Stellar Audio Lab

11/01/2025

Places to learn music production and audio engineering for free!

In this video, I’m sharing 5 of my favorite places to learn audio engineering and recording. I’ll also include two honorable mentions: platforms that offer ...

05/24/2025

I created a video showing a comparison between flatwound and roundwound strings for bass. I show different finger technique sounds with mixed and raw tracks. Which do you prefer and why?

🎸 Roundwound vs Flatwound Bass Strings – Curious how roundwound and flatwound bass strings sound in a mix — or raw? I ran a side-by-side test using the same...

10/24/2024

If you are looking to record music, but are on a budget, you may be interested in recording between the studio and your home. Cato Zane and I breakdown pros and cons of recording at the studio and your home. We share our perspectives on the best ways to get the most out of your studio session and what tracks you may consider recording at home if you want to use a hybrid setup between the studio and your home recording setup if you are on a limited budget. The full videos are in two parts, one on each of our channels - links in our bios.

https://youtu.be/ew_afKTjx10

In this video we talk with amazing human and fellow music producer/audio engineer, Cato Zane. We talk about the positives and negatives of recording at home...

11/05/2022

We all love intense guitar solos. They make us drop everything to play air guitar because the guitar is so emotive when played well. In this video I show tips for mixing intense guitar solos. Getting them to melt your face while not making your ears bleed. If you are interested in how to give guitar solos character while fitting them into the mix, this video is likely for you.

https://youtu.be/xwvXTdELadU

Thanks!
Ben

This video shows an intense guitar solo played with with heavy distortion and a wah pedal, and demonstrates ways that you might approach mixing it. The aim ...

08/26/2022

I find that parts of mixing can bring me a similar feeling to playing live, and that you can lose yourself into the song in a similar way. The video shows me automating the lead vocal on a simple fader. I get into the music and play the fader as an instrument as the music plays. It is pretty nerdy, and hopefully insightful if you are looking to improve the sound of your vocals and have not tried this yet.

This is a full song start to finish in one pass with vocal volume automation going on the lead vocal fader. This is one method to make the vocal performance feel more powerful. You can make the ends of words strong so the vocal stays present, since the tail ends of words often trail off at a softer volume. You can also push the volume a little as you move from one section to the next.

https://youtu.be/GDWB2V9fUv8

Hope this video is helpful. If you have a question or comment, or want to share something related that you do with your music, please do.

Thanks all,

BK

08/12/2022

All that wasted time spent trying to get me to smile for family portraits when I was a kid. We should have been taking the photos in a recording studio!

Got to spend some time at Singing Serpent this week...check it out

DM to book recording in San Diego

04/25/2022

This is the inside of my MXR Carbon Copy Delay. It is an amazing warm sounding delay that creates a certain sonic soup I haven't heard from any other delay. You can also create crazy oscillations and feedback by twisting the k***s simultaneously.

I got this one in 2009, and it has been at almost every gig I have had since. It stopped working recently, and somehow the good folks at were able to fix it under warranty! Looking forward to getting this one back soon!

01/04/2022

Guest engineering at Rarefied, super fun. Neumann U67 is a champ on acoustic and vocals. Royer 121 and Shure Unidyne combo tames and brings out the beast of the Fender Twin.
-
-
-
-

12/06/2021

I was thrilled to test a piece of music history yesterday. There were approximately 250 of these EMT 250 reverb units made from the late 70's to mid 80's. They are an important piece helping to define the sound of the 80's. Notably used on Prince's Purple Rain and the vocals for Thriller. As I was awkwardly repeating "check, check" patched into the reverb yesterday I could not help but wonder about all of the music that it helped create. This unit will be in the control room at FM Studios, and I am very fortunate to have access to it and add more music to its life story. For more info on the studio check out the link in the bio.

11/23/2021

I had a great time yesterday engineering at . Awesome studio tucked away in North Park. Roy has great taste in gear and keeps the place in tip-top shape. Hit me up if you are interested in recording with me. Let's make a record!

11/05/2021

I was very fortunate to beta test a new audio plugin, GreenHAAS from Mixing Night Audio. They are a brand new audio software company with a creative vision. They host free live shows every two weeks that are essentially masterclasses on all aspects of music production.

The plugin creates incredible sonic beauty or chaos; depending how you tweak it. It is centered around the Haas effect, which is a slight delay in the timing (under 40 milliseconds) between the left and right speaker. Short enough to be perceived as one sound, but creating a wide range of modulation and spacial effects based on the timing. If you are one of my music and audio friends you can check a video I made at: https://youtu.be/TQnj1eECRpc.

Review by Ben at Stellar Audio Lab: https://stellaraudiolab.com/Check out GreenHAAS and Mixing Night:GreenHAAS: https://mixingnightaudio.com/Mixing Night: h...

10/13/2021

I created a video on creating a haunting and expressive reverb for singer songwriters. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/kRkXlrFiqEQ

😘

Mixing and Production for Independent Artists: https://stellaraudiolab.com/Creating the perfect reverb for singer songwriters. #...