Forget Inspiration, Songwriting Is Work
Let me make something really clear today: songwriting isn’t simply a process of inspiration, where you write when creativity strikes. It’s hard, grueling work. If you ever want to record an album with...
View ArticleThe Sad Truth About Songwriting [Video]
I’ve got some bad news for you. Not every song you write will be good. In fact, you probably will have to write some crappy songs just to even get to the good ones. It’s a sad truth about songwriting...
View Article3 Key Elements To Building Perfect Guide Tracks [Video]
The foundation of a great recording is a great guide track. What’s a guide track you might ask? Simply it’s whatever you setup in your DAW to help your actual recording sessions go smoother, faster,...
View ArticleThe Wonderful Limitation Of Your Vocal Melody [Video]
The other day I asked the question, “Which comes first? Music or lyrics?” Personally, I’m a music first guy. Even more specifically I’m a vocal melody locked up tight first kind of guy. Today I thought...
View ArticleHow To Smooth Out Harsh Guitars Without EQ [Video]
Sometimes you get that overly bright and harsh guitar tone in a song and it needs smoothing out. Typically we reach for an EQ to solve our problems. But today I want to show you another great option...
View ArticleMulti Platinum Mixer Manny Marroquin On Why You Should Keep Things Simple In...
When a mixing great like Manny Marroquin (John Mayer, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Bruno Mars) advocates simplicity in mixing, we as home studio owners can respond in one of two ways. We can become cynical...
View ArticleHow To Uncover Your Track’s Potential In Mixing [Video]
Today I have good news for you: your tracks probably sound better than you think. Most of the time though when home studio mixers pull up a session and hear something they don’t like, their first...
View ArticleThe Studio Detox: Pick Only Two Microphones
Admit it, you have an obsession with microphones. We all do. The most important tool for the recording engineer, microphones hold much mysterious power over us. So much so that we think if we could...
View ArticleGetting Virtual Guitar Amps To Sound More Real
If you’ve ever recorded through a virtual guitar amp plugin or box then you might have noticed that many of the overdrive settings can sound a bit, well, fake. Now, this is a subtle problem but a...
View ArticleRecording Acoustic Guitar (My Foolproof Method)
Here is my absolute favorite way to record acoustic guitar. It’s simple, impossible to mess up, and most importantly it sounds great. All you need is one microphone, a little bit of common sense and...
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