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Gain Stage

Gain stage is a term in audio engineering. It refers to the exact point, during the audio signal flow, when the user can adjust the level of any audio signal. Gain staging is a process that helps you to manage audio levels to eliminate distortion and avoid unwanted noise. Usually, it appears when each component…
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Parallel Processing

Parallel processing is one of the two main ways of adding affects to a chain. However, before delving into what it consists on, we need to explain its counterpart. Adding Effect to a Chain Serial Processing As mentioned previously, there are two main way of adding effects to a chain. The first approach is serial…
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Sidechain Compression

Sidechain compression, aka ducking, is an audio effect typical in radio, pop, and dance music. In this compression, the presence of an audio signal decreases the level of another audio signal. Radio achieves this effect by lowering the volume of the second audio track when the first one begins to increase the volume or when…
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Audio Panning

In audio, panning involves a moving action. An audio pan pot—short for panning potentiometer—is used in a mix to simulate the movement of a certain source from one side of the soundstage to the other. Ideally, timing, filtering, and reverberation differences should be present to complete the image of apparent movement within a specific space.…
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Stem Mastering and Mixing

Stem mastering and mixing are crucial techniques for music production. They have the goal to enhance the song and prepare it for distribution. But before delving into specifics, we need to dissect the terms and go back to basics. The Stem in Stem Mastering and Mixing First things first, stems—aka sub-mixes, subgroups, or busses—involve a…
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Condenser Microphones

Condenser microphones are devices that have high-impedance. They require that the amplification is located near the sensor itself. Usually, an amplifier limits their dynamic range. The most usual material to make them is stainless steel, although there’s the option of other similar metals. This type of microphones is steady at varying temperatures and environmental changes.…
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Dynamic Microphones

Through the process of electromagnetism, dynamic microphones are able to convert sound into electrical signals. The assembly of a dynamic microphone is simple and quite similar to the structure of a loudspeaker. Its construction is delicate and it responds to low pressure levels. In fact, these are light enough to react to high frequencies without…
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Ribbon Microphones

Ribbon microphones are exceptional. The first ribbon microphone that became commercially available revolutionized the audio recording and broadcasting industries. In particular, history knows this microphone as RCA Photophone Type PB-31. Soon after it appeared, the BBC-Marconi Type A microphone came into being. These facts aside, the development of ribbon mics emanated from field coins and…
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USB Microphones

USB microphones are different from conventional ones because they join both preamplification and digitalization stages into one single unit. Its design is to interface perfectly with a computer using only a digital connection. This type of microphones include a sensor component within the same device. There are also ADC interfaces, common in conventional analog microphones.…
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Stereo Microphones

Stereo microphones use a specific technique that involves a combination of two microphone capsules into a single housing for conventional stereo recordings. The most common combination for this is condenser microphones, dynamic microphones, and ribbon microphones. Stereo Microphones: Stereo Milking Stereo miking is a widely popular technique. It uses a combination of microphones that create…
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