#EQ studios

[bangpuddingmuffin]

The Painscreek Killings

I had a good time with the Painscreek Killings. The mystery unfurled itself in a satisfying way, and it managed to land a surprising number of emotional beats. The ending felt a bit absurd, and it really could have used fast travel or at least a faster sprint (I was holding down the sprint key the entire game). Those in and of itself weren't enough to bring down the game significantly. Worth playing (although probably not if you've watched this playthrough).

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMOeTsMoezKbrHLE5ziDfMrwjClT65ygd

[zhongrin]

dick owners who are bodily able and living in an enviromentally capable conditions to flush toilets in a shared bathroom but don't,

fuck you 🖕🏻

[sunburnacoustic]

A DIP IN THE MUSE KITCHEN SINK

A wonderfully in-depth interview from 2013 with Muse producers/engineers Adrian Bushby and Tomasso Colliva, who worked on The 2nd Law. The interview goes into the recording of every part of the album, vocals and instruments, and as someone who has been teching bands for live radio sessions, you bet I'm reading every word of it :). Source.

"Tomasso Colliva, Adrian Bushby and Muse at East West Studios in LA. Photo by Tom Kirk"

Muse is arguably the ultimate 21st century kitchen-sink act. Adjectives like “overblown,” “over the top,” “ridiculous,” and “pompous” are regularly used in describing the band’s music, and the British trio’s master stroke is that they have turned these normally damning qualifications into badges of honour. Muse’s many fans adore the band’s bombastic intensity, the classical influences, the juxtaposition of heavily-distorted-in-your-face-over-compressed-monolithic rock with orchestras, choirs, diminished chords, key changes, and many other divergent ingredients, taking things to the limit and, well, far beyond. It makes the band’s music a love-it-or-hate it affair, but with their six studio albums selling 15 million copies to date the trio doesn’t have to worry about the nay-sayers.

Late last year saw the release of The 2nd Law, Muse’s sixth studio album and the follow-up to the commercially very successful The Resistance (2009). While the download era has seen Muse’s album sales are gradually declining, in line with those of any other act with any kind of longevity, in terms of chart figures the new album did almost as well as The Resistance, reaching to #1 in the UK and NZ, and #2 in the US and Oz. The band has gone on record saying that they were “drawing a line under a certain period” would do “something radically different” on the new album, and quoted influences of dubstep and electronic music as inspirations for a new direction. The 2nd Law does have some different touches in that it sounds more electronic than previous Muse albums and there are indeed some dub-step elements thrown in on a couple of songs, plus in other places the rather un-Muse sound of an R&B brass section. But overall it’s very recognisably Muse, as ever alternating moments of spine-tingling beauty with the more mundane, and overall admirably succeeding in obliterating the divide between the sublime and the ridiculous.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the kitchen-sink approach isn’t only a central pillar of Muse’s music, it’s also at the heart of their approach to recording it. Almost all their albums have been big budget productions recorded in ways that are reminiscent of the good/bad old days of the 80s and 90s, when spending months if not years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on recording an album was the norm rather than the exception. Apart from the band’s low-budget debut album Showbiz (1999) and The Resistance, which was recorded over a period of a year at guitarist/pianist/singer and main song writer Matt Bellamy’s own studio near Lake Como in Italy, their other albums were made over a prolonged period of time in a range of top quality studios located in different countries. The 2nd Law is a return to this way of working, as it was recorded from November 2011 to May 2011, mostly at Air Studios in London, with a couple of months in Los Angeles to record at East West, Capitol, and Shangri-La, and two string sessions in Milan at Officine Meccaniche (for the tracks “Explorers” and “Prelude”).

At the controls for The 2nd Law were Adrian Bushby and Tommaso Colliva, hailing from the UK and Italy respectively. Bushby also engineered The Resistance, with help from Colliva, and their accounts of the goings-on during the making of The 2nd Law are surprising in several respects, not least the fact that Muse turned Air studio 1 for a whopping six weeks into what surely must have been the world’s most expensive rehearsal space from mid-September to November 2011, and they then continued the recording process as described above. And that was before three of the world’s top mixers, Chris Lord-Alge, ‘Spike’ Stent, and Rich Costey, were brought into action. If the Muse guys are worried about declining album sales and how they’ll continue to generate revenue, their working methods don’t show it. There were other elements of excess, for example recording the drums with a PA system, the hundreds of tracks that were recorded for each session, the wealth of additional musicians and singers that were recorded, and so on. This was, undoubtedly, a Muse project…

On the phone from Milan, Colliva took the story from the top. After Muse, he’s probably the person with the deepest insights into the band’s working methods, because he’s worked with them since 2005, when he helped out with the recordings of Black Holes and Revelations (2006). In addition to working on every Muse album since, he also played a central role in building Bellamy’s Lake Como studio, did the pre-production for the The Resistance tour and also is the band’s live Pro Tools engineer. “I used to be chief engineer at Officine Meccaniche,” added Colliva, “which is Milan’s largest recording studio and one of Italy’s top facilities. Muse came to record there at the end of 2005, and because I was the only person who spoke English I was asked to assist them. I ended up recording a bunch of things. Because Matthew had an Italian girlfriend at the time, he bought a house in Italy, near Lake Como, and I helped him turn the rehearsal space in his villa into a fully-fledged studio, with an SSL 4048 G+ series desk and tons of outboard, where we recorded The Resistance.”

Bellamy and his Italian girlfriend split up towards the end of 2009 and the Briton moved back to the UK. “For the new album the band wanted to record in London,” elaborated Colliva. “Like with The Resistance, they wanted to do pre-production using Pro Tools. They had done this at Matthew’s Lake Como studio for that album, but for the new album they asked me to set up everything they needed at Air. This took me three or four days. They wanted a big set-up, with quite a few microphones, and all signal paths and Pro Tools sessions ready to go. They like to be left alone during this phase, which meant that I set Pro Tools up so that all they had to do was open up a template that gave them access to every instrument at the touch of a button. They didn’t have to think about the technical side of things, and this allowed them to sketch out ideas and arrangements very quickly, and if they stumbled on new ideas these were also captured. There was an assistant if they needed some support, and other than that I was always on call via telephone. Every two weeks I’d go to London to check that everything worked and that the recordings were OK. In November Adrian and I then joined them in the studio to record everything properly.”

"Tommaso Colliva in Brooklyn Recordings Studios NYC. Phot by Francesco Balatti"

The working method described by Colliva sounds sensible enough… until that last sentence. Two things jar: first of all, why spend two months recording what essentially are demos in one of the most expensive studios in the world? Air wouldn’t say, but comparing it with the world’s other top facilities, Air Studio 1, with its 72 Channel custom Neve/Focusrite desk (it has 56 Neve 31106 and 16 Focusrite ISA110 channels) is likely to cost north of A$1000 per day. Spending A$40.000 (or whatever deal the studio offered) on six weeks rehearsal space, however deluxe, really is a throwback to the excess-all-areas eighties and nineties and not very 21st century at all. Moreover, aren’t demos a thing of the past? Isn’t the whole point of the DAW that anyone can record master-quality material anywhere, and going into a commercial studio is purely a matter of using these studios’ specific qualities (acoustics, monitoring, outboard)?

