Recording secrets of Depeche Mode's cult album - Behind the scenes from the "Violator" sessions
Report / ShowReleased in early 1990, "Violator" was Depeche Mode's seventh studio album. It was produced over most of 1989 with the help of producer Flood, sound engineer Steve Lyon and mixer François Kevorkian.
Ten Beatles production secrets - The Fab Four in the studio: deciphering ten songs
LearningTo express the full extent of their genius, the Beatles spent hundreds of hours in the studio experimenting. Since then, some have devoted entire books to their production secrets. For our part, we o…
Tips for Better Headphone Mixing - Mixing on headphones has never been more important, or easier.
LearningHeadphones are more critical to the mixing process than ever. One reason is the popularity of music streaming. More people than ever are listening to music on mobile devices with headphones. So makin…
Arranging Tips - How to Give Your Songs More Impact
LearningSongwriting and performance are crucial ingredients for producing a great song. Another is the arrangement. That is, deciding which instrument and vocal parts will be in a song, and where they'll com…
How to get the best results when you record vocals - 12 Tips for Better Vocal Tracks
LearningNo matter the genre, a lead vocal track is always the focal point of a song. As a result, you should approach recording vocals with forethought and planning. If you want the best results, you need to…
AUDIO RECORDING - ultimate guide (100 episodes) - Or how to become a pro sound engineer ;)
LearningOnce the mastering series is finished and now that the mixing guide is (finally!) arriving the end, it's only natural that Audiofanzine asked me to extend this tale told backwards with a new series d…
MIXING IN A HOME STUDIO - ultimate guide (150 episodes) - A Guide To Mixing Music
LearningGiven the good response our "Mastering at Home" series received, yours truly has put himself to the task of doing a similar guide dedicated to recording and mixing.
HOME MASTERING - ultimate guide (22 episodes) - Become a master in mastering. In your bedroom.
LearningAfter more than 20 weeks, the time has finally come for the last installment in our series dedicated to mastering at home. Today we won't be making any miraculous revelations. Instead, we'll give you…
THE LOUDNESS WAR (12 episodes) - Why and how levels are always higher. And how to fix this madness.
LearningVolume, more volume! Yes, but at what price? This series of articles will review the origins of the volume race, the physical considerations, new standards and tools, and their impact on public healt…
SOUND SYNTHESIS & SOUND DESIGN (30 episodes) - Make Jean-Michel Jarre sound like a beginner
LearningThroughout history, humans all around the globe have never stopped diversifying the uses of music ─ ritual, recreational, intellectual, etc. ─ and have produced it using their voices and bodies or th…
HOW TO EXTRACT VOCALS FROM A SONG - Unmixing a cake is not a piece of cake. But extracting vocals is.
LearningYou've probably dreamed about removing or isolating vocals or instruments from a record to get a single vocal line or sample an instrumental loop. However, is this even possible?
Award-winning mixer Michael Brauer talks techniques, ge… - The Wizard of Compression
LearningAn eight-time Grammy-award winner, engineer Michael Brauer has put his magic mixing touch on albums for Coldplay, John Mayer, and the Dave Matthews Band among many others. He is known for his unique …
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 4 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 99
LearningIn this fourth part you'll learn how to fine-tune the cue mix for the singer by improving the ordinary in no time.
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 3 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 98
LearningAfter the brief detour last week to discuss a less conventional way to handle the cue mix, today we'll go back to the more traditional way, that is the use of a good ol' pair of headphones. We'll dis…
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 2 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 97
LearningLast week I mentioned the preposterous idea of using a speaker instead of headphones to send the cue mix to the singer. This obviously entails the mic picking up a lot of bleed, however as I implied …
Headphone mix for the singer - Part 1 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 96
LearningToday's article could've been easily included in the previous section because we are once again dealing with the comfort of the singer. However, I decided to make it part of a new, much larger sectio…
The comfort of the performer - Part 3 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 95
LearningThird and final installment of the chapter dedicated to the comfort of the singer during vocal recordings. Today, for the first time, we will discuss the gear used. However, before looking at it from…
The comfort of the performer - Part 2 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 94
LearningSecond part of the chapter dedicated to the comfort of the singer when recording vocals. After discussing the place last week, today you'll see some really nice tricks that will allow the singer to f…
The comfort of the performer - Part 1 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 93
LearningIn the previous article I mentioned the famous "comfort zone" of the singer. In the coming weeks we'll look into the material conditions around a vocal recording which are susceptible of helping the …
Singing or the art of performance - Part 4 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 92
LearningTo finish with the performance question, today we'll discuss a somewhat particular topic which was inspired by a comment posted in the French forum by ex-Moderator in Chief, Will Zégal, in response t…
Singing, or the art of performance - Part 3 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 91
LearningToday we'll continue exploring the art of performance with an installment that could be easily renamed into "Theatrics for Dummies." However, anyone who takes the time to put into practice these tips…
Taking care of the singer - Part 2 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 88
LearningSecond installment dedicated to the things to do to prepare better for a recording session. Once again, certain things I'll write here might seem statements of the obvious for some of you. That said,…
Taking care of the singer - Part 1 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 87
LearningToday we'll see how you can look after the singer during a recording session. Do note that for the sake of simplification, whenever I write "singer" in this chapter I will be referring generically to…
Recording vocals - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 86
LearningThis week we'll begin discussing one of the most important topics of this series: vocal recording. As you will see in this brief introduction, recording vocals correctly doesn't just mean putting up …
The art of dialog - Part 3 - The ultimate guide to audio recording - Part 85
LearningThird and last part of this interlude dedicated to dialog within the framework of a record production. Today we will look at this topic from the point of view of the home studio loner.
