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...

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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. ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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. ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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 co...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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. ...

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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. ...

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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...

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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...

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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! ...

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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?...

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Is Gear Really That Important?

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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...

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The Number One Rule To Getting Better At Your Craft

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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...

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The Importance of Planning Ahead when Mixing

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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...

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Add Creativity to Your Mix

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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?...

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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...

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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. ...

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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...

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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! ...

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The Importance of Pre Production (Video)

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

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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...

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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....

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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...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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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. ...

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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......

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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!...

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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...

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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...

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