Category: Audio

The process of creating music is often not an easy one. The relationship between musician, gear, and the creative process, can sometimes seem complicated, even elusive. In the end, it’s all about creating art through inspiration. But what fuels this inspiration? And why is it so difficult to re-tap the magic time and time again?

Continue reading “The Mysterious and Elusive Inspiration”

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From Novelty to Usable

Over the past two decades, virtual instruments have evolved. Originally, these instruments were designed as pseudo software versions of pianos, synthesizers, drums, horns, and other traditional instruments. At first, these virtual instruments (VIs) were stand-alone applications with high-latency and high-CPU usage, making them difficult to play and integrate into existing workflows. We could see the future, and it looked promising.  These VIs evolved into plugins that could integrate directly into our Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). And as our lowly computers became more powerful, it became possible to use multiple instances of these VI’s . . . in real-time. The future was here, and it was good.

Continue reading “When is Virtual no longer Virtual?”

Let’s establish at least one thing from the get-go; if you’ve decided to go through the trouble of producing a voiceover – the spoken message is very important to you. So the best quality possible is a given. There’s a lot that goes into creating a voiceover, including understanding your target audience’s needs, crafting the right message, hiring the right talent, and making good production decisions. For the purpose of this article, I’ll be mostly discussing recording and production.

Continue reading “Producing Voiceovers – You’re Coming in Loud and Clear”

We love overdrive, that gentle push over the line into a round and harmonically rich distortion. Some of the best sounds in recorded music have utilized it. But have you ever wondered why applying overdrive sometimes sounds glorious, and other times resembles a muddy grainy mess? The culprit might be low frequencies.

Continue reading “Overdrive – The Low-down on Low-end”

These are exciting times for those of us with project studios. The tools at our disposal are simply astonishing – powerful DAWs, virtual instruments, and just about any audio processing effect you can imagine. Not too many years ago, maintaining a collection of your dream gear required patience, a small fortune, and a large warehouse. Today, it all fits in your computer. Having access to so many of these tools allows project studios the ability control all aspects of the recording and production process, including tracking, mixing, and mastering. Today, let’s focus a bit on audio mastering.

Continue reading “The Art of Audio Mastering”