How to Make Your Raw Recordings Crush Other People’s Final Mixes

If you record harder music like rock, hardcore, punk or metal you might like this free video series Jordan Valeriote is giving people this week.

It’s called Hardcore Tracking and it’s a free video series on recording hard rock music.

I watched the three videos this week and I am SUPER IMPRESSED.

It’s like he’s bringing you right into the studio and gives you no-nonsense advice on what you need to do to get great sounding recordings at the source.

When you’re recording harder music like that it’s even more important to get those sounds as clean as pristine as possible (ironically enough!)

Here are the three videos he’s giving away this week, what you’ll learn from them and my reactions to them and what I personally learned.

Click on any of the video thumbnails or links to watch his free workshop.

Video 1: Capturing Killer, Hard-Hitting Drums

In-depth walkthrough of how to mic up a drum kit
Hear what good raw drums should sound like at the tracking stage
Free bonus download: Drum Tracking Cheatsheet with go-to mics and positions for drums

My favorite technique from this video is how he mics the overheads. I need to try that out on this punk record I’m working on right now.

Video 2: How to Get a Powerful Guitar Tone Without Overcomplicating the Entire Process

How to mic a guitar cab
See the guitar chain & watch me dial in a guitar tone quickly
Learn a new mental framework for tracking guitars that will 10x your quality

I agreed with everything he said about keeping it simple when recording guitars. Overloading your guitar amp with unnecessary microphones is just a recipe for disaster!

Video 3: How to Track Rock Vocals that Leap Out of the Speakers

See my go-to vocal chain
Learn the comp-on-the-fly vocal tracking strategy to get the best takes and keep sessions moving quickly.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that he spent time getting the right take immediately instead of trying to get a bunch of passes and then just lifelessly comp the whole thing. Makes for a much better take in my opinion.

I hope you take away something cool to use in your next hardcore sessions.

If you want, let me know what was most interesting to you. Just hit reply and tell me. I read every email!

Have a great weekend,

Björgvin

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About Audio Issues and Björgvin Benediktsson

We help musicians transform their recordings into radio-ready and release-worthy records they’re proud to release.

We do this by offering simple and practical music production and success skills they can use immediately to level themselves up – while rejecting negativity and gear-shaming from the industry. A rising tide floats all boats and the ocean is big enough for all of us to surf the sound waves.

Björgvin’s step-by-step mixing process has helped thousands of musicians confidently mix their music from their home studios. If you’d like to join them, check out the best-selling book Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins right here.