Inside The Recording Studio

Chris and Jody court their 5 most common recording myths and lay them out cold with a KO punch. Do you need everything under the sun? How many mics do you need? Do you need the most expensive gear? All this and more is discussed to hopefully end the myths that surround our lives in regards to recording and mixing.

Chris and Jody go round and round, side to side into a deep dive of the TC2290 Digital Delay unit. As per all other deep dives on ItRS it's a history of the unit. Also taking a look at the interface and all the modules and what they do on this incredible sounding hardware delay.

Chris and Jody go for the noise, pink noise that is. What is pink noise? How does it differ from white noise? Is it useful for mixing? Is it a good learning tool? What is the process for using it to mix? All these questions are considered, plus a whole lot more as it relates to pink noise and using it to improve your mixes.

Chris and Jody list out 10 tips & ideas to help you and your mixing. EQs, compression, delays, volume levels, etc. We run the gamut in these 10 tips that should easily improve your efficiency and efficacy. Plus there's a story about a hi-hat and guitar with how they clashed.

Chris and Jody jump into a deep dive of the H3000 from Eventide. The original ultimate harmonizer multi-fx box. A little history, a little interface, a whole lot of fx and where it's leading into the future.

Chris and Jody reflect on all the tools we have available to us to create, produce, mix and master music today. Do we have too many options? Are all of them needed? Is there a healthy balance to the tools we have and how often we use them? Come on in and find out how they deal with the overload that exists today.

Chris and Jody take a look at sample libraries. Hold your horses, this isn't about our favorite libraries, but rather about how to manage and store them in your computer system. What are some best practices and some of the various means that they can be managed when they get to some unwieldy sizes. It's all in the name of keeping them tidy, clean, and future proofed.

Chris and Jody get into an in-depth look at the AMEK Console emulation. A little history of the AMEK console itself, who created it and went it entered the world. How accurate is the AMEK 9099 to its hardware predecessor? Did Plugin Alliance get everything emulated exactly or did they take some liberties? What do we enjoy and find super annoying about this console emulation? Find out now!

Chris and Jody take a peek into their respective plugin folders. Talking about keeping them under control. When to prune them from getting too bloated. Do plugins get installed into multiple locations? Is there a preferable means to keeping them organized? What methods do we use and for which DAWs is that effective? Let's open up the envelope. It's also not unlikely that there will be some nonsens...

Chris and Jody get a little noisy with the art of clipping audio. Where does clipping originate from and why is it sometimes a good thing and often times a bad thing? Are there different kinds of clipping? What is the use of clipping? Do Chris and Jody use clipping? It's all about clipping in this episode.

Chris and Jody get into the weeks working on defining what is compression vs what is limiting. Hence Compression vs Limiting. Which do they tend to use and why. What particular compressors or limiters are their goto units of choice. There's even examples as to where each are used and why.

Chris and Jody go canyoneering to explore the use of delays. Come on a slot canyon adventure as they discuss different types of delays. What are they good for? What to think about when you select the time value of a delay and how it affects the song and a mix. Get ready for something more than an echo, it's creative uses for delays.

Chris and Jody get their hands on the Hyperswitch from Seymour Duncan. This is a rig rundown of what the Hyperswitch is, what it can do and how hard it is to install in your guitar. The world of multiple humbucker pickups in guitars with 5-way switches will never be the same. The Hyperswitch comes into the world literally destined for greatness and it does not disappoint. Come along for the ride!

Chris and Jody extrapolate from last week's listener request and talk about the concept of switching DAWs. Is it a good idea to switch to another DAW? What are things to consider? What DAW should you choose? What are the pros and cons to some DAWs and why does it matter? What DAWs do we use and why, it's all in here.

Chris and Jody get busy with a listener request to talk about when it's time to upgrade your audio interface. Get ready to feast on the dos and don'ts of when it's time to go for that little something or maybe even that super something better in order to improve your audio recordings.

Chris and Jody lay it on the line, the EQ and Compression line of when to use EQ before or after Compression. The straight dope about the how's and why's of EQ before Compression and EQ after compression. Also giving some real world examples of when we would use EQ and Compression plus in which order. There's even an extra bit of double EQ and double compression, find out when and where. It's also...

Chris and Jody crawl thru the weeds of mix templates. Discussing the concepts of creating them. What would go in them. Why should we have them? Do they provide benefits? And what separates the mix template from one mix engineer to another. Can you get multiple mix outputs from a single mix template? Let's get ready to mix!

Chris and Jody recap on the interim NAMM Show from April 2023. Find out what we saw. The good, the bad, the mind-blowing items that caught our attention and what we thought. What are our theories about NAMM, the timing and it's future. There's all that and more in this episode.

Chris and Jody go thru a simple little checklist for troubleshooting mics. What to do when a mic is suddenly not doing what a mic does best. Especially if there's bizarre noises or no noise what-so-ever. There's even a personal embarrassing story about a mic sounding bad and the reason why that is so obvious that it's funny it wasn't caught sooner. A solid means of understanding your mic and what...

Chris and Jody get down to the nitty gritty basement of low end. Talking about how to manage low end and get a handle on it. From the scientific things about your room and setup on to the creative end of things. Including monitors, software and bass specific plugins that can help. Let's get low!

Chris and Jody invite special guest Stevie Blacke. Stevie Blacke is an illustrious string arranger and "one man orchestra".  He works with some of the world's biggest stars and best musicians. He's played on dozens of top ten hits and hundreds of albums. Artists such as P!nk, Olivia Rodrigo, Timbaland feat. Elton John, Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue feat. Keith Urban, Beck, Gary Clark Jr, Avenged Sevenfo...

Chris and Jody delve into how a mix engineer goes for getting a vision for where a mix can go. Listening to a rough mix to chatting with the client about their wants. Determining the type of music it is, along with the arrangement and feel will play a part in generating the vision. Listen to get even more ideas for how to fully realize the vision needed for a mix.

Chris and Jody return to the subject of reverb. Going over a review of the types of reverbs we have access to. Then discussing what types of reverb we use under various examples of particular instruments. Learn what both Chris and Jody use on vocals and some hidden secrets of layering different reverbs and why.

Chris and Jody look further into the world of modulation effects. This time the journey goes into Flanging. How it got it's start and where did it debut. Who original thought it up and where did it begin to branch out. What exactly creates the flanging effect? It's all in here plus a little dip into the Phaser pool as well. Plus find out how Chris and Jody make use of it.

Chris and Jody get down and dirty as helpful producers when it comes to songwriters having writer's block in the studio. Obviously not a great problem to have. Here we dole out 10 ideas to help alleviate writer's block in all kinds of ways. Plus there's even a story about a famous composer / producer that might make you hurl.