Mixing / Production

David Wrench’s goal as mix engineer was to make Blur sound like themselves!

Asked to pick a favourite sound to dissect, American mix master Michael Brauer chooses the vocal sound on Elle King’s ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’.

Working on Trippie Redd’s mixtape A Love Letter To You 5 at Miami’s Criteria Studios gave mixer Koen Heldens the rare chance to mix a rap album to half‑inch tape.

PJ Harvey and her fearless collaborators have navigated three decades and six albums without repeating themselves, and her new album is another masterclass in innovative production.

Mixing in software needn’t mean that the results lack character, colour and warmth.

Most DAWs give you the power to control the volume of recorded audio on a per‑clip level — and with this power comes immense creative potential!

The technical dimension to vocal production is important, but the human dimension is even more so.

Eddie Bazil dives into some of his favourite plug-ins and delivers a series of examples on how to use these tools creatively.

A few tweaks to your MIDI data can make software piano parts much more realistic — and much easier to mix.

Drum mics can occupy a lot of channels in your DAW, and they can quickly multiply as you experiment with different processing — so it pays to impose some discipline!

With Angels & Queens, LA’s Gabriels have produced one of the most adventurous albums of the year.

Stephen Street has worked with the Smiths, Blur, the Cranberries, the Pretenders, Babyshambles and Kaiser Chiefs, and here he details his favourite sound from Blur's 'Song 2'.

The success of Noel Gallagher’s Council Skies owes much to his resident engineer Callum Marinho, who not only tracked but mixed the album.

These audio files accompany the Better MIDI Pianos article in SOS August 2023 edition.

Canadian mixer and recording engineer George Seara chooses the vocal on ‘Treat You Better’, by Shawn Mendes, as a favourite sound from his catalogue.

Today’s TikTok‑driven music market demands authenticity, as Atlanta mixer Jacob Morris found when he mixed David Kushner’s ‘Daylight’.

David Kosten’s first commercial Atmos project was an immersive mix of one of the greatest albums of all time. No pressure...

We explain how to create MIDI string arrangements that don’t sound like MIDI string arrangements!

These audio files accompany the Faking A String Section In Your DAW workshop in SOS July 2023 issue.

A broadcaster’s personal guide to getting a great vocal sound at Eurovision. Or in a pub.

Three‑time Grammy Award‑winner Tom Lord‑Alge has an extensive list of multi‑platinum landmark albums and singles to his credit...