They say you shouldn’t believe everything you hear on the internet. Well, in this case it’s exactly true. I got a comment on Google+ the other day from a guy that swore by this statement. I had to laugh at how utterly and completely wrong this guy was. No good engineer uses a SM57 anymore?...
Mixing hip-hop is something that’s made for the home recording studio. It’s mostly electronic so you can get away with using loops and synths in the box. No need for a big recording studio to track drums or anything like that. You just need a vocal recording setup in your bedroom studio and you’re up and...
A reader hits the nail on the head with a comment: I still do not get results which I expect. The problem is – as I believe – the lack of knowledge about how to mix different instruments and how to work with equalizers. Exactly! You have no idea how glad I am to hear somebody say that....
Way back in the day my band was recording a demo. I wanted my lead guitar part to sound really weird, like a plunky, glass-brittle’esque sound. That’s a weird description I know but I couldn’t figure out how to make my electric guitar sound like that. I even went so far as to put the...
It’s funny how easy it is to screw up something simple like mic placement. I can understand the frustration of moving the mic around without really knowing what you’re looking for. It’s hard to look for the perfect balanced sound if you’re not 100% sure what that should sound like. And it’s even harder if...
Compression, along with EQ, is one of the most basic and useful tools you have in your arsenal for mixing. Compression makes things punchy. Compression makes things loud and clear. Compression makes your tracks more consistent throughout the song. But compression also makes things sound choked. Compression makes drums sound muffled and dull. Compression makes your listening experience tiring...
The trick about recording vocals is that it has nothing to do with the gear and everything to do with the performance. So who better to ask about the performance part of the vocal recording session than a seasoned recording artist? This week we finish up our series of interviews from the Potluck Audio Conference...
This week’s interview session will be with producer/engineer Powell: Jeff Powell has been recording, mixing, and producing records for 24 years. He was a staff assistant engineer, then engineer/mixer and finally producer at Ardent Studios from ’89-’97. He has been independent since then, but still calls Ardent home. Jeff has worked on multiple gold and platinum...
We’re back this week with another Potluck Audio Conference interview, this time with Dusty Wakeman of Mojave Audio and Mad Dog Studios. “In his forty years in the music business, Dusty Wakeman has worn a lot of hats: producer, engineer, musician, and owner/manager of Los Angeles based Mad Dog Studios. His work with Dwight Yoakam,...
Don’t you just hate when your tracks sounds like they’re inside a cardboard box? I do. Whether it’s a bass drum, your voice or a piano chord, everything seems to be living inside a box. I don’t especially enjoy the sounds cardboard boxes make, especially when they’re interfering with my 26” kick drum sound, and...