Universal Audio
Carlos de la Garza shares a stereo widening technique he picked up from producer Joe Chiccarelli, built around two Eventide H910 harmonizers. Send a mono signal to both units, pitch one up 1 cent and the other down 1 cent, pan them hard left and right, and add a touch of feedback. The result is an unusually wide, immersive spread that sits well in a mix without feeling artificial. Carlos used this approach throughout Paramore's "After Laughter" on vocals, percussion, and drums - often on the majority of songs. It's a simple setup with a dramatic effect, and the 1-cent pitch offset is small enough to stay transparent while still generating serious width.
Yoad Nevo
Yoad Nevo explores the general classic operational modes of de-essing using the Waves DeEsser to manage vocal sibilance and harshness. In split mode, the de-esser acts like a two-band dynamic EQ, targeting only frequencies above the cutoff point, ideal for controlling sibilance without affecting the entire vocal range. Bell mode narrows the focus around the cutoff frequency, effectively addressing lower sibilant sounds like "sh" and "ch." Wideband mode uses the high-frequency detector to trigger full-range compression, suitable for loud, high-pitched vocals, but can risk a "lispy" sound if overdone. Choosing the right mode depends on the vocal and situation. Understanding their differences helps you make quicker, more targeted mix decisions by listening and adjusting accordingly.
Thomas Juth
Thomas Juth applies the Sonnox Oxford TransMod plugin to overhead mics to pull back transients and let the natural room sound come forward, welcoming bleed from the band rather than fighting it. Juth dials transients down to around -24dB first to hear the full effect, then settles at -3.7dB while adding 3dB of sustain, giving the overheads more depth and air without losing definition. The broader point is that bleed on overheads isn't a problem to fix, but rather an acoustic resource. Shaping transients this way lets the room breathe into the drum mix, adding a live, ambient quality that a close-mic'd track alone can't deliver.
Universal Audio
Jacquire King walks through his use of a UA Sphere DLX as a mono kit mic, positioned close to the kick drum shell to capture a warm, woody tonal quality. Set to emulate a U47, it functions as an overall perspective on the kit rather than a spot mic for any single element. Heavy high-frequency filtering manages the ride cymbal wash that comes with that close placement, pulling back the brightness so the tonal body of the kit comes through instead. From there, King runs the signal into a Fatso with aggressive compression settings. The result is not a featured sound in the mix but a blended one - used sparingly to add coherence, shape, and character to the drum picture as a whole.
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Kevin Atwater
Philip Weinrobe looks into the topic of vocal doubles, emphasizing opting for a single lead to enhance authenticity in intimate performances. He notes that avoiding vocal doubles can maintain narrative clarity when lyrics are personal, fostering a genuine listener connection. Weinrobe suggests letting artists experience changes, like removing doubles, by listening to the mix without prior discussion. This way, the mix speaks for itself, and artists form their opinions based solely on their listening experience.
Produce Like A Pro
Marc Daniel Nelson breaks down pre-delay as the time gap between a dry vocal and the moment its reverb kicks in, and explains how that gap is what creates a sense of three-dimensional space in a mix. Push the reverb back in time relative to the vocal and the vocal snaps forward, sounding present and upfront without losing the sense of size or atmosphere around it. Nelson skips the BPM-division math and works by ear instead. His two go-to starting points are 75ms and 120ms, which he treats as rough anchors to adjust from depending on how much separation the song needs. The demonstration uses a vocal from Laura Lewis's "Old Gray Pine" to let the effect speak for itself. With pre-delay dialed in, the reverb sits behind the vocal rather than merging with it, giving each element its own plane in the stereo image. Nelson's point is that even a basic stock reverb plugin can sound expensive and record-like once the pre-delay is doing that separation work.
Plugin Alliance
Paul Womack explains why a 16th-note slap delay often works better than reverb on rap vocals, and how he shapes the effect to fit the specific voice he's mixing. The core idea is that reverb implies space by filling it, while a slap delay implies space without occupying it. For staccato, rapid-fire rap delivery, long reverb tails blur the words and weigh down the performance. A tight 16th-note slap gives the sense of a room without competing with the vocal. The less obvious move here is EQing the delay return rather than leaving it flat. Womack ducks around 2kHz on the effect to avoid amplifying the vocalist's natural nasal character, and rolls off the low end to keep stray low frequencies out of the stereo width. The delay becomes something you feel rather than notice. This approach applies any time a vocalist's tone has a quality you don't want reinforced by the space around them. The effect should complement the voice, not magnify its problem areas.
