Music Production Tips – The Stereo Bus Blog

This 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 prefer a light touch and lower overall volume.  This is the sort of thing mastering engineers tend to prefer, so it works out well.  Obviously, a metal album would be a different story altogether (and my next self-produced release will be more along those lines.)

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This 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 thought I’d offer you something to make up for it: free music!
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This post focuses on the process of getting the vocal chain right for the given performer.

The signal chain for vocals is probably one of the most important production choices in pop music.  Of course, it helps to have a healthy selection of devices to choose from.  Every voice has unique qualities, some of which should be emphasized and some of which should be de-emphasized.  The tools available to accomplish this are, in order of affectiveness: microphone selection, mic placement, and preamp selection.

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