KERN audio / field notes
field notes.
weekly Tuesday email. one mixing or DSP idea per issue. ~5 minute read. 3,500+ producers reading. no spam, easy unsub.
Jun 23, 2026
·sound science
you cannot fix a local problem globally
a harsh spot in one narrow band is a local event. reach for a global fix, a broad eq, the whole fader, and you dull everything that was fine while the problem survives. masking is local. the fix should be too.
Jun 16, 2026
·sound science
the harshness you stacked yourself
stacking the same part many times does not just make it bigger. it makes the few frequencies every layer shares reinforce into a hard, narrow edge. here is why thickness turns brittle, and what actually fixes it.
Jun 9, 2026
·sound science
why your widener kills your snare
a wider mix and a softer snare are the same move. width is decorrelation, and decorrelation is the natural enemy of a sharp transient and a safe mono fold. here is the trade, and the three rules that get you the size without the cost.
Jun 2, 2026
·sound science
the half of compression nobody teaches
compression is a mirror. downward turns loud parts down. upward turns quiet parts up. most producers only ever learn one half.
May 19, 2026
·build log
the tooltip I deleted
Tuesday night I added a tooltip to clarify a knob. Wednesday morning I deleted both. here is the rule the tooltip broke.
May 12, 2026
·sound science
your compressor inherits everything upstream
Mathieu sent a session asking why his bus comp sounded mushy. the answer was three plugins earlier in the chain. four jobs that come first.
May 5, 2026
·field notes
the case for fewer controls
Softube ships a four-knob controller. iZotope sells 17. the real question is not how many knobs but which ones are load-bearing.
Apr 28, 2026
·longread
the case for fewer controls (long version)
why fewer controls, well chosen, beats more controls every time. a piece on plugin design philosophy in 2026.