Blogs, Articles and New Monday
New Monday #103
February 2, 2026
Fleetwood Mac's Dreams deconstructed: vocal drum bleed, Beyer M88 kick sounds, arrangement tricks with vibraphones and Fender Rhodes, and touring Boulevard's legendary Sound Techniques console.
New Monday #102
January 27, 2026
Sound Techniques A-Range consoles at Sunset Sound, recording Zeppelin and Ziggy Stardust, Chamber One reverb tricks, and the insanity of NAMM plus some mystery bed-peeing.
New Monday 101
January 19, 2026
Go-Go's producing Our Lips Are Sealed at Penny Lane Studios on Trident, hook writing with Charlotte Caffey's guitar parts, and Jessie Mazin's TikTok diary of collaborative remixes.
New Monday #100
January 12, 2026
SITRAL W295 EQ: active inductor design with transistors and transformers. Why stepped controls beat infinite tweaking, happy accidents in mixing, and conversations with your gear.
New Monday #99
January 5, 2026
Brooklyn's Geese with shitty drum sounds and untuned vocals, plus Jimi Hendrix knocking out The Wind Cries Mary in 20 minutes at De Lane Lea on four tracks. No fuss, all genius.
New Monday #98
December 29, 2025
Rosalia's operatic Lux with killer reverb tricks, Boney M's Rasputin and those smooth SiTRAL-sounding mids, and The Beatles' casual brilliance on Dear Prudence with Paul on drums.
New Monday #97
December 22, 2025
Christmas Wrapping at Electric Lady on Datamix console with Tracy Wormworth's bass, plus Vince Guaraldi's three-track Linus and Lucy and the melancholy genius of holiday recordings.
New Monday #96
December 15, 2025
London Calling tracked at Wessex on Cadac console: Bill Price's production wisdom, Paul Simonon's bassline genius, Guy Stevens' chaos, and Topper Headon's drumming that made it magical.
Audio 101 - from Passive to Active
We've been talking about passive EQs, now let's talk about active EQs.
New Monday #95
December 8, 2025
Guadalupe Plata's gritty psychobilly recordings, slapback delay tricks, lo-fi drum miking techniques, and how to get dirty vintage saturation on your tracks.
Audio 101 - From Passive Components to a Passive EQ to a Plug-in.
The way a plug-in is constructed has a huge impact on its sound quality. You’ll find out why in this post.
New Monday #94
December 1, 2025
Listening for mono vs stereo: Saint Motel's spatial drama, Mott the Hoople's phone trick on Trident console, Ecca Vandal's wall-of-sound, and The Replacements' jaunty Let It Be.
AI Vegans
Thoughts on where the music industry is at when it comes to the proliferation of Ai.
Audio 101-4: Electric Fields, Magnetic Fields, and Inductors
Inductors store energy in a magnetic field, and function as high-pass filters. More on the mysteries.
New Monday #93
November 24, 2025
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: heavy metal psychedelia recorded at Blank Studios with Sam Grant. API console, homemade plate reverb, aluminum guitars, and grooves that swing.
Audio 101-3: Electric Fields and Capacitors
A clear look at how electrical energy travels through audio circuits, using relatable examples to reveal how sound is shaped, controlled, and brought to life in electronics.
New Monday #92
November 17, 2025
Gordon Lightfoot nailing Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald in one take at Eastern Sound, plus microtonal mathrock madness from Quebec's Angine de Poitrine with loop pedals and dick noses.
Audio 101-2: Voltage and Current
A simple, clear explanation of Voltage and Current, showing how they guide the flow of sound through a circuit, broken down in easy language to help you understand audio electronics.
New Monday #91
November 10, 2025
Kolektivo's warm Bossa Nova vibes, Ramón Stagnaro's classical guitar chops with Yanni, Dan Korneff demoing Chocolate Milk, and learning capacitors and inductors for EQ circuits.
Audio 101-1: Capacitors and Inductors
Understanding capacitors and inductors is essential to understanding how equalizers work. This article explains the essence of these components using clear language.
New Monday #90
November 3, 2025
Chocolate Milk Gooderizer: multiband saturation with MOO, SQUISH, and FROTH using Baxandall EQ curves. Louis Cole's genius with Metropole Orkest and crazy house recordings.
