Why Home Studio Vocals Sound Bad?DO THIS! Recording vocals in a home studio – doesn’t sound good? In this video you learn why home studio vocals tend to sound bad and how to fix it. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the future videos let […]
Stereo or Mono? – When to Use Stereo and When Mono Tracks? Stereo or mono? When to use a stereo track? How about a mono track? In this video I explain when and why you should use them. Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me to cover in the […]
Drum Sounds Ruined! – Phase Cancellation – How to Notice and Fix? Phase cancellation is really common when recording multimiked instruments, such as drums. As the same source of sound is recorded with two (or more) mics, their waveforms can cross in a way that they end up cancelling out one another. When […]
The Most Underrated and Powerful Mixing Tool One tool especially is at the same time so underrated and so powerful. It has the power to improve a mix within seconds, but still people seem to use it far too rarely. So many mixes would benefit from it. What am I talking about? Watch the video […]
Ad Libs – Huge Impact and Build up Towards the End of a Song Ad libs are a great way to build up momentum towards the end of a song, usually in the final chorus. They’re these short spontaneous vocal melodies based on key words of the song, that the lead singer improvises […]
How to Mix Bass? Bass takes care of the low end together with the bass drum. Saying “Bass is the balls of the band” is true in this sense. But in all seriousness, how to mix bass the way it’s supposed to sound? In this video I show you how to mix bass […]
Bigger Chorus with Doubled Backing Vocals Chorus differs from other parts of the song not only by the hooky melodies, but with the size. It tends to be the biggest part of the song. Sounds rational and even self-evident, but when it comes to doing it yourself, things can get complicated. How to […]
The Reason Why Your Mixes SoundMuddy and Boomy Are your mixes sounding muddy, boomy and somehow unprofessional when you compare them to professional mixes? My mixes sounded like that for a long time. They sounded good as I was mixing them, but when I compared my mixes to songs that I like, something […]
Punch and Character with This Mixing Technique for Drums Is your drum set lacking energy? Not enough punch? Dull and plain? In this video I show you how to add punch and character to the drums with a simple mixing technique: Hopefully you found this post helpful. If there’s anything you want me […]
Mixing Synths (Three Steps to Better Sounding and Standing Out Synths) Finding sounds to virtual instruments such as synths can be a hard task of its own, but what comes after that? How can you make them fit in the mix and sound awesome? In this video I show you three steps to […]
Vocal Microphone Comparison: 29€ Mic VS 400€ Mic What’s the difference between cheap and expensive mics? In this video I want to demonstrate how exactly 29€ mic differs from 400€ mic. The other one is almost 14 times more expensive. Mics in this vocal microphone comparison are t.bone SC 300 and Shure SM7B. The […]
Recording Vocals with 29 Euro Microphone!? – Cheap Vocal Mic: t.bone SC 300 In this video I want to demonstrate how t.bone SC 300 microphone sounds like with vocals. It’s a condenser microphone and it costs only 29 euros (approx. 35 dollars) which is crazy! So to the point: What kind of quality can you […]
An Easy Way to Mix Backing Vocals(and to Make Sure They Don’t Get in The Way of Lead Vocals) Vocals are the thing that most listeners focus on and that’s a fact. Many a times backing vocals are thrown in the mix also. While they can sound great and bring so much to […]
Mixing Vocals – What to Do?Do These Four Things Vocals are the focal point of each and every mix, like it or not. It’s safe to say mixing them is pretty crucial. How should you approach mixing vocals? What actually are done to them? What kind of plugins should you use and in […]
Vocal Compression– Settings That Actually Work Vocals are super dynamic source of sound. This means that they have both quiet and loud parts. For this reason the vocals seem to get buried in the mix here and there. The loud parts you can hear fine, but the quieter parts get lost. This is […]
Vocal EQ – Four Steps to Professional Vocals Vocals are probably the most important element in music. At least it’s the one people tend to focus on wether we want it or not. For this reason, recording and mixing vocals can’t be stressed enough. Mixing vocals (like basically anything else) starts with EQ. What […]
How to Approach Mixing Midi Drums? Midi drums are the savior of home studios. No need to record real drums in a real space or deal with all the mics, pre-amps, cables. However, when the time comes to actually mix the midi drums – what do you do? How do you approach mixing midi […]
Mixing an Entire Songfrom Start to Finish You hear a lot of talk about mixing these days, but the truth is you learn by seeing how mixing is done and then doing it yourself. You can read and watch short tutorials but it’ll only get you so far. That’s why I want to […]
Setting up a Project for Mixing Mixing is so awesome when you can focus on the artistic side of things instead of the mechanical stuff. Before jumping to mixing, you should set up a project for it the right way. Why? Because it’s like a foundation to a mix. It makes mixing easier, […]
