Advice

The Advantages Of Recording With A DI Box

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Have you ever recorded a guitar or bass part only to get to the mixing stage and realize that you wish that you had recorded it better? Maybe you wish you used a different amp or that the performance could be tighter.

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a project and having the feeling of “I wish I had done [insert here]”

Fortunately, there are some tools out there that can give us more control throughout the process of recording, editing, and mixing.

When it comes to recording guitar or bass, one of the easiest things you can do is record a DI signal along with the mic signal.

In this video, I’m going to discuss the advantages of recording with a DI box and show you how it can help you throughout the editing and mixing stage.

Check it out here:

There are a lot of great DI boxes in the market that you can use.

Personally, I highly recommend using the Radial Pro DI as a great all-around DI box. You can get more info on it here: http://amzn.to/2oRZJEe

Or if you want more options and some killer bass tones, check out the Tech21 SansAmp here: http://amzn.to/2pmZAow

Do you always record with a DI? If so, which one do you like to use? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

 

Looking for more tips on how to get the low-end in your mixes sounding big and polished?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Getting Big, Wide Guitars

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Hey!

When dealing with rock mixes, one of the most important elements is getting your guitars to sound big, wide and full.

In the tracking stage, it is important that careful consideration is made for how you ultimately want your final mix to sound. This will give you the opportunity to make sure that you’ve properly recorded tracks that will allow you to achieve the mix you’re after.

So many people tend to rush through the tracking stage with the idea that sounds will be “fixed in the mix”; however, sometimes, things are better off tackled in the recording stage.

In this video, I’m going to discuss the importance of double tracking your guitars in the recording stage rather than trying to artificially recreate width in the mixing stage.

I’ll also show you some techniques I’ve seen many amateur mixers make and why these techniques don’t always work the way you might think they should.

Getting wide guitars truly isn’t something that can be fixed in the mix. It requires some forethought

– Mike

 

Looking for more mixing tips on how to get your guitars to sound polished?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Mixing Vocals – Why Reverb Is The Wrong Choice

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Do you find that your vocals often sound buried in your tracks?

Do you have trouble getting them to stand out so that every word is heard?

Vocals are THE most important element of every mix. Every detail needs to be carefully considered so that they are heard clearly.

Most engineers will spend the bulk of their time carefully carving out EQ and dialling in compression settings; however, so many amateur engineers seem to rush through one last very important step:

Adding effects

For a lot amateur engineers, it seems like reverb is a default effect to put on vocals. Sure, it can sound nice and lush, and it can even be quick way to make vocals sound “better”; but while reverb has it’s place, it is often the wrong choice for vocals.

I’ve created a video to show you an alternative effect that can be much more efficient to use.

In this video, I’ll show you my go-to effects settings for vocals and how you can avoid creating muddy mixes simply by choosing not to use reverb

Are you mixing with too much reverb?

 

Looking for more mixing tips on how to get your vocals to sound polished?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Making Your Own Drum Samples

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If you were to turn on the radio and listen to the top 20 songs right now, I’d guarantee that 19 out of 20 of them are loaded with drum samples that were used to enhance the overall size and tone of the drums.

Are you using samples in your mixes? If not, why?

There are tons of sample libraries in the market that are full of great samples; however, one of the easiest ways to grow your sample library is to make your own.

In fact, there are many advantages to using your own samples.

I’ve made a video to show you exactly how create your own and when/how to use them in your mixes.

Check It out…

Do you make your own samples? What are some of your favorite sample libraries?

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

I Had A Really Bad Case Of GAS…

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had a really bad case of GAS at some point in your career.

No, not THAT kind of GAS. I’m talking about Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

I remember when I first started engineering, I would read all sorts of posts online and in magazines saying “you need to have [insert piece of gear] to get the best quality sound”. Being young and naive, I totally bought into it. I started buying all sorts of mics, plugins, outboard gear, and preamps… pretty much anything I could afford.

I truly bought into the idea that the reason I couldn’t get pro results was because I just didn’t have all of that fancy gear. I figured all of the stock plugins I had were useless and that I needed to upgrade to premium plugins if I wanted to get results. I was a marketing manager’s dream!

But after a little while of buying all this gear, I noticed something pretty shocking… My mixes weren’t getting any better.

I felt deceived. Weren’t all of these new toys supposed to make everything sound instantly better?

