What is Mastering? Mastering is a vital part of the recording process, so much so that a substantial amount of ‘mystery’ is associated with it. We've all heard stories of high-priced mastering engineers with mystical, proprietary gear based on vacuum tubes salvaged from ancient Russian...
The Noise Gate Some of you may be aware that the primary use for a gate is to reduce noise and any unwanted signal that is present in your recordings. For example you may have a vocal take with rumble, computer noise or heavy breathing...
A further way of adding interest to effects is afforded to us by the recording process, which enables us to make use of negative time. In Reverse A further way of adding interest to effects is afforded to us by the recording process, which enables us...
Modulation We have discussed the most common modulation effects such as chorus, flanging and phasing. Now it is time to investigate other modulation effects. Ring Modulator and Frequency Shifter These two related effects are based on modulation of the signal amplitude. Both effects were popular during the...
Filtering There are many ways to access the power of filtering, but probably the easiest is to use a plug-in. Logic’s AutoFilter is a good example of Emagic’s creative approach to plug-in design. On the surface it appears to be a typical low-pass filter, not...
The Vocoder A Vocoder - name derived from voice coder, formerly also called Voder - is a speech analyser and synthesizer. A Vocoder - name derived from voice coder, formerly also called Voder - is a speech analyser and synthesizer. It was originally developed as a...
Editing Vocals Vocals, particularly the lead vocal, are the main focus point in most tracks, and not surprisingly this is the area where we spend perhaps most of our time and attention during all the stages of production. When mixing, some engineers choose to start...
Phaser Phasing was the next purely electronic effect after the wah- wah and fuzz box, and it originally set out to emulate tape phasing. In the phaser, a signal is again split onto two paths (like a chorus and flanger): one straight and the other...
Spatial Awareness Much of the contemporary applications of music technology have shifted away from the natural into, arguably, more creative and artificial-sounding recordings. You can, for instance, pan a completely dry sound to one side and pan the reverb to the other side to produce...
Natural space As you should be aware from the week one lesson on acoustics, when we experience a sound we are not only hearing it from the direct source, but also from the environment in which it is situated (reflections from walls, furnishings, outside etc)....
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