After graduation I moved to California with nothing but a dream that sounded ridiculous to everyone but me. My employer offered me an unused office, and in 2005 The OC Recording Company opened its doors — minimal gear, few contacts, and an engineer who was still learning on the job. My first client was a rapper from Boston who had just moved to Orange County. Together we produced records featuring AZ and Royce da 5’9″, he landed a deal, and word started to spread. Within two years I was booked weeks out, reinvesting every dollar back into the studio.

Every studio you have ever admired started as an empty room with one person who refused to quit.

The People in the Room

A recording session is a collaboration between four core roles, and understanding how they interact will define your career more than any piece of gear.

The Artist needs an environment that brings out their best performance. I have seen a vocalist with no formal training walk into the booth and deliver a take so raw that every person in the control room stopped talking. I have also seen classically trained singers freeze up because the headphone mix was wrong. Your job as an engineer is to create the conditions for greatness — the right monitoring level, zero latency, a comfortable room temperature, and honest feedback when a take is not working.

One tip that took me years to learn: if a singer is pitchy, do not reach for Auto-Tune first. Adjust the headphone volume. If they sing flat, reduce the volume and cut bass frequencies in their mix. If they sing sharp, increase the volume and add more low end. The headphone mix is one of the most powerful performance tools you have, and most engineers ignore it.

The Producer hears the finished record before it exists. The first time a producer told me to scrap an entire day’s work and start the beat over from scratch, I thought he was out of his mind. By the end of the session, the new version was ten times better. A great producer evaluates six things in every take: songwriting, emotion, energy, enunciation, rhythm, and pitch. If you are both the engineer and the producer — which is increasingly common — you need to wear both hats without letting one dominate the other.

The Engineer is the technical backbone. I once watched an experienced engineer fix a mix that three other people had given up on. He did not add a single plugin. He adjusted the gain staging, fixed a phase issue on the bass, and high-passed three tracks that were cluttering the low end. Fifteen minutes. That is the difference between knowing the tools and understanding what they do.

The Songwriter is often the quietest person in the industry and frequently the wealthiest. Some of the biggest names in music are writers you have never heard of. Their words and melodies drive every radio station, streaming playlist, and sync placement. If you contribute to a song’s composition, get a split sheet signed before the session ends. Not after. Not when it blows up. Before anyone leaves the studio. I cannot stress this enough.

How Money Actually Works

This is the part they do not teach in most audio programs. There are two copyrights in every song: the composition (PA) and the sound recording (SR). They generate different revenue streams, they are owned by different people, and confusing them will cost you money.

The composition generates mechanical royalties (paid when the song is reproduced), performance royalties (paid when it is broadcast or performed live), synchronization royalties (paid when it is used in film, TV, or ads), and digital royalties from streaming platforms. These are typically split between the songwriter and the publisher.

The sound recording generates sales revenue and is usually owned by whoever financed the recording — often a label, but increasingly the artist themselves. Producer royalties typically range from 1–5% of the retail or wholesale price.

The engineer is usually paid per project or per hour as work for hire and does not receive royalties. This is safer but less lucrative. Hopefully, one day the engineer royalty will be as common as the artist and producer royalty.

The single most important financial decision you will make in your career is whether to retain your publishing. A major publishing company can offer a tempting advance, but signing over your PA copyright means giving up a perpetual revenue stream for a one-time payment. Think very carefully before doing this.

The Traits That Matter

The traits that separate successful audio professionals from everyone else are not technical — they are personal. Show up early. Finish on time. Keep your word. Protect your client’s confidentiality. Be upfront about costs. Never release work you are not proud of. And above all, maintain your integrity — your reputation is the most valuable thing you own in this business.

Talent gets you in the door. Character keeps you in the room.

This post is adapted from Chapter 1 of In the Studio: Audio Engineering & Music Production Techniques — a 468-page textbook covering the complete recording, mixing, mastering, and business workflow. Coming soon from The Forum Press.

The post It Started in a Closet: What Nobody Tells You About Building a Studio Career appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

After 20+ years behind the console, I’ve learned one thing about mixing: most of the early decisions are the same every time. Load the stems. Gain stage. Set the panning. Slap an EQ and compressor on every track. Dial in the low cut. Check the phase. It’s the same routine whether you’re mixing a trap beat or a country ballad — and it eats hours before you even get to the creative part.

