Entries by Dave Sperandio

12 Essential Low Cost Plugins For Your Mixes

If you dip your toe (or your whole leg) into mixing yours or someone else’s tracks, you’ll quickly learn that you can spend hundreds or thousands on plugin emulations without batting an eye. But do you have to spend a fortune to get a quality sound and improve your mixes? In a word … no!

Here are a few essential plugins to get you started, including a free secret weapon you may not know about. With a few exceptions, they are all under $100, with most under $50 or free.

How to Sabotage (Or Save) Your Mix

After a few decades of analysis, iteration, and errors, I don’t yet have the answer to How To Make A Perfect Mix, but I have learned a bit about what does *not* work, or does not translate well in the real word, during the mixing process. From this vantage point I have compiled a few guidelines that will ensure that your mix reaches only a fraction of its sonic potential. Are you ready to learn how to sabotage your mix? Let’s begin!

Five Reasons Your Music Needs Professional Mastering

Today music happens at the speed of life. Production deadlines are tight, just-in-time is the norm, and musicians are creating music in realtime with collaborators around the world. Budgets are tight as well, and mastering remains murky to some, and these factors converge to make it tempting to stop at the mixing process, or to try to master your own music. Here’s why that’s usually a bad idea.