New Monday #89
October 27, 2025
Dave Pensado's mixing wisdom and the physics of analog tape: how magnetic particles compress transients, add harmonic distortion, and why tape sucks the life from highs.
New Monday #88
October 20, 2025
How 10cc built I'm Not in Love from 624 vocal loops on 16-track tape. Three weeks of insanity at Strawberry Studios with a Helios console and crazy commitment.
New Monday #87
October 13, 2025
Grand Funk's Bad Time tracked at The Swamp with Shelly Yakus: fuzzy bass, aluminum Valeno guitars, Mark Farner's killer vocals, and Don Brewer's signature hihat choke fills.
New Monday #86
October 6, 2025
Ace's How Long tracked at Rockfield Studios on MCI console: stolen Pentangle bassline, AKG D12 kick with that boing, plate reverb on drums, and ugly Uni-Vibe guitar solo.
Distorted Drums: Lo Fi and Faux Fi.
Distorted drum sounds don't require a strange little room and a bunch of old mics and compressors. Here's a way to get dangerous dirty drums with a single plug-in—our Shure Level-Loc.
New Monday #85
September 29, 2025
Captain and Tennille's Love Will Keep Us Together at Paramount: Hal Blaine drums, prepared piano, dense keyboard arrangements, Neil Sedaka's weird 10cc version, Joy Division.
New Monday #84
September 22, 2025
America's Sister Golden Hair at Record Plant Sausalito with George Martin: delay vs doubling tricks, lap steel panning, and Sonny Curtis writing I Fought the Law and MTM theme.
An Old School Approach to Saturation
Sticking a saturator on the mix bus isn’t going to get you that vintage analog warmth. Setting up your DAW like an old console will.
New Monday #83
September 15, 2025
ADHD nomads making Moroccan blues with Bab L'Bluz, vaporwave necromancer Jim Miles, heavy guitar tricks with WOW Thing plugin, and mysterious clicking at Western Recorders.
Black Album Guitars
Using The WOW Thing to get huge, Randy Staub style guitar sounds. Think Black Album. Think Nickelback. Think WOW. Complete breakdown, including settings.
New Monday #82
September 8, 2025
DJ Cummerbund's killer mashups, Rick Beato vs Universal copyright strikes, The Turtles' saturated production on She's My Girl, and three-reverb mixing philosophy.
Read It Hear: Lips Like Sugar
Lips Like Sugar was a hit for Echo and the Bunnymen. It’s a great production full of texture and color. We break it down for you. Read it hear.
Just Use Three Reverbs
Too many different reverbs can overwhelm your mixes. Just use three. This is how you do it, and how to think about it.
New Monday #81
September 1, 2025
Ludwig Göransson's bluegrass horror soundtrack for Sinners, Echo's Lips Like Sugar production tricks, bass presence on small speakers, and Sting vs The Police royalty drama.
Bass Fix with the Pawn Shop Comp
Using saturation to enhance low-frequency sounds on a small speaker.
New Monday #80
August 25, 2025
Elvis Costello's Accidents Will Happen at Eden Studios: cheap Beyer mic, Pete Thomas drums, Steve Nieve's keyboard stacking, and Robbie Robertson's haunting Flower Moon score.
New Monday #79
August 18, 2025
Stop chasing reference mixes. Use context not comparison, take notes with pen and paper, listen at low volumes, and channel your inner Andrew Sheps for better mixing.
New Monday #78
August 11, 2025
Mix at 75dB SPL sweet spot but check at whisper levels. Turn volume to zero, creep up slowly—what comes first reveals your mix balance. Sibilance hurts at low volumes.
New Monday #77
August 4, 2025
Deerhunter's Helicopter built on Eventide PitchFactor: Bradford Cox's genius production with mono drums, spring reverb bashing, pitch-shifted guitars, and saturated fadeout madness.
New Monday #76
July 28, 2025
Ozzy's softy side with My Little Man, Chuck Mangione inventing smooth jazz, and Golden Earring's George Kooymans—1975's most underrated guitar god with fusion chops.
Recording Guitars
A collection of ideas and tips on tracking guitars.
