Building upon one of my older articles, Top 10 Guitar Mixing Techniques , here are even more tips and tricks to make your electric guitar sound better in your mix.
1. Long Release on Chords - For a longer, more sustained sound for chords, use a long release on your compressor. Think if it this way: the longer the release, the longer the sustain of the chords.
2. Fast Attack to Reduce String Sound - Compression is used to create shape, it's not just used to control the volume. A really fast attack really pushes down on the initial strum, resulting in a more pad-like sound.
If you combine a fast attack with a fast/medium release you'll end up with a chord that seems to wash over you, especially if you hit the chords(and your compressor) hard.
3. Re-amp if Needed - Re-amping means routing your performance from your DAW into an amp and recording it again. If you recorded a great performance through a guitar emulator and you're not satisfied with the sound, re-amping is a great way to give your electric guitar more depth. It's a perfect way to tweak a great performance that has a lackluster sound.
4. Cut at 800 Hz - I always seem to dip a little at 800 Hz, it takes the cheap sound away. Especially if I'm working with cheap guitars.
5. EQ the reverb - Reverb is the number one culprit when it comes to a muddy mix. This trick is applicable to any instrument, but make sure to filter out some of the low-end of your reverb send when mixing electric guitar. It'll still give your guitar space and depth, but without the unnecessary muddiness.
6. Use subgroups - If you're working with many similar guitar track, grouping them together makes mixing a lot easier. This is one of the most important advice I can give. It's simple but extremely important. Bus, route and group your tracks and suddenly your tracks become more manageable.
7. Use the Right Reverb - Take your time to go throw your reverbs. Choosing the right reverb depends on a lot of things: genre of music, speed of song, type of feel.
You can't get a large open vocal sound with a small jazzy -club preset. You're better off with a hall setting. Also, a fast rock song with a cathedral reverb is going to muddy up the mix immediately. So take your time to use the right reverbs for the song.
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 December 2016
Wednesday, 30 November 2016
6 Awesome Tips And Tricks To Sound Better When Recording Vocals Audio Issues
Have you tried recording your own singing voice in a studio?
It usually doesn't sound anything like you thought it would the first time you hear it. It can almost sound… bad.
You know you sound good and other people have told you the same thing.
So what gives?
Don't worry. Just like many singers, you may sound horrible the first time that you studio. But that's not how it has to be forever. You can significantly improve your sound through these tips and tricks on better vocal recordings.
1. Prepare Before Recording
Do not rush into the vocal booth before you are ready. Standing in a studio about to record vocals can be very intimidating for new singers. So practice a lot before recording.
Try recording yourself prior to hitting the studio and listen back to note what you like and correct what you don't like. Establish the right key and smooth out any range difficulty. Your vocal technique should be good enough to avoid wasting time in the studio with lots of takes and auto-tuning. That also means it's better to have your lyrics and melody memorized so you're not fumbling around.
2. Microphone Technique
Your preparation should also include standing in front of a microphone. In the studio, microphone to mouth distance remains constant. Since you will be standing relatively still as you record your song in a studio, it will be better to get used to it beforehand. Singers with little experience behind microphones make fidgety head movements, which can ruin the recording. Common microphone techniques are:
Volume Control
Move closer to the microphone as the volume gets softer and farther as the volume gets louder. This will help level out volume fluctuations, which can help reduce the amount of compression needed later on.
Avoid Popping And Sibilance
Pronouncing words containing P's and B's that produces extra bursts of air is known as popping.
Sibilance is the excessive hissing when producing S's and F's sounds. You will not notice these extra bursts of sound in daily conversation but will be painfully obvious in recordings.
Adjusting your angle and distance from the microphone can help reduce traces of popping and sibilance.
Control Breath Sounds
Turning your head to the side with each breath will help avoid those breathing sounds that need to be edited out later on.
3, Select The Right Microphone
Before you start recording, run through a verse using different microphones at a time.
Record three separate tracks without changing the EQ and volume settings then listen back. Doing so will help you choose which is the right microphone for you. A microphone mismatch can distort the quality of your voice. Match the personality of the microphone to the uniqueness of your voice to sound great in recording.
4, Shape Your Vowels When Singing
Shaping your vowels allows you to give more emotion when you are singing. It also allows you to use your voice to flow within the instrument track. Vowels are the sound of your voice, let the consonants take a secondary role. Good studio singers know how to shape their vowel sounds and use them to end their words with more character.