Agartha Podcast
Ryan Schwabe shares his mixing philosophy, emphasizing the importance of realizing an artist's vision through decisive and creative execution. Schwabe describes his process as drawing from past experiences, using decisions that have proven successful. He views his role as enhancing the artist's sound without overtaking their stylistic intentions. His aim is to produce mixes that feel powerful and engaging, ensuring the artist is thrilled with the final product. To achieve this, Schwabe advocates for working quickly and intuitively, focusing on gut instincts rather than overthinking. This approach not only preserves his creativity but also leads to high-quality results in a shorter time. This philosophy encourages a collaborative victory between engineer and artist.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini emphasizes the importance of perpendicular microphone placement when miking speaker cabinets to achieve a clearer, brighter sound. He explains that angling the microphone can cause phase cancellation in high frequencies, resulting in dullness. This method contrasts with the common practice of angling the mic, which originated from live sound engineers needing to keep stages clear. Albini encourages an experimental approach in the studio, suggesting that refining techniques over time through trial and error leads to better results and professional growth.
Sage Audio
Sage Audio demonstrates how equalizers don't just shape frequency - they also rotate the phase of a signal, and that phase shift can quietly undermine a drum mix you've already worked hard to align. Using a drum mix with overheads, kick, and snare, the video shows how adding a high-pass filter to the snare shifts its phase relationship with the other tracks. The steeper the filter slope, the more dramatic the effect: at 18 dB per octave or greater, the phase can shift up to 180 degrees, introducing a resonant peak just above the cutoff and pulling the snare out of correlation with any other track that captures it, even faintly. This is a common blind spot when mixing multi-tracked instruments. Equalizing one track in isolation feels routine, but when multiple mics are sharing the same source, an EQ move on one signal changes how it sums with the others.
Produce In a Minute
Understanding phase in music production is crucial for maintaining audio quality. Phase refers to the timing relationship between audio signals, where perfectly aligned waves are in phase, and misaligned waves are out of phase. When sounds are in phase, they reinforce each other, creating a stronger, more cohesive sound. Conversely, out-of-phase sounds can cancel each other out, leading to undesirable effects in your mix.
Variety
Jack Antonoff shares his approach to creating a massive chorus sound for Sabrina Carpenter's "Please Please Please" using just eight vocal tracks and creative effects processing. Instead of relying heavily on reverb or delay, Jack prefers spreading multiple takes across the stereo field, giving the illusion of a fuller sound. He enhances this by running the vocal stack through a WEM Copicat and a Roland Space Echo, manipulating pitch in real time to highlight the unique qualities of Sabrina's voice. The strategy involves maintaining a tight vocal stack throughout most of the song, reserving the expansive 15-vocal climax for the final line, which feels earned and impactful. This approach demonstrates how leaving space in the mix can make the chorus sound even more massive and engaging.
Studio.com
Ryan Tedder explores the Timbaland approach to drum programming by emphasizing a natural swing that sits behind the beat, rather than using full quantization. This method relies on creating a groove by playing a loop until it feels right, capturing the "human quotient" that brings a unique feel to the music. Tedder demonstrates how to manually adjust beats, keeping them slightly imperfect to maintain a natural swing. This technique can be more challenging when layering sounds, as everything needs to align with the original beat, but it ultimately adds a distinctive, lively character to the track. The process showcases the importance of feel over precision, encouraging producers to trust their instincts and embrace slight imperfections for a more authentic and engaging rhythm.
SonicScoop
Preston "Prizzie" Reid demonstrates the use of the Schwabe Digital Orange Clip on a live bass guitar that was already compressed pre-mix to maintain its groove without altering the timing. He highlights how clipping shaves off the peaks, providing a consistent sound while preserving the bass's natural feel. This approach ensures the bass sits well in the mix and delivers a clean, controlled signal to the mix bus limiter. By choosing clipping over further compression, Prizzie preserves the song's groove and ensures a punchy, well-integrated bass sound.
Splice
Lyncs transforms a raw vocal recording into a unique, playable arp instrument using Logic Pro. She begins by tuning the vocal with Auto-Tune and loads it into the Logic Sampler to map it across the keyboard. Next, she applies the Logic Arpeggiator in grid mode to create an arpeggiated pattern, enhancing the vocal's musicality and rhythmic interest. To add depth and sustain, Lyncs uses Valhalla Room reverb and automates steep peaks in the pre-delay, giving the arp a dynamic, stretching feel. This process showcases a creative workflow combining sampling, pitch correction, and arpeggiation for innovative sound design.