New Monday #75
July 21, 2025
RL Burnside's country blues gets Tom Rothrock's shoegaze dub treatment, YouTube fighting AI with new policies, and connecting timbre to harmonic distortion on your mix bus.
Timbre and Harmonic Distortion
Timbre and Harmonic Distortion are fruit from the same tree. And then clipping and compression: a look at the differences. And a nifty homework assignment.
New Monday #74
July 14, 2025
Fishmans' dreamy 35-minute Long Season, then deep into tape physics: magnetic flux, particle inertia clipping transients, VU meter lies, and Echoleffe homework on snare compression.
New Monday #73
July 7, 2025
Pawn Shop Comp deep dive: tube preamp saturation with switchable tubes, transformer overdrive on bass, FET compression from gentle to 100:1, and attack as poke vs release as hang.
New Monday #72
June 30, 2025
Mick Ralphs' Ready For Love with Mott the Hoople beats Bad Company's version, AI band Velvet Sundown's listenable mediocrity, and Jesse Welles' Woody Guthrie meets Nirvana garage fury.
New Monday #71
June 23, 2025
ChatGPT vs Claude AI as studio interns: one won't shut up, the other forgets everything. Holly Hearndon's AI experiments, Via Mardot's theremin sci-fi soundtracks, and AI threatening humanity.
New Monday #70
June 16, 2025
Sly Stone and Brian Wilson tributes: curated playlists with Sly's Flickinger console funk, Maestro Rhythm King drum machines, Brian's home studio symphonies, and Stephen Desper's innovations.
New Monday #69
June 9, 2025
NS10s' time domain secrets, Haute and Freddy's New Order meets Renaissance fair synth-pop, Love's protopunk 7 and 7 Is chaos, and Talking Heads 77 remaster clarity.
New Monday #68
June 2, 2025
The Zombies' Odessey and Oracle at Abbey Road with Geoff Emerick: four-track genius on £1000 budget, misspelled title, fake touring Zombies featuring Billy Gibbons, Time of Season hit.
New Monday #67
May 26, 2025
Dave Shapiro and Daniel Williams plane crash tragedy, Magpie Pirates creative Discord community, permission to risk not permission to suck, and Jackie Venson's loop guitar genius.
New Monday #66
May 19, 2025
Beatles Revolver gave permission to screw up, Matisse painted over mistakes, Bowie's Starman pointed at you—art is permission. You don't need permission. Put stuff out.
New Monday #65
May 12, 2025
AI existential crisis: will creativity prove to be just intelligence? AI data centers use enough energy for 100,000 homes. Try not to fall in love with your AI--you will hurt, it will not.
New Monday #64
May 5, 2025
Pick creative partners carefully: balance perfection with push-overs, accept bad ideas until good ones flow, lock down money splits like U2, and bad ideas fall out of orbit.
New Monday #63
April 28, 2025
Cleverly stealing songwriting ideas: flipping chords, blackout poetry, writing bridges like The Monkees, and production tricks from Bowie and Brian Eno. Fix what beats you like Dennis Connor.
New Monday #62
April 21, 2025
Productive limitations spark creativity: Glyn Johns' three-mic drums from limited inputs, The Edge's delay fixing weak chops, 1176 bugs as features, Nebraska on four-track cassette.
New Monday #61
April 14, 2025
Happy accidents like Reese's cups: Beatles' radio on I Am the Walrus, Tommy James playing tape backward created Mirage, Luke Law says do the stupid thing anyway. Work physically.
New Monday #60
April 6, 2025
How inspiration and technique work together in songwriting. Phone poles of ideas strung with technical wire. Plus Bowie daughter releases her debut album Xandri.
New Monday #59
March 30, 2025
AIR Moon Safari was tracked on 8-track with a Fostex D80, cheap Hofner bass through a guitar amp, old Moog and Korg synths, and a Big Muff on the Rhodes solo.
New Monday #58
March 24, 2025
Severance, Les, Sale
New Monday #57
March 17, 2025
Frampton’s Still Alive!
New Monday #56
March 9, 2025
Blur This is a Low: Damon Albarn wrote lyrics from weather map handkerchief after hernia surgery. Meaning is what we bring--AI can make wedding songs but cannot leap from weather report to art.
