I added a couple of small icons to the list of question results for both twitter and email.  A simple one-click solution.  Of course, the twitter icon will only show up if you have added your twitter credentials to your profile.  What do you mean you haven’t?

I have also made some tweaks to the site search that should make most search results much more relevant.  Who doesn’t like finding what they want?  This has also allowed me to add related search results to the ask a question page.  This should help us cut down on duplicate questions and make it that much easier to find what you’re looking for…answers!

So if you would be so kind as to mosey on over to he gear search box you will now find that I now tell you if the results are a piece of gear or a company. I have even color-coded them for you, green for gear, blue for company.

Awesome, right? But that’s not all, I’ve also added the company name to each piece of gear so we don’t get Shure PG52 instead of just PG52. Right on!

Personally I think this makes the results a whole lot easier to work with, but don’t let me decide.  Let me know what you think about the change and leave me a comment below!

Twitter Account Update:

It was brought to our attention by Tom Drinkwater that our system to automatically tweet out updates for you was acting a bit spammy so we decided to take a quick look at it and make some improvements.
As of right now, we will never tweet more than once every 10 minutes on your behalf.  We have also added the ability for you to choose weather you would like to tweet about questions and gear, or just questions.

It’s super easy to toggle between the two.  Sign in, go to your profile and find the “Twitter Updates” section on the right hand side. You should see the text “Tweet about questions and gear”. Simply click on the change link next to it to switch between the two modes.  You can of course turn this off by clicking the “turn off” link above that.

Website Badges:

There is now a simple way for you to display your experience score on your own website or blog with our new Recording Questions badges.  All you need to do is copy and paste a simple line of code onto your site, and it will automatically put a cool little badge on your site for you with your up-to-date experience score.  The badge will link directly to your profile page, so be sure to update all your information.  It’s a simple way to let everyone know that you use Recording Questions.

Adding a badge:

Sign in and go to your profile page.  Look for the “Link To Your Profile” section on the right side of the page and click the “Go Get Your Badge »” link.
Follow the simple instructions on the page and you will have your new badge up and running in no time!

We’ve noticed that a few people have crossed the 500 experience point threshold and several more of you are getting close.  Up to this point, the milestone has not meant much — not any more.  A new ability can be had by reaching the 500 point mark – the ability to edit tags on other members questions.

We believe that this will help improve the already handy tag search by ensuring that all the questons out there have the proper tags attached to them.  Sometimes new users fail to apply the correct tags to a question, or sometimes people are just plain lazy.  Now, anyone with 500 or more experience points can add or remove tags from any other question, not only their own.  This should allow questions to have the best possible tags to help other find what their looking for — and it gives a new ability to some of our top users.

Like always, let us know that you think — we love to hear from you!!

See you on the Streets..Err…Site!

I have to say I am not a Pro Tools user and I don’t really plan on switching anytime in the near future, luckily this box can be used on just about any recording setup…so stick around.

My experience with amp simulation does not extend much past my trusty copy of Amplitude Guitar Rig that I occasionally use to plug in and pretend to play guitar with so it came as a pretty big surprise to see how far guitar emulation has come.

Every guitar track on the Motley Crue album ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ was recorded using the Eleven plugin.

It seems that Digidesign is doing the same software modeling Universal Audio does with their UAD plugins.  They bought every single amplifier and effect and the proceeded to tear down every stage to the resistor level and then modeled it in software — quite remarkable.

Using it in your studio:

I can see a lot of uses for something like this in the studio for several reasons.  You can use it as a direct interface for guitars thus bypassing the need for any power amps and speaker cabinets.  There is something to be said for uncluttering the studio from unnecessary gear.  But this piece works just as well paired with a speaker cabinet and amp.  The Eleven lets you match instrument impertinences with the amplifier input, but turn speaker modeling on and off at will.  On top of this, the elven makes re-amping signals a snap by easily splitting signal and recording it direct an wet.

It’s all quite fascinating to me…I’m starting to see live gigs are studios pumping out awesome music — all without an amp or speaker in sight.

Yesterday we rolled out a couple of ways to hopefully help the site continue strong for years to come.