The reason they weren’t was because I didn’t know how to use them properly.

I caught myself still guessing how to EQ and compress tracks.

No magic plugin or outboard gear was going to do all of that work for me. And even if it could, I’d be doing myself a huge disservice not learning how or why it did what it did.

Eventually, I told myself “no more gear purchases for another 3 years”. Guess what…

In those three years, my skill level grew so much!

It forced me to really learn how to listen properly and actually learn how to use the tools I already owned. I started getting better mixes and more clients started approaching me for work. It was insane. I couldn’t believe how much I had improved.

I no longer had to waste hours, sorting through plugin preset lists, trying to find something that sounded close to what I had envisioned. Instead, I could open up a compressor or EQ plugin and know exactly which controls to adjust and how to set them properly.

I even learned that I preferred some of the stock plugins to the “premium” ones I spent extra money on.

So what’s the point of all of this?

It’s one thing to have a nice gear; but without knowing how to use it properly, you’ll never get the maximum potential out of it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype. But if you’re still struggling with your mixes, chances are it’s not your gear that’s holding you back.

These days, programs come loaded with some amazing stock plugins. Some of which I still use all the time even though I have some “nicer” gear.

I urge you not to develop a bad case of G.A.S. yourself. Instead of purchasing new plugins and relying solely on the presets to get result, spend some time giving your current gear the love it deserves. Educate yourself on the proper techniques and mindsets needed in order to turn your vision into reality; using what you already own. It is possible.

I promise you – your skills are going to grow exponentially if you just dedicate some focus to learning rather than constantly chasing the newest equipment out there.

Have you had a similar experience? I’d love to hear about it.

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

When Do You Know Your Mix Is Done?

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One of the biggest questions I get asked is “how do you know your mix is done?”

This is a dilemma that every mixing engineer has encountered at some point in their lives; and depending on your workflow, it can have a major effect on your skill level, income and sanity.

I remember asking a Grammy award-winning engineer how I could improve my speed and get great mixes done faster; his response was:

“Stop being a perfectionist… No one is perfect. No mix is perfect. And everyone listens to songs differently.  That last 5% that you struggle to get perfect in your mix, means nothing to your client. Chances are they won’t hear it and you’re just going to waste hours trying to please your own ego – which you’ll never achieve because perfection doesn’t exist”

It can be a hard reality to face – but it is so true.  There are so many times engineers find themselves trying to make “one last change” or asking themselves “what if I try this?” only to find they’ve wasted their time and/or have actually made their mixes worse.

The biggest mixing engineers in the world work fast! Some of them including Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Black Eyed Peas, U2) make some of the best sounding mixes in a 3hr timeframe.

So how can you tell when your mix is done? Here are a couple techniques I use:

Before you start mixing:

Set a deadline

  • Give yourself a few hours to complete the mix
  • Setting a deadline will make you work faster
  • It forces you to commit to the work you’ve done
  • It allows you to keep a clear vision for how the mix should sound. The more time you spend second-guessing things, the more you will lose sight of what you should be doing

At the end of that deadline:

1. Listen to the mix as a listener (not an engineer)

  • Turn off your computer screen
  • Don’t make any adjustments to the mix during this listen
  • Listen for things a fan might find distracting. Are there any big volume jumps? Can you hear the instruments clearly?
  • Remember, your goal by this stage, is to have a song that sounds nice and complete. You don’t want to “hear” the mix.
  • If after listening, there aren’t any major changes that really stick out, consider your mix done.
  • If there are some changes, set another (much shorter) deadline to complete them

2. Ask yourself, “Am I just tinkering with plugins/faders without having an objective?”

  • Don’t change things just because you have the ability to
  • If you find yourself guessing what to do next; most likely, you’re all done the mix.

3. Ask your client

  • Don’t be afraid to ask them how they feel about the mix
  • They’ll let you know if they’d like any changes
  • There’s no harm in letting them hear something you might consider “an incomplete mix”. For all you know, they might actually think it sounds great and is done already
  • Remember, your job is to give them what they want – not what you want

4. Bring in a third party

  • When you think you’ve got your mix in a good spot, bring in someone who has never heard the song before and get their opinion
  • Preferably, try to choose someone who isn’t an engineer so they can give you a “fan” perspective
  • If they don’t point anything out to you that needs fixing, you’re done the mix

By personally implementing these steps, I’ve saved myself many headaches and hundreds of hours of mixing time.

