After EQ, compression is THE most powerful tool for making punchy and powerful mixes. It’s easy enough to use compression to slam your drums, push your vocals out of the speakers, and glue your mix together. But it gets a little trickier when you’re compressing a piano track. Depending on the performance and style of...

Now that the Black Friday insanity and Cyber Monday madness are over, how will it help you make more music? I’m sure you took advantage of some deals. There were simply too many to ignore. If you grabbed the Mix Mastery Bundle (which is still available at a hefty discount) or the Audio Issues EQ,...

So…you’ve spent eight hours trying to finish more music, but in reality, you’re just tweaking your tracks, thinking that you’re “mixing.” After all that, you end​ up with this: Thin-sounding top-end Masked instruments cluttered up with too much reverb And a boomy low-end If that’s the case, this post will walk you through the proven...

This post has very little to do with audio, but I’ve been getting so many questions about the volcano in Iceland that I thought I’d share what I know. There’s been a lot going on for the last month or so, but it wasn’t until this week that news outlets in English have been covering...

I received a concerned email from a subscriber regarding my DIY guide on How To Make an Album Cover. They didn’t like me advising artists to use Canva and AI instead of hiring graphic designers or visual artists. This brings up a larger question about the DIY mentality that I thought I’d cover in today’s...

I listened to the remixed “1962-66” and “1967-70” Beatles albums, and they blew my mind. In case you didn’t know, these “remixed” albums were done with “voodoo*” separation technology that allowed them to create better separation between instruments, even those that had been bounced down together to a single track. Being able to hear the...

It’s easier than ever to make your own cover art, and in this post, I’ll walk you through a simple step-by-step process on how to make an album cover even if you’ve never made one before. Album Covers VS Book Covers Before we start, let’s answer the question: Should artists make their own cover art?...

Today we’ll answer the question on every musician’s mind: What can Anna Kendrick teach you about music production? I’m sure you were wondering the same thing, and today you’ll finally learn that the answer is: Unsurprisingly, a LOT. If you haven’t seen the Pitch Perfect trilogy yet, you’re missing out. I might be oversharing, but...

I used to have a morning routine. Then my daughter showed up, took one look at my calm, zen-garden of productive writing, and threw a dirty diaper all over it. It didn’t matter how early I got, her ninja spider sense alerted her to me carefully tip-toeing to the living room. As soon as I...

I believe mixing should be fun. You’ve recorded your tracks and you’re ready to make them shine. But if you don’t do the necessary prep work, or pay close enough attention to the technical details of your tracks, your final mixes will suffer. So in this guide, I’ll guide you through an important series of...