Big Believing

Hey everyone today I want to talk to you guys about when your recording music are you believing. So when you record a song let say your recording guitar do you think about what your playing or do you just sit back relax and just play. Because sometime when you just sit back relax and just play and fell the music and the grove of the beat of the song that's believing, sometime it's better to believing because then you won't be so like thinking hard like where do I go next so just remember when your recording believing is a great trick just believe what you want the song to sound like fell it in your heart if you have a love and a passion for music then when you believe it will come to you 

Rendering Down Your Midi Drums Tracks

Hey everyone today I want to talk about using midi drum's in your Daw, midi drums can be great to use for those people who don't know how to play drums or just like programing them. One of the new cool features that I use in my Daw in called rendering down midi files witch means after you record a midi track you turn it into a audio track so you can start working with that track, and what do I mean by working with it I mean using EQ using compression using all those plugins on the tracks. And one of the great thing's about my Daw I use Cubase pro 8 so one of the great things about it is you can do that render down your midi files. Its a great way to put all your drums on there own tracks and for those who don't know how to play drums or don't know how to mic a drum kit this would be the way to go. 

Inside of cubase pro 8 there a VST instrument called grove agent and what it is its a drum VST instrument where you can make all your beats place them into your project and then render then down and then start using plugins on them 

Rending down your midi tracks is also good for people who don't know how to play a instrument and they just program there stuff 
Its something every musicians would like to use because it makes making music a whole lot easy to do Im not trying to hate on working in audio I love working in audio I work in audio all the time. What I'm just saying is when your in that part of your song and you want this piano part really bad or you want this drum beat really bad and you just cant play the beat live then wipe out your midi keyboard lay down the beat render it down and there you go you have the beat in your song for a fast way to make music 

Again this is Ryan if you have any other questions audio recording mixing and audio please shoot me a email and all get back to you as soon as I can 

Drums

All this week I'm going to do a whole week of talking about drums because I have not giving you guys any information audio drums so all this week I'm going to be talking about drums and give you guys the information to teach you how to record and how to mix drums and how to get a great sounding mix 

Muting Instruments

Hey guys at some point on the blog I talked about dropping out the bottom end the bass guitar but right now I want to talk about dropping out the guitars in your song to open up your mix and make your mixing a whole lot Easyer. So let's say your coming out of a chorus and into a verse and you have 2 guitar tracks on that verse if you mute those 2 guitar tracks hafe I'm not talking about the whole thing just hafe way, it will really open up your mix and you can be left with bass piano drum and vocals trust me your mix will be more open and you it will be Easyer to mix because guitar rack up so much room in our mix I'm not trying to hate on guitar I love guitar if I could I would have a 100 guitar tracks in my mix but I would not do that because then I would not want to mix it but just dropping a instrument out can really make a differents in your mix and make Easyer. 

The Gear I Use In My Studio

The one peace of gear I want to talk about first that I use in my recording studio is my computer I use a, Windows 8 hp operating system I'm very happy with it a lot of people say you need to use a Mac for a recording studio know that's not true you can use any computer as long as you have a good hard drive and it cleaned and it's fast. That audio interface I use is a focusrite 2i2 and I will be updating to the focuserite 18i20 soon but right now I'm using the 2i2 it is sub powered and it has 2 inputs with phantom power and it sounds great I'm a huge fan of focuserite products. Some of the microphones I use are a GXL 2200 condenser microphone and I use a focuserite CM25 condenser microphone also and I use a USB M audio condenser microphone. For my drum set I use a electric drum set witch is a Ddrum Dd 1 drum set I also have 5 guitars and one bass guitar I'm not going to get into the names of those cause I have 6 of them the DAW I use is pro tools 11 and I also have the upgrade version 

Updating Your Computer

Hey guys today I'm going to talk about something new and it's something that you all should be doing with your computer that you use for your recording studio.

I'm going to tell you 2 of the most importing things you can do for a home studio computer to keep it nice and safe number one is keep it updated check for updates every week and if you have a new update make sure you update it because if you don't you will run into problems down the road. Number 2 clean your computer hear what you do for that every 2 weeks go through your computer see what you have if you see something you don't need get rid of it but make sure you read about it first before you delete it. These things can make your studio and work faster witch means you can get your music out and for people to hear faster 

Do these steps they will help

Off Line Bouncing

Hey everyone today I want to talk to you guys about off line bouncing, so let's say you have a kick drum track and a bass guitar track but then when you play them back they don't line up the bass is not playing the same pattering the kick drum in playing so what do you do to fix that. you grab your slicing tools and start slicing your tracks up and drag them to the right spot they need to be, so that bass guitar can line right up with that kick drum. But after your all done slicing and moving track and doing all that editing work your left with gaps. So right now Im going to tell you how you can fix those gaps so you have a full bare of audio and your not let with any gaps in your track because gaps can cause pops and cracks and all kicks off sounds you don't want in your mix So hears how to fix it

Highlight the whole track then go up to where it say's bounce and click that and your audio track will transform into one whole audio track you don't have to wast all that time pasting but remember you have to edit first and fix everything in the edit and then audio bounce it. 

