 markets and related issues, and distill that down and popularize it, and educate other activists so that we can be effective in moving the free-market message forward.”
“Since I started writing online [in 1998] there’s been an explosion of activity… So, even though I was one of the first online writers in Colorado, in terms of free market politics, recently I’ve been surpassed by a lot of other younger, hipper activists who have been faster to take advantage of social media… So I’m playing catch-up again even though I was one of the early ones online.”
“I’ve been interested in free market politics and the philosophical foundations of the free market since high school. And my dad had a fairly big influence on me, in that he gave me a couple of books when I was in high school. The first was Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, and the second was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. My dad and I work together now; we write a column together for a small newspaper in Western Colorado called Grand Junction Free Press.”
“I’ve certainly been strongly influenced by Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. A funny thing happens with Ayn Rand: her ideas seem very exciting to youthful readers, but it’s easy to miss the subtlety of her ideas. So a lot of people read her and then sort of fall out of those ideas, because they’re not seeing the greater depth there. But I had the fortune of getting back into some of those ideas and exploring them in a more deep sort of way.”
“Anybody who reads [my book, Values of Harry Potter] will recognize that there are crossover themes between what I’m finding in Harry Potter and themes in Ayn Rand’s novels. Now, of course, I don’t want to make too much of those, however. But, when you’re looking at things like the importance of free will, the importance of heroes struggling after their values, then I think there are some real similarities. But then I of course go into the differences, too, and a big part of my motivation was to explore both the similarities and the differences.”
“You see activists burn out all the time, because they have unrealistic, short-term expectations, such as some grand political victory… And when that doesn’t happen they burn out and drop out. And that’s not really the way that activism works, usually, though there can be short-term political victories. But activism really is a very long-term, educational process. And, yes, we do some practical politics, but… we’re not going to shift the culture without educating the population. And this is an inherently slow process.”
“This is a big problem that I think a lot of potential activists have. They look out there and they see some expert, whether a great radio personality or a great writer, and they think, ‘Wow, that person is so great, that I could never do anything like that.’ But the fact is that that that person started somewhere. That person started out just doing college radio, or doing a podcast, or something like that. Everybody starts small and grows from there. So if you wait to become the expert before you start doing anything, you’ll never be the expert, because you’re not building the experience. So the way to learn how to write letters to the editor is to write a letter to the editor, then send it out to your friends for editing, improve it, and eventually you’ll be able to write it with a lot less trouble… People wait for other people to do the work for them, or to push them into it, and you can’t do that. It’s too late in the game now to have that luxury. You have to get out there and be self-motivated, and jump into the game, even if you don’t know quite how to swim yet. Because, damn it, you’re not going to learn how to swim until you get in the water.”
Listen to the entire interview!AFRICA: In Somalia, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo promised the Somali military would retaliate and avenge al Shabaab’s attack on a military base in the Puntland region that left at least 38 people dead.
AMERICAS: The National Liberation Army rebel group insisted it wanted a “bilateral ceasefire” with the Colombian government, as violence flared up in the northwestern Choco region.
ASIA: The Japanese parliament passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to become Japan’s first monarch to abdicate in 200 years.
EUROPE: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on the US is “no longer interested in guaranteeing Europe’s security,” supporting the push for more defense and security cooperation on its own.
MIDDLE EAST: Qatar rejected allegations of supporting individuals and groups blacklisted as “terrorists” by a bloc of Arab neighbors amid a major diplomatic falling out.
TECHNOLOGY: The Philippine military asked Facebook to close dozens of accounts linked to Islamist militants, saying they were being used for propaganda.
United Kingdom: PM May’s Conservative Party loses parliament majority.
British PM Theresa May’s bet that she could strengthen her grip on power by calling an early election backfired spectacularly, with her Conservative Party losing its parliamentary majority.
With most results declared, May’s party won the most seats — but not enough to govern without the support of minority parties.
The Tories are set to get 319, Labour 261, the SNP 35 and the Lib Dems 12, as an overall majority requires 326 seats.
European diplomats and politicians fear hung parliament and weak PM are ‘disaster’ that threaten Brexit negotiations.
In wake of the election results, the pound lost more than 2 cents against the dollar.
May is believed to have struck a deal, but not a formal coalition agreement, with the Democratic Unionist Party which will narrowly give her the numbers she needs to pass legislation in the House of Commons.Compression is used to subtly rub the track to make it more natural sounding and intelligible without adding distortion into a song that’s more “comfortable” and melodious to listen to. Compressors and limiters are used to reduce dynamic range i.e. the span between the softest and the loudest sounds of the track.
Using compression makes your tracks sound more polished by controlling maximum levels and maintaining the loudness of the track.
Today, in most of the DAWs, there’s the ability to easily insert a compressor plugin to every single track in your track arrangement module. Refer to our DAW Buyer’s Guide to know more about choosing the right DAW for you.
In the older day, before digital DAWs, compressors were actual hardware modules. Since this hardware was limited in features, the audio engineers had to prioritize inserting the compressor to tracks that needed compression. Also, these types of compressors were time-consuming and may not provide the intended results.
AUDIO COMPRESSION EXPLAINED - HOW THE TOOL/PLUGIN WORKS?
Irrespective of the type of compressor you use – hardware unit or a plug-in, there are some parameters and controls that are common and are used in audio compression that you should be familiar with. Getting informed about these controls will enable you to work on a wide range of compressors.
The threshold control is the setting that fixes the level at which the compression effect is deployed. Only when the level passes above the threshold, it is compressed. For example, if the threshold level is set at -10 dB, only the signal peaks that extend above that level will be compressed.
It acts as an administrator over all the other controls and activates the compression.
The “knee” here refers to how the compressor passes between the non-compressed and compressed states of a signal that is running through it. Generally, compressors will offer one setting. But in some compressors, there is a switchable choice between both, a “soft knee” and a “hard knee” setting. Some compressors even allow you to control the selection of any position between the two types of knees.
These types of options in “knee” offer more space for the audio engineer to work out a suitable solution for the track.
Release time is the opposite of attack time. It is the time it takes for the signal to go from the compressed state back to the original non-compressed signal. Release times are considerably longer than attack times and generally range anywhere from 40-60 ms to 2-5 seconds. But it also depends on the type of compressor you use.
The release time should be set as short as possible without producing a “pumping” effect, which is generally the result of activation and deactivation of compression.
Compression ratio is the amount of attenuation applied to the signal. The higher the ratio settings are, the more you are compressing your track. By controlling the ratio, you determine how much compression is applied to the audio signal, once over the threshold level. There is a wide range of ratios available depending on the type and manufacturer of the compressor you are working with.
Since compressed signals are louder, compression-induced attenuation actually lowers the output. This is where the ‘Output gain’ or which is generally referred to as ‘make up gain’ comes in. The output gain is used to “make-up” for the attenuation done by the compressor. Hardware compressors achieve “make-up” gain using either tube or solid-state components which influences the amount of color or “effect” applied to your track.
WHEN & WHY IS COMPRESSION NEEDED?
Adding compression depends on the audio engineer’s mindset and demand of the track. It also