I'm so sick and tired of executing beautiful sounding ideas for weeks/months, just to fuck it all up at the last stages and for it not to translate to other listening environments and other PEOPLE. It doesn't even translate to ME!!! It's like baking a cake and spending an exorbitant amount on the ingredients and prep time, just to flame torch it in the oven at 1000 degrees. god damn, i'm outsourcing my mixes from here on out. My low end sounds like shit and i have to constantly EQ tracks i'm listening to from my boombox to even make it sound palatable.

You guys got it. I was arrogant and thought most audio engineers telling artists to outsource their mixes and mastering were just biased. Although it may be true to an extent, i'm seeing what you mean because I thought i'd get better after all these years, but i've come to the realization that i've just been chasing my own damn tail and wasting precious time. I GIVE UP!!!

Hi there,

i listen to music alot on my Bluetooth headphones, most drum and bass, but alot of the stuff i download some stuff is right volume, the other stuff is too quiet.

i'm wondering how i can use one song as a base level and bring other songs to that same level if that makes sense? i tried asking ai but it didnt help a whole lot, hoping you guys can point me in the right direction to do it.

thanks in advance!

I'm a producer getting way more into the engineering side of recording and getting everything right at the source. I want to know if there's a way to cut down the ess's on the way in. I've had good success with aiming the mic down a little bit and also backing off the mic distance (I'm usually at about 6 inches), my room is treated. I'm okay with de-essing afterwards, but if there's a way to do it from the beginning, I'd like to and I'm sure it would sound better. I work with amazing singers so that makes me think that it's something on my end.

Mic wise - I have a really great custom Mic & Mod 251 build and I had the capsule reskinned by a guy who does big studio mic repairs in Nashville. This thing is a killer mic, easily the best I've ever owned. Going through my Neve 1073 DPX. Though I haven't shot it out, I believe it would keep up with a 2-3k 251 clone. I have the Avantone PS-1 pop filter...been thinking about going up to a Stedman or something maybe a little better but I'm not sure if that would be helping the ess's

Is there something I'm missing here or is this just a reality of tracking, is it a mic choice thing? Thank you!

Been thinking about compressors and which compressor I like the best - I think C3 might be favourite compressors!

1. It is extremely functional
   
2. has almost every feature needed
   
3. Different modes/flavours of compression
   
4. Side chain is great

And then i was thinking about compressors I dislike. I love softtube but dislike the CL1B compressor and i think its probz because i dont love that compressor!

anyways would love your thoughts

Whenever I work on subtle background sounds and ear candy, I tend to hyper-focus on those sounds. When I play the track back, I'm not hearing the full song anymore, I'm just hearing the details. This leads me to over-accentuate those details and lose sight of their relationship to the main parts. How can I prevent this from happening? How do I get my ears to "zoom out" and actually hear the background sound as background sounds?

Who do I have to get in contact with to request or have the Avid Lo-fi native plugin be made compatible to be used in other DAWs? I would pay top dollar for this!

I really enjoyed Pulp Circuit and was wondering if there were other magazines on audio engineering/audio electronics out there that focused on articles about techniques, how stuff works, interviews, news, creative writing, etc. rather than advertisements masquerading as product reviews.

https://github.com/bunbun-midi/rootlessjamesdsp-skdsp
hey guys i've been working hard on this fork and i'm pleased to present this to you, for people that are aware of using rootlessjamesdsp as an audio dsp on android phones. it doesn't require root but you need to use shizuku to activate it at first which could be a bit fiddly, but the apks are there. the speed shifting works really nicely, if you werent speed shifting youtube music to be slower on the fly, you will be now! you can drag-touch up/down the floating speed shifter and stuff. check the readme on the main page for details or just get the app or don't i'm not promoting this is free open source software and it's a really new feature! ^_^

I have a song with hard-panned distorted guitars. They kind of have a Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream sound. During the final section I want to highlight the rhythm guitar for at least a few bars. The thing is, it's the same tone as the earlier parts. I've tried raising the volume, but it still doesn't have the impact it needs. How can I draw the listener's ear to the rhythm guitar in this section and make it more impactful?

I'm going to be recording a children's choir doing overdubs for a song in a small church soon, and we won't be able to use headphones.

The pre recorded backing track is piano, acoustic guitar, and small string ensemble and there will be a couple dozen kids. Their footprint is about 15-18' wide.

I am planning on recording a pass of just the monitor signals playing in the room through the mics with the kids in place, and using that to reduce the bleed in post by reversing the polarity, assuming I keep the playback levels the same throughout all the takes, and the kids don't drastically change positions.

I'm currently spec-ing out what to rent for the gig, and debating whether a single monitor source would be ideal for simplifying the reflections for my cancellation plan, or if I should use a pair, for the sake of the kids and the conductor and the performance.

My current plan is LCR KM140s slightly elevated, up in front, close ish to the kids, and 414s in omni as a high wide spaced pair in the back of the church to capture the ambience of the church.

I would place the compact PA monitors, also elevated, behind the conductor.

Any one with experience with a setup like this care to weigh in?

As I said previously, headphones are already not an option. I will run the playback as quiet as I can get away with and still have them performing in time.

