Editing Vocals – Save Time and Energy DO IT ON THE FLY! Recording and editing vocals – save time and energy by editing on the fly. In addition to saving time, you know you’ve got the takes you need. In this video I show my approach to editing vocals as I record them. Hopefully […]
Why Home Studio Vocals Sound Bad?DO THIS! Recording vocals in a home studio – doesn’t sound good? In this video you learn why home studio vocals tend to sound bad and how to fix it. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the future videos let […]
Recording Vocals in a Home Studio5 Essential Tips Recording vocals in a home studio – five essential tips. By taking care of these five things, you are way ahead of many people who record vocals and you have every chance of getting professional sounding results. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything […]
Stereo or Mono? – When to Use Stereo and When Mono Tracks? Stereo or mono? When to use a stereo track? How about a mono track? In this video I explain when and why you should use them. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the […]
Record Professional & Clear Guitar Tracks Professional engineers tend to record better sounding tracks than amateurs. Why’s that? The reason is not the gear or the recording space. Usually the difference is the production choices. In this video I show you a simple way to make your tracks sound professional, focused and crystal clear. […]
Five Ways to Bigger Chorus – Arranging Arranging is super important part of making music. Still many skip this part all together, which is kind of crazy if you think about it. In this video you learn five arranging ways to make your chorus both stand out and sound bigger. Hopefully you found this […]
Tracking Rhythm Guitars – How Many Tracks to Record? Tracking distorted rhythm guitars – how many tracks to record? Should you double, triple or even quadruple all the guitars? This is a topic that divides opinions for sure. In this video I demonstrate with a few examples – what I think works and sounds […]
Writing Riffs – Biggest Mistake! This is the biggest mistake when writing riffs. Especially with beginner guitarists and bands. Are you making this mistake? Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the future videos let me know. Send me an email or leave a comment below. […]
What Is Half-time and Double-time? How to Use Them in Songs? What is half time and double time? How to use half time and double time? In this video you learn what they are and how to use them. Includes two example songs. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want […]
How to Make Full Songs Instead of Short Demos How to take your short idea and take them to a full song? It’s frustrating to create only short demos. This way of composing has helped me a lot – hopefully it will be useful for you too. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If […]
Songwriting Hacks for Fast and Smooth Workflow Songwriting tricks and tips for getting ideas down faster. Super helpful! Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the future videos let me know. Send me an email or leave a comment below. Ask if there’s anything unclear or if […]
Drum Sounds Ruined! – Phase Cancellation – How to Notice and Fix? Phase cancellation is really common when recording multimiked instruments, such as drums. As the same source of sound is recorded with two (or more) mics, their waveforms can cross in a way that they end up cancelling out one another. When […]
How to Edit Drums in EVERY DAW When you’re editing drums, you still want the recorded tracks to be as close to the final thing as possible. Think editing as a polisher rather than a fixer. However, editing can take sloppy, amateur drums and make them sound more professional. This is because a […]
The Most Underrated and Powerful Mixing Tool One tool especially is at the same time so underrated and so powerful. It has the power to improve a mix within seconds, but still people seem to use it far too rarely. So many mixes would benefit from it. What am I talking about? Watch the video […]
Do THIS for Better Guitar Tone Do you want to record better, more detailed and focused guitars? Of course you do – who wouldn’t. However, guitar tones are often personal and so the guitarist isn’t too eager to change the tone that much. No problem. In this video I show you how to […]
Mixing Home Studio Acoustic Guitar An acoustic guitar can easily be recorded professionally at home, in your bedroom or home studio as I showed in this video. It’s time to take those well recorded tracks and polish them to sound sweet and wide. In this video I want to show you how you […]
Recording Acoustic Guitar at Home– THE FOOLPROOF WAY Acoustic guitar is an instrument that works beautifully both on its own and as a spice together with other instruments, such as a whole band. In case you are struggling to get a good sounding acoustic guitar recordings at home – hear me out. It […]
