mixing

What would y'all recommend as the best free DAW that has an easy learning curve?

The amount of headroom you should reserve before mastering music after audio mixing is subjective. What matters the most is to avoid hard clipping i.e. making sure you are not going over 0 dBFS on the master fader. However, some sound engineers may recommend having your final mix peaking at -6...

A reverb's room size parameter simulates the dimensions of the desired space in the context of whether it's either a small space or a large environment. Large spaces typically have a longer decay time and wide stereo image whilst small rooms correspond to shorter decay time and also a narrow...

The parameter "Reverb density" usually controls the "thickness" of the reverb tails. A high-density setting will result in a much smoother effect due to thickness of the reverb. On the other hand, a low-density setting makes the reverb tail to sound thin and grainy. Although with low settings...

The main reason why software brickwall audio mastering limiters sound different is because of the proprietary algorithms used by the developer. You can think of algorithms as different styles of approach which are meant to process audio with the motive of handling different program material...

In sound engineering LCR panning is a technique of placing individual instruments in a mix dead center or far wide. That is, either panning audio tracks 100% on the left channel or 100% on the right channel. Hence, LCR panning is short for "Left-Center-Right." Moving forward, some music...

Before you understand how foldback distortion works you may need to have a basic knowledge of audio distortion in general. Of course, there are several types of distortion but in this case, let's focus on hard-clipping distortion to keep things simple. Okay, so in the digital domain...

Reverb diffusion (sometimes referred to as early reflections diffusion) is a common parameter that you will come across on almost any reverberation plugin. What reverb diffusion does is control the density of the reflections bouncing off the walls. We can also put that across as the rate at...

What type of audio formats are supported by Soundcloud music streaming service?

What's the underlying reason music sounds different when uploaded to Soundcloud online music streaming platform?

The technique of mixing kick and bass is often a common struggle that beginners are prone to deal with on a constant basis. This is mainly because noobs fail to understand that for particular genres of music the listener is not used to hearing so much bass in the song. Instead, they do the...

In music production software, dBFS (i.e., decibels relative to full scale or full code) and dBTP (i.e., decibels relative to true peak) are both units of audio measurements used in the digital domain but the two aren't quite interchangeable. dBTP is essentially a way to gauge extra volume above...

To understand what is meant by the terms 2-pole filter and 4-pole filter, you first need to know that the word "pole" in the context of filters refers to a 6 dB per octave roll-off. Well, a 2-pole filter = 12 dB/octave slope, and that's because 6 dB x 2 = 12 dB. Furthermore, a 4-pole filter =...

Digital audio software linear-phase equalizers do not alter the phase of the input signal. And in contrast to linear-phase equalizers you've minimum-phase parametric EQs that act by introducing phase shift whilst processing. What's important to remember here is that if you need an ultra-clean...

The simplest way to fade out your beat (an instrumental) or a song in Image-Line's FL Studio DAW is to automate the master fader's volume level. However, for the most part, it's not a good idea to create automation clips using the master channel's slider knob because this can result in hard...

The term "lookahead" in the context of dynamic signal processor effects refers to how an audio software plugin will delay the signal e.g., 0.1 to 1 ms or more, for the sake of implementing the process of analyzing the incoming audio material. And once a brickwall limiter analyzes the input...

Audio aliasing is a digital signal processing term that refers to how high frequencies (or harmonics) above the Nyquist limit are thrown back into your human hearing audible range (i.e., 20 to 20 kilohertz), particularly when using some of your favorite non-linear audio software plugins such as...

Oversampling is a technique of digital signal processing that helps audio software plug-ins to minimize the level of artifacts often caused by aliasing distortion. The process of oversampling is done through means of sampling audio material greater than its Nyquist rate. For example, if you...

The meaning behind the process of "leveling your beats" is just synonymous with the idea of "gain staging" before mixing your music or instrumental. A simple way to level a beat is by identifying the main building block in the song and start gain staging from there. For instance, your starting...

The process of normalizing audio isn't the same as using a brickwall limiter on the master bus. In fact, when you normalize audio this will make the loudest part of the audio material as loud as it can be without going over 0 dBFS. And as for the quieter parts of the same audio file, they will...