I have a mixture of confidence and mild anxiety at this point.

I did post on a previous similar project for the same client (that I didn't record) and had the task of minimizing bleed for that one, and would like to do what I can to alleviate the issue on the day, but still keep things simple for the kids. At least there will be no drums this time...

Thanks in advance for any insights, thoughts, recommendations, or advice.

Went to Jensen’s website today for the first time in around a month to find it absolutely neutered by Jensen them selves. Product listings, gone. Data sheets, gone. White papers, gone. Direct to consumer sales….. gone. Jensen used to pride them selves as the only transformer company who published the full specs of their transformers and to remove all the information from their website spits in their founders face.

A beginner just starting out on mixing. How do you hear subtle delays on vocals when you're listening to the finished song? I cant tell them apart from reverb. I'll drop some songs below it would be great if you guys help me hear delays on these vocals.

https://youtu.be/M6o1SEj02t0?si=uj-_P0PUd2KFFHKY

https://youtu.be/Rr0RIWNG-PQ?si=xAdoQBgSd9cErQdf

https://youtu.be/x8VkB8ap_FQ?si=WNf35P5iNZxl0Nm2

edit: thanks to everyone who was kind enough to listen and give advice, reddit is a cesspool but you guys make it better. I'm gonna take a break for a couple days (at basically everyone's advice) and let you know what came out of it.

basically what the title says. I'm self-taught and still relatively new to mixing, but I seem to be able to EQ other people's vocals a lot better than my own (lack of perspective maybe? vocalist ego?). I've gone back to basics multiple times, EQ'ing other people's raw vocals using my ears and visual references, and I do a "closed eyes" test to see which version I like best and consistently much prefer my edited versions. Except when it comes to my own vocals. I just make it worse and I have no clue why. If anyone could have a listen and lmk what EQ moves you'd make... I'm at a loss and would owe you big time, I'm releasing this song as a single for my first album and was supposed to have it ready 3 weeks ago but keep running into problems with the lead vocal.

thanks!

lead vocal_chorus 1_raw

main issues I can see:
- resonant frequencies in the mids and upper mids (I record in a closed makeshift booth with acoustic blankets...)
- so much harshness (around 4-7kHz?)
- loads of sibilance between 7-8kHz (I'm doing a dental procedure that makes my usual recording technique not work as much, can't re-record because of it and this was the best take I could get sibilance-wise. especially in the word "pieces" it's bad. I know, not ideal, it's what I got for now so any advice I'd super appreciate)

Hi All. After leaving my non music industry sector that I’d been in for over a decade I’m rediscovering my love of audio engineering.

I was wondering if anyone has a good recommendation for a U87 like microphone that won’t break the bank.

thanks!

Hello everyone, trying to get a mix to the finish line and I’ve brought in several reference tracks. It’s got a lil bit of a 80’s dance vibe with big guitars in the hook.

I’ve brought in several reference tracks: Get Lucky, Foster the People, Arcade Fire, and Queens of the Stone Age for the guitars etc. they’ve been volume matched.

The issue here is my kick and bass are generally either a little quieter or louder than the references so I assume they’re okay. But my midrange is consistently too loud and harsh.

I’ve got 6 guitar tracks playing either the same riff or an octave up. I’ve gone in and tried to clean up the offending frequencies/lowering the volume. Then I’ll go back to my limiter and adjust so I’m hitting around the same decibels as before. The limiter just ends up undoing any EQ volume changes and my midrange is still too much.

Literally chasing my tail here while I consistently make my mix quieter and quieter with no real tonal changes being made.

Advice please!

Hi. I just graduated this Friday with a degree in Sound Technology from ITLA in the Dominican Republic. I had the highest GPA among the Sound Technology graduates. All my classmates are celebrating, but I still haven't posted anything on my socials.

When I was about to start college, I had dreams of helping independent bands and artists in my country who might not have a lot of money, and of helping my church achieve a whole new level of sound quality. But somewhere along the way, while I was still studying, that light started to fade.

Now I'm depressed and questioning my existence after feeling like I've wasted my youth. All my friends are making good money, and I can't even find a job in my field.

AI stole my spark the moment I first heard an AI-generated merengue song in 2024. I knew us music producers had no hope.

On top of that, my institute focused almost entirely on music production. Our electronics class consisted of listening to the differences between types of saturation. I don't know how to solder a cable, let alone anything about electronics.

The same thing happened with acoustics. We were asked to draw a floor plan of our rooms and even design a studio in Autocad, but I don't have the slightest idea how to properly soundproof a room.

The live sound portion of the program, which is practically the only area offering job opportunities in my country, was also taught very poorly. I have no idea how to set up an entire sound system by myself. I barely know my way around the Behringer X32.

I sent my portfolio to a film studio here in the Dominican Republic, and they completely ignored it.

I spoke to my institute to ask whether they offered scholarships to graduates who wanted to pursue a second degree, and to my surprise, they told me they don't offer scholarships to former students. I'm screwed.

I wanted to hear some advice from someone with experience because I can't take all this mental shit anymore. I don't want to end up living on the streets.