So I built the thing I always wished existed.

StemDesk is a complete AI-powered mixing, mastering, and music generation studio. Drop your stems in, get a mixed, mastered, release-ready bounce back — no DAW required, no extra plugins required. Or export directly to Pro Tools and Reaper with everything pre-loaded. It ships with its own built-in plugin suite, runs entirely on your local machine, and doesn’t upload a single byte of your audio to the cloud. Ever.

This isn’t another plugin. This isn’t another website you upload to and pray. This is a session-level AI that sees your entire mix, understands it, and makes it better — then lets you generate brand new music on top of it.

It Listens Before It Touches Anything

StemDesk doesn’t just slap a preset chain on every track. It runs deep spectral analysis on every stem in your session — frequency content, dynamics, transients, loudness, spectral shape, all of it. Then it maps out exactly where your stems are competing with each other in the frequency spectrum. You can see it in the spectral conflict heatmap — a visual grid that shows you which tracks are fighting in which bands. Click any red cell and StemDesk shows you the problem and the surgical EQ fix it already computed.

And here’s the thing: it only processes what actually needs processing. If a stem owns its frequency space and doesn’t conflict with anything, StemDesk leaves it alone. No unnecessary EQ cuts. No compression on tracks that already have good dynamics. No saturation on clean acoustic parts. Less processing, more natural mixes. The way it should be.

87 Genre Profiles. Not 6. Not 10. Eighty-Seven.

Hip-hop doesn’t sound like country. StemDesk knows that. But it goes way deeper than “rock vs. pop.” There are 87 genre profiles across 12 families — Trap, Drill, Phonk, Boom Bap, Neo-Soul, K-Pop, Reggaeton, Afrobeats, Amapiano, Doom Metal, Classical, Film Score, Podcast, and everything in between. Each profile has calibrated gain targets and relational balance rules that reflect how a real mix engineer would approach that genre. The kick-to-bass relationship in a trap beat is completely different from a folk record, and StemDesk knows exactly how to handle both.

One-Click Auto-Mix. 60 Seconds. No DAW.

This is the one that changes everything.

Drop your stems into StemDesk. Click Auto-Mix. In under 60 seconds, you get a fully processed stereo WAV bounce — gain staging, panning, EQ, compression, saturation, volume rides, sidechain ducking, and mix bus processing, all applied in a single pass. Adjustable processing intensity lets you dial between subtle correction and aggressive processing. The default is 25% — just enough to clean everything up without crushing what you already had.

No Pro Tools. No Reaper. No DAW at all. StemDesk processes everything standalone using its own built-in DSP engine. You don’t even need third-party plugins installed. It ships complete.

One-Click Mastering for Every Platform

Once your mix is done, master it for any platform with one click. Spotify at -14 LUFS. Apple Music at -16. Club/DJ at -8. Broadcast at -23 (EBU R128). YouTube, Tidal, SoundCloud, CD, or set your own custom target. True peak limiting, automatic gain compensation, resampling, dithering — all handled. Before and after measurements so you can see exactly what changed.

No separate mastering app. No upload to a mastering website. It’s built right into the same session.

Ships With Its Own Plugin Suite

This is a big one. StemDesk comes with a complete AAX/VST plugin suite built in C++/JUCE — SD Monitor, SD Parametric EQ, SD Compressor, SD De-esser, SD Gate, and SD Saturator. These aren’t demo plugins or stripped-down versions. They’re the real processing engine that powers the entire system, and they work inside Pro Tools and Reaper as standard plugins.

No third-party plugins required. You don’t need to own FabFilter, iZotope, Waves, or anything else. StemDesk ships ready to go out of the box.

But if you do own FabFilter? StemDesk generates calibrated .ffp presets for your existing plugins — Pro-Q, Pro-C, Saturn, Pro-L, Pro-DS, Pro-MB, Pro-G — per-stem, with user-selectable plugin versions. So whether you’re running stock StemDesk plugins or your own FabFilter suite, you’re covered.

It Talks to Your DAW

StemDesk works standalone, but when you want DAW integration, it goes deep.

Pro Tools: Real-time fader and pan control via HUI protocol over virtual MIDI with 14-bit precision. Or build a brand new Pro Tools session from your stems via PTSL with automatic sample rate conversion.

