Category Archives for "Production"
- in Production by Bobby Owsinski
Another Roland Sound Is Big In Hip Hop, But It’s Not From An 808
You 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 […]
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The Genius Of One-Chord Hits
I’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 […]
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Here’s What Makes A Song A Hit
Every 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 […]
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The Fix It Before You Mix It Checklist
Preparing 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 […]
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4 Ways To Tame Out-Of-Control Cymbal Volume
We’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 […]
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Download VEVA Sound’s Free SCP Studio Collect Metadata Tracking Plugin
The 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 […]
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A One Word Description For Each Frequency Band
One 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 […]
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The Hank Marvin Multi-Head Echo Trick
Guitarist 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 […]
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6 Exercises To Help You Visualize Your Mix
The 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 […]
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My Top 10 Go-To Plugins – 2018 Edition
I 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 […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Klevgrand Brusfri Noise Reducer Plugin
We’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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Will Live Looping Become The New Rage In Performing?
For the longest time musicians, artists, engineers and producers were used to slaving over songs for long periods of time in the studio. Creation took time, and it went from the more or less 3 hour sessions of the 50s and 60s to the months and even years of the 1990s and 2000s. Thankfully, the […]
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When It Comes To Panning, Respect The Big 3
One of the most overlooked or taken for granted elements in mixing is panorama, or the act of placing a sound element in the soundfield. To understand panorama we must first understand that the stereo sound system (which is two separate audio channels, each with its own speaker) represents sound spatially. Panning lets us select […]
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8 Tips For Getting A Singer’s Best Vocal Performance
One of the hardest things to record can be a vocalist who is not comfortable with the studio conditions. Even a seasoned pro sometimes can’t do his or her best unless the conditions are just right. Consider some of these suggestions culled from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook before and during a […]
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Engineer Wyn Davis Talks Hard Rock Basic Tracking Techniques
Best known for his work the hard rock bands Dio, Dokken, Foreigner, Bad Company and Great White, engineer Wyn Davis style in that genre is as unmistakable as it is masterful. From his Total Access Recording studio in Redondo Beach, California, Wyn’s work typifies old-school engineering coupled with the best of modern techniques. Here’s an excerpt […]
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