Audio Issues

30/08/2024

New music coming out soon.

29/08/2024

If you don't set a deadline, you'll procrastinate.

If you don't work within limitations or follow a process, you'll second-guess yourself every step of the way.

24/08/2024

When you’re checking your mixes on earbuds, a dog is required. Otherwise you just look like a weirdo walking in circles around your neighborhood in the dark.

23/08/2024

If you're disappointed with the sound of your vocals, you might be skipping some of these crucial steps.

Here's what's worked well for me:

1. Record multiple passes of each section to have enough takes for a good master comp.
2. Meticulously go through each phrase of each take to find the best combination so that your lead vocals shine.
3. Do it all over again to create a great double.
(And again if you want a triple-tracked final chorus...)

HOWEVER...

If you only do that, you'll likely have issues:

1. Inconsistent timing between doubles
2. Chorus-y sound
3. Sloppy performance
That's why I always do this as well:

Tune each vocal
1. Align the doubled vocal part to the lead vocal so they sound as close as possible.
2. You want tight phrasing, so skipping these steps may result in sloppy vocals.

Because I'm not the most confident singer in the world, tuning the doubled vocals together is crucial.

I've learned that even if a vocal double sounds "fine" on its own (especially in a rockier genre), it might not even be singing the exact same notes.

The occasional half-note drift can ruin the tight feel, so don't skimp on this part.

(Even if it is so nauseatingly dull you're counting the waveforms until you're done).

22/08/2024

Once you realize over 100,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify EACH DAY…it feels like the dream is dead.

When you’ve got that many songs hitting Spotify a day… it’s very easy for your music to get lost in the shuffle. (...literally)

And that’s the main reason your music doesn’t get streams.

Fortunately, your story doesn’t have to end there.

Because my good friend, Ryan (and owner of Indie Music Academy) has cracked the code on blowing up on Spotify.

Before enrolling, many of his students struggle to get even a few streams. After? Tens of thousands of streams! His students have accumulated over 1,000,000 streams at the time of writing.

Which means, you can achieve similar results…

After following his program, you may see dozens, maybe even hundreds…of people actively listening to your music when you log into your dashboard.

Imagine how many plays you could have just one year from now.

Details are below.

22/08/2024

My life today. Seven takes to go through. Each phrase weighed against each other to find the best combo. Then do it all over again to create a double. Then a triple for the final chorus. Then I’m only halfway done since I’ve yet to align and tune everything to flow and feel the best. I appreciate your kind thoughts during this difficult time. 😆

19/08/2024

If you're curious about the methodology behind getting more customers for your products, I put together this package that walks you through my Customer Canvas process, which I've used to run Audio Issues for the past 15 years.

It's also the same process I teach at the Eller Entrepreneurship program. Check it out if you want to find more clients and create digital products.

Swipe This "Customer Canvas" Fill-In-The-Blank Template That Helped Me Attract 26,649 Customers

13/08/2024

In the last 15 years of teaching mixing to musicians and producers, I've heard all sorts of mixes.

But there's one type of mix that pops up again and again.

It's the "Good enough but not quite there yet..." mix.

This type of mix sounds decent but doesn't jump out of the speakers and fails to compete with pro releases.

And the thing is, there's often nothing wrong with the mix.

Instead, it has all to do with unlocking this simple 3-part strategy to get balanced, tight mixes that sound loud without feeling squashed.

I share this 3-step easy blueprint for louder and fuller mixes here:

Apply This 3-Part "Mixstering" System to Your Music and Never Worry About Making Your Mixes Quiet Ever Again

07/08/2024

If you've been following the Olympics, you've probably seen the viral Turkish air pistol shooter sensation.

In a sport where athletes are decked out in fancy gear to get a better shot (pun very much intended), he saunters up wearing a t-shirt and normal eyeglasses.

And shoots for a silver medal with one hand in his pocket!

That's kind of like what happens when you use the Easy Mix Approach to mix your music.

You won't overcomplicate your workflow because everything is set up for you.

You won't need to endlessly tweak your plug-ins because you know exactly what settings to use.

You'll know exactly when you're done because you've followed the template to a T, and your mix has never sounded better.

06/08/2024

It's Taco Tuesday and it made me think about salsa.

Specifically, the ingredients:

- Onion
- Cilantro
- Tomato
- Jalapeño
- Lime

And then salt and pepper to taste.