The Best Free Bass Pluginfor Rock and Metal In case you’re struggling to get decent overdrive / distortion bass tone at home, look no further, because the TSE Audio BOD is just amazing. It’s the best free bass plugin for rock and metal genres. In this video you’ll hear it in the action […]
How to Create an Artificial Room Track for Drums? Many a times when you’re recording drums at home studio, garage or in a rehearsal space, there’s a good chance you’re using a limited mic setup. On top of that, the space might not be big enough for even to consider room mics. Because […]
Mixing with Mixbus Processing: Huge Difference with Just a Few Plugins! Mixbus processing means adding plugins to your master output – thus affecting all the tracks and the mix as a whole. There’s two approaches to this. Some like to do it before any other mixing is done, others like to leave it […]
Mixing Drums: Focused and Crisp Overheads Mixing drums can be tough, as there are (usually) so many tracks. The roles of each track can vary from genre to genre. In hard-hitting music, such as rock and metal, overheads have a certain role to play. In this video you’ll learn the mixing of focused […]
Mixing Toms: Punch and Clear Sound Mixing toms is fairly easy with the technique that you’ll find on the video below. Many a times toms have a nasty boxiness or honky sound that you may not even realize. Toms of amateur mixers sound dull and powerless, whereas toms of pro mixers sound clear […]
Mixing Kick Drum to be Punchy and Aggressive Mixing punchy and aggressive kick drum is fairly simple job to do. All you need is an EQ and a compressor. In this video you’ll learn how to use them effectively to achieve desired results. In the end of the video you’ll find a list […]
Awesome Vocal Effect with Doubled Vocals Producing vocals is an art form of its own. Adding strategic layers of vocals can create huge impact to the sound. In case the song doesn’t seem to work in terms of the vocal arrangement, this is totally something to experiment with. In this video I show […]
Bring Mix to Life with Automation (THIS SEPARATES THE MEN FROM THE BOYS) In case your mixes have ever felt dull or lifeless in comparison to a professional commercial mix – the missing ingredient might have been automation. With automation, you can easily bring your mix to life with a few moves here and […]
How to Mix Kick and Bass to Fit Together in a Full and Crowded Mix? How to fit kick and bass together in a tense and crowded mix? Many a times especially a kick can be buried underneath a bass. It’s not cutting through as much as you hoped it would. In this […]
Automating Vocals: Take Vocals Tracks to The Next Level Automation is what separates men from boys and pro mixes from amateur mixes. While automation is used widely to fix the balancing problems EQ and compressor alone cannot do, it is capable for much more. Take vocal tracks to the next level by automating vocals: […]
Mixing Vocals with Delay and Reverb – Which One to Use? Mixing vocals with delay and reverb can be confusing. Which one to use? What settings work for vocals? How much is enough? In this video you’ll learn how to use both delay and reverb with vocals. I also tell you which one […]
Mixing Warm and Thick Vocals with Saturation Vocals benefit from that good old warm analog sound. Since everything is pretty much digital (in home studios anyway) the recorded signal isn’t gaining any musical analog distortion in the process. This is where mixing vocals with saturation plugins come into picture. In this video you’ll […]
Mixing Home Studio Vocals to Sit in the Mix and Have More Energy Are you struggling to get your vocals to sit right in the mix? Do the vocals lack energy? Have no fear, in this video you’ll learn how to approach mixing home studio vocals to make them sit well in the […]
EQ Distorted Guitars: Mixing Ear Pleasing and Smooth Guitars Distorted Guitars can easily sound nasty and harsh. Of course, this is not what you want. You want ear pleasing and smooth tones, even though the guitars are heavily distorted. With this EQ technique, you remove all the harshness and nastiness out of your […]
Mixing Fat and Punchy Snare Drum Mixing fat and punchy snare drum is quite quick and easy job to do, once you have a decent sounding snare to start with. All you need is an EQ and a compressor and you’re good to go. This is how to mix fat and punchy snare […]
Faster Mixing with Mix Template (and Better Results) Are you starting every mix session from an empty project? No more. Mixing becomes much faster with a mix template. Save your time and energy for the stuff that matters, such as artistic musical choices instead of the mechanical tasks that has to be done […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Snare Reverb & Saturation This is the fifth follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s about snare reverb and saturation. By far we have gone all the four steps: Record tight and well played instrument tracks Edit EQ Compression Let’s build on that with snare reverb […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: Compression (Step 4/4) This is the fourth follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s all about compression. In the step one we recorded tight guitar and bass tracks whereas in the second step we edited the them. It’s time to continue mixing the tracks (step three […]