New Monday #55
March 3, 2025
Pro-Tools Flack
New Monday #54
February 24, 2025
What does glue mean on a mix bus compressor? Rhythmic pumping plus unified harmonic distortion. Also: AI disruption and LP Lost On You—a song AI cannot write.
Recording Vocals without Headphones
Hate headphones? I cover every technique I know, including cutting a reversed-phase leakage track. If you hate headphones like I hate headphones, you’ll love this technique.
New Monday #53
February 17, 2025
Chris Isaak Wicked Game was sampled and stitched on AKAI DD1000. Vocals cut live with no headphones, drum leakage shifting phase, Nashville-tuned guitar magic.
New Monday #52
February 10, 2025
Dave Jerden engineered Talking Heads Remain in Light and produced Alice In Chains Dirt—the sound of the early 90s: punchy, huge, clear with dynamics, no loudness wars.
New Monday #51
February 3, 2025
Peter Gabriel i/o won two Grammys with Bright-Side and Dark-Side mixes. Stevie Wonder Living for the City: one man, TONTO synth, Moog bass, tape speed vocal tricks.
New Monday #50
January 27, 2025
NAMM 2025 stories: Tchad Blake set up the booth, critical distance lost a car in the garage, Rick Beato liked the sweater. Behind the scenes at Korneff Plug Inn.
New Monday #49
January 20, 2025
Shure builds military-grade everything since the 1940s. Robots bend cables a million times, mics survive bulldozers and fires. Capitalism done right with heart and community.
New Monday #48
January 13, 2025
Phantom Planet California mixed by Tchad Blake and Jack Joseph Puig—two masters, same tracks. Plus Joni Mitchell Blue and Delta Spirit heartbreaker amid California fires.
New Monday 47
January 6, 2025
Rolling Stones Time Waits for No One—a liminal album, lost between eras. How song transitions work: gates between sections, bridges that change the song's mind.
New Monday 46
December 30, 2024
Super producer Richard Perry did Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Ringo with all three Beatles. Plus Fanny—the all-girl rock band that threw down like The Faces in 1970.
New Monday 45
December 23, 2024
Setting audio levels on plugins explained. National Sweetheart psychedelic instrumentals. Frank Sinatra Christmas Album cut live with full orchestra at Capitol in four days.
An Overview of Setting Audio Levels, Part 1
Having issues setting levels on your DAW or when you use plug-ins? Things sounding too crunchy? Here’s a simple, clear explanation of what you can do to solve this problem in your studio.
New Monday 44
December 16, 2024
Deep Purple Highway Star from Made in Japan: tracked live with 8-track to Marshall PA console. Perfect driving song. Plus the truth about nominal levels and gain staging.
New Monday #43
December 9, 2024
Common Saints & Reverb ideas
Don’t Think of Reverb Acoustically
Reverb in the real world is sound bouncing off surfaces, millions of little chunks of reflected sound turning into a cloudy mass. But in the studio, who cares what reverb is. In the studio, it’s about what it can do.
New Monday 42b
December 3, 2024
El Juan waveshaper adds controlled harmonics like different consoles. Puff Puff makes things perceptually louder. WOW Thing invents bass. Plugin secrets and weird tricks.
New Monday 42a
December 2, 2024
Korneff plugin secrets: Pawn Shop has cassette duplicator circuit. Talkback Limiter made Hugh Padgham gated drums. Echoleffe has three delay lines with individual EQs and bias.
New Monday #41
November 25, 2024
Kim Deal Nobody Loves You More at 63: learned Pro-Tools from Steve Albini, recorded the last thing he ever tracked. No autotune, no algorithm, just being yourself.
New Monday #40
November 18, 2024
Producer Shel Talmy cut You Really Got Me with slashed speaker and Jimmy Page on rhythm. Mic placement tricks: proximity effect for bass, off-axis for highs, 3:1 rule.
New Monday #39
November 11, 2024
Old guys making new music: The Cure goth gloom, The The smart confounding zigging, Nick Cave with Anita Lane recording from beyond. Learning how to grow old and stay cool.
New Monday #38
November 4, 2024
Quincy Jones died—genius producer, arranger, composer. Michael Jackson Billie Jean production: growling bass, finger snaps, vocals as percussion. Incredible snare sound.
