Recording - July 2015 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: Mike Metlay
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner
TECHNICAL CONSULTANT: Paul Vnuk Jr.
EDITOR AT LARGE: Beto Hale
COPY EDITOR: Diana Smethurst
MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

Six strings and a box
That was the title of an article we ran nearly 20 years ago, not long after I started
working here at Recording as Assistant Editor/Nuclear Physicist (What, you mean
your magazine doesn't have a Nuclear Physicist on staff? Tsk!), and I found its basic
premise very interesting: an acoustic guitar may be only "six strings and a box," but
capturing its sound can be a lot more complex than that.
"Six Strings and a Plank" was never used as an article title, but it could have been;
electric guitars present their own unique challenges to the recording musician, and
what looks simple from the outside can be painstakingly tricky once you get involved.
The fact is, learning about recording guitars never gets old. Whether acoustic or
electric, the guitar is by far the most popular instrument played and recorded by our
readership, and the one that the most readers want to learn more about. For a while
in the early 2000s, we actually kicked around the idea of launching an entire magazine called Guitar Recording!
It's July, time for the Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, and July is the traditional
month for us to really dive head-first into all things guitar. We feature a lot of guitar
content throughout the year, but once in a while it's fun to just go all out and present
as much material as we can to help you make better guitar recordings.
We welcome new contributor Brian Marshak to the Recording family. Brian is a producer/engineer and guitarist with a studio in Los Angeles; he brings us our main article,
an in-depth discussion of recording acoustic guitar for the absolute beginner (and the seasoned engineer looking for new tricks), and also contributes some neat ideas on how to
capture the perfect doubled guitar part. And speaking of neat ideas, Frank Marra returns
to our pages with an interesting article on using guitar effects pedals to paint sonic pictures that move your audience.
Our LA Editor-At-Large, Beto Hale, weighs in with a really cool article about how
he gets great miked cabinet sounds with the guitars, amp, and mics at his disposal.
The four mics he presents range from "anyone can have a few in their locker" up to
"well, I guess I didn't need a new car anyway", but his techniques transcend budget
and will work for anyone.
As usual for one of our July issues, we bring you a selection of wild and wonderful guitar gear. This month, there's the remarkable Pepper guitar wonderbox from Little
Labs and a roundup of guitar effects pedals you may not have heard of, with strange
and beautiful sonic possibilities in every one. Also in this issue, we examine the tiny
but mighty Copperphone Mini from Placid Audio, a powerful channel strip from API
called-wait for it-The Channel Strip, not one but five Universal Audio plug-ins,
Eventide's new UltraReverb plug-in, recording hardware from MOTU, and more.
Also in this issue, Paul Stamler gets sexy with beautiful mics in exotic positions in
"First Steps", Mike Rivers explains the idea of sensitivity in a new "Specs: Removing
The Mystery"... and Marty Peters steps away from Readers' Tapes long enough to
borrow Fade Out and ask the question: what makes a recording, a recording?
I'd like to wrap up this month's editorial with a little bit of shameless self-promotion,
if I may. Many of you will receive this issue in the early part of June, as subscribers
get the magazine a few weeks before it's widely available on newsstands. If so, you'll
be in time to sign up for a free webinar on June 19 at CreativeLive (creativelive.com),
a fantastic instructional site on all things creative, from photography and videography
to music production. This particular event is a live Q&A on all things recording... featuring yours truly.
It's the beginning of an ongoing series of video meetings where you can bring your
questions and comments directly to me, and if I can't answer your question, I'll find
someone who can. It should be fun, exciting, and just a teensy bit nerve-wracking on
my end. "Ask me anything? Am I nuts?!"
Enjoy the issue!

CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Marshak, Paul Vnuk Jr.,
Frank Marra, Mike Rivers,
Paul J. Stamler, Marty Peters
SOCIAL MEDIA
Brent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.
ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney
WEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES
Lorenz Rychner

EDITOR/PRODUCER:

CIRCULATION
Tiffany Sepe

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING
DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz
CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Colin Courtney
ADMINISTRATION
Thomas Hawley

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley
VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

SUBSCRIPTIONS/ADDRESS CHANGES:
1-954-653-3927
ADVERTISING/CLASSIFIEDS/MAIN OFFICE:
(303) 516-9118
RECORDING MAGAZINE
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RECORDING July 2015

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2015