THE BLOG
Mixing tips, mastering guides, gear reviews, and music production tutorials from a studio with 20+ years of experience.
Jazz Chord Progressions: A Beginner's Introduction
Jazz harmony sounds complicated, but most of it comes back to one progression: the ii-V-I. This is a plain-English intro...
The 12 Bar Blues: Structure and How to Play It
The 12-bar blues is one of the most recognizable chord progressions in music, and it's built on just three chords. Here'...
The Best Kick Drum Mics for a Punchy, Pro Low End
A kick drum can make or break a track, and the mic in front of it does a lot of the heavy lifting. We picked five dynami...
Common Chord Progressions Every Songwriter Should Know
Most of the songs you love are built on a handful of chord progressions, and that's a good thing. Here's a plain-English...
The Top 8 Best Waves Vocal Plugins
Waves makes a lot of vocal plugins, and not all of them earn a spot on your tracks. These five do. From automatic level ...
The Best Drum Overhead Mics To Capture Your Kit
Overheads are where your drum sound lives or dies — they're the picture, and everything else is detail. We rounded up fi...
How to Write Lyrics That Actually Connect
Good lyrics aren't about fancy words or clever metaphors — they're about communication. This guide walks through finding...
The Best Studio Monitor Stands for Your Setup
Your monitors are only as accurate as the thing holding them up. A wobbly desk or a stand that couples vibration into th...
How to Write a Song: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
Writing a song isn't a magical talent reserved for a chosen few — it's a craft you can learn and get better at with reps...
ACE Studio AI Instruments: I Gave It MIDI and Got Back a String Section
That's not a sampled string library. That's not a session player I hired. That's AI — and the only thing I gave it was M...
How Much Does Apple Music Pay Per Stream In 2026?
Apple Music pays more per stream than just about any other major platform in 2026, landing somewhere between $0.007 and ...
Sound Theory Gullfoss Review: How It Works and What It Does
Sound Theory calls Gullfoss an intelligent automatic equalizer. The closest familiar comparison is a dynamic EQ, but it ...