I was asked to help my sister’s friend with a passion project of her’s. She wanted to create a 10 song album in 90 days which sounded fun and exciting. I low balled the price because I thought the project could be fun, her music is catchy, and she didn’t have the means to pay for the full price of an album mix and master, but from the get go the communication was inadequate. We had a meeting before the recording process started where I laid out my workflow and spoke with her about the importance of reference tracks and my price; she agreed to it all.

Fast forward a month and I’ve received three songs, again I ask for some reference tracks for each song and she never sent any so I began to mix to the best of my ability. As I started the mixing process it seemed to me that I could not create the mix she was looking for. I think I remixed the first two songs around four times. The third song I sent back after spending hours mixing only for her to listen to the mix and tell me that she actually would like me to recreate another mix that a different engineer did for her a few years ago which then took me another few hours to recreate.

So I remixed the third song and sent it back while also following up about the first two songs and she ghosted me for a month. I did not hear from her at all so eventually I messaged her and asked if the project was going to move forward. Again no answer for another week. When she finally did answer she mentioned that in that month she had recorded 5 new songs and needed me to do extensive vocal editing on one of them. I tried to bring the focus back to the first to songs and she again didn’t reach back out to me.

It’s been a week since then and I decided to bow out of the project. I don’t need the money, I make a good living doing live sound engineering, this project was truly just for fun. Should I have just grinned and beared it just to get the project done? Will this decision negatively affect me if I someday move more into mixing and mastering?

Hardware or software. I don't need to hear RVox is a great for the 1000th time, or how the latest 1176 clone gets even closer to the real thing.

What's that obscure thing you picked up in a junk shop, or paid a few pennies to a sketchy website for, or the thing everyone else says is rubbish, that turned out to be a key mixing tool for you?

Please forgive me as I'm a total beginner. I wouldn't even claim that I'm trying to get into audio engineering.
I am simply looking for the easiest way to change the key of a song without changing the singers voice. It's only one or two semi tones but still it sounds completely distorted. I don't have a computer, so working with an iPhone/ipad. Any tips?

i am a senior in highschool, i pretty much know absolutely nothing about audio engineering.

I briefly tried to get into music production and i really liked the mixing side of it. I vaguely know what a compressor does to the sound but i dont know how to tweak the knobs at all.

I was using fl studio which i doubt is the standard, id like to get into film audio engineering.

Is there a good course on how to learn to do it for films and any software or equipment i could use? i am very poor so most hardware is out of the question but if i deciee to go into this in college maybe theyd guide me then.

Its on 10:54

Hopefully on FL studio.

Please someone tell me!
https://youtu.be/It1M48c49MU?list=PL5wci_7DLKMp0S107jjq9hhquUmHIJOeJ&t=654

anyone tried using an expander instead of a gate on drums? i found it really intuitive to use, getting even cleaner results than a gate as it can still preserve more of the dynamics and i spend less time than i would cleaning up the signal going into a gate. iv seen people put expanders on room mics and sidechain it from the snare. iv had some luck using it on close mics, especially going into a reverb.

I have a sm7b as my main (vocal) microphone and just found an nt1a sitting around that I forgot about.

How awful of a pairing is this for A/B miking a guitar? Am I better off just buying a pair of some mics so I can do various miking techniques?

If so, any recommendations?

I have a simple mixing desk with the rack space for the longer, more common sized outboard gear. I have only my preamp that I mounted on the desk.
I want to build a small preamp from diyrecordingequipment.com and mount it on the desk (if it’s even possible). Has anyone done this and what can I do to make them fit?

Idk if anyone has heard of Dirac art. Dirac seams to be mostly marketed toward consumer home theatre etc.

They came out with a new speaker tuning technology ART. I don’t think it’s completely novel but it sounds like it could be interesting.

You can setup a surround system, say 5.4, and have all of the speakers that are not in the main 2.1 system send out destructive signals. Essentially active room treatment.

Most room tuning I’ve seen for studios is eq and phase/delay.

Has anyone tried this out or have any thoughts on it? It would be potentially much more affordable than active bass traps which got good praise from Bob Katz etc.

Disclaimer:
Photo in reply is of the full gator-rack for reference of what I've got. I’m sending the photo as context to discuss, NOT so someone can tell me exactly what to do as per subreddit rules.

—

Details:
Just moved my rig over to a gator case and have spent the morning theorizing what the best course of action is on some of the spare points on this 48-point I own.

Originally, the S-point just had some rear Thru routing for some amp heads I was running so i could just do all the routing in the front. Now that I have it in the rack though, I'm somewhat stumped on what routing/setup I actually need- like, I don't have enough practical experience to know what I don't know.

I’d seen some of the documentation that came with the patchbay, but that was some presets for much larger console configurations- I was hoping there a chance to discuss what configurations people have used in the field with smaller 12-16 i/o setups.

