Category Archives: Engineering

Thoughts on Mastering, and DYNAMIC RANGE DAY

Do you master your own tracks? Do you really know what mastering is? Do you think it’s all about making your mixes as ridiculously loud as possible?
We all could stand to learn more about mastering. It’s a mysterious topic and, sadly, one that gets overlooked. Most people think that mastering is simply throwing a limiter [...]

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Why Audio Engineers Should Focus on More Than Music

The last few weeks I’ve tried to get you to think outside the box. I wrote about why audio engineers should learn video, and I also wrote about why audio engineers shouldn’t learn video.
Today, I want us to take a look at something other than music. I have nothing against music, obviously, but as audio [...]

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Why Audio Engineers DON’T Need to Know Video

Last month I wrote an article called Why Audio Engineers Need to Know Video.
I talked about how video is a great opportunity for audio engineers and can lead to new jobs.
A few of you commented on the post, saying that you thought we audio engineers should just focus on audio rather than expanding into the [...]

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Intro to MIDI

A lot of us home studio owners focus on microphones, preamps, converters, monitors, etc. But what happens if we need a piano part, but we don’t have a piano to record?
Or perhaps we want a drum kit, but we don’t have the equipment to record one ourselves, and we can’t afford to hire out a [...]

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Mixing Drums Part 3 – Compression

This is part 3 of a little Mixing Drums Series. So far we’ve covered:

An Overview of Mixing Drums
How to EQ Drums

Today we’ll cover how to use compression on a drum kit.
First things first. Just so we’re all on the same page, if you haven’t watched my Intro to Compression video, I’d suggest hopping over to [...]

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Mixing Drums Part 2 – EQ

After yesterday’s brief overview of mixing drums, let’s jump into EQ.
Intro to EQ
Before we get too far, if you haven’t already watched my Intro to EQ video, you should. It’s a great overview of what EQ is and what it does. It’s 16 minutes long, but it’ll be time well spent.
Match the Overheads
In yesterday’s post [...]

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Mixing Drums Part 1

I haven’t written a lot of articles about mixing here on Home Studio Corner, so over the next several weeks we’ll take a look at mixing various instruments, and how I approach them.
Over the next couple of days, let’s take a look at drums.
Recorded drums or MIDI drums?
My guess is that most home studio owners [...]

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Practice Makes Perfect…Even for Audio Engineers?

Have you heard of Nick from NicksTutorials.com? He’s an Ableton/sound design guru (and a cool guy).
He wrote a blog post recently on how to train yourself to be creative, even if you’re not feeling it. It’s a great read (and I’ve linked to it at the bottom of this post).
At one point, Nick writes:
Practice makes [...]

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