Hope this help you for more information on recording audio and mixing please email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can have a great day

EQ Acoustic Guitar

Low End 80 Hz
Place a steep high - pass filter at around 80 - 100 Hz to leave the low end for the bass guitar and the kick drum. If the Acoustic Guitar is played strumming as a rythm guitar the high pass filter is often increased up to about 200 Hz to make it sit better in the mix. 
If boominess is troubling your recording you can also use an extra bell curve with a narrow to medium Q and turn down (Cut) the gain until the boom is gone.

Bottom 80 - 100 Hz 
If the acoustic guitar has a prominent role in a sparse mix ( like with fingerpicking for instance ) and the sound is too thin you can put some bottom back into it by very slightly boosting between 80 and 100 Hz. If the guitar has to much boom in the low end you can take away the boom by cutting at around 100 Hz. If the acoustic guitar is strummed this frequency range is often taken away by a high pass filter at around 160 - 200 Hz to kill the low end noise of the strumming and to leave the low end for the kick and the bass.

Body 200 - 250 Hz
If the acoustic guitar is thin and without body you can boost slightly between 200 and 250 Hz with a medium bandwidth (Q). This is often combined with a cut at around 100 Hz with a narrow to medium bandwidth bell curve EQ or a high pass filter up to about 200 Hz to give the kick and bass more space 

Metallic 500 - 800 Hz
If the guitar has too much of a metallic quality you can take away some of the sharpness or shrillness by cutting between 500 and 800 Hz with a medium to narrow Q. This is used very often to get a better quality acoustic guitar sound.

Clarity 2 - 2,5 kHz
Boost only a couple of dB with a wide bandwidth between 2 and 2.5 kHz to give the Acoustic Guitar a bit more clarity and presence in the mix.

Air 4500 Hz
If you want to give the Acoustic Guitar some Air you can use a shelving EQ at 4500 Hz and boost 3 to 6 dB.

Adding Reverb To Your Mix

Adding reverb to your mix is one of your thing's that can add depth and space to your mix, not I'm one of those guys that hates reverb because I just don't like using it I mean I don't have anything agents it the reason why I don't really like it is because it's so easy to mess up your mix and then it's hard to get it back, so that's why you want to be very careful with when you apply reverb to your mix. But hears a trick applying reverb with out messing up your mix and making it sound great. When you first start out only add a little bit just a tiny bit then play the whole song but play all the instruments together but play the song back in the chorus when all the instruments are in including the vocals, after that if there still is not a change go back to that reverb plugin and add more. Its a great way to control your reverb so that you don't do it in one try, because doing it in one try its very easy to mess up and not get it  right so just add a little bit and if you need to adjust go back and you always can. 

Tomorrow I'm going to be talking about delay so make sure you come back to the site tomorrow so read about that delay is a great affect to use on vocals, all get into more about it tomorrow.

Recording Vocals

Hey everyone today I want to talk to you about when you record your vocals, not when you recording your vocals are you standing in the right spot in front of the microphone because if your standing to far away then the microphone wont pick up your vocal that well, If your standing to close then your vocal track is going to sound all bad and your going to hear unwanted breaths and maybe some pops and some blows and some air on the track when your all done recording, so make sure you find a good spot where your going to get a good vocal sound and know feedback. 

The next thing I want to talk to you about is when your recording your vocal and when your up there at the mic and your singing and you hear your self in the headphone's but you sound kind of dry. Hears a great tip to fix that and its so easy and so fast all you have to do is grab and reverb and apply a little reverb to that track and then your singer wont sound so dry when she or he is singing into that microphone, because you want your singer to fell conferable so apply reverb that will help a lot, those are some tips I can give you to help you out with vocal recording 

If you have any other question about audio mixing or recording just follow my email at the top or bottom of this page and All try and answer anything you have to ask 