Hard-Hitting Mix: EQ (Step 3/4) This is the third follow up video for “4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard” and it’s all about EQing. In the step one we recorded tight guitar and bass tracks whereas in the second step we edited the them. Now it’s time to start mixing. We’re focusing on […]
4 Steps to Make Mixes Hit Hard Do you know the feeling when you think your mix hits harder than life and when you compare it to your favourite songs – it turns out your track sounds tiny in comparison? I hate that feeling and I don’t want you to feel it either. […]
How to Create Rise Against Bass Tone (on Any DAW with Stock Plugins)? In this video I’m showing you how to create Rise Against -like punkrock bass tone using only stock plugins. You can do this regardless of the DAW you’re using. The principles works on all the different DAWs. At first, try […]
How to Mix Programmed Midi Drums? Midi drums are just the best thing. They allow you to make music even if you don’t have drums or don’t know how to play them. Drums are the backbone of any genre really, that’s why they’re so important. It doesn’t really matter if they’re programmed midi drums […]
How to Get Rid of Harshness in a Mix? Let me ask you a question: Have you ever mixed a song that’s almost finished, compared it to a commercial pro mix and found out there’s harshness in your mix? Your mix is not as pleasing to the ears as the pro mix you’re comparing […]
How to Create Bring Me The Horizon Synths (With Stock Plugins)? In this video I’m showing you how to create those glitchy, Bring Me The Horizon – like synths with stock plugins. You can do it in any DAW. The process contains five different parts: 1. At first, pick up lead sound that […]
Can You Make Pro Quality Metal Music at Home? In this video you’ll find the answer to the burning question: Can you make pro quality metal music at home? The point of this video is just to demonstrate the quality that can be produced at home, with some budget gear and a simple […]
The Hack to Better Mixes What takes your mixes to the next level the fastest possible way? You know it’s not about the gear and it’s not about the right DAW or the right plugins. The biggest hack to better mixes is to follow the mixing techniques such as “mixing in mono”, “mixing […]
How to Use Reverb and Delay in Mixing? – Three Golden Rules If you’re looking for an easy guide on how to use reverb and delay in mixing, you’re going to find as many different opinions and ways to do that, as there are mixers out there. Some of them flag for reverb, […]
Saturation in Mixing – Instant Warmth, Glue and Fullness with One Plugin Does either one of these situations ring a bell: Have your mixes ever sounded a bit lifeless and thin compared to the commercial pro mixes out there, even though you did exceptionally fine job with mixing? Have your individual sounds ever […]
Improve Mix Within Minutes: Instant Energy, Glue, Clarity and Character with Mix Bus Processing At the very beginning of your mix – after the editing, coloring, routing and the raw balance has been done – what is the next logical step? How to improve your mix not only drastically, but also quickly within […]
Why Midi Synth Sounds Never Seem to Fit? – 4 Steps to Better Synths Have you ever searched synth sounds only to find out they all seem to suck? Doesn’t really matter what plugin you’re using, bulk of the presets sound like… Well, shit. Where on earth could you use them ever? They’re […]
5 Biggest Time Wasters in Home Studio It’s the most thrilling feeling to craft songs in home studio. You know the excitement when an inspiration sparks and the pieces start falling in place. Sadly, that’s not always the case. On the flip side, it’s the biggest frustration when you spend hours on your […]
Phase Cancellation – The Easy Approach Have you ever recorded or mixed multi-miked instruments, such as drums? Did you come up with this weird thin sounding result and you couldn’t quite pinpoint what you were doing wrong? No matter how you adjust the snare mic, it just sounds thin and hollow? Then you’ve […]
The Most Common Mixing Mistake (How to Fix) One thing pops up everytime I hear a demo or an amateur mix. It’s something that immediately separates amateur and professional mixes. The thing is, that if you don’t get this part right, the whole mix falls apart. Unless you’re not paying attention to it, you’re likely […]
More Powerful Chorus with Mixing How to get a more powerful chorus? That’s the question I kept asking myself when comparing my mixes to real commercial pro mixes. It might be a valid question for you too. It’s a bummer when you think you’ve got an explosive chorus that really hits you in the face, […]
Stop Trying to Do Everything With One Tool Your songs will sound much better if you don’t try to do everything with one tool. It sounds obvious, right? Why would anyone do that? I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we all have. What I mean is, that you get far better results by using different […]
The Truth About Why Your Mixes Suck Why do you think your mixes suck? Does it suck because of the lack of acoustic treatment or the lack of quality speakers? Is your mix bad because you don’t know how you should approach mixing? Don’t you have enough mixing tricks in your arsenal? While any of […]
