Articles on audio mixing: techniques for a professional sound

Some musicians and producers do a lot of their mixing while they’re tracking, whereas others set everything back to zero at the end of tracking, and start their mix from scratch.

Here's a list of plug-ins, software and hardware tools that will simplify the life of the home studio owner.

When we start out as DJs we often ask ourselves where to begin to learn all the basics. Beginners can easily get lost thinking about the choice of equipment to use, the songs to mix and, especially, …

Many DJs spend lots of time perfecting their transition techniques to try to give them a "personal" touch by using effects, or trying to master better their mixing gear. Unfortunately, they often do …

When people refer to a sound as being "fat" they usually mean different realities and consequently different practices. Here is an overview of the techniques most commonly used to easily get a fat so…

The art of mixing requires technical competency as well as a good dose of creativity. However, often times such characteristics don't get along well inside our brain...

To avoid connection errors, it's important to distinguish between insert and aux effects. Their operation is different, so their integration in the audio path is different too. That's why it's import…

The critics are right: pitch correction can suck all the life out of vocals. I proved this to myself accidentally when working on some background vocals.

Mixing with Headphones can be a viable option to achieving great mixes. Although it’s always recommended to use high quality monitor speakers, sometimes they aren’t a viable option. It may be late at…

Toms are an interesting part of the kit that often add flare and excitement to a drum track, just look at the intro to Enter Sandman by Metallica, or the fill before the chorus of Africa by Toto. The…

Next to the Kick Drum, the Snare Drum is the most important component of the Drum Kit. So its paramount that we get it to sound as good as its potential.

In most Genre’s the Kick Drum will be the Low End foundation of the song. So really we should treat it with respect and try and get the best out of it while mixing. If you have recorded the Kick Drum…

One of the questions that I get asked fairly often by neophyte recording enthusiasts is "how hot should I record?" The amount of signal you record per track can have an effect on not only the sound o…

A good bass line, played on a good bass, can be made into a great Bass track. But you need to know your way around your Bass Guitar Processing. Lets take a look at giving your bass that extra little …

So you’ve recorded all your instruments and room captures, you’ve got a basic mix going, and you ‘ve selected your delays and reverbs. Now what?

When entering a new space, how often do we consider it’s sonic characteristics. And more frequently, when building a mix, how often do we think of space(s) as its own sonic element?

If you’re reading this article you might already know that EDM stands for Electronic Dance Music. The styles range over a wide gammet of musics, from House to Dubstep, Drum-n-Bass, and IDM (Intellige…

It’s always a great and an unusual experience to meet a personality who has contributed some much to the evolution of the way we work. In addition to the videos previously released on Audiofanzine, w…

Time for the third installment of the Mixing Rap Vocals series: Compression.

Some people want their music really loud, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If loudness is part of their aesthetic and the audience likes it, then I say let’s go for it. In order to deliver the mo…

World renowned mixer/producer Chris Lord-Alge granted Audiofanzine an exclusive interview. The man behind Green Day, Paramore, Deftones, Madonna, Tina Turner, James Brown, among others, shared his wo…

Buss compression is certainly not a new concept, however, it is an effective and reliable engineering tool and its basic principles are vital considering you are affecting multiple voices.

"Coloring the sound? That's bullshit"! ...according to George Massenburg, one of the best regarded sound engineers in the world. And he has plenty more to say, as you can learn in the sixth and final…

In this next-to-last part of our video series dedicated to George Massenburg, he shares with us his opinion on headphones and goes on to describe the role of the producer in a recording session.

After a tour around the studio, George Massenburg takes us into the control room to share with us some of his choices and habits at work. And it's fascinating!