***Make sure you read this email to the very end if you want to learn how to mix in less than two hours*** If you’ve ever seen a professional mixing engineer work on a song, it can look chaotic. Jumping from one thing to another, tweaking random knobs and all of a sudden the mix...
If you’re reading this, you’re one of two things: You love mixing so much you can’t get enough about talking about it (like me). You want to love mixing but you’re still trying to figure it out. Out of everything we do as audio engineers, mixing is my favorite. It’s where we get to take all...
Every genre has its own unique sonic signature. Pop music is known for being ultra-slick, while punk music is raw and unfiltered. EDM is quantized tight to the grid while jazz is loose and free-flowing. A good engineer understands how every piece of equipment in the signal chain affects the sound. While one microphone may...
I want to bust the myth of the 10,000-hour rule. But let’s start at the beginning… Have you ever seen a natural talent giving it their all? A six-year-old kid playing guitar like a pro for example? We see those videos again and again. The only way to make ourselves feel better is by accepting...
It’s Thursday, and you know what that means? That’s right, it’s Audio Issues Happy Hour where I crack open a fancy craft beer, answer your questions and recommend some important books that you can’t miss. Here’s a replay from a previous Happy Hour for you to enjoy: Today we’ll be talking about: Handling dynamics where...
Trolls would lose their shit over this picture. I love it. That’s Finneas O’Connell, Billie Eilish’s brother in his bedroom studio. I can hear the trolls frantically typing, foaming at the mouth: “But! THE MONITOR PLACEMENT! Arrghghghgh!” “No acoustic treatment in the EARLY REFLECTION zones?!!?” (proceeds to hyperventilate into his Kiss lunchbox) “He’s using Logic?!?...
Producing a song can seem like performing magic. What music producers do — that’s smoke and mirrors right there. It’s like they pull awesome tracks out of their pockets. Nah, it’s really not that complicated, once you break it down. And in this post, I’ll break down the basic stages of putting a song together,...
Some people are anti-innovation. “Recording music is way too easy nowadays,” they say. “Back in my day, we recorded on 4-tracks!” I get what they’re saying, but I disagree. Whatever helps you be a better musician — especially if it’s the newest technology — go for it. That’s why I’ve put together this post about...
Yesterday was a huge win for small home recording studios as Billie Eilish took home four Grammys and Finneas got an extra one for Producer of the Year. So if you were afraid that you needed expensive equipment and a high-end studio to make professional hit records, you can safely throw those thoughts out the...
A reader writes in with a question about vocals: “I love the warmth of low–mid sounds, yet I hate the way that it affects my vocals. I can’t seem to figure out how to reach a happy medium, even when carving out between 250-500hz on my vocals.” If you’re running into the same issues, here are some ways to add...