Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Secret to Getting Motivated

Today I want to share with you a very powerful and simple technique that will help you get motivated to making more music. This can be used in pretty much any area of your life, but I want to focus on how it can help you both in the studio and as a musician. 
If you have any decent amount of experience recording music, mixing, mastering, or songwriting, then you have probably struggled at some point and time with being motivated. You want to make good music but you just don't feel like it. Maybe it's just the thought of having to set up all the gear or spend your one day off doing more work. Whatever the reason, there are times where it is just simply difficult to get motivated. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Using Compression on Drums (Video)

Compression is an amazing tool and can take your tracks very far. Today I want to show you how you can use a simple stock compressor on drums to get a clear, energetic, and punchy drum sound in your mix.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

How To Stand Out In An Over Saturated Market

Over the years the audio industry has become a much more accessible field. It doesn't take much money or time to start making your way in the music industry. Whether you want to be an engineer, producer, songwriter, or performer, you can enter into the industry in ways that were never possible a couple decades ago. You have major advantages like low cost gear, world wide distribution through the internet, and even free tutorials and courses to get you started. In short, this is an amazing time to be a musician! The walls between you and your clients/fans are very thin.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Getting A Better Guitar Tone: Part 3

Today marks the last part of my series on getting a better guitar tone. Electric guitar is such a crucial part of many genres, and I hope that you take away something from these articles that can you help you get better sounding guitars in your mixes.

Let's get started!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Getting A Better Guitar Tone: Part 2

Today I will start part 2 in my series of getting a better guitar tone in your mixes and recordings. If you haven't already, check out Part One and start there. Today we are going to talk about how you can get a big guitar tone, and how you can guitars to stand up front without covering up the vocal. This applies particular to alternative and rock music but you'll find this useful in any genre that needs the electric guitars up front.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Getting A Better Guitar Tone Part 1

Electric guitars are the corner stone of rock music. Heck, electric guitars are a major part of most music today. Chances are if you are a songwriter or musician and you are into producing your own music, you are going to want to have electric guitars in your mix at some point. But how do you get a good guitar tone? When you hear the pro mixes their guitars sound huge, in your face, and punchy. How do you get that sound for yourself?

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

How To Get Motivated

Working on music isn't always a fun endeavor. Sometimes it takes a lot of setup time, technical work, and frustration to get the ball rolling. Whether you plan on recording, mixing, or doing some songwriting, all of us hit times where we just don't feel motivated.

So how do we get motivated to start working on our music? 

I've found two ways that almost always work for motivating and energizing me to start working on my music. These two methods are simple, easy, and effective.


Saturday, June 14, 2014

Know That Your Mix Sucks

Discontentment isn't a good feeling, but can be one of the most helpful things you can feel as an audio engineer. If you aren't discontented with your mixes and recordings, then that means you are satisfied with the way they sound. If you are satisfied with the way they sound, then you aren't hearing what could be better. And let's face it, there is always room for improvement.


Monday, June 9, 2014

Why You Should Mix And Record For Other People

A lot of you probably got into mixing and recording because you wanted to be able to produce your own music. I know that's why I did. I wanted to have the freedom to make my own music on my own time and not rely on other people to do it for me. Also, I didn't have a lot of money so it was a great way to create an album on a budget. Hopefully, if this is you, you have continued to try and hone your skills and grow as a mixing and recording engineer. That's probably why you are reading this blog. However, there is one thing you may not be doing that you need to. Doing work for other people. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Two Ways To Get More Punch Out Of Your Drums

If you ever mix any sort of alternative or rock music, you probably want to have punchy sounding drums. Drums can add so much energy to a mix and really carry along the other instruments, especially when done correctly. But with the increase of using samples drums and using a home studio to record, how do you get really good, punchy sounding drums that just cut through your mix? Today I'm going to share with you two ways you can do this simply by using mixing techniques.


Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Backwards Mix

Today's mixing concept is a simple one, but very effective. I call it the backwards mix. This is something that I've adopted recently and has really changed the way that I mix. It's simplified my mixing process and resulted in better sounding mixes. So let's get straight to the point.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Keep it Simple

When I mix songs for clients, one of the biggest problems I encounter is that they simple have too many tracks. Now, as a mix engineer, it's my job to create balance and get these tracks to play nicely together. I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but this isn't about fighting for space in the frequency spectrum. Sure, it's a lot more work when I have to make ten electric guitar tracks play nicely together, but the problem I'm referring too is a problem musically. Today I want to encourage you to keep it simple, and it here's why. 

More tracks does not mean a bigger mix. 


