Muziker Blog | page 2

Punk was not born in a studio or at a conservatory. It was born in a dive bar on the Bowery and in London rehearsal rooms where nobody could really play. These are the ten albums that turned it into a genre.

Chameleon by Herbie Hancock. Sir Psycho Sexy by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder. Behind that quacking sound sits one box that was left over from a dismantled synthesizer. In the first episode of StompStory, bass player Matej Krivánek explains where the envelope follower came from and plays you everything we have in stock at Muziker, from sixty-euro tiddlers to the Aguilar.

You do not own as many microphones as your interface has inputs. You tracked drums at rehearsal on a couple of mics and on Monday morning the project sounds like pure sadness. Across three studio lab episodes, Jakub Hríbik of Pulp Studio takes it from the top: recording with one microphone, finishing the sound in your DAW, converting drums to MIDI and finally editing a multitrack to the grid.

The best pedalboard is a computer. We go through five steps, from setting the input on your interface and getting the effect order right to the parallel effect paths few people can afford in hardware.

The djembe is a West African hand drum you can play a first rhythm on straight out of the box. We go through the four decisions that drive both price and sound: size, head, shell material and tuning system.

A cajon is a box you sit on and play at the same time. We go through how it works, what it is made of, what size you need and which brands and models are worth a look.

Heavy metal was not born in America but in Birmingham. In 1965 a press in a sheet metal factory took the tips of two fingers off seventeen year old Tony Iommi's right hand. Doctors told him he was finished with the guitar. He made thimbles from a washing-up liquid bottle, strung banjo strings and tuned down. These are the ten albums British metal stands on.

Viktor from the band Fvck_Kvlt, also known as DJ VKTRD, built an entire beat on a single groovebox. We wrote his process up as ten steps, from picking a sample through drums and bass to the recording.

Changing a head is not a workshop job but routine maintenance you can do at home with a single key. We go through the whole process, from taking the drum apart and cleaning the bearing edge to tuning in a cross pattern.

Restringing is the one bit of maintenance you will keep doing for as long as you play. We walk through the whole thing from slackening the first string to the final tune-up, separately for acoustic, electric and classical guitars.