Most home studio musicians and bedroom producers struggle with two things:
If you’re tired of dealing with shitty drum sounds and weak vocals and want to know exactly how to mix your drums and produce your vocals, then you might relate to this story:
When I was in a band in high school, we produced our first album by ourselves. We set up a recording studio in our rehearsal space, got a few mics, a mixer and got to work.
During the year-long process of recording, two things stood out as the biggest problems:
As a rock band, we wanted a powerful, punchy and thick drum sound like the rock bands had at the time. However, with our limited mixing knowledge, it was hard to replicate. And when we had finished the production, even with subpar drum sounds, we struggled to get a good vocal sound.
We would set up a vocal session without having a clue what we needed. We had the worst budget microphones. We had no idea where to position the mic and it often sounded thin and harsh - a far cry from the powerful rock vocals we were looking to emulate.
If you’ve ever gotten a drum recording from a band and you’re immediately exhausted just thinking about how to transform those crappy drums into powerful drum mixes...or have foud yourself pulling your hair out because the vocals were out of tune and uninspiring then you know how we sounded. We were that band...
Luckily, things have changed since then and I've quite a bit about drums and vocals, but it's still a huge problem my audience faces.
You start with the kick drum and no matter what you do it just sounds flabby. The boominess overpowers the low-end and gives no room or definition to the bass guitar. You can't find the right compression setting to keep the kick under control without making it sound over-compressed and lifeless.
Once you finally have your low-end under control you still can't get the snap of the beater to cut through the high-end, leaving you with a kick drum that's all oomph and no punch.
When you turn to the snare drum you immediately hear tough problems jumping out at you.
There's an annoying ringing resonance that you just can't find. Whatever you do with your EQ, the snare either sounds too boxy or too thin. The hi-hat bleeds into the snare drum mic so much that it's almost impossible to get the snare to sit well without the hi-hat dominating your drum sound.
All you want is a powerful snare that drives the song forward, but all you're left with is a ringing snare that sits on top of the drums.
When the drummer plays a fill you hardly hear it because the toms are drowned out. When you push the volume up they just get in the way and sound detached, like somebody added a weird tom sample from another drum recording on top of the mix!
When you work on the overheads you can't get a good balance between the kick, snare and the rest of the kit. The drums were recorded in a boxy-sounding room so you try your best to EQ out as much of that hollow room sound but it always feels messy in the low-mids.
Every track you work on has that obvious amateur room reverb tail that you can't get rid of!
When you try to get your drums to sit forward in the mix they just end up getting in the way of the rest of the arrangement. Adding reverb just makes it worse, muddying up the drum sound and leaves it sounding distant and under the rest of the mix.
After all that trial and error you might have a good beat going, often the rest of the instruments seem to fall into place.
At that point, the only thing left is producing the vocals. And that brings up a whole host of new problems.
Chances are, you don't know if you're using the right microphone for your vocal. You might not even be sure whether you're getting the correct levels on your interface when you're getting ready to record.
And when you place the mic in front of the singer, you get a small and noisy voice instead of the round, warm, and present vocal sound you hear on your favorite records
Even though you've experimented with different mic techniques, you either end up with a muddy, honky sound (like you're speaking with your hands over your mouth)...or you'll get a thin, sibilant voice that sounds too far away.
Once you think you got a decent vocal to work with, you still don't know how to use tuning, aligning, and editing to make your vocals sound tighter and more professional.
In the mix, you wish you could get the music and vocals to sound balanced. You wish you could find that perfect middle ground of big vocals that don't muddy up the mix.
Although you've tried all the Youtube tricks, like parallel compression, duplicating tracks and applying different processing on each vocal track, your vocals still don't sound like the professional recordings you like so much.
In case you don't know me yet, I'm an author, musician and engineer; and the audio educator behind Audio Issues. I'm here to help you turn your amateur demos into professionally produced mixes you can be proud of.
I've helped thousands of musicians like yourself make a bigger impact with their music by teaching them how to produce themselves in their home studio.
Since 2006 I've written over 1,000 articles and tutorials on audio production, both on Audio Issues and for other audio publications such as MusicTech magazine, SAE Institute, Audiotuts+, The Pro Audio Files, and Recording Revolution to name a few.
It’s been a while since I was in that first band, and in the last decade or so I’ve learned a lot about tackling those problems.
I learned how to fix muddy drum sounds with specific EQ cuts. I discovered how to add punch and dynamics to the drum bus with multi-band compression. I figured out how to gate the drums to get rid of unnecessary bleed (GOODBYE HI-HAT HISS!).
And I learned how to blend the right drum reverbs into the mix to keep the drums present while staying out of the way of the arrangement.