I don't know whether pursue a bachelor's degree at a university abroad, take live sound courses here in my country or study a completely different degree unrelated to sound.

me and my friends wanna make a podcast about random things. we are stuck on the topic, actually i am stuck on the topic what is the best audio recording software for us if we have a decent budget. I already used audacity and i didn't like it at all, i couldn't do things i wanted to.

We need a professional software

We mostly have rode mics

We are talking up to 8 hours of sustained 130-140F. Obviously acoustic guitars need to go and probably my synths too. I'm still unsure about the GIK acoustic treatment. I'm very unsure about my E8XT monitors and Kali IN-5's.

I've been going back and forth on this lately, especially with multi-mic drum recordings. It's pretty easy to look at the waveforms, move everything into alignment, and assume you've made the drums tighter. But sometimes the result sounds smaller or loses some of the character that made the kit sound good in the first place. I've been experimenting more with phase correction instead of just automatically time aligning every transient. The difference can be pretty noticeable on the kick and snare, particularly when you're balancing close mics with overheads and rooms.

For those of you mixing drums regularly, what's your approach? Do you always time align? Do you manually adjust polarity and phase, use a plugin, or mostly trust your ears and leave the timing alone? I'm particularly interested in workflows that improve low end punch without making the whole kit sound unnatural.

Hey everyone! I have been utterly fascinated with Tom Petty's Wildflowers home demo tracks from '93-'94. They have such a roomy vibe; I just love how raw and authentic they sound.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

Confusion Wheel (Home Recording)
Only a Broken Heart (Home Recording)
Leave Virginia Alone (Home Recording)

My budget is around $500-$550 CAD! I was wondering if any of you guys could give me some recommendations or advice to suit my needs?

My current microphone is just a USB Blue Yeti. Not anything shocking, and I don't think it is really the greatest for what I want to achieve. I am aware Tom used two mics, one for guitar, one for vocals + harmonica. I heard SM57s are very good, and that Scarletts are great for the audio interface portion. I already have a DAW, which is Reaper.

Non-gear-wise, how would I go about producing something equivalent to those home demos? To me, his vocals and guitar just sound like simple EQ and compression. I am also curious about how I would go about mixing harmonica to get a similar feel to the demos. They sound very mellow in the second and third tracks I linked.

All the help and support are highly appreciated!

Hi everyone new to post production for audiobooks. Just picked up a gig where I master the audio for these long form books . What plugins are you guys using to hit the levels on the long form audio format? The levels they want me to hit are -16lufs and -2 true peaks. Is there a way to batch this for the files? At the moment I have 50 files and they are all supposed to hit this range. Am I overthinking it? What is the easiest way to do this? I am on pro tools of that makes a difference. TIA for any help.

I normally mix and listen on headphones (Sony MDR) because I have pretty severe high frequency hearing loss (roll-off around 1kHz coming to a complete cut-off point by 4kHz. Though lately, I've pulled out my old monitors (JBL 305's) and started experimenting with those again because I really like the stereo imaging of speakers.

My point of frustration is this: I really like not wearing headphones, and I really like how stereo sounds on speakers, but the problem is that it seems like whenever I'm trying to mix (or even just listen to my collection) on these monitors, I can't hear nearly as much detail as I can on the MDR's. The sound is much darker, and transients don't poke through very much.

That said, I fully acknowledge that my room is untreated. It's probably a good 16x20x14 bedroom and the floor is concrete. There's tons of stuff along every wall, so I'd like to think that helps a little bit, but probably not much.

So I guess I'm posting to ask, what do y'all think is the issue here? Is my hearing probably just too bad for me to use monitors effectively? Or do these problems sound like typical untreated room symptoms? Do you think I just need better/different monitors? Turn the volume up more? Skill issue? Would love any suggestions from more experienced people

EDIT: In case it's relevant, I'll just mention that I have noticed that my listening experience is much better when I EQ up the mids in iTunes' equalizer. It's not perfect, but it does seem to sound remarkably closer to how I'm used to things sounding on my headphones. I'm not sure if this is a clue that it may just be my ears

Not sure how Warm Audio is ranked , I heard they’re highly great .
But Im deciding between a Warm Audio WA76
or Warm Audio Bus Comp 2 Channel Stereo VCA Bus Compressor.
I’m slowly building a Rack mount and I got these in mind . I know one is mono and the other is obviously stereo. If you guys got other suggestions please let me know or have any warnings of Warm Audio .
I don’t mind plugins but I like to own my things.
I no longer have interest in spending money on plugins.

Hello everyone!

I have enough money set aside for essentially one solid online course, and I want to find a course that will be most worth my while.

For context, I work full time teaching basic music production at both the primary school and university level. I live in the LA area and love attending synth expos and meetups, etc. I also produce my own music and hope to record my first album within the next year or two.

I really just want to take my knowledge to the next level. The main courses I am considering are mixer brain from Jeff Ellis, Greazy Wil’s courses (particularly the recording one) and of course Think Like a Synth from Anthony Marinelli.

My question is, would any of these (or other courses be worth the $400-500 they cost, or would I be better of learning for free online and putting the money toward something else?

Thanks!