After 20+ years in professional audio: live sound engineering, studio technical direction (Deep Forest, Pierre Jacquot), head of digital marketing at Playback.fr. A first-hand witness to the analog-to-digital shift, I track the whole audio landscape and break it down here — no fluff.
Arriving with a console already patched, named and pre-set changes everything. Here’s how to prepare a digital console offline: manufacturer editors, templates, scenes, and the method to transfer it all with no nasty surprises.
A transient shaper sculpts a sound’s attack and sustain independently of its level. Here’s what a transient is, how this processor differs from a compressor, and how to use it without wrecking your tracks.
OXI Instruments cracks its polyphonic Eurorack synth wide open with firmware 3.0: six fresh sound engines, a six-operator DX7-compatible FM engine, and a browser compiler that lets you build your own firmware. Free for every Coral owner.
Behind a station that runs 24/7 sits a playout system and a production method. Automation, live assist, voice-tracking, imaging : here is how a modern radio station chains songs, ads and voice without ever leaving a gap on air.
Spitfire Audio has launched Phoenix, a hybrid software instrument built with producer BT. Six synthesis engines, a fully stereo architecture, 40GB of sound and sprawling modulation : the plugin targets cinematic sound design and modern composition. Intro price: £199 / €239.
WesAudio has announced the ngOmniBox, a stereo bus processor that packs EQ, compression, saturation, clipping and stereo-width processing into a single analog unit driven by a plugin. In short: the whole mix-bus and mastering chain in one box, with WesAudio’s signature total recall. Around $3,799, now on pre-order.
DiGiCo has unveiled the Quantum638, a digital mixing console that borrows the recipe of the SD7 and SD5 and runs it on the latest Quantum engine. With 256 inputs, a 48×48 matrix and a theatre-focused Quantum638T variant, it targets touring, musicals and large-scale live productions.
In television, audio travels hidden inside the SDI video signal. Understanding embedding, de-embedding, channel groups and sync keeps lip-sync tight and tracks from going silent. A guide to the embedded audio chain in production.
Comping means assembling one ideal performance by picking the best moments from several takes. Here is the method, from loop recording to clean edits, plus the pitfalls that keep a comp sounding alive.
The X32 and its Midas M32 twin can capture a whole stage in multitrack with no computer, or into a DAW over a single USB cable. Here is how to choose your expansion card, route the 32 tracks, nail a virtual soundcheck and dodge the classic live-recording pitfalls.