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Editing is sort of like the breakfast of the production process. Although people don’t covet and fetishize it they way they do mixing (the dinner), it is absolutely essential for a well-balanced diet. You might say mastering is the dessert, but I’m inclined to call it a breath mint that you grab on your way out of the restaurant. Or maybe editing is the house salad and pre-production is breakfast since people skip it when they’re in a hurry even though it’s the most important meal of the day and even though they could at LEAST take a Nutri-Gain bar on their way out the door… Anyway, here’s what I’m really getting at: you wouldn’t eat breakfast and dinner at the same time, would you? It’s gross. To this end, the absolute top of the top mixers (i.e. the ones that charge $10K/song–there are about 20 of them in the world) make sure all of the editing is done before they begin by having their assistants prep all their sessions.* And... Read More →

Ladies and germs, I present to you what is perhaps my favorite release that I’ve worked on to date: In The Clouds, a five-song EP and debut release from Boston-based indie rockers The Dirty Dishes. I mixed and co-produced the record, also sharing mastering duties with Dave Cooley (produced both Silversun Pickups records and has mastered for J Dilla, Madlib, & Polyphonic Spree). They’re something like a female-fronted Silversun Pickups or Autolux. But fresher. And maybe with a dash of Smashing Pumpkins. Listen to all five songs on Bandcamp. My favorites: » “Deer In Headlights” (catchy, indie) » “Stolen Apples” (fun with a hint of evil) » “Thin Air” (epic shoegaze) Haggle with your favorite ticket scalper tonight outside Boston’s House of Blues to catch the Dirty Dishes opening for Passion Pit at their sold-out show. And in case you haven’t noticed, these blogosphere darlings have been hyping the hell out of the Dishes: Passion... Read More →

Hey everybody, just wanted to encourage you all to check out the back of the most recent Guitar Center catalog to take advantage of this INSANE offer. From December 1st until the 31st, you can get 10% off any item from “the nation’s widest selection of guitars, basses, amps, effects, drum kits, keyboards, turntables, recording gear, PA systems and more!” except nearly every brand they sell. Here’s the fine print: “Excludes [...] Adam Monitors, AKG, Ampeg, Apogee Duets, Apple, Audix, Bose, Crate, Crown, dbx, Digitech, Digidesign HD, Edirol, ESP, Euphonix, EVH, Fender, some Gibson and Epiphone, Gretsch guitars, Jackson, JBL, Korg, KRK, Lexicon, Mackie, Marshall, Martin, Mesa Boogie, Mogami, Monster Cable, Morgan, Peavey, QSC, some Roland/BOSS products, Royer Labs, Shure, Soundcraft, Squier, SSL, SWR, and Vox.” (Click to enlarge:) How do they do it and still make a profit? Amazing deals this holiday season, y’all.  Read More →

Well folks, 2009 is winding down and it’s been a great year for us and the blog. My only regret* is that I haven’t had time to post more stuff, from the great people we’ve worked with lately to finishing some of the drafts I’d contemplated for months. For those of you who have emailed us or left comments, thank you. You let us know when we’re doing something right and call us out when we’re oh so wrong. On occasion we’ve written entire posts in response to your comments and emails. Today I’d like to formally invite all our readers to give us some feedback. What do you want from the Fix Your Mix blog in 2010? Things you’d like to see more (or less) of, specific topic ideas, etc. Leave your thoughts in the comments or send an email to blog (at) fixyourmix.com In other news, we’re finally taking the leap into the zany world of advertising. If you have something that would be valuable to our growing readership of musicians, songwriters,... Read More →

Miss Geo is a Rhode Island-based singer songwriter. Her new album, The Story, is an excruciatingly (yes) catchy indie-pop record with clever lyrics and tons of stand out tracks. Check out “Broken Wrists”: I’ve been meaning to feature Miss Geo for a few months now, not only because the music is killer, but because I want to talk about a lesser known service that we offer at Fix Your Mix called stem mastering. Stem mastering, sometimes also called stem mixing or separation mastering, is a hybrid between mixing and mastering. To explain how this works, I’ll tell you a little bit about how this record was made. The Story was produced, engineered, and mixed by my good friend Rob Arbelo here in Boston. What I received from Rob was stereo “stems”–a single stereo track of drums, a stereo track of all the guitars combined, stereo vocals, bass, and a stereo track of synth/harmonies/noises combined. The benefit of mastering from stems is twofold: You can’t... Read More →

