Music Production Tips - The Stereo Bus Blog

This post is focused on the simple, neglected, and powerful practice of labeling tracks in a session.

This post may seem like something entirely obvious that should remain unspoken… but it isn’t. You would be surprised how often I have seen session tracks titled “New Track” and audio files named “Untitled1.wav”. The first step to organizing your sessions is labeling your tracks well. Every little bit of efficiency and extra brainpower that can be saved makes things run smoother and cheaper.

The general rule of DAW software labeling is that all of your audio files will inherit their names from the tracks on which they were recorded. This means that simply throwing up a track called “New Track”, recording on that, and renaming the track after-the-fact will result in a disorganized mess of audio data. It’s really important to not be lazy here.

There are some conventions in the industry for naming tracks and I’m going to describe them. Sessions that are clearly labeled will make your collaborators giggle like schoolgirls. If that image in your head makes you smile, follow me…

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This post focuses on registering your music business with Uncle Sam to avoid liability, tax issues, and better business structuring.

I know, I know… registering a business is about as fun as a broken fretboard, but it’s a good idea when you start out. There are a lot of reasons why registering (and registering as the right type of business) is a good idea, but I’m going to focus on liability, structure, and taxes.
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This post is going to focus on a peculiar nuance of the US intellectual property law that songwriters and producers should be aware of.

Obviously as this post is concerned with intellectual property copyright law it will only really be valid in the United States. More and more people are collaborating on music these days with the addition of easily swappable digital files. The problem is that when people come together to merge things that they have created into a new composition, those components are subsumed by the new composition. That is, they cannot be separated and used again for other new compositions as entirely separate creations.

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This post focuses on the super-important subject of keeping your hearing in tip-top shape.

The world around us is getting really loud. Music is blaring everywhere, masters are compressed without dynamics, iPods are being used to drown out crappy coffee shop music and bus noise. As a producer or an engineer, our hearing is our livelyhood so it’s extremely important to be able to make good decisions about how we use our ears from day-to-day. There are a few strategies we can use to reduce hearing loss and keep ourselves enjoying the sound that we love.
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This post is going to focus on getting a solid balance between the two main sources of bass in pop music: the bass and the kick drum.

Few things are better than mix that gets the low end right. It can be really tricky to accomplish (or downright impossible if the environment isn’t right). But, there are a few general conventions that can help in the quest for the right thump.

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This post focuses on making your tracks sound more dynamic with automation.

Automation has been with us for a long time. Before there were computers, it wasn’t too uncommon to see engineers, producers, and assistants all at the board to move faders and push buttons in real-time as the mix ran its way through the board. These days we have computers to do the handiwork for us, we just have to know when and how to automate our work.

Automation can be used for creation motion, enhancing performances, customizing sounds, and adding flavor with effects.

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This post is going to be about the different ‘types’, generally speaking of performers you might run across when producing a session.

Musicians and artists are a diverse bunch. Some of us are introverts with very little experience, some of us are extroverts with a lot of experience. Some of us have high self-esteem, others have low self esteem. It’s important to know what sort of person you are working with when producing a session with them. In this post I’m going to break down some of the most common traits you’ll find in performers and hopefully will provide some insight as to how best to coax the best take out of each of them.

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This post is going to highlight the ribbon microphone: the neglected and underutilized black-sheep citizen of the mic locker.

If I do a session without using a ribbon mic, I get cranky. What’s a ribbon mic? Why should I care? Ribbon mics are the stepchildren of dynamic microphones. Dynamic mics such as the Shure SM57, Electrovoice RE20, and Sennheiser 421 have circular diaphragms that are coupled to their transformers. This coupling of the diaphragm and the transformer means it moves slowly, producing a gutsy but somewhat unarticulate sound. Ribbon mics work in much the same way but instead of having a circular diaphragm, they have a thin ribbon element. This ribbon is not mechanically coupled to a transformer, producing a smooth, even vibration with a faster articulation. Ribbons are totally unique. These days everyone and their cousin has a large-diaphragm condenser and a collection of dynamics, but when you break out a ribbon mic you’ll turn some heads. Contrasting the clear, bright sound of condensers with the roundness of ribbons helps bring balance to the modern digital production sound.

Back in the day ribbon mics were the standard in the 30s, producing such classics as the RCA 44 and the RCA DX77. Traditionally these microphones had a substantial high-end roll-off that resulted from the need to protect the fragile ribbon element from being knocked or damaged by a strung gust of air. These days there are quite a few choices and many of these choices are employing newer materials that are more resilient, allowing less protective material. The result? Ribbons are more articulate than ever and still produce that much sought-after smooth, round sound.

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This post is about techniques for scouting and following through with potential clients.

Unless you’re an institution in the industry, whether locally or internationally, chances are clients won’t be calling you or knocking on your door for the chance to work with you. It used to be that labels would almost always choose the producers for a project. That’s not the case anymore. These days it’s more likely that the artist will have more of a say as to who they will choose to produce their material, especially if the artist is not signed. That said, record labels who have found success with a producer will often recommend that producer again for future projects. It’s just about impossible to walk in off the street and secure a production deal with a random artist. So how do you find artists and labels that are willing to talk to you?

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This post focuses on ideas for choosing the track order of an album.

You’ve completed your songs, all the details are done, the mixes are smashing, and you’re ready for mastering. But wait… we need to arrange these things somehow! An often overlooked and often very arbitrary step in the production process, track order can literally make or break a release. Countless albums simply run out of steam by having either too little variety or too many of the strongest tracks in the first half of the album. It’s very important to have a good variety of moods, keys, and tempos throughout. I’m going to organize this post by philosophy and general practices.

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