Articles to help the independent musician to learn to effectively use today’s recording software and hardware to create their music.
Moises launches AI Voice Studio, a brand new model for artist-first voice modeling Vocalists can now license their own voices and sell their models to producers and content creators DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) like ProTools, Logic, and FL Studio have massively increased accessibility to music making. MIDI instruments, sample libraries, and plug-ins unlocked the sounds […]
The Difference Between Compression and Limiting Introduction Compression and limiting are two frequently used audio processing techniques that audio engineers use in music production, mixing, and mastering. While they might seem similar, they serve different purposes and have distinct characteristics. In this blog post, we will explore the differences between compression and limiting and when […]
Making a Scene Takes a Look at the new Studio One 5.5 Update Even with the pending acquisition of Presonus by Fender Musical Instruments, the team at Presonus is still rolling out updates to their flagship DAW “Studio One”. The new 5.5 update adds some powerful new features to their “Project Page” that will making […]
Introduction Before we get started let me explain some of the fundamental types of engineers in a recording studio. The first “type” of engineer you will encounter in a recording session is the “Tracking” engineer. This the guy who chooses and places the microphones in the studio. He chooses the preamps and sets the levels […]
Beginners Guide To Mastering Part 2 Effectively using your Mid/Side EQ: To effectively take advantage of your mid/side EQ, you are going to want to make sure you have some way to isolate the mid and side content for monitoring. Most Mid/Side (henceforth referred to as M/S since I am tired of typing that out […]
The Beginners Guide to Mastering – Part 1 Let’s be real. The vast majority of people who are artists, producers, or engineers have no idea what mastering really is, yet more often than not have their own false preconceptions. While it may be fine if you do not know what mastering is early in your […]
Making a Scene presents “The 3 Hats of an Audio Engineer” Whether you are starting your own home studio, or you are looking for a studio to record your next project, the one thing you should understand is there is three distinct disciplines for the Audio Engineer. Each of them requires a very specific skill […]
Making a Scene Presents How Compressors Work The best way to learn how to use a compressor is to start by learning how they work. This article is setup to bring you step by step through how a compressor works. I have included some video tutorials along the way that I found to help you […]
Common advice is to “gain stage” your tracks by calibrating them to -18. People often leave out whether they mean -18 dBFS or -18 dBVU, both of which would yield vastly different levels depending on the source material. But why choose a calibration point to begin with? Here’s Matthew Weiss from The Pro Audio Files describing […]
Reference tracks can be a valuable tool for keeping an objective viewpoint while mixing. When you listen to a reference track, you get a chance to reset your ears. If you’ve been listening to your mix for hours, your ears are getting used to the frequencies you’re hearing. Problem areas or frequency imbalances may not jump out […]
Mixing with headphones can be a challenge, and for a long time was generally accepted as something that should only be done if no other option were available. You had to contend with a skewed stereo perception, a skewed depth perception with reverbs, and a skewed frequency spectrum due to the natural low end rolloff […]
I see a lot of questions on various discussion groups asking how to best mic specific instruments. Many of the answers will be a mixed bag of various techniques, all of which are valid and should be absorbed into your bag of tricks. But they are all quite different from one another, and will yield […]
Many audio textbooks, audio schools, and audio engineers will advise you that it’s always best to attenuate rather than gain an EQ control. This has traditionally been considered best practice in the industry for two main reasons. With most EQs, especially analog EQs, adding gain to a band causes an audible phase shift in the […]
This is a question that comes up time and again in audio groups. “How hot should my final mix down be before sending off to mastering?” It depends on the format you’re mixing on. If you’re using analog tape, this is an important question to think about. Analog formats have limited headroom, and analog equipment […]
The above video is a quick demonstration of how your signal-to-noise ratio impacts the level of noise your analog modeled plugins will deliver. You may have seen this video floating around Facebook, which is where it was exclusively hosted until now. I thought it was high time to add it to the blog to make […]
HISTORY In the Early days of recording, music was cut directly to a disk from a single microphone. In the studio, the art of mixing fell to the music “Conductor” whose job it was to move the musicians who were recording either closer or further back from the microphone. By the 1930’s the radio broadcasting […]
Top 5 IK Multimedia Plugins Brandon Shire We all have our favorites, and in this post I want to share my top 5 from IK Multimedia! Let’s countdown, starting from number 5. MASTER EQ 432 5. Master EQ 432 The right amount of the right eq on the master bus can really bring your mix […]
Top 5 Waves Plugins! Brandon Shire We all have our favorites, and in this post I want to share my top 5 from Waves Audio! Let’s countdown, starting from number 5. MY DEFAULT HLS SETTINGS 5. Kramer HLS Channel This thing is just meaty. I use it as a low end enhancer more than anything, […]
Amp sims, like their real world counterparts, are non-linear processes. As you increase the input level, they saturate and distort more. As you decrease the input signal, they clean up more. It’s important to remember this characteristic, as you can drastically change the response of the amp sim by adjusting the input level. Let’s start […]
A four part series on creating realistic strings with MIDI ..
MELDAPRODUCTION MMULTIANALYZER NOISE FLOOR ANALYSIS WITH EXPANDER ENGAGED In the first picture, you’ll see 4 colored bands on the analyzer. The red band is the noise floor of my interface, and it’s reading down around -110dbfs. The dark orange band at the very bottom is where the expander is pushing that noise floor to, down […]
Gain Staging: What to know, & why you shouldn’t stress too much about it! By Brandon S Hire Noise Floor (This is a script to a video that will be included in an upcoming series on post production. I decided to make the script its own post because of the amount of confusion there is […]
3 Reasons Why Pre-Production Is Essential Steve Perrino of Compass Audio Most musicians agree that there is a huge difference between your live show and your recordings. There is a lot of energy in a live performance due to volume and visuals, but there are certain things that you need to do in a recording […]
Understanding Drum Sample Libraries From bedroom producers, to the top brass mixing engineers with multiple grammies, there are a lot of people who use drum samples in their mixes. Joey Sturgis is famous for using Kick 10 from Steven Slate Drums in many of his productions (although now Joey Sturgis has his own sample library […]
Drum triggers. What they are, and how they work. A drum trigger is a microphone. Nothing more. It picks up the sound of the drum and sends the audio to the source. The source usually is an audio to midi converter either in the box or outside of the box, but that doesn’t have to […]
Plugin manufacturers are on a never ending quest to develop the holy grail of plugins…the perfect digital model of a classic analog piece that everyone in the industry embraces as the most accurate, bar none. This is admirable in that it pushes the technology further and further, and now we have top tier mix engineers […]
Back in the day, we had hardware. Since then, we started using software. Over the years, we’ve become better and better at developing this software so that it fools the trained ear into thinking it’s hardware. We make it move, overload, have noise, and try to recreate the exact sonic imprint of the hardware. We’ve […]
EQ Made Easy One of the most mis-understood and mis-used effect in recording and mixing has to be Equalization. Using EQ in recording and mixing is more than a simple Treble/Bass adjustment. If not used properly you can easily take a really good recording and turn it into sonic mush in just a few knob […]
The home recording revolution that started in the 80’s with inexpensive 8 and 16 track recorders has evolved into an industry of recording software, hardware modeling and audio interfaces. The tools that are available to the home recording studio today would be the envy of professional studios of only 20 years ago. The problem is […]
Studio Quick Tip! So you have a studio and you want to record a live band complete with Drums, Guitar and Bass. One of the problems you will encounter is finding ways to create shielding between the instruments. When it comes to drums, besides a dedicated drum booth, most commercial drum shields work great. But […]
