk know him for his lead and solo guitar work, he was also an adept bass player too. And last, he was a master at the acoustic guitar, using chords in a manner unknown to mankind at that time. This combo of skills and abilities produced the man who will be forever the patron saint of rock guitar.

A long article to read indeed. A true joy putting the info together. It turned out to be a long path to find the truth. Enjoy it.

About The Author

Daniel Lehrman is a Bluesman and luthier. Setting up and fixing guitars by day and playing the guitar at nite, and fitting in my bogging anytime.

Check out my site at http://www.guitarplayerscenter.com
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By Ben Levanger

Music forms the core part of all festivities and melodious music inspires a mood of celebration. Christmas is an occasion on which people all over the world rejoice with Christmas music to create a blissful mood. To enjoy Christmas music, many music stores offer you exceptional CDs of Christmas music. Many of the Christian websites now offer free Christmas music downloads in order to enable internet users have more entertainment during the Christmas season.

It is always wise to keep certain points in mind when opting for free Christmas music downloads. The internet is home to thousands of legal as well as illegal websites which are providing free download services. Most of the free music download services offered by websites are not done legally, and sometimes the files on those sites may be virus affected and corrupted. Downloading from such sites can install spyware and adware in your system, which might corrupt the operating system, hard disks and in many cases they might even access your personal data. Some of the legal sites which offer free download services may be free from spyware and adware but on many occasions the music files provided for free downloading may not have good audio and video quality.

The users can depend on search engines to search for websites providing free Christmas music downloads. Many legal websites provide free Christmas music downloads for those becoming members by paying a one time subscription charge. With a single payment you are provided with lifetime membership and have unlimited access to downloadable Christmas music files of high audio and video quality. These websites are usually free from viruses, adware and spyware. Thus you can enjoy the Christmas season with quality Christmas music without fear of legal issues or virus attacks on your computer.

The main advantage in going for free Christmas music downloads is that you are able to select your favorite Christmas songs from your favorite artists and also from all other collections. You need not buy Christmas music CDs at extra cost for enjoying just one or two songs. The collection of downloadable Christmas music files on the websites may contain files with different file formats such as MP3 and Midi, and it is seen that music enthusiasts always prefer the MP3 files for downloading, due to its compact size.

So to enjoy the Christmas season with some good Christmas music through the Internet, always choose appropriate websites for free Christmas music downloads.

About The Author

Make Sure to visit http://www.DownLoadNexus.com/mp3review.htm To See Our Review Of The Top 4 Most Trusted Music Download Sites.

By Duane Shinn

Every serious piano student eventually learns to play some of the most well-known classical pieces during his or her studies. Nary a pianist didn”t learn Palchabel’’s Canon in D or Beethoven’’s Fur Elise. Even non-musicians recognize names like Bach and Mozart.

But what about modern classical pianists who have also made notable contributions to cultural history? Here are four the most well-known modern classical pianists and their contributions:

* Glen Gould: The eccentric Canadian-born classical pianist spent more of his prolific career in the recording studio than on stage. Gould covered many of the original classical greats, such as Bach and Beethoven. Gould may be best remembered though for his recordings of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Gould was widely acclaimed for his unusual technique and eclectic renditions of famous classical works. Though he spent many years on the road, touring several countries, he gave up concert performances in 1964 at the age of 32. Though he could have spent decades longer on the road, he preferred to live out the remainder of his career in the studio.

Gould’’s career was cut short by an untimely stroke at the age of 50, which ultimately took his life. Still, his recordings live on today and have been released and re-released numerous times.

* Arthur Rubinstein: He has been referred to as one of the greatest piano virtuosi of the 20th century. Born in Poland in 1887, Rubinstein’’s family recognized a depth of unique talent in him, despite the fact he didn”t speak until age three. A childhood filled with unusual behavior and outbursts fuel speculation that Rubinstein may have suffered from a learning disorder or autism.

Eventually, Rubinstein’’s temperament gave way to the talent for playing the piano that he eventually became known for. Rubinstein made his concert debut in New York in 1906 and toured until 1976. He reluctantly retired from public performance at the age of 89 when his hearing and eyesight began to fail. Though he passed away in 1982, Rubinstein is still highly acclaimed among modern musicians.

* Sergei Rachmaninoff: This Russian classical pianist was also a composer and conductor. Perhaps it was his unusual 12-inch hand span that helped him become a legend for his technical proficiency. Rachmaninoff not only commanded the stage, but at a height of 6 feet, 6 inches, commanded a room as well. Though he began piano study casually under the tutelage of his own mother, his extraordinary talent quickly emerged.

