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Dynamic Range Day - Loudness War Protest

Production Advice

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Stop worrying and love the prog

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You’ve probably guessed by now, but I love prog.

Did I say that out loud ?

Well, it’s true – there doesn’t seem to be much point in denying it any more – after all, Radiohead are one of the biggest bands in the world, and they’re prog, right ?

So while it may not be exactly hip, I don’t think that enjoying progressive rock can be considered quite the crime against music that it once was.

And, being me, one thing I’ve always enjoyed about “progressive” music is that it almost always sounds superb.

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Why David Gilmour writes and records on a boat

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So we know that Peter Gabriel writes and records in a shed – how about David Gilmour ?

Well his studio is on a boat.

And what a boat… well, houseboat. Watch the video and see.

Once you’ve finished wiping the drool off your keyboard, you may be thinking –

“Well it’s pretty bloody obvious why he writes on a boat, Ian – and, if I’d sold 50 million copies of Dark Side Of The Moon, I think I’d record on one, too.”

But stop.

Rewind. Go back.

Listen again to what he says at 3’12″
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Day 11- Check your level [11elevenproject]

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Day 11 of 11eleven easy ways to improve the sound of your music

Since this is the final post in the series, and my speciality is mastering, it would seem to make sense for this to be a mastering tip.

But I’m not going to do that.

Regular readers already know all about my views on levels and mastering ! For example:

How to avoid over-compressing your mix

How to make your music loud (without killing it stone dead)

Learn the Loudness War secret that will give YOUR music an edge

- and there’s no need to repeat myself here. But this tip is about loudness – or rather, levels.

Specifically, gain structure.

Gain structure just means – how loud your audio is, at every point in the audio chain. Back in the days of analogue it was crucial to get the levels as high as possible at every point in the chain to get the best signal-to-noise ratio, but not so loud as to cause distortion.

These days, it’s not really an issue. With over 60 dB of signal to noise ratio in even a 16-bit signal, all we need to do to get clean audio is avoid clipping, and we’re good.

Or, are we ?

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6 – Do enough takes – but quit while you’re ahead [11elevenproject]

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Day 6 of 11eleven easy ways to improve the sound of your music

The great thing about modern technology is you don’t need to get the performance perfect in a single take.

You can just pick the best bits of multiple takes, loop the difficult sections, and in fact you can even build an entire song note by note, if you like – no-one will ever know the difference.

…right ?

WRONG.

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Day 5 – Perfect your performance [11elevenproject]

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Day 5 of 11eleven easy ways to improve the sound of your music

I’m not going to labour this – you need to be able to play or sing your stuff well.

That doesn’t mean you need to be a virtuoso, but you do need to be able to do your material justice. And that means you need to practise.

A lot.

Here are four killer advantages to being well-rehearsed.

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