TRUST YOUR EARS!

“Especially in the beginning it’s so important to create a unique sound, rather than ‘going pro’. All you need is in a laptop nowadays, and even by using plugins ‘the wrong way’, you can get to the most amazing results. Everything is allowed. A good example is my vocal sound – I didn’t really know how to use a compressor when I started, so in my vocal chain I put a really long reverb before a compressor that reduced around 20dB. That’s obviously not the right way to do it, but it made the reverb only come up whenever I stopped singing, and the result was a really washy and dreamy vocal sound.”

Use a lot of different reverbs

“Try adding a couple of interesting, weirder reverbs. That way you have a much broader palette of shaping your sound. In my projects, apart from having two more conventional reverbs, one short and one longer plate, I always have different kinds of spring reverbs that I send stuff to. I run a lot through a Roland Space Echo and an old Fender Twin Amp, but plugins like the Arturia Spring-636 or the PSP Springbox are also both great for that. Try to add a tape delay in an all-wet setting before the reverb, so that the reverb doesn’t interfere too much with the original signal. Mid-range is key in a mix, and these reverbs add a lot of depth, even used subtly.”

Trust in Mono!

“Starting out, I always recorded in stereo when possible: if a synth had a stereo out, I used it. Then I realised how important mono tracks can be. I’m now saving the stereo image for specific signals, that I intentionally want to place there. A track can sound really thin and without punch, if too much is in stereo. Eg, if you already have a really wide, stereo-sounding drum recording and a piano in stereo, consider having your synths in mono and maybe just pan some mono track a little to the sides.”