Transient designers allowed me to add attack to dull-sounding drums. They helped me get rid of the room reverb in my home recordings and gave me tighter tracks to work with. And when that didn’t work, I turned to advanced drum sampling techniques to get whatever sound I wanted.
As for vocals...I learned to use EQ and compression to make the vocal come alive. If I needed to subtly tame the vocals to fit in a dynamic ballad, it was easy. If I wanted the vocals aggressive and in-your-face for a rock recording, that was no problem either.
And with the right processing, I could find the exact point where the vocals would fit with the instruments without sounding glued on top or buried underneath.
After solving these problems for so long I realized that I had created my own type of toolkit to tackle each of these tricky situations. Whenever I ran into a specific problem I had a tool that would solve it.
Your Solution to Mastering Punchy Drum Mixes and Powerful Vocals
As soon as you join, you'll have instant access to the course materials on both your computer and mobile device. All modules have both video and written content.
Your Drum Mix Toolkit is your one-stop-shop to getting professional sounding drums from your home recordings. If you've been needing to learn how to mix acoustic drums or breathe new life into your programmed samples, you'll discover new techniques and a solid foundation of knowledge to do just that.
11 Drum Mixing Videos that Help You Get a Great Drum Mix Right Away
The quick and easy way to find those annoying resonant frequencies that are making your drums ring.
The kick drum and the bass guitar will clash and clutter up your low-end. This video will teach you how to easily separate the two with a simple compression trick.
Shows you a fast and efficient way of getting a great drum sound, in only 9 easy steps.
You'll learn the versatility of the multi-band compressor and when to choose it over the traditional full-band compressor.
A transient designer is the secret weapon of your toolkit. You'll learn to tweak, shape and transform your drum tracks.
You'll learn exactly what to listen for when you're finding the perfect attack and release settings for your kick and snare.
Depending on the type of sound you're looking for, you can approach the EQ process of your overhead sound very differently. In this video I compare the two approaches and when to use each.
If your toms sound boxy and buried in the mix, this video will teach you to make them big, punchy and powerful.
Replacing your drums with samples can be scary. You don't want your drummer to sound like a robot. In this video you'll learn how to get the best of both worlds.
There are multiple ways to mix drums of course, but knowing how all the tools work will help you create a killer drum sound regardless of style or genre.
This video combines every trick in the book, taking a boring home recorded drum sound and transforming it into an exciting and powerful drum mix.
This video expands on the previous one, but this time you'll learn to replace the kick and snare and mix the samples back into the drum mix.
Peter Thompson of The Magic Es remixed one of his songs, "Headrush," after learning the techniques inside the Drum Mix Toolkit. He made the entire kit sound punchier, more present and powerful after the remix.
"Drum Mix Toolkit is a fantastic resource. Not only is it a well written book full of tips, tricks, and workflow methods that you can implement today, but to me, the best part is that it also contains video examples by Bjorgvin himself so you can actually hear the techniques in action! It's one thing to read about audio, but it's another to see exactly how to use these techniques in a real session, and more importantly, to hear the differences made through the process. To top it off, Bjorgvin has provided the practice tracks he used in the videos for free as well! Absolutely fantastic and highly recommended! What I've learned in this package will be used on my bands/brothers drum tracks for years to come!"
Expert Home Vocals combines everything I know about producing pro vocals in the home studio. Expert Home Vocals helps you bypass the mistakes I made so that you can get professional sounding vocals from your home studio in less than a week (as opposed to years).
The workbook and the videos will show you the exact process you need to follow to get commercial quality vocals from your project studio.
You can be secure in knowing that whenever you need to record, edit, or mix vocals you'll know that your methods will work every time, giving you professional quality vocals even if you don't have high-end equipment or a fancy studio.
Expert Home Vocals combines everything I've learned in the last decade about vocals. It helps you bypass the mistakes I made so that you can get professional-sounding vocals from your home studio in less than a week.
The workbook and the videos will show you the exact process you need to follow to get commercial quality vocals from your project studio.
You can be secure in knowing that whenever you need to record, edit, or mix vocals you'll know that your methods will work every time, giving you professional quality vocals even if you don't have high-end equipment or a fancy studio.
"A great, well rounded source of information of dealing with vocals from start to finish. I’m mainly schooled in the “analog years” and still working through the digital age. In everyone’s case, there is always something else to learn or grasp. [Expert Home Vocals] added clearer information on gain staging, especially when using plug-ins, added more information on signal processing and in general added more explanations of possibilities to use plug-ins in different situations, such as recording group vocals, harmonies, and micing...What surprised me most was the amount of precise information included, as well as very helpful examples of using what is explained. Björgvin does an excellent job of explaining concepts, and uses “real world” situations to convey concepts. A well thought-out and planned resource!"
