As far as mic techniques for overheads, do you consider the “center” of the kit to be over the snare drum, or do you think of it as the literal center, which would fall more between the snare and floor tom in most standard setups?

Hello, everyone,

I just wanted to get this off my chest because I haven’t talked about it with anyone in years.

I spent close to 10–12 years dedicated to music. Guitar was my first instrument, drums were my second, and piano was my third. Rock was my first love, but my tastes evolved, and I eventually started making electronic music that incorporated a lot of acoustic elements.

I became obsessed with the producer grind and spent the majority of my time EQing, compressing, sidechaining, layering, sampling, splicing, stutter-editing, tuning, and designing sounds. From 2013 to 2022, I recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered hundreds of songs, and it was such a joy.

In 2023, for reasons I will never know, I lost most of the hearing in one ear. I wasn’t at a concert, and it wasn’t from listening to music at high volumes. It happened while I was lying in bed playing Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core on my Nintendo Switch. My hearing disappeared, and it never came back.

I’ve been living with significant hearing loss in one ear ever since, and life hasn’t been the same. Most of my social life revolved around music.

I’m grateful that I went to college for finance and accounting because audio engineering was my main source of income throughout college. I’m 29 now and working a regular corporate job, but it’s so hard not to be engineering music anymore. I loved this field so much. I can still EQ, compress, and do all the things I used to, but there’s no width to the music anymore. Stereo is such a beautiful thing, and it’s something I never fully appreciated until I lost it.

Every day, I pray that God will perform a miracle and restore my hearing. Life truly hasn’t been the same since I lost it.

I’m including a link to some of my old remixes in case anyone wants to give them a listen. I mainly wanted to write this to get it off my chest, but maybe there’s someone here who can relate. Despite my hearing loss, I just can’t bring myself to sell my gear. I still have my Manley Reference Cardioid, NS-10s, HS8s, Auratones, and AKG C414s collecting dust, but I still love these tools to death.

Fellow engineers, protect your hearing. And if you ever feel like giving up, just know that there are people out there who would do anything to have good ears again.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvtfOeZ8w4OVF8TTsU66-Xx-ytLRqcYHb&si=IflY_b2veJ_cK4R2

I was having a conversation with someone and they mentioned panning their buses. I paused and said wait a minute, you pan your buses? I’ve never once thought to do this because I just leave them stereo, and pan the actual tracks how I want them to sit

1. Is there any difference from having 1 guitar panned left 30% and 1 right 30% going to a stereo instrument or guitar bus that is a balanced 100% L/R pan? I’d think it makes no difference because within that bus stereo field, the guitars are still 30% L & R panned. It’s not like I need to match the bus to that pan level, correct? In logic that would be changing the bus from stereo balance to stereo pan.

If anything it just sounds like a workflow preference if you really want to pan your buses. Thoughts?

1. Does sending a 100% center mono signal (no pan) to a stereo bus (effectively making it dual mono) or to a mono bus make any difference or is it exactly the same sound. I’ve yet to test it so sorry for being lazy but I’m curious what you got to say about this.

I am currently mixing my shoegaze project. The guitars have really just a tiny bit of reverb on them. I have double tracked the guitars and routed them to about 4 ambiance tracks. One has a 2 octave pitch increase and a lowpass filter on 3kish so basically white noise with a bit of high frequency hum, it has Valhalla's supermassive on a high reverb setting. another has a 1 octave pitch decrease acting as sub bass along with the actual bass, this one has a slightly lower reverb and is basically acting as extra sub for the ambiance. the 3rd one has no pitch shifter and is basically a delay with slight reverb. this one has the bass cut out. the 4th is a highly reverb and tremolo based layer and acts as texture. these all sit at around -15 dB.

My question is am I insane for doing this and will this mud the mix out? the link to a sample of the mix? the mix is only guitars btw.

I had to post this because I'm stoked out of my mind to find this. This creator has built an incredible catalog where they speak the exact same phrase into an insane collection of vintage microphones.

Because the speech sample stays similar across the board, it gives you a pure, direct reference point to actually hear how every individual mic shapes tone, character, and frequency response. It’s an absolute goldmine for comparing gear. If you love digging around for old mics and have a curiosity for them, this is a great spot to get an idea of what they would sound like.

Huge shoutout to Ron for putting this together:Ron Hummel's YouTube Channel

Hey all.

I have an Amek Angela MK1 in my studio.

It doesn't always work and sometimes others treat it like a desk.. I'm looking for a way to cover it so it also gets protected from dust.

Any option that doesn't break the bank? Any cloth type that sits kinda heavy on the console?

I was thinking something like a very big mousepad types, which are thin but light and they don't get wrinkled..

I want to rearrange my studio and need some advice.
This is the layout: https://imgur.com/a/sO8wJKs

All walls are made of solid wood. They are not completely flat but lamellar, similar to a log house but not as extreme. Biggest worries are the windows, which I don't want to cover.
Personally I would prefer placing the desk on the right long wall, but afaik facing the short wall is better. However in the upper short wall is the window and on the lower one the door might be in the way.
Is facing the right long wall still somewhat acceptable?

