Two of the most common effects guitarists use are overdrive and distortion. No matter how long you’ve been playing, though, it can’t hurt to have a better understanding of overdrive vs distortion, how they’re similar, and how they’re different. And…
What Is RMS and How Does It Differ from True Peak?
What is RMS? What’s true peak? What the heck is LUFS? All of these are totally reasonable questions in the weird world of audio! There are lots of different ways we measure loudness, and it can be tough to pin…
A Post-Punk Legend: Kirk Brandon of Spear Of Destiny Interview
Today, we are sharing our interview with the British ambassador to post-punk, Kirk Brandon. From recording at Wessex Sound Studios to touring around the UK and Europe with The Clash, Kirk's bands, Theatre of Hate and Spear Of Destiny became…
Akai MPK Mini Mk3 MIDI Controller Review
The Akai MPK Mini Mk3 is one of the most popular choices for a quality, travel-size MIDI controller. There’s an abundance of options available in the 25-key category, but Akai remains a standout. Akai Continues to Build on Its Legacy…
What Is a True Peak Limiter?
True peak levels differ from the volume we read in our DAW. In digital audio, we understand the absolute ceiling to be 0dBFS (decibels relative to full scale), and any signal above that can cause clipping. We can push a…
Lancaster Audio Impulse Responses Review
In recent years, software giant Waves called Lancaster Audio impulse responses the “world’s best.” Today, we’re taking a closer look at these critically acclaimed IRs. What is an impulse response (IR)? Speaker emulation is one of the most crucial, and…
Gifts for Music Producers | Practical Ideas
We’re out of the holiday season for now, but that doesn’t meant the next one isn’t right around the corner. These gifts for music producers are sure to satisfy the hard-to-buy-for creators in your life. Useful Gifts for Music Producers…
JBL 305P MkII Review | Entry-Level Monitors
Entry-level monitors like the JBL 305P MkII combine affordability and sound quality. 5″ speakers like these are the most popular size for home studios—they have more than enough volume and plenty of low-end extension. We’ll run down the specs in…
Scale Degrees: What Are They and Why Do They Matter in the Studio
Engineers and producers can always benefit from understanding the basics of music theory. Knowing enough of the “language of music” to get by is helpful for communicating effectively with session musicians, for example. Having the ear is most important, but…
5 Quick Saturation Mixing Tricks
https://youtu.be/97e-0TxuOKIVideo can't be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: 5 Quick Saturation Mixing Tricks - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro (https://youtu.be/97e-0TxuOKI) Hello Lovely people! We have had such a wonderful response to the 5 Quick mixing tips series! Thank you…
The 5 Best Shotgun Microphones for Your Home Studio
The shotgun mic is a film/TV industry staple for capturing extremely directional audio with little ambient noise. We’ll cover a few of the top shotgun microphones around if you’re looking to pick one up for your personal collection. What Is…
Arturia Pigments 3 Review: Is It Worth It?
For over two decades, Arturia has been at the forefront of virtual instruments. Best known for their software recreations of classic hardware synthesizers, Pigments is Arturia’s first original soft synth. It debuted as recently as 2018, and has seen two…
What Is a DSP and What Does It Do for Music?
DSP is a concept that gets thrown around a lot in audio, so it’s important to understand just how integral it is to the modern music production process. What Is a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Firstly, DSP can stand for…
Fletcher-Munson Curve Explained: Using Equal-Loudness Contour to Mix
Human hearing is a weird and wonderful thing. The branch of psychophysics concerned with sound perception is psychoacoustics, and it explains a lot about why we hear the way we do. As mix engineers we need to become familiar with…
Top 10 Recording Tips
You will find many articles on the internet with tips and tricks for mixing and making a song sound it's best. The best way to make sure the mix, and ultimately the final product sounds the best it can is…
How to Write a Catchy Chorus | Essential Ingredients
There’s a lot of pressure on songwriters when it comes to creating the grand hook. Understanding how to write a chorus that listeners can sing along and identify with is a huge undertaking. The chorus is the most important part…
Exploring The Brooklyn Recording Paradise Studio: Studio Tour
We love a good studio tour especially when we get to make them when on visits to other cities! In October, we visited many studios from The Bunker Studio to the legendary Powerstation BerkleeNYC and, today, we share our time…
Ableton Push 2 Review: An All-in-One MIDI Controller
Ableton launched the Push controller in collaboration with AKAI back in 2013. Designed to function inside Ableton Live software, it was an innovative device meant to be treated like an instrument rather than an average MIDI controller. The company soon…
Recording to Mixing – ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles
We recently saw the Tascam Model 24 in action with a recording performed by Unsung, a talented group of musicians with fantastic energy! In this recording session, the band decided to take on the classic Beatles tune “Come Together,” and…
Plugin Boutique Scaler 2 Review
Scaler 2 is one of many compositional aids and chord generating plugins currently available. It makes sense; software helps with everything else related to recording music—why not give us a push at the actual songwriting stage? We’ll see how Plugin…
Overloud Voice Review: The Ultimate One-Stop Vocal Production Plugin?
