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Small Bites

Content from our social media — music theory, songwriting, engineering, mixing, synthesis, and more — collected in one place. If you saw something on our page and want to find it again, it's here. Read it, search it, share it.

Featured Bite

The Six dB Trick

Tricking yourself is just not a good long-term strategy.

Distortion

Distortion comes in lots of flavors, but one thing they all share is that distortion adds high frequency content to your program material.

Perfection

This is a story about perfection.

Your Cable Wrapping Game

It’s time I showed you how to wrap a cable.

hook chorus

Do you think there’s a difference between a hook and a chorus?

tuning part one unison

Easiest way to start to understand tuning is to begin with the idea of a unison.

Circle of Fifths: overrated?

Is the circle of fifths overrated?

Video thumbnail: A440. Here’s what we’re talking about. What it means is when I play this note, this string vibrates...

Frequency, Octaves, Sample Rate

A440. Here’s what we’re talking about. What it means is when I play this note, this string vibrates at 440 times a second. An octave up, 880. An octave down,…

what the actual funk is a sine wave

What the actual funk is a sine wave?

Keyboard MVP

The most valuable piano voicing you can learn — a 6/4 inversion straight out of Miles Davis that exerts maximum force for minimum energy.

Video thumbnail: If you’re starting to make your own music, there will come a time when you find yourself scratching...

Chord Identification: Introduction

If you’re starting to make your own music, there will come a time when you find yourself scratching your head looking at a bunch of notes and asking what chord is this?

Apologist Imposter

Stop feeling bad about what you don’t know.

Video thumbnail: There are vocalists out there that will never ever give you a good performance in headphones, but...

Just Get The Take

There are vocalists out there that will never ever give you a good performance in headphones, but even seasoned vocalists sometimes have a hard time matching the vibe and the performance of a relaxed studio environment with the monitors on.

Intervals: scale degrees

Sometimes the naming conventions in music theory almost seem cruel.

Video thumbnail: A compressor reduces the level of a track, but one of the places people get confused is in...

Compression: input output

A compressor reduces the level of a track, but one of the places people get confused is in understanding where it reduces that level.

All Bites

Showing 6 of 582 articles (Page 49 of 49)

Video thumbnail: Case study: How using live drummer John Bollinger created an authentic Latin rhythm library for...

Live Music in Game Production

Case study: How using live drummer John Bollinger created an authentic Latin rhythm library for Pajama Sam's soundtrack, saving time and budget while …

Weather Sonification

What if you could hear everything? Sound waves are spheres with pressure in one dimension and time in the other.

Music Theory: Double Flats

The breaking point between right and correct in music theory — why double flats exist and what they tell us about context.

Chess pieces and audio cables on a chessboard atop a piano

The Stereo Mid Side Chess Test

A thought exercise to test your understanding of stereo imaging, mid side processing, phase, polarity, and signal flow.

Your First Studio Upgrade

What’s your first upgrade or purchase once you’ve set up the bare bones minimum for your studio?

Stitch: Emma Harner

It’s a shame to talk over this beautiful song by Emma Harner.