Everything was huge the back in the 80’s:  huge drums, huge guitar solos, huge hair, and so…huge reverb.  I suppose the mix had to make room for the band’s big hair.  But, alas, gone are the days of expansive, cavernous ‘verb in favor of a more natural room sound, focusing more on early reflections rather than long decay times.  Today’s trend is to make the listener sense as though the band is right in his or her face.  But some novice engineers, as well as some of us more experienced ones, can unknowingly fall into the trap of adding too much reverb, simply because they don’t hear it yet.

Although mixing engineers resist the urge to crank the ‘verb in the mix stage, the dreaded Phantom Reverb rears its head during the mastering process.  Mastering engineers use compression and limiting to increase the perceived volume of a recording.  If you think of the dynamics of a song as a mountain range, limiting and compression “cut off” (or at least “push down”) the mountain peaks (loud moments) so that they are close to, or even level with, the valleys (quiet moments).  Then everything is then pushed up together as high as it will go.  In essence, this process makes the quiet moments of the song perceivably louder, and with it, the reverb.  In the mix process, the reverb was very subtly sitting in the mix, where it was psychoacoustically “felt” more so than actually heard.  Whereas now, in the mastering process, the reverb has swollen to where it is much more noticeable on a conscious level.  While this might not always be a big deal, sometimes it can adversely affect an otherwise good mix by making it sound dated.

The key to keeping the Phantom Reverb in check is to force yourself to mix in less reverb than you think you need, knowing that it will appear louder once the track is mastered.  Another trick that I use is to increase the output volume on my reverb unit, nudge up the effects return on the console, or increase the volume on the bus I’m using for reverb in my DAW somewhere between 3-5db.  Then, when it’s time to print the mix, I’ll pull it back down.  Just don’t forget to pull it back down!

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Mixers are available in wide variety of designs and sizes from massive studio consoles to little portable units. Mixers are generally described through the total number of channels they sport. For instance, a 12-channel mixer includes 12 input channels. That is you can put in 12 individual input sources. You may also notice a specification like “24×4x2” that signifies 24 input channels, four subgroups and 2 output channels.

The mixers accessible are perfect for project as well as home studios or also on stage and in the recording studios. Many of the mixers present incredibly low-noise along with separate mic pre THD and are proficient enough to handle sound inputs varying from whisper to scream or even can easily handle hot line level signals devoid of any extra coloration. Some mixers provides a control room or phones source matrix, tape outputs, Master aux section along with EFX, a high volume headphone amplifier as well as balanced TRS and XLR outputs.

The most amazing aspect of audio mixers is that instead of unsealed, cheap potentiometers, many of audio mixers include co-molded pots that provide substantial impact relief and strain. A majority of the audio mixers available are the perfect pick for any type of situation that needs superior audio mixing, particularly where budget or/and space constraints are a problem. The audio mixers are beneficial for all kinds of recording purposes, including mixing the line output of more than one instrument amps in one mixer channel.

What makes the audio mixers an essential part of the audio recording equipment are its various exclusive features that almost each mixer possess. Ultra low noise mixer along with highest headroom, 4 precision engineered XDR premium studio grade mic preamps, 14 line input, constant loudness pan pots, 3 band active EQ of 2.5 kHz, 80 kHz and 12 kHz, phantom power for the premium condenser mics and in built power supply are few of the features of audio mixers.

Few audio mixers also sports planet earth switching power supply for the global use, separate 48v phantom power-switches at all mic inputs and 60 mm logarithmic tape faders for linear, smooth fades.

Noise Gate

Basically, noise gate is a device or software logic that is used to manage the volume of an audio signal, in recording studios and in sound reinforcement. They are also used by musicians, in a portable form, to control amplification noise. At its most simple form it controls noise by only allowing sound to pass through it at a certain set threshold. Think of it as a literal gate; when the gate is open sound can pass, when the gate is closed no signal is allowed through. More robust noise gate units have extra controls, I.E. attack, sustain, decay, release. This is so that you can further control the gating of your audio. Say you’d like to have the gate applied in a hard fashion, you would set a short attack and a short release, so on and so forth. Noise gates are often used to isolate background noise from live recordings in order to eliminate them from the final copy.

Flange

Flange is related to the phasing effect produced by a, well, phaser effects unit. It is produced when two identical signals are mixed together, with one of the signals time-delayed by a small and gradually changing amount. The amount is usually equal to or less than 20 milliseconds. Peaks and notches are produced in the combined frequency spectrum, related in a linear harmonic series. Part of the output signal is fed back in and resonates, intensifying the peaks and notches. This effect was originally generated with 3 three headed tape machines. Two of the tape machines would play the signal, obviously somewhat out of synch, and the third tape machine would record the output. The modern version of the effect is created using DSP (digital signal processing) technology.

This is the second part in my continuing series on audio effects. Today we discussed noise gate and flange, we’ll be moving on some more advanced effects later on. I hope that this helped you all understand the basic functionality of these two effects, ultimately making your next foray into audio editing a bit less intimidating.