Jessica Monroe

Calibrating a reel-to-reel deck is one of those tasks that separates a great-sounding tape machine from a frustrating one. I have spent years working with analog tape decks in both home and studio environments, and I can tell you that getting the sequence right makes all the difference between clean, accurate sound and muddy, distorted … Read more

If your reel-to-reel deck suddenly sounds dull, muffled, or noisy, magnetized heads are often the culprit. I have seen plenty of vintage Studer, Teac, and Revox machines lose their top-end clarity simply because no one ran a degaussing wand across the heads. The good news is that learning how to demagnetize reel-to-reel heads without erasing … Read more

If your Technics SL-1200 pitch fader is off at zero, you are dealing with one of the most common issues on these legendary turntables. The pitch control drifts, the zero point feels unreliable, and beatmatching becomes a frustrating guessing game. I have been through this calibration process on multiple SL-1200 and SL-1210 decks over the … Read more

If your DJ turntable keeps skipping while scratching, the needle is jumping out of the groove mid-cut, and you are not alone. I have spent years on Technics SL-1200s and modern direct-drive decks, and the vast majority of skip problems trace back to a handful of setup issues. Tracking force and cartridge choice are usually … Read more

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched a needle jump out of the groove mid-set. That sickening click, the room goes quiet, and the dancefloor notices. If you’ve ever dealt with your turntable skipping when bass hits or someone walks past, you already know this is the single most frustrating technical problem DJs … Read more

Your DDJ controller is plugged in, the lights are on, but Rekordbox acts like nothing is connected. I have been there. Our team has walked through this exact issue with hundreds of DJ setups over the past few years, and the same handful of causes keep showing up. In this guide, I will walk you … Read more

To set field recorder levels correctly, adjust your gain until the level meter peaks around -12dBFS during the loudest expected sound. That single rule solves 90% of the problems I see in amateur recordings. Our team has tested dozens of portable recorders over the past three years, and this -12dBFS target keeps coming up as … Read more

If you’ve ever finished a recording and found it sounds like a whisper, you know the pain of capturing handheld recorder audio levels that came in too quiet. I’ve been there, and so has just about everyone who has pulled a recorder out of their bag for the first time. The flip side is worse. … Read more

Do you still need to set gain on a 32-bit float recorder? The short answer is no, and this is the single biggest reason audio professionals have started adopting 32-bit float recorders like the Zoom F6, Sound Devices MixPre-10 II, and TASCAM Portacapture X8 for field recording, documentary, and location sound work. Traditional recording forced … Read more

I’ve been recording nature audio for over a decade, and nothing ruins a take faster than wind noise. You hike out before dawn, set up your recorder in the perfect spot, and return home to find your recording buried under a relentless low-frequency rumble. This guide breaks down exactly how wind noise ruins field recordings, … Read more