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Try a tempo synced tremolo on your reverb return. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) November 7, 2014

Humanize your shaker and percussion loops by automating a transient designer. Back off the attack in quieter sections and vice versa. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) October 4, 2015

Present your hook in an almost subliminal way by loading a sample of it into an IR reverb and sending a rhythmic element to the reverb. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) May 20, 2014

Stereo Trick for mono tracks. Duplicate the track, hard pan, use a compressor on one track and an expander on the other. #musicproduction — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) September 29, 2015

Strings: double the part a few semi tones up/down and tune it back to the target pitch. You’ll blend different samples = more real sounding. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) October 26, 2014

Cut out the reverb for a few seconds to create an almost claustrophobic feeling! Check the verse on “A Sorta Fairytale” by @therealtoriamos — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) June 17, 2015

Any melody line (vocal or instrumental) can be made richer by adding a harmony, sending it to a reverb and muting the dry sound. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) October 4, 2014

Make a pad or shaker track with verb 100% wet followed by a gate. A dry snare triggers the gate and gets a very interesting reverb tail! — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) May 5, 2014

On drum reverbs, use a transient designer and turn up the attack. It gets you a tighter reverb and punchier drums without spiky transients. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) June 15, 2015

A track needs more presence? Try brighten up the reverb instead of the dry sound. How does it sound different? How does it work in the mix? — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) September 10, 2014

When using several rhythmic loops, try moving them slightly (in samples or ms) to mess with phase. Interesting tonal artifacts often appear. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) September 12, 2014

Guitar parts played with a pick on single strings: Transient designers can make the player sound a lot more confident. Turn up the attack! — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) August 17, 2014

Automate tempo and go up a few BPM in the chorus. It adds excitement and life, just like when real musicians play together. Subtlety is key! — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) August 11, 2014

For dry sounds that sound a little detached from the other instruments, put a slap delay (80-100 ms), 0 FB, panned to the opposite side. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) May 26, 2015

Use a filter in the low end to reduce the bass a bit in the verse, turn off the filter in the chorus. The chorus will have a greater impact! — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) August 1, 2014

ABBA used to speed up the pitch of the song (varispeed) and record vocals and then pitch it back to normal. Try this in your DAW. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 7, 2014

Duplicate a track, pitch shift up 1 octave, insert reverb (100% wet) and mix in subtly with the original for a gentle kinda exciter effect! — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) July 13, 2014

You got two guitars or synths panned hard left and right? Put a subtle tremolo on each, one doing 16th notes, the other doing 8ths. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 18, 2015

Try inserting a distortion/saturation plugin followed by a low pass filter on an aux before your delay to simulate a tape delay driven hard. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) January 13, 2016

Try a de-esser before your reverb. Not just on vocals. #musicproduction #mixing — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) January 10, 2016

Put a compressor on mid-range heavy sounds like electric guitars and synths, letting the vocals trigger the sidechain, to make room for it. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 29, 2015

Put a gate on a pad or vocal; let a 16th note rhythm trigger the sidechain, let the gate attenuate 6 dB or so. #musicproduction #mixing — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) January 13, 2016

Tape stop reverb: Record the reverb tail to a new track. Automate (or do in real time and print) a pitch shift down an octave or more. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) January 5, 2016

When using a delay on a send, put a gate after it and let the dry signal trigger the sidechain. Either let it open the gate, or close it. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) January 3, 2016

Put some street noise or the sound of a train at low volume behind your drum loop to give it depth and subtle variation. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 21, 2015

Classic vocal trick: don’t send the dry vocal track to a reverb, instead send it to a delay and send the delay to a reverb. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 18, 2015

Try an EQ after your delay with a hi shelving cut, followed by a reverb 20-40% wet for some subtle depth and width added. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) December 15, 2015

Try putting a subtle chorus on an aux before you reverb. — Production Tips (@MgntcSound) November 27, 2015

New Additions (March 2018):

You can have a virtual 3D map in your mind when placing a sound. Front to back – reverb, delay, more (front) or less (back) high end. Left/right – panning, haas effect. Up/down – lots of high frequencis (up), emphasis on lower frequencies (down). — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 12, 2018

Automate the reverb time throughout the track; longer times for the chorus to create more depth and sustain – shorten the reverb to clean up when there’s a lot of things going on at the same time. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 5, 2018

Basic sound design and a great way to learn about audio processing: move the plugins around in the chain, one by one and listen to what happens. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 7, 2018

With an EQ in ms mode on the mixbus, use a shelving filter to cut some lows on the sides. It gives the mix some more space and lightness. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 6, 2018

