Sometimes, when you’re mixing and mastering, you’ll have a track with background noise that you want to cut out. For example, if you were recording a live drum kit and positioned a mic on the toms, you would likely have the snare and cymbals bleeding into that mic’s recording as well.
If you try compressing the track with the background noise, it would only bring out the unwanted sounds more. And if you were to reduce the gain of the track so that the background noise became imperceptible, you’d likely deflate the sounds you do want in there. This is where gating comes in handy.
Gating is the process of using a dynamic threshold as an on/off trigger. The simplest form would be with gain, where everything below a certain decibel level would automatically have it’s gain set to zero. This is called a noise gate and is used often by producers to not let background sounds get through to the mix.
One of the most popular uses of gating is with electric guitar recordings, where effects pedals can cause a significant amount of noise in the track. By setting up a noise gate with the threshold just above the decibel level of the unwanted noise, the track is automatically cleaned up.
Another popular use is with drums, as mentioned before, where the sounds of other pieces in the kit inevitably bleed into each mic.
Like a compressor, gating typically has three controls: threshold, the dynamic point at which the effect is triggered; attack, how fast the effect is applied; and release, how fast the effect is turned back off when the track falls back below the threshold.
A gate can be applied to most effects, such as reverb or delay, causing them to be triggered only by the louder parts of the track. Many producers have found creative ways to play with such applications, like adding delay to singer’s voice when she hit’s the penultimate notes of a song.
Gating is a fundamental tool for mixing and mastering that has virtually unlimited creative applications, though generally the most popular use is with a noise gate. Practically all major DAWs come with built in gate effect. So next time you’re mixing a track and want to cut out some background noise, or add reverb to the louder parts of a track, try setting up a gate.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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