5. Communicate Through Your Song
As you sing your song, the lyrics must become your own communication.
Mean what you say phrase by phrase - use emotion.
Your phrasing should relate to your emotion and should be believable within the style of the music. Making your lyrics and emotions pop through a recording is important to coming up with your own unique style that is felt by listeners. This also comes back to comfort in the studio - not being nervous and doing what you can to avoid those nerves (like memorizing your songs, practicing beforehand, etc).
6. Song Delivery
Let your voice and emotion reach through your recording to your listener's heart. Bring out the same energy and believability as you would in a live performance to create an emotional effect. It can be hard in the studio.
But to accomplish this, imagine that you are singing to someone. Sing the song as if the person is in front of you and the lyrics are directed at them. Connect with the listening audience as you would to a live audience. It will shine through on your recording.
Mistakes and flaws become more visible after recording. If you do not like the way you sound, just follow these steps and practice more. It won't be long before you improve your vocals and head towards becoming a professional singer that can belt out a great recording in a single take. You can do it!
It usually doesn't sound anything like you thought it would the first time you hear it. It can almost sound… bad.
You know you sound good and other people have told you the same thing.
So what gives?
Don't worry. Just like many singers, you may sound horrible the first time that you studio. But that's not how it has to be forever. You can significantly improve your sound through these tips and tricks on better vocal recordings.
1. Prepare Before Recording
Do not rush into the vocal booth before you are ready. Standing in a studio about to record vocals can be very intimidating for new singers. So practice a lot before recording.
Try recording yourself prior to hitting the studio and listen back to note what you like and correct what you don't like. Establish the right key and smooth out any range difficulty. Your vocal technique should be good enough to avoid wasting time in the studio with lots of takes and auto-tuning. That also means it's better to have your lyrics and melody memorized so you're not fumbling around.
2. Microphone Technique
Your preparation should also include standing in front of a microphone. In the studio, microphone to mouth distance remains constant. Since you will be standing relatively still as you record your song in a studio, it will be better to get used to it beforehand. Singers with little experience behind microphones make fidgety head movements, which can ruin the recording. Common microphone techniques are:
Volume Control
Move closer to the microphone as the volume gets softer and farther as the volume gets louder. This will help level out volume fluctuations, which can help reduce the amount of compression needed later on.
Avoid Popping And Sibilance
Pronouncing words containing P's and B's that produces extra bursts of air is known as popping.
Sibilance is the excessive hissing when producing S's and F's sounds. You will not notice these extra bursts of sound in daily conversation but will be painfully obvious in recordings.
Adjusting your angle and distance from the microphone can help reduce traces of popping and sibilance.
Control Breath Sounds
Turning your head to the side with each breath will help avoid those breathing sounds that need to be edited out later on.
3, Select The Right Microphone
Before you start recording, run through a verse using different microphones at a time.
Record three separate tracks without changing the EQ and volume settings then listen back. Doing so will help you choose which is the right microphone for you. A microphone mismatch can distort the quality of your voice. Match the personality of the microphone to the uniqueness of your voice to sound great in recording.
4, Shape Your Vowels When Singing
Shaping your vowels allows you to give more emotion when you are singing. It also allows you to use your voice to flow within the instrument track. Vowels are the sound of your voice, let the consonants take a secondary role. Good studio singers know how to shape their vowel sounds and use them to end their words with more character.
5. Communicate Through Your Song
As you sing your song, the lyrics must become your own communication.
Mean what you say phrase by phrase - use emotion.
Your phrasing should relate to your emotion and should be believable within the style of the music. Making your lyrics and emotions pop through a recording is important to coming up with your own unique style that is felt by listeners. This also comes back to comfort in the studio - not being nervous and doing what you can to avoid those nerves (like memorizing your songs, practicing beforehand, etc).
6. Song Delivery
Let your voice and emotion reach through your recording to your listener's heart. Bring out the same energy and believability as you would in a live performance to create an emotional effect. It can be hard in the studio.
But to accomplish this, imagine that you are singing to someone. Sing the song as if the person is in front of you and the lyrics are directed at them. Connect with the listening audience as you would to a live audience. It will shine through on your recording.
Mistakes and flaws become more visible after recording. If you do not like the way you sound, just follow these steps and practice more. It won't be long before you improve your vocals and head towards becoming a professional singer that can belt out a great recording in a single take. You can do it!
