Parallel compression is a great production technique that can add greater detail and excitement to a track. Parallel Compression, also known as New York style compression, is an audio dynamic range compression technique where one blends an unprocessed “dry” signal with a heavily compressed version of the same signal. The resulting effect is a loud…
Sidechain compression has become essential to electronic music, and many other genres. But what is sidechain compression, and how do you use it? Sidechaining is a production technique where one sound is affected or triggered by the output of a different sound. In other words, using one audio source (e.g. kick drum) to trigger a…
Without a solid low end, a song has no energy, which is why getting the bass correct is one of the most important parts of mixing. And a huge factor in whether or not your bass sounds great, or terrible, is how you handle bass compression. Use serial compression for a more natural bass sound….
Enter your text here… Why Does Analog Gear Sound Good? Saturation: distortion and compression adds warmth Subtle compression removing dynamics, but also adding new sounds with distortion Makes things sound thicker and more natural Analog recordings have less dyamaic range, but also more highs and lows, so they’re easier to mix You can emulate this…
Bright vocals that cut through a mix are a hallmark of professional-sounding vocals. But just how do you get brighter vocals? It’s not as simple as just boosting the high frequencies as then you run into problems of harshness. Get brighter vocals by cutting lower frequencies, and boosting only one key high frequency range. Additionally,…
Compression is a staple of modern music, and is one of the most widely used effects among musicians and engineers. But what exactly is compression, and how do you use it in your music? Compression is a process that reduces the volume of loud sounds and/or amplifies the quiet sounds, thus reducing the dynamic range…
Do you have a cheap microphone and you’re wondering if it’s possible to get professional-sounding recordings from it? Or, hey, maybe you just want it sound better than what it’s currently been able to produce. Well look no further because not only will I share with you why you don’t need a super expensive microphone…
Ever recorded an amazing vocal performance only to realize in horror that the audio sound distorted? It’s frustrating. What you experienced is audio clipping, but the good news is it’s pretty easy to avoid: You can avoid audio clipping with proper gain staging and mic placement. Record vocals at an average of -18dB, don’t sing directly into…
If you’ve been recording or mixing for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly run across the term “gain”, but what exactly is “gain”? Isn’t is just the same thing as volume, but audio engineers just want to feel snobbish so they created the weird word “gain”? Not quite. While in our digital age gain can…