WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO MAKE MUSIC FOR YOURSELF ABOVE ALL
There is truly so much noise in the music industry today, and it’s hard not to drown in the sea of competition. There are so many insanely talented and hardworking artists out there trying to “make it” . Instead many artists are trying to navigate an undefinable path and follow cookie-cutter templates of success. How […]
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN A SONG IS FINISHED?
Leonardo da Vinci supposedly said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” Is this really true? As a music producer, do you ever really finish songs, or do you simply stop making changes and move on to something new? In any case, finishing songs can be extremely challenging. Sometimes, it feels like you can keep making […]
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 […]