How to produce a louder mix

We know the ‘loudness wars’ is a constantly hot topic in music production circles and one common belief is that a loud master is produced in the mastering stage. Certainly mastering can increase the perceived volume of a mix down. However there is often a limitation to how loud a mix can get before it starts to produce undesirable side effects such as distortion, loss of detail, loss of dynamics etc. I am occasionally asked how you can produce loud mixes and I would in the very first instance suggest mixing to sound good and not just loud. People should also consider the genre they are working in, the needs for a drum and bass/dubstep track are very different for a folk or ambient piece so be sensitive to the musical genre within which you are working. Also consider that software like iTune Soundcheck is also making “loudness” somewhat less relevant as it tries to even out perceived volumes of tracks in the playback domain.

Click to read more ...

How to get your bass line and kick drum to work together

We all like great sounding bass, right ? We all agree on that, however a number of producers and engineers have some difficulty in getting the low end frequencies in an audio mix to sound just right. This is going to include your kick drum and your bass line. Getting these instruments to marry nicely can be hard work and these top tips will definitely help you improve the sound of your tracks low end.

Click to read more ...

Maintaining your music production computer

Music computers are often best set up for the specific task of recording and mixing music, that means only installing applications that are strictly used in the audio production process. This is the number one tip because anything else could slow your computer down.

Click to read more ...

Starting to mix music tracks

Starting to mix music is exciting and I wanted to produce a short document that gives some good starting advice. Of course it will be impossible to teach someone how to mix perfectly in such a short time but this guide will point you in the right direction towards important concepts to understand.

Click to read more ...

The sonic qualities of analog tape

One of the most important factors in the recording of characteristically warm sound is magnetic tape. Tape is rarely used as a recording medium these days and yet it has been one of the technical main stays within the music and recording industries for decades. Tape was used as a recording medium and of course in compact form as a consumer distribution medium.

Click to read more ...

Stereo bus compressor

You often hear that people like to use a compressor on their stereo master bus. Historically large format mixing consoles often had a high quality compressor built in that you could assign to the stereo master bus. A classic example would be the SSL compressor as found in the master section of the mixing console. This is a well known compressor and it has a fairly clean yet aggressive character when set to it’s fastest time constants. This is a stereo bus compressor that is often used on rock mixes to give them a little extra drive and punch. It can however be set just to tickle the music and gently apply gain reduction on peaks in the programme material.

Click to read more ...

The advantages of stem mastering your music

Most musicians and bands are aware of the benefits of professional audio mastering, the final stage where a mastering engineer with a lot of experience will enhance, quality control and optimize a piece of music before it’s  release. Mastering is usually performed using a 24 bit stereo interleaved file of the producers final mix down. The mastering engineer can equalize, compress and adjust other parameters of the mix to aid translation across all the varying types of audio system the music will be played on.

Stem mastering is a type of mastering that differs in that it uses groups of instruments such as bass, guitars, drums, keyboards, vocals. There are a number of advantages to stem mastering. The ‘collections’ of instruments allow the mastering engineer to create a master with more targeted corrections and enhancement to the equalization, tone, depth  and balance of the mix down.

Click to read more ...

Home studio tips

The home studio environment can be incredibly sophisticated these days, very much capable of recording, editing, mixing your tracks to a high standard in the comfort of your own tailored musical space. I would like to present some ways of optimizing the home studio environment and ensuring that it is as productive and good sounding as can be.

If there is one area which will provide multiple benefits it is acoustic treatment of walls, corners and ceiling. Basic acoustic treatment can ensure both your recordings and mixes are better. Acoustic treatment does not come across as one of the most interesting of purchases for the home studio but you will hear the benefits on every recording and mix.

Click to read more ...

Choosing online mastering

It is always going to be an exciting time for a band, musician or producer when the production process is complete and it’s time to get the project mastered. Mastering is the final production process and it’s goals are multi facetted, level matching, adjustment of tonal response to improve translation to many sound systems, adjustment of the dynamic range, increasing perceived volume, finding unheard clicks, bad edits and glitches, suggestion of mix tweaks if required and ensuring successful deployment to a duplication or release medium.

Click to read more ...

How to record acoustic guitar

The acoustic guitar can produce a rich sound full of harmonics and complexity, making a good recording of this instrument can sometimes be over simplified just because it is an extremely common instrument to play. Recording acoustic guitars is fun and it should be quite straight forward when applying some  well used techniques.

Click to read more ...

Secondary monitors

Secondary monitors or headphones in a recording and mixing situation can be very useful at providing a new perspective on your sound. Most studios should make it a priority to invest in the best possible quality monitoring loudspeakers they can. It makes sense not to buy a cheap set of monitors as their inadequacies will travel with your work. Always choose to save a bit more money and buy the best you can afford. It is often more cost effective in the long term to buy a high quality item once, instead of doubting an inferior product later and having to upgrade.

Click to read more ...

Best plugin compressor

This is a common search term and it applies to all plugins for audio production and not just compressors. Most home music studios rely on software in order to process recorded audio tracks within the realms of a digital audio workstation. There must be literally 1,000’s of plug ins on the market such as equalizers, compressors, stereo width adjustment, de-essers etc. Some are purely digital in nature and some seek to emulate analog hardware.

Many of these plugins are created by well known developers and some are made by just a one man operation. With such a vast range of plug in types to choose from what is the best way to ensure you set yourself up with the best sonic tools for the job. Well it will come as little surprise that listening is the real way to ensure that you choose the best tools. Of course we can all hold pre conceptions of what tools will add ‘analog warmth’ or provide clarity and punch and sometimes this is a good place to start from. Try and clarify what the goal is with any given purchase and then narrow it down to the 5 plugins that you feel are going to serve your needs best.

Click to read more ...

The evolution of audio mastering

Historically audio mastering was a procedure which took a set of mixes and ensured that they would work on the vinyl format for release to the general public. The vinyl format requires specific technical criteria to be met in order to successfully create a lacquer in order to make vinyl copies. The last thing you want is a skipping record, sibilance on vocals or a wasted test pressing because the songs do not fit on one side. In addition the music would sometimes be tweaked to ensure good compatibility for radio broadcast which was is important for the promotional needs of the record label and artist. Today for mastering  we have a number of digital formats that include CD, digital .wav and .aiff files and also compressed file formats such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis and AAC.  

Click to read more ...

Using a reference track during mixing

If you are a musician who is also doing your own mixing and recording you are likely to need as much help as possible achieving a good mix down. One way of understanding how your mixing is holding up against professionally engineered records is to listen against a reference which you admire the sound of within the genre of music you work with. There are a few pointers which can make this much more successful.

Click to read more ...