One of the number one lies new recording artists or engineers buy into, is that more tracks will equal a bigger mix. They think that if they have ten guitar tracks and three bass tracks and eight vocal tracks that their mix will sound huge. The sad truth is this: most of the time, it wont. You can record as many tracks as you'd like, but that isn't going to automatically make your mixes sound huge. In fact, it will usually have the opposite effect. I know it's counter intuitive, but you would be amazed at how big a mix can sound that has a really small number of tracks.

I think one of the main reasons we do this is sometimes we hear albums from our favorite artists and there is a lot going on. We start noticing all these different instruments and we think that if we record a lot of tracks, then our recordings will sound like that too. Unfortunately that just isn't the case. You will get there, but you need to master getting huge mixes with simple tracks. It isn't the number of tracks that make the professional mixes sound huge, it's the talent behind the engineers recording and mixing the tracks. Work on getting your skill level higher before throwing in too many tracks, or you are just going to overwhelm yourself. 


Too many instruments can mean musical chaos. 


This is where it really gets frustrating as a mix engineer. I can't tell you how many times I get songs from clients, and the song is just all over the place. Quite frankly there is just way too much going on. All the instruments are fighting each other, there are too many lead parts, too many melody repeats in tracks, etc. Most songs I get I believe would sound better if I deleted half the tracks. And that's actually still leaving a lot. I was working on a song today that had around twelve guitar parts. It was as if every guitar was trying to be front and center and play the lead. It was musical chaos and no amount of mixing was going to make it right. 


Next time you start up a recording session, remember to keep it simple! You can and will create huge sounding mixes with a smaller number of tracks. It's easier to manage, it allows some parts to be up front, and it sounds bigger than you'd think. 



 I offer professional mixing and mastering at an easy flat rate. Head over to http://willsterling.net for more info. 

Friday, May 23, 2014

The One Day Mix Break

This is probably one of the most simple tips I can give you for mixing and yet it can make a huge difference in the quality of your mixes. I know far too often we get bogged down in the complex aspects of mixing and forget to do the basics. I just wrote a post on that recently, and this is one of those basics that you really need to be implementing for better sounding mixes!

Monday, May 19, 2014

The Foundation of a Great Mix

If you've ever googled or researched mixing and recording tips, you probably come up with some crazy and cool techniques. I know I've seen my fair share of really neat EQ trics, compressor stacking, crazy mic placement,and just all kinds of cool and fancy ideas to get better sounding mixes and recordings. I'll be the first one to say, these tricks are awesome! There is nothing wrong with implementing these and using these sort of ideas to better enhance your mixes or recordings. However, there is a problem that sometimes arises from this.

Monday, May 12, 2014

The Secret to Returning Clients

I'm sure a lot of you are just getting into recording or mixing to better improve your own music and help yourself as a musician. That's how I started. Shortly after however, I realized that I really enjoyed this and potentially could turn it into a profitable business. And for some of you, this may happen or you may already be in the same boat. With that said, this post is directed mainly to those who want to run a profitable recording, mixing, or mastering business.

Today I want to share with you a way that you can keep clients coming back time and time again as well as get more referrals.


Friday, May 9, 2014

Four Tips For Mixing Vocals

Most genres today have vocals as the primary and focal part of the song. It's no wonder we spend so much time trying to get our vocals to sound good and even more time being frustrated when we can't get them to sound the way we want. Every couple of months I like to revisit some concepts for mixing vocals and keep myself reminded of the tips and techniques that we can use to get a great sounding vocal track. These tips aren't anything new, but they are helpful reminders and will get you a more up front, clear, and professional vocal track.


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Should You EQ Virtual Instruments?

In home studios, it's pretty common to use sampled or virtual instruments when mixing or recording. It's pretty amazing these days how good they can sound. However, one question seems to arise when using virtual instruments. Should you use EQ on virtual instruments? There's a couple things we need to consider.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Studio Monitors Vs Head Phones

The age old question: "Should I mix with monitors or headphones?" This question gets asked all the time. And for good reason. There are situations where may have to use one or the other. For instance you may have a full time job and have to mix late at night. In that case, headphones may be your only option so as not to wake everyone else in the house. Or maybe you can't afford monitors and all you have are some headphones. Whatever the reason, it's a decent question to ask. So what's the answer?

Saturday, April 19, 2014

How to Run an Efficient Mix Session

Your time is valuable, and so it is important that you run efficient mixing sessions. Today I want to share with you some ways that you can run a more efficient mixing session in your home studio. These tips will not only help you get faster at mixing, but your mixes will be better because you'll be forced to focus on what is important.


