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.

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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?

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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