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Mastering in the Box – Tutorial & Plugins
If you plan to put the final polish on your mixes at home, you’ll need to understand mastering in the box. Some techniques involve things like additional EQ, compression, M/S processing, and limiting to finalize a song before release. Generally…
Mixing Singles to Sound Like the Rest of the Album? | FAQ Friday
Song Mastering: Preparing Your Tracks to Master
Song mastering is the final step in getting your tracks ready to release. What a mastering engineer does differently than a mixer is make final, sometimes very subtle, tweaks to make something sound polished and “commercial.” You can learn how…
Guidelines on How to EQ 14 Common Instruments
Understanding how to EQ–probably the most used tool available to engineers–is essential. Sometimes it’s as simple as high-passing an instrument, while other cases require more precision. Either way, EQ is fundamental in making mix elements sound more or less defined,…
Are these the Best Value Small Diaphragm Mics? (Only $149!)
Plate Reverb Plugins vs. the Real Thing
On one side is the real EMT 140 plate reverb unit: a 600-pound, 8′ x 4′ behemoth introduced in 1957 as one of the first kinds of artificial reverb. On the other is a wide variety of plate reverb plugins…
Do you gain stage tracks before mixing? | FAQ Friday
Which Audio Editor and Mixer (DAW) is Right for Me?
An audio editor and mixer, simply called a DAW, is the software used to record, edit, mix, and master music, podcasts, post production projects, and anything else audio-related. The truth is, there’s no “best” DAW—only the one that you know…
How to Master a Song at Home with These Simple Steps
Mastering is the last step in preparing a song or album for release. The overall sonic aesthetic should be well established by the time a song reaches mastering. What you or a dedicated mastering engineer can do is make final,…
Some of the Best Drum VSTs for Programmed Drums
Drum VSTs are one of the quickest and easiest means to lock down your song’s backbone. As a matter of fact, the software has gotten so good that it isn’t uncommon for solo artists to release finished albums with entirely…
The DIY Vocal Booth for Home Studios
One factor in getting better sounding vocal takes at home is a DIY vocal booth. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it especially doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. If your vocal recordings are suffering but you’re…
Dealing with Distractions While Mixing | FAQ Friday
Copyright in Music: Sample Clearance vs. Fair Use
Like any artist, songwriters have a tendency to borrow from their influences. Especially in hip hop and related genres, producers will sample music from another artist to flip it and make it their own. The issue with this, though, is…
How to Mix Vocals to a 2-Track Instrumental
Mixing vocals to a 2-track instrumental is something every engineer will encounter at some point. It’s especially common in hip hop/pop, where artists routinely download pre-mixed instrumentals online and bring them to a studio to record. The challenge with learning…
Compression Techniques: The Multiband Compressor
Learning to use a compressor is one of the most important mixing skills you can develop. Compression is all over mixes, even becoming the sound we associate with loud, modern pop mixing. If there’s anything you want to really understand, it’s…