Studio Basics

It’s time to mix, so let’s start to move some faders! Well, maybe not right away. If we really want a mix to go quickly and smoothly, there’s some preparation that needs to be done beforehand. Here's a look at the technical prep, session prep, and personal prep needed before diving into your latest mixing session. 

The most important pieces of hardware in any studio are the ones on the sides of your head. In this article from Sound on Sound magazine, we'll take a close look at the ear — how it converts physical sound waves into sonic information in the brain, and how this process has numerous practical consequences for music production.

For those of you lucky enough to own one of Universal Audio's tube-based hardware preamps, channel strips, or compressors, you will at some point need to deal with replacing the tubes in these units. How is this done? What tubes do you need? Read on my friends, and the answers to your questions will be revealed!

These days, owning an analog tape machine is somewhat akin to driving a classic car, with ongoing maintenance, scarcity of parts, and exotic fuel (analog tape) that's expensive and hard to find. So while a handful of top studios still offer those classic spinning reels (and the engineers to maintain them), the good news for the rest of us is that there are now more convenient ways to achieve that classic magnetic sound.

Data compression schemes like MP3, FLAC, AAC, and other relatives have fundamentally changed music as we know it. Daniel Keller breaks down the different formats, and how data compression can change the music you make, and how you listen to it.

From Bill Putnam Sr.’s legendary United/Western echo chambers to modern digital units, artificial reverb is fundamental to modern recording. Learn how this remarkable effect came to be, and how its use — and abuse — can make or break your tracks.

From better sound isolation to nuking resonant frequencies and other sonic anomalies that color what you’re hearing — rarely for the better — learn some practical tips to tune your room.

No one will argue that digital technology has done much to empower musicians to take control over their recordings. Today’s artists are far less dependent on high-priced recording professionals, with many great-sounding projects having never even seen the inside of a recording studio.