New Monday #37
October 28, 2024
Bowie Rebel Rebel gets interpolated into country with four writers splitting pennies. Beatles Norwegian Wood: two writers, four tracks, George on sitar he barely knew how to play.
New Monday #36
October 21, 2024
How drummers move is what they play. Dennis Davis on Bowie Fame: stick angles, posture shifts, pocket slides. Fred Astaire drummed with his feet while tap dancing.
New Monday #35
October 14, 2024
AI writes generic country. Midland does Neotraditional. Jerry Jeff Walker cut Viva Terlingua live in a dance hall on 16-track, bypassing the console, fueled by sangria.
New Monday #34
October 7, 2024
Mystery Artist, Tinnitus, and a DIY for You!
New Monday #33
September 30, 2024
Tom Robinson Band Power in the Darkness: openly gay punk fury cut at Wessex on Cadac 24-track. Man You Never Saw throws itself down the mountain like Franz Klammer skiing.
New Monday #32
September 23, 2024
Hawksley Workman: Canada answer to Prince meets Bowie. Puff Puff makes things louder without changing meters—matches levels, undoes limiting, restores transient punch.
New Monday #31
September 16, 2024
Why bells sound out of tune: inharmonicity and intermodulation distortion explained. AI criminal ripped off Spotify for millions. Floor tom tuning trick that actually works.
Inharmonicity, Strike Tones and Intermodulation Distortion
Inharmonicity is a problem. It happens with instruments and especially with both analog and digital devices.
New Monday #30
September 9, 2024
St Vincent self-produced playground of ideas. Saturation hierarchy: compression clips transients, adds harmonics going up in frequency. Saturated kicks lose punch, gain highs.
What’s Special About the MDR
A slice of history about the effects units that inspired the Micro Digital Reverberator.
New Monday #29
September 2, 2024
Nick Lowe The Basher smashed through songs at Eden Studios on custom console. Albert Lee one-take B Bender magic. Roger Béchirian Armed Forces engineering breakdown—everything.
The Mixback
A very common recording technique from the days of analog tape is worth considering in the DAW age.
New Monday #28
August 26, 2024
Doobie Brothers Black Water: Ted Templeman and Don Landee on API console with 3M 24-track. That acapella break—three tracks through Amigo reverb chamber, genius panning.
The Chart and EQ’ing Ideas
Pitches correspond to frequencies. Here’s an ever-growing library of ideas related to pitch, frequency, and EQ. And download the handy dandy chart!
New Monday #26
August 12, 2024
Tchad Blake favorite EQ ever: the AIP. Based on Klangfilm RZ062B passive tube EQ, Dan made it fully parametric. Frankenklangfilm with transformer saturation sweetness.
New Monday #25
August 5, 2024
Spirit Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus: best album ever produced. Randy California and David Briggs on Sunset Sound API. Movement, panning, textures—a masterclass in production.
New Monday #24
July 29, 2024
Massive Attack Teardrop: Elizabeth Fraser grief over Jeff Buckley death. His Lilac Wine mixed by Andy Wallace on SSL with 480L—drunk narrator passing out, angelic ending.
New Monday #23
July 22, 2024
Bowie Space Oddity: Gus Dudgeon loved it, Visconti thought it was novelty. Herbie Flowers fluid bass, Terry Cox jazz drums, Mick Wayne detuned guitar accident magic.
New Monday #22
July 15, 2024
Walk on the Wild Side: Herbie Flowers played two basses—upright and electric 10th up. Thunderthighs far-to-close reverb trick. Lou Reed Berlin: most depressing record ever.
New Monday #21
July 8, 2024
David Essex Rock On: slapback vocal, no chords, drunk string players. Herbie Flowers two bass tracks—low rumble and high reverbed line that sounds like guitar.
New Monday #20
July 1, 2024
Kate Bush Cloudbusting with Donald Sutherland about Wilhelm Reich. Groove secrets: eight notes pushed ahead, kicks pushed, snare pulled behind—that pothole stops the song.
New Monday #19
June 24, 2024
Conny Plank: Krautrock genius with 56-channel custom console, illegal radio in studio, camera recall system. PZM taped to percussionist t-shirt—one mic, perfect balance.