Ad Libs – Huge Impact and Build up Towards the End of a Song Ad libs are a great way to build up momentum towards the end of a song, usually in the final chorus. They’re these short spontaneous vocal melodies based on key words of the song, that the lead singer improvises […]
How to Mix Bass? Bass takes care of the low end together with the bass drum. Saying “Bass is the balls of the band” is true in this sense. But in all seriousness, how to mix bass the way it’s supposed to sound? In this video I show you how to mix bass […]
Bigger Chorus with Doubled Backing Vocals Chorus differs from other parts of the song not only by the hooky melodies, but with the size. It tends to be the biggest part of the song. Sounds rational and even self-evident, but when it comes to doing it yourself, things can get complicated. How to […]
The Reason Why Your Mixes SoundMuddy and Boomy Are your mixes sounding muddy, boomy and somehow unprofessional when you compare them to professional mixes? My mixes sounded like that for a long time. They sounded good as I was mixing them, but when I compared my mixes to songs that I like, something […]
Punch and Character with This Mixing Technique for Drums Is your drum set lacking energy? Not enough punch? Dull and plain? In this video I show you how to add punch and character to the drums with a simple mixing technique: Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me […]
Mixing Synths (Three Steps to Better Sounding and Standing Out Synths) Finding sounds to virtual instruments such as synths can be a hard task of its own, but what comes after that? How can you make them fit in the mix and sound awesome? In this video I show you three steps to […]
Vocal Microphone Comparison: 29€ Mic VS 400€ Mic What’s the difference between cheap and expensive mics? In this video I want to demonstrate how exactly 29€ mic differs from 400€ mic. The other one is almost 14 times more expensive. Mics in this vocal microphone comparison are t.bone SC 300 and Shure SM7B. The […]
Recording Vocals with 29 Euro Microphone!? – Cheap Vocal Mic: t.bone SC 300 In this video I want to demonstrate how t.bone SC 300 microphone sounds like with vocals. It’s a condenser microphone and it costs only 29 euros (approx. 35 dollars) which is crazy! So to the point: What kind of quality can you […]
An Easy Way to Mix Backing Vocals(and to Make Sure They Don’t Get in The Way of Lead Vocals) Vocals are the thing that most listeners focus on and that’s a fact. Many a times backing vocals are thrown in the mix also. While they can sound great and bring so much to […]
Mixing Vocals – What to Do?Do These Four Things Vocals are the focal point of each and every mix, like it or not. It’s safe to say mixing them is pretty crucial. How should you approach mixing vocals? What actually are done to them? What kind of plugins should you use and in […]
Vocal Compression– Settings That Actually Work Vocals are super dynamic source of sound. This means that they have both quiet and loud parts. For this reason the vocals seem to get buried in the mix here and there. The loud parts you can hear fine, but the quieter parts get lost. This is […]
Vocal EQ – Four Steps to Professional Vocals Vocals are probably the most important element in music. At least it’s the one people tend to focus on wether we want it or not. For this reason, recording and mixing vocals can’t be stressed enough. Mixing vocals (like basically anything else) starts with EQ. What […]
How to Approach Mixing Midi Drums? Midi drums are the savior of home studios. No need to record real drums in a real space or deal with all the mics, pre-amps, cables. However, when the time comes to actually mix the midi drums – what do you do? How do you approach mixing midi […]
Mastering a Song in a Home Studio In the post before this, you can find a whole video series, where I’m mixing a song from start to finish. The next logical step is to master the song. Can you do mastering in your small home studio? Do you even need mastering? What happens in […]
Mixing an Entire Songfrom Start to Finish You hear a lot of talk about mixing these days, but the truth is you learn by seeing how mixing is done and then doing it yourself. You can read and watch short tutorials but it’ll only get you so far. That’s why I want to […]
Setting up a Project for Mixing Mixing is so awesome when you can focus on the artistic side of things instead of the mechanical stuff. Before jumping to mixing, you should set up a project for it the right way. Why? Because it’s like a foundation to a mix. It makes mixing easier, […]
The Best Free Bass Pluginfor Rock and Metal In case you’re struggling to get decent overdrive / distortion bass tone at home, look no further, because the TSE Audio BOD is just amazing. It’s the best free bass plugin for rock and metal genres. In this video you’ll hear it in the action […]
