You are on page 14 of the archive. See the newest posts here.
Ear Fatigue Symptoms When Mixing With Headphones & Monitors
The whole lot of us are guilty... guilty of not taking care of our ears even though it's our livelihood. We listen to our favorite records too loud, we go to live concerts without ear plugs, and we sit in movie theaters till our ears bleed and ear drums rupture and the world ends! Okay, it's not that drastic but it's not far from the […]
Audio Mixing for Dummies
The best way for beginners to start producing acceptable mixes is not to focus on what they should be doing but to simply avoid what they shouldn't be doing. If you can make it past the handful of mixing mistakes most newbies make, you're no longer a newbie. And we can get you there in one easy to read discussion, called the 'Audio Mixing for […]
Headroom in Audio Recording: What, Why, & How
What in the world is headroom in audio? Why should we care? Even if we did care, how the heck do we use it? These are the three most common questions surrounding this mysterious topic. Most people who are trying to record a song aren't interested in perfection, so they just hit the 'record' button and go. Even those who do care about quality find […]
Matching Song Levels in Home Recordings for Even Playback
The number one thing that screams "amateur recording" to even the most casual music listener is popping in a CD or loading up some MP3's and having to crank up the volume twice or even three times as far as commercial music. Then when they forget to turn it back down and destroy their subwoofers and ear drums, guess who they're going to blame? Not […]
Madonna Wanted "Revolutionary" and Got It (Hacker Style)
I'm not hating on Madonna. She knows how to play the media game and stay relevant. But sometimes that leads to faking the funk and it comes back to bite you. Some groups simply won't welcome a pop star to declare herself the poster child for their movement. The Background to Madonna's Hack Madonna had been working on her album and wrapping up the music […]
People Like to Sue the Blue Man Group
Big money making artists are ripe for the pickin' when it comes to idiots wanting an easy pay day. Think about musicians like Michael Jackson, Eminem, Elvis, and on and on. Even the Blue Man Group can't escape the idiocy. Those guys look real malicious, playing around with Nickelodeon Gak and playing PVC pipes like xylophones. Suing the Blue Man Group That hasn't stopped a […]
PMRC's Parental Advisory Sticker Abuse
Once upon a time in 1985, a bunch of wives with nothing to do but crave power created what was known as the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Take a look at this line-up and see if it even remotely feels legit to you: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator & Vice President Al Gore Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker Pam Howar, wife […]
Guitar Center G-Money's Its Employees - Sign It or "Quit"
Guitar Center is at it again. We're all familiar with the corporate screw job in the music industry, but it extends beyond recordings. Guitar Center's upper echelon is known for its less-than-friendly practices towards its employees, and this week only took it to the next level. There's the level of record executives making millions off of their cookie cutter pop stars, which is fine to […]
John Fogerty Got Sued For Sounding Like Himself...
Once upon a time, there was a band called the Creedence Clearwater Revival. They did quite alright for themselves, for a while anyways. Known as CCR, these four fellows put nine songs in the Billboard Top 10, five of which were in the Top 2. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone named them among the top 100 […]
The 17 Sub-Genres of Dubstep
Believe it or not, there's a boatload of sub-genres in Dubstep, which is itself a sub-genre of Drum & Bass. You could go as far as to call these sub-sub-genres, or as I like to call them: Sub-Dubs. It wasn't always this way. I blame the advances in computer tech. Everyone and their mom can now buy dubstep creation software for cheap, watch a few […]
Ever Wanted to Watch Kurt Russell Smash an Antique Martin Guitar?
For the music industry and especially guitar enthusiasts, Christmas 2015 was a smash hit. Man, I'm funny. Twas on that fateful day that many of us witnessed the destruction of antique Martin guitar pulled straight out of their museum. The catch was that none of us would realize what we saw until the Martin Guitar Museum's director Dick Boak released an official statement: "We were […]
DubTurbo Review - The Software Shortcut to Making Dubstep
When dubstep became all the rage, those of us in the music production industry had our minds blown. It was very obvious that this was an extremely technical process full of scalpel precision automation inside of the DAW. Quite frankly, I was more than happy to let others hack away at it. This DubTurbo review covers how one company made a shortcut through it all… […]
The Fifth Beatle: Three Were Close, Clapton Was Moments Away
How different would the world be, not just the music world but the literal culture of the planet, had there been a Fifth Beatle? That is a question that has been fantasized about countless times by countless people. "Who would you add to The Beatles?" and on and on. Little do people know that there were several times in the band's history that a fifth […]
Microphone Pickup Patterns: Understanding & Using Directionality
Imagine this scenario: you have a bluegrass band that has four members and they want to record live with all four members. So you make them stand at the four points of a square facing each other so they can jive off each other's energy. You go for close miking on each band member to isolate each sound the best you can for mixing purposes. […]
Mix Position: How to Setup Your Listening Room
There are three main aspects when it comes to setting up a listening room properly. Each one is critical. If even one of them is off by a remotely significant degree, you'll suffer the effects across the whole setup. Those three are: The position of your speaker monitors in the room The position of your head in the room The acoustic environment of the room […]
How to Get Rid of Sibilance & Plosives in Your Vocals
You're about to learn how to keep those sounds from sneaking into your recording takes and how to deal with the few that still make it in, so save that perfect take! It might still be salvageable by the end of this tutorial… "How come every time I say word that features a 'B' or 'P' syllable, it sounds like I'm hitting a kick drum […]
Dubstep Maker: The Software & Video Tutorial You Need
My brother and I finally set out to making another rap album just for fun between ourselves, and I had always promised myself that I'd become a dubstep maker and make a beat for us to drop some phat rhymes over. It's been at least five years or so since dubstep made a large splash in the states and gained popularity. And it took about […]
The Microphone Proximity Effect: A Great Tool For More Bass
For studio engineers involved in tracking and mixing, the eternal war wages on. We want our final results nice and warm in the low and mid-range of the frequency spectrum, but it's always easy to venture off too far and end up with muddy results that lack clarity and punch. A phrase you'll often hear is "we'll fix it in the mix." No, just no. […]
Guitar Solo Slugs! The Mind of the Lead Guitarist
An oft wondered phenomenon in the music universe is "What the heck is up with lead guitarists' faces during solos?!?" We know all of the magical rituals surrounding solos. For instance, you must hold your breath during a guitar solo, out of respect for the guitarist but also so you aren't cursed for eternity. You can't change the radio station during a solo. You know, […]
Ghostbusters Theme - "I Ain't Afraid of Getting Sued!"
With the new Ghostbusters film announced and on the way, this is as good of a time as any to laugh at one of the classic instances of ridiculousness within the music industry. In 1984, Ray Parker, Jr. topped the charts with his smash hit "Ghostbusters," the theme song from the movie of the same title. It entered the Billboard charts on June 16, 1984 […]
Useful Articles
Popular Posts
Essential Reviews
