The Lab
Read something. Mix something better.
Technique, not tone. Everything here is about what actually happens to a signal — not another lifestyle brand pretending to be an audio company.
8 min read
How to make your drum bus hit like a fucking wall
Parallel compression, a ratio dial marked DOOM, and the exact order of operations that keeps a drum bus from turning to mud.
6 min read
Coming soonWhy parallel compression gets dangerous
The trick that makes drums sound huge is the same trick that makes them sound like a phase-cancelled mess if you don't check one thing first.
7 min read
Coming soonSaturation: color vs. destruction
Every saturation plugin claims to be 'musical.' Here's how to tell when you've crossed from tone-shaping into demolition — and why that's sometimes the point.
5 min read
Coming soonHow much distortion is too much?
There's no correct answer, but there is a wrong question. What you're actually asking is whether the distortion is doing a job or just making noise.
9 min read
Coming soonMixing extreme metal vocals
Pitch correction is usually the wrong tool. Formant control, parallel saturation, and a de-esser doing more work than you'd expect.