Let’s talk about stem mastering, its benefits, and drawbacks, as well as knowing when it is more appropriate than the conventional mastering practices. Back in the day, mastering was the process of transferring a recording from analog tape to a master disc, which was then used for duplication and distribution.
Rather than sending a stereo bounce to work with, a client could alternately deliver “stems” which the mastering engineer can use to create the final master. However, with the level of control, and inability to make a true commitment to a final mix, some may technically argue that stem mastering is “still mixing”.
Read more about this here: https://theproaudiofiles.com/stem-mastering/
3 Techniques For Miking Hand Claps
Sometimes you need to record a clap for a project but there’s a bit of difficulty in doing so. Claps are best done in a group which means the more clappers the better.
There are a lot of things to consider when recording a clap. One of which is using a fairly live room, back the mike away from the clappers, and use a compressor that has variable attack and release times. Another is spacing the clappers a couple of feet apart distance-wise from the mic. The ones nearest the mic must clap more on top of the beat and those farther away clap more laid back.
Read more about this here: https://bobbyowsinskiblog.com/2019/08/07/miking-hand-claps/
6 Awesome De-Esser Plugins (+ Mix Tips)
The human voice is a complex instrument. The sound of the voice is composed of several components. Some may be generated in the lungs and chest cavity, others a result of the resonance of the larynx, or something that occur higher up in the anatomy such as lips and tongue.
Esses can be generated by a human voice when the tongue is placed on the upper palate, directly behind the top teeth. Different voices have different tendencies, and combining a vocalist who generates an abundance of high frequencies with a microphone that was designed with an emphasis on capturing these same frequencies can result in a displeasing sound.
Read more about this here: https://theproaudiofiles.com/de-esser-plugins/
Why Do My Mixes Sound Bad? 8 Tips to Douse the Flames
How many times have you experienced when nothing good comes out of your system after you created a mix? You check your monitors, your headphones, your ears and yet it still sounds terrible. So here’s a list of ways to overcome that moment.
First and foremost, make sure your gear isn’t faulty. Power issues could also affect the sonic quality of your rig. Next, make sure nothing has changed in the physical space. The size and contents of the room have a huge effect on what you hear coming out of the speakers. Thus, if things sound off, it’s possible something in the room is significantly out of place.
Read more about this here: https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope/en/learn/why-do-my-mixes-sound-bad-8-tips-to-douse-the-flames.html
What is Dithering in Audio & What Does it Do? (An Easy Explanation!)
We can never blast out the highest quality versions of audio, video, or images because it is unnecessary and it’s too much data for normal consumer equipment to process live. Hence, data produced must be simpler and take up less bandwidth. However, when we down-convert, we lose details as well as introduce errors. Dithering is a process to smooth out those errors.
Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error. The errors we get when converting our recordings to lower quality bit rates causes the waveform to shiver, and the algorithms used to do the conversion can be indecisive.
Read more about this here: https://ledgernote.com/columns/mixing-mastering/dithering/