Friday, 18 November 2016
Audio Recording Basic Training Chapter 8 Excerpt
Lead Vocal Mic Placement
Just like with a great sounding instrument, many times with a good singer you'll get the "sound" automatically just by putting him/her in front of the right microphone. On the other hand, with a bad or inexperienced singer even a high priced microphone or signal processing won't add the polish you're looking for. That said, if you start with the correct technique, you're half-way there.
There are a number of things to remember before you begin to place the mic:
The best mic in the house won't necessarily get the best vocal sounds, so don't be afraid to experiment with different mics.
Decoupling of the stand from the floor will help get rid of many unwanted low-frequency rumbles that occur from truck traffic, machinery being used down the street, footsteps, and things that are even lower in frequency than normal hearing. Just place the stand on a couple of mouse pads or a rug for an inexpensive solution.
One of the main things that you're trying to do with mic placement is eliminate pops, lip smacks, and breath blasts.
An easy way to have a vocalist gauge the distance from the mic is by hand lengths. An open hand is approximately eight inches while a fist is about four inches. By saying, Stay two fists away”, the vocalist can easily judge his distance and usually doesn't forget (see Figure 8.2).
Exercise Pod: Recording The Lead Vocal
E8.1: Recording Lead Vocal
A) Place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away (see Figure 8.2) and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts?
B) Move the vocalist back to about two hands away and sing the same part of the song. Turn up the gain so it's the same as before. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts now?
C) Move the vocalist back to one hand away and readjust the gain. Place the mic even with the vocalist's nose and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
D) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's eyes and point it down towards the lips (see Figure 8.3). Have him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
E) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away again. Either change the pickup pattern to omnidirectional or change the mic to one with an omni pattern.
Have him sing the verse of a song again. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
F) Place the mic so there's no breath blasts or pops.
E8.2: Adding A Compressor
A) Go back to your favorite mic, place it at either nose or eye level, point at the lips and continue.
B) Insert a compressor into the signal chain either on an insert in the console or preamp, or placed between the preamp and DAW input.
C) Set the Attack And Release controls to medium, the Ratio to 4:1, and raise the Threshold until there's 2dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
D) Decrease the Attack time (make it faster) until it catches more of the peaks and there's 5 or 6dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? What happens if you lengthen the Release time? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
E) Set the Output control of the compressor so that the record level is about -10dB on the meters.
You've Got To Hear Yourself
In order for a vocalist to stay in tune, she's got to hear herself. How much she hears herself will actually determine if she stays in pitch or not.
Some singers sing sharp when they sing too hard because they push themselves over the top of the correct pitch when they're not loud enough in the headphones so they sing harder to compensate. The secret is to either have more vocal or less of everything else in the monitors or phones, but be aware, pitch and timing problems also occur if a singer hears too much of the vocal and not enough band in the mix.
If the vocalist is singing flat, turn him down a little or add more of everyone else in the mix. Less vocal makes you want to sing harder (and possibly raise your pitch slightly) and vice versa.
Sometimes the mix is too dense and having a mix with fewer instruments can help with a pitch problems.
Boost the bass guitar (the root of all chords) and kick drum (the root of all rhythm) to help the singer with pitch and to stay in the pocket.
Turn down anything that's heavily chorused and turn up anything that has a more "centered" tonal frequency (like a piano).
Sometimes listening to only the rhythm guitar instead of two guitars (if there are two in the mix) can be helpful since some singers can hear their pitch better from a simple tonally-centered instrument than from screaming guitars or airy synth patches.
Copyright 2014-2016 Bobby Owsinski Media Group
Just like with a great sounding instrument, many times with a good singer you'll get the "sound" automatically just by putting him/her in front of the right microphone. On the other hand, with a bad or inexperienced singer even a high priced microphone or signal processing won't add the polish you're looking for. That said, if you start with the correct technique, you're half-way there.
There are a number of things to remember before you begin to place the mic:
The best mic in the house won't necessarily get the best vocal sounds, so don't be afraid to experiment with different mics.
Decoupling of the stand from the floor will help get rid of many unwanted low-frequency rumbles that occur from truck traffic, machinery being used down the street, footsteps, and things that are even lower in frequency than normal hearing. Just place the stand on a couple of mouse pads or a rug for an inexpensive solution.
One of the main things that you're trying to do with mic placement is eliminate pops, lip smacks, and breath blasts.