Rachmaninoff was mediocre in academics, even failing many of his subjects for lack of motivation. However, his piano instructor, who recognized his potential, insisted on a strict and disciplined practice regimen. If not for him, Rachmaninoff may have given up on his musical studies as well. A later meeting with Peter Tchaikovsky also served as inspiration for him to continue his musical career.

He managed to overcome several setbacks in his career, including scathing public reviews and a long period of writer’’s block. After several years of performance and changes in location, Rachmaninoff moved to the United States in 1918. He continued performing until February of 1943, just a month before his death from cancer.

* Myra Hess: This British pianist stands out in a genre typically dominated by men, especially during her years of public performance. Even as a young child Hess exhibited extraordinary talent. She was admitted to the Guildhall School of Music just two years after beginning lessons at age five. She gave her first public performance at the tender age of 17 in 1907, when she toured throughout Europe for several years. Eventually Hess debuted in the United States, where she realized almost instant acclaim. In an effort to boost morale during World War II, Hess organized a series of free public concerts in London. Her efforts during a time that saw the closure of concert halls and art galleries due to the war was deeply appreciated and received by the public. Hess herself performed at many of these lunch hour concerts. It may have been these efforts that endeared her to the public and stirred lasting interest in her music and career.

About The Author

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular online newsletter on piano chords, available free at http://www.playpiano.com/piano.htm

By Kevin Sinclair

If you”ve ever seen a group perform or you have performed with one, one of the things you may or may not realize is that everything has to blend. Nothing can make a performance worse than not having the music blend properly. Have you ever heard a performance where one voices takes out over the others when it shouldn”t, or where one instrument sticks out over the others like a sore thumb?

It’’s the same thing when you record. If you record music, there are two places you need to have the proper balance. This is with the equalizers, also known as EQs, and with the physical recording. When you work in the studio, you need to be aware of both of these sound levels, as you”ll need to have them set properly for the proper sound.

Sound balance comes as a result of the mixing board. With the mixing board, you can balance the instruments so that they are set properly to each other and the volume of each does not stick out over the other; each instrument will sound natural as well. When you build this part of your mix, you”ll need to pay attention to the input into your computer and the output that you”ll hear through the monitors.

When you do this, of course, you”ll need to make sure that all of the instruments are equal. This means that every instrument’’s volume should be about equal as compared to the others. If you start with the lowest level possible, you”ll have room to change the mix later as you need to. You shouldn”t have anyone peaking with his or her instrument during any part of the recording unless you plan to do this. When you do this, a sound check will help with both the input and output when you record.

Next, EQs (or equalizers) will help you get the right mix. You”ll be doing the mixing prior to the final mastering. At each step, you”ll need to make sure that your balance is good between high and low and that one sound does not dominate others.

You”ll need to follow a variety of standards to keep your EQs at certain levels. This is in part your personal preference and industry standards depend on the genre of music you record. However, the main thing to keep in mind is that one frequency should not dominate or be too loud versus others. The low ranges of instruments, in other words, should roughly match the high ranges of the instruments.

Similarly, you should blend your instruments together well except in places you want the bass, for example, to be dominant versus other tones. Similarly, if you want the piano or guitar to be dominant, you can increase the volume for that instrument. Otherwise, though, instrument levels should be about equal for all of them. You can do this through normalization, mastering and mixing, and can also put “envelopes” within the individual instruments. This means that certain parts of the song will be kept at a certain level, moved up to normal dynamic levels in another part, and so on.

To see if everything is working right, look at how the monitors sound. You should place monitors up high and on both sides of the room, then check and see how sound is bouncing back to you. The low range will tell you if the bass is too high and the high range will let you know if those instruments are too high, too. In this way, you can adjust as you need to until you have just the perfect levels.

Whatever genre of music you choose, balance the individual instruments and then the whole. With mixing and equalizers, your CD is going to come out better and will sound more professional, too. As you adjust according to preferences and then take a look at industry standards, too, this should give you what you need to keep everything in balance.

About The Author

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of MusicianHome.com, a site that provides information and articles for musicians at all stages of their development. http://www.musicianhome.com

By George Yang

Karaoke Music is music that allows a person or persons to sing in place of the main singer. This allows the person to perform that song and sing in front of their friends, family, or talent show. With this being said, it’’s safe to assume that the main vocals are not present in the song itself. However, those are not the only vocals in music. In almost all music songs, you have the main vocals and then you have the backup, background, vocals. Basically, the backup vocals are the backup singers or background singers to complement the main singer.

Therefore, in Karaoke music, the main vocals are taken out but the backup singers vocals are still left in since the person doing Karaoke is only singing the main vocals. So, this is why karaoke music is not pure instrumental music. Usually in karaoke music, you only have one singer, unless of course it is a duet, but you never have people sing as the background singers so that is why those vocals are not taken out.

