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Bass Traps: The Complete Guide for Taming Unruly Low-End
Bass traps in particular, but the entirety of the acoustic treatment rabbit hole, are extremely interesting. If you look around online you'll see just how many people are completely obsessed with the topic. That was me for the longest time. The thrill is over once you finish your own build, but the benefits last forever. And let me tell you, it's impossible to over-emphasize how […]
19 Songwriting Tips for Getting Started, Breaking Writer's Block, & More
Without some kind of methodology, it's easy to get completely overwhelmed when you sit down to start writing a song. That's where a list of songwriting tips comes in handy. It's all about getting the gears in your head turning. "What key should I play in? What about the chord progressions? Should I have those before or after I come up with the melody? And […]
What is a Session Musician? Their Tasks, Earnings, & More
Being a session musician is still in-demand in today’s music industry. It's a common belief that the need for a stand-in studio musician in recording sessions has decreased over the last ten years, in large due to the effects of technological advancements and shift to sample-based productions. On the other hand, the need for session musicians in musical performances has increased, compensating for reduction in studio […]
The Benefits of Using a Scratch Track When Recording Music
A scratch track, sometimes called a guide track, may seem like a waste of time to a cocky, over-confident amateur or a money-conscious renter of an expensive studio, but it provides tons of benefits you may not realize just yet. If you do like you should and surrender to the process of the studio engineer, he or she will undoubtedly first guide you through laying […]
Gated Reverb - How to Get the Big Drums of 80's Pop Music
Gated reverb is the sound of the 1980's. One might argue, "No, it's MIDI production or it's the synthesizer." Say what you will about the blatant and overt sounds of that time, but the trained ear hears something completely different. It's all in the drums, especially the gated snare drum. They're powerful. They punch through the mix. And they don't sound like anything ever heard […]
Reverse Reverb - How to Create This Backwards Echo Effect
People call it different things: reverse echo, backwards reverb, reverse regeneration... but in the professional sector of the music industry we plainly call it the reverse reverb effect. And thanks to computers and lookahead algorithms it's easier than ever to create. Let's quickly define what it is for the newcomers, give a few examples of how it sounds, talk about how it was originally invented […]
Spring Reverb - Learn About & How to Use This Ever-Present Effect
Spring reverb has been around for what is practically forever. Anyone who's been slightly involved in the music industry to any degree, especially guitarists, have heard of it. It's the oldest mechanical reverb around and still in use. Of all of the different types of reverb, the spring is the most common by far in terms of manufacturing and ownership, but possibly the least used […]
Plate Reverb - Learning About & Using This Influential Audio Effect
Anyone that has spent even the slightest amount of time with signal processing effects, either as a guitar player, synthesizer player, music mixer, or really any role will have encountered plate reverb. It's everywhere and for good reason. Of all of the different types of reverb, none has stood the test of time and garnered more attention and love than that generated by a plate. […]
13 Types of Reverb & When to Use Them
I do agree there's only three main categories, but anyone looking to fully explain the topic can't limit the discussion to five or seven types of reverb, which is what always happens. It's unfair to the reader. If you're reading this then you probably already understand what this effect is and how it arises in nature or is created acoustically, mechanically, through electronics, or through […]
What is Reverb? All About This Beautiful Sound Effect & Its Uses
What is reverb? Is it different than an echo or delay? If so, what makes it different. Why is it used in music production? How is it created? This is the logical sequence of questions that arise when you start considering this natural sound effect for the first time. What people don't realize is that they know what reverb is, they just hadn't attached a […]
What is Audio Clipping: Examples, Causes, & the Easy Fix
Whether during recording or playback, you've been around someone that sees the little red light go off or light up permanently who then says "Oh, dude, you're clipping." But do they even know what audio clipping is? What causes clipping? Is there anything we can do about it? Is it the same as peaking (yes)? I'm going to explain it all, tell you what it […]
The Best Guitar Synth Pedals for Top-Tier Synthesizer Emulation
There's been all kinds of crazy mixtures between the guitar and synthesizer from the Keytar to MIDI guitars, but the most down to earth and useful are the best guitar synth pedals. Whether you're filling in for a keyboard player can't make it to the gig or are looking to expand your repertoire, these bad boys are right up your alley… Technology has shaped every […]
Blown Speaker: Sounds, Symptoms, & Fixes (Plus Guidance)
No matter if you're talking about car speakers, studio speaker monitors, a guitar amplifier, or even some cheap computer or TV sound system, blown speakers are frustrating. And doubly so when you realize that if you'd caught it soon enough you could have saved it. Most of the time we want a matching stereo pair so that can mean replacing two if it's in a […]
What is Phantom Power? All the Big Questions Answered in Plain Talk
What is phantom power? How does it work? Why does it have that name? Which mics need it? Anybody who's been in this industry hears these questions a million times a year, including me, which is why I'm writing it up. Now I can just send people here and save myself the trouble. Usually what happens is a newcomer gets their first microphone and preamplifier […]
Haas Effect: Gain Depth & Width With a Slight Delay
Way back in 1949, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Helmut Haas is given credit for discovering a psychoacoustic phenomenon which was subsequently named the Haas Effect after his namesake, but is also called the Precedence Effect. Psychoacoustics relate to how our minds perceive the audio our ears sense out in the world. There are a handful of these interesting cases that we've covered […]
How to Start Producing Music as a Beginner (& The Path Forward)
Learning music production isn't that hard if you can cut through all of the extra, non-relevant information out there. The truth is there's very little you need to begin today and you likely already have most of it. All of that extra info comes into play later once you start progressing further down the path of making music. Below I tell you the minimum equipment […]
How to Use Reference Tracks to Emulate Top-Tier Mixes
We all have a list of favorite albums and songs that we think sound amazing. We always imagine that that's how we'd like our own music to sound, and a lot of times even think "How the heck did they do that?" Don't dream about it anymore. You can get your songs to sound that good by using those exact songs as reference tracks for […]
What is Phase Cancellation? Understand & Eliminate It In Your Audio
Phase cancellation is almost a mystical matter in studio engineering and recording. Many choose to flat out ignore it just to avoid learning what it is, why it occurs, and how to fix it. Don't be one of these people. I'm going to break it down in simple language and show you exactly how to hear it, how to spot it with plugins if you […]
Bass Compression: Getting Energy & Groove Into Your Mix
Compressing bass is a fundamental part of any mix, and getting it right means having a great foundation to a song with well-balanced energy and an intelligible groove. Getting it wrong is a disaster. Great bass compression settings, along with other considerations we'll mention, are the difference between a solid, full, and thick bass with great harmonics and attack, versus one that's either weak and […]
Acoustic Guitar EQ: Studio-Quality Tone With Minimal Effort
Forget your preconceived notions. Acoustic guitar equalization is a piece of cake once you understand what to listen for (and how to listen for it). The principals below work for mixing in the studio and for live performances on stage. There's two aspects to mixing any instrument, and that's getting it to sound amazing by itself while also allocating a dominant frequency range so it […]
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