" found a lot of tricks and tips for mixing drums. I also realised that I had totally misunderstood what compression ratio is. Now everything is clear. I think that the book is easy to read. You did a serious and really good work...it helped me understand the way of thinking when mixing drums. And I think that was the most important. Every detail was helpful because I had previous knowledge for mixing drums but I was missing some important information on EQ and Compression which is now clearer. Transient Designers rock!!! I honestly can’t find something that I did not like. From the book and the way the content is presented in clear chapters to the incredible videos. Everything was great. Really good value for money.”"
The easiest way to make your vocals stand out in a song is the clever use of vocal effects to make the singer jump out the speakers.
Whether you’re looking for parallel processing tricks for larger vocals, cool slapback echoes, advanced double-tracking or aggressive megaphone effects, you’ll learn them in here.
The video will show you exactly what to do, and in which genres certain effects work better in than others. This masterclass is a collection of ten different vocal production tricks I use in multiple different genres – folk, rock, and punk to name a few – that help me make vocals stand out and sound more professional.
"...this is an excellent course in one of the most important aspect of recording, getting the vocals right. I like how in this course Björgvin goes through the whole process of recording vocals without skipping a beat, so to speak. He does not just talk about mic technique and mixing, although he has plenty of excellent tips on these subjects. He also talks about the importance of pre-production and making sure that the vocalist is comfortable in the studio, and how things that some engineers might not think about, like the lights, or the quality of the headphone mix can affect the mood and therefore the vocal performance. Overall this is an excellent course in one of the most important aspect of recording, getting the vocals right."
As soon as you sign up you'll get access to the members area where you can access both the books, videos and bonuses. You can access the area from your computer or your smartphone.
Not at all. Follow the courses using whatever DAW you're most comfortable with. All of the mixing and production techniques I show you can be done with any DAW.
You sure can! But it'll mean a lot of searching for the right videos, wading through poorly explained techniques and watching a bunch of ads. You're more likely to bounce from one video to another, learning a lot of random, contradictory techniques (and watching a lot of ads), instead of one method to make better mixes. Instead, with the Drum Mix Toolkit and Expert Home Vocals, you'll get the most valuable techniques I've learned in the last 11 years of mixing drums and producing vocals, all in one place! With both your reference book and complementary videos (that are quick, concise and immediately practical), you'll get your one-stop-shop of solving the two most common problems in your home studio stud instead of wasting time on Youtube.
This focuses specifically on the two most common problems that are hindering your productions from sounding like the professional songs you compare your songs to.
Expert Home Vocals and the Drum Mix Toolkit do not require a huge time commitment but they will 100% improve the quality of your productions. All you need are a few hours to go through the eBooks and videos and you'll instantly have the knowledge you need to make better sounding music.
If you're booked with work, studies or other projects at the moment, you should still join the course today even if you're going to take it at a later date. I'm not sure when I'll offer it at such a big discount again and the course structure, bonuses or price may all be different at that point.
Imagine how much time you'll save in the future being able to easily mix drums and produce vocals? I would argue that you're wasting more time trying to figure this stuff out on your own instead of learning from somebody with over a decade of mixing experience.
Not at all. You can use any plug-ins you have in your DAW. EQ, compressor, reverb, delay and saturation plug-ins you have available. I use a combination of a few plug-ins which you probably have similar versions of so you can use whatever you have access to in your DAW to get great results.
Absolutely! The same processes apply when it comes to using EQ, compression, transient designers, reverb and other processors to make a good drum mix. I use some one-shot kick and snare samples in one of the videos as well. In addition, sample replacement is pretty close to making things midi or using samples in a way. I use the home-recorded drums analogy and that type of recording in the tutorial because it's maybe a little harder to get a good sound from them than midi drums or samples. So if you can do that, you'll definitely be able to really level up your midi drums and hip-hop samples.
This is for anyone wanting to produce professional vocals and make better drum mixes. If you don't learn anything new because you're too advanced, you can always get your money back through my 100% satisfaction guarantee.
My students have used my materials to mix every style of music, from rock, country and folk to EDM, hip-hop and pop.
You can use the tips and tricks inside the Drum Mix Toolkit for every genre. I mostly mix rock, folk, punk and metal. If you're an electronic music producer that only uses loops and samples you might not get as much out of the videos, although the practical production tips will help you improve the sound of any drum, electronically sampled or otherwise recorded.
Whatever genre you're working in, if you're recording, producing, editing and mixing vocals, Expert Home Vocals will help you out.
A hobby is something you’re passionate about. An "amateur" musician is a lover of making music. If you want to be proud of the mixes you make in your free time as a hobby, you should know how to do it properly.
I started out doing live sound so I understand where you're coming from.
Even in live sound you have to get good drum mixes and powerful vocals, so this will definitely give you some pointers to take to the venue with you.
