I was recently reading a fantastic article by a fellow audio engineer, and he made a great case for the fact that most live sound engineers look at the PA system as an element to be removed from the overall picture, something you don't want to hear in the way of the program. Studios, however, seem to focus on many attributes that stand in the way of sonic purity -- analog noise, limited bandwidth, and many more.

In today's world of high-resolution audio, it's hard to imagine why anyone would purposefully degrade the quality of the end product for artistic effect, but it seems quite common in the indie scene. Should engineers and the studio be transparent and reproduce the band at their best, or should studios always try to be a visible (or, rather, audible) part of the overall picture?

Jim Marshall, the man who turned his savings from teaching drum lessons into one of the biggest names in music equipment, responsible for the impeccable loud-and-gritty guitar tone of many top-performing artists through his brand Marshall Amplifiers has died, following complications from cancer treatment and "multiple strokes", according to his son, Terry.

Marshall turned his passion for heavy-sounding rock music into a successful business empire, producing many well-known versions of his Marshall amps. Production of Marshall amplifiers was always kept in England, a fact that Marshall was very proud of, despite pressure from the industry to outsource production.

Marshall was 88.

As any audio engineer knows, there's a lot of variables and calculations that go into making a great recording or mixing a live show, and having a helping hand is never a bad thing, even in today's digital age. To aid both new and experienced engineers, Jonathan Papert and Crash Symphony Productions have introduced Audio Engineer for iPhone and iPad, a suite of tools in a single app.

Inside Audio Engineer, you'll find a variety of calculators and reference tools for both live and studio engineering. You're able to calculate dynamics, BPM, note-frequency relationships, distance and time, and more; you've also got a ready reference manual of mic techniques for a variety of situations.

Audio Engineer is available now for $7.99 from the iTunes App Store.

What's the most frustrating thing that can happen to a new studio owner? While there's a lot of answers for that time-honored question, one of the most annoying things is buzz, hum, and the other gremlins that happen in your studio because of bad power management.

With this new guide, you'll learn the basics of fixing minor electrical problems, and conditioning your power, that pop up in most home-based recording studios. Learning these skills will make it a lot easier, and a lot less frustrating, to get starting making audio magic.