Also I plan to treat the room wich leads to my other question. Does a wooden room need the same amount of treatment as concrete? I only found out that wood diffuses sound better than concrete but found nothing about treatment. The roof is sloping towards the left long wall btw.

Thanks!

Disclaimer: Radiohead are my absolute favourite band of all time. Do me a favour: have a listen to Let Down. An absolute classic. Haven’t listened to it in years. But wow it’s so hard to listen to. So much 2k in the guitars, so much 4k in the overheads. All you can hear in the vocals is the sibilance… am I just having a bad day or has my taste been ruined by modern expectations?

I was wondering, how many years of audio engineering college, do you need to actually start full career in audio engineering; is it true that you do need the certificate/certifications? Or can a person start out by doing audio engineering as a career without having the required degree/certifications? And if so, which is a better route to go?

I was recording yesterday with almost silent room tone and now after changing nothing I can hear noise. Does anyone have insight?

Does anyone use one of these? If so for what? Considering getting one that is for sale near me..I own a distressor and a black lion audio seventeen currently.

Hi everyone,

I’ve made a cool MIDI mapping tool for the Trinnov nova, it uses HTTP requests to speak directly to the hardware, and basically lets your integrate Trinnov automations in your routines. You can map anything you would be able to use with La Remote, and it also creates launchers for keystroke automation or Streamdeck (click Streamdeck - Create Launchers) then you can just drag and drop a tile inside your streamdeck 😁

I’ve also added an auto-off feature that’s super handy for shutting down the Trinnov as soon as you turn your mac off (uses helper to detect shutdown and sends shutdown request before network interrupts)

It’s fully free, so enjoy 🤪

https://github.com/skybrom/NoMoreRemote

I'm a percussionist who use to be in the show STOMP. I'm starting a new project and booked a show next month that's electronic music with a Roland E-Drum kit, live percussion, and a "Junk Wall".

Here's a stage plot I'm planning on sending the sound person this week (ignore the mixer, I'm plugging in mics straight to the house). The whole footprint is 8x8ft.

Here's the junk wall details:

- Photo of a larger one we used for a different event.

- Mine will be 6' wide by 4' tall.

- Will have sounds ranging from floor tom up to a snare.

- Only have around 3-4 feet behind the structure to place mics.

It's a small venue and he asked me how I want to mic this, so I pictured two overhead drum mics working well for this (on stands pointing at the wall from behind). Now I'm starting to wonder about the spread and if some of the lower end might get left out.

A friend of mine offered to lend me his AT2025 so I was going to get another one of those and call it a day. I wouldn't mind getting a pair for myself for future shows but can only spend like $500 for a pair. What do you all think? Would overhead drum mics work for something like this or should I be looking for something else entirely?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

I was listening to the Eels -Novocaine for the soul this morning and was completely blown away with the mix and it had me really thinking about the production side of 90s music.
The song could be complete garbage but still sound so good… why?
It feels like almost every song is mixed so good or maybe I’m just tripping…

I bought some cheap Behringer small diaphragm condensers that, for whatever reason, rumble at a very low frequency intermittently, sometimes changing frequency or stopping completely for no apparent reason. I've tried to eliminate as much outside noise as possible, but I've never known this to happen before with other mics, even cheap ones.

Example where I caught the change in frequency and stopping:
http://sndup.net/3twcv

how many is normal? I think on this 40 minute record ive heard two that are definitely in the stamper and not the press.. they are quiet.. one rotation.. like a dust pop but repeat on all test pressings..

is that normal? Im kind of micro-obsessing on these pressings I think.. listening on fancy headphones etc..

Open discussion on miking guitar amps.

Do you have go-to methods?

Does the amp change the way you mic the cab?

Do you have preferred speakers?

What microphones do you use and where do you place them?

How does open-back vs. closed-back change your decisions?

I record rock guitar for the most part, and recently got myself an MD421. I placed a 57 and 421 on different speakers on a V30 (4×12) cabinet and had them both on-axis. Now I'm recording a 2×12 with T-75s and landed on those two mics again but the 421 is off-axis this time, which I find interesting.

I’ll be mixing a song in stereo then finish the last half in mono but totally forget by the end of it that I switched to mono… And think to myself hey this sounds pretty good. BUT THEN THE REALISATION: oh shit I’m still in in mono! The first listen when I go back to stereo…. The dopamine… so sweet, clear and full…. Feel like a fucking musical genius haha. This has to happen to other people too. (?)

Hello,

I'm interested in Luna for two reasons, 1. my main DAW is Ableton which is great for making everything 'in the box', 2. I tend to lose inspiration and motivation rather quick when seeing the same UI over and over again. A secondary DAW would solve the latter, but I like to be financially smart about it, hence my interest in Luna Free (and eventually Studio with it's very attractive 200 bucks pricetag).

