What is automation? Nowadays young sound engineers and those wanting to start a career in sound engineering or simply those in the hobby of mixing music rely more on plug-ins rather than automation. Most of them fail to see and understand its process, how it works, and what it can do. They’re actually mixing one of the major areas of professional mixing.
In a recording certain parameters evolve through time and automation is what allows this process to happen. Today with DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstation) you can automate almost any setting, from volume to pan etc. Normally you will recognize these by graphical curves.
Read more here: http://en.audiofanzine.com/recording-mixing/editorial/articles/introduction-to-automation.html
Avoid These Useless Audio Questions
Björgvin Benediktsson of Audio-Issues discusses commonly asked questions about audio and came up with a list of useless questions we should avoid. He further discusses these as not stupid but only misguided questions.
Better gear does not equal best results, although you need to spend up to a certain amount to achieve quality equipment, it does not necessarily mean that the most expensive ones would produce better sound. It’s more about skills and not the mechanics of your gear. You can actually spend thousands of dollars for an equipment but if not combined with the proper skill and technique would still sound mediocre.
Read more here: http://www.audio-issues.com/music-mixing/useless-audio-questions/
PS4 Game Soundtrack Created With An Actual Human Skull
Known for its haunting theme Playdead creator o Limbo released yet another dark themed game for PS4 called “Inside”. Playdead collaborated with composer and sound designer Martin Stig Anderesen to create the perfect haunting experience for its players. Adersen went far enough to create this experience by using an actual human skull in recording the said soundtrack.
He used the human skull as he calls it as an “old school filter” although the initial results were actually bad Andersen used some post-processing tricks and came up with the games final track.
“Every time I start a new project I really want to find some kind of distinctive, original sound” – Andersen
Find out more here: https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/10/inside-game-soundtrack-human-skull/
MIDI Interfaces For Less Than $100
Technology has brought modern advancements to our music equipment, and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) hardware is slowly being left out of the loop. Many new audio interface units no longer offer MIDI connections. But whether we admit it or not some of us are still holding on to our MIDI keyboards or gear. So what do we do?
And while you are still saving up or waiting for a budget to upgrade all your old hardware gear to virtual instrument equivalents, here is a list of the affordable top MIDI interfaces you can still use for under $100. It’s not yet time to say goodbye to your old gear.
See the list here: http://en.audiofanzine.com/midi-interface/editorial/articles/the-best-midi-interfaces-for-less-than-100.html
Measure Loudness With These 6 Metering Tools
Most engineers today are used to approximating loudness using Root Mean Square (RMS), which a measure of average loudness using math that you probably don’t want to know about. Mastering professionals though prefer Loudness Unit (LU) metering tools. Here are the best 6 metering tools, according to MusicTech, that you can use to measure loudness. And you don’t even have to be a mastering engineer to use them:).
One of their choices is Insight by iZotope. It’s one of the most comprehensive tools available in the market today. It has a wide range of loudness meters available. The “meter tap” allows comparison of channels.
LM1n by TC Electronics is another choice. It’s the simplest of TC Electronics line of metering tools
Read more about it here: http://www.musictech.net/2016/10/loudness-meters/