An easy way to have a vocalist gauge the distance from the mic is by hand lengths. An open hand is approximately eight inches while a fist is about four inches. By saying, Stay two fists away”, the vocalist can easily judge his distance and usually doesn't forget (see Figure 8.2).
Exercise Pod: Recording The Lead Vocal
E8.1: Recording Lead Vocal
A) Place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away (see Figure 8.2) and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts?
B) Move the vocalist back to about two hands away and sing the same part of the song. Turn up the gain so it's the same as before. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts now?
C) Move the vocalist back to one hand away and readjust the gain. Place the mic even with the vocalist's nose and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
D) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's eyes and point it down towards the lips (see Figure 8.3). Have him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
E) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away again. Either change the pickup pattern to omnidirectional or change the mic to one with an omni pattern.
Have him sing the verse of a song again. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
F) Place the mic so there's no breath blasts or pops.
E8.2: Adding A Compressor
A) Go back to your favorite mic, place it at either nose or eye level, point at the lips and continue.
B) Insert a compressor into the signal chain either on an insert in the console or preamp, or placed between the preamp and DAW input.
C) Set the Attack And Release controls to medium, the Ratio to 4:1, and raise the Threshold until there's 2dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
D) Decrease the Attack time (make it faster) until it catches more of the peaks and there's 5 or 6dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? What happens if you lengthen the Release time? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
E) Set the Output control of the compressor so that the record level is about -10dB on the meters.
You've Got To Hear Yourself
In order for a vocalist to stay in tune, she's got to hear herself. How much she hears herself will actually determine if she stays in pitch or not.
Some singers sing sharp when they sing too hard because they push themselves over the top of the correct pitch when they're not loud enough in the headphones so they sing harder to compensate. The secret is to either have more vocal or less of everything else in the monitors or phones, but be aware, pitch and timing problems also occur if a singer hears too much of the vocal and not enough band in the mix.
If the vocalist is singing flat, turn him down a little or add more of everyone else in the mix. Less vocal makes you want to sing harder (and possibly raise your pitch slightly) and vice versa.
Sometimes the mix is too dense and having a mix with fewer instruments can help with a pitch problems.
Boost the bass guitar (the root of all chords) and kick drum (the root of all rhythm) to help the singer with pitch and to stay in the pocket.
Turn down anything that's heavily chorused and turn up anything that has a more "centered" tonal frequency (like a piano).
Sometimes listening to only the rhythm guitar instead of two guitars (if there are two in the mix) can be helpful since some singers can hear their pitch better from a simple tonally-centered instrument than from screaming guitars or airy synth patches.
Copyright 2014-2016 Bobby Owsinski Media Group
Saturday, 5 November 2016
A Powerful ‘N Punchy Guide To Mixing Your Drums Audio Issues
Your drum sound is one of the most important aspects of your mix. Mixing drums is therefore a number one priority for laying that solid foundation to your tracks, guaranteeing you a solid rhythm section.
Drums can be one of the most problematic instruments to get right in a mix.
If you did a great job recording the drum kit, then mixing your drums can only be a pleasurable experience.
BUT WHERE TO START?
Kick Drum Sound
Mixing drums starts with the foundation of the kick drum. The sound of the kick drum, along with the snare will be the defining factors of your drum sound. If you leave the kick drum sounding bad, the whole foundation of the song will lose its footing. The kick drum needs to be tight and punchy, with enough low end to fill up the bass range and enough mids to cut through the mix.
EQ
A boomy kick drum can also cloud up the clarity of your kick drum sound, so it's normally a good idea to cut around 200 - 250 Hz if you feel there is too much muddiness in your kick drum sound. A boxy kick drum sound is also a common nuisance, which can be fixed with Eq'ing out the boxiness that resides in the aread around 300 - 600Hz or so.
If your kick drum is all thump and no snap then we need to bring out the sound of the beater. We can usually find it around the 2 - 4 Khz area. Depending on the genre of the song, and the type of beater used, different frequency boosts in the beater area generate different sounds. A boost at 2.5 Khz is more of a typical rock sound as opposed to a narrower boost at around 4 Khz, which results in a Hardcore Metal type snap.
EQ is very important to me, which is why I spend a considerable time educating my email subscribers on the topic. From getting rid of muddiness to EQ'ing your kick and snare effectively, my newsletter subscribers get exclusive articles that help them get better at using EQ to create separation in your mixes. Take a quick second to subscribe right here.
