Drums and Bass Set Up at Sunset Sound with Marc Martel
These are the 5 most sampled drum beats in hip hop
Top 5 Favourite Plugins with Billy Decker (Sam Hunt, Chris Young)
Two Handed Tapping Style Guitarist: Sarah Longfield
Haas Effect: What It Is and How It’s Used
The Haas effect is a psychoacoustic phenomenon discovered by Dr. Helmut Haas in 1949. Also known as the “precedence effect,” the law states that when one sound is followed by another with a delay time of approximately 40 ms or…
Albums That Changed Music: Love – Forever Changes
How to Use Auto-Tune for Vocal Tuning
The really interesting thing about Antares Auto-Tune is that just about everyone has an idea of what it is. For engineers, it’s a very useful tool and effect; but the fact that it’s recognized by almost everybody, beyond studio pros,…
Pro Tips for Mixing Electronic Music with Mat Zo
Making An 808-Style Kick with Matt Lange
The Audio Mixer: Key Features & Functions
At the most basic level, an audio mixer combines multiple signals and routes them to a common output for recording or amplification through a sound reinforcement system. “Signals” are those sounds captured by microphones or received from electric instruments. Also…
Cherokee Studios Founder: Bruce Robb Interview (Art Garfunkel, The Lemonheads)
How To De-Ess Vocals | Settings for a Pro Mix
Sibilance is what we call the hissing noise made by ‘ess’ and ‘shh’ sounds in the voice. We don’t notice it in conversation, but it can get really harsh on a recorded vocal. A de-esser can take care of excess…
Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and the Birth of Rock ‘n Roll
Ableton vs FL Studio: Which DAW Is Best?
For years running, Ableton and FL Studio have been ‘specialized’ DAWs. They cater mostly to the electronic music production crowd, with workflow, virtual instruments, and effects streamlined for that purpose. Arguing Ableton vs FL Studio is tough, because each has…
Getting Pro-Sounding Mixes FAST
Ultimate GUITAR MIXING On 7 Different Songs
Country Mixing Legend: Billy Decker Interview
How to Get NEVE 1073 Sound in Your Home Studio
Rupert Neve designed the ubiquitous 1073 preamplifier in 1970. For over five decades its sound has been featured on thousands of recordings. A true studio staple, the Neve 1073 produces one of the most sought after sounds ever made. Neve…
Small Room Acoustic Treatment
Small Room Acoustics and appropriate treatment: It has been said that ‘You’ll never get a home studio room to the point where you can do professional mixes like they do in the big studios’. This is false. Today a great…
Bruce Robb’s Cherokee Studio Tour (Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr)
Diatonic vs Chromatic: What Is a Diatonic Scale?
The basic definitions of diatonic vs chromatic are pretty easy to understand, but like most music theory lingo, it sounds scarier than it is! The diatonic and chromatic scales together actually form the foundation for most of western music. Let’s…
Albums That Changed Music: Radiohead – The Bends
Do You Really Need A Subwoofer? KRK Systems S10.4 Powered Studio Subwoofer Review
John Leckie Part 2: Working with Syd Barrett, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd
What You Should Know About Analogue Summing
As I’m sure you’re well aware, the analogue vs. digital debate still rages on despite digital’s advancements over the years. Whether you grew up working on analogue equipment or simply call yourself a “purist,” some folks still consider “old-school” recording…
Mad Muse Studio Tour
Parallel Compression / Free Massive Settings
“Smells Like Teen Spirit”: How Nirvana Revolutionized Rock ‘n Roll for a New Generation
Considerations for Mixing with Headphones vs. Monitors
One of the most common questions starter engineers have is whether they should mix with headphones or studio monitors. The answer tends to be that good results are achievable on either, or both. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do much to clarify.…
Producer & Acme Audio Founder Al Sutton
How to EQ Acoustic Guitar in a Mix
The most important factor when it’s time to EQ acoustic guitar is context. You’ll have to determine its prominence against other instruments and make EQ moves based on that. Acoustic guitar can be the most important rhythm instrument, or it…
![Recording Vocals [Tips from the Pros]](https://producelikeapro.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Recording-Vocals-Tips-from-the-Pros-scaled-905x606.jpg)
Recording Vocals [Tips from the Pros]
If you struggle recording vocals from time to time, it’s nothing to worry about! Every time a new vocalist steps up to the mic, there are a bunch of variables at play which can skew our results from session to…
Do you need Analog Summing?
Get an Analog Sound with this Digital Trick!
How To Change Acoustic Guitar Strings
A Short History of the Vocoder
The vocoder has been around for a very long time… In 1938, Homer Dudley at Bell Labs invented it to reduce the bandwidth of speech transmission for telecommunications. In other words, it was originally intended as a voice codec for audio…
How to Use Audio Pass Filters in Your Mixes
The most frequently used audio pass filters you’ll come across are high- and low-pass filters. High-pass filters (also called “low-cut”) attenuate low-end below the chosen frequency. Literally at the other end of the spectrum are low-pass filters (also called “high-cut”),…
MIDI Basics and What You Should Know About 2.0
Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI is a standard which includes a communications protocol, digital interface, and physical connectors for different electronic instruments, computers, and other audio devices. Perhaps most importantly to musicians, it allows us to play, record, and edit virtual/electronic instruments…
Mixing with Headphones: What You Need to Know
There tend to be varying degrees of thought on mixing with headphones. Some of us are in bedrooms, our parent’s house, married with kids (not wanting to wake them up at 3am!), etc. It’s understandable that in certain cases mixing…
Understanding the Difference Between Gain and Volume
Many of us have wondered, what is the difference between gain vs. volume. Even though the terms sometimes seem to be used interchangeably, there are some fundamental difference. The most important distinction between gain and volume is how, or more…
A Starter’s Guide to Recording Voice-Overs
There are tons of different reasons why you might want to get into recording voice-overs. We sometimes associate VO recording with film or TV post-production, in a process called “automated dialogue replacement” (ADR)—but in the grand scheme of things, that’s…
Simple Ways to Increase Loudness in Your Mix
By definition, loudness is a subjective perception of volume. It varies from person to person based on a variety of physiology and psychological factors. It’s also frequently confused with physical measures of volume, such as sound pressure level represented by…
Step Sequencing: What It Is and How to Use It
Step sequencing is a MIDI-based tool that divides a measure of music into a pre-determined number of note values called “steps.” Each step laid out in the software can then trigger notes and other MIDI information you supply it. Like most…
The Top 5 Most Common Drum Programming Mistakes
Drum samples and plugins have gotten so good that it’s never been a better time for realistic drum programming. As a matter of fact, it’s totally viable for solo artists to release projects with convincing programmed drums. But even with…
Cleaning Up a Muddy Mix
Building a Career in Audio without a Degree
Top 5 Mixing Mistakes No One Talks About
8 Tips for Amazing Low End!
Using MIDI Controllers to Play Virtual Instruments
MIDI controllers are keyboards that let you play virtual instruments and transmit MIDI information to your DAW for recording. Most of the time they connect to your computer via USB for easy integration and very little set-up. They’re about as…
Everything You Should Know About Booking Studio Time
Booking studio time isn’t the most complicated thing in the world, but there are lots of details that both clients and sometimes studios miss the mark on all the time. As an artist, you’ll need to answer several questions for…