Guides for treating a room, and a mix, you can actually trust.
Written from the overlap between acoustics and production — every guide either works from a real formula, a real measurement, or a real tool on this site.
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Foundational guides
Start here if you're new to the topic.
How to Remove Vocals From a Song
The old phase-cancellation vocal removal trick, why it barely works on real songs, how modern AI source separation actually removes vocals instead, and its real limits.
The 38% Rule Explained
What the 38% rule for listening position actually claims, the reasoning behind the number, and why it's a starting point to verify — not a guarantee.
What Is LUFS?
LUFS explained precisely: the actual measurement standard behind it, why it tracks perceived loudness better than peak or RMS, and what the number in your analyzer means.
Home Studio Acoustic Treatment: The Complete Starting Guide
Everything you need to know before treating a home studio: what's actually wrong with small rooms, what treatment does, and a realistic order of operations.
Room Modes Explained (Without the Physics Lecture)
Room modes explained in plain language: what they are, why small rooms have them worse, and how to find yours in under a minute.
Where Should Studio Monitors Be Placed? A Practical Starting Point
Studio monitor placement explained with real starting-point numbers: triangle distance, wall distances, symmetry, and why 'against the wall' is the most common mistake.
All articles
Absorber vs Diffuser: What Actually Happens to Sound?
What an absorber and a diffuser each actually do to a reflected sound wave -- the physics, the frequency dependence, and where each belongs in a real room.
How to Use a Mastering Rack: EQ, Compression and Limiting
Learn what EQ, compressor and limiter controls do, with practical starting values, a signal-chain diagram and matched-level listening checks.
Kick and Bass Mixing: Choose the Sound Before the Processing
A practical kick-and-bass workflow covering sample choice, decay, balance, sidechain compression and checks in the full arrangement.
Mixing vs Mastering: What to Fix Before You Finish
Learn what mixing and mastering can each change, when to return to the mix, and how to prepare a balanced track for final processing.
Using Ableton Audio Effect Racks Without Losing Your Mix
How to approach Ableton Audio Effect Racks: understand routing, use macros carefully and compare processing at a matched listening level.
How Far Should Studio Monitors Be From the Wall?
The real reason monitor-to-wall distance matters (speaker boundary interference), the math behind where the problem frequency lands, and a practical starting distance.
Reference Mastering: How to Actually Use a Reference Track
How to compare your mix against a professional reference track properly — level-matching first, what to actually compare, and the mistakes that make references misleading.
True Peak Explained
True peak vs. sample peak: why a track can measure fine in your DAW and still clip after conversion, how true peak is actually estimated, and what dBTP means.
Bass Trap Placement: Where They Actually Belong (and Why)
Why bass traps go in corners, how many you actually need, and why they matter more than broadband foam for a boomy or inconsistent low end.
First Reflection Points Explained (and How to Find Yours)
What first reflection points are, why they matter more than most treatment guides admit, and the mirror trick that finds them for free.
Home Studio Setup Checklist: The Acoustic Steps, In Order
A practical, step-by-step acoustic setup checklist for a home studio — from measuring your room to verifying your treatment actually worked.
How Many Acoustic Panels Do I Actually Need?
A real starting-point method for calculating acoustic panel count from your room's actual dimensions, instead of guessing from a forum thread about someone else's room.
How to Treat a Bedroom Studio (Without Wasting Money on Foam)
A practical, budget-aware order of operations for treating a bedroom studio — what to do first, what to skip, and how to figure out how much you actually need.
RT60 in a Home Studio: What It Means and What It Doesn't
RT60 explained for home studios: the Sabine equation, target ranges by use case, and why RT60 is a much less reliable number in small rooms than most guides admit.
Why Does My Studio Sound Boomy? (It's Probably Not Your Monitors)
If your studio sounds boomy in one spot and thin in another, the cause is almost always your room, not your speakers. Here's how to find out which frequencies and why.