New (To Me) Plugins I’ve Been Using That I Recommend

brandonshireMixing, PluginsLeave a Comment

It’s not the tool, it’s the user. But as a blogger and content creator, I get to play with a lot of cool tools. Here’s a few of them that I highly recommend checking out. 1. The Plugins From My Walkthroughs. Obviously anything from my recent product videos, and not just because I did the product walkthrough. Boz Digital Labs’s … Read More

Reference Tools, Compared

brandonshirePluginsLeave a Comment

Reference tracks can be a valuable tool for keeping an objective viewpoint while mixing. When you listen to a reference track, you get a chance to reset your ears. If you’ve been listening to your mix for hours, your ears are getting used to the frequencies you’re hearing. Problem areas or frequency imbalances may not jump out at you as … Read More

Review: Sonible smart:EQ+

brandonshireConcepts, Mixing, PluginsLeave a Comment

Do we REALLY need another EQ? We have stock eq’s, free eq’s, hardware eq’s, dynamic eq’s, analog modeled eq’s, digital eq’s that can do a zillion cool things… I find it hard to get excited about another eq these days, unless there’s something truly new and unique it brings to the table. More developers should take advantage of the digital … Read More

Understanding Drum Sample Libraries.

brandonshireConcepts, Production, WorkflowLeave a Comment

From bedroom producers, to the top brass mixing engineers with multiple grammies, there are a lot of people who use drum samples in their mixes. Joey Sturgis is famous for using Kick 10 from Steven Slate Drums in many of his productions (although now Joey Sturgis has his own sample library on the market called Drumforge), and Randy Staub used … Read More

Dancing Angels – From idea to finished mix!

brandonshireMixingLeave a Comment

One of my latest mixes, which you may have heard by now, is “Danging Angels” from Project DIVIDE! It’s not been officially released yet on iTunes, but you can check it out on our youtube page here. This one was fun as hell! I wrote the music on my iPhone using NanoStudio one day while waiting outside of a doctors … Read More

Looking back at my progress, My Advice To Newer Engineers:

brandonshireConceptsLeave a Comment

Recently, my band Project DIVIDE recorded the song that I’m thus far the proudest of in our career. It represents a new milestone for us as songwriters, and the production represents a new milestone for me as a producer and engineer. But I’m sure in 2 years I’ll totally hate it. Two years ago, we set yet another such milestone, … Read More

Mix Breakdown: “Blue” by Patric Talbot

brandonshireMixingLeave a Comment

Today, I decided to push into new territory and mix a bluesy jazzy number. This was done purely for mix practice, not for a client. The song was “Blue” by Patrick Talbot, which you can download and mix yourself from the Cambridge Site. In this post, I wanna walk through my process on this mix. We’ll start with mix prep. … Read More