Colliva was almost able to hear the rising eyebrows on the other end of the telephone, and explained, “The band wanted to be able to do things in a very modern way, including the abilities to edit things and try different arrangement in Pro Tools. But they wanted to be able to do this without anyone around. If Adrian and I had been there, it would have been more expensive, and also, the days would have been standard production days during which they’d have felt obliged to go to the studio for at least eight hours a day. Instead they could go to the studio whenever they wanted, whether just for two hours or longer. It gave them a lot of freedom. It’s true that with the mics and signal paths that I had set up it would be possible to track any band and get top quality results, but when we switched to the actual recording process in November, with Adrian and I there, we did really step up things. We changed the miking of the drum kit, we put up many more room mics, we used different guitar and bass amplifiers, and we used a PA kit to enhance the drum sound. In September and October the band was busy writing sketching out arrangements, and in November it was a matter of: ‘OK we now know what the songs are, now let’s get the exact sounds we’re after.”

“Yes, we did replace almost everything they had recorded during the rehearsal phase, apart from some of the soft synth sounds, because Matthew had lived with them for months, and it would have been hard to abandon them. The main three soft synths they used were Pro Tools’ Vacuum, Native Instruments’ Massive, Rob Papen’s Predator, and we also had a separate computer dedicated to samples from VSL and East West. Many of the drum samples came from Battery, and East West’s Stormdrums and RockDrums, with the last one only for demoing. With regards to using the PA system to augment the drum sound, it’s something that I had done when working with Afterhours, one of Italy’s leading alternative rock bands, and when Matthew asked me for ideas, I suggested it to him. The set-up consisted of Roland triggers on the drum kit connected to a Roland TMC 6 trigger to midi converter, that fed a MacBook running Native Instruments’ Battery, with our own sounds in it. We ran these through the PA, and recorded them via the drum kit microphones together with the live kit.”

During the seven months of tracking, Bushby and Colliva had a fairly well-defined role division, with Bushby mainly responsible for the actual recording, ie mic choices and placements and signal paths, and the Italian manning the Pro Tools rig. “I was in fact doing two things,” adds Colliva, “one was handling everything that was digital, meaning Pro Tools, samples, synths and so on, and the other thing was coordinating everything else that related to the logistics side of production, meaning moving instruments around, making sure everything that the band needed was there, and so on. That was a lot of work when we were in LA, because we didn’t have the same degree of support from Muse’s management and the bands touring crew was faraway.”

Colliva’s logistic contributions were one reason for his additional production credit, which was also given the Bushby. The Briton added, “I think we received the additional production credits because recording The 2nd Law was more a group effort than The Resistance had been. We were five in a room, and when decisions had to be made, everybody put in their opinions.” Bushby is a London-based engineer, mixer and producer, who has worked with My Bloody Valentine, New Order, U2, Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins, Dashboard Confessional, Depeche Mode, and the Foo Fighters, and who has won two Grammy Awards, one for his engineering work on The Resistance and one for recording the Foo Fighters’ Echoes, Silence, Patience, Grace. He has a formidable reputation for his awareness of sound, and he reckons that Muse involved him “for the sonic point of view.”

From his state of the art studio in North London (see sidebar), Adrian Bushby gives his side of the story of the goings-on during the making of The 2nd Law, first of all clarifying that, for him at least, the seven-month production period for the album, November 2011 – late May 2012, wasn’t a nose-to-the-grindstone, 16-hours a day, 7/7 affair. “It was always a matter of work for two or three weeks and then I had a few weeks off. Having breaks like that meant that we didn’t get too tired. The approach was a bit different than with The Resistance, because when I arrived in Italy for work on recording that album they had three songs ready to go and the rest was very sketchy. But when I turned up at Air, there was a whole wall with write-ups and details of tracks that were ready to be recorded. In either case Matt always knows what’s going on, which is incredible, considering the complexity of their music. He always knows what has been done and what still has to be done, and where he is going.”

“When they were rehearsing and doing preproduction, they pretty much record the songs as a band, with everything miked up as if they were tracking for real. When we were recording them they regularly played as a three-piece but they also did many individual overdubs. We used the recordings they’d done during preproduction as a template. Sometimes we used the guitars and pianos that Matt had recorded for the demos as backdrops for Chris [Wolstenholme, bass] and Dom [Dominic Howard, drums] to play to. We made sure that everything was well separated, so we could overdub without spill. Chris’s and Matt’s amps were in different booths and rooms, so everything was very isolated. Also, the band works with in-ear monitors, which meant that we didn’t have any problems with things blaring from monitors. They control their own headphone mix with a 16-channel mix system by Aviom. They also use that live, and they’re really happy with it, which made my job a lot easier!”

According to Bushby, on his and Colliva’s arrival in November 2011, one of the first things they did was adjust the recording space, “The live room has a glass dividing wall, and during preproduction they had closed it and placed the drums behind it so the drums didn’t sound too loud in the room. But for some reason the drums sounded really uncontrolled with that partition closed, I think because there’s so much glass. It sounded really big and trashy with no focus on the cymbals. So we opened the doors and turned it into one big room, which sounded much better. It gave the extra close microphones on the kit a lot more focus. In general we carried on from where they had left off during preproduction, trying out new set-ups with different amps, and putting up additional microphones for a more in-depth sound. We first concentrated on getting the drums and bass tracks up and running, experimenting with many different sounds in the process.”

RECORDING DRUMS

Adrian Bushby: “Whilst the band had been demo-ing, Dom had treated many of the drum tracks with plugin EQs, going for very bright and attacky sounds. I decided to go along with that vibe for the drums. But instead of trying to record the drums very flat and natural and then EQ everything afterwards to get the sound they were after, I tried to get the sounds they wanted as they went down. I recorded the drums with a whole range of microphones, generally the same as most people use, but I did try various different ones. I always tried to have something interesting and different and set up lots of different mics in different places and gave them different treatments. Sometimes I used them all, sometimes only a few. I had some AKG D90’s floating around that worked really well, a Russian Lomo mic, which is one of mine, as well as an SM57 and an AKG414 on the floor behind the kit. There also was a Sennheiser, I can’t remember the model number, but it looks like a bullet mic, and it sounded great when put through an amp, just pulling it back from distorting. The drums for the track ‘Unsustainable’ in particular were recorded with many unusual microphones.”