Reaper: Export a complete .rpp project file with all plugins and presets pre-loaded on every track. Open it in Reaper and your entire mix is there — every EQ curve, every compressor setting, every gain ride, ready to tweak.

Three DAW workflows plus standalone. Four ways to deliver from one app.

AI Music Generation — Local, Free, Unlimited

Here’s where it gets crazy.

StemDesk auto-detects the key and BPM of your session. Need a vocal hook? A bass line for the bridge? A piano part to fill out the chorus? Tell it what you want, pick a style, and StemDesk generates it locally on your GPU — matched to your key, locked to your tempo. Write your own lyrics, paste in a concept and let the AI write them for you, or go instrumental-only.

Every generation gets automatically split into 4 separate stems via Demucs — drums, bass, vocals, instruments — and dropped into your session ready to mix. No dragging files around. No bouncing to another app.

The AI model is ACE-Step 1.5, MIT-licensed and fully free. No cloud processing. No API fees. No per-generation charges. Generate as much as you want, forever. The AI runs on your machine and your machine alone.

Talk to It Like a Human

You don’t need to hunt through menus or twist knobs. Just type what you hear.

“Kick needs more punch.”
“Vocals are buried.”
“Too much mud in the low end.”
“Make the snare brighter.”

StemDesk’s AI translates your plain-English feedback into specific gain, EQ, and compression adjustments across the relevant tracks. It understands audio context — it knows that “more punch” on a kick means something different than “more punch” on a vocal. Say what’s wrong, and it fixes it.

AI Intelligence Panel

There’s a full AI co-engineer built into the dashboard. Four modules:

• Critique — Objective analysis of your mix with specific fix suggestions
• Coach — Educational guidance that explains why every AI decision was made, so you learn as you go
• Diagnostics — Identifies phase issues, clipping, frequency pileups, and other technical problems
• Spectral Heatmap — Interactive frequency conflict grid showing exactly where stems compete

Smart prompt suggestions based on your actual stems. AI lyric generation from text concepts. Ask it questions in plain English and get real answers about your mix. This isn’t a chatbot bolted onto a DAW. It’s an AI that actually understands audio.

Volume Rides and Sidechain Ducking — Automated

Two things that every mix needs and no AI tool has ever automated properly.

Volume rides: StemDesk analyzes each stem in time-windowed chunks, calculates loudness per segment, and writes fader automation that keeps levels consistent before compression even touches the signal. Quiet verses get lifted, loud choruses get tamed. The same fader ride a mix engineer does manually — automated.

Sidechain ducking: Bass ducks when the kick hits. Pads duck for vocals. Guitars clear space for lead lines. StemDesk detects which stems need ducking based on spectral overlap and timing, computes the amount and release, and bakes it into the auto-mix or exports it as DAW automation. No manual routing.

Stem Separation and A/B Compare

Don’t have stems? No problem. Drop any finished 2-track mix into StemDesk and Demucs — Meta’s neural stem separation model — splits it into drums, bass, vocals, and instruments, all running locally on your GPU.

Then use the built-in A/B toggle to compare your raw stems against the processed mix at the same timestamp. Space bar plays, Tab toggles. Hear exactly what StemDesk changed, instantly.

Reference Track Matching

Drop a reference track and StemDesk compares your mix against it — frequency balance, loudness, dynamics, stereo width. Get a match score and specific EQ correction curves that push your mix toward the reference’s tonal signature. Built-in MP3 compensation so lossy references don’t skew the analysis.

Built by an Engineer, for Engineers

I didn’t build StemDesk from a textbook. I built it from thousands of real sessions — hip-hop, pop, R&B, rock, country, Latin, everything that’s come through OC Recording over the past two decades. Credits on Netflix, ESPN, MTV, and Disney. Records with Grammy-winning and platinum-selling artists. Three #1 hits mixed for Common Kings. A Billboard-charting Christian Rock track for Whosoever South.

Every gain staging target, every EQ curve, every genre profile in StemDesk comes from actual professional practice — not academic datasets or synthetic training data. This is what happens when a working engineer builds the tool he always wished existed.

But it’s not just for seasoned engineers. If you’re a home producer still learning, StemDesk gives you a professional starting point and shows you why it made every decision. It’s a tool and a teacher.

When Can You Get It?

