The quest for the perfect tone is one of the biggest challenges a guitar player will embark upon. While this process can be a long and tedious journey, it is well worth the effort in the end. The problem faced by many players is how to get the desired tone recorded in its pure form without any coloration to the original sound. In a professional studio, this is typically accomplished by selecting a high quality microphone generally preferred from the most recognized and popular microphone types; tube, condenser, dynamic or ribbon. While each of these type of microphones can add their own “flavor” to the sound, the real object is to not allow ANY COLORATION to change the tone that the guitar player is hearing! The condenser microphone is probably the most popular style used in home studios because it’s great versatility, sensitivity, and would definitely be the microphone type of choice because they are much less likely to “color” the sound then the other types. Condensers are often used on acoustic guitars, pianos, overhead drums, cymbals, electric guitars, string instruments, and many other instruments where coloration isn’t a desired result. Transparent sound and very sensitive to even extremely subtle tonal changes is the major advantages to Condenser mics.

The introduction of the Field Electronics Transistor (FET) made condenser microphones smaller, and more affordable than the early versions. Since then the microphone market has exploded with offerings from several companies and price ranges anywhere from under one hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. However, like with many products today, more expensive does not always mean better.

For this review, we are going to look at the CK-7 by Avantone. This true FET microphone boasts high end features and sounds at a price that is very friendly to the budget conscious home recording studio owner. Don’t let the price fool you. The Avantone microphones are so good that they are quickly gaining the respect of professional recording engineers around the world.

I can remember being a young guitar player flipping through the pages of my favorite guitar magazines. Among the articles I liked best were interviews with players and recording engineers. Invariably, the articles featured pictures of these individuals in some kind of recording studio. One thing that I always seemed to notice in these photographs was the presence of a set of headphones close at hand. At the time, I didn’t realize the importance of headphones, but over the years, I have come to realize just how valuable great headphones are for studio work.

Professional headphones (or “cans” as most studio professionals refer to them) have been used in recording studios forever. They are utilized for tracking, mixing, mastering, as well as for personal monitoring. In some cases, these high end headphones carry a hefty price tag that can go into the thousand of dollars, and like a guitar player with a loyalty to their favorite axe, most audio engineers will take their headphones with them when working away from their home base.

In 1991, a new company entered the headphone market with some of the most significant advancements in headphone technology to date. Their ideas and design concepts would turn the industry on its ear (so to speak) and their products would quickly become an industry standard for professional recording engineers and musicians around the world. For this review we will be looking at two models in the “PRO” series by Ultrasone in their “PRO 550” and “PRO 750” models.

There is a constant battle waging in my home studio, as I’m sure it does in yours, and it involves the need for more space. As you can imagine, I am always searching for equipment that offers the best balance between quality, cost, and size. Among my most difficult dilemmas in this conflict has been the search for the perfect mixer.

Until now, what I want has been almost impossible to find. I have been looking for a compact mixer with 8-12 inputs for home studio recording. I also had an as yet unfulfilled need for a 4-6 input mixer to serve the sound interface for my PA system for speaking engagements and seminars. Even when not including cost in as a decision factor, most of the compact solutions I have examined have limited features, limited sound quality, or limited construction quality.

Mackie recently released their new VLZ3 series of professional level mixers. This series raises the bar over competitive offerings with XDR2 preamps, flexible routing options, steel construction, and high-grade controls. The 802 and 402 represent Mackie’s most recent introductions in the VLZ3 line and are squarely aimed at the compact mixer market, matching uncompromised VLZ3 quality with an incredible price point. As such, I was really happy when the folks at Mackie elected to send me these two units to review, and promptly put them through the paces. Read on for the details!

It was the 2nd Day of the NAMM show, with craziness wailing around us – guitars, performers and DJ equipment on all sides. We walked over to KRK booth (www.krksys.com) for our appointment to check out the new KRK VXT series. Although, GuitarGearHeads has come up in the world over the last couple of years, we really weren’t expecting the VIP treatment!

We met the KRK rep and he surprisingly asked us to follow him. We weaved in an out of the booths to end up at a rather unremarkable door. We entered the door and were led up a staircase. At the top of the stairs was a door to the left, a door to the right, and a guard in the middle. For a moment, I felt like I was in a new episode of the “The Matrix”, hoping someone was going to ask me to choose between a red pill or a blue pill.

Entering the door on the left, we were escorted into a nice “living room” style space with couches, chairs, water, and snacks. Behind this room was a listening room where the KRK folks were giving demos of their latest KRK VXT series monitors.

During the demo, the VXT 4”, 6”, and 8” models were compared against high-end competitors costing 2-4x as much – I can’t even tell you the models, but rest assured these were the top-of-the-line in each class. In each case, the VXT equaled or bested the higher priced monitor. When the demo was over, we were politely escorted out the “secret room” back to the din of show floor below.

Back in my studio, I was able to spend some quality time with the KRK VXT 6 speakers. The conclusion is that these speakers are an amazing value for the price, but you’ll have to read on for all the details!

It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly the home studio market has moved in the last several years in terms of quality and useability. While nothing can replace the experience and knowledge of good producers and technicians, it is certainly possible to rival the multitracking and mixdown capabilities of top-end studios using equipment with a much smaller footprint.

Theoretically, all you need these days is a decent laptop, a USB or Firewire recording interface, headphones, and software with good virtual mixing capabilities to produce a product reasonable enough for distribution. However, the quest for most savvy computer based musicians is finding the "sweet spot" that balances simplicity with efficiency.

I think for guitar players, music creation is a tactile experience. There is a certain level of physical connection you need to have with your music. For me, actually grabbing a fader and notching it up so slighly or tweaking a knob with my fingers is as important as the time spent holding my guitar recording rhythms, solos, and fills.

