Mid-side – or M/S – recording is a way of setting up two microphones to create a wide stereo image. The mid microphone is placed to face the sound you want to record. The side microphone must be a figure-8 microphone (such as a ribbon). It’s placed at about the same spot as the mid […]

A big mixing desk have a lot of channels that you can record and/or mix through. Usually these channels have a preamp, an EQ and sometimes a dynamics section (I.E. a compressor). A channel strip is basically one channel that could’ve been pulled out of a mixer. Home recording have had a great impact on […]

Phantom power (or +48 V) is the description of a certain powering commonly needed for condenser microphones but are sometimes used for other equipment as well. It is common to see on both mixers and audio interfaces these days. Before buying a condenser microphone, make sure that you have the phantom power to supply it […]

A de-esser (or DeEsser) is a dynamics tools for dealing with high frequency sibilants, such as s-sounds, thus the name. When recording the human voice some sounds can be especially troublesome, this includes s, p and t. The de-esser is basically a compressor that’s sensitive to higher frequency sounds like “esses”. Originally posted on November […]

Ducking is an effect often used by DJs and in all kinds of broadcasting. It’s often achieved by the use of side-chain compression. Side-chaining is when you use the dynamic levels of one source to control the compression of your signal. It’s best described in example, for instance, it’s common to use this for the […]