Write and Mix Songs Faster With Custom Presets Custom presets are great, but you’ve probably heard it (even from me) that mixing with presets is unwise as the plugin manufacturer has no idea how your tracks sound like and what the song needs. Let’s say you insert an EQ to a vocal track and start flipping […]
The Power of Low Cut Filter – A/B-test Low cut filter (or high pass filter – either way you want to call it) is the simplest thing you can do to a mix, but it’s super effective. It is a filter that removes low frequencies from an audio signal. Frequencies below the determined point are […]
The Easy Approach to Frequencies Frequency spectrum is a hard concept to grasp, even if you’re more experienced with music and recording / mixing world. EQ is one of the most helpful tools when talking about mixing, as covered in the post “The Easy Approach to EQ”. It can cut or boost all the different […]
Five Unarguable Reasons to Use Click Tracks Click aka metronome is a tool that gives you a tempo. It can play half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes etc. for you to keep a certain tempo. It is designed to be a helpful tool, but some people don’t like it. They simply don’t like playing with […]
How to Mix Midi Drums? (The Pro Way) As you’ve already read my earlier posts “How to Make Realistic Midi Drums” and “How to Create Midi Drums Faster”, the next logical step is to learn how to mix midi drums wisely. This is where you take your good sounding, realistic midi drums and take them […]
How to Create Midi Drums Faster? Composing midi drums can be frustratingly slow, especially if you’re just starting out and / or you’re not a drummer. Somehow you manage to put together a decent two bar beat for your song. You’ll end up using the same two bar loop over and over again. In the […]
How to Make Realistic Midi Drums? As you know, drums are the backbone of basically any genre, let alone rock, metal and other similar hard hitting music. In an earlier post, I covered the topic about why drums are so important and why getting a third party drum plugin might be a good idea. If […]
The Importance of Great Sounding Midi Drums Let’s face it, drums are essential in today’s music. Drums are the bedrock of heavy metal, rock, dance music – you name it. In order to get pro sounding drums you’ll need either a talented drummer who can play your songs, and enough preamps, microphones, cables, mic stands […]
If You’re Going to Spend Money on Plugins, Get These Two In case you have some extra money laying around and you want to make an investment in your music, the solution is not a better preamp or a new microphone. The solution isn’t an expensive mixing plugin bundle. They won’t make you better as […]
Automation – The Cure for Flat and Lifeless Mixes Have you ever compared your mix to a commercial pro mix? How well did it stand next to it? For me it was like this: I got the mix sounding good on my speakers, but when comparing to a pro mix, I noticed a clear difference. […]
How to Know When the Mix Is Done? There’s a lot of talk about starting the mixing process and the different phases of it. So many guidelines and instructions are all over the internet. Sometimes you get so lost in the mixing process that in some point you start to over-do it. From that point […]
How to Set Up a Project for Mixing? Let’s assume you’re working on a new song. Imagine that you just finished the recording phase. How does your project look like? If you’re anything like I used to be, it looks awful. Multiple tracks of vocals with the same name, poorly organized synth and guitar tracks. […]
Mixing Step Number One – The Raw Balance One step is almost always forgotten or rushed through when it comes to mixing. We are so eager to throw plugins on tracks, that we forget the bedrock of the whole mix – the raw balance. Why it is so important? By forming the raw balance first, […]
The Easy Approach to Compression Compressor seems to confuse many home studio owners more than any other mix processing. It doesn’t have to be that way, because in the end compression is the same thing as a volume fader. It just has the ability to do balance changes automatically. Compressor is simply just an automatic […]
The Easy Approach to EQ EQ seems to be somewhat a mystery to many musicians and beginner home studio mixers. With this post I hope to lift that curtain of mystery a little bit. Whether you’re just starting out or are more experienced, the same principles apply. It’s good to remind yourself what EQ really […]
Three BIG Reasons to Mix at Low Levels Don’t you just love the feeling and excitement your new song generates, especially when you crank up the volume? Everything sounds so much more exciting and powerful at louder volumes. As you turn up the speakers, you can hear everything more clearly and defined. Why bother to […]
Mix in Mono – The Easiest Way to Get a Pro Sounding Mix Do your mixes sound good in your speakers and headphones, but when changing to somewhere else, the mix falls apart? Then something’s not right with the mix. Are you struggling to get your mixes in balance? There’s only so much room for […]
The Recipe of a Pro Mix (Most Skip 3-4 Out of 6 Crucial Steps) What actually is the recipe of a pro mix? Is there such a recipe? What are the steps to go from demo to pro? You’re about to find out. Watching the “behind the scenes” and studio diaries of your favourite bands […]