New Monday #18
June 17, 2024
867-5309 Jenny: written in 20 minutes, cut live to 24-track at Clover. High energy bar band magic. David Lee Roth butchered it. Deep Purple Hush vs Kula Shaker tempo fail.
New Monday #17
June 10, 2024
The Cars debut: Roy Thomas Baker at AIR Studios on Stephens 40-track 2-inch. Rik Ocasek quirky songs, Elliot Easton monster guitar. Overload the input stage for saturation.
New Monday #16
June 3, 2024
Shakespeare emphasized with rhyme. Beatles doubled vocals except two lines. Dan Korneff secret: if it sounds good, do it again—two Puff Puffs on mix bus. Double compression trick.
Double Compressions Changes Everything
This is a technique that will boost your engineering skills through the roof if you master it.
New Monday #15
May 27, 2024
Beck Paper Tiger stole from Serge Gainsbourg Melody Nelson—Beck sang string parts, father arranged. Glyn Johns minimal drum micing tied to tuning. AIR borrowed from Gainsbourg too.
Discovering the SSL Listen Mic Compressor: from Curiosity to Creation
The Talkback Limiter began as bunch of parts soldered up and sitting on a workbench at my studio. Here’s the tale, from why isn’t this working to can I have a lot more, please.
New Monday #14
May 20, 2024
Bob Clearmountain and Jesse Ray Ernster talk ATMOS and NS-10s. Killing Me Softly: Gene Paul put too much foot on kick, panned right. Cool not perfect. Break mix patterns.
Ears, speakers and mixing
Everything is digital but not your ears or physics. Here are some ideas about mixing with multiple speakers and your ears.
New Monday #13
May 13, 2024
Steve Albini died at 61—superb engineer, lovely human. Neotek console, Sytek preamps, B&W speakers. His engineering techniques: drum tuning, phase, cabinet micing, console cleaning.
New Monday #12
May 6, 2024
Radiohead Karma Police: simple pop taken up a notch with grinding halt ending. Pierce the Veil cover produced by Dan Korneff—huge and heavy. Drum recording techniques compared.
Drum Recording Mastery with Pierce the Veil
Pierce the Veil’s latest features fabulous drum sounds. Here’s a run down on how how Dan did it.
Radiohead and Karma Police and the Drums
Kama Police was an instant classic by Radiohead. Great drum sound with a twist: three overheads!
New Monday #11
April 29, 2024
Sick of I-vi-IV-V? Try IV-V progression: My Generation, LA Woman, Reelin in the Years. John Barry Theme from Midnight Cowboy—most gorgeous lonely harmonica ever. Makes you cry.
New Monday #10
April 22, 2024
Puff Puff mixPass uses waveshaping to add loudness without compression. Dickey Betts died at 80. Fillmore East bootleg: Duane and Dickey on Les Pauls through Marshalls—screaming.
Revolver Changed My Life
Appropriate for an April 15th, The Beatles started recording Revolver in April of 1966. This album changed the planet.
New Monday #9
April 15, 2024
Beatles Taxman: Paul McCartney guitar solos, tape ramp-up intro. WOW Thing used on Metallica Black Album. Moving coil mics: SM7 on hi-hats, D160 on acoustic guitar.
Mixing with The WOW Thing
As a challenge, I mixed the stems of a song with The WOW Thing. I was amazed at how versatile that little plug-in is.
New Monday #8
April 9, 2024
Hendrix Johnny B Goode: definitive version. Guitar solo structure—sustained note openings, flurry contrasts, building drama. Playing with teeth. Diverse in Unity. El Juan backward workflow.
Jimi Hendrix Meets El Juan
Great stuff on YouTube that sounds awful. I “fixed” this with the El Juan Limiter.
New Monday #7
April 1, 2024
High school girls rock Fugazi in sundresses--pure human joy. TV themes got short: Better Call Saul, Lincoln Lawyer. Vocals need to be thin--back up from the mic.
Back off the mic on vocals!
Cardioid mics for vocals can cause issues. Here’s what’s happening and what you can do about it.
Mics Leak from the Front
Getting leakage in a directional mic? Chances are it’s coming in the front and not from around back.
