Takes
What I believe about audio and why.
- 54
- 307
- 92
Mastering
Method
- Blind testing
If you claim you can hear a difference, prove it with a blind test.
- Loudness matching
Louder normally is not better.
- Null testing
The delta is the complete difference between two signals, and if it is inaudible, there is no meaningful difference.
- Perceptual bias
What you see and what you paid, change what you hear.
- Measurement
I prefer measuring to describing, but a difference you can see on a screen is not automatically one you can hear.
- Evidence and argument
Audio is a well-understood science and claims stand on evidence not Grammys.
Digital audio
- Bit depth
Bit depth means dynamic range and 24-bit is already overkill.
- Sample rate
44.1 kHz is completely fine.
- DACs
Professional DACs are transparent. If two of them sound different, one of them is broken.
- Audio interfaces
Above a modest price every competent interface sounds the same.
- Oversampling
Nonlinear processing should be oversampled.
- Lossy codecs
YouTube's codec does not erase all nuance from the sound.
- Analogue
The character of analogue gear is distortion.
Recording
- Performance
How the musicians play shapes a recording more than pretty much anything else.
- Microphones
Past a sensible price, microphones differ in tonality rather than quality.
- Preamps
Every working preamp sounds the same when it is clean.
- Recording vocals
It is best to get the vocal right at the microphone.
- Drum recording
A good drum recording needs many different things done well at the same time.
Monitoring
- Monitoring
I'd rather use headphones than work in an untreated room.
- Speakers
Sealed speakers over ported for studio use.
- Rooms
Acoustics is not a solved problem.
- Headphones
Buy the flattest headphones and then learn them. No EQ.
- Monitoring level
Monitor at a recallable reference level.
Processing
- EQ
EQs have no flavours.
- Compression
A compressor is a robot that turns the gain down.
- Black-Scholes compression
Compression doesn't have to be more of the same.
- Limiting
A limiter is not a fast compressor.
- Gating
Gates are most useful in the mix when side chained.
- Distortion
Warmth, character, mojo and glue all mean distortion.
- Saturation
Clipping is information loss.
- Clipping
Soft clipping is an oxymoron.
- Stereo and mono
Mono compatibility is still important.
- Reverb
Reverb is one of the four pillars of a record.
- Mixing
Mixing is a loop of listening, asking what is deficient and fixing that thing.
Gear and industry
- Cables
Any sensible copper cable passes audio perfectly. So does a spoon.
- Hi-fi
Audiophiles fail to hear differences they consider massive.
- Vintage gear
With old metal boxes you are paying for nostalgia.
- Plugins
Many plugins are the same DSP behind a pretty GUI.
- Analogue modelling
Listeners can't tell stock plugins from analogue modelling ones.
- DAWs
Professional mastering needs a certain DAW.
- Operating systems
Windows is not a proper operating system.
- Piracy and copy protection
Copy protection should never give paying customers the worse deal.
- Pricing
Lifetime free upgrades and quality beat clown discounts.
- Reviews and sponsorship
No I will not shill your Ai tripe.
- Credits
You have worked with an artist only if the artist approved the work you did.
- Education
Audio engineers should know some engineering.
- Synthesis
Don't be a preset loser.
Philosophy and work
- Subjectivity
Music is neither subjective nor objective.
- Music
Music is not about analogue gear
- Workflow
Efficiency is a large part of the job.