Elaine Sy

Automation is one of the features that make DAWs such powerful music-making tools, with much more creative potential than basic mixer control. Automation can be added to a number of different track types: audio, MIDI, instrument, group, effect, sampler, and VCA.

Deciding when, where, and how to apply automation isn’t always easy. Also, when working with tracks that already contain automation, it becomes too easy to get muddled over which parameters are being automated. An automation curve is tied to its track and the timeline, not to the parts on the track, and this can create problems.

Read more about this here: https://www.musictech.net/tutorials/how-to-use-automation-in-cubase/

MeterPlugs has released a plug-in version of its Loudness Penalty web tool, offering a more convenient way to optimize music shared online. The plug-in, when accessed from your DAW, lets you know how much your track will be reduced by the likes of YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, Pandora and Apple’s Sound Check.

If your track is mastered at too high a level, online streaming services will reduce the playback level so the listener does not experience marked changes in loudness from track to track. This reduction is termed by MeterPlugs as a “Loudness Penalty”, and varies between streaming services.

Read more about this here: https://www.musictech.net/news/gear/avoid-the-loudness-penalty-with-meterplugs-latest-plug-in/

Irritated that the songs you’re cooking up in your home studio just aren’t sounding that good? You need to learn the art of mixing. And you don’t need an expensive studio to do it.

To make your song ready for the radio, you need to learn how to mix it. Mixing is the process of using tools like volume faders, compressors, EQs, and reverbs to make the individual tracks of a song sound balanced and emotional. In other words, mixing is the process of making your recordings sound like a song instead of a collection of raw tracks.

Read more about this here: https://www.musicianonamission.com/mixing-music/