Noise gate pedals are especially popular with metal guitarists. A noise gate is really handy for removing that typical buzz, unwanted noise and other background sounds from your signal chain, while still playing with high gain. Guest blogger Alexousky explains exactly what a noise gate does and how to set one up.

Imagine this: you’ve got some time on your hands, you’ve got some materials and tools lying around, it’s absolutely chucking it down, and you’ve got a little workshop where you can get stuck in. Then suddenly you think: “I’m going to build my own speakers!” We’ll help you get started.

Forget the image of the traditional songwriter, who builds a song from scratch and – with or without a co-writer – delivers the full package of vocal line, accompaniment and lyrics. In the vast majority of industrial music productions today, especially in pop, hip hop, EDM and commercials, an important role is reserved for ‘topliners’. Guest blogger Peter van Vleuten from the Songwriterschool explains what topliners do and what they need to be able to do.

Playing on This Morning, in the BBC Radio 1 studio, or as the support act for a well-known artist? As an ambitious artist, you’d never say no to that. But sometimes you actually should, advises guest blogger Jim Kreeftenberg, aka De Muziekindustriecoach. Because your gig might unintentionally attract the ‘wrong’ audience. With these six questions, you’ll work out who your target audience is and how to reach that ideal fan.

As long as musical instruments have existed, sound has been used to influence our state of mind. Guest blogger Viënna explains how she uses sound herself in her Sharana practice. Her clients report a wide range of remarkable effects.

The music you hear on television sounds so good because it’s been carefully recorded and mixed. While you enjoy the beautiful sound, a lot of work is happening behind the scenes to translate that audio as well as possible to different sound systems. Who makes sure a concert sounds its best on your system at home? One of the people responsible is the broadcast audio engineer. In this blog, we take a look behind the scenes with an experienced audio engineer, as he guides us through his fascinating work.

You’ve decided to learn a big, low-sounding bowed string instrument and you’re torn between the cello and the double bass. Both instruments are so large that you need to place them on the floor to play. And with both, you can feel those deep notes resonating through your body. But… they’re used differently. Read on and listen.

We all know the struggle: no inspiration! Or maybe even worse: plenty of inspiration, but no idea how to turn it into a solid result. Since version 12, Ableton Live has included a brilliant set of tools to help with exactly that. In Ableton Live they’re called MIDI Generative tools and MIDI Transformation tools.

Finding a good, interesting, fun or distinctive subject for song lyrics always takes time and energy. Not only because the subject needs to be ‘describable’ and singable, but also because you’ll eventually need a complete set of lyrics on paper — not just a promising first line.

Do you ever do studio recordings? Then you’ll know: once tracking is done, the real work begins. Painstaking work, to be precise. At Lewitt, they’ve found a way to make that heavy lifting a whole lot lighter. And no, not with a plugin. Discover the magic of the Lewitt RAY.

In his previous article, guest blogger and songwriting teacher Lex Hakker explained how to get your first ideas for lyrics down on paper. Now it’s time to give the text more structure. We’ll be working on the build-up of your ‘story’. We’ll cover perspective, verse, chorus, prep/pre-chorus and contrast/bridge.

A melodica looks like a mini piano, but you have to blow into it to get any sound. It’s easy to take with you, simple to learn, yet versatile enough to earn a place in all sorts of styles — from reggae to jazz. Let’s take a closer look at this unusual instrument, where it came from, and how it’s used today.