Michael McAdams

Let's face it, repetition is boring. Regardless of what genre you make, you don’t want to bore your listeners. Music is all about movement; the better you are at humanizing the elements of your song, the better chance you'll have of moving your audience. Below I'll go over some of the most effective ways to add variety to your productions, making them sound less robotic and more organic. Feel free to try different combinations of these techniques to see how they shape your sound. These methods mostly apply to working inside the box, but further options are available if sounds are reproduced in real physical spaces; using techniques like re-amping, and live mic recording.

The order of your plugins matters. Knowing how plugins affect your sound can help you to shape audio and troubleshoot problems. Below I'll explain my preferred plugin processing order, why it's in the order it is, and I’ll also provide a list of recommended plugins for each category. This list is meant as a general guideline and experimentation is always encouraged. Not all steps are needed for every sound you work on; let your ears determine when a sound requires processing.