Archive for tag: compression
Mono Sources in a Stereo World – Michael Franti @ RNC
July 14, 2009 Delay, Effects, Restoration, ReverbRecently I was hired to finesse a rather rough live recording of Michael Franti‘s performance at the protest concert outside the Republican National Convention in 2008. The recording was done with a pair of shotgun mics placed fairly close to each other.
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Mastering Session at Rare Form Mastering
November 3, 2008 MasteringThis post is about the mastering process for my latest EP. The session was booked at Minneapolis’ Rare Form Mastering. Greg Reierson took the helm and did a really solid job overall. First of all, I’m not the sort of producer who does mastering the same way for each album. For my own material, I [...]
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Mastering Experiment: “But They Do” with the Focusrite Liquid Mix
March 8, 2008 MasteringThis post focuses on an experiment with my new Focusrite Liquid Mix, with which I mixed and mastered a song of mine that was in need of polishing. First of all, I will be out of town until the 19th… meaning that I won’t be making any posts here at TSB until then. But, I [...]
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How to Group Tracks to Save DAW CPU
March 8, 2008 DAWs, MixingThis post focuses on how to group tracks to save CPU or DSP processing. When I first started mixing using a computer, I would throw up inserts on everything. Everything was processed independently. As you might imagine, my mixes were insanely CPU intensive and hard to manage. Soon I realized that many of the tracks [...]
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How to Use Analog Tape as an Effect
March 3, 2008 Tape Machines, Tape SaturationThis post focuses on the use of analog tape’s warm, unique compression as an effect. When engineers and producers started to make the switch from analog to digital, they found that digital was not only cleaner sound, but it was also somewhat unforgiving. Most producers were quite fond of ‘driving’ the tape a bit by [...]
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Vocals: Finding the Golden Signal Path
March 1, 2008 UncategorizedThis post focuses on the process of getting the vocal chain right for the given performer. The signal chain for vocals is probably one of the most important production choices in pop music. Of course, it helps to have a healthy selection of devices to choose from. Every voice has unique qualities, some of which [...]
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Blending in DI for Clarity
February 29, 2008 DIsThis post focuses on the topic of using direct injection/input to bring clarity to traditionally recorded tracks. When you were first starting out in the world of audio, you probably tried something along the lines of plugging a guitar or bass directly into your audio interface or mixer. I know I did this and [...]
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Tracking a Band in a Single Room…
February 16, 2008 TrackingThis post focuses on the classic challenge of how to record a band in a single room and not have it sound completely awful. Lots of us have small production studios and tons of bands have single room practice spaces. Inevitably the question arises: “How can I record the band live in a single room [...]
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Thump and Bump: Balancing the Kick and the Bass
January 9, 2008 UncategorizedThis post is going to focus on getting a solid balance between the two main sources of bass in pop music: the bass and the kick drum. Few things are better than mix that gets the low end right. It can be really tricky to accomplish (or downright impossible if the environment isn’t right). But, [...]
Read More »Audio Data Compression: Myths and Controversy Part 2 (Lossless)
December 10, 2007 UncategorizedThis post is part 2 of 2 on audio data compression. The first part focused on lossy compression whereby audio quality is decreased and quite a bit of size is reduced. This post will focus on lossless compression whereby quality is retained and some size is reduced. As I mentioned in the previous post, there [...]
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