Music Production Tips - The Stereo Bus Blog

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 things to look for when you want to live and record in the same space.

Not too many of us producer types actually have the benefit of a dedicated studio space, working in rented rooms, in rehearsal spaces, or *gasp* where we live.  But what are some of the things that we can look out for in living spaces that make for great recording spaces?

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Just a quick note that there was a problem with the database for the blog, so I had to restore it to the nightly backup from 3AM. This resulted in the loss of a couple of comments from this morning by Keith and Bryan. Sorry! Yay for backups.

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 focuses on some stretches you can do to stay healthy when hunched over gear for long periods at a time.

Whether you’re slumped over a mixing console, a rack of gear, or a computer, producers and engineers spend a lot of time in awkward, non-ergonomic positions. So, for a bit of an odd entry, I would like to share some stretches that will help keep you from getting stiff or sore.

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This post focuses on using ring modulators, vocoders, or other tone resonating devices to produce artificial chords.

Creating unique sounds is a constant challenge.  Sometimes things just sound too ‘plain’ and you need to pull something totally off-the-wall out of your hat.  In these situations, it can be really interesting to grab resonating devices such as ring modulators, vocoders, and even pitch-correction plugins for some unconventional usage.

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This post focuses on the use of predelay to allow reverb to be added to a sound without muddying it up too much.

A lot of producers are really reverb shy these days.  It’s true that reverb can really date material… it was used so much in the 80s and 90s that a lot of what gives modern music its edge is its dryness.  You’ll find that simply plopping a reverb effect on a track with often decrease its clarity or, in the case of vocals, its intelligibility.  One way to account for this is to reduce the mix or length of the reverb.  But sometimes you really want a long reverb tail and a really wet sound.  What to do?

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This post focuses on the classic challenge of how to record a band in a single room and not have it sound completely awful.

Lots of us have small production studios and tons of bands have single room practice spaces.  Inevitably the question arises: “How can I record the band live in a single room and not have it all turn to mush!?”  There are some strategies for accomplishing decent results from this situation and, although it won’t sound like a record that was recorded in a multi-room facility or overdubbed, for some music that’s for the best.  It’s an incredible challenge that can be really rewarding.
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This post focuses on ways to insure your equipment and protect yourself from liability.

I know insurance is probably the last thing on most people’s minds when they get into music production.  Let’s face it, though… we have a lot of expensive stuff lying around and we, as businesses, open ourselves up to liability.  The good thing is that insurance for musicians and producers isn’t very expensive and, for many, it makes a lot of sense.  The two main areas of concern are equipment and liability.  Gear insurance is insurance against damage, theft, and loss of equipment.  Liability insurance is protection in case something goes wrong and you get sued.  As with most things I discuss here, there are some good strategies for mitigating both risks.

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This post focuses on the practice of sampling and its legal ramifications.

Sampling has, for years, been a routine practice in the music industry.  Sampling is taking a part of an already recorded musical composition and repurposing it in a new composition.  It used to be that people would simply sample freely, release the material, and pay up if they got caught.  But, there were a good number of high profile court cases in the early 90s that showed that this wasn’t a very legally sound practice. The whole process of sampling is complex because the owners of the composition (the publisher or the artist) and the owners of the masters (probably the label or the artist) don’t have to let you use the material at all.  This means that they can essentially ask whatever they want from you if you a) approach them with an offer or b) get caught after releasing a sampled track.

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