StemDesk is in the final stretch of development. I’ll be sharing screenshots, demo videos, pricing details, and beta access soon.

If you want to be first in line, hit the waitlist:

→ Join the StemDesk Waitlist

→ View the Full Product Page

STEMDESK.AI · STEMDESK.NET · USPTO Serial No. 99670978

This has been a passion project — everything I’ve learned about mixing, mastering, and music production, distilled into the most complete AI audio studio I could imagine. It’s almost here.

— Asaf

Tags: ai mixing, ai mastering, ai music generation, audio engineering, auto mixing, music production, music tech, oc recording, Pro Tools, Reaper, stemdesk, FabFilter

The post Introducing StemDesk appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

Inspirational Country, Pop, Hip Hop crossover song about perseverance and sticking together.

Follow Follow © 2021 The OC Recording Company, All Rights Reserved

CREDITS:
Lyrics: Asaf Fulks, Rowdy Eunice
Music Production: Asaf Fulks
Mixing/Mastering: Asaf Fulks and Yakira Shimoni Fulks

AUDIO EQUIPMENT
DAW: Pro Tools Ultimate HDX
Mic: Neumann U87, Shure SM7b
Pre: Neve 1073, Avalon 737
Hardware Comp/EQ: Tube Tech CL1B, Great River EQ-2NV, Purple MC77
Converters: Lynx Aurora (n) 16 HD, Lynx Aurora 16 HD
Mix Buss: Manley Variable Mu, API 2500, Avalon 2055
Summing: SSL Sigma, Aurora GTQ2, Aurora GTC2, Zulu
Production: Output Arcade, Spectrasonics Omnisphere
Plugins: FabFilter, Waves Mercury, DMG, Brainworx

THE OC RECORDING COMPANY
ASCAP: Sound Vine Publishing
Web: https://ocrecording.com
Beatz: https://hiphopbeatz.com
FB: http://www.facebook.com/ocrecording
IG: http://www.instagram.com/ocrecording
TW: http://www.twitter.com/ocrecording

ASAF FULKS
@asaffulks
Web: https://asafproductions.com
Apple: https://apple.co/31UdZgp
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3bFC1jO

WHOSOEVEVR SOUTH
@whosoeversouth
Web: whosoeversouth.com
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3CNljLZ
Apple: https://apple.co/3i96b3L

YAKIRA SHIMONI FULKS ART
@kirafulks
Web: https://kirafulks.com
Art: https://kirasart.com

LYRICS

(Hook)
Follow, Follow here we are
Tomorrow, morrow ain’t so far
We been grindin, grindin down this road
Now we behind it, hind it just a lil left to go
Now I know it’s a matter of time
Til we make it to the river we can chill ‘n unwind
Take it fast take it slow in a four wheel drive
I’m feelin alive, feelin alive, feelin alive
As long as you by by side
You know I’m ready to ride

(V1)
They don’t understand tho, what we do
Lit it up like a candle, a breakthrough
On a bike with no handles, we still flew
Carrying the mantle, like Hebrews
When this life’s full adrenaline, you’re my medicine
Always get the best of em, when the pressure’s in
Excellence, something like Mike in his prime
Stickin together we shine
Now it’s game time, that’s my frame of mind
Hit the lane, get to the line n drop dimes,
Ain’t no stop signs or deadlines
You my bloodlines on the front lines
Even though we had it tough
If we add it up, we’d surely have enough
Too soon to pack it up, we bout to rack it up
So come on and just….

(V2)
Long as you beside me we gone push through
We keep ridin ain’t nothin we can’t do
Tomorrow ain’t far and mercy’s brand new
You got me and you know I got you
Follow dreams and follow hope
Follow love in your heart and you’ll never be broke
Pray for those across the globe
Shine a light of peace through the darkest smoke
We gone keep movin til we make it home
Long as I’m with you (yea) I know it won’t be long
Listen as we follow steady as we go
We’ll be there tomorrow to watch the river flow
Gone watch it flow

followfollow #asaffulks #whosoeversouth #ocrecording #countryhiphop

The post Asaf Fulks ft. Whosoever South – Follow, Follow appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

 

Wassup y’all! Been a busy but beautiful beginning to 2019. Doing well in my second year of law school and staying steady with Torah study. Made major upgrades at The OC Recording Company and produced fresh sounds with amazing new artists. Excited for what’s to come. Baruch Hashem!