Of course, you might deviate from the core formula when the occasion calls for it. Sometimes, you're in the mood for mango on your fish tacos!

However creative you might get, the process remains the same.

It's the same with your mixes. If you follow the process, your mixes will always come out great.

If you start with a solid template (e.g., a recipe), you'll make better mixes in less time, confident that you're cranking out killer records that meet professional standards.

01/08/2024

When I first began, I had no idea how to use an EQ for clearer mixes.

In a word, I sucked.

EQ felt like a foreign language only cool engineers understood.
My kick drum clashed with my bass guitar, my guitars masked the vocals, and my entire mix sounded like a harsh mess.

You probably have similar issues with your home studio mixes.

EQ can fix many of your biggest mixing problems. It helps you find and separate the frequencies destroying your mix, making everything clearer.

Simply put, EQ is the MOST IMPORTANT processor for creating separation and balance in your mixes.

Understanding frequencies is like having a cheat sheet to make your mixes sound good.

24/07/2024

Just a friendly reminder.

15/07/2024

Once you've recorded your tracks you're ready to make them shine in the mix.

But if you don't do the necessary prep work, or pay close enough attention to the technical details of your tracks, your final mixes will suffer.

So in this post, I'll guide you through an important series of steps you need to take before you start mixing so that you can finish and release more records.

Don't Mix Your Next Track Before You Read This:

I believe mixing should be fun. You’ve recorded your tracks and you’re ready to make them shine. But if you don’t do the necessary prep work, or pay close enough attention to the technical details of your tracks, your final mixes will suffer. So in this guide, I’ll guide you through an impor...

09/07/2024

It’s your room, and if it’s not treated correctly, you’ll never get high-quality audio from your home studio.

Luckily, I have a secret trick for getting expert advice on how to treat your home studio that you can read all about it through the blog link in my bio.

05/07/2024

My newest release, Getting By, is now available on all streaming services. Perfect energetic summer rock song to help you overcome all your existential dread!

Find it wherever you stream your music!

02/07/2024

Special thanks to Hannah Levin for playing my latest single, "Getting By" on The Home Stretch KXCI yesterday!

If you haven't heard it yet, you can check it out on Bandcamp right now: https://randomsomebody.bandcamp.com/album/getting-by and streaming EVERYWHERE this Friday.

01/07/2024

A little snippet about the story behind my latest song. Find the song on Bandcamp right now, and streaming everywhere this Friday.

28/06/2024

I was up at 5:30 a.m. today because my daughter is such an early morning type A person; it's literally exhausting.

Since I had nothing better to do, I thought I'd release this song a little early: https://randomsomebody.bandcamp.com/album/getting-by

The Bandcamp album version includes the brand-new "Getting By" single, but it also includes the previously unheard demo recording from 2008.

I thought you might find it interesting to see just how much the song changed throughout its lifetime: from a somber and melancholic singer-songwriter recording to an upbeat and energetic indie-rock record.

Although the lyrics are pretty simple, there are some deeply personal statements embedded throughout, and you can read more about the story behind the song on the Bandcamp page (I'll spare you the depressing details in this email. If you're curious you'll just have to go investigate).

Enjoy!
Björgvin

2 track album

24/06/2024

Once you start releasing your own music, it creates momentum.

More music released = More music to be released.

I'm excited because I'll be releasing my track early on Bandcamp this Friday just for my subscribers, fans, and family.

So, what about your music?

Is this the week you finish your next track?

If you want...you could have a finished, mixed and mastered track by the end of Friday if you follow the Step By Step Mixing Challenge.

This 5-Day challenge walks you through the proven step-by-step mixing process that's helped thousands of musicians, producers, and audio engineers instantly improve their mixes. Join now!

22/06/2024

I don’t have any Grammys or nothin’ but I can still do my best CLA impression on the airplane to Iceland.

20/06/2024

It was bound to happen.

The audio trolls bullied us home studio musicians for so long I had to go to therapy and work through how to use "use my ears" to understand how EQ makes better mixes.

Check out my therapy session that led to the creation of the Speed EQ System right here: https://audioissues.mykajabi.com/speed-eq-system

18/06/2024

Case in point...

Last week I mixed a song in front of a "live studio audience" as a part of my LIVE Step By Step Mixing Challenge.

I followed the step by step mixing process and shared everything with them so that they could replicate the process with their own songs.

