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

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
May 26, 2023

Guitars

Introducing the Hyperswitch from Seymour Duncan

Imagine this: you grab your trusty guitar, flip your 5-way switch, and get… the same five tones you’ve had since forever. Useful, sure. Exciting? Not really. Now imagine if that same switch suddenly had superpowers—like a Marvel character but with fewer capes and more coil-splits. That’s the Seymour Duncan Hyperswitch, and Chris and Jody are here to spill the beans on this new toy that might make you rethink everything you know about guitar wiring.

First off, let’s be clear: this thing is not your granddad’s pickup selector. Nope. The Hyperswitch uses Bluetooth and an app, which means you can rewire your humbuckers without touching a soldering iron. That’s right—no more burning your fingers or pretending you know how to read wiring diagrams. With the Hyperswitch, you can sit on your couch, phone in hand, and turn your guitar into a Franken-beast of tonal options. Series? Done. Parallel? Easy. Coil-split? Obviously. Want to invent a configuration that would make even a veteran guitar tech weep? Go for it.

Chris and Jody break down what it actually is, how it works, and (most importantly for us mortals) how hard it is to install. Spoiler alert: it’s surprisingly painless. If you can handle a screwdriver and not lose a screw under your couch, you’re probably halfway there. They’ll also share their own thoughts on how this thing changes the game for players with multiple humbuckers—because let’s face it, once you’ve got the Hyperswitch, your guitar stops being “just a guitar” and becomes a sonic buffet.

But don’t worry, this isn’t a dry tech manual. Expect plenty of gear-nerd jokes and some playful digs at the “old-school” solder-or-die crowd. (You know the ones—folks who say “if you didn’t melt at least one fingertip installing it, did you even earn your tone?”). Chris and Jody are here to tell you: yes, you did. The Hyperswitch lets you have all the fun without the scars.

And then there’s the bigger picture: this little piece of tech is destined for greatness. Seriously. Imagine walking into a studio session and saying, “Yeah, I’ll just Bluetooth my wiring real quick.” Your bandmates will either think you’re a wizard or they’ll immediately start plotting to steal your guitar. Either way, you win.

In this episode, you’ll get the full rig rundown: what the Hyperswitch can do, how to get it set up, and why it might just ruin you for every boring old 5-way switch from now on. Plus, Chris and Jody toss in their trademark banter and nonsense—because if you can’t laugh about turning your guitar into a Bluetooth-enabled spaceship, what’s even the point?

So if you’ve ever looked at your guitar and thought, “Man, I wish you could do more,” this is your episode. The Seymour Duncan Hyperswitch doesn’t just answer that wish—it cranks it to 11 and asks, “What else ya got?”

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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
May 19, 2023

DAW

Switching DAWs: A Great Guide to Choosing the Right One!

Digital Audio Workstations—DAWs—are the center of every modern studio. But should you stick with the one you know or jump ship for something new? In this episode of Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody tackle the big question: is it worth switching DAWs?

They break down the pros and cons of making the move. On the plus side, a new DAW might offer workflow improvements, better MIDI editing, unique plugins, or that one hidden feature that makes your life easier. On the downside? Steep learning curves, compatibility headaches, and the ever-present risk of spending more time learning software than making music.

Chris and Jody also explore the considerations you need to weigh: What kind of music do you make? What’s your workflow? Are you collaborating with others who expect files in a certain format? They’ll even cover the differences between major DAWs—Pro Tools, Logic, LUNA, Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live, Reaper, and others—so you can see which platform matches your goals.

And, of course, they share their own experiences. What DAWs do they use? Why did they choose them? And would they ever consider switching? Spoiler: it’s not just about features, it’s about how the DAW feels when you’re in the creative zone.

Whether you’re new to music production with home studio gear or a seasoned pro weighing a big decision, this episode gives you the recording setup tips and perspective you need. And yes, expect some laughs along the way—because talking about DAW wars without humor would just feel too much like a forum flame thread.

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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