Ever wondered how the world’s top engineers craft award-winning vocals? Everyone has their own approach and techniques, but many of the same kinds of effects go into vocal chains on each and every mix, across genres and from mixer to…
Strymon Iridium Review | Portable Tone On the Go
Strymon has been making top-quality pedals in California since 2009. Many guitarists know them by their acclaimed reverb and delay units—the Big Sky and Time Line, respectively—which effectively raised the bar for time-based effect pedals. Last year, Strymon entered the…
Satire or Reality?: The Beastie Boy’s “Fight For Your Right”
Written by Kieran Vaughn Satirical, Controversial and a live show favorite, the Beastie Boys “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party” took 1986 by storm, bridging the color line of the hip-hop and rock communities and confusing fans and…
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is nothing short of a modern classic. The thing is a monster, equally recognized by its imposing looks and its premium sound. For engineers who need unrivaled dynamic control, the Shadow Hills gets the job…
Rode NT1 Review
Rode NT1 vs. NT1-A Although similar in name and physical appearance, the NT1 and equally popular NT1-A have subtle individual characteristics. The original NT1 first came out in 1997. Following the NT1-A’s success, Rode redesigned it from the ground up,…
McDSP APB 16 Review: The Ultimate Analog Processing Box?
A few years ago, the McDSP APB was one of the most hyped new products to debut at the NAMM show. A few years later and not much has changed, as founder Colin McDowell and his team at McDSP created…
Recording Heavy Metal LIVE with Kristian Kohle
Are you ready to take your metal recording skills to the next level? Look no further than the Kohle Audio Kult and their Live Recording Metal Masterclass. Led by the one and only Kristian Kohle, (Powerwolf, Eskimo, and Callboy), this…
EVE AUDIO introduces new studio monitor SC2070
The SC2070 sets new standards in detailed reproduction of high and midrange frequencies and ensures an extremely balanced system response as well as superior precision across the entire frequency range BERLIN, GERMANY — EVE Audio is proud to announce the…
Celemony Melodyne 5 Review
For over 20 years, Melodyne has been the not-so-secret weapon behind pristine vocal and instrumental performances. Celemony’s founder, Peter Neubäcker, started developing the Melodyne concept in 1997. Three years later he began the company, and in 2001, industry-changing software was…
How To Get Your Music On Spotify in 2023
Understanding how to get your music on Spotify is essential knowledge in 2023, when streaming dominates music sales. As of 2020, streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and others accounted for over 80% of the total revenue generated by…
ASCAP vs. BMI vs. SESAC: All About PROs
If you’re a performing artist you know the value of royalties. Regardless of the size of the check, they show up every quarter like clockwork. But they don’t just appear out of nowhere; those royalty payments are the work of…
The Best DJ Headphones in 2023 (Our Top Picks for Any Budget)
The best DJ headphones aren’t the same as the best studio headphones. We’ll discover what sets them apart and how to pick the right set for you! Why Having a Quality Pair of Headphones for DJing Is a Must Nearly…
Spotify Playlist Placement | Have Your Music Heard
Digital streaming is the #1 way people consume music. Streams equated to almost 85% of US album sales in 2019, which means pushing physical copies is a thing of the past for most artists. Beyond just uploading to the platform,…
Acoustic Loop1 Looper Pedal Review: Easy to Use and Made to Play
A good looper pedal serves a variety of purposes for guitar players. They can be excellent practice and writing tools, letting you improvise over chord progressions or explore song arrangements without having to set up to record. Some solo musicians…
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The Best Distortion Pedals for Live & Studio Playing [2023 Guide]
A distortion pedal is an indispensable effect for every guitar player — even those who don’t necessarily play heavy music. At light settings, they can give your tone a bit of crunch and compression. At more extreme settings, you can…
Mix Heavy Rock Drums like a Pro: Techniques and Secrets from Marc Daniel Nelson
