Elaine Sy

New Music Gear Monday: Kazrog True Iron Transformer Emulation Plugin

July 5, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Back in the analog console days, you automatically achieve the heft and weight in the recordings without exerting an effort. Kazrog’s True Iron was created to imitate the sound of transformers that we love in a plugin form to give us that “big iron” sound.

The plugin is very straightforward. There is a Morph button which allows you to adjust the even-order harmonics using the Strength control. True Iron is a low CPU footprint plugin by design. It is intended to be used on every track and/or buss in a mix in the signal path before other processors in order to mimic the input stage of analog equipment.

EQing Vocals: A Definitive Guide (20 Tips)

July 4, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Without a doubt, the most important part of a song is the vocals. It relates the message and communicates with the listener. Unfortunately, properly EQing vocals is often accounted for the problems recording engineers encounter. There may be times when vocals are buried under other elements, incomprehensible, or just upsetting to listen to.

Remember to always use your ears when mixing. When making major changes, stay within the context of the mix and don’t go overboard with the amount of EQ used. There are a handful of tools you can utilize to mold the sound of your lead vocals.

Read more about this here: https://sundownsessionsstudio.com/eqing-vocals/

13 Integral Drum Recording Tips

July 3, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Drums are as important as the other instruments when it comes to recording. It makes or breaks the song since it sets the foundation for all other elements. You have to keep in mind this list of tips and tricks to get quality drum tracks during recording.

First, you need to start with a great sounding kit. If the source doesn’t sound good, there is no way to improve the recorded sound. Generally, you have to listen to how the kit sounds in the room it’s being recorded in. If you don’t like how it sounds, then change something about the drums first.

Read more about this here: https://sundownsessionsstudio.com/drum-recording-tips/

Some Points Of Potential Confusion Regarding Modern Mastering Level Practices

July 2, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Nowadays people are geared towards more reasonable average levels for modern masters. This is of great importance to artists and producers who want the best quality recordings. However, even those who are proficient with Loudness Normalization are still uncertain over specifics and implementation.

For years, the overall loudness level of songs was set based on the loudest peaks in the audio. The transient peaks were reduced by so much that the music was left without much dynamic range. There is an absence of punch and musical dynamics without those strong transient impacts which is a result of drastically-reduced peak-to-average levels.

Synth Layering for a Professional Sound

July 1, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Any lack of detail, character, and depth in their synths is a usual sign of an amateur production. Therefore, how do you layer synth in order to make it sound like a professional production? Here, I’ll present to you how to do it and how to keep it from sounding muddy in creating the mix.

In layering your synths, the objective is to create a more full frequency sound as well as making it sound more complex. Layers added must fill out specific parts of the specific frequency spectrum to keep the synth from being muddy and for them to work well together and complement.