Thomann's Cool Online Guides

Here's a list of our current Online Guides. If you?'re unsure of how to go about selecting the right product for you, or you just want to know more about any of these topics, read on!
-
Home Recording
Home Recording can be very com-plic-ated. We're here to offer some advice!
-
Choosing a Beginner's Instr.
The first hurdle though, is to decide on which instru-ment to learn?
-
Guitar Setups
The range of avail-able gui-tars and amps has never been greater than it is today, and a huge variety of sounds are easily access-ible.
-
Digital Pianos
Choosing a digital piano actu-ally involves many of the same con-sid-er-a-tions as choosing a real piano.
-
Recording E-Guitars
Our aim is to explain the basic pro-cess of recording the elec-tric guitar!
-
Controller Keyboards
At the simplest level, a con-troller key-board, also com-monly known as a "master" key-board.
-
E-Guitars
Elec-tric gui-tars are ten a penny and nowadays there are at least as many models and makers to choose from.
-
Audio Interfaces
There is a wide range of audio inter-faces avail-able, and in the end, choosing the right one comes down to your per-sonal pref-er-ence.
-
Acoustic Piano
The central place of the piano in modern music cannot be over-stated.
-
Computer Based Studios
This art-icle will look at how to integ-rate a com-puter into dif-ferent studio envir-on-ments, and will high-light the issues of func-tion-ality...
-
Monitor Speakers
In this guide we?ll out-line the basic prin-ciples of studio mon-itors, and take a closer look at their most common fea-tures.
-
Synthesizers
There are a wealth of syn-thes-isers avail-able today, ran-ging from hard-ware key-boards to vir-tual soft-ware instru-ments.
-
Stage Pianos
Stage Pianos - What can these digital pianos do?
-
PA Speakers
In the digital age, the loud-speaker is the last and unchange-able out-post of ana-logue tech-no-logy.
-
Choosing a PA System
Whether you?re a fan, a pro-moter or a per-former, the refined craft of live sound is vitally important.
-
Large Diaphragm Microphones
They pick up any sound! In this guide, we have tracked down the most pop-ular con-denser micro-phones for you.
-
E-Drums
Elec-tronic drum sets are an instru-ment to reckon with.
-
Drum Kits for Beginners
This guide will help you find a suit-able drum kit and accessories for begin-ners.
-
Cables, Leads & Connectors
Cable... flex... lead... wire... what do all these terms mean?
-
Headphones
Head-phones are basics for any studio or DJ. But not all head-phones are cre-ated equal.
-
Acoustic Guitars
The steel-strung acoustic guitar has a range of sounds that are unmis-take-able and not easily rep-lic-ated with any other type of guitar.
-
Recording Choirs
Recording choir music is always a chal-lenge, even though it might not seem to be at first.
-
Guitar Amps
The fol-lowing pages give an over-view of the various types of guitar amp avail-able.
-
Mixers
In this guide we?ll con-cen-trate on the func-tion-ality of hard-ware mixers. They are an essen-tial part of any live sound sys-tems and studio...
-
Saxophones
Sax-o-phones are avail-able in a price range from about €300 to over €4000. Which instru-ment is suit-able for a beginner?
-
Guitar Accessories
We invest-igate some of the many accessories avail-able for both guitar and bass.
-
LED Lighting
LED PARs, LED Bars and Moving Heads - what should I bear in mind?
-
Microphone accessories
The right accessories bring out the best in your micro-phones. Find out what’s avail-able and what you can do with it!
-
Permanently installed PA Systems
These sys-tems involve much more than just plug-ging two speakers into the amp
-
Bass Guitars
Here is a over-view of the bass and all its com-ponent parts, from vin-tage to modern instru-ments.
-
Stage Vocal Mics
There are many vocal micro-phones that are suit-able for stage use, from the cheapest dynamic to the most expensive con-denser.
-
Drum Mics
Miking up and recording a drum kit is a fairly com-plic-ated pro-cedure, and this can apply equally to choosing the right mics for the job.
-
Controllers
These days, musi-cians are exper-i-en-cing the increasing com-plexity of their instru-ments and devices at first hand - regain some of the...