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Your Ears and a Pen and Paper

Getting a great sounding mix or recording starts with something much simpler than you'd think. It doesn't start with thousands of dollars worth of gear. It doesn't start with the most expensive DAW. It doesn't start with the best plugins you can buy.

It starts with your ears, a pen, and a paper. 


As humans, we have a tendency to over complicate and over analyze things. We rarely go to the simplest solution. This is especially true in the audio engineering world. We are still struggling with the idea that our songs could sound better if only we had this or that. You see, it's easier to put the blame on something you can't control. It keeps you from having to take responsibility. The problem is that it also keeps you from growing and getting better. A great recording or mix starts with a few simple things. 

Friday, April 11, 2014

EQ Carving Kick and Bass

In today's video, we are going to look at using some EQ carving techniques to help the bass and kick drum sit more nicely together. 






Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Don't Play It Safe When Mixing

"If ten out of ten people like your mix, you're doing something wrong." That quote slapped me in the face when I heard it. Who said it? Dave Pensado. If you don't know who Dave is, he's a Grammy winning mix engineer and also runs Pensado's place (an amazing place for tutorials on mixing.) Short version: Dave knows what he is talking about. So what do this mean? How is it a bad thing if ten out of ten people like my mix?

It means you are probably playing it safe.


Saturday, April 5, 2014

Are You Taking A Break From Your Mixes?

Have you ever mixed a song, only to come back days later and hear something that just sounds totally off? If you have been mixing for any amount of time, then this probably has happened to you. You get an awesome sounding mix, spending hours upon hours, bounce it down, and think your done. Then you come back in a couple days and suddenly that snare is way  too loud. Or maybe that vocal is a bit too quiet. How we can fix this problem? Unfortunately, you really can't. Instead, here's what you need to do.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Using a Side Chain on Kick and Bass

Getting the bass guitar and kick drum to play nicely together can be one of the most difficult tasks when mixing. Today I want to show you one technique that will help you along in this process. It's called Side Chaining. 




Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Biggest Barrier To Better Mixes and Recordings


What do you think is the biggest barrier to you getting better mixes and recordings? Do you think it's your gear? Maybe if you had better monitors or better preamps your recordings would sound better. Or do you think maybe it's your DAW? Maybe if you had a better recording software you could do better work.

I've got some good news for you. It's none of those things. It's something much more difficult to change. It requires work, patience, and discipline. So what is it already?!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Why You Don't Have To Worry About Competition

It's no secret anymore. We are in a new day and age for the recording industry. Gear is cheaper than it ever has been. You can mix in the box. Track limits are pretty much gone. We are in a digital age now.

What does this mean for the recording industry?

Well, quite simply, it means things are changing. One major change is that more and more people are able to get into the audio engineering field. I think this is good. (Some people don't.) It also means that musicians are less likely to have to go to a large studio and drop a ton of money on making a record.

So if you want to get into audio engineering, don't you have to worry about competing with a ton of other engineers?


Sunday, March 23, 2014

Three Tips To Get Great Sounding Mixes

There are so many great mixing tips and tutorials out there, that sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to implement them all. The key really is to get in the habit of using some techniques that you think benefit you and help you get a balanced and great sounding mix.

Today I'd like to share with you three tips that are easy to get in the habit of doing, and will help take your mixes to another level. These aren't fancy tricks for you to use or anything like that. These are tips that make sense, are easy to implement, and yet are extremely helpful. Let's start with tip number one.



Friday, March 21, 2014

One Word That Will Revolutionize Your Mixes

Sometimes when we start mixing we don't really think about what we are trying to achieve with the entire mix. We simply want it to sound good, but we don't really know how we are going to get there. So we start putting EQ and compression on tracks trying to make everything sound awesome. We want our tracks to be punchy, clear, loud, dynamic, and sound professional. The irony is we miss the most important part of mixing.




Monday, March 17, 2014

The Static Mix

Before you put any plugins on your tracks, make sure you get a nice static mix. A good static mix can really set the foundation for your song and help everything else flow more smoothly.





Saturday, March 15, 2014

Next Time You Mix, Close Your Eyes

I want you to try something next time you sit down to mix. I want you to close your eyes. You might be thinking, "why would I close my eyes?" But you see the point is not your eyes, it's your ears. In the digital age of mixing, we've gotten so used to seeing our plugins work that we've started to rely on our eyes more than our ears. In music, this can be disastrous.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

How You Can Be More Productive In The Studio

In the digital age of mixing we are plagued with thousands of options to enhance and alter our songs. We have hundreds of plugins to choose from and limitless tracks we can record. With all these choices, how do we stay focused and productive when mixing? Today I want to share with you three ways that you can be more productive when recording or mixing. These tips will not only help you to become a better engineer, but will also help you become more efficient which will lead to more clients and more money in your pocket.