How to Create an Artificial Room Track for Drums? Many a times when you’re recording drums at home studio, garage or in a rehearsal space, there’s a good chance you’re using a limited mic setup. On top of that, the space might not be big enough for even to consider room mics. Because […]
Mixing with Mixbus Processing: Huge Difference with Just a Few Plugins! Mixbus processing means adding plugins to your master output – thus affecting all the tracks and the mix as a whole. There’s two approaches to this. Some like to do it before any other mixing is done, others like to leave it […]
Mixing Drums: Focused and Crisp Overheads Mixing drums can be tough, as there are (usually) so many tracks. The roles of each track can vary from genre to genre. In hard-hitting music, such as rock and metal, overheads have a certain role to play. In this video you’ll learn the mixing of focused […]
Mixing Toms: Punch and Clear Sound Mixing toms is fairly easy with the technique that you’ll find on the video below. Many a times toms have a nasty boxiness or honky sound that you may not even realize. Toms of amateur mixers sound dull and powerless, whereas toms of pro mixers sound clear […]
Mixing Kick Drum to be Punchy and Aggressive Mixing punchy and aggressive kick drum is fairly simple job to do. All you need is an EQ and a compressor. In this video you’ll learn how to use them effectively to achieve desired results. In the end of the video you’ll find a list […]
Awesome Vocal Effect with Doubled Vocals Producing vocals is an art form of its own. Adding strategic layers of vocals can create huge impact to the sound. In case the song doesn’t seem to work in terms of the vocal arrangement, this is totally something to experiment with. In this video I show […]
Bring Mix to Life with Automation (THIS SEPARATES THE MEN FROM THE BOYS) In case your mixes have ever felt dull or lifeless in comparison to a professional commercial mix – the missing ingredient might have been automation. With automation, you can easily bring your mix to life with a few moves here and […]
How to Mix Kick and Bass to Fit Together in a Full and Crowded Mix? How to fit kick and bass together in a tense and crowded mix? Many a times especially a kick can be buried underneath a bass. It’s not cutting through as much as you hoped it would. In this […]
Automating Vocals: Take Vocals Tracks to The Next Level Automation is what separates men from boys and pro mixes from amateur mixes. While automation is used widely to fix the balancing problems EQ and compressor alone cannot do, it is capable for much more. Take vocal tracks to the next level by automating vocals: […]
Mixing Vocals with Delay and Reverb – Which One to Use? Mixing vocals with delay and reverb can be confusing. Which one to use? What settings work for vocals? How much is enough? In this video you’ll learn how to use both delay and reverb with vocals. I also tell you which one […]
Mixing Warm and Thick Vocals with Saturation Vocals benefit from that good old warm analog sound. Since everything is pretty much digital (in home studios anyway) the recorded signal isn’t gaining any musical analog distortion in the process. This is where mixing vocals with saturation plugins come into picture. In this video you’ll […]
Mixing Home Studio Vocals to Sit in the Mix and Have More Energy Are you struggling to get your vocals to sit right in the mix? Do the vocals lack energy? Have no fear, in this video you’ll learn how to approach mixing home studio vocals to make them sit well in the […]
Tuning and Editing Vocals How to tune and edit vocals? Well, you’re about to find out. In this video I’m using Logic Pro X and Flex Pitch as a tuning tool, but you can use any other tuner and DAW, these strategies will apply. This is my approach to tuning and editing vocals: […]
Mic Shootout: Recording Metal / Rock Vocals at Home In this post you’ll find a mic shootout for recording metal and rock vocals at home. The microphone shootout is between Shure SM 7 B, Shure SM57 and Rode NT1-A. In addition, you’ll see my home vocal recording setup and settings for metal / […]
Songwriting Tips:Do This for More Impactful Chorus Today it’s critical to keep the attention of the listener alive during the entire song. The song has to be interesting from start to finish. Usually the hook of the song is the chorus melody and therefore choruses are super important. You want the first chorus to […]
EQ Distorted Guitars: Mixing Ear Pleasing and Smooth Guitars Distorted Guitars can easily sound nasty and harsh. Of course, this is not what you want. You want ear pleasing and smooth tones, even though the guitars are heavily distorted. With this EQ technique, you remove all the harshness and nastiness out of your […]