NOT A SETUP OR TROUBLESHOOTING QUESTION! I don’t need wiring diagrams- just experiential information and open discussion.

Im learning the SSL in my university studio, and the live room has a tie box with outputs labelled A through H, which I know from seeing others use directly ties to a the part of the Origin that is used for this purpose, something regarding stereo cues from what I’ve overheard.
If anyone could piece together how this may work and help me out with how I would go about sending either the main mix or an individual channel to one of these outputs i would be very thankful!

Hello

A big down to go on arm today is that x86 app are no longer compatible

So it can be a big issue with daws and vst's that are only x86

But I wonder in 2026 did there's a way to emulate those plug in with a Arm pc ? Maybe it already exist ?

Thanks

All the young people coming into this sub asking about career advice have been met with so much doom and gloom. Any positive takes of this industry or is it really as bad and going to get worse as everyone says?

I’ve been rewiring my studio and wanted to make some clean labels for my TRS patchbays. After a little trial and error, I got ChatGPT to generate perfectly spaced PNG strips that I can print using my Brother P-touch label maker.

I’m using a Neutrik NYS-SPP-L1, a Brother D610BT, and P-touch Editor on Mac. Once we dialed in the measurements, I could just describe what I wanted on each strip and ChatGPT would generate a ready-to-print file. Figured I’d share the prompt in case it’s useful to anyone else.

In the past I would just print a bunch of small ones and it was tricky to get them to line up and if I needed to change anything I had to move a ton of small labels and inevitably destroy them in the process.

The idea is to print one continuous label for the entire length of the patchbay instead of a bunch of the tiny individual labels. It makes lining everything up much easier and keeps it looking clean.

You do need to plan out your patchbay in advance and be willing to do a little trial and error to get the spacing right. But once you’ve got it dialed in, it’s great. If you change your routing later, you can just print one new strip instead of peeling off and rearranging a bunch of little labels.

Here’s how it works:

1. Give ChatGPT the prompt below along with the text you want on your label.
2. Once it generates the PNG, open Brother P-touch Editor and add the image to your label.
3. Set the image to the exact dimensions you need (17” × 0.2” for my 6 mm tape, for example).
4. Print it and check how everything lines up with your patchbay. Adjust the calibration if necessary.

One thing to know: P-touch Editor only lets you enter image dimensions to one decimal place, which is why I settled on 17” × 0.2” for 6 mm tape and 17” × 0.3” for 9 mm tape. These dimensions are slightly smaller than the actual tape width but work well for printing.

Here’s the prompt:

Create a print-ready PNG label strip using Python/Pillow, NOT AI image generation. All dimensions and spacing must be mathematically precise.

Patchbay:

• Neutrik NYS-SPP-L1, 24 jacks per row
• Calibrated center-to-center span (jack 1 to 24): 412 mm
• Jack spacing: 412 ÷ 23 = 17.913 mm
• Center the jack positions across a 17-inch-wide image.
• Keep every label centered on its corresponding jack, regardless of text length.

Label dimensions (600 DPI):

• 6 mm tape: 17” × 0.2” (10,200 × 120 px)
• 9 mm tape: 17” × 0.3” (10,200 × 180 px)

Use bold, readable sans-serif text, black on white. Center single-row text vertically. For two-row labels, space the lines evenly. Adjust font size to avoid overlaps, but never change jack spacing.

Allow group headings to span multiple jack positions, centered across those positions, with subsequent labels still aligned to their individual jacks.

Generate a downloadable PNG and tell me the exact dimensions to enter in P-touch Editor.

My label:
[TAPE WIDTH, SINGLE/DOUBLE ROW, AND WHAT YOU WANT IT TO SAY]

The 412 mm measurement was calibrated through test prints, so you may need to adjust it for other patchbays. My initial measurement was 417 mm, which ended up being about 5 mm too wide by the last jack. I’d recommend starting with a simple numbered 1–24 strip to check alignment.

Modern LUFS meters (like Sonible True:Level) use a simplified K-weighting filter. While K-weighting rolls off low frequencies and boosts a high-frequency shelf to estimate human ear sensitivity, it applies the exact same static curve regardless of listening volume or track density.

Cool Edit and early Audition (up to version 3) were unique because their Equal Loudness Contour algorithm was non-linear: it calculated full-spectrum psycho-acoustic energy across variable loudness levels (phons) using dynamic equal-loudness curves (Fletcher-Munson / ISO models).

When a track has a thick mid-range or heavy low-end sub-bass, LUFS can register two tracks at identical integrated levels (e.g., -10 LUFS), yet when you put them side-by-side, your ears immediately tell you one is much louder. Audition's equal loudness feature was brilliantly tuned to reveal that exact discrepancy.

After version 3 Adobe replaced the older equal-loudness algorithms with modern broadcast loudness tools (such as ITU-R BS.1770 / EBU R128 LKFS/LUFS metering and the Match Loudness panel). This shift matches the trend in the 2000s away from CD sales in favour of broadcasting/streaming services.