I used to run an online karaoke retail store and we would get many complaints about karaoke music not being completely instrumental when they received it. From my previous explanation above, you can now understand why karaoke music is not pure instrumental music.

So, where can you get pure instrumental music? The answer is in Midi music. Midi music is pure instrumental because it consists only of instruments. No vocals can be recorded with midi music. There are plenty of resources online where you can download midi music for free or for a fee. However, the only issue is trying to find a good midi version of the song you want and have it sound like the original.

Most midi songs, even karaoke songs, don”t sound like the original because they have to change instrument keys to go around the copyright issue. If they sounded exactly like the original song, the maker would have to pay royalties to the music industry. But, there are certain brands in karaoke music where they do pay royalties and so they do sound very close to the original song.

If you do not mind having background vocals, go for the karaoke version because you do get better and more quality music than you in midi songs. But of course, for those looking for pure instrumental music, your only real choice is in midi music. However, if the original song has no background singers and chorals, than you can get away with using the karaoke version of that song as a pure instrumental song.

About The Author

George Yang was in the karaoke business for years and so all of this information comes from experience. He still runs a karaoke information site at http://www.CDGMusic.com

By Victor Epand

While having a live concert a musician needs a variety of stage music gear for his performance. And along with that he also needs various accessories which come with these instruments. The most commonly used music gear in a stage show are guitars, drum set, synthesizers, and other assorted instruments.

Stage music gear hold a great importance while performing on stage. While using a guitar on the stage, good quality amplifiers, microphones, feedback buster, strings, thumb pick, guitar tuner and many other accessories are required. Drums also require different gear for their best performance. The whole drum set consists of various types of cymbals and drums.

A brief description of guitar gear used on stage

Amplifiers - Traditional guitar amplifiers, with a clean, warm sound, a sharp treble roll-off at 5 kHz or less and bass roll off at 60-100 Hz, and often built-in reverb and tremolo units. There are hard rock-style guitar amplifiers, such as pre-amplification, controls, tone filters, and distortion effects that provide the amplifier’’s characteristic tone. Bass amplifiers, with extended bass response and tone controls, are optimized for bass guitars.

Microphones: Guitar microphones are intended to be used with the equipment made for microphones. The concept is very simple, a microphone is meant for a PA system and not for a guitar amplifier. The units will work to a degree in a guitar amplifier however to hear the full potential of the instrument, which connect any and all of the microphones into PA equipment.

Feedback Buster: The feedback buster reduces feedback from an acoustic or electric guitar. The feedback buster is inserted into the guitar’’s hole which allows greater sound control reducing unwanted feedback.

Strings: Guitar strings are available in different gages. The guitar strings are made of phosphor bronze. Different gages of strings are required for different compositions.

A brief description of drum gear used on stage

Cymbals: A drum set consists of different kinds of cymbals. These cymbals have different names and perform different functions. Some of the most commonly used cymbals are Hi hat, crash cymbal, ride cymbal, splash cymbal, china cymbal, sizzle cymbal and a few others.

The hi hat is a core element in the drum set because it is used as the primary time keeper. It is actually a pair of cymbals mounted on a specialized stand. The ride cymbal is the second most important time keeper of the cymbal types. It is typically the largest cymbal in your setup and has a nice open sound.

Ride cymbals vary in thickness, which has an influence on the attack, volume, and tone of the sound. Crash cymbals are designed to accent a rhythm. A Splash cymbal is the smallest of the crash family. They have the same purpose but their use is different.

Drums: Different types of drums are required to complete a drum set. The most commonly used drums in a drum set are bass drum, floor tom, snare drum and tom-toms.

A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The snare drum or side drum is a tubular drum made of wood or metal with skins, or heads, stretched over the top and bottom openings, and with a set of cords stretched across the bottom head. A floor tom is a double-headed tom-tom drum which usually stands on the floor on three legs. However, they can also be on a cymbal stand with a drum clamp.

About The Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for music gear, speakers, and microphones. You can find the best marketplace for music gear, speakers, and microphones at these 3 sites: http://www.sellusedmusicgear.com , http://www.sellusedspeakers.com , and http://www.sellusedmicrophones.com .

By Victor Epand

Producing own music sounds tough but is a creative one. But this means spending a good amount of money to produce and record the music in the professional recording studio. Paying in bulk is a regular phenomenon especially for the professional musicians.

But if this music production can be done in a personal studio, it will not only save those valuable bucks of yours but will also give you ample chance to add more creativity to your creation. By personal studio, it means a home studio built by you according to your needs and within your budget.

