| By Thomas Brett |
Introduction:
With all of the information available on the internet nowadays, it’s often difficult to figure out exactly where to start.
On that note, to get your “educational ball” rolling, here’s a list of 10 past URM articles that we believe every engineer can benefit greatly from reading:
1 – VISUALISING COMPRESSION
Compression is often thought of as some kind of super-technical, mysterious “dark art” which takes decades of practice and research to truly master, when in reality, it’s actually pretty simple…
“Visualising Compression” is our attempt at de-mystifying the concept of compression once-and-for-all in an easy to understand, concise, visually-guided package.
If you have any doubts whatsoever as to what your compressors are actually doing to your audio signals, or how you should be using them in your mixes, then this is the perfect article for you!
2 – THE KEY TO MIX-READY GUITARS WITH MAX MORTON (JINJER, SHOKRAN)
The key to a great guitar mix lies in getting the tone right at the source, and very few people are as adept at achieving this task as Jinjer/Shokran/Morton engineer Max Morton.
In my interview with Max a few months back, he spilled the beans on how he goes about capturing the blistering, mix-ready guitar tones he’s dialed-in for dozens of successful major label albums, as well as giving us some all-round great advice on how to avoid “overdoing” things during mixing.
If you’re looking to up your guitar-recording game then we highly recommend checking out “The Key To Mix-Ready Guitars With Max Morton” and learning from one of the very best in the business!
3 – RECORDING VOCALS? ALWAYS DO THESE 5 THINGS
The Vocals are king in 90% of the music you’ll work on, so it’s extremely important that you’re giving them the royal treatment they require to sit proudly above everything else and RULE with an iron fist!
In “Recording Vocals? Always Do These 5 Things”, we guide you through a plethora of useful vocal recording tips-and-tricks which can help take your vocal productions from “meh” to “BLEGH!”.
NOTE: Speaking of great vocal production (and “BLEGH!”)… Click Here to purchase the full, raw, multitrack stems to Architects’ mega anthem “Gone With The Wind”, and gain access to legendary metal producer Henrik Udd’s 5-hour-long mixing masterclass!
4 – BUY SMART! – A GUIDE TO BUYING GEAR
The greatest lie in the whole of Audio Engineering is that you “need” tons of expensive gear in order to make great music…
As cliche as it may sound for me to say “It’s the ear, not the gear”, it’s important to realise that most of the time, cliches and stereotypes exist for a reason…
In “Buy Smart! – A Guide To Buying Gear”, we give you some great advice on making the best possible gear investments for your budget so that you don’t end up wasting all of your hard-earned audio income on a bunch of fancy paperweights.
5 – VOCAL PERFECTION (WITH MARY ZIMMER)
“Stop getting vocalists to aim upwards into the microphone while recording! It’s well intended by engineers, but actually causes their throat to respond to the thought of looking upwards. The result is the singer’s larynx shooting up in a non-relaxed position, making it much harder to sing…”
Wow… This is just one of the many pieces of brilliant vocal-tracking advice that Voicehacks founder Mary Zimmer bestowed upon me during my in-depth interview with her a short while back.
If you’re interested in coaxing the best performances out of the singers you work with in the studio, then don’t miss this awesome opportunity to learn from a true professional on the subject – Check out “Vocal Perfection With Mary Zimmer” today!
PS: Make sure to read through to the end of the interview for a link to download the full vocal stems from Asking Alexandria’s hit single “Into The Fire” free of charge!
5 – ANALYSIS AS A LEARNING TOOL PART 1 & 2
There’s no doubt that great music comes from feel and emotion, and not from looking at a bunch of technical charts or graphs on a screen, but that’s not so say that you can’t learn anything from doing the latter…
In our 2-part “Analysis As A Learning Tool” series, we guide you through the various tools and methods you can use to analyse your audio signals and better understand what’s going on under the hoods of your favourite plugins.
NOTE: In Part 1, we made a mind-blowing discovery on how you can use a frequency analyser to visually dial in the perfect drum sound! Trust me, you don’t wanna miss out on this one…
7 – MAKING DIGITAL SOUND ANALOG – THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
A lot of people like to argue that the sound of digital is inferior to analog. We beg to differ!
In “Making Digital Sound Analog – The Best Of Both Worlds” we reveal how you can go about achieving a true-to-life Analog workflow in-the-box and give your mixes that fat, warm, vintage sound that you’re so used to hearing on all of your favourite classic records.
It’s all of the sonic goodness of real analog, with absolutely none of the down sides!
8 – 5 PIECES OF GEAR FOR MAXIMUM RECORDING FLEXIBILITY (5-PART SERIES)
A key element in creating a productive and lucrative business is being able to achieve great results quickly with minimum guesswork involved.
In our 5-Part “5 Pieces Of Gear For Maximum Recording Flexibility” series, we introduce you to 5 awesome pieces of gear which can transform your recording sessions into a well-oiled-machine and allow you to achieve top-quality recordings in the nick of time.
NOTE: Interested in applying the same workflow mentality to your mixing? Check out our “10 Quick Tips For A Quick Mix” article from a while back for some great tips on speeding up your mixing process!
9 – MIXING SECRETS – VOLUME 5: SYNTHS
For a lot of “old school” metalheads, the moment that keyboards started appearing on metal records was the moment that heavy metal died, and they’d rather not have anything to do with them…
The problem is, synths and keys are such an integral part of modern music at this point, that if you’re unwilling to deal with them, you’re basically writing off a huge percentage of your potential client base…
In “Mixing Secrets – Volume 5: Synths” we’ll teach you how to embrace the dark side, and put you well on your way towards becoming… A SYNTH LORD!
10 – HOW TO MIC UP PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING
One of the biggest mistakes an engineer can make early on is to develop a habit of relying too heavily on “pre-determined” microphone positions they’ve read about on the internet.
The simple truth is, every instrument, microphone, musician, song and recording space is different, meaning that each unique recording situation will require a custom-tailored approach to capture the best results!
In “How To Mic Up Pretty Much Anything”, we guide you through the A-Z of how your microphones work so that you can begin to make informed decisions on your mic placements and start achieving the exact sounds that are in your head straight away!
FINAL WORDS:
This concludes “10 URM Articles You Should Read ASAP!”. I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to comment below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any questions.
Stay tuned for more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!
Thomas Brett is a producer, mixing engineer and songwriter at Brett Brothers recording studio in the UK. Check out the Brett Brothers studio website for more information and articles on all things mixing www.brettbrothersstudio.com
Want mix tips from Thomas Brett? Read them here!
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