If you want to make it in modern music production, tuning vocals is a skill you must master. Instrumentals aside, vocals are the most important part of any song. Through lyrics and melody, they connect directly with the heart of your audience. If your song is supposed to deliver a lasting impression, the vocals need...
There are certain things that separate great tracks from clearly amateur tracks. And bad engineering is one of them. If there are plosives in your track, that could ruin the whole experience. So how do you remove plosives? In this post, I’ll go over what plosives are, how to keep them out of your recording,...
Welcome to Day 1 of our Yuletide Trickery series. As you fall fast asleep to your thoughts of improving your drum sound, you’re blissfully unaware of the treachery that’s about to befall you. The first Yule Lad to wreak havoc on your home studio is Stekkjarstaur or Sheep-Cote Clod. Stekkjarstaur used to have a fondness...
In the spirit of Yuletide, let me tell you a tale: In the Icelandic highlands, there lives a family of 15, plus a cat. The cat is a hellish black beast that eats children if they don’t get new clothes for the holidays. So in Iceland, there’s a good incentive for upward social mobility because...
Here’s a quick low-end you can use to tame the low-end of your drum bus in your next mix. This month I’m remixing one of my Christmas songs for the Audio Issues Insiders members. I’m running a mix contest for the members with some fun prizes but most of the fun is simply listening to...
When I got a MIDI controller, it changed my home-producing life. It opened up all these opportunities. I could make beats easily. I could record piano parts. Playing synths became so much smoother and quicker. And I want you to have those same opportunities. So I want to share what I think are the best...
You may be a musician, you may not. Either way, you may be looking for gift ideas for your musician friend or family member. Well, in this post, I’ll cover some of the best gifts for musicians that won’t drain your bank account. Why DIY Musicians Love Gifts Most independent artists aren’t like Chance The...
If you’ve ever felt discouraged by your muddy mixes and wish you could feel proud of your released records, let me share a story of how terrible my first songs sounded… Back in high school, my band recorded an album that may go down in history as my favorite worst-sounding album. I didn’t know anything...
As you’re undoubtedly familiar with, we humans have five senses. Touch Smell Sound Taste Sight But there’s one sense we sometimes forgot. It’s the sense that my favorite cookbook author, Samin Nosrat points out to us aspiring chefs in her cookbook, Salt Fat Acid Heat. When we cook, we use our senses. Wolfgang Puck says...
If you went to audio school and were frustrated with the lack of real-world experience, let me tell you a story that you may relate to: My wife went to law school so naturally, a lot of our friends are lawyers. She isn’t a practicing attorney, but in her CEO role, she uses her legal...