Sure, it can be hard to let go of a mix; but if you’re constantly chasing perfection, you’ll never get anything done.

Think of how many more clients you can have; or how many songs you can release with all of that free time saved by no longer nitpicking.

I’d love to know what techniques you use to determine when your mixes are done.

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

3 Tips For Getting Better Mixes In Your Home Studio

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If you’re anything like me, you love to look at pictures of big, fancy recording studios – the gear, the look, the size… it’s all so attractive

Then you compare those studios to your home studio situation… it’s small, might have clothes all over the place, no acoustic treatment or fancy outboard gear.

“If only my room was designed like that big studio, then I’d be able to get pro mixes so easily”

The truth is… although all of the gear and acoustic treatment would be cool to have, it shouldn’t stop you from being able to make great mixes from home – even if your setup consists of just a laptop and a set of monitors or headphones.

The biggest reason why your mixes might not sound as good could be because of the way you’re listening to music in that room.

It all comes down to 3 things:

  • Monitoring position
  • Mixing at lower volumes
  • Using reference mixes

Monitoring Position:

Where you place your monitors in your room has a significant impact on the way you hear mixes. The wrong positioning can trick your ears into thinking you have a good balance, when in fact you don’t.

To get your monitors in the right spot:

  • Place your desk and monitors in the center of a wall
    • By doing so, you will have a balanced stereo image on both sides rather than dealing with uneven reflections which will make It harder to mix
  • Pull your monitors away from the wall
    • When your monitors are too close to a wall, you get tons of bass buildup. This may make you think the low end in your mix is big; when in fact, you don’t have enough because the bass buildup is tricking your ears. Your mix won’t translate onto other systems because the bass is only in your room and not in the mix
    • Move your monitors at least 12” away from the wall to help reduce this
  • Create an equilateral triangle between your head and speakers
    • Use a tape measure to make sure you have the same distance from your head to your monitors as you do from speaker cone to speaker cone.
    • For example, if your speakers are 4ft away from each other, then your head should be 4ft away from each speaker
    • Point your speakers inwards so they are pointed at your ears

Mixing At Lower Volumes:

If your room doesn’t have proper acoustic treatment, you run the risk of having it deceive your ears with lots of bad reflections – especially at high volumes.

By mixing at lower volumes, you can drastically reduce the amount your room is influencing what you’re hearing. You’ll have less deceptive bass and top end influencing your mixes

Plus, scientifically, when you mix at louder levels, your ears perceive more bass and top end than there actually is supposed to be.

Reference Mixes:

While you’re mixing, it’s always a good idea to compare your mixes to reference tracks.

By using a professionally recorded, mixed and mastered reference track, it will create a standard to aim for in your mixes. It’ll also allow you to gain a sense of what a professional mix should sound like in your room.

If your room has any weird resonant frequencies due to poor acoustics, at least with a reference track, it will let you know how a pro mix should sound in your room with those frequency spikes.

I created a video a little while ago on how you can use reference tracks to help you with your mixes.  You can check it out HERE.

Don’t let your room bring you down. And if you need to reorganize your room to try these ideas out – do it!

I guarantee it’ll improve your low end and your mixes will translate much better on other sets of speakers

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Why You Need To Use Reference Tracks

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Have you ever opened up a new mix session and immediately felt overwhelmed because you didn’t know where to start?

Maybe you thought…
– Where should I pan the instruments?
– How loud should my effects be?
– How much attack should I have on the kick?

Or maybe you finished your mix, got it sounding great in your studio, then went to play it in your car only to discover that it didn’t translate at all? Perhaps, all of a sudden, your track had too much low end? Or your vocals seemed to disappear?

We often have a rough idea in our mind of what we want our mixes to turn out like – but rarely do people actually compare their mixes to other songs during the mixing stage.

Using reference tracks in your mix sessions can be extremely handy. They allow you to have a standard to measure your mix against.

They also help with:

  • Creating mixes that translate from speaker to speaker
  • Guiding you to getting the right balances between instruments
  • Identifying what settings to use for EQ, compression, and effects
  • Learning how professional mixes should sound on your monitors

I’ve put together a video to show you how to use reference tracks.

