Even with pop filters in front of a microphone, plosives (pops) can still be an issue with some vocalists. However, there is a relatively simple fix that can quickly reduce or eliminate those loud pops from your vocal tracks.  Use a high-pass filter, or low shelving EQ, to roll off the low end of the […]

Revised & Updated! This is an old article I wrote in the early 90s. Quite a bit has changed since then, but most of the advice here still applies. With the reworking of my site in 2012, I have gone through this article and made some additions and revisions to make it more relevant. MAXIMIZING […]

I have a question regarding headphones and mixing.... I think most of us know that mixing in headphones is not a good idea for many reasons. However, many of us, including myself, do not have a lot of control over my mixing environment and often depend on headphones. Are there some headphones that are better […]

I have another question for you about EQ'ing...you answered an earlier one for me with great detail and I learned alot from it..... I was experimenting with sweep EQing after watching a video of George Massenberg? demonstrating a parmetric EQ he'd designed. Anyway, after reading up on it and trying it I found I was […]

I'm curious as to how often you might (and I know it probably depends wildly) cut high frequencies as a matter of course. For example, I usually cut quite a bit of low frequencies on most tracks just to keep the muddiness to a minimum in the overall mix. Do you also do the same […]

Just a quick question regarding compression - in the DAW environment, is it better to use "more" compressors on a track or fewer compressors " but work them harder? Theoretically, in the DAW world, you could have "unlimited" compressors on a track, but in a real studio, that is using hardware compressors, most of them, […]

Question: how do professionally recorded and/or mastered audio recordings get that "sheen" or that "glass-like quality" ? Is that something done in the mastering stage, or is it something done during the mixdown stage? Is it something done with a compressor? If so, how is it done? There really is no single answer to this […]

Is there any use for a multiband harmonic exciter? A harmonic exciter, I thought and correct me if I'm wrong, adds a high frequency "touch" to a sound. Couldn't an EQ do the same thing? What would be the advantage of multiband harmonic exciter? Harmonic exciters are different than EQ. EQ simply boosts or cuts […]

Recently I mixed a song down from 16 bit WAV into WMA format and sent it to several friends via email to take a listen. One comment that came back was that when listening over speakers/monitors, the delay used on the vocals could be heard, almost as a separate entity, especially at the beginning of […]

I'm attempting to mix a song and am trying to create a sense of depth. The delays are working well as are the reverbs. However, my question is more concerned with EQ'ing for a sense of depth. Instruments that are "right in your face" are the brightest, and as you move back (depth) in the […]