I was driving around town the other day. Going a route I’ve gone a thousand times before. But this time I happened to notice this house that I’d never seen before. Even though I drive past that house all the time I was pretty sure I was seeing it for the first time. Hearing New...
A reader writes in with a problem on recording vocals: “I don’t have money to buy several mics and it’s a bit of a problem I face for recording different vocalist. Cause each of them sounds different in the same mic.” Well I guess you just gotta go buy a new microphone every time you...
There’s an inverse relationship between how many instruments you put in your mix and how much space you can give them in the EQ spectrum. The bigger the arrangement, the smaller the space each instrument has in your mix. A power-punk quartet with drums, bass, two guitars and loud vocals a la Offspring? Not much...
I love this article Graham Cochrane wrote over at The Recording Revolution about Getting more Width and Separation the Backwards Way. I loved it because it reminded me of an interview with a top mixing engineer. I can’t remember his name but I believe it was from one of Howard Massey’s Behind the Glass books....
Got a great question from a reader the other day: “Is it okay to practice or just improvise mixes over and over again on the same project? “ First of all, it’s not up to me to judge whether it’s ok to practice. Of course it’s good to practice your skills. But the better thing...
Translation. It’s one of those things that are so important for your mix. It doesn’t really matter if you have the best equipment in the world. If your mixes sound bad on the bad systems, then your high-end monitors mean nothing. Well, here are three things you can do to make sure your mix sounds...
One common way to mix is to start soloing the drums, mixing them until they sound right. Then you hit the solo button on the bass and start fitting it into the drum track. You’ll keep soloing each track on top of each other until everything is solo’d together, at which point you stop soloing...
Midrange is a lot like women. Can’t live with them. Can’t live without them. Now that I’ve made my fiancé really mad (she subscribes to my emails….sorry sweetie!) I’ll tell you what I mean. Midrange is such a necessary part of any good mix, but it’s sometimes the hardest part to get right. You’re gonna...
Here’s another really easy tip about compression. This one’s also about contrast but when it relates to the volume of the mix, not the volume of your speakers. A great mix is a dynamic mix that takes you on a ride. The quiet parts are quiet while still being heard whereas the louder parts are...
Here’s a tip I picked up from who knows where but it’s a great one. It’s about using contrast to make your vocal sounds translate really well. Mix translation, or making sure your mix sounds the same on any system, is a very important part of the whole mixing process. Making your mix sound great...