-
Amp Modeling
Amp mod-el-lers are guitar DSP effects units that emu-late the sound of a range of amp-li-fiers and speaker cab-inets.
-
Dynamic Microphones
Dynamic micro-phones are the basic tools of live sound and play an important role in every recording studio.
-
Multi Effect Pedals
The entrance of digital tech-no-logy into music elec-tronics makes an ''Echo Cham-ber'' afford-able for the little man.
-
Recording Wind Instruments
Unfor-tu-nately, choosing a simple dynamic mic is just the begin-ning.
-
Modulation Effects Pedals
The term ?mod-u-la-tion? in its broadest sense covers a range of sonic effects, from the subtlest chorus to ear-bending ring mod-u-la-tion.
-
Portable Keyboards
Port-able key-boards now offer a wealth of fea-tures to suit both the first time musi-cian and pro-fes-sional song-writer alike.
-
Guitar Multi FX
The multi-FX concept has been around in various forms since the mid 80s - It is there-fore no sur-prise that there is a huge range of...
-
DJ Setups
DJing has rather murky ori-gins, and there are many people who claim to have been the first to mix two records together.
-
Classical Guitars
Until recently, the clas-sical guitar rep-res-ented the most pop-ular route into guitar playing.
-
Racks & Cases
If you take good care of your equip-ment, your pack it up care-fully - and this means get-ting a proper case!
-
Can Lights
The PAR can is usu-ally the basis of an enter-tain-ment lighting system!
-
Portable Multitrackers
The mul-ti-tracker is a great tool for musi-cians of all levels. It really can be a ?studio in a box? repla-cing many of the com-pon-ents of a...
-
Bass Amps
Everything could be so easy, since all you want is to amp up your bass, right? This guide will provide you with an over-view of what's...
-
Guitar Strings
Without strings, gui-tars and basses pro-duce no sound, yet most players know very little about them.
-
Small Diaphragm Mics
Read on and learn all you should know about small dia-phragm mics
-
Plug-ins
More people than ever are now con-vinced of the advant-ages of plug-ins. Why?
-
Mic Preamps
Micro-phone preamps, are ana-logue devices that will remain important even as most other equip-ment is super-seded by digital altern-at-ives.
-
Grooveboxes
The single most important ele-ment in any style of dance music is the ?groove?, a chem-istry of rhythm for your song that can make or break...
-
Drum Hardware
Hard-ware is the stuff you play on and it does not make a noise ? ideal scen-ario that is.
-
Studio Acoustics
For many ambi-tious home recording enthu-si-asts, acous-tics is only a sideshow. This online guide will show you why you should still spare a...
-
Software Instruments
These days, soft-ware instru-ments seem to most like the nat-ural thing to use as a sound source in a com-puter-based studio.
-
Effects Lights
Pro-fes-sional standard lighting sys-tems are no longer found solely in large venues.
-
Cymbals
The choice of cym-bals is just as important as the choice of drums within a kit. Let?s take a closer look.
-
In-Ear Monitoring
In-Ear mon-it-oring - reas-on-able prices since a few years only - a real bliss for any live musi-cian. Why? Find out here..
-
Guitar Amp Heads
Though there are other options, the stack remains a rock icon, and is still the most flex-ible form of guitar amp-li-fic-a-tion.
-
Audio Compressors
This tutorial covers audio com-pressors and how they are used.
-
Violas
Learning to play an Viola is a long, but rewarding journey, and this guide has been designed to help at the start.
-
Loopers
Cre-ating sound art is no problem with a looper, but it won't do your cre-ative work for you!
-
Equalisers
EQ is per-haps the least noticed of all types of audio pro-cessing, but also the most important.
-
Sound Libraries & Sampling
Sampling tech-no-logy is no longer restricted to large stu-dios!
-
Ukulele
Often under-es-tim-ated and thought of only as a hol-iday instru-ment, the ukulele is exper-i-en-cing a revival - and by no means only on Hawaii
-
Percussion Instruments
Per-cus-sion instru-ments are the back-bone of many tra-di-tional styles of music and are a won-derful way to add colour, tex-ture and motion to...
-
Flutes
Our guide assist you in dis-cov-ering which is the right kind of flute for you.
