Our ears and brains help us sense that louder sounds have higher amplitudes and…softer sounds have lower amplitudes;…however, to put that information to better use in a musical application, we need…to be able to measure a sound wave's amplitude more exactly.…Then we can create rules of what to do when a specific amplitude level is…reached, and control the range of a soundwave's amplitudes to our advantage.…This measurement process forms the basis of all dynamics processors.…If we can measure it, we can start controlling it.…
There are many ways to measure amplitude.…Inside our digital audio workstation, we will use dBFS, or Decibels Full Scale.…This scale defines our system's maximum and minimum amplitude values,…otherwise known as dynamic range.…This helps us measure and control the relative amplitude of audio signals within that range.…Sometimes the dBFS can confuse people because it counts up from negative…numbers and ends at 0.…Why does it do this?…In a digital audio system, values above 0 are simply cut off, or clipped,…
Author
Updated
1/11/2014Released
12/22/2011- Measuring amplitude
- Understanding dynamic range
- Introducing compressors
- Utilizing compression ratios
- Applying attack and release
- Evening out a vocal performance with compression
- Adding punch and sustain to drums
- Using compression presets intelligently
- How to record with compression
- Solving common mix problems with limiters
- De-essing a vocal track
- Using gates and expanders
- Controlling frequency content with multiband compressors
- Using sidechains creatively
- Keying gates and compressors
- Fixing overcompressed tracks
- Using mixbus compression
- Working with parallel compression
- Compression and limiting best practices
Skill Level Intermediate
Duration
Views
Q: This course was updated on 1/10/2014. What changed?
A: The Get in the Mix videos have been updated to the most recent version of Pro Tools. Also, the course now includes free Get in the Mix sessions for two more DAWs: Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 11.
Related Courses
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Audio Foundations: EQ and Filters
with Brian Lee White2h 28m Intermediate -
Music Production Secrets: Larry Crane on Mixing
with Larry Crane1h 51m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome1m 40s
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1. Audio Dynamics
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What is amplitude?1m 51s
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Measuring amplitude1m 57s
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What is dynamic range?4m 8s
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2. Compressors
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Introducing compressors1m 45s
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Understanding threshold1m 29s
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Applying attack and release5m 22s
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3. Limiters
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Introducing limiters1m 59s
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Types of limiters4m 16s
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4. Special Dynamics Processors
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5. Advanced Topics
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Conclusion
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Goodbye14s
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An Interview with the Author
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Video: Measuring amplitude