When you’re mixing, it’s easy to jump from one thing to another. You’ll EQ the kick drum, add compression to the rhythm guitar, jump over to the keyboard reverb etc… However much you love jumping around your mix, there’s one thing you absolutely must focus on. It’s the one element that will make or break your...
Here’s a cool vocal mixing trick for when you want a lot of space around the vocal, but you don’t want to clutter everything up with reverb. Step 1 – Mix the Dry Vocal Make the dry vocal sound as good as you can with: Analog emulation or tape saturation EQ Compression Step 2 –...
Do you ever wonder what an over the top infomercial for a piece of audio gear would sound like? Of course not, that’s ridiculous. Luckily for you, I like thinking about ludicrous things so I came up with my own infomercial script for a laugh. Imagine a pristine TV studio kitchen and behind the counter,...
When people ask me questions about mixing, they’re often worried about whether they’re doing something wrong. They’ll ask whether they “should” be doing this, or if that is the “correct” thing to do. I completely understand the reasoning for these questions, because if you’re not experienced and confident with mixing you’ll second-guess yourself. At that...
If you want to mix a song from start to finish, here are the nine steps you must take. But first, let’s talk about the beginning and what it means to “start mixing.” You might struggle with knowing where to start. What do you do after you’re done recording? Where does everything belong in the...
Get the Soundcheck Checklist and Learn: Step by step instructions to run a successful soundcheck even if you're doing it for the very first time. How to soundcheck specific instruments and make the vocalist sound (and feel) great! How to build your mix during soundcheck so you can sit back and enjoy the show.The easy...
Let me make you a big promise. This guide will be the end-all article of compression tips you’ll ever need to make better mixes from your home studio. Using compression correctly is the second most important thing to do after EQ when you need to manipulate audio. However, although compression is a bit more complicated,...
There are a lot of things you can do to get great sound (and save your sanity) when mixing a live gig. And there are several things you shouldn’t do unless you really like the sound of garbage in your loudspeakers and feeling stressed out. I don’t know about you, but I prefer the “keep...
As you know, we spend a lot of time here at Audio Issues discussing recording techniques, tricks, and tools to help you get great sound in the studio. But a lot of those fundamentals can be applied to live sound as well. And more importantly, many of things you need to learn to get great...
This last week I’ve been working on a few different mixes. One was a hard-hitting stoner-punk song like QOTSA meets Rancid. The second was a spacious country ballad like old-school country meets Norah Jones. You wouldn’t believe how differently I processed these mixes, especially when it came to the drums. For the stoner-punk song: Drum...