Creative Edge Music

Yesterday was one of the most incredible days of my life: I attended NAMM 2013 in order to cover as much ground as possible with the goal of both absorbing new knowledge and passing it along to all of you.  I'm still recovering from the long day, organizing my photos and video content, and authoring up several posts, including a general overview of the event.  In the meantime, though, here's an interesting release that I think many mainstream home-recording users will absolutely love from Yamaha: -USB MIDI Interface Cable Is First Yamaha Connector to Work With iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch- ANAHEIM, California — At the 2013 NAMM Show, Yamaha will introduce the i-UX1, a MIDI interface cable that enables quick, easy, seamless connection between the iPad /iPhone/iPod Touch and MIDI instruments. Just plug it in, and the i-UX1 works with Core MIDI compatible iOS Applications. This is the first cable that connects instruments that have USB MIDI (vs. regular 5-pin DIN MIDI) to iDe...

This past weekend I met up with Dustin Lees of California Sound Studios to talk about Production.  In no particular order, Dustin has worked with and mixed down the music of Wu Tang Clan, Korn, Snoop Dogg, Outkast, and more.  Over the course of many years, he has been at the heart of the Production process, and it was a real pleasure to talk through everything with him. To put it simply, Production is the meat and potatoes of recording, because it really encompasses everything in the recording process from having nothing to having a finished CD (or EP, or single). Say you’re in a band that currently practices twice a week and plays a few shows per month.  You have a rough demo that you made on your own, but you want to take things to the next level.  The obvious next step is to hit up a pro studio and get some tracks recorded – an EP is common for musicians and groups without financing, since you’ll be looking at 4-5 songs most of the time.  However...

Delay is an effect every guitarist loves using, even if the band they play in doesn't require it or they don't use it every day.  After all, most guitarists love hearing the sound of their own guitar, so what better than hearing each note you play a few extra times?! The tough thing is deciding what delay pedal to buy.  With at least 10-15 solid options out on the market, how does the Boss DD-7 Digital Delay hold up?  Well, I just went to www.musiciansfriend.com  and did a simple search for "delay pedal" on their site.  Here are some of the search results that came up: What I found interesting was that the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay Pedal  came up as the #1 search result, whereas the Boss DD-7 Digital Delay was buried somewhat farther down the list.  Still, it gets a 4.6 / 5 from Musician's Friend and there are very few negative reviews.  And the only negative reviews are coming from tone purists who believe your tone will suck if...