The All-Things-Audio Blog

If you’re like me, you’re always wondering which reverb(s) and delay(s) you should be using on your mix. There are so many options. So many that “look cool.” So many that people have told you “sound the best.” So which one is the best?

Well the good news is, you can’t mess up. By using your ears, you’re going to be able to tell if something is working or not. So rule out the scare/mess up factor, because that’s bogus.

The best way I was able to figure out reverb and delay was to try one at a time. It’s kind of similar to what I say about EQ and compression (which is a huge time saver, just picking one thing), it’s more about learning the gear, which results in a big problem I have with plugins. The reason being, if you buy a $1500 outboard compressor, you’re going to run everything through that. You spent 1500 flipping bucks on that thing, you’re going to learn it. But when you buy 200 plugins for $500,...

Reverb is one of those weird effects that screws up a lot of people. I would always get tripped up with it and feel like I was always doing the wrong thing. Over the years, I’ve found that I usually like to shave off highs & lows on reverb & delay sends. However, this can get out of hand quick, and you need to make sure that you DO NOT let that 150hz-5k range get clogged. Be smart and use EQ!

One advantage to cutting highs on a reverb is you are helping make sure it doesn't get in the way of your lead. Whether that be a vocal, synth, or something else, when you have too many "things" competing for attention in the upper region, it can get messy and too many things are competing for your attention.

Cutting lows serves the same purpose. You don't want to get your low end too clogged up with low end information. This is important to watch out for because that low area can easily get out of hand and take up a ton of headroom in your mix. Shaving off some of that...

Today I want to help you double or even triple your current mic locker for free. Check this out.

For years I thought that by building my microphone locker I’d be able to achieve dozens of different tones and get different sounds out of my instruments, which is completely true. I found myself on a microphone shopping spree. I just wanted to grow my mic locker as big as possible. As I continued, I noticed that I never had the chance of learning what each mic could do, only what they couldn’t.

There lies the key to doubling or tripling your mic locker: LEARN your microphones. Before you get mad at me and say that’s cheating, think about this.

Different Microphones have different pickup patterns. Understanding your microphones pickup patterns will change the way you record in two ways;

1. It will help you understand where it is capturing different frequencies. Simply turning the microphone one inch, you can dramatically change the tone and sound of the source audio....