Astia-studio blog
WELCOME TO THE secrets of better sound!
⭐️ Anssi Kippo shares tips for musicians and sound engineers ⭐️

How Ensiferum ended up recording Two Paths on tape pt.1
The Finnish folk metal ambassadors, Ensiferum, first came to me in 2014 to make recording, mixing and mastering for One Man Army album. I had worked, or actually “work” sounds too official so let’s change it to “had a blast” with Petri Lindroos (vocals & guitar) back when he was in Norther. We made three […]

Vinyl records and how to improve enjoying music
For over 15 years I couldn’t listen any music outside the control room of our studio. I thought as my passion, music, had become my profession it had lost its once so wonderful effect on me. When I was re-introduced to vinyl records the joy was immediately there again! Ever since I have spread the […]

How to improve guitar sound pt.2
Guitar players who recently recorded at Astia-studio share their experience about guitar sound and how different factors affect it. Some of them shed light to equipment and different recording approaches on the quest for the ultimate guitar sound. Let’s hear what Masi Hukari, Ivan Apikov, Markus Toivonen, Juho Koski, Matti Hovi and Rami Kinnunen have to say […]

How to improve guitar sound pt.1
Any guitar players out there who care about their sound? We would like to share our expertise in recording and mixing guitar-driven music for over a quarter of a century. This post will dig deep deep deep on the quest for the ultimate guitar sound. During the years we have found these tips very useful […]

Better vocal recording pt. 2
We continue where we left off on part one. The vocalists who we recently worked with share their thoughts about vocal sound, recording, how they feel tape recording differs from computer recording and few cool vocal-related tips and tricks. One of our all time favorite trick is how to help the vocalist to hit the […]

Better vocal recording pt. 1
What do most people pay attention to when listening music? What is usually completed last in the writing process and not the first thing that most musicians listen to? This time I would like to shed light to vocals and especially how to make better vocal recording. The most important thing when singing and in […]

How to improve bass sound pt. 2
We continue our How to improve bass sound post with full comments from Jari, Lasse, Lauri and Pekka. They bring up several very good points like how distortion can eat out low frequencies, the anatomy of bass sound and how tape seems to “forgive” small mistakes compared to computer recording. Some share their thoughts very thoroughly […]

How to improve bass sound pt. 1
There are many blog posts about drums, guitar and vocals, but an important member is most of the time neglected. At rehearsals bass is in most cases unreadable low-end noise and you cannot hear the exact notes. Unfortunately bass sound is usually one of the things that gets the least attention. Let’s dive into the […]