If I hadn't needed to show up for these sessions with the promise that we would have a finished mix by the end, I could've procrastinated on my song for a few more weeks.

Instead, I have a finished mastered mix that's ready to be released (stay tuned for that).

And if I hadn't worked within the limitations of my process, I could've kept tweaking my mix forever, testing new plug-ins, procrastinating on which compressor to use, etc, etc...

Instead, the entire class learned a process that would help them go from rough recording to finished mix, in less than five hours.

18/06/2024

I believe you can make great recordings from your home studio, music that rivals even the fanciest of commercial facilities.

My mixing tips are designed to be simple and practical so you can make progress immediately without buying thousands of dollars worth of fancy gear. Don’t get me wrong – you will need good equipment, but you can still make great music from your home studio on a budget.

If you want more from me, your best place to start is my book, Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins,

Here’s a snippet of what you’ll discover inside the book:

✅ Learn to get organized and simplify your mixing process to create more mixes that sound better in less time

✅ Learn practical mixing tips to make all of your instruments fit with EQ

✅ Learn to use compression to create punchy and tight mixes

✅ Learn to use reverb and delay to add space and depth to your mixes without cluttering up the song and making yourself sound like an amateur

✅ Learn everything you need to know about saturation to add that secret sauce to your songs that make people take notice of your skills

✅ Learn an invaluable process to getting your mix to translate to any speaker or sound system

13/06/2024

🌴 😎 🌴

11/06/2024

Put this secret mix trick in your toolkit:

If the tail of your kick drum sounds too heavy and is getting in the way of the song, but you can't EQ it away without ruining the tone of the kick, here's what you do.

Use a transient designer and reduce the sustain of the kick drum.

It'll shorten the kick and take away any "woofy resonance" (that's the technical term for it...).

It'll make your kick drum sound cleaner in a way that an EQ plug-in won't.

10/06/2024

The dreaded car test 💀🚘 😭

07/06/2024

Need a pick me up to feel motivated? Go pick up a fu***ng self-help book!

06/06/2024

If you’re like most of my subscribers, you're sitting on songs begging to be released.

You'd love to see them released, of course.

But you're sick of your mixes falling flat every time you try to finish your songs.

Compared to pro mixes, your mixes sound:

- Muddy
- Cluttered
- Quiet

So you jump from one thing to another and waste time demoing plug-ins instead of finishing songs.

No matter what plug-ins you use to chase that elusive perfect sound in your head, your mixes sound horrible, and you just feel incredibly frustrated trying to figure out the best way to finish.

And when you play your mix outside the studio, it feels like a bloated mess that you can’t wait to turn off because you feel embarrassed by your skills.

So, you stop trusting your instincts.

In the end, you waste so much time mixing that it becomes a huge hassle that sucks all the fun out of making music.

But instead of feeling depressed and sick about it and lying in bed all day like a toddler with a fever, how about you do something about it?

If you're up for the challenge, I'm taking a big group on a journey next week inside the Step By Step Mixing Challenge.

This 5-Day challenge walks you through the proven step-by-step mixing process that's helped thousands of musicians, producers, and audio engineers instantly improve their mixes. Join now!

05/06/2024

You know what the worst audio advice ever is?

It’s “use your ears.”

Do you know why?

Because it’s empty advice with no actionable steps.

“Use Your Ears” is actually a garbage cop-out when it’s given without any context or actionable steps.

It’s similar to other empty advice like:

- “Exercise and you’ll be skinny”
- “Buy low, sell high!”
- “Go to college and you’ll get a job!”

The common advice goes that “if it sounds good, it is good” but we often leave out the fact that as a beginner, you don’t know whether it sounds good to begin with.

That’s when “using your ears” doesn’t get you anywhere.

But if you don’t know what you’re listening for, you can use your ears all you want without getting any closer to a finished mix.

That’s when “using your ears” doesn’t get you anywhere.

You still won’t know whether you’re doing the right thing because nobody gave you practical advice that you can apply to make better mixes.

The only thing the online trolls said was “use your ears” with their exhausting holier-than-thou attitude, sitting back in their empty commercial studio, proud of their so-called “teaching and it got you nowhere closer to a professional-sounding mix…

But beginners don’t know what to listen for. They don’t know if they’re doing the right things so they have to rely on actionable advice and guidelines.