Music Production Tips – The Stereo Bus Blog

So you want to add a subwoofer to your monitor setup? Studio subwoofers can be tricky things that require a little bit of audio soul searching, auditioning, and planning to pull off well. But, a well integrated sub can make a world of difference in the right circumstances.

I, for example, just added a Mackie HRS-120 sub to my HR824 speakers and am quite happy with it after some tweaking.

Since pro audio subs tend to be expensive and add complexity, there are a lot of important questions that one should ask one’s self before investing in a quality sub.

• Why do I want to add a subwoofer?
• What kind of music do I tend to work on?
• Do I even like the sound of subwoofers? Is my room suited for subwoofers?
• What are the options that make sense for my existing speakers?

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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 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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