Compressing Vocals 101 Intro When you're trying to find the perfect vocal compression settings, there's one key aspect to focus on: you need to hear every word. Sure, color and character are important too, but they're not as crucial. Concentrating too much on these aspects can often distract ...

What is Serial Compression? Introduction Imagine you want to add punch to an instrument while also ensuring it remains consistent throughout the entire song. As we've discussed in previous articles, a compressor is an excellent tool to achieve both of these qualities. However, achieving ...

What Is Multiband Compression? Introduction Using a multiband compressor allows you to divide a track into different frequency ranges, known as “frequency bands,” and compress them independently. You can choose to compress only a specific part of a track’s frequency spectrum or apply ...

What is Sidechain Compression? What is sidechain compression and where should we apply it? Sidechain compression is a powerful yet often misunderstood tool available to every producer. In this article, we'll learn how to use sidechain compression effectively to make your mixes sound perfect. ...

EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker Buy onSweetwater Buy on Thomann Buy on Amazon Boost / Medium-Gain Overdrive Gives the signal extra grit and a rich boost without changing the tone Exceptionally dynamic response to the guitar's volume control True ...

What are True Peaks? Introduction You’re probably already familiar with peak meters. They’re built into every DAW, and they help you see when your mix is clipping. “Clipping” happens when your mix is too loud—the music’s volume gets pushed past its limit, and the loudest parts are chopped ...

Rupert Neve Designs MBC Dual-path A/D Converter & Limiter Buy onSweetwater Buy on Thomann Buy on Amazon 24 Bit / 192 kHz converter Analog limiter section with class A line amplifier stage up to 20 dB Controllable threshold and release Analog ...

Hercules Djcontrol Inpulse T7 Buy onSweetwater Buy on Thomann Buy on Amazon With two motorised 7" turntables When we evaluate the Hercules DJControl Inpulse T7, we're immediately struck by its combination of motorized platters and intuitive ...

What Is Noise Floor Introduction When you study audio theory, everything sounds straightforward. But once you start working in practice, things change quickly. Instead of focusing on the creative side, you often spend most of your time just fixing audio problems. As soon as you get your ...

Reverb Mixing Tricks Introduction You can instantly improve your mix by adding reverb to different elements. Mixing reverb in a variety of ways can have a huge impact on the quality of your sound. The point at which reverb overwhelms your mix is when it’s pushed too far, causing everything ...

Introduction We've already covered some basics about processing your mix bus after finishing the mixing process. Now, it's time to dive deeper into mix bus compression and offer some extra insights on the topic. There are different opinions about this step—some engineers add compression at ...

Mixing Hip Hop Vocals Introduction Over the past several decades, hip-hop has gone through many changes. Still, one thing has always stayed the same: hip-hop is all about the vocals. Sampling, drum patterns, and, especially these days, bass grooves are all crucial to hip-hop’s sound. But ...