Instead of critically thinking of just my personal wishes, I took into account why certain DAWs grow or still have major usage globally. I think we all know the high adoption and usage rates and reasons of Logic and Pro Tools for all genres of music, Cubase for orchestral composing, Ableton for electronic, and Reaper for game audio.

I like to pick out two of these, PT and Reaper, and pitch it against Luna.

Reaper is huge in game audio because unlike music, games require ten-thousands of little audio snippets, and batch modulation, batch processing, and batch rendering can all be automated with scripts. It's super lightweight, super stable, and highly customizable. Price? Free, or 60 bucks, or 225 bucks.

So why is it not adopted by major commercial music studios? These all need to survive financially like every other company right?

This is where PT comes in. They were early (no clue if they were first), and early adoption has its advantages. To this day PT is the de facto leader, the global standard. A PT producer/engineer, engineer, can work everywhere in the world where PT is available, and PT is available at pretty much every studio.

PT is not highly customizable. Reaper on the other hand, you can turn it into everything and anything you want, and it still works. But here is the thing ... I think this is exactly why PT is the standard, BECAUSE it isn't highly customizable, everyone with PT skills can work anywhere with any session since they don't have to decipher the program anymore. In contrast, a place with a highly customized Reaper setup, can't let guest engineers working there since they won't know that Reaper compared to their own Reaper.

When you look at how beginners start, they often buy one of the lower tiers, with technical limitations especially track count, then do upgrades towards the highest tier. Awesome! Financially, assuming you can upgrade by only paying the difference, this totals around 800 bucks. But Luna Free, only has very specific limitations such as hardware inserts and the number of plugins you get with it. The absolute essentials however, are all there such as unlimited tracks. And if you do like the highest tier, it's 200 bucks ... 25% of any other DAW.

So ... might Luna become the potential king of both worlds?

#1. Luna is free or 200 bucks, which is in line with Reaper's pricetags. Low barrier for new people, low barrier for semi and fulltime professionals.

#2. Luna is also not highly customizable like PT, enabling Luna users to instantly know what to do when being guest engineers or producer/engineers at other locations where Luna is running.

It also solves the barriers of starting small as a bedroom producer, but smoothly moving up and eventually connecting within the commercial studio system. Basically going from #1 to #2.

Yes software-technically an adolescent but growing nevertheless. Do you see Luna a candidate to become an industry stable? If so, how many years or versions would it take you reckon?

Love to hear your thoughts on this.

Curators love my mixing and mastering, but I have never done summing, and I don't even know what it is or whether I need it.

Anyone else order a mystery box - or boxes - from Warm Audio? What'd you score? What'd you hope for?

I'm reading The Mixing Engineer's Handbook and they mention the technique of listening in mono to hear certain things differently. I'm not sure how it's supposed to help, though. I put my song in mono and everything is masked, but in stereo it doesn't have those issues. Should I really base mixing decisions on what I'm hearing in mono?

I'm learning about parallel compression and I was confused by this. I thought the idea was to get something hyper-compressed for the parallel compression, which I would think needed a fast attack. Why would you want to lose a slow attack?

He mentions it at about 4:45 in this interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuU6XdVebJo

Talk me out of this console. I use all outboard Neve preamps and outboard compression and need a centerpiece for aux routing, basic input EQ, and summing. This desk has pretty much everything I need - but I'm genuinely concerned about the sound and build quality.

My main concerned is if they can be driven as hard as an SSL or Neve before distorting. I'm also curious about the summing - is it pretty much just transparent line inputs? Or is there some harmonic color/transformers that add some extra to the output signal? Lastly, are the EQ's any good? Can they also be driven without sounding harsh.

For the price point, it's hard to beat. But I'm really curious if they are priced like that for a reason? Thanks.

Thoughts on this? I’ve been itb for 5 years and im leaning towards a summing mixer before getting a mixbus compressor and eq.

16 channel summing mixer like the shadow hills equinox to route my digital buses through or get a 32 channel summing mixer like the burl b32 and bypass all digital buses and use vca channels in logic to control levels only?

Would there be a perceivable benefit to avoid digital buses entirely or is that extra step and limitation on tracks/ability to put inserts and sends on buses itb not worth summing each track individually

Check these out and share your thoughts if you're down: I'd love to hear other peoples feedback too.

1. https://youtu.be/f58ypbVQX4w?si=SK4RIcf9I78ApDfw
2. https://youtu.be/HwRdZcKd3r0?si=JzyXnfxu70UA1EWD
3. https://youtu.be/8tfUpJ9iAlY?si=_wGBjfrROjoevTzZ
4. https://youtu.be/pVea3h9CfYA?si=nfdyb2HQwX4DZiaV
5. https://youtu.be/1M6sJNS0blI?si=25l0d1ocYdQ0qD75