Technique Articles

I'm a stereo freak. I just can't seem to get enough of it, and I love it when things move, spin and fly around the stereo sound field - that is, as long as it is musically appropriate; but that's a subject for another day. Let's look at stereo placement and various ways to position sounds within the stereo field.

You play guitar, and you want to record what you're doing . . . but as both your hands are busy, you sure wish you had an assistant engineer.

While this article won't tell you how to clone yourself or build a robot, it will tell you how some simple, readily available tools can greatly simplify the recording process when you're trying to record yourself.

Many of you will already be familiar with the common recommendation of setting up your near field monitors in an equilateral triangle arrangement. In such a setup, the monitors are placed the same distance from each other (typically, 3-4 feet) as they are from your listening position, so that the two speakers and the listener's head sit at the three points of an equilateral triangle. This is relatively easy to achieve with little more than a tape measure, or a few feet of string. But what about toe-in?

Toe-in, or angling the speakers inwards towards the listening position so that the listener is more on-axis with the speakers, is another often-recommended monitor setup technique, but it can be a little tricky making sure the two monitors are angled exactly the same way... 

Compressors are some of the most used, and most misunderstood, signal processors. While people use compression in an attempt to make a recording "punchier," it often ends up dulling the sound instead because the controls aren't set optimally. Besides, compression was supposed to become an antique when the digital age, with its wide dynamic range, appeared.

Yet the compressor is more popular than ever, with more variations on the basic concept than ever before. Let's look at what's available, pros and cons of the different types, and applications.

Lately, there’s been considerable controversy about mixing “inside the box” (ITB)—the process where all your processing, fader moves, and automation are done in the digital domain, inside your computer. In theory, ITB shouldn’t have any problems. But some insist that using analog summing junctions (or a “real” console) for mixing delivers superior sound quality.

While I don’t agree with the extreme view that ITB mixing sounds just plain bad, doing a good ITB mix involves some techniques that aren’t relevant with analog. Such as . . .

Who's stealing your headroom? It may be the archenemy of good audio - DC offset. Find out what causes it, how to deal with it, and some other offset-related gremlines unique to the world of digital audio.

Tips and tricks for getting different tones when recording multiple guitarists, or overdubbing multiple guitar parts. How to avoid common issues, and give each guitar its own distinctive identity when using multiple guitar parts on a recording.

Mixing is not only an art, it’s the crucial step that turns a collection of tracks into a finished piece of music. A good mix can bring out the best in your music—it spotlights a composition’s most important elements, adds a few surprises to excite the listener, and sounds good on anything from a portable MP3 player with crappy earbuds to an audiophile’s dream setup. Here are 12 practical steps you can take to creating a better mix.