5 TIPS FOR MIXING BACKGROUND VOCALS
Here are 5 things to think about when mixing background vocals and who knows, maybe they can help improve and simplify your approach. 1. Crank the Pan Pots Background Vocals – Pan PotThe one thing that I think is easy to do as a new engineer is to try and find the perfect spot for […]
HOW TO FIX A MUDDY MIX
The term ‘muddy’ is a very common word when it comes to audio. For those of you who aren’t aware of the term or perhaps don’t fully understand it, a definition is as follows. Mud typically refers to the frequency range of around 200-500Hz. However, it can also refer to a mix that sounds bloated, […]
TRACKS THAT PAN OUT
An ocean of motion. Panning, the placement of a sound source in the left/right sound field, was an audio effect that first appeared in the 1960s when two-channel stereo made its debut, supplanting single-channel mono. In those days of analog recording, the engineer (often with help from assistants and sometimes even the artists themselves) would […]
MUSICAL KEY CHARACTERISTICS & EMOTIONS
Musical key characteristics are something that are never talked about for some odd reason. It’s not like professional songwriters choose a random key and slap some random chord changes in there and magically end up with the perfect feeling that matches the lyrics. It’s not some hidden secret. I can almost guarantee you most songwriters […]
MIX TRANSLATION – A FEW TIPS FROM JST
As audio professionals, it’s important that we keep our work sounding great not just in our own rooms, but in all the rooms and spaces your mix might be heard. This challenge is no small task – radio and streaming can happen on tons of different devices, meaning you’ve got to account for a boombox […]
MIXING LOW END: 10 PRO TIPS
Nothing says “amateur mix” quite like lousy low end. In many ways, a mix without a decent low-end can be difficult to listen to. Think about how much information low frequencies give you. They can give you hints about genre and style, and add emotion and depth as the foundation upon which the melody and […]
REVERB: COMPONENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS
Each reverb is built from distinguishable components: the direct signal, first reflection, early reflections and the reverb tail. These all carry different information that we then perceive. We want to show you why reverb isn’t just a pretty effect but rather, it is something crucial to our perception. As well, we will explain what you […]
4 TIPS FOR ACHIEVING A WONDERFULLY WARM MIX
Possibly one of the most sought-after sounds in music, a warm mix is everything to some people: beautiful, powerful low-end coupled with full mids and gentle highs. A warm mix sounds powerful without being abrasive. So how do we go about achieving a warm mix? Check out these four tips below and see if you […]
HOW TO WRITE KILLER SONG HOOKS
Great song hooks break boundaries surrounding genre, generational listening preferences, and longevity. I wasn’t even alive during the “Summer of ’69,” and was too young to question why “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” but those song hooks wrote the film score to my childhood movie. As a songwriter, I know that a hook is a […]
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO GUITAR DISTORTION
Call it what you will – overdrive, fuzz, growl, dirt, snot (yes, this really is a term) – the magnificent noise of electric guitar signals being intentionally distorted through amplifiers has been a fact of life since at least the 1940s. Overdriven/distorted guitars react VERY differently when played – the increase of sustain and addition […]