I’m Björgvin Benediktsson. I’m the author of the #1 Amazon best-seller, Step By Step Mixing: How to Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins, the creator of the Audio Issues EQ plug-in, and the founder of Audio Issues. I’m also a venture advisor for the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.
I’m an audio engineer turned writer, and I’m on a mission to help musicians overcome their imposter syndrome, create great-sounding music, and release their work.
I’ve worked as a live sound engineer, a broadcast recording engineer, a professional touring musician, a freelance mixing and mastering engineer, and an audio educator in both Iceland and the United States.
Since 2009, I’ve been helping people like you turn your rough recordings into finished records you can be proud to release. If you want to create radio-ready and release-worthy music that jumps from the speakers, you’re in the right place. My dream is for you to email me out of the blue one day and tell me you won an award for your music because I helped you make it sound successful.
Thousands of home studio producers like yourself have learned from my training, and my work has been featured in publications such as MusicTech magazine, Audiotuts+, The Pro Audio Files, and Recording Revolution, to name a few.
Namm was this past weekend. Lots of gear. But for some reason I wish I would have more to report. You see, it’s just becoming more and more of the same thing. Yay, here’s another entry-level interface that’s comparable to all the other entry-level interfaces out there. PreSonus came out with monitors, which sounds weird...
If you’re looking to learn how to EQ drums, look no further. The drums are the foundation of an exciting mix, and mixing punchy drums is a crucial part of making your mixes sound powerful. The bass drum keeps the pulse going, the snare drives the rhythm forward, and the feel of the drum beat...
Got this question from a reader deciding on a firewire audio interface: “I have hard time deciding which audio interface to choose: “Steinberg MR816 X” or “Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56”. I would like to know your opinion about which interface to choose. The interface’s main purpose is to record vocals (almost no live instruments) –...
Man have I got one big dirty pleasure. And for some reason comparing it to music production makes complete sense. It’s this TV show called “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” It’s from 2003 and it’s ridiculous in so many ways. But I just can’t stop watching it. Basically, the show’s about these 5 gay...
If you’re mixing an acoustic guitar and need to know how to make it fuller and more brilliant without sounding shrill, this video will help. Each frequency range in the image corresponds to a specific character in the acoustic guitar’s sound. Deep Bass Like I’ve said time and again, filter out the low-end of the...
Guess who wrote the big jumbo featured article in January’s issue of MusicTech magazine? The one about advanced microphone techniques? Moi. You can check it out here: http://www.musictechmag.co.uk/mtm/magazine I cover everything about microphone techniques: the importance of the room and your mic selection, the difference between mono and stereo and how to record any instrument. Here...
Got this question from a reader: I recorded in garageband, which they say records in mono. While playing the music over my two studio speakers it sounds great. When I play it only on one speaker, some instruments are missing, so I mixed again in only one speaker. When playing it on the other speaker now,some...
I’m a big fan of the Norse gods. In fact, back in 1000 AD, Iceland converted to Christianity, but everyone who wanted to keep swearing(that’s their badass way of praying) to the Norse gods could do it as long as they did it in secrecy. The Vikings had some pretty cool gods. The big cat...
I recently had the opportunity to interview Different Fur Studios’ Patrick Brown. Patrick Brown is the owner of the iconic Different Fur Studios, located in the Mission district in San Francisco. He worked as the engineer for the new Toro y Moi album and he took the time to discuss his approach to producing, as...
I bet many of you would love to study music production at a kick-ass music school. Your classes take place in high-end studios instead of musty classrooms. Sounds swanky don’t it? Too bad it’s not always worth the trouble. You can learn most of the stuff they teach you at home. I’ve actually crunched the numbers...