ADSR stands for attack, decay, sustain, and release. It’s also known as a sound’s “envelope,” which includes all 4 of these tone-shaping elements. ADSR is an important concept in music production and sound design, especially if you plan on building…
The Loudness Penalty by Streaming Services
Streaming services like Spotify and others normalize the volume of all the material on their platform. This is so you’re not constantly turning the level up or down from song to song. However, tracks you’ve mixed may not play back…
How to Make Acoustic Panels for Your Studio
Unless your home studio was specifically designed for recording and mixing music, it’s probably not an ideal tracking and monitoring environment. Professional studios are carefully planned out to eliminate acoustic issues in many ways that residences are not. But if…
Sonic Epitaphs: Behind the Music of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
By Caitlin Vaughn Carlos If you visit Macclesfield Cemetery just outside of the English town in the county of Cheshire, you will find a small, plain gravestone with the inscription “love will tear us apart” - a bittersweet epitaph to…
5 Compression Mistakes We All Make!
Today, I am sharing 5 Compression Mistakes We All Make! From using the wrong attack or release time, to not truly knowing why we are compressing something, these are things we are all guilty of! All of these tips are…
Logic Pro X Tutorial: Get Mixing in a Powerful DAW
Apple’s Logic Pro X is an industry-standard DAW known for its massive built-in virtual instrument and loop library, as well as its intuitive piano roll and MIDI editing capabilities. Logic’s interface overall is attractive and intuitive, and it’s priced at…
Our Top 10 Rock Singers of ALL TIME!
We are here today with our good friend, Chris Liepe! Chris has his own successful YouTube channel on vocal coaching, ear training, recording tips, and more. He is very talented, and we are so excited to have him here with…
“Show Me, Show Me, Show Me How You Do That:” Finding the Edge of Indie and Pop in the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”
Written by Caitlin Carlos By the time The Cure had found their first significant American hit in 1987, the band had been playing together for over a decade, seemingly used to the ebb and flow of mainstream attention that had…
3 EQ Mistakes We All Make
Today we are sharing 3 common EQ mistakes, and how to avoid them! These might seem quite simple, but they are the fundamentals that I apply to every single mix. Click here to download the cheat sheet so you can…
Fundamental Stereo Miking Techniques
Stereo miking techniques use two microphones at the same time to record one sound source. Each microphone is then panned to the left and to the right to mimic the way our ears perceive sound in the “real world.” This…
The Legendary ODR-1 Overdrive Pedal is NOW A PLUGIN!
If you have been watching any of our videos over the last few years, you may have noticed that we use the Nobels ODR-1 Overdrive Pedal a lot! This is an incredible, boutique-sounding pedal, at an affordable, non-boutique price. And…
Rock and Roll on the Dance Floor: Behind the Music of “Let’s Dance”
Written by Caitlin Carlos From his early beginnings as Davy Jones, to his alien persona of Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie had spent much of the sixties and seventies, inventing and reinventing himself. The decade’s end culminated with the critically acclaimed…
6 Reverb Mistakes We All Make
Today, we are sharing some common reverb mistakes! These are mistakes that we are all guilty of, but once we are aware of them, we can correct them and take all our mixes to the next level! These tips are…
Top Audio Technology Trends of the Past Year
Audio technology trends are slowly but surely changing the way we produce and consume music, film, and other media. From the studio and beyond, these are some of the top trends we’ve observed in the last year. Monitor Calibration Computer-aided…
How to Prepare for Your First Professional Recording Session
This week's featured FAQ Friday question is: I am going to be recording a band in a professional studio, using thousands of dollars of mics and hardware. It will be a live session with all of the musicians playing at…
Best Classic Modulations in ONE PLUGIN? | Waves Kaleidoscopes
Waves has another exciting new plugin that we get to try out today! The Waves Kaleidoscopes plugin is exciting because it could be exactly what I have been asking for the last few years, which is a plugin that has…
6 Free Mixing Tricks (that don’t cost anything!)
In today’s video, we’re going to talk about 6 free mixing tips that won’t cost you anything! As you know, we love reviewing equipment! We love talking about microphones, mic-pres, compressors, plugins and all kinds of other incredible hardware &…
Should you always de-noise your audio recordings?
Today's featured FAQ Friday question is: Should one always de-noise their audio recordings to make it sound professional? Is it worth it or that big of a difference? For those of us that have heard or have access to classic…
The Ultimate Audio Repair Tool? | iZotope RX 8
Today, we get to try out the brand new iZotope RX 8! We have been using the RX 7 since it came out, and are very excited to try out the new features they have added to the latest update!…
Matt Weiss: GRAMMY-Nominated Pop, Hip-Hop, & EDM Engineer
Matt Weiss is a GRAMMY-nominated, platinum recording and mixing engineer who's worked with artists like Akon, Swae Lee, Jeremih, Chris Brown, Sonny Digital, Nicky Minaj, Becky G, Anitta, Rick Ross, Farruko, and Ozuna. Matt grew up in Philadelphia with creative parents:…
Top Secret Snare Mixing Trick?
Today, our good friend Jordan Valeriote is going share his snare mixing trick! This is one of his secret weapons for mixing snare for heavy rock and metal. It is a technique that he discovered that helps him to get…