Have you ever wondered why your mixes never sound as tight as the references you use? You’re doing all the EQ, compression, and saturation, then sweeten the mix with reverb and delay buy yet… Something is missing. A couple of years ago, I discovered a very simple technique that instantly produced tighter mixes. Since then,...
Groovy drums are crucial to pretty much any song that has drums in it. While authentic groovy drumming only can be achieved by a real groovy drummer, there are certain things you can do in the mixing process to help shake things up a bit. Especially for programmed drums and samples, these techniques can be...
We’ve all been there. You’ve set up your own home studio and recorded what you thought was a great vocal take. But when you listen back later, you find the vocals sound “boxy.” Why might this happen – and how can you use multiband compression to fix it? First, let me define what I mean...
Your DAW is your faithful companion throughout your everyday audio adventures. Many engineers will elect one piece of software and use it for all production tasks they need to perform. Using only one DAW has one big advantage – you will get blazing fast if you’re always operating the same piece of software. In this...
The way you approach a music production session can drastically change the end result of the song. Depending on what kind of sound you want, you can approach it with one of two mindsets. You can produce a track like a songwriter. Or you can produce a track like a producer. Let me talk about...
Where do you even begin?! Seriously, how do you decide what to start with and what are the steps for songwriting? This question is definitely open-ended, but today I’ll break down common techniques I use for approaching a new song. Common Techniques It’s obvious you write a melody, then harmony, and then everything else. Also,...
Being innovative in music might seem like a difficult task. Trends are hard to predict, and understanding what will work and what won’t is something simply no one can do for sure. Great artists and innovators have been rejected for years for not being good enough or trendy enough, before making a major breakthrough and...
When I first got into music production, I had the bad habit of starting a new project before finishing the one that I was working on. The result? Tons of unfinished tracks and nothing to show. I think we all can agree that starting a new track is a lot easier than crossing the finish...
Mastering is the final step in making your song sound professional. It increases the loudness, widens the sonic properties of the track, and highlights the beautiful sounds in your mix. Basically, it’s a very important stage. So can you trust automated mastering? Will it give you pro-level results? In this post, I’m going to compare...
Landing a lucrative job as a successful musician is by no means impossible, but it does take an incredible amount of time, dedication, and a good bit of knowing the right people. But don’t think that’s the only way into a satisfying career in the music industry. There are tons of jobs available for music...