#kirasart #sound #business #musicindustry #ocrecording #recordingstudio #musicianslife #studiolife

A new look and fresh sound for 2019! All wired up and ready to continue crankin’ out classics. Thank you @kirafulks for the beautiful artwork and @esteo.carlo @guitarcenter for the toys. It’s goin’ down for REEL at OC Recording. Tu-be or not tu-be, that is the question. Let’s get it!

#ocrecording #asaffulks #kirasart#recordingstudio #studiolife #recording#mixing #mastering #audioengineering

The post It’s getting really REEL at OC Recording Studios in Orange County, California! appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

Rear View is the last release of Asaf Fulks OC Bandwagon album. Asaf and Yakira deliver a spiritual message with powerful sounds and imagery in this timeless pop, r&b, electronic music crossover.

September marks The OC Recording Company‘s 13th anniversary! Wow, what a journey it’s been. The one person who has been here through it all is my SouLit Momma Kira Shimoni Fulks! It’s an honor to share this journey with her and collaborate together on my album. Thirteen in Hebrew equals love and without her love none of this would have been possible. This song is dedicated to my late uncle Ehud Shimoni, who loved the City of Angels and will forever be the King of Hollywood.

The signs are changing all around! This is the last release on my OC Bandwagon album — coming soon! Law school starts in October, the studio is poppin’ and now I’ll be promoting my Mom’s Yakira Shimoni Fulks Artkirasart.com. I’m very excited to be a member of Chabad of West Orange County and to dive deeper into Torah studies with Rabbi Yisroel Zavdi. My music lives on at ocrecording.com, hiphopbeatz.com and asafproductions.com. Thank you all for your support. Enjoy REAR VIEW – trust I’ll be here to see this through. Keep your eyes off the rear view! A sweet and good new year to all!

The post Asaf David Fulks new music video REAR VIEW ft. Yakira Shimoni Fulks | The OC Recording Company appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

Justin Bennee aka the “Cable Wizard” learning to solder hands-on #inthestudio at #ocrecording with Asaf Fulks  Best audio engineering and music production school in Orange County, California!

#audioschool #soldering #learning #kirasart #thursdaythoughts

The post Justin Bennee learning to solder at The OC Recording School! appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

International student Courtney Hahm enrolled in our #audioschool six months ago knowing nothing about audio engineering and music production. She took it upon herself to fulfill her dream of learning to professionally produce music. With the help of #inthestudio with Asaf Fulks she made it happen.

Not only is she now an #ocrecording certified engineer and producer, she is Waves Audio certified and just uploaded her new single TOUCH MY EYES to YouTube! She wrote, performed, produced, recorded and mixed the record using Pro Tools and Maschine. Plus she helped create the music video. Beautiful song, voice and final project — wow! We are super proud and see continued success in this star going forward.  #Congratulations on #Graduation 

The post Courtney Hahm’s IN THE STUDIO with Asaf Fulks Graduation appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

The post Repenteve – TOUCH MY EYES appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

https://youtu.be/-D_QEU9pTFM

https://youtu.be/IKXsyUvcwv0

Day 2 from LuLu…

We have been working hard in the studio for you guys on a new song called #outoftune
Thank you @ocrecording @asaffulks for your amazing magic as producer and engineer!! And huge shout out to @dukeshoman for your great camera energy today in the studio!! I can’t wait to share the behind the scenes with you guys!! #trusttheprocess  .
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#motivation #business #entrepreneur #lifestyle #inspiration#entrepreneurship #marketing #love #money #goals #life #successful#instagood #fitness #entrepreneurs #hustle #entrepreneurlife #inspire#entrepreneurlifestyle #businessowner #makemoney #luxury #quotes#happy #successquotes #startup #businesswoman #photography

 #newmusicalert  Our homegirl LuluBeatz on the streets with that new hit! Her latest single and music video #wholecrew is #np at YouTube Recorded, mixed, mastered and co-produced by Asaf Fulks at #ocrecording  Let’s gooooooo crewwwwwwww 

https://youtu.be/lFOiqzvmKdQ

The post In the Studio Cookin’ with LuLu Beatz and Asaf Fulks at OC Recording! appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.

The post New IN THE STUDIO with Asaf Fulks Tuition Options! appeared first on The OC Recording Company Blog.