“For more regular sounds I generally had a couple of mics on the kick, one of them the Shure SM91, as well as a 47 slightly outside the kick and an NS10 sub. The snare mics were an SM57 on top and an AKG414 underneath, and I also had a contact mic on the floor. I recorded the toms with 421’s on top and Neumann FET47’s underneath and I had AKG 451’s for the overheads, which I hadn’t used for a long time, but they gave the cymbals in that big room at Air some more focus. There also were a couple of Sennheiser MKH40 mics for closer room sounds and Schoeps from the orchestral set-up at Air for ambience, stuck as far and high back in the room as possible. Like on the previous record we had a piano in the room, and I used the piano mics for additional drum ambience. It’s something that I discovered by accident and it works really well. Because of the resonance of the piano you get some unusual ambience that you don’t get from normal drum ambience mics.”

“Regarding the signal paths, generally speaking everything went through the Neve 31106 mic pres in the Air desk, with some Neve EQ and Pultec EQ on the bass drum and the snare drum groups. I don’t like to compress the bass drum too much when recording, and the snare drum had some compression from a Distressor, but again nothing drastic. Most of the compression was on the room mics. I love compression on room mics, and we initially went for quite a compressed drum sound, but when we switched the PA on it obviously squashed everything down, so we tried to keep the room mics more open this time round. There were just a few close drum mics that were treated with some extra compression, while the room mics generally remained quite open.”

“The PA system was in the room behind Dom and pumped out quite synthetic, dancey sounds, really loud, while he was playing. I’d never done that before. The PA shifted a lot more air than just the acoustic kit, so we got this huge pumping sound in the room, which was very effective. The point of using the PA was to create a more dancey sound for the live kit, because they wanted to incorporate this dubstep thing. I miked up the kit as usual and obviously the room mics were going to pick up most of the PA. The close mics also picked something up, and altogether this added up to a bigger, very interesting sound. We occasionally put live bass and snare drum sounds through the PA, but mostly they were the synthesized sounds from Battery. We also recorded these Battery sounds dry, but generally speaking only used the sounds that had gone through the PA and that were picked up by the drum and room mics.”

RECORDING BASS

Colliva: “Both Matt and Chris are very fond of their live sound, but I always feel that their live setups include pieces that are not really needed in the studio, so the challenge was for them to have the same functionality in the studio, but with shorter signal chains and better sound quality. I had a Radial JD7 Injector splitter, and we would have three chains for the bass, one clean channel via his Markbass amplifiers [MoMark and SD1200], and two distorted channels, one with distortion coming from some kind of Big Muff or Animato pedal sound and the other channel would have a more fuzz-like sound coming from fuzz pedals by ZVex, like the Mastotron or Woolly Mammoth. There would also have been a fourth chain with a hot DI if we wanted an aggressive sound. Chris may also have used pedals, which we automated if they were midi controllable. We’d do a take with Chris playing via a wah-wah pedal and getting it roughly the way he wanted it to sound, and we then sent the DI through a pedal that we automated to make the wah-wah sharper and faster than a human could play it. We did similar things with Matt’s guitar.”

Bushby: “Chris’s sound is incredible. He knows how to get his sounds, and that makes it much easier when you are recording him. The Markbass set-up covered the clean sounds, I think we had two different heads and cabs on which I had an AKG D19 and an RE20 plus an NS10 sub, and they all came into the Neve desk with an 1176 on the clean bass group. The more distorted bass sound was played via two vintage eighties Marshall DBS heads going into two different cabs, placed in the back of the room, and on them I had a Shure SM7 and another RE20, panned left and right, and a couple of Neve compressors just touching things. When you have that much distortion on the track, you don’t really need compression. I didn’t want to squash the life out of the sound. Depending on the track we would sometimes changes pedals and triggered different effects from the computer. We generally speaking didn’t use the DI.”

RECORDING GUITARS

Bushby: “Matt used Diesel V4, AC30, Marshall 1959HW and HiWatt 100 amplifiers and Mills 4×12 cabinets and a Roland JC120 and a couple of Fender combos as well, like a Fender Twin. I’d normally have two mics on the speakers, like a Shure SM57, a 421, a Neumann FET, a Royer 121 (Matt really likes the sound of that), an AKG 414, or an AEA ribbon. The latter works really well because it can handle quite a lot of level. Generally every amp would have a Shure 57 and whatever went with it to taste. We also had a couple of Neumann 87 room mics, which usually picked up the 4×12’s, because they were in the big room, while other amps were screened away or in other rooms. I tended to use the desk Neve mic pres, and then a Pultec or AER EQ across the group, adding a bit more treble and bass overall. I EQ-ed the individual mics as well as the overall summed sound.”

KEYBOARDS

Bushby: “There were many keyboards in this album, with most of them soft synths. They went sort of Native Instrument crazy during the recordings. These generally speaking remained in the box, so for me the keyboards were mainly a question of miking up the piano and the Fender Rhodes. We went for the same set-up as with the previous record, with a couple of DPA mics for the nice classical sound on the piano, and also a couple of Telefunken Elam 251’s, and then I’ll generally add a couple of dynamic mics to do something unusual. These would be an SM58 in the sound hole on the sound board and this time round I also used AKG D19’s. Obviously the sound of the dynamic mics would be different than the lush, open classical sound, and I’d EQ and compress the dynamic mic sound for it to be more interesting, and pan the mics wide. When you balance them with the posh sound you can add some nice extra character. The EQ was mostly done on the desk, and any compression would have been whatever was lying around. I can’t tell you exactly how I did everything, because I just experiment until it sounds right. There is no formula. The Fender Rhodes was recorded with a couple of Neumann 67 microphones.”

STRINGS, BRASS, AND CHOIR

Bushby: “I don’t know why we went to LA, but it probably had to do with the fact that David Campbell, who did the string arrangements with Matt, is based there. I’d never done any classical recording work in LA and it was an interesting experience. The Americans were incredibly efficient, quick and focused. They’d look at a score, play it through once, and you couldn’t fault what they had done. Sometimes you did a second take, just to make sure there were no errors, and that was it. The first sessions in LA took place at Shangri-La, where Matt did guitar and Fender Rhodes overdubs, while the strings and brass were recorded in February at EastWest Studio One, which has an 80-channel Neve 8078 Console. We recorded the choir in a separate session at Capitol Studios.”

“I used Neumann 67’s above each section of the choir, and we also had this sort of Decca tree thing, with a 3-microphone set-up, and a stereo pair as well. The brass was recorded with Neumann 87’s as close mics and Telefunken Elam 251’s a bit further away for a more classical sound. I left the recording of the strings to the assistants at EastWest, because they do strings in that room day in and out and in my experience it’s generally best to go with their know-how. They used valve Neumann 47’s on the cellos and basses and Elam 251’s on the violas and violins. There was also a Decca tree and a couple of room ambience mics, but I can’t recall what they were. There was a Neve desk at EastWest, but I don’t recall the desk number anymore either. I’m too old to keep up with all the numbers. If it works, it works!”

