This is a guest post by Adi Szasz. If you would like to contribute a guest post to Audio Issues, please read the guest post guidelines right here. Regardless of the genre that you’re producing, the low-end is the “resting place” of the production. You can compare it to a heartbeat that gives color to the...
AJ writes grungy indie folk-rock songs in between his job as an arborist in southern Arizona. A laidback millennial hippie with a constant five o’clock scruff, he wears faded work t-shirts, flipflops and a trucker cap, his ginger manbun sticking out the back. Whenever he walks across the street to my studio, he brings a cup...
I hosted a 20-person workshop on mixing a song from start to finish yesterday at a local library. And I got an interesting question about keyboards and guitars. This person wanted to know where I would look in the frequency spectrum to make room in a mix that’s heavy in both rock guitars and keys....
I used to hate sushi. Cold, raw fish wrapped in seaweed and rice. Dipped into a black sauce with spicy green paste. Gross. This was really driving a wedge between me and my wife because she LOVES sushi. I can just see us screaming at each other in front of a couple’s counselor: “You said...
Got this question about mix bus compression from a justifiably confused reader: “You state that you should clear your master bus of any bus compressors before mastering – but..you…advise that we should ‘mix’ into the master bus compressor as early as possible when mixing and this is what I’ve been trying to do. It surely...
If you approach the kitchen with the same fear that you would approach a radioactive gas chamber filled with atomic bombs, I’ve got a treat for you. It’s my new favorite cookbook called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking. It doesn’t teach you how to follow recipes – although there are...
A while back I worked on this atmospheric and sparse folk track for a client. A sparse arrangement means you get to experiment with a lot of space in your mix and some cool effects on the vocals. I always strive to make sure everything can be heard clearly in a mix, but this time it was...
Making your backing vocals stand out without cluttering up the lead vocal is tricky. You want them to add depth and push to the lead melody, but you need to do so without taking the attention away from the powerful lead vocal. Here are 3 useful ways to make your backing vocals blend in better....
You ever feel like your backup vocals get in the way of the lead vocal? You have these beautiful harmonies that work in theory, but in the mix, they just step all over each other in the mix. This week I’ll be spending some time on helping you fix that particular problem. You’ll get tips...
Monday morning, the mix is callin’! Actually, the mix isn’t calling me because I’m relaxing at a ranch in Guadalajara, Mexico with some friends. But that’s no excuse not to help you out with some quick tips you can use in your mixes this week. Whatever the genre, these mixing tips work on every mix,...