Thanks to Mackie and their Control Universal Pro and C4 Pro controllers, I have found a level of interaction that I didn't know I was missing in my home setup! These units have received rave reviews from everyone from "weekend warriors" to digital sound studios - (Click here to see how these controllers were used to produce Spider-Man 3 - this guy has a sweet setup!) - and now GuitarGearHeads.com brings you our take on these devices. Read on for the details!

When looking at old pictures of the recording studio’s of the past, you will often see mammoth monitor speakers built into the walls. These monitors used to be the touchstone for recording, mixing, and mastering in the most respected studios in the world. These huge speaker systems required that specially designed rooms be built to get the best results, and even then, these monitors were not considered to be very accurate. Nonetheless, engineers learned the shortcomings of these monitors and were able to use them quite effectively for many years before the birth of "near field" monitors.

When near field monitors were first introduced, many engineers were slow to embrace them. Although they were more accurate, the industry veterans were comfortable with the old style monitors. "Better the devil you know" was the prevailing attitude since these early near field monitors were still far from perfect.

In the 80’s the man behind the mixing desk was Keith R. Kronwitter, and the projects he was working on were movies like "Brain Damage", and "The Doors". Keith was growing increasing frustrated that he could not find any near field monitors that were accurate enough to meet his needs, so he set out to design and built his own custom set. Many studio veterans heard his monitors and were enormously impressed. Soon Keith was building monitors for other engineers and studios around the country. From this was born a company called KRK Systems. I recently was sent a set of the "V8 Series 2" monitors for review. Read on for more about these monitors.

There seems to be a lot of perplexity surrounding studio monitors. This is primarily because building a home studio can be a very costly undertaking, and many people think that they can cut cost in this area. The reality is that this is the last place you should cut corners. Quality studio monitors are designed to give you the most accurate reproduction of your sound. This allows you to create recordings that will sound great on a variety of media playback devices. In essence, the studio monitor is your last line of defense between a great sounding performance, and a substandard recording.

There is a wide variety of studio monitors on the market today ranging in price from a few hundred dollars per pair to several thousand dollars each. While these ultra high end monitors are completely out of reach for most of us, there are some companies that think you should still be able to afford quality. One such company that consistently surprises me on their quality to price point ratio is Mackie®.

When Greg Mackie decided to create a new monitor, he gave his "New Product Development Team" a mandate. Design a reference monitor with a degree of accuracy and versatility unmatched by any other in its size and price category – or any size and price category for that matter. With this directive in mind, they put together all of the best people, recourses and equipment to accomplish this task. Sustaining themselves on hundreds of gallons of strong coffee and truckloads of sugar filled pastry like items, they worked long into the nights. One morning as the sun came over the Cascade Mountain Range, they set down their tools and pencils. There on the table before them was the HR824 High Resolution Active Studio Monitor.

Let me set up the scenario for you. You have just spent hours recording and working on the mix of your newest song. All of the instruments are sitting nicely in their groove thanks to your exhaustive efforts at your computer based recording station. Just a few more small adjustments to the sound of the lead guitar, and you will be ready to start burning your newborn endeavor to CD. As you foresee the end coming near, you start to feel the exhilaration of an almost completed creative venture. You look forward to getting out of the studio to enjoy the rest of a sunny spring day that you noticed on your way in this morning.

What you do not realize is that for the last hour, the clouds have been moving in, and an early spring thunder and lightning storm is about to commence. The first bolt of lightning decides that the transformer by your house looks like an easy target, and streaks in for the kill. As the power goes out, your near perfect project vanishes from your computer screen, never to be seen again. Only the final rumblings of the thunder that follow, saves the neighborhood from hearing your cry of despair. What could you done to prevent this from happening you ask?

What if I told you that there was a way to avoid situations like this altogether. The solution is called an "Uninterruptible Power Supply", otherwise known as a "UPS". A UPS is a battery backup which allows you a few minutes or more to save your work and safely shut down your equipment in the event of a power failure. This small amount of time can make the difference of a saved project, or a frustrating task of starting over from the beginning. The UPS that we are going to look at here is called the SB-1000 and is brought to us by our long time friends at Furman Sound.

O.K. guitar gear enthusiasts – here’s a riddle for you. What wears black rubber and chrome – and is sexy on your desktop? I’ll even give you a hint; it even looks great laying down or standing up. By the way, the sound is great too!

So that I don't lead you astray, I’m talking about the LINK.usb audio interface from TAPCO. If you remember my 2 hour odyssey with the Mackie’s Traction 2 software – you’ll recall me hankering for a USB or Firewire interface for improved audio quality and reduced latency. My luck must have been in because after seeing that review, the TAPCO folks hooked me up for this review with their nifty little USB interface. After defeating a few installation problems, I think I found the perfect companion to my Traction 2 studio! Read on to get the details!

I first started recording my guitar playing almost as soon as I learned to play the G, C, and D major chords that everyone discovers as a beginner. At that time, my biggest problem wasn’t changing chords, it was playing in time. I usually practiced with a metronome, but that quickly got boring. So I went on a mission to add some recording capability to my rig in order to practice my timing with a drum track. I really wanted to hear how I sounded so I could determine what to practice next.

My quest first started with a small compact flash based 4-track unit and eventually progressed into full-blown computer based recording. During this journey I have tried a variety of music production software solutions, but each of the products had critical limitations related to audio fidelity, export options, sound effects and filters, MIDI-capability, loop generation and editing, or user interface. In fact, I didn’t find what I was looking for until it found me! Mackie sent me a version of Tracktion 2.0 a couple months ago and I never opened it expecting more of the same. Boy was I proven wrong…I can truly say that Mackie Traction 2.0 is serious recording software designed with musicians in mind!