Reasons to use a Moving Coil Mic
Just because condensers have gotten cheap and are everywhere doesn’t mean you should use them for everything. Moving coils are better in some applications.
Why that kid's a great drummer
This kid in this video is a great drummer. Here’s why you want to work with drummers like this kid.
New Monday #6
March 18, 2024
Blur Parklife mixing secrets: more sources = more mono. Contrast not reverb. Thin everything 200-900Hz--elevator weight limit. Mix like directing film--guide listener.
New Monday #5
March 11, 2024
311 snare ping: not the snare, how Chad Sexton hits it. Dual heavy guitars--left scooped mids, right full mids. Ray micing trick: find where hiss sounds fullest.
New Monday #4
March 4, 2024
Happy accidents: Shaun Ryder Gorillaz Dare groove. Van Halen Eruption room mic leakage--one spectacular take. AI cannot recognize happy accidents. You have taste--cultivate it.
New Monday #3
February 26, 2024
Happy Mondays pioneered looping: cut drum/bass loops, play over them live. Paul Ryder simple Motown bass god. Mic bleed comes from front--best vocal booth is clothes closet.
New Monday #2
February 19, 2024
AI is the microwave of music--Suno.ai generates songs in seconds. MXR Dyna Comp guitar pedal as aggressive vocal compressor. Randy Staub rumored it on kick drums.
It’s a New Monday
February 12, 2024
Our New Monday newsletter starts here!
The Greatest Christmas Song?
There’s more to the guilty pleasure that is Slade and Christmas songs than meets the ear.
Recording live in the studio with John Densmore and The Doors
In the 60's there weren't a lot of tracks to work with and not a lot of equipment. The best bands of the era had great, imaginative players. John Densmore made magic with a 4 piece kit and some great playing.
I Can See Clearly Now - it’s a masterpiece
This song was a huge hit in the early 1970’s and for good reason. It’s a great song with great performances and a killer arrangement.
What’s going on in Season of the Witch?
A psychedelic pop song from the mid-60’s is a masterclass on simplicity, lyric writing and making the best of what you’ve got to work with.
Stereo? Point Source Mono!
Not a lot of tracks used, and not a lot of stereo either. Some ideas for you on stereo, mono and recording.
How to Choose a Mentor
Finding a mentor is an important choice. Here’s advice from Dan based on decades in the studio and the business.
Mentors Kick Your Ass with Love and Other Thoughts
If you’re lucky, you’ll have mentors at all stages of your life. If you’re really lucky, they’ll give you exactly what you need at exactly the right time. I was, and continue to be, very very lucky.
My First Mentor
If you're lucky, a person will come into your life and change it forever in a good way. I was lucky.
Changing Short Term Dynamics
A video on poke and hang, using pink noise to show how compression can reduce masking.
What the Heck is Up With Transformers?
The physics behind a transformer is complex, but the effect it has is pretty simple to understand.
Poke, Hang, Compression and Saturation
Here’s a different way of thinking about how to get something to “sit” correctly in a mix: Is it poking through? Does it need to hang around longer?
Trouble Shooting: Ideas and Expletives
Troubleshooting problems in the studio is an essential skill. Here are some ideas on how to approach it and how much you should curse.
Compression, Saturation and Distortion
Engineers use terms like Distortion and Saturation almost interchangeably. This post discusses that, and offers ideas on how to think about this stuff while recording.
At Last! Gain Staging
Gain Staging is actually a no brainer. Here’s how to do it for tracking.
Nominal Level and Meters
You must understand the relationship of nominal level to the meters on your equipment.
Dynamic Range, Headroom and Nominal Level
This is the Ultimate Audio Treasure, in terms of knowledge. If you get this stuff you can solve any audio recording situation or problem. Knowing this will improve everything.
Noise in Audio Engineering
Noise is anything you don’t want to hear. But in terms of how audio gear works and audio engineering, it’s not quite that simple.
What Causes Harmonic Distortion
Understanding what causes harmonic distortion is essential engineering knowledge.
Harmonics and Harmonic Distortion
A simplified explanation of harmonics and harmonic distortion. Knowing this stuff is essential if you want to up your engineering game.