Monday, March 10, 2014

How to Mix a Great Sounding Kick Drum

Have you ever tried mixing the kick drum drum and just haven't been able to get it to sound like you want? Today I want to share with you a way that will help you get a better sounding kick drum. With this technique your kick will be more punchy and cut through the mix. So let's check it out!




Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Why Limitations Are Your Friend

Giving yourself limitations can be one of the most important things you do as an audio engineer. That doesn't sound fun though, does it? Who wants to be limited? I know it sounds counter intuitive, but it will revolutionize your mixes and recordings. Limitations help to get you focused, creative, and more skilled with what you have. So how do we use limitations to our advantage and what does this look like in a real life scenario? Today I'm going to share with you a few ways that you can begin using limitations to get better sounding recordings and mixes.


Monday, March 3, 2014

Is Gear Really That Important?




Friday, February 28, 2014

Why The World "Always" Should Not Be In Your Dictionary

If you want to make great music, you have to get creative. This means breaking the rules. Now, I know it's hard as audio guys to not follow certain rules, but today I want to encourage you to break the rules. Music is a creative art and by its very nature, subjective. This means there is no standard or set way of always doing something one way. We simply decide along the way what we like and what we don't like. It's completely personal and that's what makes it so great. I want to challenge you to approach recording or mixing the same way.


Don't go into your session with the mentality of always.



Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Number One Rule To Getting Better At Your Craft



Monday, February 24, 2014

How To Get More Punch Out Of Your Virtual Drums

Many of you today record, produce, and mix all of your own music. You write the songs, record the instruments, and then mix the music. This means for a lot of you, you are probably using virtual drums. And let me say this, virtual drums are great. It's really amazing how far they have come with sampled drums and getting them to sound more realistic. However, sometimes sampled drums are just missing that punch that comes with a live kit.

Today I want to share with you one way you can add punch to your virtual drums.



Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Importance of Planning Ahead when Mixing



Monday, February 17, 2014

Two Ways To Keep Your Mix Dynamic

People love to hear dynamics whether they know it or not. Dynamics give a song life and personality. It allows a song to surprise the listener and separate the chorus, verses, and bridge from each other. However, in today's day and age of loudness wars, we are losing more and more dynamics. Everyone is competing to see who can get their song the loudest and they are sacrificing dynamics.

What are some ways in which we can keep dynamics in our mixes?


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Add Creativity to Your Mix





Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Don't Wait Till You're Ready

That title probably sounds kind of confusing. Don't wait till you're ready? What does that even mean? Well, in short, it means...

Don't wait till you have everything figured out to start. 


If there's a passion, dream, business, project, mix, or whatever you want to start on, why are you waiting?

Friday, February 7, 2014

The Secret to Becoming a Better Mixing Engineer

If you are a mixing engineer, you probably want to be better.  I mean, who doesn't? We all want to get better at our craft. I think the moment we believe we have "arrived" is the day we've lost put a ceiling on our potential. But how do you get better? Do you just keep researching mixing? Do you keep watching tutorial videos and listening Dave Pensado? Do you keep posting our Gearslutz and other communities talking about mixing?

While those are all great tools, they in and of themselves will not make you a better mix engineer.


What will make you a better mix engineer is mixing



Thursday, February 6, 2014

3 Steps to Making Money as an Audio Engineer

Today I talk about three steps you can take to start making money as an audio engineer. These are three steps that I have taken personally, and have lead me directly to paid clients.


Monday, February 3, 2014

One Way You Can Keep Clients Coming Back

Today I want to share how you can keep your clients coming back to you. This applies if you are a recording engineer, mix engineer, or even a mastering engineer. In fact, this really applies in any business situation. Here it is.

Over Deliver


It's a simple concept, yet somehow we miss it. If you want to keep clients coming back to your business, you need to over deliver. What do I mean by that? I simply mean go above and beyond.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Getting It Right At The Source (Video)

In this video I talk about getting it right at the source. This is probably the most important concept to know when recording or mixing!


Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Importance of Pre Production (Video)

Today we talk about the importance of preproduction and spending time on songwriting and arranging.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A Great Mix Comes From A Great Song


Mixing is an amazing part in the process of creating music and it can literally transform a song. Through mixing we are able to add creativity and bring out the artists vision through the tools we use. We can move parts around and even rearrange a song. However, there is something mixing can't do.