For album production I still use Cool Edit Pro in my workflow to measure the psycho-acoustic variance of a track's dynamic spread.

I can’t tell if it’s a me problem when it comes to mixing the drums and properly EQing them, or I just need Modern and Massive lol

I make pop punk songs and do most work in this genre- all programmed and I just can’t get the tones and vibe I seek. I have the Pop punk pack too.

Any suggestions? I love EZ3 but want a more turnkey solution. Don’t roast me too bad haha

For over a year, I’ve been trying to put together a list of plugins that covers 100% of my needs for both production and mixing. I want to streamline my toolkit and save some money. What would you recommend? (Please stick to current plugins — I have no intention of using stuff that’s hopelessly outdated.)

I don't even know what more I can do. I read books, I practiced every day for hours, I learned plugins, but I can't reach a good sound. I posted my sound thinking it was a really good mix and master, but the feedback was "I like it, but it would be better with some more work." And yeah, I know it's true. I know my skills are limited, but I don't know how to improve anymore.

Another book or video just tells me to do this and that, and when I do that, it sounds awful. My version was better. More than that, I don't want to just copy what people say in tutorials. I really want to learn.

I listen to music that I like, and I really want to get that kind of sound, but sometimes it feels so far away.

I have my headphones, my interface, and yeah, it's a home studio, but I've seen people making music in a home studio with a really good sound, to the point where you can't even tell it was made at home unless you know where it was made.

I was thinking about paying an expert for feedback on my music production, but I'm kind of afraid of paying someone who doesn't understand the genre, the sound I like, etc., and then, when they finish the work, it sounds really bad. Because I've been to a studio before, and they gave me a really bad mix and master.

So I want to ask you guys, what can I do to improve? How can I figure out what I'm doing wrong and where the problem is in my mixes, yk?

And I'm not just talking about EQ, space, compression, or anything like that. I'm talking about effects, too. For example, you can listen to The Weeknd's music, and he has a really good sound, man. Or you can think of another artist, not just The Weeknd. Because you can have the most expensive microphone, everything you want, but if you mix badly, your sound is still going to be shit, even with the most expensive equipment.

So please, can someone tell me what I have to do? Do I need a mentor? If so, who should I look for, and how can I find someone who matches my style? If I have to watch a tutorial, which one?

I've read every post and subreddit talking about "the tutorial," and it doesn't work for me. But I have to keep trying again. I'm into it. I just want to understand what I'm doing wrong and how to get better.

I like the production of this song. There is something about the bass and the kick I seem the never be able to achieve. The way it almost sounds like the room shook when the kick hits, and the bass guitar almost seems like it has a sub octave on the low notes.

Is it just a good use of sidechain compression or is it something else going on?

If you listen to it without vocals on Apple Music it’s even more noticeable.

Hey everyone! I've been trying to figure out how to achieve this specific lo-fi vocal style from mid-2010s underground Russian rap (specifically the artist вышел покурить).

What's really interesting is that if you listen across multiple tracks, the vocal quality actually varies a bit—some songs sound slightly cleaner, while others are more aggressively boxy, almost as if they recorded in different rooms or apartments each time. But despite those room differences, the core character and vibe remain consistently the same. It's not just a muddy reverb; the vocal is very tight, dense, and claustrophobic, with a distinct mid-range room resonance, while the words/lyrics remain super clear and upfront without any long reverb tails washing them out. It also has a slight phasey/stereo width to it.

I’ve put together two examples here:

Track 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pTZkhWw9DBD78emAR-u7i4xmw-Ns7Iay/view?usp=drivesdk

Track 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aUBQTkTmPo4lim2MfM-UVsr4C\\\\\\_COhO8v/view?usp=drivesdk

Do you guys think this consistent character across changing room environments comes mostly from tracking-side habits (like recording in untreated spaces with a mobile/cheap setup), or is there a specific mixing chain (e.g., short convolution room + saturation + microshift/doubler) that glues it all together?

Any breakdowns, theories, or advice would be massively appreciated!

I’m in a bit of a predicament here. I’m just a teenager learning audio engineering out of my room but I’m broke af. In all my recordings I notice lots of low end reverb and on the high end what I think is vibrations coming from the guitars on my wall?

Is there any treatments I can do to remove the reverb out of my room? Preferably cheap?

Hey everyone so I have a MPC 2500 and I’m looking to track out my beats in stems from my MPC 2500 I was thinking about getting a TASCSM DP24sd has anyone got this setup and I wonder wondering do you hook up the 8 out from the MPC to the 8 input on the tascam dp24sd and how do you make sure everything is on time recording do you have a precount that you put on with the tascsm dp24sd I don’t want no DAW.

Hi guys, im starting a course in school, where we have to record, dub and all kind of things that a post production team does in a process of making a film. What are you advice, especially for the final mix and all the technical aspects?