Musicians Friend:

We have partnered with Musicians Friend to put a buy now link on many of the gear pages.  Any time these links are used to buy gear, we receive a small percentage the sales to help keep the site running.  We hope you think about this the next time you need to buy something for your studio.  Simple click on any of the links before buying any gear from Musicians friend and you will be helping to support Recording Questions.

T-Shirts:

Many of you have expressed interest in our really awesome t-shirts so we decided to make them available to everyone for purchase on the homepage.   Simply select the color and your size and you can complete the order securely through Paypal’s wonderful payment system.

Thanks so much for helping us support the site.  Hopefully we can keep this thing afloat and bring all new features to the recording community.

But, first things first…

Since this is a community, I want to hear what your guys have to say. So leave us some feedback — nothing great is built alone!

• Do you like the idea?
• What do you think we should include in this new section?
• Have any awesome ideas to share?
• Have a better idea?

We created a question for everyone to leave their feedback...so head on over.

Today we rolled-out a brand new feature that allows any member to add their Twitter account in their profile section.  Now, whenever you interact with the site, we will post an update on your Twitter feed for you, automatically.

For instance, when you add a new piece of gear to your studio we will post something like the following in your feed:

Pretty Cool, Huh?

Adding Twitter to your profile:

It’s simple.  Head over to your profile page and look for the new “Twitter Updates” box on the right side, then just enter your Twitter username and password and we’re ready to rock.

You can easily change your Twitter account or turn the updates on and off from this same box.  And that’s it!

If you have any problems be sure to Twitter us @recordquestions or find us on Twitter.

Thanks for helping to support Recording Questions with Twitter!

Recording Questions is proud to announce the launch of our new user-powered recording gear database.  What is a user-powered recording gear database you ask?  Well, simply put…

The members of recording questions can add and edit images, information, specs, external reviews, or add their own user review for any piece of recording gear they want.

Pretty simple?

You Help Keep The Database Of Gear Up-To-Date

We know how hard it is to keep a list of every piece of gear or software completely up-to-date.  Chances are we’re going to fall behind or miss something as new equipment seems to come out on a daily basis.  So why not let the people that truly care about the gear keep things fresh…YOU!

We allow all members to add new equipment and the companies that make it.  Add hi-resolution images or update the information or specs for any piece of gear in the database.  We know that sometimes things change…such as firmware updates or software patches and we rely on your help to keep everyone informed.

Add Links To Gear Reviews Or Add Your Own

Selecting sonically important parts of your studio can be time-consuming and expensive so we want to help provide as much information as possible to help you learn about new and exciting gear.  Anyone can add links to gear-specific reviews located on other sites throughout the web.  We want to bring all the review links together in one place.

If you’re really passionate about something, be sure to add your own user review.  We make it super easy to add your own personal review about any piece of gear out there.  Let everyone know your objective view on gear you really love!

Show Off Your Studio!

Ever wonder what gear another member has in their studio?  Well, we now make that possible.  You can now add any piece of gear in the database to your own personal studio section located right in your studio.  Just find or add the piece of gear you want added to your studio, click the recording star next to its image, and select ‘I own this‘ or ‘I want this‘.  That piece of gear will now show up in your profile.

This is a great way to show off your gear to other members.  Or link to the page from your own website or blog to show the rest of the world.

Auto-link Tags To Gear Pages

Ever wonder about a piece of gear in another member’s question?  We do!  Now we will automatically link question tags to their corresponding gear or company page.  Just click on the tag and we’ll take you straight to the page!  Any gear added to the database will be available in the tag drop-down text box when asking a new question or editing an old one.

In the meantime, You can now add a picture of your studio to your profile.

As a fellow recording enthusiast, I know the compelling need we all seem to have to showoff your studio space to others. There’s nothing wrong with that…and now we’re encouraging it!

Just sign in, and go to your own profile and you will see the Studio Image box on the right hand side.  Simply click on the “Add an image of your studio” link and add an image from an existing URL on the web.  Done!

Be sure to check back soon for details on the new Gear section of Recording Questions.

See you online!