Mixing is where it all comes together - it is an important stage.


1 Try and install, at the least some, minimal acoustic treatments. They will assist every mix you do and help you get better results. Side wall absorbers, a ceiling cloud and a few broadband bass traps will help neutralize your room acoustics. It need not be costly if you can do a little DIY.


2 Wherever possible, try to get your loudspeakers as far from the room corners as is possible to do so. This reduces bass tip up. (This is ...
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When you're writing, the end of the song is naturally the last thing you think about. You can end cold or you can fade out, but there are numerous other ways to bring your song to a close, such as dissolution, subtraction, cadences, and the false beginning. After all, the last moments of your song are the freshest memory your listeners will have.

Here are seven creative ways to close out your song, with a few examples for inspiration. And please pardon us if the list is a bit Pink Floyd-centri...
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Describing sounds is a difficult thing to do. While we have plenty of common terms we use to describe what we see (bright, dark, colorful, pale, etc.), finding words to describe what we hear can be more of a challenge. Although many of the same words that apply to visuals can apply to sounds as well, the way we understand these sonic terms can vary widely from person to person; what one band member might hear as "warm," another might hear as "thick" or "muddy." So in an effort to get everyone...

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I recently hosted one of my monthly BMI Nashville Songwriter Workshops, where each of the 50 attendees had an opportunity to pitch one song to a successful publisher. Typically, at these workshops, with few exceptions, every song played was perfectly crafted. The writers have mastered the use of current song structures; the lyrics made sense and were well written; rhymes were where my ear expected them to be; and the melodies worked well with the chords—avoiding any dissonance. Yet the publ...
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When you're having problems in the studio with pitch and don't quite know how correct this problem, it can become very frustrating. Adding to the pressure to perform, the harder you try, the worse your pitch gets. This is almost universal in new singers recording for the first time, but even veteran and professional vocalists can be affected by pitch control issues.

An artist who is a really good live performer can enter the vocal booth and often experience a numbing of body language witho...

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