Elaine Sy

Review: Native Instruments Massive X

August 9, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Throughout the history of musical gears, there are times when the machines used are more important than the humans who played them. Let’s take a look at the soft synth for example. This is a relatively young instrument category and has been as influential as the hardware that preceded them.

The successor Massive X has some characteristics that have been carried through. Some of its key features include dual-wavetable oscillator soft synth and two additional phase-modulation oscillators. It also has nine slots for LFO and envelope modulation and three performers for up to eight bars of modulation.

How To Make Your Mix Sound Great on Small Speakers

August 8, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

There are times when your mix sounds great in the studio but when you listen to it on your earbuds or in your car, most of the mix is gone because there’s no bass. To avoid this from happening, all you have to do is adjust the mix using small speakers.

No matter how small your speaker system is, you need to find the right harmonic multiples so that the bass cuts through. If the bass is too thick on your studio monitors and yet it fades on your small speakers, you probably have to tweak the harmonic enhancements with your EQ.

How to sidechain in Logic Pro X

August 7, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

There’s a wide range of creative signal-processing techniques powered by sidechaining. For Logic Pro X, there are several plug-ins that support sidechaining. However, you need to know how to configure and route signals in your mix to make the most out of sidechaining.

Let’s talk about the functionality of setting up a sidechain in Logic Pro X and try some key techniques and methods used in music production. Sidechaining is a technique that developed from the days of dedicated studio hardware, wherein a device would have multiple inputs and engineers had complete flexibility with regard to how they routed a signal in the studio.

Real World Gear: Condenser & Dynamic Microphones For Live Vocals

August 6, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

There are several types of microphones that can be used for both voice and instrument applications. The most often used for vocals are the dynamics and condensers. These vocal mics should be able to deal with the “pops and plosives” and breath noises when a singer uses a hard consonant like a P or B.

Dynamic designs work by means of electromagnetism where a coil of wire is attached to the diaphragm and moves by a magnet, which then creates electricity as the sound waves push against the diaphragm. While condensers have two plates with a voltage between them. One plate is made of a very light and flexible material and acts as the diaphragm.

5 Compression Tricks You Won’t Believe Actually Work

August 5, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

How does compression works? When a signal gets louder than you want, the compressor turns it down. However, it gets complicated when we think about how fast the compressor acts and how quickly it stops acting. Surprisingly, you can do a lot with compression beyond its main functions.

You can actually use compression to increase dynamics, not simply decrease it. You simply have to set a very low threshold and a very, very slow attack. In this case, the compressor will react to the whole of the signal. In addition, you can also intentionally set the release too fast or too slow in order to relay the compression action onto the sound.

Read more about this here: https://theproaudiofiles.com/compression-tricks/