Mixing / Production

We overhaul Bristol band Taxi's mix sound in search of punchier drums, meatier guitars, and a more polished lead vocal.

So, you've been commissioned to write the score for something. What should you do next? We provide some suggestions, with real-world scoring examples for you to download and try.

Success! You've been invited to pitch for a job. Surely that Hollywood career now beckons? Well, no... This is just a pitch — there are others competing for the job. We look at how to maximise your chances of winning the commission...

Kick drum and lead vocal present tough processing challenges in this installment's remix.

A new business model based around the Internet promises to make professional mastering more convenient — and much more affordable. But is on-line mastering a real alternative or a false economy? We put the UK's leading services to the test.

Recording engineers have been adding artificial reverberation to recordings for many years, and have developed a variety of different ways of doing this. Home recordists now have access to modern versions of all these tools, so let's look at how they compare to each other, and how best to use each.

Recording the One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back album, Roy Thomas Baker and the Darkness used 400 reels of tape, up to 1,000 tracks per song and a year in the studio — not to mention custom-made panpipes. Find out more...

Craig Bauer has been part of Kanye West's career from the beginning, and as a mix engineer on the smash hit Late Registration album, he had to marry West's artistic perfectionism with his own technical standards.

We bring our series on rediscovering the the art of sampling to a close, with a look into the future.

The perfect project studio doesn't exist, as everyone has different working methods — and so it is with equipment for creating music for picture. However, there are some fundamental bits of gear you will need. We provide some guidance...

This month David Lowdon's synth-pop song gets the SOS makeover treatment.

If you're ever going to make it in this game, you need a calling card, a way of impressing potential clients with your musical ability — you need a showreel. We explain what to do to create one...

Can't get your mix sounding right? Let SOS sort it out! This month we tackle some eastern European folk music.