Grizzly Bear – “Ready, Able” on YouTube Key Signature: A minor, C Lydian Time Signatures: 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 Special Songwriting Devices Used: Three-bar phrases, Polymeter, Polyrhythm, Modal harmony Structure: Verse-Refrain-Verse-Refrain-C-D-C-D-C-Outro Hover your mouse over terms underlined with dots (like this) for more information. If you’re following along with the album version rather than the video, subtract 5 seconds from any time stamps listed below to account for the video lead-in. This blog mostly concerns itself with what can loosely be considered pop music, but today’s song violates what is perhaps pop’s most sacred and universal characteristic: structure. It’s not that “Ready, Able” has no structure, but it certainly isn’t your typical verse-chorus-verse. While a traditional pop song is designed to grab your attention and get to the hook ASAP, Grizzly Bear has no patience for people with no patience. And to those who... Read More →

Some musical terms are so basic and widely used that we never stop to ask ourselves: “Hey, what is a measure? What is a riff? What is a phrase? What’s the difference between a bar and a measure?” This article should answer all of those questions for you and more. Summary: • Bar = measure • Phrase = long(-ish) musical idea • Motif = short musical idea • Riff = lick Bars & Measures A bar is the same thing as a measure. What determines the length of a measure can vary depending on the time signature of a song, but generally speaking you’re going to be able to tell by the snare pattern. For most pop applications, you’ll be dealing with either 4/4 or 6/8 time. In almost every song in 4/4 time, there will be 2 snare drum hits per measure. These hits indicate beats 2 and 4. This is called a back beat. In addition to the back beat, there will often be snare accents, but they will not feel as strong as the snare hits on beats 2 and 4. The back beat... Read More →

Note: this post requires a basic knowledge of intervals. To understand why some chords have intervals of 9, 11, and 13, read our explanation of tensions. This post will give you abbreviations for the most common chords we’ll be dealing with in our Compositional Analysis series. While some of the naming conventions and rules are confusing, this list should get you started. Also note that our analyses usually use Roman numerals instead of note names (e.g. C minor 7 in the key of C would be written I-7). This is called ‘functional analysis.’ Sample: How the chord is written … Full chord name … Notes in the chord, listed by intervallic relationship with the root of the chord. These notes can be in any order.* *See inversions below. Triads: G … G major … 1, 3, 5 (i.e. G, B, D) G- … G minor … 1, b3, 5 Gº or Gdim … G diminished … 1, b3, b5 G+ or Gaug … G augmented … 1, 3, #5 Gsus2 … G suspended 2 …... Read More →

Note: this post requires a basic knowledge of intervals. A chord tension is any note in a chord that is not considered integral to the chord (the integral notes are called ‘chord tones’). Tensions are also referred to as ‘added colors’ or ”non-chord tones’ (I try to avoid using the latter term because means something different in Traditional/Classical harmony). There are only three possible tensions: 9, 11, and 13 (in other words: 2nds, 4ths, and 6th, respectively). But these notes are not considered tensions on every chord–the only way to know for sure is to have a good knowledge of chords (to get started, read our article on chord abbreviations). These tensions may also be modified by a # (sharp) or b (flat). Chord tensions are written up an octave (by adding 7 to the interval number) because chords can sound muddy or cluttered if the note intervals are too close together. Tensions tend to come in between chord tones, so these notes are often... Read More →

I got an email from my father today directing me to an internet forum debate regarding how over-compression in mastering is ruining music today and I responded with what you’re about to read–the simplest, most easy-to-read breakdown on this topic I could come up with–an explanation that anyone will be able to understand. No flowery or abstract adjectives, just the meat and potatoes. If something still isn’t clear, leave a comment. I’m mostly posting this article to save myself some time (to direct our clients to) but this post may be helpful for other mastering engineers who’d like to do the same. Note: this post refers to sound compression, not MP3 or zip compression. Learn more about the differences between sound compression and data compression here. What Is Mastering Compression? Mastering compression* (”limiting”) reduces the dynamic range of a recording. Dynamic range is the range between the loudest and quietest point in a recording or... Read More →