Knobs

EQ is the one tool you can hear working the moment you touch it. Which is exactly why it is so easy to think you understand it. In Episode 2 of Season 2 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart dig into equalisation: where it came from, what it actually is, and how two working engineers really use it. They start with the long telephone lines EQ was invented to fix, then get practical: cutting before bo...

Sometimes the most useful thing a producer can say in a session is nothing at all. In the Season 2 opener of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart explore the subtle art of saying nothing: when to keep your opinions to yourself so the artist can do their best work, and when a well-timed question does more than any instruction. It starts with a lesson from the back of the room: a guitarist tapping in hi...

For the last episode of the season, Simon and Terry try to catch each other off guard with the tricks and questions they actually use. In Episode 20 of KNOBS, the Season 1 finale, the two of them swap favourite moves and put each other on the spot, no script, no warning. Terry opens with reverse reverb, the ghostly lead-in that introduces a note before it arrives and adds density to a sparse song...

You do not want to see the canvas under the Mona Lisa. So why do so many records let you hear the technology, the effort and the mix? In Episode 19 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart chase one idea all the way through a production: hide the medium. Just as a painting disguises its canvas and a film makes you forget you are watching one, a great record disappears everything between the listener an...

Room correction software promises to fix your monitoring. So is it a genuine tool or a crutch that lies to you? In Episode 18 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart get into monitor, room and headphone correction (Sonarworks, IK's ARC), coming at it from opposite corners: Simon has leaned on it for years, Terry has been the sceptic who just installed it. They agree on the most useful part first: the...

You have two speakers and a flat file. So how do you make a mix sound like a real three-dimensional space? In Episode 17 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart take on the soundstage: the art of placing sounds in a believable room that lives in front of, between and beyond your speakers. Their tell for an amateur mix is simple, if you can hear the left and right speakers as speakers, the soundstage h...

It might be the most confusing job title in music. So what does a producer actually do? In Episode 16 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart try to nail down a role that means five different things to five different people, and explain why getting the definition straight helps anyone hiring for a record. They lay out three kinds of producer they see today: the traditional producer who oversees the wh...

What is actually on Simon and Terry's channels when they mix a drum kit and bass? This one is the guided tour. In Episode 15 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart go through the mixer left to right, channel by channel, and talk through exactly how they treat the rhythm section: the kick, the snare, the toms, hi-hats, overheads, rooms, percussion and bass. They start with the idea that holds it all t...

What if the thing we love about film and tape is not their fidelity, but exactly where they choose to lose it? In Episode 14 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart chase a single idea sparked by seeing Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey on real film in IMAX: that analog puts detail where you want it and lets it slip away everywhere else, while digital spreads the same relentless detail across every part...

Should a studio ever be an "unsafe" space if that is what the performance needs? And where exactly is the line? In Episode 13 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart take on their most contentious topic yet: the tension between today's safe-space climate and the uninhibited, un-self-conscious energy that great records are so often built on. Simon sets the scene with a two-week rock session where the a...

Why does reverb sound huge and deep on real records, and either invisible or a swampy mess on yours? In Episode 12 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart pull reverb apart: how the pros actually use it to create space, depth and emotion, and why amateur reverb almost always gives itself away. They get into the multi-reverb approach, a short ambient reverb for width, a long one for size, a plate for m...

Everyone online says don't worry about the technical stuff, just be creative. They're wrong. And so is the opposite camp. In Episode 11 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart take on one of the loudest debates in music production: technical knowledge versus pure creativity. Their verdict is that it is 100% a grey area. Obsessing over technique early in your career is a rough creative time, but it bui...

Why does your mix sound great in the studio and terrible in the car? And six more questions every producer ends up asking. In Episode 10 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart run a rapid-fire round of the questions that come up again and again, with honest, road-tested answers. They cover the car test and why translation, not talent, is usually the culprit, what actually makes a mix sound profession...

Every generation of studio technology shows up the same way: a shiny new tool that promises to fix everything, gets pushed way too far, and only earns its place once we learn to hold back. Simon and Terry trace the whole arc, from wax cylinders to tape to Pro Tools, Beat Detective and quantising, Auto-Tune, stereo wideners, Atmos and now AI, digging into why the real skill was never the tool. It’s...

Simon finally gives in and buys more UAD plugins. After years of questioning DSP systems and dismissing expensive plugin ecosystems, Simon and Terry explore why some analog emulations genuinely feel closer to hardware while others miss the mark. The conversation covers circuit modelling, impulse responses, compressor behaviour, UAD vs other plugin companies, why analog gear often works better in c...

Perfectionism might be the thing ruining your mixes. In Episode 7 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart explore why speed, instinct and creative momentum often beat endless tweaking. Along the way they dive into client feedback, fast mixing workflows, mastering frustrations, old records, dynamic EQs, plugin overload, live sound, loud music, and whether modern production has accidentally become too c...

Low end is one of the hardest things to get right in audio production and one of the easiest things to get wrong. In this episode, Simon Moro and Terry Hart unpack the foundation of a great mix: bass, kick drums, groove, monitoring, room acoustics, arrangement, and why adding more layers usually makes things worse. Along the way they discuss bass players vs guitarists playing bass, why room acoust...

Everyone wants bigger vocals. Most people reach for EQ and compression first. In this episode of Knobs, Simon Moro and Terry Hart unpack what actually makes vocals cut through a mix — and surprisingly, a lot of it happens before you even touch a plugin. From singer technique and microphone placement through to parallel compression, layered reverbs, vocal chains, automation and mix psychology, this...

What happened when music stopped being about capturing performances and started being about creating them? In this more personal episode of Knobs, Simon Moro and Terry Hart reflect on creativity, nostalgia, songwriting, technology and why modern music production feels fundamentally different to the way it did 20 years ago. From band rehearsals and old Chili Peppers records to music theory, confide...

Should your producer mix your music, or should you hand it off to someone else? In Episode 3 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart tackle one of audio’s biggest debates: who should actually mix your record. The conversation covers producer mixes vs dedicated mix engineers, when outsourcing makes sense, why great productions often fail at the mix stage, and the surprising role emotion plays in making...

AI is changing music production faster than almost any technology we’ve seen before, but is it making records better? In Episode 2 of KNOBS, Simon Moro and Terry Hart dive into AI music tools, voice cloning, stem separation, Suno, machine learning plugins, and the growing tension between convenience and creativity. From real-world examples where AI saved expensive recording projects to the risks o...

KNOBS — Season 1 Episode 1 Analog vs Digital: Why Workflow Matters More Than Gear In the very first episode of Knobs, Simon Moro and Terry Hart dive headfirst into one of audio’s oldest arguments: analog vs digital. But instead of obsessing over whether tape sounds warmer or plugins perfectly model vintage gear, the conversation takes a different turn, exploring the psychology of workflow, creativ...