What the Heck is Bias?
Bias is a critical adjustment that often makes all the difference in the proper operation of analog audio equipment. This article is a non-technical explanation of bias and demonstrates how it is implemented on Korneff Audio plug-ins.
Hearing Different Reverb Types
If you can hear the difference between different reverb types, it is much easier to make decisions on your recordings.
Do You Put the Damn Compressor Before or After the EQ?
Compressor before or after the EQ? Here are some ideas and guidelines to help you develop your own thinking about this.
Use the Pawn Shop Comp Backwards
Dan approaches using the Pawn Shop Comp from a very different angle. Here’s why he does it, and here’s how to do it.
The Three Reverb Set-up
Nailing the reverb and ambience on lead vocals can be really tricky. This is a fast way to do it that is nearly foolproof for any genre of music
A Cool Snare Trick
A really useful mixing trick for snare drums using two instances of the Micro Digital Reverberator. This one is courtesy of Dan Korneff.
Pumpkin Spice Compressor?
It's fall! Need some spice in your audio life so it goes well with your pie? Then the PSC is your guy.
Practical and Impractical Reverb
Dan Korneff shares his thoughts on using reverb in a mix to create space and as a special effect.
Write in Character
Some ideas on how not to write the same old thing you usually write. With some guest appearances by David Bowie, the 10CC and the incomparable Nina Simone.
How Not to Wreak Your Mix
Wanna wreak your mix? Spend a lot of time on one stupid aspect and lose your view of the whole thing. Read this to find out how NOT to do something that damn dumb.
30 years of music: by Dan
30 years ago Dan was a kid who loved music, but had no idea where it would lead him. 30 years ago he took the first steps on a journey that brings us all here.
Fix that Dumb Love Song’s Ass Right Proper
Even a dumb country love song can have cool lyrics. This post is the start of a bunch on production ideas, starting with songwriting and lyrics. 8lbs 4oz Baby Jesus, try not to make it all about you.
Masterfading 2: Riding the Masterfader
Improve the interest and dynamics of your song by moving the masterfader a little bit here and there during your mix. It’s easy. It’s fun. It won’t stunt your growth.
Talkback Limiter = Bass Amp???
It’s all about breaking the rules. Dan K. shows you how to do it for bass sounds in this short video.
Masterfading 1: Better Fade Outs
Fadeouts on a record can be a work of art, or they can sorta suck. Here are a bunch of ideas on how to up your game at the end of the song.
How to Win
Much can be learned when an unpronounceable hurricane takes out your power and you need to get your generator fixed. And it applies to audio! Surprise surprise!
How to Screw-Up
Mistakes will be made, in the studio and in life. Get beyond them. They mean you’re moving up and forwards in your career. Learn the lesson now!
Ye Shall Be Released... Understanding Compressor Release Time
The release is the hardest parameter to set on a compressor, making it just as hard to explain what it is and how to set it - but here we do just that.
Slap, Punch, Transients, Compressors, Oh my!
Having issues getting your mix punchy? You probably aren’t setting the attack time right. This article covers exactly that, with a really clear explanation of how to do it, and some video examples.
Limiters, Compressors and Walking Dogs
We are talking about compressors for the next few weeks. It all starts with understanding the differences between Compressing and Limiting. Not as it is described in text books, but as it occurs in the studio.
Working Studio: block capitals, neat handwriting, Sharpies
You should get in the habit of labeling everything with a piece of Artists Tape and writing in block capital letters with a Sharpie.
Drums, Limiters, Gates, Hugh, Pete and Phil, etc.
Drum bus compressors have become a big deal. What follows are some ideas, some things to try, and some history to know about drum bus compression.
The Book that Changed my Life
Books can change your life if you read the right ones. Home Recording for Musicians changed Luke's life in the late 1970's.
Eddie Kramer's Drum Sound Secret
Engineering God Eddie Kramer is in the studio down the hall, but he won't let anyone see his drum mic set-up. What's an up and coming engineer to do? Sneak in, of course!
How the Pawn Shop Comp Came to Be
People love the Pawn Shop Comp, and they keep asking Dan, "How did you ever come up with this thing??" Read about the Pawn Shop Comp's labor and eventual birth!