Category Archives for "Production"
Every few years musical conspiracy theorists push forth a new iteration of how our A = 440Hz tuning standard was actually meant to be 432Hz instead. I’ve written about this in the past, but every so often a new video comparison shows up that makes it worth at least looking at and listening to. Just […]
Continue readingWe haven’t done an isolated track for a long time, but I thought that this one would be good to get us back in the swing of things. It’s the isolated lead vocal and lead guitar tracks from Derek And The Domino’s (Eric Clapton) classic hit “Layla.” On it you’ll hear snippets of the 6 […]
Continue readingWe all love big wide stereo soundfields, especially the ones that come from the stereo output of an electronic keyboard. If you pan too many elements hard left and hard right however, you end up with “Big Mono,” which is a term that my friend Ed Seay likes to use. That means that you actually […]
Continue readingWe hear it all the time. “Why is music so bad today?” I’m not so sure it is actually. If you’re past 30, your musical tastes are pretty much set in stone, so it gets more difficult to accept new music with each passing year. That doesn’t mean what’s new is better or worse than […]
Continue readingYou just never know what will be hot someday. Artists and labels have been dealing with this for years as a song that’s a throwaway at the time of recording becomes a big unexpected hit later. You can just never tell. No one could have predicted the influence that the Roland TR-808 would have in […]
Continue readingI’m a big fan of one chord songs. You might think that I’m crazy but hear me out. Having a hit with a song revolving around a single chord means that the arrangement and production are so good that the listener overlooks the fact that there’s not much chordal movement in the song. That’s not […]
Continue readingEvery artist, band, songwriter, producer and label has the same question. What makes a song a hit? People who can predict hits have been handsomely paid by the industry for decades, but that quality is elusive and fleeting even for the best of them. Now 2 college researchers have analyzed 60 years of #1 hits […]
Continue readingPreparing for the mix can be as critical as the mix itself, since it allows for a more comfortable and efficient mixing session that minimizes mistakes and hassles. This prep occurs before the first fader is raised but sets the stage for an easier and mistake-free mix by having the files properly labeled and all […]
Continue readingWe’ve all been there. You’re either on stage or in the studio with a drummer that has no idea that his or her cymbals are way louder than the rest of the kit. Everything’s fine until you come to a tom fill or chorus when either the crash (the usual culprit) or the ride cymbal […]
Continue readingThe digital world that we live in presents a big problem for artists, labels, producers, engineers, and session players, and that’s getting paid and receiving credit for the work they’ve created. Even though a song is being streamed from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music or any of the other dozens of streaming platforms doesn’t […]
Continue readingOne of the things I’ve found over the years is that it’s easy to interpret the demands of a client during a mix if you understand what they’re trying to get across. It’s amazing how just a single word can describe a frequency condition if we know what to listen for. That said, it’s sometimes […]
Continue readingGuitarist Hank Marvin has been a huge influence on top British guitar players like Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck, who in turn became huge influencers on generations of guitar players that followed them. While Hank is a great player, one of the things that separates him from everyone else is the unique ambience […]
Continue readingThe essence of mixing is the balance between instruments or mix elements. No matter how good you are at other aspects of the mixing process, if you don’t get the balance right, you don’t have a mix. Here are some questions to ask yourself as well as 6 exercises taken from my Audio Mixing Bootcamp book that […]
Continue readingI often get asked what plugins I regularly use, so a few years ago I decided to share my plugin thoughts with a personal Top 10 list. Here’s my edition for 2018, which isn’t all that different from last year except that it has fewer compressors, since I’ve found myself using less and less compression […]
Continue readingWe’ve all had those situations where we’ve had to record a noisy electric guitar or keyboard, or just found the background noise on a track too much to handle. Sure, sometimes the noise gets covered in the mix, but it’s also cumulative, so 4 or 5 noisy tracks can really muddy up a mix. There […]
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