VOCALS

“Chris recorded all his vocals at his house with the help of Paul Reeve, and Matt recorded his own vocals. You just set Matt up with some gear in another studio, and he gets on with it. It’s amazing what he does. Generally I set up a Neumann 67, a FET47, and a BeyerDynamic M88 and they went into a Neve-1176-Distressor chain and there also was an RCA ribbon mic, which went into a Mercury M72 Telefunken clone. Matt owns it, and it has a nice, warm valve sound, just like the original Telefunken. We set up these four mics with four stands and four different input chains, and he tried them out and chose which he wanted to use. He knows exactly what he wants. He’d say, ‘I’m going to do some vocals now,’ and you wouldn’t see him for the entire day, and then he’d come out with his vocals done, comped and everything.”

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Muse’s predilection for excess had a predictable effect on the size of the sessions. “Most of the sessions for this album were immense, off the scale,” remarked Bushby. “This meant that we regularly had to bounce things because we were running out of tracks and outputs. We did all the bouncing in the computer, so that the faders on the monitor side of the desk always remained at zero. We were always mixing what we had during the sessions, and this was a matter of whoever was closest to Pro Tools bouncing and balancing what was necessary. If I had just recorded four tracks of a guitar part recorded with four mics, I’d just grab them and balance them. Maybe they got tweaked later on, but the main thing for us was that we were always working to a mix, so we know whether what we have is working, and whether what we’re adding fits. I wasn’t involved in the process of selecting the guys who mixed the album, CLA, Spike and Rich. They obviously each have a different slant on things and the band wanted to use that. It’s a taste thing, and I don’t get involved. The band knows what they’re doing, and nobody needs to babysit them to make sure they’re not doing something crazy.”

There are skeptics who would dispute that. But millions will gladly second Bushby’s statement.

[fyeahcindie]

This is quite beautiful! 3 tracks recorded live at Morisound Studio by 問題總部 It's Your Fault =D

The songs are: 日落時間 platform at dusk, nowhere train, 錯覺 not home. Tracks 3, 4, 5 from the new 6-track album, 《我在這裡》 moment: now (LIVE SESSION) Lyrics: 丁佳慧 Hana Lin Composer: 丁佳慧 Hana Lin / 問題總部 It's Your Fault Music Arranger: 問題總部 It's Your Fault Vocal: 丁佳慧 imtyping._ (Hana Lin) Electric Guitars: 蕭瑋德 Wade Hsiao / 黃子恩 John Huang (also in MoonD'shake) Acoustic Guitar: 蕭瑋德 Wade Hsiao (also in 厭世少年 Angry Youth) Electric Bass: 陳建安 Jason Chen-bass (also in 烏流 Kuroshio) Drums: 林子祈 Benny Lin-drums (also in 烏流 Kuroshio) Piano / Rhodes / Synthesizer: 吳昱陞 Sam Wu Backing Vocal Arrangement: 丁佳慧 Hana Lin Backing Vocals: 羅莎莎 Sabrina Lo / 高真 TRU / EQ Zhu

Links: StreetVoice,  YouTube,  Instagram,  Spotify,  Bandcamp, Hana Lin's imtyping._ Instagram. 

Full a/v credits at YT.

[blazehedgehog]

As someone who has tinkered around with youtube video stuff on a very amateur level, I would absolutely love to hear some details on what you do to your audio to neutralize sibilants. I've tried many things to clean up my audio — and I'll flatter myself to say that I believe I've largely succeeded — but those S sounds stubbornly stay stable.

I would say it's nothing special, but it's also something I have dialed in slowly over the course of the last ten years. I go back and listen to some of my earlier videos and they sound absolutely dreadful, and 80% of the time that's down to the EQ work on my voice.

And not to throw shade or anything, but I even listen to guys like Super Eyepatch Wolf and think "jeeze, dude, turn down your EQ knobs a little." Dude seems to crank the bass and the treble as high as they'll go.

For that reason, I've tried to keep my process simple. So here's the current version of the plugin chain I use in FL Studio:

First, I run it through something called the "Soundgoodizer", which is a general collection of EQ presents you can turn up and down. I leave it fairly low as to not overpower the audio (which would give me the Eyepatch Wolf effect). Mostly this fills out the bass and balances the audio a little.

In the EQ bar there in the middle, I also drop out the highest frequencies. Just completely zero them out. This is the biggest component of the sibilants. It greatly reduces the sharp sounds that come with the S and C words.

That's FX channel 1, which then feeds in to the main FX channel, where the rest of my plugins are. So everything I just said was step 1, and now these are step 2:

First up is a Multiband Compressor. These are a lot of scary knobs but I just use the "Mastering 2.4db" preset. This also levels the audio to make sure nothing is too loud or too quiet. It also does some of its own EQ work, but mostly its to make sure everything stays in balance.

Next I run it through a Low Pass filter at 16000hz (again, another preset). Dropping out the high frequencies in FX Channel 1 does a lot of legwork in cutting down the sharp sounds and this finishes the job. However, if you look at the full size image, the mixing knob for this one isn't at 100%. That's because at 100% mix, I find it makes my audio feel a little muffled, since I'm basically doing a low pass (FX1) on top of a low pass. Turning the mix down to 75% helps retain some clarity while making sure you aren't being stabbed in the ears.

The Parametric EQ plugin is the only plugin where I'm not just using a preset. The EQ profile you see on the left is something I looked up on a guide somewhere once years ago for how to attain the so-called "radio voice" EQ ratio. I've modified it a bit here to be less aggressive than the guide showed, because I'm looking for a light touch, since over-EQing your audio is easy to do.

Down at the bottom is a Fruity Limiter plugin, which is always there every time you start a fresh project in FL Studio. It's kind of just another kind of compressor, and I never think about it or look at it or mess with it. I don't actually know what it even does to the audio. Like I said, it's just there on every fresh project by default. It might not be doing anything at all.

After all of that, this is the end result:

Not dramatically different, and some would even say the raw audio from the microphone is good enough, but again, it's all about having a light touch on the enhancements while catching and limiting the problems. You'll notice that on the sibilants (the S sounds), they still exist, but they're a lot less sharp.

(Bottom is before EQ, top is after)

If worst comes to worst and there's something I just can't get rid of, Vegas also has an audio plugin called "Multiband Dynamics" that has a de-esser setting, but I find that can sometimes make my audio sound a little strange, so I use it as a last resort.

I don't know if any of this means anything to anyone but me, but maybe it did! And I hope it helps.

[musiciantoolbox]

3 Rules of #EQ

[guitarbomb]

Universal Audio LUNA Pro DAW Deal 50% off - Only $199

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[waydetheblade]

Listen/purchase: She's On It by THE SANTAIRS 432

[oldschoolfrp]

Keith Parkinson's oil painting for the cover of the original Everquest took 2 months to complete and drew from his experience creating D&D covers for TSR (Sony Online Entertainment, 1999). Parkinson continued to provide cover art for the EQ expansions until his untimely death in 2005 at age 47, after which his studio mate Larry Elmore illustrated the series in his similar style.

