Recording - finding the right information

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One site which is well worth a look is the SAE reference site. This is particularly useful if you are having trouble with recording, or if have a specific task and want some solid advice.

If you prefer the printed word, I can thoroughly recommend Mixing with your Mind. Mike Stavrou has provided a comprehensive array of tips and detailed writing about audio production techniques. In addition to his regular page in AudioTechnology magazine (of which more later) his book Mixing with your Mind, though expensive, provides many radical ways to dramatically improve your recording results.

If you need a forum to listen to the works of other recording enthusiasts, then try soundclick.com or nowhereradio.com. This can be a good source of free listening material to hear what sounds other musicians are using and achieving.

If you need help with a specific device or recommendation, then homerecording.com has useful forums, as does the excellent and helpful home recording forum at the Fender Discussion Page.

For the more serious recording buffs there is the forum at recording.org, but there is often a sense of gear snobbery here, and fewer tracks to review. For many musicians and studio types, it's about the device, and not about the quality of the music. In some respects this is about theory instead of practice. Still, there is a wide audience for this style of forum.
In a similar bent, many subscribers to Tape Op magazine find it a good read.
There is also a professional forum run by Rick O'Neill, another master engineer who writes for AudioTechnology magazine, but this is for the serious professional recordist, not the wannabee home tracker (although even for these it can be an inspiring and informative place to lurk). Audio Technology magazine is available by subscription but you can often find it at quality newsagents. For under $10 it is always informative and interesting.
Mercenary audio has a lot of interesting articles around the subject of recording, as does Sound on Sound Magazine with quality online gear reviews and technical recording tips - you can also subscribe to their printed publication and read back-articles and reviews.
Here endeth my brief encapsulation of the sites I find most useful and informative. I hope you would find this information a lot more interesting than me telling you how to find the sweet spot when mic'ing a guitar amp. You really want to know? Turn the amp up with just the treble control only at full setting, then mic it where the hiss is loudest. Then dial up your regular setting and hit record!

[Ed: But don't forget to turn the treble back down to its normal setting before you hit Record!]

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Radio play

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Dear Uncle Terry,

There are so few Australian bands played on radio, how are local acts supposed to succeed in this environment?

Simone

Dear Simone,

There is a requirement that radio stations play a certain amount of Australian content on radio and this is generally adhered to reasonably well. (The code of practice is overseen by a committee called AMPCOM and you can check out their compliance reports online).

The code of practice also stipulates that a certain percentage of new Australian music is played. At the moment it seems likely that the percentages in both these categories cannot be increased, thanks to the wonderful "Free Trade Agreement" that Australia signed with the US.

There is another consideration. Real promotional benefit only occurs when tracks are played on stations with very large audiences and only then when they are placed on "heavy rotation" (played a lot of times each day). There are only so many stations with very large audiences and there are only so many hours in the day so there is a limit to the number of tracks that can get this treatment. So a selection process must occur and… well, if you have been involved in the music industry you know the rest.

More radio play looks like an easy fix but it cannot benefit everyone. This does not mean that Uncle Terry thinks that the current selection process should not be looked at. In fact he thinks it should be looked at long and hard, and preferably by people who have the ability to perform arrests!

Uncle Terry

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