Mixing cannot fix a bad song.


Actually, mixing really doesn't fix anything. It's meant to enhance. If you have ever tried to mix something that was recorded badly, it just doesn't work. There really isn't anything you can do. The same goes for a bad song. If a song just isn't good, no amount of mixing is going to make it good.


Monday, January 27, 2014

The Number One Rule When Starting a Business


Today I'm going to talk less about mixing and more about business. However, it is relevant and will help you in both aspects! I want to talk about the number rule you should follow if you plan on starting a business, or maybe just being a freelancer.

Are you ready?

Okay, here it is.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Ten - Be Creative


It is officially the last day of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series. This has been a lot of fun and it's been great to get to share helpful information with all of you engineers out there.

Today I want to talk about being creative. More specifically, I want to talk about being you.
I want to talk about how you can bring something to the table that no one else can. I want to talk about how you can better your mixes by just being creative.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Nine - Limiting Yourself

Hello and welcome to day nine of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series! This has been fun and there's only one more day left in the series. I'm sad, but it's okay.

Today we're going to talk about something super important! This is less of a mixing technique and more of a personal and psychological technique. I want to talk about limiting the amount of plugins you have as a mix engineer.



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Eight - Subtractive EQ

Welcome to day eight of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series. Today we are going to talk about EQ. EQ is an amazing tool, and you need to know how to use it. But how do you know if should boost or subtract? Well, there are times to both.

Today we are going to look specifically at using subtractive EQ and how using subtractive EQ can help you get better mixes.

Let's get started.


Monday, January 20, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Seven - High Pass Filter

Welcome to day seven of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series. Glad to have you! Today we're going to look at using high pass filters to get your mixes less muddy. High pass filters are by far one of my favorite tools when mixing, and I can't wait to share with you how much of a difference they can make in your mix.


Let's get started.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Six - LCR Panning

Welcome to day six of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series. I'm very excited to share today's tip because of how much it helped me when I first started out. Today I want to talk about LCR panning, and how it can help you create huge mixes and have the foundation of your song punching up the center.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

10 Mixing tips in 10 Days: Day Five - Parallel Compression

So far in the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series we have looked at side chaining, slap back delay, automation, and reference mixing. Today we're going to look at a tool that will help you liven up tracks and add some power to your song. We're going to look at Parallel Compression.

Friday, January 17, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Four - Reference Mixing

Today marks our fourth day into the mixing series 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days. It's been insanely fun coming up with the mixing techniques and tips that I think are the most important and that have helped me the most when first starting out.

Today I want to talk about something that's less of a technique and more of just something you should be doing.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Three - Automation

We are officially three days into our 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series! Today we are going to look at using automation for processing effects and panning to help you add more dynamics and creativity to your song.



Wednesday, January 15, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Two - Slap Back Delay

Yesterday we started our series 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days. We looked at side chaining a kick into a compressor on a bass to help them sit together. Today we are going to switch gears and talk about some creative effects.

Without further adieu...


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day One - The Side Chain


I wanted to do a nice and easy digestible series of posts that will help you get better mixes. So I decided to do 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days. Every day on the blog we will look at a new tip that will help you either in the recording, mixing, or mastering area of making music.

So, with all that aside, let's get started!


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

To Reverb Or Not To Reverb: That Is The Question

Reverb is probably one of the most widely used creative effects in the mixing process today. I love reverb. I use a lot. But sometimes it's difficult to tell if reverb should be used on a track or not. Will it help the track or will it just muddy up the mix? Let's look at some scenarios and maybe get a better idea of how and when we should be using reverb.

When NOT to Use Reverb


1. Bad Vocal Recording

So you've just recorded a lead vocal track and you're listening to it back in your mix, but something just doesn't seem right. The singer didn't really do the best take. Maybe it was lacking some energy or they were slightly flat at some parts. That's okay, once we slap some reverb on it, it will sound amazing! 

No.


Monday, January 6, 2014

EQ Training Series Part 4: How To Use EQ To Create Balance

In the last part of our training series on EQ, I want to look at using EQ to create balance. Balance is one of the most important aspects of mixing, but surprisingly it is often looked over.


One goal as a mix engineer to create a balance in a song. What do I mean by balance? I mean that you want your instruments and your tricks to sit together and occupy their own spaces without fighting for attention. If you've ever mixed a song but you tried to push everything up front and center, you probably noticed how it had the opposite effect and nothing really stood out. This is because the tracks are all fighting for the same space and therefore you can't hear any of them clearly.

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