"Your training bundle helped my mixes a lot! Two techniques that come to mind are subtractive EQ and the proper use of reverb. I am currently working on a project with 20 plus tracks, many in the mid zone of the EQ (several string tracks, piano and a few guitars clean and dirty). With the help of your books I have cleaned up most of the mud. Anyway thanks for sharing your recording knowledge with us...have helped my recordings immensely! Before reading this material my mixes were dull and muddy. Thanks to this knowledge I have pulled them out of the muck and they sound more professional than ever.""
As with all of the Audio Issues products, Expert Home Vocals comes with a 100% risk-free money-back guarantee.
I promise that following the workflow inside Drum Mix Toolkit and Expert Home Vocals will make every drum mix and vocal production session easy to work on because you'll know exactly what to do to transform your amateur demos into powerful and professional productions.
There is a reason my students have told me that my training has "instantly improved their mixes." Your fans will love the new professional sounds you're releasing, and you'll impress every new client that comes to your studio because you'll easily show them how good you can make them sound.
You can go through all of the materials, watch all the videos and browse all the bonuses before you even make up your mind. You can try all the tricks and even keep the training for a full year before deciding whether you like them or not. If at any point you decide that Drum Mix Toolkit and Expert Home Vocals didn't skyrocket the quality of your productions, simply email me for a full refund, no questions asked nor strings attached!
"I take my guarantee very seriously. I am not interested in keeping your money if you don’t learn anything from what I’m creating for you.
So if you’re not happy, I’m not happy. Simple as that."
If you join today, you'll learn a proven method I've used throughout my career to make professional-sounding drum mixes and vocal productions in my home studio, often using budget microphones and cheap gear.
If you join today, you can say goodbye to any insecurity you may have about drum mixing. or vocal production from your home studio.
If you join today, you'll be a whiz at drums and vocals...GUARANTEED or your money back.
The worst-case scenario of learning from Drum Mix Toolkit and Expert Home Vocals? Pro vocals and punchy drum mixes from your home studio in less than a week.
If you do nothing, you'll keep getting the same shitty drum sounds and amateur sounding vocals that sound thin, harsh and uninspiring
If you do nothing, you won't know what to do when you need to knock that drum mix out of the park or coach an insecure singer to overcome their performance anxiety.
If you do nothing, you'll keep making the same mistakes over and over instead of following a proven method for professional drum mix and quality vocals.
The worst-case scenario from doing nothing? Feeling just as insecure about the quality of your songs six months from now, instead of publishing your productions and proudly sharing them with your friends and fans
"Some really good tips in there. All from small things as how long from or how close to the microphone should you be singing, and what does the different positions mean to the audio sound and quality. There are also great ideas on how to use EQ and compression to make the vocals sit better in the mix. Also more complex ideas like using side chaining on vocals is useful. I would say its and great overall guide that gives you an idea on how to record better vocals....you'll get some very great tips here.""
"I just realized that, especially considering you have focused SO much time on recording/mixing/producing, that there's GOT to be some golden nuggets I'm gonna get from this class to really make my vocals more amazing. My only doubt was whether I would really learn something new. Well, in the email you sent out where you showed an example of your vocal bus, using the Stereo Spread plugin as a side-chain had never occurred to me! So that convinced me that, as usual, I don't know what I don't know, and for $100 I'm gonna get better. Actually, I already used that Stereo Spread on the side chain last night and I like the results better than having it on the main channel's bus (like I've always done before).”"
"You write and teach in a way that completely makes the concept or the task easy to understand. I just wanted to tell you that. Even though I have known these techniques for a while and are very familiar with them and I was looking for something more advanced, I found myself saying "wow, that's a great way to look at that" a lot...I think you are a great teacher and a great musician. Thank you for reminding me that I have at least grown a bit, but even more so, thank you for inspiring me and helping me to push forward, grow, organize, plan and to stay positive so many times through the writings in your emails. I really appreciate it!"
Whether you're a novice beginner or a professional veteran, the techniques inside Drum Mix Toolkit and Expert Home Vocals are sure to give you brand new ideas to try out in your mixes.
Once you finish the checkout process you'll be emailed your log-in information to access the members' area.
Instant Access
Drum Mix Toolkit ($49): In-Depth Reference eBook, drum mixing video package and two drum mix walkthroughs
Expert Home Vocals ($97): Detailed course workbook and video course with my step-by-step workflow on producing, recording, editing, and mixing professional vocals from your home studio, with easy to use techniques and detailed supporting images.
Free Bonuses ($166 Value):
Instant Access
Drum Mix Toolkit ($49)
Expert Home Vocals ($97)
Expert Home Vocals and Drum Mix Toolkit Bonuses ($166 Value)
PLUS:
With Additional Free Bonuses Valued at $147:
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