EQ'ing your delays attenuating at 2-5 kHz will tuck them in to the mix creating depth without being too obvious. #musicproduction #mixing — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 27, 2018 ADVERTISEMENT

If you plan to high pass-filter a lot of tracks in your mix, try a 6dB/octave filter. You filter out a lot of low end without getting too much separation between tracks. It also messes with phase less to have less steep filters. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 3, 2018

Are your virtual instruments locked to the grid? Tap in some subtle delays manually to get some human feel. #musicproduction — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 1, 2018

Transient designers are great for recordings made in a bad sounding room. Back off the sustain and get some of the room out of the way. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) March 1, 2018

Near the end of a mix, note the level of the snare (this is to see if you tend to mix it too loud or too quiet), pull it all the way down. Push the level up slowly until it sounds right. Do the same with lead vocals and kick drum. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 24, 2018

There’s an idea that you shouldn’t have any compression on the master bus if you’re gonna send the mix to mastering. If you’re compressing for movement/groove – absolutely keep it there. If you’re compressing/limiting for loudness – remove it. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 22, 2018

Space for vocals: Attenuate vocal frequencies on other tracks (mixing). Move things out of the way, changing timing or pitch (arrangement) — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 21, 2018

Layer your vocals with a whisper track. It helps the lyrics cut through and can create a bit of an eerie feel if you turn it up loud. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 17, 2018

Add weight to vocals: Duplicate vocal track, filter out highs and high mids. Distort. Blend in with original track. #musicproduction #mixing — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 12, 2018

Put a phaser in parallel on your hi hats or shakers loops for a subtle variation to make it sound less like a loop. #musicproduction #mixing — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) February 9, 2018

You probably have a lot of unfinished music on your harddrive. It can be a burden for sure. Try using the old sessions as sample libraries and create cool and unique samples. Suddenly that work was not in vain. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 29, 2018

Vocal production: use breaths creatively, copy an intense sounding one and paste before a phrase or transition to add drama and intensity. Also works wonders for VO work when there's too much intensity on a single word; lower the volume slightly and add a big inhalation. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 28, 2018

Widen mono track: duplicate track, pan the tracks hard left/right, boost with EQ on one track and cut at the same frequency on the other track. #mixing #musicproduction — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 24, 2018

Any processing you do to your audio tracks you can do to your reverbs. EQ, distortion, delay, another reverb, pitch … #musicproduction — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 23, 2018

Two similar instruments playing the same chords, use different voicings or octaves and pan them L/R. It adds width, depth and detail. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 12, 2018

A close miked source can sound even more in your face with a short delay on it. Gives your ear a point of reference. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 9, 2018

Adding a tiny bit of attack with a transient designer on the master bus before the final limiter can give that extra bit of life and punch. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 4, 2018

More difference between L and R means wider stereo. Think about this when it comes to microphone choice, EQ, compression and arrangement. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) January 1, 2018

Boomy low end, mix gets thin when you try to fix w/ EQ? Shorten the sustain of the bass drum/bass. Edit manually or use transient designer. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) December 31, 2017

For instant inspiration: load up a loop that's preferably kinda cheesy but with great groove and energy. Compose around it, then delete it. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) December 18, 2017

Make virtual instruments like drums, pianos, etc, sound more natural by turning down the velocity and turning up the volume #musicproduction — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) December 17, 2017

Before EQ'ing your kick/snare, tune them to fit the track. If it doesn't sound quite right, tuning a sample up or down a semitone can do it. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) December 14, 2017

Sweep with an EQ on the master bus, find the bad frequencies (if any). Then cut 0,5 dB or so from several tracks at that frequency instead of 5dB on the master bus. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) December 12, 2017

When you’re asking ”How many?”, three is often a good number. Three layers (drums, lead melodies …), three dubs, three harmony parts, three cups of coffee … — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) November 28, 2017

Using delays in sync with the song (8th notes, quarter notes etc), offset them a few milliseconds to create a rushing or dragging feel for a section. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) November 24, 2017

Steal the dynamics from a drum track by routing it (mute the output of the track) to the sidechain of a compressor that’s inserted on anything you want to move like the drum track. — MusicProductionTips (@MgntcSound) November 21, 2017

Take Your Music to the Next Level

Making Sound is available now, a new e-book filled with 15 chapters of practical techniques for sound design, production, mixing and more. Quickly gain new perspectives that will increase your inspiration and spark your creativity. Use the 75 additional tips to add new sparkle, polish and professionalism to your music.





Cristofer Odqvist Cristofer Odqvist is an audio engineer, producer and composer based in Stockholm, Sweden. For mixing tips and more, connect with him on Twitter and check out his popular eBook: Making Sound