Audio Mixing Tutorials

I put together an ode to Decapitator from Soundtoys, talking about this plugin and even crowning it the best saturator plugin. This is an impressive feat considering this plugin came out over a decade ago and hasn’t had any updates aside from compatibility (see 64 bit vs 32 bit plugins). While its interface is extremely… Read more: The Decapitator Style Button (The Best Use For Each)

The drums as a whole are one of the most important elements as they are collectively the backbone of your mix. They represent the tempo, rhythm, and energy. If the drums aren’t mixed well, an otherwise perfect mix will still greatly suffer. This is why it’s generally a good idea to begin your mix by… Read more: How to Mix Drums – A Complete Guide

Chorus is an effect which uses a low frequency oscillator, or LFO, to modulate the pitch and timing of audio. By evolving these parameters in real time, it gives the impression of unique instances of that audio, creating natural width in a track as opposed to simply duplicating it and creating a carbon copy which… Read more: The Best Chorus Settings to Dial Into Your Track

I recently talked about impulse response on guitar and how you can use it to get better and more realistic sounding guitar. A similar principle can be applied to your reverb to simulate the spaces used on your favorite records, so let’s identify why is impulse response in reverb. What is Impulse Response in Reverb… Read more: What is Impulse Response in Reverb (and How to Use It)

The drums are the backbone of your entire mix and as such are the logical place to begin when you sit down to mix a new song. I thought it would be useful to share what I believe are the best plugins for mixing drums, or in other words the plugins I use on the… Read more: Best Plugins for Mixing Drums (and How to Use Them)

“Depth” is one of the two main driving parameters behind most chorus effects, both plugins and pedals. Combined with chorus “rate”, the depth parameter determines how the chorus effect affects your audio. Let’s identify what is the chorus depth feature and where you should set it. What is Chorus Depth Chorus as an effect affects… Read more: What is Chorus Depth (and How to Set it)

Synth bass can be used alongside or in place of organic bass in tracks. I use it in some mixes to supplement a bass guitar at key moments in the song whereas I’ll use it as the dedicated or exclusive bass for more electronic and pop leaning tracks. Regardless of how you’re using your synth… Read more: How to EQ Synth Bass – A Complete Cheat Sheet

Aside from just sounding good, a common trait between a lot of your favorite commercial mixes is likely the mix width the producers are able to achieve. A wider mix typically sounds better and it’s not just about the size. A wider mix also sounds cleaner because there’s plenty of defined space for every element… Read more: How to Get More Mix Width – Wider Mix Tips

Chorus is an effect which simulates multiple unique sounding instances of the audio it’s being applied to by way of modulation. While there are a lot of different chorus plugins out there, typically the one constant parameter you’ll find on them all is the “Rate” parameter. The chorus rate feature is the major driver of… Read more: Chorus Rate – What is It and the Best Setting

EQing drums can be a handful as you have a lot of individual components taking up virtually the entire frequency spectrum as a sum. Let’s cover the best EQ for drums, both the best plugin and its settings to get every single piece of your kit sounding their best. Best EQ for Drums My favorite… Read more: Best EQ for Drums – The Best Plugin and Settings

Whether they’re serving as a little filler or they’re an essential component to the mix like in the case of a singer-songwriter or folk song, let’s talk how to mix acoustic guitars to get them sounding their best, no matter the situation. How to Mix Acoustic Guitars Let’s move left to right in the signal… Read more: How to Mix Acoustic Guitars to Sound Their Best in the Mix

Amongst the instruments to feature the delay effect, bass is typically pretty low down the list. That’s not to say it doesn’t work, so let’s cover a few real world examples of when bass delay has been effectively used, and the things to keep in mind if you’re going to use it in your mix.… Read more: Bass Delay – How to Use It In Your Mix

Reverb can be a great effect for giving you some depth or even width. This can be used as a cool aesthetic effect or more practically for separating tracks in your mix by utilizing its third dimension, ultimately resulting in a cleaner mix. While we typically think of reverb as an effect we use as… Read more: How to Use Reverb on the Master Bus

Mixing your drum and bass tracks is one of the trickiest aspects of the entire process. This is namely because the kick drum and bass in the mix share a very similar frequency. This can result in one or both getting drowned out while they’re fighting for the same frequencies. With that in mind, here… Read more: How to Mix Drum and Bass to Sound Their Best

Multiband compression is a subset of compression which allows you to target specific frequency bands, compressing them to taste while leaving the rest of the frequency spectrum unaltered. This can yield more desirable and targeting, not to mention transparent results, so let’s take a look at at some of the best multiband compressor plugins (free… Read more: The Best Multiband Compressor Plugins

I recently covered what are dynamic microphones, so I thought I’d give condenser microphones the same treatment and explain what are condenser microphones, how they differ from dynamic microphones, and most importantly what are condenser microphones used for. What Are Condenser Microphones As I covered in my comparison of condenser vs dynamic microphones, condenser microphones… Read more: What Are Condenser Microphones Used For – Their Best Uses

When it comes to miking instruments, I get more questions regarding how to mic piano arguably than any other instrument (okay maybe acoustic guitar – so check out my 14 tips on how to record acoustic guitar). Here is the best way to record piano (grand piano or upright). Best Microphone for Recording Piano There… Read more: How to Mic Piano – The Best Way

Nothing ruins a great video like background noise. No matter where it’s coming from, here is a reliable method for how to remove background noise from a video. How to Remove Background Noise From a Video The process for how to remove background noise from a video is essentially a three step process. You may… Read more: How to Remove Background Noise From a Video

Microphones generally fall into one of two categories: condenser or dynamic. We’re going to focus on dynamic microphones today, answering the question of what are dynamic microphones and more specifically when to use on/what they’re best suited for recording. What Are Dynamic Microphones First let’s answer what are dynamic microphones. Dynamic microphones operate using a… Read more: What Are Dynamic Microphones – What Are They Best For

I’ve talked at length about how to EQ electric guitar once it’s in your mix, but the better the tone you can get in the recording stage, the less you’ll have to do after the fact and the better your end results will be. With that in mind, let’s talk the best guitar amp EQ… Read more: How to EQ an Amp – The Best Guitar Amp EQ Settings