Mixing Fat and Punchy Snare Drum Mixing fat and punchy snare drum is quite quick and easy job to do, once you have a decent sounding snare to start with. All you need is an EQ and a compressor and you’re good to go. This is how to mix fat and punchy snare […]
Faster Mixing with Mix Template (and Better Results) Are you starting every mix session from an empty project? No more. Mixing becomes much faster with a mix template. Save your time and energy for the stuff that matters, such as artistic musical choices instead of the mechanical tasks that has to be done […]
How Much Changing Guitar and Bass Strings Affects the Sound? (Before and After Comparison) It is recommended to change guitar and bass strings before starting the recording process of a song. While it’s easy to just say “change the strings, because it will sound better”, I wanted to demonstrate how much it actually […]
How to Record Fast Lead & Solo Guitar(and Sound Like Pro) Recording fast guitar solos and lead parts can be tricky, as you want the timing to be spot on and at the same time as natural as possible. There’s no room for mistakes or sloppiness in today’s music. Because of “the feel […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Snare Reverb & Saturation This is the fifth follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s about snare reverb and saturation. By far we have gone all the four steps: Record tight and well played instrument tracks Edit EQ Compression Let’s build on that with snare reverb […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Compression (Step 4/4) This is the fourth follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s all about compression. In the step one we recorded tight guitar and bass tracks whereas in the second step we edited the them. It’s time to continue mixing the tracks (step three […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: EQ (Step 3/4) This is the third follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s all about EQing. In the step one we recorded tight guitar and bass tracks whereas in the second step we edited the them. Now it’s time to start mixing. We’re focusing on […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Editing (Step 2/4) This is the second follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard”. In the step one we recorded tight guitar and bass tracks. Now it’s time to take those well played and recorded tracks to the next level with editing. The purpose of this is […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Recording Tight Guitar and Bass Tracks (Step 1/4) This is a follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard”. In this video I’m focusing entirely to the step one, which is recording hard-hitting and tight instrument tracks. It is the foundation for hard-hitting mix. Make sure you don’t […]
4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard Do you know the feeling when you think your mix hits harder than life and when you compare it to your favourite songs – it turns out your track sounds tiny in comparison? I hate that feeling and I don’t want you to feel it either. […]
How to Create Rise Against Bass Tone (on Any DAW with Stock Plugins)? In this video I’m showing you how to create Rise Against -like punkrock bass tone using only stock plugins. You can do this regardless of the DAW you’re using. The principles works on all the different DAWs. At first, try […]
Creating Screaming Vocals at Home (Vocal Technique and Example) In this video I’m showing you a screaming vocals technique that can be learned by anyone at home. It is a technique that doesn’t harm your vocal cords and you can make it sound pretty bad ass. Better yet, the technique is rather quiet, […]
Programming Realistic Midi Drums Programming realistic midi drums is an art of its own. It seems to be a huge problem for many starting out musicians and home studio warriors. However, it’s not that hard to do once you have a right kind of workflow. In this video, I’m showing you my way […]
How to Mix Programmed Midi Drums? Midi drums are just the best thing. They allow you to make music even if you don’t have drums or don’t know how to play them. Drums are the backbone of any genre really, that’s why they’re so important. It doesn’t really matter if they’re programmed midi drums […]
Bigger Synths by Stacking Preset Sounds Can you make preset synths sounding great and suitable for your songs? I’d say you can. If you haven’t got the time, the skills or the interest to start crafting own sounds from the start – then you can do this instead. In this video I’m showing […]
From an Idea into a Full Song In case you have a lots of unfinished song ideas, this post is for you. What I’m about to show you can help you with that. In this video I’m showing how my idea transformed into a full song. Start from the Hook and Build Around It […]
