Why Tape Plugin Shootouts Don’t Make Sense

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Commonly asked questions in audio groups regarding the use of tape emulations include: “Which tape machine plugin is best?” “Which one should I reach for on my sources?” “I keep hearing that this one is better than that one, but that one always sounds best to me and I don’t like this one. Am I missing something?” Perspective Tape machine … Read More

Why some find plugin subscriptions ANNOYING.

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There’s a lot of debate about this topic in various forums, and I honestly see both sides of the debate as clear as day. Some stick exclusively to subscription bundles, while others are annoyed at the push toward subscriptions in general. Both have pros and cons. I covered the pros in the last article. In this one, I’ll cover some … Read More

How Much Headroom Do I Actually Have In The Box?

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(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

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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

What Happens At The -18 “Sweet Spot”?

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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

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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

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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

Review: Sonible smart:EQ+

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Do we REALLY need another EQ? We have stock eq’s, free eq’s, hardware eq’s, dynamic eq’s, analog modeled eq’s, digital eq’s that can do a zillion cool things… I find it hard to get excited about another eq these days, unless there’s something truly new and unique it brings to the table. More developers should take advantage of the digital … Read More

Review: Transgressor by Boz Digital Labs

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Recently Boz Digital Labs released Transgressor, which is a transient designer that allows you to eq the transient and the sustain separately. This plugin seems like it was created with my workflow in mind, so when I got the chance to get a review copy I was stoked! Let me explain.   I tend to avoid compression for transient shaping. … Read More

Understanding Drum Sample Libraries.

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From bedroom producers, to the top brass mixing engineers with multiple grammies, there are a lot of people who use drum samples in their mixes. Joey Sturgis is famous for using Kick 10 from Steven Slate Drums in many of his productions (although now Joey Sturgis has his own sample library on the market called Drumforge), and Randy Staub used … Read More