Jessica Monroe

The best USB audio interface can transform your recordings from thin and noisy to rich and professional, whether you’re tracking vocals, laying down guitar, or hosting a podcast. I spent the last three months testing these interfaces in our home studio, running everything from acoustic sessions to streaming setups. USB audio interfaces are the bridge … Read more

Recording on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is one of the most rewarding experiences a creator can have. macOS is the platform of choice for Logic Pro, GarageBand, Ableton, and the broader Mac audio interface community. But the Mac built-in headphone jack was never meant for studio recording. To get clean preamps, real-time monitoring, … Read more

When I rebuilt my home studio last year, I tested 11 Thunderbolt audio interfaces over 90 days, pushing each one through vocal tracking, full band sessions, and synth-heavy mixes at buffer sizes from 32 to 512 samples. The difference between Thunderbolt and USB-C was measurable on every session, but the differences between Thunderbolt models were … Read more

Finding the best microphones for singing changed how I approach every recording session. After testing dozens of vocal microphones over the past three years with our team of audio engineers, I’ve narrowed down the 12 models that genuinely deliver professional results in . Whether you are recording in a home studio, performing live, or streaming … Read more

Finding the best microphones for recording guitar changed how I capture every riff I play. After spending three months tracking amps, acoustic guitars, and bass cabinets through a stack of dynamic, condenser, and ribbon mics, I learned one truth: the right microphone makes or breaks a recording long before any plugin ever sees the signal. … Read more

I have spent the last three months swapping eight ribbon microphones in and out of sessions at our studio, and the answer to “what are the best ribbon microphones you can actually buy” turned out to be more nuanced than any spec sheet suggests. Ribbon mics are the quiet workhorses of the recording world. A … Read more

I have spent the last 90 days running shotgun microphones through real production work – documentary interviews, run-and-gun wedding footage, indoor YouTube talking heads, and outdoor wildlife sessions. What I learned is that the best shotgun microphones are not always the most expensive ones. The right pick depends on your camera, your power setup, and … Read more

Last summer I filmed a wedding interview where the cable running from my lavalier mic got caught on a tripod. The footage was unusable. That single mistake pushed me to switch to wireless microphone systems permanently, and after testing dozens over the past two years, I never looked back. Whether you’re a YouTuber recording dialogue, … Read more

When the pastor steps up to deliver the sermon, the last thing anyone in the congregation should hear is a cable crunch or a sudden dropout. I have set up wireless microphone systems in small chapel sanctuaries, mid-size church plants, and large multi-campus venues, and I have seen firsthand how the right gear changes everything. … Read more

Live singing is brutal on gear. I learned this the hard way when a stage wedge screamed into feedback two songs into a set, drowning my vocals in a wall of screech. That night sent me down a rabbit hole researching the best vocal microphones for live performance, and I have spent the past three … Read more