Lauten Audio
In this session at Studio 606, drummer Victor Indrizzo shares his technique of using a crushed drum mic as the loudest element in his headphones during tracking. This method helps him manage cymbal dynamics effectively, ensuring they don't overpower the mix. Victor emphasizes focusing on the overall song rather than individual performance. By adjusting the levels, he ensures he reacts to the music, creating a more balanced and cohesive performance. This highlights the importance of attentive monitoring to enhance both the recording process and the final drum sound.
Kevin Atwater
Philip Weinrobe presents a creative technique using the Eventide H3000's "Buenos Notches" phaser preset on vocals. By swapping the default LFO with an envelope follower, the modulation dynamically follows the vocal's nuances. This approach adds unique depth and an edgy texture. You can replicate this effect with other phasers by ensuring the modulation is envelope-triggered rather than LFO-driven.
Jordan Rakei
Jordan Rakei demonstrates his vocal freeze technique using a 30-second, heavily modulated Valhalla Vintage Verb reverb on a single word or phrase. He adds a touch of tremolo to make the sound more rhythmically interesting, and by riding the send level live with latch automation, he creates a reverb tail that swells up after the dry vocal lands, adding atmosphere without cluttering the dry sound.
Ableton
Rival Consoles explains his method of stacking multiple instances of Ableton's Autopan in series, each set to different time divisions like sixteenth notes and dotted rhythms, along with a free, unsynced instance. This setup allows him to create polyrhythmic tension by contrasting grid-based rhythms with free ones. He maps the effect amount of each Autopan instance to a Launch Control XL, giving him intuitive, hands-on control to blend and introduce these rhythmic effects seamlessly. This enables dynamic interaction and creativity during live performances, adding unique rhythmic articulation and momentum to a single droned chord. This technique is straightforward to implement, providing a clear approach to crafting engaging rhythmic textures with simple tools.
Ableton
Catnapp demonstrates her go-to vocal processing chain in Ableton Live, focusing on enhancing vocals during production and recording. She starts with a gate to reduce noise, followed by EQ Eight to cut lows slightly and boost highs for crunch. A Chorus effect is used to widen the vocals in the stereo field, while a Saturator adds warmth and rawness. She uses a classic Delay with simple beat division settings and ends with a Hybrid Reverb for precise pre-delay control. The segment features a before-and-after demo, showcasing how the chain transforms the vocal sound. This concise walkthrough provides practical insight into achieving an inspiring vocal sound already during recording.
Splice
Lyncs enhances her chorus vocals by recording the melody twice and panning each take left and right, creating a wider and more impactful sound. She also uses the Antares Harmony Engine plugin to generate background vocals from the lead vocal. By sidechaining the lead vocal to the plugin, she allows the signal to guide pitch detection. Playing MIDI harmony notes, she quantizes them and uses Logic's MIDI Transform with a fixed-velocity setting to ensure harmonic details are clear and vibrant. Lyncs combines doubling, panning, and MIDI techniques to construct a rich, harmonically complex vocal arrangement.
The House Of Kush
Gregory Scott demonstrates how the release knob on a compressor shapes the movement and tonal color of drums, particularly focusing on the ride cymbal. He explains that a fast release creates a bright, flickering effect, while a slow release results in a darker, swimmy sound. This manipulation of release can add exciting movement and character to your drum sounds. Scott further explores the use of parallel compression to blend these textures, allowing for nuanced control over groove and density. By understanding and hearing these subtle changes, you can transform compression into an artistic tool, enhancing the overall vibe and emotional impact of your mix.
SonicScoop
Tony Maserati explores his hybrid mixing approach, combining in-the-box digital techniques with external analog summing. He uses auxes to create a flexible system, allowing mixes to be processed either digitally or through analog gear like a Neve sidecar or a Chandler mini mixer. Maserati highlights the sonic benefits of analog summing, which often yields a fuller, wider, and more dynamic sound. He discusses collaborating with his assistant to assess whether analog processing enhances a mix, underscoring the importance of adaptability in achieving the desired audio quality. While acknowledging the expertise of all-digital mixers like Tchad Blake, Maserati emphasizes the creative possibilities his hybrid setup offers. This approach allows for nuanced decisions about whether a mix benefits from analog warmth or remains purely digital.