See you guys on the next post

EQ Cutting

One of the biggest mistakes I see music producers doing when they get to the mixing stage of there song is they boost there EQ instead of cutting. Hear is the number one rule is music producing when using EQ the number one rule is its better to CUT then BOOST the reason why is because tack a snare drum for some reason and then you grab a EQ through it on that snare drum track let's say you add a high shelving EQ to that snare drum track and you set it to about 200 Hz and the 6 dB when you play it back what are you going to hear that's right your snare drum is going to be popping through that mixing so loud that your not going to be able to hear any of the other instruments that's why on like a acoustic guitar we cut around 200 Hz and then we through it a 3 dB and then that lets the kick drum and the bass guitar to come through the mix better so you see what I'm trying to talk about hear is that every instrument has its own place in the mix and you need to sweep around in the EQ graft to find that place where it need to sit in your mix. So remember when using EQ it's better to cut then boost and all so tack your time listen well and your mix will come together a whole lot better trust me 

New Studio

Hey everyone sorry I have not posted for a while the reason why is because I just moved which means I have a new studio so it Tool me a while to set up, with all the gear. So today I want to talk about what are some things you should look out for if your moving into a new house and you have to move your studio. So hears one thing you should look out for is hard floors now what do I mean by that I mean like hardwood floor's tile all that stuff, hear's another thing you should look out for cramped spaces. So if you move to a new studio just make sure you pick a room with a good sound and a good room for a good set up.

Less Gear

Hey everyone today I want to talk about something really importing that I've been telling telling musicians for years and that's you don't need lots and lots of gear to make the best sounding mix that you can. I have made songs with a audio interface that only had one input a GXL 2200 condenser microphone and use cubase 7 that I got on Amazon for free that came with my audio interface and the microphone was about 59 dollars so what I'm trying to tell you is that before you go out and spend all this money think first because you don't need to spend all this money and buy all this cool gear when you can go out and by a one input audio interface that sounds great trust me on that.

I mean I have had people come up to me and said Ryan I just bought all this new gear so now I have more gear then you and you know what my answer is to that ok you don't need to cause your just wasting money and your spending more time trying to find out what you need in your studio that creation music

Mix Templates

Hey everyone today I want to talk about mix templates and how to set one up and how to use one, so today I'm going to walk you through my work flow and tell you about how I set up my mix template and then maybe that will give you guys some ideas. So first thing I like to do when setting up a mix template is set up a master fader now for those of you who don't know what a master fader is it's a fader that all your sound passes through into the mixer. After I set up the master fader I like to start setting up all my tracks for my drums now for my songs I always put each drum on It's own channel so I make a kick track a snare track and so on, after I'm all done with that I like to make my guitar tracks bass tracks and then vocal tracks and then If I'm going to use any effects I make tracks for those. Next thing I like to do Is I always like to make a delay track and the reason why I like to is because I like to send my vocal track through a delay and then I like to add a reverb to that track also just so it stands up in the mix a little bit better. 

Next thing I like to do is put a compressor on the master fader and put a reverb so this is what I want you to start to think about is when your sitting down at your computer starting to set up your mixing template think about it as a mixing mixing board your sitting at and treat it like that because if you think of it that way your going to save a lot more time on make music then playing around have fun make some great music and remember to think like a producer cause sometimes thats what you have to do to make music. 

One Of The Things I Learned About Audio

Hey everyone today i want to talk to you about one of the thing I learned about audio when your recording and this is one of the things most music producers seem to do is they record through there plugins. Now let me tell you thats one of the worst thing's you can do and the reason why is because lets say a singer is coming into the studio and she cant hear her vocal on the microphone through her headphone because it sounds to dry so you add a reverb plugin onto that track then you press record and you record that track after your done recording that track you cant get ride of the reverb because you already recorded it onto that track. 
So this is why wait for mixing day to add all your plugins and set your faders and do everything cause in the end your be able to create a much better sounding mix 

Hope this helped you for more information on audio recording and mixing keep coming back to my site because I always try to post a new post everyday for you guys 

Always if you would like some of my best mixing hacks please email me and I would be more then happy to send them to you.

Filling In A Empty Mix

Hey everyone today I want to talk about filling in your mix, you know how sometimes your mix just seem like a needs something El's there like it need another instrument just something to fill it in in the back round well I have a great way you can do that. A great instrument to use for something like this to fill in the background and all those spaces where you just fell like you need something there instead of going for another guitar part because that will over kill your mix bus and I've talked about head room on the blog before so a guitar part is not the way to go. So a great instrument to pick would be a, Tambourine if you just hold that up to the microphone you are using to record and start shaking that to the song and get a good rhythm going then its a great way to fill in your mix. So next time your mix sound dual empty and you just fell like your missing something and your just looking for the right instrument to put in there, don't go for a guitar part it will just crowed your mix bus don't go for a piano part all those instruments will just crowed up your mix bus and that make your song start to clip. So instead go for a tambourine great instrument and it will fill that spot your looking for after your done recording it play your song back mute the tambourine and then UN mute it and you should hear a different in your mix. 

