2010 was an awesome year. And I thought it was only fitting on the last day of the year to re-post some of the favorite HSC articles from 2010.

These are in no particular order, just posts that are either favorites of mine or received a lot of comments.

Enjoy perusing these, and THANK YOU for making 2010 an awesome success. I’m really looking forward to 2011. Happy New Year!

Here they are:

Pro Tools Resources – This is just a nice collection of articles I’ve written for you PT folks out there.

Percussion: Why You Should Use It [and a Free Gift!] – For Christmas this year I gave out some free cymbal swell samples. If you haven’t gotten them yet, you should.

HSC Readers: Introduce Yourselves – It was really fun finding out more about my readers and where they’re coming from. Fascinating.

31 Days to Better Recordings – This was a month-long series of 31 articles I wrote back in October. TONS of comments on these articles. Lots of great info.

NEW Tour of my Home Studio [Video] – My latest home studio tour.

Auralex Roominators Project 2 Review [With Audio Examples] – While this is a product review, there’s a lesson to be learned. I posted before and after samples of a treated vs untreated room. Pretty eye-opening if you’ve never heard it before.

Should Musicians Give Their Music Away? – This sparked a HUGE debate.

Using Compression on Your Master Fader – Check out the comments on this post. Another huge debate around one commenter’s claim that “all mastering engineers are scam artists.” It’s a fun read.

Stealing Plug-ins – Robin Hood or Jack Sparrow? – And yet another “can of worms” post. This sparked yet another huge debate on whether it’s okay to steal plugins without paying for them.

I LOVE to Mix [Mixing Resources] – Another list of articles I’ve written on mixing.

What Are Your Favorite Plug-ins? – Whether you steal your plugins or not , here’s a place to post your favorites and get some ideas for new ones.

Thanks again!

Seriously, 2010 was awesome. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you.

[Photo by Bob Jagendorf]

I sent out an email to my newsletter subscribers yesterday, and I got a TON of responses. It took me a couple hours to go through them all. It was so much fun to hear everyone’s story and find out a little bit about what they’re doing in their home studio.

If you’re a regular Home Studio Corner reader (or even if you just discovered it today), I want you to leave a comment below and let me know a little bit about you, what you do, what your goals are for your studio, what part of the world you live in…things like that.

Why? 2 Reasons:

1. I want to get to know you better.
2. I want you to get to know all of the other HSC readers better.

After all, we’re all fighting in the battle of good recordings, and it makes sense that we all know each other as well.

So, here’s your chance to brag…tell us how awesome you are. Give us a link to your website, Twitter or Facebook page, etc. What are your goals with recording? We want to hear from you.

Ready…GO!

[Photo by misocrazy]

As many of you know, my wife and I are expecting our first baby in October. As the due date speeds toward us, I thought it would be fun to have a little baby pool here on HSC, and give away a couple of prizes.

2 Ways to Win

You have two chances to win. Leave a comment below with your guess as to the baby’s birthday (and time) and weight.

Whoever posts the closest guess for either category without going over WINS.

That’s 2 chances to win, unless one brainiac happens to guess BOTH.

The Prizes

Winners may choose from one of the following prizes:

• Out of Indiana Producer Bundle – worth $50 (more info)
• Understanding Pro Tools – Worth $39
• Understanding Editing – Worth $47

The Due Date

The baby’s due date is…get this…10/10/10!! Will he come early? Late? Will he be huge? Tiny? You tell me.

Leave a comment below with your guess. Again, you’ll want to guess the date and time, and also the weight (in pounds and ounces). For example: January 3, 2011 – 78 lbs. 4 oz.

I’ll announce the winner(s) at some point after he’s born.

Happy guessing!

[Photo by Alan Vernon]

After much scrambling and decision-making, I’ve hit my deadline of pre-releasing my album today. After all, you’re apparently supposed to release new music on Tuesdays and Tuesdays ONLY.

What does “pre-release” mean? Well, since this is obviously an independent release (meaning I’m paying for everything myself and there are no record labels involved), it’s fairly typical to see a pre-release before the album is officially released.

What this means for my album, Out of Indiana, is that the digital download of the full album is available now exclusively at my music website, joegildermusic.com.

On the official release date, September 14, 2010, the album will be available “worldwide” in places like iTunes an Amazon. That’s when the physical CD orders will start shipping, too.

All that to say, if you’d like a copy of my album, which was recorded and mixed entirely by me in my home studio, go grab your copy now and let us know what you think. Here’s the link again:

www.joegildermusic.com

Thanks!