Tag: compression

  • Mastering: Decoding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of It All

    Mastering: Decoding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of It All

    + Pursue your mixing or audio production goals with a Soundfly Mentor like Andrea! Soundfly offers four-week mentorship sessions with a pro, customized to you. Get in touch to learn more. Your music has been carefully recorded and painstakingly mixed, but there’s still one more step before it’s ready for the listening public: mastering. Mastering is the bridge…

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  • Bang for Your Buck in a Box: A Rainbow of Great Guitar Pedals Under $200

    Bang for Your Buck in a Box: A Rainbow of Great Guitar Pedals Under $200

    With the explosion of boutique guitar pedal manufacturers in recent years, there’s never been a better time to get that certain sound under your stage toes. But it’s also in the nature of specialty pedals to be, well, specialized. In addition to being less versatile, they also tend to be a bit more expensive. Here…

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  • Vinyl: How It Works (and What That Means for You)

    Vinyl: How It Works (and What That Means for You)

    Vinyl records have enjoyed an immense resurgence in popularity over the last decade. But how exactly do they work? How are two channels of full-bandwidth audio information (over 20 minutes’ worth on a typical 12-inch side) stored in a single, tiny, spiral groove on a plastic disc? The basic principles involved are actually rather simple,…

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  • Equalization 101 – Everything Musicians Need to Know About EQ

    Equalization 101 – Everything Musicians Need to Know About EQ

    Interested in learning more about audio-mixing techniques? We’re working on a new mentor-driven course featuring input from today’s leading sound engineers called Faders Up: Modern Mix Techniques. Sign up to be the first to know when it launches! Good EQ is vital to a great mix. EQ is one of the key tools for producers when mixing audio…

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  • Don’t Hit the Stage Without These Overlooked Heroes of Your Pedalboard

    Don’t Hit the Stage Without These Overlooked Heroes of Your Pedalboard

    Guitarists like to spill ink all the time about distortion boxes, classic overdrives, boutique delay pedals, and bucket-brigade modulation effects. It’s understandable why: These attention-grabbing stompboxes lead to dramatic and satisfying changes in sound. Like a great vintage amp or a top-notch guitar, it’s these larger-than-life pedals that help a player define his or her…

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  • Squeeze to Please: The Basics of Compression in Audio

    Squeeze to Please: The Basics of Compression in Audio

    The beautiful, complex, and strange historical relationship between sound recording and music has changed a lot over the past century. Composition, performance, and audio capture, once relatively discrete disciplines, are now more often treated as one big, amorphous, creative process. But even though recording and mixing tasks have been increasingly wrested away from specialists, these…

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  • Scales from the Crypt: 10 Freaky & Frightening Musical Instrument Mishaps

    Scales from the Crypt: 10 Freaky & Frightening Musical Instrument Mishaps

    It’s easy to romanticize the lives of famous musicians. From larger-than-life rock stars to groundbreaking pioneers of sound, and dazzling technical virtuosos, we look up to our musical heroes and strive to live and create the same way that they do. But no one is free from the potential disasters that lurk around every corner.…

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