Music Calculator

When I say “first sign,” what’s the number one giveaway that a load in plan went off the rails? It isn’t a missing cable. It … Read more

The digital mixer reboots and there’s a power outage during the gig… Cue panic! It wipes out all of your scene presets and network switch … Read more

When it comes to matching output tubes, that’s not simply looking for a pair of equal numbers on a screen. That’s making sure your amplifier … Read more

It’s load-in time and you grab one of those stage trunks and wonder why you ever thought you should of being doing this for a … Read more

Stage plots appear okay on paper, but get plugged in and… well, it’s mostly fine until it isn’t. Everything is nice and tidy: Vocal mics, … Read more

One of those pesky bits of audiophile folklore is myth that adding more amplifier power to your system will result in a lot louder sound. … Read more

If you’ve ever owned an amp, you know that the smell of burning output tubes is a warning signal you never want to ignore, generally, … Read more

This is the transition from math to real-world applications in amplifier design. For example, you can theoreticaly calculate a feedback loop that will decrease your … Read more

You spend hours tinkering with pedals and adjusting a tube’s bias looking for that magic sound in the low end but never quite getting there. … Read more

It’s not so much a geometric as a physical exercise in planning rack space. On paper, it looks easy enough: count units and stuff them … Read more

When you strike a chord and it sounds distorted harshly, that’s digital clipping. While this can be caused by faulty equipment, more often than not … Read more

The other thing to remember about turning down an amp isn’t just turning a knob, you’re dealing with actual electricity here. And if you don’t … Read more

Most of the time when you unplug that guitar cable from your amp and don’t hear anything, your heart jumps up in your throat. It … Read more

Rather than measuring something, it’s more about how things feel. You spend three hours building a board and plug in your guitar. Your cables are … Read more

If you have decent equipment but still notice that volume decreases significantly upon moving from the bridge pickup to the neck pickup, it’s likely just … Read more