Inside The Recording Studio

Every great recording starts long before the record button is pressed.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody welcome drummer Christopher Allis for an honest conversation about what it really takes to build a career as a working musician. From his earliest gigs through performing with some of the coolest artists on the circuit, Christopher walks us through the experiences that shaped both his playing and his profe...

Everyone talks about side chaining like it's some secret club. Good news. There isn't a password.

This week Chris and Jody tackle one of the most talked about mixing techniques in music production and prove it isn't nearly as scary as the internet sometimes makes it sound. Side chaining can make a muddy mix breathe, help your kick and bass stop fighting, and even add movement that makes a track feel more alive. Once you understand ...

Think your latest mix is perfect?

Cool.

Now compare it to a commercial release.

That's exactly what Chris and Jody tackle in this week's episode of Inside the Recording Studio, where they explain why reference mixes are one of the best reality checks available to anyone making music. Spoiler alert: using reference tracks isn't cheating. It's something professionals do every day because ears get tired, perspective disappears, and co...

The phrase “There are no rules, just use your ears” sounds freeing until it leaves you with no map, no clues, and a mix that quietly hates you.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris & Jody take aim at one of the most repeated lines in music productionadvice: “There are no rules.” It gets tossed around in forums, videos, and studio chats like it solves everything. But for beginners trying to bui...

Question: What if everything you've believed about studio gear isn't actually true?

Answer: That's exactly what Chris and Jody explore this week.

Question: What's getting examined?

Answer:

• Studio myths.

• Oxygen-free cables.

• Premium USB cable claims.

• The never-ending DAW debate.

• The difference between audio fact from fiction.

Now for the fun part.

Every recording community has stories that get repeated so often they begin t...

If you've ever been asked to "send the stems" and found yourself wondering whether that really meant stems or multitracks, this episode could save you from an awkward conversation and maybe even your next recording opportunity.

In this week's episode of Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in modern music production: stems vs multitracks. The two terms get thrown around as though t...

Your microphone might be amazing, your preamp might be expensive, and your performance space might be spotless. None of that matters if the person wearing the headphones wants to rip them off after thirty seconds.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody tackle the surprisingly important world of headphone monitor mixes, proving that a happy performer usually starts with hearing the right things at the right time. W...

Think loops are cheating? Chris & Jody are ready to challenge that idea head-on.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris & Jody dive into one of the most debated topics in modern music production: loops. From drum grooves and vocal chops to synth hooks and textured sound beds, loops have become a major part of how music gets made today. Yet despite how common they are, plenty of producers, musicians, and engineers s...

Ever wondered what happens when a veteran FOH engineer walks into a quiet studio and meets Chris & Jody? Spoiler: chaos and wisdom collide. This week’s Inside the Recording Studio episode features Raymond Gronvall, a live sound wizard who can tame a riotous stage while still making your vocals sparkle in the booth.

Raymond shares what it’s like to mix a sold-out crowd with amps cranked to eleven, dodging rogue feedb...

Imagine getting stranded on a desert island with a laptop, a DAW, and exactly five plugins before the universe says, “Good luck, audio nerd.”

That’s the ridiculous challenge Chris & Jody tackle this week on Inside the Recording Studio, and things get surprisingly serious surprisingly fast. Because once you remove the safety blanket of 947 unused plugins, producers suddenly have to admit which tools they a...

So you want to build a recording rig. Great. Now try not to spend your rent money on cables, mystery boxes, and a power supply that hums like an angry refrigerator.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody jump into the wonderful, confusing, mildly dangerous world of building a home or mobile recording setup. If you have ever stared at an audio interface, three cables, two adapters, and one blinking red light while ...

Some EQs are forgettable. The API 550A is not one of them. This thing has been shaping records for decades, and somehow it still walks into a modern studio like it owns the place.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris & Jody get their hands on the legend, at least in spirit, and break down the API 550A without turning the episode into a dusty museum tour. Yes, there is history. Yes, there are knobs. Yes, there is talk...

Guitarists, please step away from the soldering iron for one second. Chris and Jody are diving into the eternal pickup cage match: passive pickups vs active pickups.

This episode of Inside the Recording Studio is for the tone chasers, the pedalboard tweakers, the pickup loyalists, and the people who absolutely swear they can hear the difference between two nearly identical humbuckers from across the room. And honestly, maybe they c...

Not enough inputs? Welcome to the club. The jackets are backordered.

This week, Ignacio sends in a listener question about preamp usage in small studio setups, and Chris & Jody happily dive into the glorious mess of getting pro sound from limited home studio gear. Because yes, it would be lovely to have endless preamps, endless channels, and a perfectly wired room where nothing hums, hisses, or mysteriously stops working. But m...

Some compressors compress. The Fairchild walks into the room wearing a velvet jacket and makes everything sound like it has a record deal.

This week, Chris and Jody take on the Fairchild compressor, one of the most loved, copied, drooled-over, and financially terrifying pieces of audio hardware ever built. It has been linked to legendary studios, classic records, and more plugin wishlists than anyone wants to admit. But behind all ...

Let’s get one thing straight. Percussion in music productions is not just “extra stuff you throw in at the end.”

It’s the difference between a track that feels alive and one that just… sits there like it forgot what rhythm is.

In this episode of Inside the Recording Studio, Chris & Jody crack open the world of percussion in music production and show you exactly how to use it without turning your m...

What if the problem isn’t your amp… but your gain?

That’s the question Chris & Jody explore in this episode, and the answer might change how you approach high-gain guitar tones forever.

Let’s break it down:

Problem: You crank the gain. It sounds huge. Then the mix starts… and your guitar disappears.

Reality: Too much distortion = less clarity. Less clarity = no definition. No definition = buried ...

So you said yes to mixing someone else’s track. Bold move. Now what?

In this episode, Chris and Jody pull back the curtain on what really happens after you get hired. Spoiler alert. It is not just opening a session and pushing faders. There is a whole process, and if you skip parts of it, things can go sideways fast.

They start at the very beginning with the first client conversation. This is where you either set yourself up ...

You know an episode is going to be good when the guest, George Leger III, has worked on music you have definitely heard and the hosts openly admit that some nonsense will probably happen too.

This week on Inside the Recording Studio, Chris and Jody bring in George Leger III, and the result sounds like exactly what you want from a studio podcast that knows how to mix useful advice with a little chaos. George is a mastering and recor...