Louder Doesn't Mean Better - The Loudness War - Part 3
LearningIn this installment, we'll look at the consequences of the loudness war on music, sound and human ears.
Virtual Tone Tips for Guitarists - How to get killer sounds with your amp-modeling plug-in
LearningThe debate about real amps versus modeling amps is over. Numerous blind tests among players and engineers have revealed that it’s often impossible to distinguish modeled amps from the real thing, esp…
Start Your Mix Out Right - Comparing different ways to approach the beginning of a mix
LearningMixing a song offers a cornucopia of creative choices. You decide how loud to make every instrument, where to place it in the stereo image, which effects to use, which tracks to mute, and so forth. I…
Compression in the Volume Wars - The Loudness War - Part 2
LearningToday we'll continue our series on the volume wars. This time, we'll focus on mainly on compression.
Find Your Latency Threshold - Understand and minimize latency when recording in your DAW – Part 2
LearningFinding an acceptable level of latency is something everyone making music with computers must deal with at times. For some of us it's child's play, but for some others it can get complicated very qui…
Physical Modeling Synthesis - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 23
LearningAfter having explored synthesis methods that have opened the doors to the most extravagant worlds of sound, today I invite you to tread a more conventional path: The artificial reproduction of well-k…
The Top 15 Products of Musikmesse 2015 - Best of Musikmesse 2015
LearningWe were spoiled at NAMM last January. While Musikmesse turned out to be a bit slower, we still found it to be quite interesting. Specifically, 15 products got our attention. So here’s the list, in no…
Ratio and Threshold in a Compressor - A guide to mixing music - Part 30
LearningThis week we'll proceed with the final steps of the method to learn about the sonic impact of the main parameters of a compressor. After having seen the attack and release times, now it's the turn of…
The Frequency Spectrum in FM Synthesis - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 22
LearningIn the previous article you learned that FM synthesis allows the creation of harmonically rich sounds. Today we'll see what that means in terms of frequency spectrum....
Improve Your Studio on the Cheap - 9 free or inexpensive ways to make your studio better
LearningThe most direct ways to improve your studio are by upgrading the gear and adding professional acoustic treatment, but doing so requires a significant investment. If you're not ready or able to drop a…
Attack and Release in a Compressor - A guide to mixing music - Part 29
LearningIn this installment, I'll show you a way to set a compressor that helps you understand what each parameter does. This method is by no means the ultimate solution, however it ought to help you grasp t…
Frequency Modulation or FM Synthesis - Sound synthesis, sound design and audio processing - Part 21
LearningIn the fifteenth article of this series, I briefly mentioned FM while introducing the different forms of synthesis. Now, the time has finally come to discuss it, but before we do that I must first ta…
Panning to the Extremes - LCR panning can make your mixes come alive
LearningConventional mixing wisdom states that when panning elements in a mix, you’re free to utilize the entire left-to-right spectrum. With the exception of elements like kick, snare, bass and lead vocal t…
The best overdrive pedals for electric guitar - The gritty details on our five favorite overdrive pedals
LearningWith over 100 overdrive pedals listed on just one gear-shopping website, how does one choose the top five? The first order of business is to define the terms: An overdrive pedal should have enough vo…
Understanding Compressor Parameters - A guide to mixing music - Part 28
LearningNow that we've discussed the possible uses for compression, let's take a look at the way a compressor works. To do that, I'll explain to you, in a theoretical way, the different parameters commonly f…