[eclairsnme]

♡ POV: Being The Itoshi Brother’s Elder Sister ♡

Part 1 / Part 2

The brattiness continues (with a sprinkle of denseness)

tags: idol!you, crack comedy, reunion, familial love, sfw, somewhat of a brat (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)

notes: she thinks highly of herself, it’s almost as if she’s the reincarnation of Gojo Satoru.

oh, spoiler alert she's going to meet someone who also thinks very highly of himself. ^_−☆chu~

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔʕ⁎̯͡⁎ʔ༄ʕ⁎̯͡⁎ʔ༄

“Sae!”

The clacking of your high heels echoed throughout the airport as you chase your damn little brother.

What a sight out of a bad Netflix series, except it’s real life. But this is more like a horror movie for a celebrity like you. In your pristine clothes and all, chasing like a wild animal!

“Sae!” You huffed, trying to catch up with him.

Damn, that soccer player with his long legs.

What is a celebrity like me ME chasing a mere man down like that! -

That is exactly what your manager thought too, as he tries to keep up with you.

So, how did you exactly come to this point of peak desperation?

It all started last night when Sae relayed to you that he’s going back to Spain straight after the Japan U-20 match.

In all honesty, you didn’t really care all that much since an idol like you had better things to do (^-^)v.

Then it struck you. As a good sister… I should stop him!

Unlucky for you, being oblivious to all else except idol-related issues is your biggest flaw.

To put it simply, you were pretty dumb when it comes to relationships.

And that was the start of your plan to “stop” Sae from returning to Spain.

Lucky for you, Sae was smart. He halted his steps and said, “Sister, are you stupid?”

But his EQ wasn’t all that great.

“S-stupid?” You stuttered out at his bluntness.

“Yes.”

Sae looked around their surroundings noting that they had already caught the attention of some prying eyes.

Sigh

Sae continued, “Just go back home.”

“But,” you gave him your best puppy eyes. V✪ω✪V

But, indeed, he was unaffected by your usual antics.

“What business do you even have in Spain?”

“Well~ the business of being a good sister!”

A tangible silence ensues from the absurdity.

“Idiot.”

“Sae, is this how you see your sister? As an idiot, uncaring sister?” You asked him squarely still trying to put on your Oscar-worthy acting skills.

Alas, Sae did not respond to you but instead said, “I’ll let you know when I reach Spain.”

Sae entered his departure terminal leaving his pouty older sister.

Sighing, he looked back and gave you a little wave, after seeing you smile, he walked further in until you couldn’t see him.

Besides the two celebrities — a top idol and football prodigy — was their manager profusely bowing to each other to apologise for today's event.

Being a manager is not an easy job, especially when attending to the Itoshi siblings who do not have the best attitude.

Your manager turned to you, “Let’s get on with our schedule today shall we?”

“Did that act look like I was a very caring sister?”

Caught off guard by your question, Mr manager stuttered out a yes.

You let out a satisfied grin.

Job done !＼＼\\٩( 'ω' )و //／／

Mr manager sighed.

–

Inside the car, you asked Mr Manager what your schedule was for today.

“A commercial shoot for this up-and-coming game you will be promoting, a meeting with our sponsors and…”

And everything else that came out of his mouth just drowned out. You checked your phone and saw no reply from Rin.

I wonder how Rin is feeling after crying so much that day…

“Also, someone called our studio just now. It was a German man — I’m not sure what he said but he did mention your name specifically, and he addressed you by your real name.”

Your ears perked up.

“A German man who knows my real name?”

In your life, you only personally know one German man and his name is Kaiser something.

You met him a few years back in Germany. You thought he was an extremely unintelligent person as he kept speaking to you in German even though you didn’t understand a single word that exited his mouth.

You remembered he kept saying “Süße” (*sweetie) and he would always kiss the back of your hand, which you thought was a German thing.

What a culture shock it was, people in foreign countries sure do have a very different way of greeting people compared to in Japan.

“So did that man mention his name?” You turned to Mr manager.

“Michael Kaiser. He also left his personal phone number it seems.”

“Give me that number.” You held your hand out.

“D-do you even know this man? He could be a stalker!”

“Maybe~”

“Maybe?!” Mr Manager raised his voice, then he paused for a moment, “Hold on, that name Michael Kaiser sounds real familiar…”

As Mr manager wreck his head about that, you thought back about this Kaiser person.

Back when you were having your world tour in Germany, you had some free time to explore the streets of Germany. So you snuck out of your hotel room, it was all fun and games until you lost your way in a foreign country you have never visited before.

As a young girl, stuck in an unfamiliar country, unfamiliar street, and unfamiliar language, you could only cry.

That was when you met Kaiser.

Ah! How embarrassing it was to cry in the middle of nowhere now that you think about it! (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

So pathetic of me!

Both of you were pretty much strangers, you were surprised he remembered you and how he still managed to find you.

Oh! I really am a worldwide star! ↖(^ω^)↗

You giggled to yourself.

“Ah, I remember now!” Mr manager exclaimed, practically screaming into your ears.

You pushed Mr manager away and side-eyed him, “What is it?!”

“Michael Kaiser! He is a popular prodigy football player from Germany!”

Football player?

“Is being a football player a popular occupation these days?”

So this Kaiser person is a football player too? And a prodigy at that too? The world really has no shortage of prodigies huh?

Of all the football players you know, all of them are dubbed prodigies. That being said, you only know three football players — Sae, Rin and now, Kaiser.

“Mr manager, don’t tell me you are a football prodigy too?”

“Surely you jest, miss. I-if I was a prodigy,” he hesitated for a second then said in a hushed voice, “I wouldn’t be working for you.”

“What did you say?” You frowned at him.

“N-nothing!”

“As punishment for saying that, go call that Kaiser person and ask what business he has with me.”

“But I don’t speak German!”

“Go figure it out then!”

I shouldn’t have said that Mr manager berated himself.

“Oh, after my schedule, drive me to that restaurant I told you about,” you snickered, “I’m going on a ‘date’ with my youngest brother.”

—

“Did you wait long?”

You tapped your younger brother who seemed lost in thought.

“No… I just arrived too.”

He visibly looked disturbed by something and you knew exactly what it was.

“Are you still upset by your brother?”

Rin clenched his fist and swallowed down his frustration.

You placed your hand over his clenched fist and pacified him, “Don’t let it get to you alright? Sae is still going through puberty!”

A few days ago you booked (more like Mr manager booked) a private room in a fancy hotel restaurant, to treat Rin to something nice since you thought he looked pretty melancholic.

“Sister, puberty ends at the age of 16 for males.”

“Well, Sae will forever be a little boy to me! Anyways, order what you want! This sister of yours will be treating you so order up!”