Agartha Podcast
Mastering engineer Ryan Schwabe shares his approach to learning clipping techniques using his Gold Clip and Orange Clip plugins. He advocates positioning the clipper before the limiter and adjusting the clipper's ceiling to manage gain reduction effectively. This method minimizes the limiter's impact on the mix by shifting some of the gain reduction to the clipper, allowing the limiter to perform more transparently. Schwabe emphasizes starting with small adjustments, such as 0.5 to 1 dB, to achieve a clean sound and advises ensuring the clipper isn't adding gain to accurately assess its effect. For those aiming to achieve loud mixes without compromising punchiness, Schwabe's insights reveal how balancing the clipper and limiter can lead to aggressive yet clean results. His techniques offer a way to manage dynamics while maintaining the mix's aesthetic appeal.
Electrical Audio
Jon San Paolo explains the differences between active and passive DI boxes, focusing on their construction and power requirements. An active DI uses a vacuum tube or transistor, requiring phantom or external power, and allows signal flow in one direction only. In contrast, a passive DI uses a transformer, which doesn't need external power and can handle signal flow in either direction, offering flexibility. San Paolo's insights highlight practical applications of passive DI boxes, such as direct recording and re-amping, making them versatile tools in the recording studio.
Freaking Out With Billy Hume
Billy Hume shares a unique technique for enhancing snare drum sound using an AKG 414 microphone placed 6-8 feet above the snare. By driving the mic through a preamp to introduce distortion, he creates a distinct, gritty overhead sound. He then uses a pre-fader bus send from the regular snare track to a gate plugin on the distorted mic, side-chaining it to the snare. This ensures the distorted mic only opens when the snare hits, adding thickness and sustain to the snare sound. This method is a staple in Billy's drum mixing process, offering a way to achieve a fatter, more impactful snare that stands out in the mix.
The House Of Kush
Gregory Scott delves into understanding and controlling drum transients using the Kush Novatron. He demonstrates how a slow attack on the compressor lets transients through, creating a punchy and authoritative sound, while a fast attack results in a softer, mellower tone. Scott shares a practical tip: lower your mix volume significantly to better hear the changes made by adjusting the attack knob. This technique helps beginners grasp how compression shapes the texture and dynamics of their mix. Mastering transient management allows you to shape and place mix elements effectively, bringing the right sounds to the forefront while subtly supporting others in the background, creating depth and clarity in your music.
Producertech
Ellie Dixon shares her technique for enhancing a finger-played bass guitar by layering it with Logic's Sculpture synth using the Dirty Planet preset. This approach adds pick attack, impact, and stereo width to the bass sound. She explains key parameters of the synth, such as string material and the steel/nylon axis, before recording a MIDI bassline. To ensure the synth and bass guitar blend seamlessly, she quantizes and manually aligns note endings and adjusts velocities. The synth is mixed low, supporting rather than dominating the bass guitar, creating a cohesive and polished Alt-Pop bass sound. This comprehensive tutorial covers tool selection, MIDI editing, and blending techniques, highlighting how each step contributes to the final mix.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini demonstrates how to achieve a balanced and clear bass sound using two mics. He combines a Beyerdynamic M380 and a Sennheiser MD 421 to capture both low and high frequencies from a Traynor TS 50B amp. The M380 is positioned close to the speaker to exploit the proximity effect, enhancing the low-end response, while the MD 421 captures high-frequency detail. By aligning the diaphragms to maintain phase coherence, Albini ensures a clean and articulate recording. In the control room, he blends the two mic signals, similar to how a woofer and tweeter work in a hi-fi system, providing an accurate representation of the speaker's sound. This flexible approach can be adapted for various instruments like electric keyboards and synthesizers to ensure they all have strong bass presence.
Produce Like A Pro
Marc Daniel Nelson showcases a powerful technique for achieving deep but clear vocals using a combination of delay, reverb, and a sidechain compressor. He chains an Acustica Lemon delay with a large Valhalla plate reverb, placing a sidechain compressor at the end. The compressor, keyed to the dry vocal, provides around 6dB of gain reduction with medium attack and release settings. This setup ensures the vocal remains punchy and clear, allowing the ambient effects to swell naturally during pauses, adding depth without overpowering and cluttering the mix. Nelson also fine-tunes delay panning and feedback to enhance spatial effects. The video covers the entire signal chain, including delay panning and feedback, reverb pre-delay rationale, and before/after comparisons of the ducking effect. This approach enhances vocal clarity and depth, providing a rich, immersive experience.