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Month: March 2012

Guest Post: How To Use EQ

This guest post comes from Barry Gardner, mastering engineer at Safe And Sound online mastering.

Equalization is an incredibly powerful tool used in virtually every area of audio production including music recording and mixing. A lot of people initially feel equalization is a complex process but I would like to explain it as simply as possible but embellished with enough technical information to make it useful and valuable. At it’s most basic implementation an equalizer could be described as a tone control such as that on a hi fi amplifier. On an amplifier there are just 2 tone controls, bass and treble, as you turn the knob in either direction you either get an increase or decrease in the amount of bass or treble in the music, this is known as altering the tone.
When thinking of eq it is useful to imagine a horizontal line with the audible audio spectrum running from low frequencies (left) to high (right). Adult humans can hear from around 25Hz to around 20kHz (best case scenario). An equalizer allows specific frequencies of the spectrum to be focused upon and amplified or attenuated (reduced).

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Review: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB2 audio interface

The Scarlett 2i2 caught my attention right away. Compact, striking appearance and simple layout. I have recommended the interface to dozens of people.
While I appreciate the extra i/o my TC Impact Twin provides, its just too big and bulky for a mobile interface. At a third of the size of the Impact, and less than half the cost, the 2i2 jumped to the top of my gear wish list, and made the purchase last week.

This will be a fairly quick review, sort of a ‘first impressions’ look at the interface as I’ve only had it for a few days, but I don’t want to put off writing something about it.

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Guest Post: 5 Tips for DIY Mastering

As a mastering engineer, I would always encourage home recordists to send their music to a professional for mastering. Aside from finely tuned monitoring set ups, ultra-high-end equipment and the benefit of experience, a professional mastering engineer offers a valuable second opinion.

However, if budgets don’t allow or if you’re really set on doing it yourself – here are 5 tips for DIY mastering.

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