Award Sounds Music, Photography and Consultancy

I've talked about tremolo as a musical feature before, this time I want to go into more detail.

First things first, let's sort out the guitarists: I don't mean using the tremolo arm/whammy bar or whatever you want to call it ("handle" as my girlfriend called it - and no she won't be picking up my guitars for a while). The whammy bar creates a vibrato feature, not a tremolo. Vibrato alters pitch.

Amplitude  read more »

I guess most drummers will know this, but if you program your own drums or use loops, think about using a different groove for your song.  read more »

As well as composing and recording, I play guitar in a band, playing a mixture of covers and our own originals. We don't stick too closely to the originals when we cover them, realising that we only have four members (guitar, bass, drums and vocals) so many songs have to be stripped down to work.

Going from a song that has many parts to a cover version with only four instruments can leave you feeling a bit naked when playing live. It doesn't help that as guitarist, I often have to play several parts at the same time.  read more »

Budget or not

I subscribe to the view that you almost always get what you pay for at the lower end of the market. So it's nice to come across something cheap that works well.

The compressor

I bought a compressor the other day, but not for use as a studio compressor. I bought it as an effect for my guitar rig.
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Which is louder, the hard-struck ringing chord or the palm-mute?

I answer both to that question. Let's look in some more detail.
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Following on from the previous article on emulating bass, this article is about emulating drums and mainly about emulating drummers.

I'm of two minds when I emulate drums. I'm either:  read more »

Let's start with a list and I'll break it apart. It will be useful as a checklist if you're thinking of starting out or if you're thinking of buying a gift for a bass player. With the technical advances over the last couple of decades, the price has dropped so that beginners can achieve a nice sound at starter prices.

Starter kit:  read more »

I hadn't planned to write this article now, but after helping a friend go shopping at the weekend, I felt I had to write it soon. In short, learn to play a new instrument. I've still got some more emulation ideas to write about, but they will wait for a later article.

Why?  read more »

I use the technique of changing instruments when I'm revisiting a track that has lain idle for a while. Depending on the deadlines involved, my usual way of composing is write and stop writing when I've hit a dead-end. When I revisit the track, could be the next day or a few months away, I'll try to add more to it. I find the quickest way to add a different flavour is to change the main instrument at the point of where I'm stuck.
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I'm generally against just posting a link to a site without some useful commentary (i.e. add more than just "check this out"), but in this case the site http://www.filmsound.org is so good that it warrants a link on its own. More so, it warrants a permanent banner on the site. No matter how experienced you are (or how good you think you are), you will find something new to you on the site. Before asking questions on any site about how a sound effect was made or how the overall sound was designed for a blockbuster movie, read the articles on http://www.filmsound.org