Category: Effects
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It is easy to both over- and under-process field recordings. Each has drawbacks, and a skilled recordist balances both while keeping the sound realistic and taking inspiration from others, but never copying. Last Updated: 19-August-2026
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I use a variety of tools for post-processing my field recordings. Below are what I currently use. I will update this periodically as I change my workflow or learn new methods. Last updated: 19-August-2026
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I liked Akira Rabelais’s music and wanted to achieve the same kind of sound created by his Argeïphontes Lyre plugin so I set out to get it directly and took an unexpected turn. Here’s what happened…
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Boards of Canada is a personal favorite of mine, and I have studied their music to learn how they achieved their distinctive sound. Here is what I think I have learned so far (I will continue to add to this page as I learn more). Last updated: 25-March-2026
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For a track that was only on the original vinyl release, this one is a beauty, and lots of people like it a lot. I’d like to know how it was made and I think I can come close to understanding it. Here’s what I have so far. Last updated: 19-December-2025
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I’ve long been a fan of William Basinski’s works with tape loops and have admired his techniques so I set out to understand the nature of his work with analog gear and to try and replicate it in my DAW with plugins.
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Each individual approaches the art of mastering music in their own unique way, influenced by their personal experiences, preferences, and the genres they are passionate about. I thought it might be beneficial to share my process in hopes of inspiring some ideas for others who are on a similar journey. This post serves as a…
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I use the Millennia Media TCL-2 compressor plugin from Plugin Alliance for both mastering and on keyboard channels because of it’s smooth transparent nature. Here’s how I set it up for both situations.
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I use the Purple Audio MC-77 FET compressor plugin from Plugin Alliance to control and enhance my drums and other instruments, and here is how I set it up and use it.
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I like the sound of old samplers, and I use plugins to emulate their sound, but I wanted to know what these emulation effect plugins were doing, so I analyzed a few of my favorites.
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I looked for a way to add binaural beats to my music, and I found it in the most unusual place – Valhalla’s FreqEcho. It is so easy; it is unreal. Oh, and it’s free.
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I like the idea of console emulation plugins so that I can have the sound of a console in my DAW. It gives my tracks a more polished sound and implies I am using a hardware console which is more of a high-end mixing situation. Here are what I found console emulations are producing.
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Ever heard a song and liked the drum track in it? Ever wanted to use that beat in your own tracks but without outright copying it? You can convert it to MIDI and insert it with your own drums. Here’s how…
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Using TAL Vocoder (free), you can make some interesting “percussive-toned beats” that sound similar to the band Plaid. But you have to use the vocoder in an unusual way. The idea came to me as I read an interview with the members of Plaid, a band I like. Updated: 3/8/24
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I have made some presets for the U-he Satin tape machine plugin and put them in my Dropbox, where you can get them.
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Here below is a selection of synth plugins that I have found have that nostalgic, lo-fi, vintage sound epitomized by Boards of Canada and others. Last updated: 27-August-2024.
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The Sonnox products are top-notch, and I wanted to know exactly what the Limiter and Inflator are doing, so I checked them out with some tools. Last Updated: 24-September-2024
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I like Biosphere’s (Geir Jenssen’s) music very much and one of my favorite albums is Shenzhou. The album is made up of repeated looping of Debussy orchestral track samples. The title song is particularly interesting to me as I like the depth and width of the sound. I was able to figure out how to…
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I have found that I like a certain kind of music from a mastering and quality point of view, and I set out to determine why I like it based on several factors that I think could be relevant. I used the Youlean Loudness Meter to make the measurements. I took downloaded song files from…
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Xfer Records Cthulhu program creates arpeggios and chords like none other. Lots of patterns when used with the correct synths, can sound a lot like deadmou5 and this makes sense as Joel Zimmerman has been known to use Cthulhu made by his associate, Steve Duda. I find that often it is desirable for me to…
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Using a reference track when mastering is a kind of standard practice, but it can be done much better with the wonderful EQ matching functions found on so many equalizer plugins. Here’s what I’ve tried and how it’s worked out for me. Last updated: 10-July-2023
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It may seem strange to want background noise in a recording, but it gives it a certain realism as opposed to the cleanliness of a digitally-mastered DAW creation. I like the sound I hear in the background of Susumu Yokota’s Saku from his Sakura album, so I was able to replicate it using common pink…
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Making music with loops is not a new process. However, after thinking about it, I was surprised at how many different ways there are to loop samples to make music. I’ll add to this as I discover more, but the list is long right now. Last updated: 26-December-2020
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For the aspiring tape loopers out there, I’m sure I speak for us all when I say that we’d all like to have the time to play around with splicing tape into loops and recording through a four-track. But when this is not possible, here’s an easy alternative right in your DAW.
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To make my synths and drums more interesting, I sometimes use a simple trick – adding a LFO. I learned this whilst studying Boards of Canada’s music. It often has a wobbly frequency or envelope to it, and I can often replicate this without hardware, but within a DAW using LFOs. Here’s a simple method…
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Programming can be difficult – no doubt about that. It is a whole new language to learn and I am just starting. But where to start? First, I think you need to know where you are going. I am considering programming audio plugins and here are some things I’ve found.
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Simulating a Real-World Piano After having been to Budapest and found an 1896 C. Bechstein piano in the lobby of The Continental Hotel, I’ve learned much more about how I can make the same sound of it or any other piano within Pianoteq or via other vst instruments and effects. But, in fact, I aim…
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Last updated: 3-December-2021 I had the goal of creating a great multi-band compression/expansion scheme using Pro-MB. Fortunately for me, Xfer Records gives away a free plugin effect called OTT that is a three-band compressor. It performs upward and downward compression and is a recreation of the Ableton Live OTT setting (Over the Top) in their…
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Brian Eno is, to me, the undisputed king of ambient music. He coined the term, “ambient music” in his groundbreaking album “Music for Airports.” Here I will revel in his sound-creating process and offer some captured bits of what I know of it – not as an attempt to deconstruct, per se, but more as…
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Composing Electronic Music is a book that has proven invaluable in my equalization settings in my electronic music creations. I would highly recommend it! [click here for a link to it]