Are you a fan of heavy rock music and looking to improve your mixing skills? Look no further! Today, we're going to take a deep dive into mixing heavy rock drums with Marc Daniel Nelson, a professional mixer and producer.…
Neve Summing Review | Inside UA’s LUNA
Neve summing is an optional extension that integrates seamlessly into Universal Audio’s proprietary recording system/DAW, LUNA. The emulation intends to provide the width and dimension of analog summing for individual channels or whole mixes; currently, it’s the only authentic emulation…
McDSP HD vs. Native Plugins: Everything You Need to Know
The McDSP plugin collection includes two versions of each effect. We’ll shed light on McDSP HD vs Native plugins so you know what’s right for your system. What Is a DSP Plugin? DSP stands for digital signal processing, or digital…
The 9 Best Acoustic Guitar Pickups for Any Playing Style in 2023
Acoustic guitars benefit from pickups when you need to amplify the signal in live settings. Having a microphone on stage fixes the player to one spot, and the sound might suffer from bleed or being off-axis should the guitarist move…
Understanding Texture in Music (And How to Utilize It in a Mix)
When we hear the word “texture,” we tend to picture visual or tactile mediums. Paintings and photographs can vividly capture a sense of texture, as can sculptures, architecture, and things naturally occurring in nature. But what about texture in music?…
Recording and Mixing Hip Hop Vocals – Anthony Cruz (Meek Mill’s Audio Engineer)
We love giving you all content from multiple genres of music production and today we have a video on Recording and Mixing Hip Hop Vocals with Anthony Cruz, a renowned producer who has worked with Meek Mill, Ricky Martin, Ne-Yo,…
Using Polyrhythms to Create More Interesting Mixes
Introducing polyrhythm is one way to make your productions more interesting. It doesn’t have to be overly complex to stand out and take your music to the next level! Polyrhythm vs. Polymeter: What’s the Difference? Both share a prefix, but…
“Losing My Religion” – Lyrically Reflective, Tediously Recorded, and (Sort-Of) Created by Accident
Written by Kieran Vaughn Without hearing the actual song, most people in the southern sections of the United States could read the title of R.E.M.'s hit track and probably guess, with good accuracy, what it’s about. After all, the phrase…
Understanding the Shepard Tone Effect and How It Creates Tension
Some of the effects we employ in sound design, mixing, and even songwriting take advantage of our perception of sound—a branch of science known as psychoacoustics. The Shepard tone is a prominent example of how our ears can trick us!…
How to Record Drums at Home in 5 Easy Steps
Usually the biggest challenge recording at home is the drum kit. There are so many straightforward ways to capture other instruments that sound great—but there isn’t much flexibility with acoustic drums. First you need the space, which is a challenge…
Mixing Multiple Vocals to Sit Properly in the Mix – Joe Carrell
Are you tired of struggling to achieve the perfect balance and clarity in your multi-vocal recordings? Look no further, because Produce Like A Pro is excited to introduce our newest mentor, Joe Carrell. With over 20 years of experience in…
Moog Mother 32 Review: The Last Modular Synth You’ll Ever Need
The Moog Mother 32 is a semi-modular desktop synthesizer. It’s a great introductory synth for anyone looking to get into modular territory, though it performs just as well as a unique standalone instrument for beginners or veterans alike. The Moog…
What Is Metadata and Why Does It Matter?
Metadata is an important element of music distribution. You’ve probably heard the term tossed about before, though the meaning of it isn’t always clear. What Is Metadata? At first glance, metadata seems like an overly technical term. It’s basically data…
Oeksound Spiff Review: A New Generation of Transient Shaper
The self-proclaimed “tech geeks” at Helsinki’s Oeksound made waves in 2016 with their now-renowned Soothe plugin. It was met with much acclaim even then, before it solidified its place in production with version 2, and it was clear that Oeksound…
Soundtoys Little AlterBoy Review: The Best Pitch Shifter VST?
Little AlterBoy by Soundtoys is a “monophonic voice manipulator” for vocal pitch/formant shifting, hard-tune effects, and more. Like the rest of the Soundtoys plugin library, it offers a distinct and intuitive layout that’s as powerful as it is easy to…