Bees

After fixing yesterday’s attempt at a song with vocal melody – I decided to try to write a song in the key of B – and I saved the song in Cubase as “bees” – jokingly. Then I wrote the lyrics – and like the guitar chords – they just flowed out. The vocal melody was easy as could be – its exactly the…

SSL2 vs. UA Volt276

The SSL is clean, clear and beats the UA Volt 276 by a big margin. The Volt 276 has better ergonomics and is much nicer looking, but it’s all about the sound. In this regard, the SSL2 also beats the MOTU M2 and Focusrite Scarlett – (at least to my ears and when playing back mixes on my cheap cell phone in mono). On…

The Case of The Muddy Mix (solved)

The Mike Senior book is the cats meow. Every word and sentence is good advice. Notice how his title includes “For the small studio”. David Miles Hubers book is also fantastic. However, notice how it does not specify “For the small studio”. He does mention small ” project studios “, but the book isn’t based on the #1 problem with small studios – Heavy…

Avantone Mixcube: Pure Mixing Magic!

This little (but hefty) powered mono speaker is the absolute key to better audio mixes. (And yes, Audio Engineering is a real thing!). In fact, without the magic of audio engineering and mixing, you wouldn’t hear your favorite music. There are three absolutely critical things with mixing: Mix for the “lowest common denominator” which would be midrange on small crappy speakers. Taking it one…

Fixing My Mixing – Finally Making Progress

The book and link I posted earlier today are the two resources I’ve used to solve the Mystery of the Muddy Mix. Here is a list – on what made the biggest difference: Microphones – I switched microphones around and figured out what is best and where. I use an NT1A and SM57 on my guitar amp cabinet. The SE VR2 and SE7 didn’t…

Magic Box

YOWZA! I finally am in control of my mixes. I even figured out why the Cello was so muddy as well as other recording and mixing problems. I hope to share these in another post soon. I thought the mics used on the guitar cabinet were the SM57 and NT1A, but it was actually the SM57 and SE7 small diaphragm, with the low cut…

Ten Tin Heads

Ten Tin Heads hideIn shadows they lurkThey come out at nightThat’s when they workThey steal metal shovelsThey steal metal rakesIf it’s not bolted downThen that’s what they takeTheir lust and greedSmelted down from tinTheir pointy metal headsTheir creepy little grinsThey say that they are DJsThey say they play the hitsThen smack you real hardOn the places that you sitThey won’t play my songsThey won’t…