Audio Engineering

Hi friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! As you know, vocals are the most important part of the song – especially in modern pop music: A great vocal performance is key for any song to be successful.  Today, we're back…

Hi Friends, I hope you are marvellously well. As musicians, engineers and producers, we are living in an amazing time: There is a lot of amazing software and equipment available, which allows us to make great of music on a budget. I often…

Hey friends, I was honored to sit down with the 'Groovemaster' Jerry Jemmott. Jerry is one of the greatest session bassists of all time and his style has majorly influenced modern bass playing. With credits ranging from BB King, to Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Aretha…

Today, we have my friend Tony Franklin with us, also known as "The Fretless Monster". As the name suggests, Tony's chops on fretless bass are outstanding and his intonation is second to none. He has played along side some of the best…

Hey Friends, in Part 3 of our Ableton Live series our Recording Connection apprentice Alex Valente shows you how to use the Drum Rack and Sampler in Ableton.  Ableton's sound manipulation features are absolutely incredible and intuitive –  for Midi…

If you’re a Metal fan, you’re into shredding high-gain guitar sounds, hard hitting, in-your-face drums and aggressive vocals. While these characteristics are what makes Metal great, working all of them into a great sounding production can present quite a challenge. …

Hey friends, I hope you're marvellously well! While many of you probably know me as a pop/rock producer, what you may not know is that I actually am a huge fan of classical music and Jazz. In my teenage years I…

Hi Friends, I'm thrilled to introduce you to film composer, record producer, songwriter and keyboardist extraordinaire CJ Vanston.  CJ has over 600 records under his belt and is well versed in many different areas of the music industry: From being a renowned…

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I'm a big fan of vocal production and making sure to get the absolute best performance out of your artist. Once you have recorded several great vocal takes, you…

We all work in different ways, some of us like myself build songs from an acoustic and vocal idea. Others like Producer, Artist, Mixer, DJ and Remixer Chris Lake create amazing song ideas by manipulating samples in Ableton. I’ve long…

Recording great sounding drums in a small scale home studio can be a challenge for all of us. But that doesn't mean you can't still get killer drum sounds! With the technology available today, you can make any drum set sound…

The question I get asked more than any other question is ‘How Do I Make Money in the Music Industry?’ Whether you are a Band or an Artist or working behind the scenes as a Producer, Engineer, Mixer or Songwriter,…

Hi Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! We're very blessed to have one of the most sought after bass players in the R&B, Soul and Jazz with us today: Brandino  Kevin Brandon, aka. "Brandino" was Aretha Franklin's bassist for over 20…

Like so many of us growing up, I obsessed with music. My first musical loves were all Production Masterpieces. Queen’s ‘A Night At The Opera’, Supertramp’s ‘Breakfast in America’, ELO’s ‘Out Of The Blue’ and Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’. Our interview…

When it comes to making a great record, vocals are one of the most important things to get right. They are what the listener is drawn to and convey the emotion & message of the song like no other instrument. This…

Phil Allen - Producer, Engineer, Multi Instrumentalist and Grammy Winner for Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’. Hey friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! We'll get to the Vocal Mixing tutorial in a minute, but since Phil Allen is a close…

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Joey Sturgis for a Skype interview and we had an amazing discussion about the modern music industry. Joey is a great guy and a forward thinker who makes the most of all opportunities. I…

How mix drums that were recorded in a small studio – and get them to sound huge! Hi Friends, I regularly work with drums that have been recorded in small rooms, which don't sound as massive as I would like right…

Hi friends, as promised I'm back at Vintage King for the second part of our studio monitor review series. If you've missed our previous review of the high-end studio monitors, you can watch it here. In today's review we are checking out 5…

Hi Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! In today's tutorial I'm showing our Recording Connection apprentice Natalie (and you!) some advanced techniques for using compression to increase the energy of your songs and make your instruments work well together in the mix. Topics discussed…

Hi Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! Today, I'm visiting Dave Way in his home studio "Waystation Studio". Dave is an insanely talented, multi-Grammy winning producer and mixing engineer who has worked with Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Boyz…

Hi Friends, I hope you are doing marvellously well! Today, we have another mixing tutorial coming your way. My good friend and Studio One expert David Mood was kind enough to share this amazing tutorial with us: How to add excitement…

Hi Friends, My good friend Rob Mayzes is currently hosting a great free mixing event, which lets you get direct access to some of the top mixing engineers and educators in the world. This event is held to support Cancer research, and…

Hi Friends, Today, we're moving into the final episode of our free mixing Pop/Rock series: Mastering A Pop/Rock Song. My good friend, mastering engineer and online mentor Ian Shepherd from productionadvice.com teaches you how to give your mix the final polish…

Hi Friends, I hope you're marvellously well! The PLAP team and I had a great time at NAMM recently (Samuel Ellringmann and David Mood flew out from Germany and Austria, yay!). We've checked out plenty of gear and interviewed several manufacturers for…

Hi Friends, I hope you're marvellously well! The PLAP team and I had a great time at NAMM recently and I wanted to share our experience with you: We've checked out plenty of gear and interviewed several manufacturers for you. The insights they shared…

Hey Friends, I hope you're doing marvelously well! A while back I demoed the free music production app "Stagelight" by Open Labs. Open Labs have now expanded their line and made it possible to use Stagelight as a standalone DAW for windows…

Download the 'Stay New' Multitracks for Free Hey Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! Today we're getting into the fourth chapter of our Mixing Pop/Rock series: Mixing Modern Pop Vocals If you haven't yet, please make sure to download the multitracks for…

Hi Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! Today I'm being interviewed by one of our Recording Connection interns Natalie Jansen: We talk about the role of a producer and the skill-set you need to bring to the table, the process of…

Download the 'Stay New' Multitracks for Free Hey Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! Today we're getting into the third chapter of our Mixing Pop/Rock series: Mixing Guitars, Keys, Synths, and Strings If you haven't yet, please make sure to download…

Download the 'Stay New' Multitracks for Free Hey Friends, I hope you’re doing marvelously well! As a lot of you may already know, we’ve recently launched a new series of tutorials for our youtube channel: I’m mixing a complete pop/rock song…

Download The Multitracks of Little Empire - 'Stay New' Hi Friends,  I hope you're doing marvellously well! Today, we're starting a new series of tutorials: I'm going to show you how I mixed the Indie-Pop song "Stay New" by Little Empire from…

Download The Microphone Samples Today I have something special for all of you artists, musicians, producers and engineers out there who are looking to add a new microphone to their arsenal: Something that can become your new go-to microphone and take…

We’ve all heard suit up and show up, what does that really mean?   As Wayne Gretzky you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!    Every day I get asked about how to get work and how to…

Hey Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well! I recently had an amazing day at Tommy Lee’s studio “The Atrium” recording a bonus tutorial for Matt Starr’s course: Producing & Recording Drums. As you would expect from the studio of…

Hey Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well and getting ready for the spoils of the holiday season. Today, I want to share the story of blind producer and musician Mark Dowdy with you. Mark has almost completely lost his sight…

In this video we talk about the basic principals of recording vocals with a condenser microphone. I'm showing with Natalie Jansen an Apprentice from the Recording Connection some techniques and tricks on how to capture a great vocal sound and make the artists…

I was just a young whipper snapper when I first heard Motörhead! Lemmy wasn’t new to me, he was the Bassplayer in another favourite Band of mine, the Space Rockers, Hawkwind and he was famous for singing their biggest ever…

Today I want to share something, that I´ve learned over many years of being a music producer. I believe this concept is absolutely crucial to your creative process, whether you´re a producer working with artists or a band writing new…