It’s obvious, but also frequently overlooked: you can only make music that sounds as good as your speakers. One of the first and most important lessons any new producer should learn is the effect of your listening environment on the quality of music you can produce. People find audio a little hard to visualize- music …
There are two types of people: People who love and appreciate the unique and versatile percussion instrument that is the cajón, and people who don’t yet know what a cajón is. Either way, any producer who is aware of this humble powerhouse, will sooner or later find themselves asking themselves how to mic a cajón …
In this modern day, most recording advice assumes a lot of things. Like an unlimited budget, and an ideal recording room, and all the time in the world to record instruments individually and perfectly. But as we all know, real life is a lot messier than these theoretical situations. There are many, many situations where …
Slap delay (also known as “Slapback”) is a very simple, but extremely efficient audio effect to add depth to your vocals. Even though this effect has been around since the 50s and is mostly associated with Elvis, blues, and rockabilly sounds, it can add fullness and depth to vocals in just about any genre. But …
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When it comes to recording audio in a room, there are many factors that come into play that can affect the quality of the sound that is picked up. Echo is one of the main drawbacks of having a bad or non-treated room. In terms of recording, this will create unwanted artifacts, muddiness, and possibly …
In today’s music scene, bass guitars and synths rule the bass frequencies. Once ubiquitous, upright basses are now relegated to dusty corners of relevance. Classical orchestras and symphonies; traditional jazz bands; rockabilly and psychobilly bands. The double bass is therefore an instrument of passion, tradition, and pride. Of course, these behemoths are no longer common …
Finding the best reverb for rap vocals is more important than you might think. A rapper’s voice is everything; his or her vocals are their way of expressing themselves. So finding your “voice” is about practicing your performance, but also about finding a great combination of gear and effects to make your voice shine. I …
That’s right- we are officially at the point in history where “How to Record Bass Guitar on a Phone” is a coherent question. Yeah, it’s something most of us take for granted but you wouldn’t have to go very far back in time for this question to sound completely insane. This is a testament to …
Let’s assume we have a nasty 808 Sub-Bass the music industry has grown to love. Let’s note first what a compressor actually does. A compressor essentially creates an average output signal of sound. It takes the lowest, softest point of the waveform, and the highest, loudest point of the waveform to create somewhat of an …
Let’s assume your pianist is a seasoned pro, or you’re a programming wizard. Our piano keys and chords primarily sit on the 5th and 6th octave, but can decrease to the 2nd and 3rd much bass-ier octaves, and/or go as high as the 7th octave. I know we’re talking about equalizing vocals with piano, but …
