Archive for the ‘Workflows’ Category
The Importance of a Great Mixdown Before Mastering.
December 15, 2011 Mastering, MixingIn an ideal world once music has been mixed it would simply be committed to cd or uploaded ready for distribution. In some rare occasions this does happen, though it is fairly uncommon.
Read More »
How to Bounce or Consolidate Tracks for Archiving or Mixing
September 25, 2011 Archving, DAWsOne of the worst things to happen, in my opinion, is to have material locked in a particular proprietary DAW format. Most DAW software stores its session data in non-interchangeable formats that can only be opened by that particular DAW package. It gets worse when you factor in version changes. Most software is designed to [...]
Read More »
Hammond B3 and Leslie Recording Techniques
September 16, 2011 Hammond B3, Leslie Speakers, Mixing, TrackingOne of the most challenging and unique contemporary instruments that you’ll encounter working in professional studios is the Hammond B3 Organ and Lesie Cabinet combination. A prolific, immediately recognizable sound that is very difficult to reproduce without the real deal, the warm tone bars of the Hammond combine with the tube saturation and modulation effects [...]
Read More »
Mono Sources in a Stereo World – Michael Franti @ RNC
July 14, 2009 Delay, Effects, Restoration, ReverbRecently I was hired to finesse a rather rough live recording of Michael Franti‘s performance at the protest concert outside the Republican National Convention in 2008. The recording was done with a pair of shotgun mics placed fairly close to each other.
Read More »
Mastering Session at Rare Form Mastering
November 3, 2008 MasteringThis post is about the mastering process for my latest EP. The session was booked at Minneapolis’ Rare Form Mastering. Greg Reierson took the helm and did a really solid job overall. First of all, I’m not the sort of producer who does mastering the same way for each album. For my own material, I [...]
Read More »
Mastering Experiment: “But They Do” with the Focusrite Liquid Mix
March 8, 2008 MasteringThis post focuses on an experiment with my new Focusrite Liquid Mix, with which I mixed and mastered a song of mine that was in need of polishing. First of all, I will be out of town until the 19th… meaning that I won’t be making any posts here at TSB until then. But, I [...]
Read More »
How to Group Tracks to Save DAW CPU
March 8, 2008 DAWs, MixingThis 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 [...]
Read More »
How to Create Depth in a Mix
March 6, 2008 MixingThis 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 [...]
Read More »
11 Important DAW Maintenance Tips
February 26, 2008 DAWs, MaintenanceThis post focuses on some basic techniques for keeping your DAW running in primo shape. It’s easy to take our computers for granted, but sometimes it seems like if you turn your back for a moment, your computer will destroy itself. The reality is that computers are incredibly complex machines and that small, day to [...]
Read More »
Monitoring Diversity for Better Mixes
February 25, 2008 Mixing, SpeakersThis post focuses on how monitoring with different kinds of speakers will help you achieve better mixes. One of the things that sets professional studios apart from hobbyist studios is their collection of monitors. Most studios have at least a couple pairs of monitors, from nearfields to farfields. Many have boomboxes and ‘hi-fi’ stereos to [...]
Read More »