You took a glimpse of the menu and salivate at the picture of the A5 Wagyu steak. Oh, how succulent and fatty it will be!

However, you reminded yourself that you have to watch your weight. As an idol, one cannot stress the importance of weight management.

You used all your 10 fingers to mentally count how much you’ve eaten today.

You grimly looked at the wagyu steak and fries and decided to go for a simple duck confit with a side of salad.

Rin glances toward you to see what you are ordering and saw you intensely glaring at the picture of a steak.

“I’ll get the duck confit with salad, what about you?” You close the menu bidding farewell to the steak.

“The wagyu steak for me,” Rin replied.

You signalled the waiter and placed the order.

After ordering, what followed was an air of silence and strong awkward energy.

After being an absent sister for god knows how many years, you’ve never really communicated much with this teenager Rin. You were only close to him when he was just a teeny tiny boy playing football with Sae. Even then, he was still closer to Sae.

Rin will only approach you whenever he was upset with Sae. He will then subsequently cry to you about his problems. Now he still cries to you as you recollect the day the U-20 match was over and Rin poured his heart out.

Not knowing how to proceed with this conversation or the lack thereof, you prompted him with a question, “Do you have a girlfriend?” (๑╹ω╹๑ )

Rin stared at you as if you were joking around, “I do not have time for that.”

“Is football the only thing on your mind?”

“Yes.”

“You are just like your brother.” You frowned at Rin and the other little one.

Rin’s resentment grew inside of him like a tumour as he is reminded of his brother.

Uh-Oh, I shouldn’t have said that.

You quickly tried to divert his attention.

“Ooohhhh look at this Rin! The photo for my photoshoot! Don’t I look absolutely gorgeous here?” You held up your phone and nervously giggled.

Rin eyed at your phone.

“It looks alright.”

“Just alright?”

Just like a game of ping pong, it’s your turn to seethe. In your list of top 100 things that annoy you, to have someone not acknowledge your beauty was number 97! It’s on the lowest scale because 9 out of 10 times, people will appreciate your beauty. The rest are just haters! _:(´ཀ`」 ∠):

Humph! I’ll let that slide just because you are Rin-Rin.

You tried to think of a topic and were reminded of something.

“So what’s the deal with Blue Lock? Are you doing well there?”

Rin summarised his full experience in Blue Lock and he didn’t forget to sprinkle in his hate for this boy called Isagi and of course your other little brother.

Your little brother really needs to get some therapy with all these astonishing degrees of anger and hatred.

Then the food came interrupting Rin’s heated tirade on how much he hated Isagi and Sae.

You both had a hearty dinner and Rin kept shoving beef steak onto your plate despite you saying no, so you had no choice but to eat it.

It was a very conflicting experience having to eat something you love yet having calorie restrictions.

The life of an idol sure is tough.

After finishing dinner, both of you left the restaurant. Before leaving the hotel, you excused yourself to the toilet.

The toilet was so far you could’ve just walked half a marathon, not to mention it was secluded at the very corner of the hotel.

You sighed, at least I think I burned some calories.

“Süße!”

“!!!” You felt someone’s hand snaking around your waist. ⊙▽⊙

Thinking it's some creepy stalker of yours, you reflexively swatted the hand away. But the person in question was firm.

Perfume wafted through your nose as he presses his body against yours.

You let out a soft squeak at the contact. (〃ω〃)

Finally making eye contact with the man, you realise it was someone you know.

“Kaiser?” He smiled like a Cheshire Cat as you mention his name.

“Meine Leibe,” he brought you to a warm embrace, to which you similarly return his hug.

German’s greetings sure involve lots of skin contact, you thought to yourself as you felt Kaiser’s heat radiating through you.

He finally released you from the hug.

You quickly took notice of the rose tattoo that seemed to go from his neck down to his left arm which he didn’t have before when you met him in Germany.

You pointed to his tattoo to somewhat question him since you didn’t speak a lick of German.

He lifted his left hand for you to have a better look. You held onto his hand to inspect the tattoo but he had a better idea. He pushed his hands against your lips.

A soft shriek escaped you.

Your lipstick was sure to have stuck onto his hand. And more importantly, you have to reapply your lipstick!

What is this man thinking! ಠ╭╮ಠ

While you quickly reached out to your purse for your lipstick, you saw Kaiser bring his left hand to his own lips staining his lips in the process from your peripheral.

When you finished reapplying your lipstick, Kaiser was intently watching you.

You instinctively tried to rub off your lipstick from his lips but he was faster to grab your wrist and pulled you closer to him, so close that you were just a few inches away from his lips.

What’s wrong with Germans and their love for skin contact? Is this normal in Germany?

“I’ve been wanting to meet you for so long, meine liebe,” Kaiser said in German.

You drew a big fat question mark in your head. ( •́ ⍨ •̀)

What did he just say? And why does he look like he’s going in for a kiss?

True enough, Kaiser brought his lips to your lips. He invited his tongue through your parted lips tasting you for the very first time. He allowed his hands to yet again snake around your waist pulling you closer to him as if you weren’t already stuck to him.

What is this? This is a German greeting too right? ╭( ๐ _๐)╮

His other hand found its way to your chin. He tilted your chin slightly up to deepen the kiss.

As much as dancing your tongue with an old German friend was exciting, you couldn’t help but realise you were still in public. What if someone saw you?

You place both hands on Kaiser’s chest, slightly pushing him away and breaking the kiss.

“What’s wrong, Liebling?” His hands are still on your waist, trying to pull you back to him.

“Sister?”

You quickly detach yourself from Kaiser catching a glimpse of Rin from the corner.

You noticed that he was blushing. Oh, he definitely saw all that.

(๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)

“Rin!” You exclaimed feeling like you were caught in the middle of some illegal act.

“Is that your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?”

That’s unbelievable, never in your whole life have you had a so-called “boyfriend”. What is Rin on to make him believe that?

“Then, why were you kiss-”

You promptly interrupted Rin from his imagination, “This is my friend, Kaiser!”

You pointed over to Kaiser, and he took the opportunity to catch your hand into his grip and ultimately hold your hand.

“-just a friend,” you tried explaining it to Rin. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Rin, however, looked over at his sister and the blonde-with-blue-streaks-haired man who is almost as tall as Sae, who was just a second ago kissing so intimately and now holding hands like a couple would behave.

Hard to believe they are not a couple; what kind of friends eat out each other's face.

Kaiser? Rin ruminates on that name.

Rin knows a Kaiser who looks just exactly like him.

“Michael Kaiser,” Rin carefully enunciates his name, which causes the man himself to grin at him.

“Rin-Rin, you know him?”

“Prodigy player and also a member of the New Generation World XI,” said Rin glaring at Kaiser. (⩺_⩹)

In response, Kaiser didn’t say a word but just responded with the usual smug grin.