If you would like some of my best mixing information please email me, and I would be more then happy to send it to you have a great day 

Bite Rate And Sample Rate

Hey everyone today I want to talk to you about the bite rate and the sample rate on your DAW let's start with the bite rate setting your better rate to 16 will not give you as much head room as you want it mean that more audio is going to be coming into your DAW so what this means is the higher the bite rate you go the more head room your going to have and the better sound your going to have to so a good bite rate to use is at like 24 bite that will give you enough headroom in your mix 

So your sample rate a good sample rate to set your DAW to is 441 

Why Don't Use Presets On Plugins

Hey everyone today i want to talk to you about why you should not ever use your presets on your plugins. I'm going to give you a few reasons why and then you'll understand why it's the worst thing you can do

Lets start with EQ presets 

EQ presets can be one of the worst thing's in audio production because when you click on one of the presets your EQ changes and you say to your self oh so that's what a vocal EQ looks like. But the truth is how can you know if you can really trust that EQ setting because it can be covering up some of your other audio tracks that you want to be standing out in the mix 

Number 2 

Tack a vocal track and lets say you put a EQ on it and then you click on a preset now how is that preset going to know what your vocal sounds like hows is it going to know what microphone i used, how is it going to know what pre amp i used, how I used the microphone, what angle i used it in, there are so many reason why so what good is this preset if this preset dose not know anything about what i did to my song I hope you understand where I'm going with this 

If you want more information on this I can send you my best information. If you email me my email is always on this site so shoot me a message and i will send you my best information just tell me what you want to learn and i will message you back when I can

Have a good day 

Things To Watch Out For With Your Home Studio

Hey everyone today I want to talk to you about how to set up your Home Recording Studio 


1* 

The bigger the room the better you want to avoid cramped spaces.

Big Rooms Means 

* More space for musicians,
* More space for your ever glowing collection of gear and instruments 

Not to mention...They sound better
More on that topic latter 

While many beginners might prefer a smaller room
Be smart and go for the bigger one 


2* Noise 

In everyday life, you forget how much noise is actually around you. But once you hear it through a microphone, all that Noise is magnified 100x.

* Cars
* Neighbors
* Plumbing
* Birds 
* Crickets 
* Wind
* Rain 

All these things are common noises that can easily ruin your records 

So pay close attention to witch room are the worst noise 

Choose the room that's the quietest that's where your going to get your best recordings and your best mix 

You really want a room where you can make all the noise that you want to make, at anytime of the day you want. But since very few rooms are like that 

Some degree soundproofing maybe a required in order to create a useable workspace for yourself. And so... 


3* Poor Flooring 


For your recording room, such as Concrete Tile or Hardwood Floors I would say stay away from because your going to have sound bouncing all over with Concrete Tile and Hardwood Floors so stay away from hard floorings 


There's always going to be a problem in a home recording studio that you cant fix your going to have to work around These things and learn how to work with them to get a great sounding mix.
Hope these tips helped you go out and make good music

Open The Mix

Hey everyone are your mixes sometimes cultured up with to much stuff and its not open enough well hear are some tips to opening up that mix letting it breath letting air flow through it because there are musicians out there who are just through ing in all these guitars sound effects keyboard riffs and it just crowds up your mix. So hears a few ways to make your mix sound more open first way drop the bottom end now what do i mean when i say drop the bottom end i mean tack the bass out but just for a few and then bring it back in so lets say your coming out of a chorus into a verse chop the bass track up with the slicing tool that comes with your DAW and slice where you need to next mute that area the play it back your song should sound a little more open but remember your only dropping the bottom out, but that is one way to make your mix more open. 

Number 2 muting other instruments in your mix i think I talked about this one time on the blog but i will repeat it again so lets say you have all your drum track all your guitars recording all your keyboards recording all your vocals recorded and all your bass tracks recording, so you have everything recorded but your mix sound muffle hears one trick that will open up your mix so lets say you have 2 lead guitar tracks a bass guitar your drums and a organ keyboard and vocals 
hears a good trick mute the guitars in some point of the song where ever you want it could be on the verse that just came out of the chorus and then once you get to the next verse the guitars come back in. So by muting those guitars think about it the only instruments your going to have left are the drums the bass guitar the organ and the vocals think about how open your mix will be because guitars are that number one instrument that tacks up so much head room in our mix that sometimes we just need to say ok you know what i need to get ride of some of these guitars because there just over powering my mix and not giving me enough head room to mix now. 


I hope these tips will help your mixes come together a lot more simple please contact me for any more information you may want on recording mixing and editing