Effectively using your Mid/Side EQ: To effectively take advantage of your mid/side EQ, you are going to want to make sure you have some way to isolate the mid and side content for monitoring. Most Mid/Side (henceforth referred to as M/S since I am tired of typing that out so much) plugins will have buttons to isolate the content, but … Read More
The Advanced Beginner: Mastering Part A
Let’s be real. The vast majority of people who are artists, producers, or engineers have no idea what mastering really is, yet more often than not have their own false preconceptions. While it may be fine if you do not know what mastering is early in your musical endeavors, that is no excuse to not learn as you become more … Read More
How Much Headroom Do I Actually Have In The Box?
(This article is not discussing how audio levels impact plugins, or what happens at an output leading to a d/a converter. This article is discussing the linear behavior of audio passing between channels within our DAW.) What you’re seeing in the picture: Going Up Taking a test tone, calibrated to -18dbfs Boosting that test tone to +762db of gain above … Read More
New (To Me) Plugins I’ve Been Using That I Recommend
It’s not the tool, it’s the user. But as a blogger and content creator, I get to play with a lot of cool tools. Here’s a few of them that I highly recommend checking out. 1. The Plugins From My Walkthroughs. Obviously anything from my recent product videos, and not just because I did the product walkthrough. Boz Digital Labs’s … Read More
Task Delegation
This is part 3 of a series dedicated to workflow strategies for audio engineers, with a specific focus on engineers who have ADHD (like me). In part 1, I outline the importance of automating repetitive tasks. In part 2, I discuss ways to consolidate your toolset for maximum efficiency. In this part, we’ll discuss delegation. But before we begin, I … Read More
What Happens At The -18 “Sweet Spot”?
Common advice is to “gain stage” your tracks by calibrating them to -18. People often leave out whether they mean -18 dBFS or -18 dBVU, both of which would yield vastly different levels depending on the source material. But why choose a calibration point to begin with? Here’s Matthew Weiss from The Pro Audio Files describing the differences between VU … Read More
Task Consolidation
In this 3 part series, I discuss ADHD friendly workflow strategies for audio engineers. But why the focus on ADHD? It’s been said that those with ADHD can be excellent at spotting ways to improve efficiency. As someone who lives with ADHD, I’ve often looked for ways to reducing the mental energy necessary to complete a given task. This has … Read More
Task Automation
This post discusses workflow strategies that are very ADHD friendly, devised from my own research into managing my adult ADHD. If you don’t have ADHD, you should stick around and read anyway. It can be said that the non-linear thinking of the ADHD brain is well suited at enhancing workflow due to the structures and systems we tend to put … Read More
How To Strengthen DI’s Played With A Weak Picking Hand
For the metal engineers. There’s a lot of hate for it, and a common belief that you can’t get a ballsy metal guitar tone if rhythm guitarist is picking softly. This causes the transients to have less attack. When a rhythm guitarist picks really hard into a high gain amp, the tone has a sharper transient. This extra strong transient … Read More