“What? When did you learn German, Rin-Rin?”

“What’s your relationship with my sister?” Rin continued to question Kaiser.

Kaiser brought your hand to his lips and gave it a gentle peck, “what do you think, Itoshi Rin?”

“You know me?”

“The little brother of Japan's football prodigy, Itoshi Sae, and you who will always live in his shadows as a nobody.” Kaiser snickered at Rin.

Raw anger shot through him. He yet again clenched his hand into a tight fist, seething with anger. Every word from him stung him.

Unsure of where this conversation is leading, you stared in confusion. That was until you saw Rin sudden change in mood.

What had made the conversation turn so sour for Rin?

You were dumb but your EQ was not that severe to not see that Rin was somehow at the losing end of the conversation.

You let go of Kaiser’s hand and ran to your little brother.

“What’s wrong?”

You saw the dark, gravel look on him almost as if he was about to break someone’s joint.

Placing a hand over his back and patting him just as you did when he was younger, you guided him down the hotel’s hallway towards the exit.

“Let’s go home.”

“Meine leibe?”

He received no response from you, instead he only saw your retreating figure.

☆〜（ゝ。∂）the end (for now) ☆〜（ゝ。∂）

< you have reached the end! thank you for reading babes! (〃∀〃)ゞ I really appreciate all the love you are giving to this ongoing series! look forward to more spine-crawling fluff! ʅ（´◔౪◔）ʃ *evil laugh* the harem begins now>

Part 3

[fionaapplerocks]

Let's touch on the technical side of this Fiona album. Was there much pre-production?

Nope. The way it worked was Fiona asked if I would like to do the record. I said that she should play me songs because it may be the case that I would recommend somebody else. She's a friend, and I left that option open. She said OK, and I didn't hear from her for months.

I assumed that she was off recording with someone else. Her boyfriend is a film director, and we've worked together in the past. I ran into him and asked how she was doing and he told me that she was waiting to finish writing the entire album so that she could play it for me. She decided that she wouldn't play me anything until she had written ten -- the whole album, and had written all the lyrics out by hand, and had made a booklet for me. I went over to her house and sat next to an upright piano. She said she wanted to play the entire album and then we could talk afterwards.

I tell you - good songwriting is the best pre-production in the world. Good songs are pretty much indestructible. A good song badly produced is still a good song. She didn't want a record where she was in the studio seven days a week for 12 hours over three months. She trusted me, and I asked her to play piano and vocal, to a click when applicable, for all the songs. We had the drummer from her first album come in, Matt Chamberlain, who is fantastic. He played to those tracks and voila - basic tracks. ~ JON BRION interviewed in EQ magazine, Dec 99

[modmad]

sending u copy-pasted voice recording stuff from a VA friend

"FL Studio is a good one if your willing to spend 200 or more But Reaper Studio is a decent fill in for somthing cheaper than that

A better program than audacity will help with more advanced features during recording, as well as tons of options for post processing. In audacity you have to do EVERYTHING manually, especially EQing With programs like this, you can have live EQing, tracking for that, better UI for the tools that audacity has, plus just additional features that will make editing a breeze

fixing the quality of ones recording situation is never as easy as getting a new program

Unfortunatley tools that a better Audio interface would give you would be a patch for the issues of low quality recording

Theres a cheap method i learned in a voice acting class using PVC and blankets to make a makeshift studio, but without the space blanket over the head really is the best choice

Saving up for a better mic and recording interface for that mic would be the best way to improve quality. A better audio interface would be best if your spending too much time in post editing, when it could all be done swiftly"

hot damn that's a comprehensive response! thank your firend for me, and thanks everyone who got back to me on this issue: I have an upgraded mic, and I am going to get Reaper, or at least trial it, as it's the one with the most recs (and I do Not have the beans to learn how to wrangle Audacity into shape rn)

hugely appreciate this, thank you!

[sirfrogsworth]

I keep wanting to write the ultimate post on autotune but I just never quite finish. I think there are 3 versions of almost-done autotune posts in my drafts.

So I'm going to leave out the technical and try to simplify my points.

Autotune is not the devil.

It is not good or bad.

It is just a tool.

It can be used well.

It can be used poorly.

And most importantly...

Autotune cannot make you sound good.

In fact, reverb and EQ can do more to make a bad singer sound okay than autotune.

All autotune does is correct pitch.

Singer sings the wrong note.

Autotune shifts that note.

Nothing about that makes you a better-sounding singer. It doesn't change your tone. It doesn't give you more range. It doesn't give you more power or dynamics. It doesn't give you vibrato.

It just makes you... in tune.

I have never heard anyone say of a great singer, "Wow, they are so in tune!" No one cries over a beautiful performance because the singer hit all the right notes.

And I guess if you are wildly out of tune, people might say you are a bad singer, but I would actually say that makes you an *inexperienced* singer. And whether you are good or bad cannot really be determined until the tuning issues are addressed. (Which most of the time is just a matter of training and practice.)

Good singers can sing the wrong note. It happens quite a lot, actually. Especially with material they aren't familiar with yet. In fact, every singer hits wrong notes. Even people with perfect pitch hit the wrong note. They just know immediately when it happens. This is because singing a note is a physical action and if your vocal mechanisms are not warmed up or you have a cold or the temperature is hot or cold, it is impossible to know if you are going to hit the perfect pitch at any given time.

This is why people warm up and rehearse and do scales before actually singing anything.

Autotune's main use is to fix good takes that have a few sour notes. That is what it is used for 95% of the time. Otherwise you are burning through expensive studio time doing take after take until you hit every single note at the perfect pitch. Sometimes a singer will do an AMAZEBALLS version of a take and they hit one sour note and instead of trying to create that lightning-in-a-bottle moment again, they just nudge the one note and save the performance.

You do not notice autotune the vast majority of the time. If it is used properly, autotune artifacts are completely inaudible.

In fact, I would argue that autotune makes inexperienced singers sound worse. That robotic sound you sometimes hear means the singers were very out of tune. The more out of tune you are, the worse autotune sounds. The more in tune you are, the more invisible it is.

There are very few people who are actually tone deaf. Which means everyone can be taught to sing in tune with decent consistency. And so if there is an instance where someone uses a lot of very obvious sounding autotune, it means they weren't interested in practicing. Or that they got tired of doing multiple takes and had better things to do.

And it isn't that they are a *bad* singer necessarily, but they are probably a lazy one.

Now, there is a different discussion about using autotune to "fix" notes that probably don't need to be fixed. Some variation in pitch can be a good thing. It can show emotion and give notes some spicy flavor. Sometimes singers will start out of tune and shift up to the right note. Like a vocal guitar bend. Being perfectly in tune can sound sterile. And sometimes overzealous producers will let their perfectionism get the better of them and make sure every single note is accurate to the cent and it brings a lifeless feel to the song.

