A common thing to talk about among aspiring recording/mixing engineers is how well they can hear. There often seems to be a bit of a contest to see who can hear the highest frequency, as if somehow being able to hear higher frequencies makes you a better recording or mixing engineer. I avoid these types […]

Hi there - I was wondering if you would have any advice for an aspiring young person who wants to write lyrics   Not really my specialty, since I don't write lyrics or sing very well myself. However, I can certainly offer some general advice based on what I've learned and observed from working with […]

Sometimes you want to make a vocal sound wider, thicker, and fatter, but without excessive reverb or delays. Here are a few of my favorite methods for vocal widening. Back when I worked at the big studio, we had a couple of Eventide H910 processors, and also an Eventide H3000.  This is how I learned […]

What online and in-person activities have you found the most worthwhile in building a client base for mixing and mastering? I'm going to expand on this a bit, and make it a bit more generic for anyone trying to make a living in the music business, not just for recording, mixing, and mastering. The 3 […]

Looking for an audio solution - I have a DAW (laptop) that is using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 as the soundcard, connected via a USB hub. I also have a Roland RD64 as a controller which has its own onboard sounds, and I'm listening to everything through a pair of old (but great) Tapco S5s. […]

Stephen - when using multiband compression to shape a bass track, is there a good "rule of thumb" to how to set the cross over frequencies? For example, if I wanted to the break the bass track frequency band into 3 frequencies, which 3 frequency bands should it be? Thanks As with most questions of […]

Loudness tricks of the brain! By now you should know all about the Loudness War, and how our ears & brain are easily fooled into thinking Louder is Better. If you are an experienced recording or mixing engineer, you are probably well aware of this phenomenon, and have figured out your own methods of compensating […]

Stephen - I have a question which may be difficult to verbalize. When we mix a song over a set of speakers, we attempt to get the song sounding the best we can over those particular speakers. Then, if we hope to have that song translate over all speakers, one way of doing that is […]

Are the top mixing engineers hiding trade secrets and purposely misleading younger engineers about how to get great sounding mixes? Award winning mixing engineer Stephen Sherrard lets you in on the secrets!

Stephen - have you any experience with these "online" mastering services? Here is one: (link removed) Apparently you can send in an MP3 file and they will plug it into an "algorithm" of some sort and then send it back to you. Have any of your customers ever used one? It seems that your file goes […]