Inside The Recording Studio - Unlock remarkable tips and tricks for improved recordings in your studio. Unusually great for beginners and professionals.

June 16, 2023

Workflow

Uncovering the Secrets of Clipping Audio – A Noisy Adventure

Clipping: the word alone can make engineers break into a sweat. But is it always bad? In this episode of Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody dive into the art of clipping audio—where it comes from, why it sometimes works, and when it can absolutely ruin your mix.

They start with the origins: how analog gear and early digital systems introduced us to clipping, and why those “mistakes” sometimes turned into creative tools. Then they dig into the different types of clipping—hard clipping, soft clipping, analog saturation—and explain how each one shapes sound differently.

Clipping isn’t just an error; it can be a weapon. Chris and Jody share when they intentionally use clipping to add aggression, density, or perceived loudness to drums, guitars, or even a mix bus. At the same time, they cover the dangers: digital clipping that destroys transients, leaves tracks brittle, and makes mastering engineers cry.

Expect real-world recording setup tips, plugin and hardware examples, and honest insight into how they personally use clipping in their own sessions. And of course, it wouldn’t be an Inside the Recording Studio episode without humor—so yes, there will be some nonsense about how clipping is like hot sauce: a little makes things exciting, too much ruins dinner.

Whether you’re working with home studio gear or high-end mastering chains, this episode gives you the tools to understand clipping, control it, and use it creatively without wrecking your mixes.

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Gear we used:
Jody’s Mic & Voice Chain: Telefunken C12 – Groove Tubes Vipre – Apollo – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA Studer A800
Jody’s Channel Strip: iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Chris’ Mic & Voice Chain: Slate ML1 – Apollo – UA – Slate VMR (FG12, FG73, API Eq, SSL 4kE) – iZotope RX Voice – DeNoise
Chris’ Channel Strip: Eventide Precision Time Align – iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Master: Oek Sound Soothe 2 – iZotope Ozone Imager – iZotope Ozone Maximize.

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If you want to collaborate, sponsor a podcast, donate, or want us to review your product – contact us at: collaborate@insidetherecordingstudio.com
June 9, 2023

Compressors

Compression vs Limiting: Which One Reigns Supreme? Find Out Now!

Compression and limiting—two tools that every engineer touches, but not everyone fully understands. In this episode of Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody cut through the confusion and deliver a clear, practical breakdown of compression vs limiting. What’s the difference? When should you reach for one over the other? And how do the pros put them to work in real-world mixes?

They’ll start with the basics, defining what compression is: a tool for managing dynamics, smoothing peaks, and shaping the feel of performances. Then they’ll contrast that with limiting, which functions as compression’s stricter cousin, slamming down on peaks with almost brick-wall precision. You’ll hear how both tools affect transients, tone, and headroom, and why the line between them is both subtle and crucial.

Chris and Jody also share their own workflow secrets, from the compressors and limiters they use most often to specific scenarios—vocals, drums, bass, and mix buses—where each shines. They’ll explain why one compressor might give a vocal warmth and intimacy, while a limiter keeps a final master polished and radio-ready.

But it’s not just theory. Expect plenty of recording setup tips, practical examples, and even a few stories of misusing compression in ways that taught them lessons the hard way. And because this is Inside the Recording Studio, you’ll also get humor, banter, and maybe even some nonsense about what happens when compressors are pushed past their limits (literally).

Whether you’re working with home studio gear or high-end racks, this episode will give you a sharper ear for compression, a clearer understanding of limiting, and the confidence to decide which tool is right for the job.

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Gear we used:
Jody’s Mic & Voice Chain: Telefunken C12 – Groove Tubes Vipre – Apollo – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA Studer A800
Jody’s Channel Strip: iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Chris’ Mic & Voice Chain: Slate ML1 – Apollo – UA – Slate VMR (FG12, FG73, API Eq, SSL 4kE) – iZotope RX Voice – DeNoise
Chris’ Channel Strip: Eventide Precision Time Align – iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Master: Oek Sound Soothe 2 – iZotope Ozone Imager – iZotope Ozone Maximize.

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If you want to collaborate, sponsor a podcast, donate, or want us to review your product – contact us at: collaborate@insidetherecordingstudio.com
June 2, 2023

Effects

From Echo to Epic: The Simple Guide to Creative Delay Use

A canyon.
You stand at its edge, lean forward, and shout.
The sound leaves you, racing into stone and shadow. It comes back—changed. Softer. Later. A reflection of yourself stretched across time. This is delay.

But in music, delay is not just echo. It is dialogue. A conversation between the sound and its ghost. Sometimes it whispers, sometimes it shouts back in rhythmic precision. Sometimes it trails endlessly until it dissolves into nothing. Every repeat carries a choice, and every choice reshapes the song.

Chris and Jody invite you into this canyon of echoes. Together they rappel into its depths, lanterns in hand, exploring the many chambers delay has carved into the history of recorded sound.

They begin with types. Analog delays, warm and decaying like fading footsteps. Tape delays, wobbling and imperfect, rich with the nostalgia of reels spinning. Digital delays, pristine and exact, each repeat a mirror with no cracks. Ping-pong delays, bouncing like voices across canyon walls. Slapback delays, short and brash, the swagger of rockabilly ghosts. Each type has a personality, a flavor, a way of coloring the song’s atmosphere.

But types are only the start. The true power lies in time. The choice of milliseconds changes everything. A short slapback can make a vocal punch forward, bold and present. A dotted-eighth delay can weave rhythm into guitar lines, turning simple notes into hypnotic patterns. A long, decaying delay can stretch a single phrase into a landscape, where sound becomes mood and mood becomes memory.

Delay is not passive. It is a sculptor. It shapes space within the mix. Too much, and the canyon drowns in noise. Too little, and the track feels dry, stripped of dimension. The art is in balance—choosing when to let the echoes step forward, and when to pull them back behind the curtain.

Chris and Jody also explore the practical: the way a producer sets up sends and returns, the way feedback and filters can tame or exaggerate repeats, the way delays interact with reverb to create depth—or chaos. They talk about pushing delays into delays, creating fractals of echoes that spin outward like ripples on water. These are tricks that can turn ordinary sounds into something cinematic.

Yet, beyond the knobs and settings, delay is a feeling. It can make a song intimate, as if the singer is sitting across from you, words bouncing gently off the walls. It can make a song vast, stretching out into infinite space, every repeat a reminder that music doesn’t end when the note stops—it lingers, it breathes, it returns.

So, come canyoneering with Chris and Jody. Step into the slot canyons of sound. Learn not only what delays are and how they work, but how to use them as paintbrushes, storytellers, mirrors. Because in the end, delay is more than an effect. It is time bent into music. And the echoes you send into the canyon might just come back as something greater than you imagined.

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Gear we used:
Jody’s Mic & Voice Chain: Telefunken C12 – Groove Tubes Vipre – Apollo – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA Studer A800
Jody’s Channel Strip: iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Chris’ Mic & Voice Chain: Slate ML1 – Apollo – UA – Slate VMR (FG12, FG73, API Eq, SSL 4kE) – iZotope RX Voice – DeNoise
Chris’ Channel Strip: Eventide Precision Time Align – iZotope RX Spectral DeNoise – iZotope RX Mouth DeClick – UA Neve 1073 – UA LA2A – UA 1176E

Master: Oek Sound Soothe 2 – iZotope Ozone Imager – iZotope Ozone Maximize.

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If you want to collaborate, sponsor a podcast, donate, or want us to review your product – contact us at: collaborate@insidetherecordingstudio.com