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Is Sidechain Compression the new Autotune?

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:00:32 +0000

Feels like we’re all on the tail end of this big autotune kick, no? What was once merely a tool used for subtle (and sometimes less subtle) studio trickery at some point became the favored flourish of major hip-hop artists and sincere folkies alike. It’s been inescapable for years now—sometimes the autotune use was self-aware (more often, however, it wasn’t), and there was a surplus of hi-larious autotuned web junk.

Subtract the mainstream FM-dial oversaturation, and you have the same exact circumstances which surround the recent explosion of sidechain compression in blogworld buzz acts. Sidechain compression, in layman’s terms, is a method by which parts of a given song are ducked around a drum hit, effectively warping the sound, creating a “sucking,” washy quality. Sidechaining is all over Toro Y Moi’s stuff, not to mention the majority of so-called chillwave acts, from Neon Indian to Teen Daze. I’ve been detecting more and more of it lately, and—as with autotune—there’s no shortage of ballsy artists willing to take the effect about as far as they can, sidechaining their tracks until they’re nothing but a big, washy pulse.

So: is sidechain compression the new autotune?

Discuss.

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Tonight’s TV Hot List: Saturday, July 31, 2010

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:00:30 +0000

Beautiful People 10/9c Logo In 1895, Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality got him a two-year stretch in Redding Gaol, and a century or so later things aren’t going all that much better for young Simon, who’s being bullied horribly ever day. So as Simon Doonan’s …
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Veteran Italian screenwriter Cecchi D’Amico dies

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:27:06 +0000

Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico, who contributed to such classics as the neo-realistic masterpiece “Bicycle Thieves,” “The Leopard” and “Big Deal on Madonna Street,” has died at 96.
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Foggy Mornings Are a Good Time to Listen to the Smiths

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:48:58 +0000

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Disney sells Miramax to investor for $660 million

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:28:15 +0000

The Walt Disney Co. said Friday that it agreed to sell its Miramax Films to an investor group for about $660 million, ending a 17-year association with the studio and a six-month bidding process.
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Exclusive: Melissa Reeves Makes a Deal with Days of Our Lives

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:07:00 +0000

Cool news! Suds phenom Melissa Reeves has signed a contract with Days of Our Lives and will resume playing the role of Jennifer Deveraux in September. An NBC rep tells us the actress — who was so terrific in her recent multi-episode return for …
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The Infamous* Mad Rad Diss

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:00:32 +0000

This is what I imagine many Line Out commenters sound like. The tweaker in your basement that probably used to tell people he was a jungle MC a decade ago, that now pretends to be a freedom fighter for Real Hip Hop, in between American Spirits. (This just in from the Real Hip Hop Delegation: “We don’t want him either”.)

When the DJ Premier beat dropped, I LOLD IRL. OK OK OK i know, diss the guy who disses your homeboys but really? No. This is a terrible excuse for a rap song much less the holy art of the diss track. Sorry dude, diss teh Rad if you must, and as many motherfuckers talk about em you think somebody really would—but for crissakes, give em something to work with. This guy is in the same league as this guy. Goddammit, they deserve better.

*’casm

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Tonight’s Hot List: Thursday, July 29, 2010

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:00:30 +0000

Jersey Shore10/9c MTV The Situation, Snooki and the rest of the “GTL” crew are back for a second season of TV’s guiltiest pleasure. But this time, they’re leaving the Jersey Shore behind and taking their fake tans and fist pumps down south to Miami, …
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At Intiman, a potent rendering of a hardscrabble world

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:00:30 +0000

Intiman’s new artistic director, Kate Whoriskey, restages the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Ruined’
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Bright Eyes plans concert to fight immigration law

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:05:07 +0000

Bright Eyes, Cursive and other Nebraska music acts will perform at a concert to raise money to fight a law that would ban the hiring of or renting to illegal immigrants in the Nebraska city of Fremont.
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