Introduction

This past weekend, I had a blast exploring the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, hosted by the Colorado Audio Society. It was my third year attending, and I hope it won't be my last.

If you're not in-the-know, it's a big convention for high-end stereos aimed at consumers. The exhibitors are brands that make things like speakers, stereo amplifiers, speaker cables, DACs, and other aspects important to home audio. To host this in an open convention hall would be madness, so they essentially rent out an…

Introduction

If you want to use compression on a vocal track, there are two routes you can take: run audio out through your interface through a hardware compressor and back into your computer, or just slap on a plugin compressor. Same if you want to use EQ, or delay, or reverb; you have the same two choices: hardware or software?

I used to get bummed by this choice: I didn't have the money for expensive hardware gear, or even a place to put it if I did. The mere mention of hardware effects felt like a…