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When you sit down to mix a song it’s wise to have a handful of “go-to” plugins in mind to help you sculpt your sound. I’m sure you own more than a handful, but do you really want to be spending precious mixing time scrolling through plugin menus and testing out effects? I know I sure don’t.

Your Weapons Of Choice

Mixing music is challenging enough as it is, so I don’t want to divert what little energy and brain power I have away from creative decisions and instead towards plugin sifting. And with many DAW owners easily clocking in upwards of 100 or more plugins on their systems, there are plenty of distractions to be had.

My advice, pick your top 5 weapons to damage to your mix. Identify those 5 or so plugins that you will use to do 90% of your mixing work. For me these are my favorite EQ, compressor, reverb, delay, and saturation plugin. With those 5 effects I can sculpt one rocking mix in no time. I’m familiar with how they sound, what they do to my audio, and even what the graphical interface looks like. No manuals or experimentation need. Simply well known tools just waiting to be used.
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What if I told you one of the best ways to make your electric guitars sound better is to use an acoustic guitar? Crazy, I know. But that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately. Taking lack luster electric guitar parts and bringing in some acoustic guitar (same part) alongside it to enhance what is already there. Watch this and you’ll see what I mean…

In case you were confused, I like making music in my home studio. There’s an inherent sense of satisfaction that comes from achieving quality recordings in a humble environment. Sure it has it’s challenges, but hey, it’s the future of music and I’m all about this recording revolution we are living in.

Gotta Love The Home Studio

This week my band released our latest original EP, Grace And Truth, and it was a total home grown project. From recording drums in my dining room to using half real guitar amps and half amp modelers, it was a total DIY effort. For more details and discussion on how things went down, be sure to listen to this episode of the Simply Recording Podcast.

In the mean time, here’s a track from the EP for your listening pleasure. If you like what you hear, feel free to download your own copy from iTunes. Just click the image below! Thanks in advance for your support!
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Avoid doing things in your recording or your mix that you don’t understand. What I mean is, don’t feel compelled to fiddle with something just because you think you’re supposed to in order to be professional. You’ll likely do more harm than good and you won’t actually learn anything in the process.

You’re “Supposed To” Use Compression

So many of us get it in our little heads that we are “supposed to” use certain effects and plugins when mixing. A common example is the use of compression. We read about compression on blogs, in magazines, and on YouTube and we assume that because everyone is using it, we should too.

But it makes absolutely no sense to slap on a compressor when you don’t understand what it does or how to operate it. You’ll likely make your mix worse so you’d be better off mixing with no compression at all. (I’m just picking on compression, but this applies to almost any plugin, effect, or technique).
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Most virtual instruments and samplers in DAWs these days sound awesome, a little too awesome. Have you noticed that the strings and pads and pianos sound almost a little too good, a little too clean? One thing I tend to do when mixing with sampled or virtual tracks is to bring in a bit of distortion or lo-fi to them, just to grit them up a bit and make them not so squeaky clean.

I don’t like to push gear if I don’t think it’s a helpful suggestion. Heck, I don’t even believe that gear is the solution to your recording or mixing woes. But gear is what we use to capture and mix audio and some if is necessary. The trick is to navigate the sea of advertising and find the best bang for your buck.

You likely have heard of the Shure SM-57 microphone (if you don’t already own one). It’s a super affordable ($99 new), super popular dynmaic mic. Today I want to give you three great reasons why (after purchasing your $100 condensor) every home/project studio should own at least one of these mics. Two seem typical and one might surprise you.

1. Great On Guitar Amps

The most popular use for the SM57 tends to be to record guitar amps/cabinets. As a dynamic mic it can take the loud SPLs of the amp without overloading. Plus as a very midrange focused mic it really brings out some of the best characteristics of the electric guitar.

On almost any amp the 57 right up on the grill seems to do wonders. If it’s too bass heavy, back it off an inch or two. If it’s two bright, slide it over away from the center of the cone or angle it 45 degrees to the grill. It’s almost impossible to not get a great guitar tone with this mic.
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Which brand of microphone cables will help you get the best recordings? It seems like such an absurd question really. But recently I’ve received a few emails from readers asking for my opinion on this very topic and it troubles me. I mean no dis-respect to anyone who has asked this question, but the “perfect mic cable” is just a myth.

You’re Missing The Point

If you’re looking to improve your recordings you’ve come to the right place. I don’t claim to be the expert on all things recording, but this website is chock full of helpful tips, tricks, and tutorials that will take your recordings to the next level. But if you’re starting to zoom so far into the gear equation that you are debating microphone cable brands, then you are missing the point.

Have you mastered mic placement? Are you using EQ and compression as well as you can? Do you reference your tracks on multiple speakers? If you already have all of that down and there is absolutely nothing in your studio for you to improve upon then be my guest, go buy some expensive XLR cables. But for the rest of us, debating mic cable brands is a grand waste of time.
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Whether it’s some hand percussion or a killer bass line, loops are a great tool for any Pro Tools session. But how do you navigate all the loops on your hard drives and find the best ones for your songs? Pro Tools has a simple window called the Workspace Browser that can do all of this for you. Today’s video will show you how to locate, audition, time stretch, and import loops into your Pro Tools sessions fast.

Have you ever mixed a song for too long? You start out trying to make a few tweaks and changes to improve upon your first mix, but then something happens. You go past the point of no return and things start sounding worse. Or maybe things keep sounding better but you are afraid of letting go, in the hopes that you can perfect it. In either case, how do you know when is your mix done?

Set Some Boundaries

If you’ve read my ebook then you know what I think of limitations. They are your most useful tool for actually being productive. You must establish some limitations in the form of boundaries when mixing if you ever hope to finish a mix confidently. What are some of those boundaries you ask? The biggest one in my mind is how much time you allow for mixing.
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If you’ve mixed for any length of time you might have thought to yourself if it matters in what order you insert plugins on your tracks. Or maybe the thought has never crossed your mind. You simply always reach for the same plugins in the same order on each mix. In either case today I want to answer a reader question regarding the subject and give you a few things to consider as you mix.

In what order should my plugins go in the insert? I usually start with a compressor/limiter and then move to EQ, possibly delay or reverb then desser if necessary…granted this is for vocals. I would really like to know what a good general guide is for tracks. – Michael R.

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