When musicians complain about autotune, this is usually what they are talking about. Not some nepo baby with a record deal who couldn't be bothered to practice their song enough to get it mostly in tune when they sing it.

You should only use autotune to fix pitch when a note truly feels wrong. Like, it is so out of tune that it breaks your immersion.

Otherwise, leave it spicy.

[liure00]

Mixing Stuff Masterpost for Vocal Synth Users

i'll say a few things here and there on how i approach mixing based on a set of guidelines i've been giving thru learning. i won't go 100% and i encourage you research further on your own as everyone has a different perspective of certain concepts. whats important is that you understand the concept so that you are able to interpolate on it with your own liberties. yeah. please read the links before looking at my commentary or you won't understand what im saying.

Some DAWs, Their Guides, & Some Freebies: One of the first things you should do is pick a DAW and learn how to use it and its functions to streamline your mixing process.

Free DAWs: The Best Available in 2023 by Produce Like A Pro

Audacity / DarkAudacity (i like darkaudacity): has a section of the site dedicated to tutorials on using Audacity!

Reaper: has a 3 hour course FREE course on mixing!

FL Studio: has a demo version you can pretty much use forever with a few.........exceptions. I won't be linking any cracked versions though. Here's a manual for this program since many people use it!

Free VST Plugins by Bedroom Producers Blog

37 Best Free Mixing VST Plugins by hiphopmakers

ORDER IN THE COURT!: The order of plugins is more important than you think. These links should also introduce some terms we use in the audio production world (like "gain staging" or "EQing")

WHAT'S THE BEST EFFECTS CHAIN ORDER FOR MIXING? by Icon Collective:

The Order Of Things: Audio Plug-ins by AskAudio

Plugin order is viewed from "top to bottom". BASICALLY... most like to gain stage -> EQ -> compress -> saturate -> MORE EQing -> whatever else at this point, but i do my process a bit differently. don't be afraid to bend the rules a little bit. but the guidelines are there for a reason.....based on what they do

Basics: I'll link to some tutorials to elaborate on what was listed by Icon Collective's list.

Gain Staging: Gain Staging Like a Pro by Sweetwater

Saturation: Saturation in Mixing – Instant Warmth, Glue and Fullness with One Plugin by Tough Tones (soundgoodizer fans make some fucking noise i guess)

EQ: SUBTRACTIVE VS ADDITIVE EQ (WHEN TO USE EACH & WHY) by Producer Hive

Compression: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO AUDIO COMPRESSION by Icon Collective + Audio Compression Basics by Universal Audio

Modulation: Modulation Effects: Flanging, Phase Shifting, and More by Universal Audio

Time Based Effects: Reverb Vs. Delay: Complete Guide To 3D Mixing by Mastering.com

Audio Busing/Routing/Sending Tracks: Your guide to busing and routing audio tracks like a pro by Splice

Limiters: 10 BEST LIMITER PLUGINS FOR MIXING AND MASTERING by Icon Collective

Sidechaining: Sidechain compression demystified: what it is and how to use it by Native Instruments (i dont know anything about this lol)

Automation: Mix Automation 101: How to Automate Your Sound For a Better Mix by Landr (p.s learn how to write automation in your respective programs)

Last note: great. these are the main things you should focus on understanding in mixing. now you are FREE my friend!

Bonus: Tempo Mapping in Reaper (if you want to learn how to midi songs with bpm changes!!!)

[fuzzkaizer]

Maestro - W-2 sound system for woodwinds

"In an age where more and more pedal companies are cropping up and more and more esoteric circuits are resurrected to broaden the total tonal spectrum, it’s surprising when new old circuits crop up. Circuits like the S. Hawk Tonal Expander and SRS EQ Exciter ended up enjoying their time in the spotlight by virtue of being undiscovered one-off devices. But it’s even rarer when one such circuit hides in plain sight, but stays obscure for one reason or another. This is the Maestro W-2.

To be clear, there’s a definite reason why the W-2 didn’t get much due, and we’ll definitely get into that. And there’s a strong possibility that you, the reader, have actually heard of this unit. But the Maestro line is well celebrated in gear circles, both from its individual units and clones of more obscure devices becoming more popular than the originals (the DOD Carcosa becoming more well-known than the FZ-1S, for example). Instances like this are becoming less and less common, but there’s at least one more unit in the Maestro line that I don’t think many folks are talking about—stay tuned for that.

However, the W-2 remained in relative secrecy for three reasons, chief among them that it’s designed to be used in conjunction with a woodwind instrument (saxophone or clarinet) and special pickup. This generally implied a couple things: One is that the unit would only be purchased by reed effects enthusiasts or studio owners. Secondly, if you lose the pickup you were well out of luck. Even though a handful of units at the time used the same pickup, later models didn’t include the strange output configuration, making them harder to find as time goes by.

The second reason for the lack of recognition is the fragility of the unit itself. Finding them in good working order is a difficult feat, and finding someone to work on them is harder still. The units are notoriously hard to repair; because they feature a handful of moving parts, finding replacements can prove difficult. This leads right into the third reason.

Plugging a guitar into the W-2 is not feasible unless you provide some outboard equipment, which isn’t included with the unit, nor did Maestro offer such a device to make this conversion. Essentially, your guitar outputs a signal that’s low, relative to the expected input level of the woodwind mic. Such a device is a simple preamp booster, which Electro-Harmonix had been offering for a handful of years, but Maestro did not provide such an offering, and made no effort to divulge this info to non-woodwindists. To make matters worse, the input jack is a eighth-inch type, so you had to chase down an adapter.

In short, there just weren’t many of these produced, and the pickups were similarly scarce. When trying to redeem the value of the W-2 with a guitar, players will wonder if they’re connecting the device up properly at all, and when no sound comes out, they’ll assume the unit is broken. And given its reputation, that’s the end of the line. It’s a perfect storm for cult status, really.

Knowing this, once everything is hooked up and dialed in, you’re treated to a rich synthy sound along with many different horn emulations. Like the USS-1 in the same line, the W-2 is multi-effect unit, but unlike that unit which sought to transform the guitar into some type of malleable synth spectre, the W-2 cleanly emulates a variety of instruments, while adding tone controls for each section and a nifty tremolo section.

Much has been made about the relative limbo of this unit, as well as the limitations and the lengths that one must traverse to simply connect an instrument. But like many other obscure devices from this era, this particular one was used by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Though many things are mistakenly attributed to the man’s sound, the Maestro W-2 is not one of them. Zappa’s clarinet section ran into the W-2 and through a particular patch called “Oboe D'Amore” on “Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague,” from 1969’s Uncle Meat.

While Zappa actually used clarinets to generate those tones, you can thank that simple fact for keeping the prices of the W-2 at relative bay. Had he plugged his guitar into one, the prices on these would be ten times as much and one might not have found its way into the cabinet, and the knowledge of its existence into your head."

cred: catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/maestro-w-2

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