Layering Guitars Doesn’t Bring Tightness – THIS DOES People tell you layering guitars is the way to go, like it’s the holy grail of getting huge and tight guitar tracks. When there are multiple tracks playing the same thing, you don’t have to play so locked into the tempo. In fact, it’s better […]
Stop Doing This When Songwriting (WASTE OF TIME!) Most of us are wasting time when we’re composing, it’s the harsh truth. If you think about it… Are you finishing your songs? There are three things that we tend to do, but they don’t really help the progress of songwriting forward. In this video […]
How to Get Rid of Harshness in a Mix? Let me ask you a question: Have you ever mixed a song that’s almost finished, compared it to a commercial pro mix and found out there’s harshness in your mix? Your mix is not as pleasing to the ears as the pro mix you’re comparing […]
Save Processing Power During Songwriting Disk too slow, CPU error, system overload.. Does these messages ring a bell? When you’re writing a song or arranging it, and you need to have a lot of tracks playing simultaneously, the chances are your computer will slow down. Even though computers today can take a lot, the […]
Instant Energy Lift Trick In this video you’ll find a way to instantly boost your track with a simple and effective trick. While there’s a chance you may already be familiar with the trick itself, the execution is probably something entirely new. Check out the video to learn the instant energy lift trick. […]
Creating More Interesting Metal Intros In this video, you’ll find three steps to create more interesting metal intros. While some of them might be more obvious ones, others are somewhat sneakier. Watch the video to find out what you could do to boost your introductions to be more engaging. Did the intro get […]
Using Midi Synth Bass in Metal Music? This is a quick video about using midi synth bass in metal / aggressive rock. Have you ever thought about using one in such a genre? I don’t mean in an effect-kind-of-way, but INSTEAD of real instrument bass? Well, I use it in one of my […]
Faster Songwriting with Songwriting Template I’m excited to share you my songwriting template, because it has made my songwriting – and just putting ideas together – so much faster. In this video I’m going through the template and showing you how I use it whenever there’s an idea to work on. Hopefully this […]
5 Steps to Spice Up Chord Progressions When you’re in the process of writing a song, you might have an acoustic demo, simply chord progressions marked down or something in between. As you start to arrange the song, you might want to spice up the original chord progressions, making them more unique. In this […]
Arrangement Trick to Highlight the Hooks In this video you’ll find a cool arrangement trick – or rather a move – to spice up the hooks of your song. As an example I’m using one of my own songs that I’ve been working on. Let’s dive right in: Did you hear how those […]
How to Create a Killer Bass Tone on Any DAW? In this video I’m showing you how to create a killer bass tone on any DAW. I’m using only the stock plugins from Logic Pro X. You can find similar plugins from each and every DAW out there. Without further ado, here’s the video: […]
How to Create Bring Me The Horizon Synths (With Stock Plugins)? In this video I’m showing you how to create those glitchy, Bring Me The Horizon – like synths with stock plugins. You can do it in any DAW. The process contains five different parts: 1. At first, pick up lead sound that […]
Can You Make Pro Quality Metal Music at Home? In this video you’ll find the answer to the burning question: Can you make pro quality metal music at home? The point of this video is just to demonstrate the quality that can be produced at home, with some budget gear and a simple […]
The Hack to Better Mixes What takes your mixes to the next level the fastest possible way? You know it’s not about the gear and it’s not about the right DAW or the right plugins. The biggest hack to better mixes is to follow the mixing techniques such as “mixing in mono”, “mixing […]
Structure Hack to Writing Lyrics Do you have some sort of a hack to writing lyrics that works every time? How do you come up with lyrics to your song? Is it hard for you to even get started or to form a structure for lyrics? For me it sure is. Writing lyrics […]
How to Use Reverb and Delay in Mixing? – Three Golden Rules If you’re looking for an easy guide on how to use reverb and delay in mixing, you’re going to find as many different opinions and ways to do that, as there are mixers out there. Some of them flag for reverb, […]
Saturation in Mixing – Instant Warmth, Glue and Fullness with One Plugin Does either one of these situations ring a bell: Have your mixes ever sounded a bit lifeless and thin compared to the commercial pro mixes out there, even though you did exceptionally fine job with mixing? Have your individual sounds ever […]
