Mastering The Mix’s Fuser helps clean up your mix and reduce frequency clashesEveryone has trouble producing a clean mix from time to time – especially in the low end. One useful way to create space in a mix is to dynamically duck a bass part when the kick plays, for example. Sidechain compression is one way to achieve this but arguably the most transparent way is to only duck the frequencies that are clashing, rather than the entire signal. But plugins using this technique often take a broad approach – Mastering The Mix’s Fuser lets you dial in exactly where you want to clean up your audio.

READ MORE: iZotope Ozone 11 is an unparalleled audio processing suite with future-proof features

To use Fuser, put an instance on the track you’d like to make space in (such as a bass bus), and then feed the sound that you want more prominent (like a kick drum) into the sidechain input. After a few seconds of listening, the spectrogram in the centre will show any frequency collisions, with red areas indicating clashes in the mid-channel, and yellow in the side channel. You can then hit a Resolve Conflicts button, and Fuser will add one or more parametric bands that focus the processing where it’s needed.
At its most basic, this is all that’s required to make a noticeable improvement to the audio without overdoing the processing – but you can go deeper and tweak things to refine the results. You can have up to ten bands, each with controls for quality (Q), attack and release, and where it’s placed between the mid and side channels. You simply pull a band down further to increase the amount of ducking, which is then clearly shown via a reduction curve on the spectrogram. There’s also a mix dial to help quickly pull back on the processing and a useful Delta function that lets you listen to just the clashing frequencies.
Mastering The Mix Fuser main GUI. Image: Mastering The Mix
To get the best results, MTM suggests you do a little gain staging work first. As plugins can’t detect DAW volume fader levels, there’s a feature called Gain Stage Fix, which lets you input an offset for the input and sidechain channels, in case they’re not set at 0dB. There’s also a Level Match Pointer, which moves up and down around the Input level dial, offering a suggestion to help volume-match the two signals. You could choose to ignore it, but it’s possible that the mix collision issue might be improved by having the two tracks sounding more balanced.
The obvious way to test Fuser’s effectiveness is to compare it to other spectral ducking plugins. We place instances of Fuser, Wavesfactory TrackSpacer, and iZotope’s Neutron 4 Unmask plugin on a bus with lots of mid-range music content, and then set each sidechain to receive a vocal. All three capably carve out space to let the vocal shine, but when pushed a little harder, you can start to hear that Fuser has cleaner-sounding filters. Both Neutron and TrackSpacer can sound a little phase-y when you increase the amount of ducking. This is less true of Fuser, especially if you go into the settings and switch the filters from zero latency to linear phase FIR mode. Of course, this will increase your CPU load and latency – and linear phase isn’t always the best option for transient material – but as you’ll potentially be affecting an entire bus, it’s nice to know you can easily increase the sound quality.
Fuser has an interesting feature called Automatic Phase Rotation. At the click of a button, the plugin will listen to your two sources and rotate the track audio phase to find the closest fit. This is a much more nuanced approach than simply flipping the phase 180 degrees, and although it doesn’t have such a noticeable effect on higher frequency content, it’s incredibly useful and effective at increasing punch on kicks, basses and tracks with low-end.
Mastering The Mix Fuser Phase Rotate. Image: Mastering The Mix
Alternatively, you can switch Fuser into Phase Match mode to massage the sound into an exact match of the phase shape at different frequencies. This one is a bit more hit-and-miss, but it’s nice to have the option, and it can double up as a fantastic sound design tool.
Tucked away in the graph above, you also get low-cut and high-cut sliders that let you focus on the region where the phase tool is working.
To fully put the Phase Rotate function through its paces, we load up a mix project that has a ridiculous number of kick drum tracks. In normal circumstances, it would take a lot of work to get these to sit well together and we would likely end up scrapping some of the layers. However, after selecting a single kick as the sidechain input and then using the Phase Rotate (and a small amount of Phase Match), we are able to get a large-sounding and surprisingly usable kick sound.
Our minor gripe with Fuster is that the minimum attack speed for the ducking is 1ms and there’s no lookahead. This means you may find small transients slip through when working on certain percussive sounds. To be fair, it’s unlikely you’ll be using Fuser to duck in this extreme way; it works best when used subtly.
Ultimately, Fuser does what several other plugins already do, but it does it with more finesse and accuracy. TrackSpacer is five years old now, but is still an effective plugin that gets the job done quickly. If you feel like you’d like a little more control though, then Fuser is another step up that lets you hone your ducking with more precision. It also has the excellent Phase Rotate function which is a must-have for anyone who likes to layer drum sounds.
The post Mastering The Mix’s Fuser helps clean up your mix and reduce frequency clashes appeared first on MusicTech.

US Treasury sanctions crypto wallets as authorities crack down on fentanylAccording to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, the sanctioned wallets "received millions of USD funds over hundreds of deposits" used for illicit drugs.

Electric Hydrogen is the green hydrogen industry’s first unicornInvestors have historically been skeptical of green hydrogen. High production costs, expensive infrastructure builds, competition with batteries and minimal government support have made the green hydrogen sector a risky bet. But at least one company, Electric Hydrogen, seems to have found a way to convince investors that its tech is a bet they should take. […]

5 of the most important rhythms in music
Learn about five influential rhythms that have shaped a wide array of genres and styles across the globe.

JH Audio Introduces Pearl Tri Amp Macro Speaker Management System JH Audio, innovator and manufacturer of leading in-ear monitoring products for professional touring artists and audio engineers, announces the availability of its new Pearl Tri Amp Micro Speaker Management System, the latest innovation in IEM audio technology. The system includes the brand’s PC-based Pearl Control Software and Pearl Loader program, which offer functions that allow users to precisely control gain, phase, time and equalization of low, mid and high frequencies of an in-ear monitor. The system is available exclusively with a pair of JH Audio’s new Ruby in-ear monitors, which when used together will make it possible to reproduce any frequency response or audio signature.  



