The Stereo Bus Blog - Daily Music Production Tips

This post focuses on how to group tracks to save CPU or DSP processing.

When I first started mixing using a computer, I would throw up inserts on everything.  Everything was processed independently.  As you might imagine, my mixes were insanely CPU intensive and hard to manage.  Soon I realized that many of the tracks were being processed in exactly the same way and that I didn’t need to have separate DSP processes on each track.

The solution?  Groups (or auxes in Pro Tools land)!
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This post focuses on the topic of creating a sense of depth in mixes.

It’s not too hard to make things sound big.  It’s not too hard to make things sound wide.  But it is very hard to do both while also creating a sense of depth.  There are a myriad of tools available to the mix engineer to accomplish this, but there are three in particular that, when used properly, can create mixes that you can ‘walk into’.
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This post is a continuation of my instrument series and describes the standard variations of recording piano, both grand and upright styles.

Ahhh piano.  One of the quintessential instruments that almost everyone knows the sound of.  Like the snare drum that I featured in my last how-to, the piano is a complex instrument with many timbres and qualities.  The piano also has many sound sources that should be considered and respected when chosing the miking arrangement.
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This post focuses on whether or not music production and audio engineering schools are worth it.

There seems to be a constant debate between those who eschew formal education for ‘real-life’ and those who pursue formal education. Those who put school down often tout the benefits of saving the money and claim that schools are always behind the times. Those who advocate schools often suggest that schools offer opportunities for networking, prepare you for the real world, and weed out those who aren’t really serious.

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This post is a video on how to safely mount a mic on a stand.

The initial impulse of most people is to rotate the mic to screw it on the stand. This isn’t the best way to do it because a) your cable will get wrapped around the stand and b) it increases the chances you’ll drop the mic. Instead, loosen the arm portion of the stand and place the thread into the mic, rotating the arm until it’s secure. Then tighten the arm once again. See this video (my apologies for the background noise)…

This post focuses on describing MIDI - what it is and what it does.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was created in 1983 to address the need for controlling instruments electronically.  As synthesizers grew more and more common, it became more and more difficult to control them all.  MIDI was created to allow musicians to control many devices from one ‘controller’ keyboard.  It was also created with a number of relatively robust features to aid in the creation of digital music.

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This post focuses on the basics of equalization.

Equalization is something that most people are probably pretty familiar with on a basic level, having some EQ capacity in their car stereos and portable players.  Essentially, EQ is cutting or boosting of frequencies or frequency ranges.

There are fundamentally two kinds of equalization: graphic and parametric.  Graphic EQ usually has set frequency points with sliders to boost or cut at those points.  Parametric usually has a set of moveable frequency ‘centers’ with a width control, combined with a cut and boost knob.

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This post focuses on the various parts of a song and many typical ways in which they are arranged.

Over time several tendencies in songwriting have emerged as far as the arrangement of music is concerned. It all comes largely from classical music, which often is composed with attention to variations in musical ‘motifs’.
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This post focuses on using delays to subtly add or change the energy of a sound.

I’m a big fan of delays. They add a lot of the depth and texture that people usually grab reverbs to achieve without taking up as much of the space. This distinction helps avoid sandboxing your mixes in the 80s and 90s sound (unless you’re going for that, of course). Delays also can dramatically change the feel of a sound, particularly with drums, in very subtle ways. Often a delay can be used to add energy in a way such that the addition isn’t obvious, but when you remove the effect it’s apparent that something was changed. The original vocal effect was a 15 or 30 ips tape delay, after all (heard all over John Lennon recordings, for instance).

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This post focuses on tracking the snare drum, both on its own and as part of a kit.

I’m going to do a series on recording various instruments, from drums to woodwinds, and I’ve decided to do the snare first. Drums are a tricky bunch of instruments. They’re loud, bleed like hell, and generally don’t sound anything on tape like they sound in the room. Snare is probably the most complex of the standard components of the drum set. The top head is usually fairly tight and the material of the shell can be anything from aluminum to solid maple, each with unique characteristics. The bottom has the snares, strips of metal that vibrate against the bottom head when the drum is hit, which gives the drum its distinctive rattle. The top head is where the attack happens, the bottom head is where the crunch happens, and the tone is shared between the two. This means that you really need at least two microphones to get a complete picture of a snare drum. I would argue you may even need three to get the best snare sounds.

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