Occasionally, with digital music, you’ll find unwanted distortion in your mix after changing the bit depth of your track. This is an effect called quantization distortion. The way to fix this is to apply dithering when you process your music from one bit depth to another. Here’s how dithering works…
It can be difficult to take criticisms on a mix. After you have put in hours of work, having somebody tell you that there is too much of this or too little of that can become frustrating. As fun as making music can be, it has many challenges to overcome. For musicians, learning notes, chords, […]
Audio formats can become complex pretty quickly. There are a lot to choose from, and picking the best one for your professional audio needs, or just for casual listening can easily become daunting. Fortunately, there are ways to determine which audio format is best for you. We’ll be ranking the top 10 audio formats […]
Quick Answer Mastering is the last step in post-production prior to a song or project’s distribution. It is both a technical and creative process that involves equalization, compression, distortion, harmonic generation, stereo imaging, and includes adhering to certain loudness standards based on the medium on which a project is distributed. Mastering in Detail To […]
Have you ever found yourself wondering what people are talking about when describing the qualities of audio? Many adjectives that get used to describe audio make little sense when thinking of them in their literal definitions. Even still, engineers everywhere use words like these every day to help describe the sounds they want when tracking, […]
Quick Answer A “Loudness Penalty” is the amount in dB your mix or master will be turned down by loudness normalization. Loudness normalization occurs right before streaming and is something any engineer or artist needs to keep in mind before distributing their mix or master for distribution. The Loudness Penalty in Detail The notion […]
Sibilance…Right when you think you may have made the right adjustments on your EQ and set the compressor just so, a sharp, harsh “s” jumps from your speakers. It seems that without a drastic cut within the ranges of 2-10 kHz your perfect take may not end up so perfect after all. Even then, such […]
Mastering is an exciting and ever-changing field. Some of the information available about mastering is well known, and some are certainly unique. In this article, you’ll find a list of 10 things you should know about mastering music. Mastering Changes Based on the Medium On Which Songs are Distributed Many people think mastering to […]
Mixing and mastering can be done with analog and digital workflows. Often the choice of which to go with comes down to user preferences, cost, and desired features of a system. The digital systems available to us today for mixing and mastering can support more tracks and more processing than many large-format consoles, making them […]
Quick Answer Yes, in most circumstances mastering is needed in order to prepare a project for distribution. Although the choice to master your music depends on the desired outcome, it is always helpful to have another engineer listen to and assess the quality of your project before it’s distributed. Is Mastering Necessary, in Detail […]