Improve Mix Within Minutes: Instant Energy, Glue, Clarity and Character with Mix Bus Processing At the very beginning of your mix – after the editing, coloring, routing and the raw balance has been done – what is the next logical step? How to improve your mix not only drastically, but also quickly within […]
Why Midi Synth Sounds Never Seem to Fit? – 4 Steps to Better Synths Have you ever searched synth sounds only to find out they all seem to suck? Doesn’t really matter what plugin you’re using, bulk of the presets sound like… Well, shit. Where on earth could you use them ever? They’re […]
5 Biggest Time Wasters in Home Studio It’s the most thrilling feeling to craft songs in home studio. You know the excitement when an inspiration sparks and the pieces start falling in place. Sadly, that’s not always the case. On the flip side, it’s the biggest frustration when you spend hours on your […]
Phase Cancellation – The Easy Approach Have you ever recorded or mixed multi-miked instruments, such as drums? Did you come up with this weird thin sounding result and you couldn’t quite pinpoint what you were doing wrong? No matter how you adjust the snare mic, it just sounds thin and hollow? Then you’ve […]
Acoustic Treatment – The Easy Approach As you know, it’s a nightmare to mix in a room that has echoes, reflections, slap delays and ringing going on. You just can’t really hear properly what you’re doing. On top of that your ears are likely to be tired after a while of listening in that kind […]
Mindset – The Biggest Stumbling Block What prevents you from achieving the things you want? What stops you from doing the things you love, such as music? I’ve noticed that for me the biggest stumbling block on the way to doing anything worthwhile has not been – the lack of time, lack of skills, equipment […]
Unique Chord Progressions With Simple Melodies I like to use simple melodies to regenerate my choruses and sometimes other parts of a song too. The places I usually use these melodies are in the background of a chorus, pre-chorus or verse. I use them mostly in chrouses, but when it comes to verses, I usually […]
Spicing Up Power Chord Progressions Imagine that you’re writing a song. You have the parts of the song figured out and the chord progressions in place. Even the melodies are already done. Yet, something’s missing. The song seems somewhat generic and maybe a little static too. It needs something, but you can’t quite pinpoint what […]
How to Form and Choose a Chord Progression? How to select the right chords and chord progressions for a song? That’s a thinker, especially if you have no understanding of music theory. If you don’t know which chords go together, it’s kind of hard to start composing. I suggest that you read my post about […]
How to Understand Chords and Keys the Easy Way? How to understand chords and keys if you don’t have any music theory background? Is it possible to get around it? Understanding why certain chords go together, why sometimes a chord is a major and sometimes a minor and dealing with multiple scales and terms can […]
The Most Common Mixing Mistake (How to Fix) One thing pops up everytime I hear a demo or an amateur mix. It’s something that immediately separates amateur and professional mixes. The thing is, that if you don’t get this part right, the whole mix falls apart. Unless you’re not paying attention to it, you’re likely […]
How to Plan a Song and Why? I talk about planning on every turn – in several different posts. Why is that? Is planning a song really necessary? Isn’t it just a bunch of hooey? Believe it or not – planning makes songwriting so much faster and it’s essential for the outcome. It’s not a […]
Ways to Write an Intro for a Song How do you start a song? What is an intro in music? How long is an intro for a song? How to write a good intro for a song? What different options are there for intros? These are all valid and common questions that are about to […]
How to Make Second Verse Different Than Verse One Imagine listening to a song that you like. It flows smoothly from one section to another. The song takes you to a journey and you just love every bit of it. Nothing bothers you, or comes across as dull. That’s a characteristic of a great song. […]
More Powerful Chorus with Mixing How to get a more powerful chorus? That’s the question I kept asking myself when comparing my mixes to real commercial pro mixes. It might be a valid question for you too. It’s a bummer when you think you’ve got an explosive chorus that really hits you in the face, […]
More Powerful Chorus with Arrangement Have you ever listened back to your mix and asked yourself “Oh man.. How can I get more power into the chorus?” I sure have. For a long time my choruses were okay sounding, but I never got them to hit as hard as they did in my favourite records. […]