In the video, you’ll learn how to use reference tracks to help you understand your studio monitors better – as well as what to pay attention to while using them in the mixing stage.

You’ll also learn a common mistake people make while using reference tracks and how to avoid doing the same thing.

I’ll even walk you through my reference track playlist and identify the reasons why I choose to use these songs. Don’t make fun of me; you’re about to discover one of my biggest guilty pleasures to listen to…

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Dissecting Plugin Presets

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Have you ever found yourself mixing and decided to try out some of your plugin’s presets only to feel like they actually made things sound worse?

Maybe you thought:

Are the pros really using these awful settings?!?

or

Wait… Are my tracks supposed to actually sound like this???

Presets are often designed with a variety of desired end results. Just because something says “Lead Guitar” doesn’t always mean it’s going to miraculously make your lead guitar tracks sound amazing.

Instead, you need to reverse engineer the plugin settings to get a firm understanding of what source material the designer was working with.

You want to get a good grasp of why someone would use these settings so that you know when to use them for your mixes.

For example, if a preset named “Kick Drum” has 15db of 8khz added, you could reverse engineer this to mean that perhaps whoever made the preset was working with a kick drum that didn’t have very much attack on it.

For certain genres (for example, jazz), you might not want a ton of clicky attack from the kick – instead, a rounder sounding kick may work perfect. But on the other hand, if you are working with a dull sounding kick in a dense metal mix, this preset may be perfect to use.

Presets are not meant to be a one-click solution to your mixes. And fortunately, the more you train your ears and learn, the less likely you’ll feel the need to scroll through the various presets trying to find something that works.

However, if you get a firm understanding of what your presets are trying to achieve, they can definitely be useful and help you achieve your desired results faster.

You might (and most likely will) need to tweak presets a bit to make them work perfect with your source material. But saving time through less mouse clicking is always a bonus.

So take a look inside your plugin preset folders. Try to reverse engineer them so that you can find opportunities for when to use them and how to save yourself time. Use the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint to reference what each setting is trying to achieve.

What are some of your favorite presets and how do you use them in your mixes?

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

Wait… You Want Me To Do What?!??

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I remember it clearly…

The first day I walked into my first big studio job after graduating from a prestigious music production school.

At this point in my life, I had spent a bunch of money for tuition and over two years of my life studying all I could about the correct way to use all sorts of gear. I had graduated at the top of my class but certainly didn’t feel like I knew it all.

I expected that I’d learn some new tricks of the trade by watching other engineers in action; but I had to at least know the basics of what to do – right???

When I first walked into my new job, the head engineer asked me who I was and what my background in engineering was. I told him my story – that I started learning on my own through the internet, recorded bands in my basement for years and eventually went to school for music production. I was excited to work in a big fancy studio and have the opportunity to play with all the high-end gear.

He looked at me and said “That’s cool. But now you work in the real world and we do things differently. Forget everything you know and were taught in school. You’re going to learn how to use gear in ways you were told you’re not supposed to”

At first I didn’t know how to respond.

Forget everything?!?? Was school a waste of time?!? Have I been doing it all wrong?

That day, I learned some of the biggest lessons of my engineering career.

In the first session I did as an assistant engineer, we were tracking guitars. I was dialing in preamp settings on a Neve 1073, focusing on getting a good clean signal without driving the gain into the red (the way I was taught).

That’s when the head engineer said “Turn the gain knob up all the way!”

I said “Won’t it distort?”

“Just do it!”

As soon as I did that, the guitar tone took on a whole new life. It was super dirty, had so much fuzz and sounded so wrong – but at the same time, it sounded so perfect. It was exactly the sound the song needed.

It was one of those big “ah-ha” moments.

There is no one-size-fits-all method to recording or mixing. 

You need to trust your ears and sometimes step outside of your comfort zone in order to get the results you need.

It’s one thing to know how to use your gear the way it is instructed. It’s another thing to know how to push the limits of your equipment to get results that you may not use all the time – but that came in handy at the right moments.

I strongly recommend you experiment with all of your equipment. Get creative. Try different EQ techniques, gain staging or compression settings.

Your experiments could very well sound like garbage – but you will quickly learn to identify what your equipment is capable of doing and what it can’t.

Some of those happy accidents just may end up leading to the missing ingredient in your next mix

Just some food for thought…

– Mike

 

Looking for more tips on how to create pro-sounding mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.

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