Looking to record a huge, fat, chewy, punchy, wide, deep, thumping bass sound? Here’s how Kent “Kip” Phillips of Carefree, Arizona’s, Desert Rock Sound Studios went about capturing that sound on recent sessions.

The whole category of handheld digital recorders has exploded. No matter what your price range or what feature set you’re looking for, there’s a compact stereo recorder out there waiting for you. A prime example is the new MR-2 from Korg. I’ve been a user of the first-generation Korg MR-1 ever since it came out, so I was eager to check out the new unit. I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed!

There are two approaches to equalization: precise, tightly controlled “surgical” EQ that is used to correct problems and broad-stroke “shaping” EQ that is used to tune the overall frequency balance and tonality of a signal. The brand-new Dangerous Music BAX EQ falls squarely into the second camp.

You can never have too many great mics! Fortunately, great new companies, such as Nashville-based Miktek, are keeping us well supplied with excellent transducers. For this “Hands On,” I reviewed the C5MP, a matched pair of small-diaphragm condenser microphones.

A studio monitor system, by its nature, is a system. It’s more than just a pair of speakers. The room, the electronics driving the monitors, the placements, and more can all impact the sound that your monitors produce.

I’ve been a fan of iZotope’s RX restoration software ever since it first came out. I use it frequently in my studio for cleaning up recordings, optimizing samples, and removing noise from old tracks. It’s fast, easy, and effective, whether running standalone or as a plug-in.

When I reviewed the Universal Audio UAD-2 DSP cards awhile ago, I knew they were going to be great. I had used the original UAD, and I liked it and its plug-in complement a lot. In fact, I wasn’t prepared for how much I would come to depend on those plug-ins.

Getting your room’s nearfield monitor speakers set up properly isn’t difficult, but it is essential to getting great results on your tracking and mixing sessions. Here are some tips to help your speakers sound their best:

Have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? Then you know that playing music and videos is just one thing those devices can do! With the addition of free or low-cost apps, you can put your handheld to work for you in the studio or live venue doing everything from tuning and tracking guitars to controlling your software or console, from drum machines to samplers, from synth control to multitrack recorders!

At Sweetwater’s recent GearFest, one of the hottest engineers/producers on the scene, Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones), gave a seminar on how he approaches tracking and mixing bands, and how he uses Universal Audio UAD-2 cards and plug-ins to achieve great mixes. Here’s an excerpt from that seminar.

Jack Joseph Puig is a legend in the music business, both for the incredible list of artists he’s worked with as a mixer (U2, Black Eyed Peas, Keith Urban, Lady Gaga, John Hiatt, the Black Crowes, No Doubt, Shelby Lynn, John Mayer, and hundreds more) and for his incredible analog gear collection.

The man of a million mixes! Chris Lord-Alge is one of the go-to mixers for rock, pop, and country music. With credits including James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Stone Temple Pilots, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, Peter Frampton, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw, Audioslave, Brian Setzer, Snow Patrol, Tina Turner, and hundreds more, it’s clear the man knows what he’s doing behind the console!

It’s always big news when new Pro Tools hardware is announced, and that’s certainly the case here. Avid recently announced a completely new line of audio interfaces for Pro Tools|HD. First up is the HD I/O. This is a 16-in/16-out interface that can be configured for eight or 16 channels of analog I/O.

Apogee has announced a new, highly flexible audio interface, the Symphony I/O, which can be used with Logic, Pro Tools LE, Pro Tools|HD, and any Core Audio-compatible DAW — no drivers necessary. The I/O configuration can be set up however the user likes, with various modules; each Symphony can hold two modules.

MOTU has announced that version 7.2 of Digital Performer is now available as a free download for registered users. One of the big changes is the addition of user-selectable “themes” that each change the user interface to a completely different look. Four shades of the “traditional” DP look are also provided.

Is your current 8-core Mac looking long in the tooth? Then we’ve got great news! Apple has announced new Mac Pros with up to 12 cores of rockin’ processing power. Models with four, six, eight, or 12 cores are available (for a performance boost up to 1.5x over a last-generation 8-core Mac Pro), with up to 6GB of RAM stock, up to 5x faster standard graphics, up to 8TB of internal storage in four hard drives, and the option to install up to four 512GB solid-state drives for extreme performance — Apple says video encoding can increase in speed up to 2x with solid-state drives.