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…
![10 Best Home Studio Mics in 2022 [Any Budget]](https://producelikeapro.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10-Best-Home-Studio-Mics-in-2022-Any-Budget-908x606.jpg)
The 15 Best Home Studio Mics in 2023 [Any Budget]
What differentiates a “home studio” mic from a “pro studio” mic is generally the budget of whoever’s purchasing it. Aside from that, the best mics are the best mics! We usually recommend starting out with the highest quality microphone you…
The 10 Best Speakers for Vinyl Record Player in 2023 [Any Budget]
Shopping for the best speakers for a vinyl record player can be a little daunting. With so much variety out there, how do you know which ones are actual quality? What Speakers Do You Need for Your Turntable? As of…
The 20 Best Reverb Plugins in 2023 [Free & Paid]
Reverb is one of the most commonly used effects in mixing. It’s part of a broader category of processors we sometimes call “time-based effects,” which also includes delay. Before digital, reverb was recorded using actual rooms called echo chambers. A…
The 8 Best Wireless Guitar Systems in 2023
A wireless guitar system is a perfect way to clean up and professionalize your rig. If you’re tired of lugging around long cable runs, then it’s time to go wireless. Why Consider Using a Wireless Guitar System The main reason…
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…
The 6 Best DJ Controller Stations for Any Budget [2023 Guide]
A DJ controller is the centerpiece of any mix-master’s club rig. But as more and more music is produced electronically, and in many cases by solo artists, controllers also offer a cool way to perform live — without just pressing…
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…
4 Reasons to Buy a Power Conditioner for Your Home Studio
Surge protectors are a necessity for expensive electronics. They keep our valuable (and sometimes fragile) equipment safe in the event of an electrical surge. Most of the time a cheap power strip offers basic surge protection, but a power conditioner…
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…
The 8 Best Wavetable Synthesizers 2023
Wavetable synthesis is a technique used in certain digital music synthesizers to produce natural, note-like sounds. An existing instrument’s note can be sampled and parsed into a sequence of wavetables. Wavetable synthesizers differ from subtractive, additive, and FM/AM synths. In wavetable…
The Ultimate List of Free Pro Tools Plugins 2023
If you’re looking for third-party plugins to expand your growing collection, look no further than The Ultimate List of Free Pro Tools plugins. Whether you need a Pultec-style EQ or a trigger gate for electronic music stutter effects, this list…
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…
Room EQ Wizard | Free Acoustics Software
Room EQ Wizard (REW) is free room acoustics software for measuring and analyzing room and loudspeaker responses. The analysis helps you optimize your studio by finding the best spot for the speakers and listening position. Shooting the room gives you…
The 16 Best Chord Generator VST [Free and Paid]
A great chord progression is one of many factors that contributes to a quality piece of music. It forms a template, or the backbone, from which the rest of the song can be built. But finding chords that go together…
The Best Cheap DIY Vocal Booth Options
The key to getting better sounding vocal takes at home is a DIY vocal booth. Believe it or not, it doesn't have to be terribly fancy, and it especially doesn't have to cost a lot of money. If your vocal…
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 15 Best Filter Plugin VSTs in 2023 [Free & Paid]
Filter plugins are one of the easiest effects to use that can have a huge impact on how something sounds. As a form of EQ, filters help you shape the frequency content of an instrument. In the simplest terms, they…
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…
Apollo Twin X vs MkII: What’s the Difference?
Universal Audio is one of the most famous names in all of recording. Founded by Bill Putnam in 1958, the company has been at the forefront of technological advances for more than 60 years. If you’re thinking about adding a…
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…
![9 Best Stereo Imaging Plugins Available [FREE & PAID]](https://producelikeapro.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/9-Best-Stereo-Imaging-Plugins-Available-FREE-PAID-1077x606.jpg)
9 Best Stereo Imaging Plugins Available [FREE & PAID]
Stereo imaging is a pivotal part of any mix. It mostly has to do with with the spatial locations of each sound source, both side-to-side and front-to-back. A well-mixed stereo image means listeners can easily identify where sounds are coming…
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…
8 Best FREE Guitar VST Instruments in 2023
Guitar is one of the toughest instruments to sample for a plugin. There’s so much detail and nuance that’s just too easy to lose in translation. Most of the time they end up sounding over-processed and fake—really far from the…
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…
What Is Pitch in Music (& Why Does It Matter in the Studio?)
Understanding what pitch is in music is an invaluable and broad skill transferable to numerous tasks in music production. Not every engineer is a musician themselves, but many are. It’s good to have at least some foundational knowledge of music…
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…
Alesis 3630 Review
The Alesis 3630 compressor is a polarizing piece of equipment. On one hand, it has achieved almost mythic status for its use in the house scene, popularized by groups like Daft Punk. And on the other, it’s just a beginner’s…
The Best Violin Microphones to Add Some Live Strings to Your Mix
The best violin microphone for stage or studio does a solid job of capturing the detail and nuance of the instrument. Violin can be incredibly intimate, so you’ll want to try and retain that delicateness with a microphone that captures…
9 Best Closed Back Studio Headphones in 2023
Closed back studio headphones are an essential piece of equipment to have on hand. They provide the best isolation with minor sacrifice to sound quality. But because they isolate the listener from the room, they’re the ideal option to use…
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,…
Bose S1 Pro Review: The Best Portable PA System?
Designed for solo acts, singer-songwriters, public speakers, and small events, the Bose S1 Pro covers a lot of territory in a compact package. In this Bose S1 Pro review, we’ll check out everything the portable speaker system has to offer.…
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…
Cardioid vs Condenser – What’s the Difference?
When you’re first learning about microphones, all of the various terms can be confusing. After reading this article, you’ll have a better grasp of the different kinds of microphones, and most importantly, why cardioid vs condenser is an invalid comparison!…