My Exact Method for Writing Lyrics I am not a good writer, far from it. Writing lyrics is a huge struggle for me. Am I going to let that stop me? Heck no. Over the years I’ve developed a method that helps me deliver lyrics from thin air, so to speak. See, lyrics rarely just […]
Stop Trying to Do Everything With One Tool Your songs will sound much better if you don’t try to do everything with one tool. It sounds obvious, right? Why would anyone do that? I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we all have. What I mean is, that you get far better results by using different […]
The Truth About Why Your Mixes Suck Why do you think your mixes suck? Does it suck because of the lack of acoustic treatment or the lack of quality speakers? Is your mix bad because you don’t know how you should approach mixing? Don’t you have enough mixing tricks in your arsenal? While any of […]
Mastering Your Own Songs vs Hiring a Professional Do you need to get your songs mastered by a professional mastering engineer or can you do it by yourself? Do your songs even need to be mastered? Can you use online services or the “mastering robots” to master your songs? Can I master my song during […]
How to Keep Motivation Alive? It’s hard to find the energy and the right mindset to start doing something, when you’re feeling tired and unmotivated. Even if that something is really important to you. The case might be that you find it important and close to your heart, but when the lack of time, energy […]
Write and Mix Songs Faster With Custom Presets Custom presets are great, but you’ve probably heard it (even from me) that mixing with presets is unwise as the plugin manufacturer has no idea how your tracks sound like and what the song needs. Let’s say you insert an EQ to a vocal track and start flipping […]
The Power of Low Cut Filter – A/B-test Low cut filter (or high pass filter – either way you want to call it) is the simplest thing you can do to a mix, but it’s super effective. It is a filter that removes low frequencies from an audio signal. Frequencies below the determined point are […]
Recording Pro Vocals at Home – Part 3 In the part one we tackled reflections and chose the right mic. In the part two we covered everything from setting the signal levels to keeping the right distance and from headphone mix to the recording process itself. To tell you the truth, everything until now has […]
Recording Pro Vocals at Home – Part 2 So now that we know how to get rid of the noises and reflections and choose the proper microphone for the task, let’s continue further with vocal recording. In part one of the “Recording Pro Vocals at Home” we established that both types of microphones will surely […]
Recording Pro Vocals at Home – Part 1 Getting vocals right is hands down the biggest stumbling block in a home studio environment. No matter how awesome your song sounds otherwise, if the vocals aren’t right, the end product still sounds amateur. This is why you need to pay extra attention to recording vocals at home. […]
The Easy Approach to Frequencies Frequency spectrum is a hard concept to grasp, even if you’re more experienced with music and recording / mixing world. EQ is one of the most helpful tools when talking about mixing, as covered in the post “The Easy Approach to EQ”. It can cut or boost all the different […]
Five Unarguable Reasons to Use Click Tracks Click aka metronome is a tool that gives you a tempo. It can play half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes etc. for you to keep a certain tempo. It is designed to be a helpful tool, but some people don’t like it. They simply don’t like playing with […]
How to Mix Midi Drums? (The Pro Way) As you’ve already read my earlier posts “How to Make Realistic Midi Drums” and “How to Create Midi Drums Faster”, the next logical step is to learn how to mix midi drums wisely. This is where you take your good sounding, realistic midi drums and take them […]
How to Create Midi Drums Faster? Composing midi drums can be frustratingly slow, especially if you’re just starting out and / or you’re not a drummer. Somehow you manage to put together a decent two bar beat for your song. You’ll end up using the same two bar loop over and over again. In the […]
How to Make Realistic Midi Drums? As you know, drums are the backbone of basically any genre, let alone rock, metal and other similar hard hitting music. In an earlier post, I covered the topic about why drums are so important and why getting a third party drum plugin might be a good idea. If […]
The Importance of Great Sounding Midi Drums Let’s face it, drums are essential in today’s music. Drums are the bedrock of heavy metal, rock, dance music – you name it. In order to get pro sounding drums you’ll need either a talented drummer who can play your songs, and enough preamps, microphones, cables, mic stands […]
