UK Mastering guru Ian Shepherd from Production Advice presented a talk at a recent AES event focussed on “Mastering in the Streaming Era”. It starts with a general overview of what mastering is, but then goes into some more detail around considerations of mastering in the current era including loudness, normalisation and perceptual coding. You … Read more Ian Shepherd AES Mastering Talk
Paul Lamere has blogged a couple of times now about mapping the tempo of commercial songs to help analyse whether the song has been done to a click track or not, and it provides an interesting reference point for a discussion about the place of click tracks in music production. You can check out the … Read more Click Track Maps
I just watched an interesting short documentary by an Irish music producer/engineer that discusses their thoughts around the senses, benefits of an analogue approach with some limitations and creativity generally. It’s a touching and thoughtful short film and well worth a watch for anyone interested in or involved in the sound arts. Check it out … Read more The Psychology of Analogue
Music Tech Explained have produced a neat explainer video giving a rundown on Dolby Atmos, and importantly, the current state of affairs with regards to some things to keep in mind about mixing with it and how Apple Music handles it downstream. A great introduction to these aspects in this video:
The AES have released a new/revised recommendation concerning loudness for internet audio streaming and on-demand application. There are no real surprises in there, with a -18 LKFS/LUFS (+/- 2 LU) integrated loudness for assorted content where the dialogue is not directly measurable on its own, which is in line with previous recommendations, as posted about … Read more AES Loudness for Internet Audio
I love Steve Albini’s approach to teaching sound subjects, and here is a good video from his Electrical Audio YouTube channel explaining tom drum tuning approaches.
Yuri Suzuki, The Design Museum and Roland have created the 808303.studio, which is a free online music creation tool based on the TR-808 drum machine and TB-303 bass synthesiser. It’s a fun way to spend some time creating some beats: https://808303.studio/
Sound on Sound Magazine has posted up an article that includes some great info and images about the history of recording orchestras. Check out the great first image! https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-orchestra
Fabfilter have produced a series of three great videos produced by Dan Worrall titled How To Mix In Stereo Without Sucking In Mono. The videos include a great rundown on some of the pitfalls of mono compatibility, some neat ideas around tuning your Haas delays, and using filters and EQ to manipulate phase to make … Read more Mixing in Stereo
In a New York Times article entitled “They Really Don’t Make Music Like They Used To”, the author Greg Milner discusses the dynamics of classic contemporary (not classical) music compared to current contemporary music. No real surprise that a lot of the most popular music around is from decades ago, and that that music has … Read more Classic Music and Dynamic Range