In addition to its control benefits, the Pearl system utilizes an actively controlled passive crossover (ACPX), keeping the latency low ― between .60 and .80 milliseconds. This is especially important to live performers, who require a latency of less than five milliseconds. 

“Pearl processing provides unparalleled control to shape and optimize the audio and performance of any in-ear monitor solution,” says Jerry Harvey, owner of JH Audio. “The system’s low-latency benefits are the result of a passive crossover in the IEM, and active control over the low, mid and high speaker circuits, which each have their own amplifier and processing. We sweeten the passive crossover slopes with equalization, which does not increase latency.”

Spotify adds free Audiobooks to Premium Subscriptions at no extra costSpotify is adding more than 150,000 audiobooks as part of existing Spotify Premium subscriptions in the UK and Australia starting today and in the US this winter. In the announcement,. Continue reading
The post Spotify adds free Audiobooks to Premium Subscriptions at no extra cost appeared first on Hypebot.

Soundiron Harpsichord The Harpsichord, a keyboard sensation from the 16th to mid 18th century, once ruled European music. This versatile instrument was a star in both Renaissance and Baroque compositions, shining... Read More

YouTube Shorts sponsors Manager of the Year category at A&R AwardsShort-form video platform backs management showdown at UK industry's elite awards night
Source

Latin music super fans spend over 30% more on music-related activities than other music super fans in the US (report)US market monitor Luminate has published its new Latin Music Report
Source

OCTO8R Autumn Vibe Autumn Vibe for bx_oberhausen Embrace lo-fi colors of autumn. 100 presets include: Arp - 10 (+14 Bonused). Bass - 5 (+6 Bonused). Keys - 10 (+15 Bonused).... Read More

VSL introduce Synchron Duality Strings Sordino Synchron Duality Strings Sordino again captures ensembles of different sizes performing in two contrasting rooms, but with mutes fitted at the bridges of each instrument.

JME: Spotify should create “unlockable music” only available by attending eventsJME may have stepped back on regularly releasing new music in the past decade, but he’s still full of ideas. The UK grime MC, songwriter and record producer recently shared on social media a vision for a Spotify tool that could help re-introduce a “tangible” dimension to new music consumption.

READ MORE: Spotify unveils tool for artists to pay to promote music on home screen

The idea, according to JME, would require fans to go to a physical event or location in order to “unlock” albums, EPs or singles on streaming platforms rather than just being given them instantly. This would mean the music is only listened to by the biggest fans who are willing to put in the effort in order to be able to listen to it, rather than just being delivered as part of a recommended playlist, for example.
“I don’t want to throw music into the communal abyss,” JME writes in an X post, referring to the vast swathes of new music going on Spotify and Apple Music on a daily basis. “But I want people that actually care and love music to have it. I miss the days of tangible music. The process of going somewhere to get the music meant you actually cared.
“So I had an idea… Spotify & Apple Music should make streaming music slightly more tangible by having unlockable albums/songs. Make it so that some songs are available only by attending an event/location.”

This one comment made me think,
I don’t want to throw music into the communal abyss,
But I want people that actually care and love music to have it.
It’s not all about money either, even though we get 0.005p per stream…
I miss the days of tangible music.
So I had an idea… pic.twitter.com/L6f4T479kA
— Jme (@JmeBBK) October 3, 2023

Big Zuu responded with “That would be cold.” One fan, however, wasn’t entirely sold on the idea, writing, “Issue is though, some people may not be able to get there if it’s an event. Maybe if you had to get down to your local HMV or something but then that’s just buying a CD basically, isn’t it?” Another said, “you have to think of accessibility and fans that aren’t privileged geographically to benefit from this.”
“If they can’t get there then they can’t get there,” responds JME, “That’s the point? If I make a song and I want everyone at Wireless [festival] to have it, and you can’t get there, then you don’t get it.”
Recent statistics in vinyl record purchases show an uptick in music fans looking for more tangible ways of consuming music. MusicTech’s recent feature, How the vinyl industry weathered pandemic disruptions to emerge stronger than ever, highlights that record stores are “places to get in touch with new music in an accessible way”. A recent Luminate report also showed that US vinyl record sales increased by 21.7 per cent in the first half of 2023.
Follow JME on Twitter/X.
The post JME: Spotify should create “unlockable music” only available by attending events appeared first on MusicTech.

Monster Toys Is A FREE Toy Instrument Plugin By MonsterDAW
MonsterDAW releases Monster Toys, a FREE toy instrument plugin for macOS and Windows. MonsterDAW is the brand behind previous releases like Monster Synth, Monster Strings, and generally, all things monster-related around here. Agus Hardiman is the mastermind behind MonsterDAW, and it’s fair to say that his latest development is his most serious work to date. [...]
View post: Monster Toys Is A FREE Toy Instrument Plugin By MonsterDAW

Spotify prompt-driven AI playlists risk devaluing many artists, genresSpotify is testing AI-generated playlists based on custom prompts. The streamer successfully launched its AI-powered DJ feature last year. Code pointing to prompt-driven AI playlists was discovered within the Spotify. Continue reading
The post Spotify prompt-driven AI playlists risk devaluing many artists, genres appeared first on Hypebot.

An emerging artist’s guide to building a profitable tourThere are so many pieces to planning a successful tour, which can be especially hard to put together as an up-and-coming artist. Here are some tips to help get musicians. Continue reading
The post An emerging artist’s guide to building a profitable tour appeared first on Hypebot.