Basically, when we talk about a recording studio, it means a number of devices that capture different takes of the performance and assemble them into a finished audio product. Generally, this type of studio includes devices like recorders, microphones, mixer, audio processor and other instruments.

However, to set up your own home recording studio, there are a few qualities that you must posses. The quality of a musician, of an audio engineer and of a producer. And most importantly, you should have expertise in the devices of modern software studio as well as devices related to classical hardware machines.

This expertise must include some important knowledge like the use of EQ to clean up a track, when to use compression, how to record vocals, guitars, drums, the accurate place to put reverb in the mix, and the ways to level everything to make an astonishing audio image. Therefore, to record in your home studio, it is necessary to have years of experience in music as well as audio engineering.

A modern software studio or a hardware digital multi track basically includes modern digital multi track machines, modern recording software (called sequencer), compressors, limiters, vocal processors, equalizations, consoles and reverbs.

The most important component of the home studio is the multi track recorder. It is a device that allows you to record audio directly to separate tracks. And after all the tracks are added, they can be mixed down to a stereo master recording. In fact, digital multi track recorders have inbuilt effects which can be added to the tracks. But there is a twist here, as multi track recorder is a recording device, the sequencer is also a recording device. But the difference between both is that a sequencer can record as well as edit MIDI data, which a multi track recorder cannot.

Now, talking about a sequencer, it should be noted that it is a very important device in recording audio. In fact, it has the capability to record both digital audio and MIDI data and blend the sounds together in the software mixing console that it possesses. Moreover, as already mentioned, it has editing tools through which every aspect of the production can be controlled and can bring down to fine details. The vital point is that this device is quite inexpensive and thus easily affordable.

Most interestingly, home studio enables you to record any kind of music. You can record symphonies, orchestra, rap, pop, jazz or any such type. In fact, you can even record midi files of any style and even change the midi file into realistic and convincing pieces.

About The Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for music gear, speakers, and microphones. You can find the best marketplace for music gear, speakers, and microphones at these 3 sites: http://www.sellusedmusicgear.com , http://www.sellusedspeakers.com , and http://www.sellusedmicrophones.com .

By Victor Epand

Speakers are one of the important parts of a sound system. Without the speaker there could not have been any good sound output. Speaker is an electromagnetic transducer whose objective is to convert an electrical signal into sound. Loudspeakers are those which incorporate all the devices that are needed to enhance the quality of the sound.

A speaker can make or break music. Quality of the speakers and the placement of speakers, are very important in producing good quality music.

The question often asked is whether we need better speakers or better placement of the speakers. Another question is why do you need another set of amplifiers, cables and speakers? The usual answer is that there has been a review which describes the superb quality of a newly launched speaker.

Tips on Placement of Speakers
Components of a speaker and loudspeaker can act differently when placed in odd positions. Amplifiers can act a bit up or down when placed on audio racks, shelves or nearer to the edges. The material of the shelves also matters. It is always a good idea to use four legged racks rather than three legged ones.

Proper placement on the ground gives most noticeable response. Plain wooden racks are always better than designer glass.

To get proper the sound you should take a look at the power amplifiers. The three things to look for are the watts, stability, and the current used. Phase patters should also be considered if bi amping configuration is likely to be used. There should be identical phase patters for the power amplifiers.

Is the quality of cables in your least priority list? If yes, and if you think that placement of speakers is all you need to consider, then you are wrong. Better quality cables can make the sound so captivating that you will be ready to pay that extra bit for a good cable set.

The shape and size of the room is also one of the chief concerns in getting good music. The room should be big enough for the low frequency sound to unfold. What should be the shape of the room where the speakers are placed: square, rectangular, long passage type, hall or oval shaped? Also, where should be the furniture placed?

There are quite a few objects that can absorb sound or refute them. The placement of speakers and their design needs to be such that the sound quality is accentuated and not dampened. A well positioned loudspeaker or speaker set can get you a better frequency range, least distortion level and optimized transient level.

The center channel speaker should be the first speaker to be placed in a home theater environment. It is the one that gives you the dialogues or the main sounds. The front, left and right speakers are the ones that translate the signals into stereo music. And the surround speakers are the ones to give you the environmental feeling.

So the effective tips about the placement of the speakers of the home theater system are these: make them inline along, or just behind, the position which you usually occupy, that is, your listening position. The surround speaker should not hit your ear when you are sitting down or else the front speaker will get negated.

About The Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for music gear, speakers, and microphones. You can find the best marketplace for music gear, speakers, and microphones at these 3 sites: http://www.sellusedmusicgear.com , http://www.sellusedspeakers.com , and http://www.sellusedmicrophones.com .