If You’re Going to Spend Money on Plugins, Get These Two In case you have some extra money laying around and you want to make an investment in your music, the solution is not a better preamp or a new microphone. The solution isn’t an expensive mixing plugin bundle. They won’t make you better as […]
Automation – The Cure for Flat and Lifeless Mixes Have you ever compared your mix to a commercial pro mix? How well did it stand next to it? For me it was like this: I got the mix sounding good on my speakers, but when comparing to a pro mix, I noticed a clear difference. […]
How to Know When the Mix Is Done? There’s a lot of talk about starting the mixing process and the different phases of it. So many guidelines and instructions are all over the internet. Sometimes you get so lost in the mixing process that in some point you start to over-do it. From that point […]
How to Set Up a Project for Mixing? Let’s assume you’re working on a new song. Imagine that you just finished the recording phase. How does your project look like? If you’re anything like I used to be, it looks awful. Multiple tracks of vocals with the same name, poorly organized synth and guitar tracks. […]
Mixing Step Number One – The Raw Balance One step is almost always forgotten or rushed through when it comes to mixing. We are so eager to throw plugins on tracks, that we forget the bedrock of the whole mix – the raw balance. Why it is so important? By forming the raw balance first, […]
The Easy Approach to Compression Compressor seems to confuse many home studio owners more than any other mix processing. It doesn’t have to be that way, because in the end compression is the same thing as a volume fader. It just has the ability to do balance changes automatically. Compressor is simply just an automatic […]
The Easy Approach to EQ EQ seems to be somewhat a mystery to many musicians and beginner home studio mixers. With this post I hope to lift that curtain of mystery a little bit. Whether you’re just starting out or are more experienced, the same principles apply. It’s good to remind yourself what EQ really […]
Three BIG Reasons to Mix at Low Levels Don’t you just love the feeling and excitement your new song generates, especially when you crank up the volume? Everything sounds so much more exciting and powerful at louder volumes. As you turn up the speakers, you can hear everything more clearly and defined. Why bother to […]
Mix in Mono – The Easiest Way to Get a Pro Sounding Mix Do your mixes sound good in your speakers and headphones, but when changing to somewhere else, the mix falls apart? Then something’s not right with the mix. Are you struggling to get your mixes in balance? There’s only so much room for […]
The Recipe of a Pro Mix (Most Skip 3-4 Out of 6 Crucial Steps) What actually is the recipe of a pro mix? Is there such a recipe? What are the steps to go from demo to pro? You’re about to find out. Watching the “behind the scenes” and studio diaries of your favourite bands […]
How to Have More Time for Music? You, me, we all have limited amount of time and energy. You probably have a full-time job or studies, a relationship, kids, friends and a whole lot of other stuff to keep you busy. With all else going on, how on earth can you find the time for […]
What to Do After the Second Chorus? What to do after the second chorus? Have you ever stumbled upon this very question? I know, I have too. How does it always seem so difficult? You get everything else together with a decent amount of work, but the part that comes after the second chorus, man […]
Three Song Structures to Learn From There are certainly many different ways to structure a song, but the main ideas stay the same. Usually songs have two (or more) verses and a couple of choruses, but not a pre-chorus or an intro nearly as frequently as you might think. Here are three songs and three […]
Arrangement – I Overlooked This Part of Composing for Years What is it that keeps a listener interested from the very first sound to the last chord? Without it the song doesn’t even exist. However, it is one of the things, you and I tend to overlook while getting stuck on it more often […]
Why You Should Ignore Most of the Settings and Tools of DAW? Are you someone who absolutely has to know every piece of information before starting to use a new software, instrument or gear? Or are you one of those who doesn’t care to read the manual or anything – who’d rather just start experimenting […]
Do You Make or Break Your Songs? If you think about it – what makes a great song? Amazing studios filled with expensive gear and instruments? A great mix? A well-known singer or player? There are probably as many answers as there are people, but it is the music itself that we tend to focus […]
