You’ve got a rhythm guitar tracked, doubled, and panned hard left and right, and the verses sound great. The chorus arrives, and the guitars suddenly feel small. The vocal pokes out, the drums punch through, and the wall of guitar you imagined sounds more like a fence. You pull a compressor in, set 4:1, drag … Read more
Your toms sound massive on the solo’d hits and then turn into a boomy, ringing mess the moment the full kit plays. The fills are muddy, the low toms clash with the kick, and the open tom mics are pumping kick and snare bleed into everything. So you boost the attack to cut through, the … Read more
Your drums sound fine soloed, then you drop them in the mix, and the kick is boomy, the snare is boxy, and the cymbals are slicing your ears off. You know EQ fixes it, but you are sweeping around blind on every track, burning an hour on a kit that should take ten minutes to … Read more
The complete guide to the 1176 compressor — covering its history, the blackface vs blue-stripe difference, gain staging, and exactly how to use it on vocals, bass, snare, guitars, and more.
Everything you need to know about mono and stereo — what they are, when to record in each, how to mix using both, and how to make sure your mixes translate everywhere.
Your bass sounds full and warm when you solo it. Then you play the whole mix, and it either disappears on your laptop speakers or turns the low end into a boomy, muddy mess that swallows the kick. So you boost the lows, and it gets boomier. You turn it up, and it clashes with … Read more
Bass compression is an essential skill for enhancing the low end of your mix. When applied correctly, it tightens the bass, making it sound focused and controlled. This guide covers the best bass compression settings for live bass, synth bass, and slap bass — with a full cheat sheet.
Soloed, your piano sounds gorgeous, full and rich across the whole keyboard. Then you play the mix, and it turns into a muddy cloud that swallows the low end and steps on the vocal. So you thin it out, and now it sounds tinny and lost. You add reverb, and it washes over everything. The … Read more
You’ve spent 20 minutes on the same piano track. Threshold down a bit, attack up, ratio nudged from 2:1 to 4:1, and the recording still sounds either flat and lifeless or harsh and pumping every time the player hits a chord. Piano fights compression harder than almost any other source, and most “starting point” presets … Read more
Your piano sounds gorgeous played on its own. Then you drop it in the mix, and it turns boomy in the low end, boxy in the mids, and clashes with the vocal for the same space. So you cut the lows and it goes thin, or boost the highs and it turns tinny and harsh. … Read more