-
PA-Amps
You could sum up the whole idea of a PA power amp-li-fier in a single word - sound. The power amp is a cru-cial part of a musi-cian?s live...
-
DJ Controllers
Turntables and mixers are not just play-back devices, but important tools for any DJ. So that DJs equipped with only a laptop are spared...
-
Mastering
Is mas-tering a ?black art? best left to the pro-fes-sionals, or with the right tech-no-logy, is it something that anyone can attempt?
-
DMX
DMX-con-trolled light effects - we will take you behind the scenes!
-
Bass Effect Pedals
Effects pro-cessors designed for use with bass gui-tars are now more pop-ular than ever.
-
Distortion Effect Pedals
A classic Ibanez Tubescreamer or Col-or-sound Tonebender can fetch many times its ori-ginal price from gui-tar-ists in search of the ulti-mate...
-
Mini Studios
Have you ever dreamed of put-ting your spon-tan-eous ideas into action imme-di-ately?
-
Software Sequencers
Soft-ware Sequen-cing as a term is deeply inad-equate to describe the power of the pro-grams now avail-able to the com-puter-based musi-cian.
-
DJ Record Decks
Turntables have evolved over the years from tra-di-tional record players into the pro-fes-sional record decks seen in every club today.
-
Recording Acoustic Guitars
The acoustic guitar is one of the most fre-quently recorded instru-ments in the studio, but it is often recorded poorly.
-
Trumpets
The trumpet is one of the most ver-satile instru-ments, standing its ground in every music genre ima-gin-able.
-
Pickups
There is nothing mys-ter-ious about the basic prin-ciples of the elec-tric guitar pickup.
-
Guitar Wireless Systems
It?s time for more gui-tar-ists to take advantage of the freedom of move-ment provided and strut their stuff!
-
Cello
Learning to play an instru-ment is a long, but immensely rewarding journey, and this guide has been designed to help at the start of that...
-
Drum Shells
In our online guide, we want to look at the modern drum set from every angle.
-
DI Boxes
While we could go into more and more detail about DI boxes and their inner work-ings, at some stage it?s best to get some hands-on...
-
Double Basses
This guide aims to help com-plete begin-ners and existing double bass stu-dents (and their par-ents).
-
Drumheads
Drum-heads have been man-u-fac-tured from plastic since 1956, mostly poly-ester.
-
Fog Machines
Fog machines - can you still see me?
-
Acoustic Guitar Amps
Before buying an acoustic amp, it?s important to con-sider exactly what you want it to do.
-
Recorders
Des-pite its infamous classroom or beginner?s image, the recorder is in fact just as dif-fi-cult to play well as most other instru-ments.
-
Drumsticks
Many Drummer?s have not yet found their optimal stick - the selec-tion is large.
-
Tuners
Modern elec-tronic tuners are gen-er-ally accurate, reli-able and fairly inex-pensive.
-
Reverb Effects
Reverb is an essen-tial ingredient in almost all pop and rock music.
-
DJ Mixers
When choosing a mixer, the most important thing to con-sider is what style of mixing you will be doing.
-
Delay Effect Pedals
Delays offer a simple and con-venient method of cre-ating a sense of space around your sound.
-
French Horns
Horns in Bb, F or double horns – it’s a tough decision. This guide is here to help!
-
Clarinets
Let?s take a close look at this beau-tiful-sounding instru-ment.
-
Reporter Mics
There are many types of reporting, inter-viewing and other broad-casts. Each bring their own audio chal-lenges, and each have their own...
-
Orchestral Percussion
A wide variety of per-cus-sion instru-ments forms the modern orchestra?s rhythm sec-tion.
-
Harmonicas
Wel-come to our Online Advisor for Har-mon-icas.
-
Workstation Keyboards
The work-sta-tion key-boards has come of age and found niches in many dif-ferent areas.
-
7 String Guitars
In this Online Advisor, cre-ated in con-junc-tion with plan-et-guitar.net, we explore the key fea-tures of the instru-ments that have redefined...
-
Trombones
The trom-bone is a pop-ular instru-ment in the brass family, and fea-tures in much clas-sical, jazz and pop-ular music.