Compression
When mixing drums, along with everything else, using compression is a subjective subject and everyone has an opinion on how things should be compressed. That said, there are a few guidelines you can follow to get a steadier kick drum sound.
How much gain reduction you want from the compressor depends on the genre, the steadiness of the drummer and the feel of the song. I usually start with a ratio of 4:1 or 6:1 and lower the threshold down until I'm compressing around 6 dBs.
Then I adjust the attack and release depending on what sort of sound I want. A fast attack clamps down on the transient of the kick drum, dulling the initial attack down somewhat, but a slower attack lets the attack of the beater break through before the compressor starts working.
I try to time the release in time with the beat, so that the compressor has stopped compressing before the next hit. It's easy to do this in modern DAWs because you are able to see the gain reduction meter working, enabling you to tweak the release perfectly in sync with the song.
EQ and Compression are the fundamental processors for any mix session. If you understand how these two processors work, then you've solved at least 80% of your mixing problems.
Snare Drum Sound
Partner in crime with the kick drum, the snare drum is the other defining rhythmic factor to the song. It's all about the snare” an experienced engineer once told me, because it's what supplies the song with that steady backbeat. Since it's such an important aspect of mixing drums, there needs to be a lot of care taken with getting the best sound possible.
EQ
EQ-wise, there is not an awful lot you need below 100 Hz, so you can start by high-pass filtering all the low end away.
The body of the snare can be brought forward with a little boost at around 150Hz, if you feel like it's lacking some thickness.
I like thick snares so I often catch myself adding a little weight to the snare around that area.
If your snare has ringing frequencies that you find annoying you can try pinpointing them by boosting a specific frequency band with a high Q and sweeping the spectrum until they pop out. I find that sometimes the snare needs a little cut in the mids, either resulting from boxiness at 500 - 800 Hz or too much of a nasally attack from the area around 1 Khz.
Enhance the attack of the snare with a broad boost around 2 - 4 Khz and search for the sizzle of the snares in the higher frequencies.
Compression
Like I do with the bass drum, I try to make the snare compress in time with the song. By timing the attack and release I can get a nice steady snare sound that breathes with each hit. I normally leave the attack at a medium to slow setting so that the snap of the snare is unaffected, and time the release so that it stops compressing just in time for the next hit.
I start with a ratio of 3:1, often going way higher as it depends on the genre how hard I want the compressor to be pumping. You can adjust the threshold so that it is only lightly compressing the peaks for a subtle sound, or you can push the threshold down harder for a heavily compressed sound.
Snare compression is perhaps one of the most argued about subjects in audio production. Every engineer has a certain method to mixing drums, and I think it's up to you to experiment and get acquainted with the knobs and sliders on your audio compressor so that you can create the sound that you want.
REVERB
You can create a completely different snare sound by just applying an interesting reverb to it. Whether that's a rock arena reverb, subdued room or even a spring reverb, different reverbs can transform the sound of your snare drum.
Go through your reverbs and see what type of reverb sounds best with the song you're mixing. Are you going to add a bright plate reverb to make it stand out, or will you be mixing it into a specific room with a small room sound? If you are in a particularly adventurous mood, you can try adding some gated reverb to your snare.
Mixing the Toms
EQ'ing
If the toms are playing a big part in your drum sound, mixing them so that they sound punchy and powerful is crucial to a great drum sound.
Get them punchy with EQ. The best way to EQ toms is to find the unflattering frequencies with your equalizer. Normally, these are the middle frequencies, from 300 - 800 Khz or so.
Find the boxy and unwanted frequencies, cut them out and then add low end power and high end punch as needed.
When mixing drums like toms, sometimes you need to finely cut a few adjacent frequencies instead of scooping out a big portion of the frequency spectrum.
Compressing
By adding a generous amount of compression to your toms you can get a larger than life sound out of them. You can fatten them up considerably with some tight compression, and with the addition of a little reverb you can make them sound huge and powerful. If that's what you want to go for.
The same rule of subtle compression applies as well to toms if you only want to control the peaks and lightly color their signal.
Overheads
The overheads might be the most important microphones on the kit. The overheads are the microphones that are supposed to pick up every drum and give a complete sound to your drum kit.
There are two ways of mixing drums with the overheads; you can either use them as the primary sound, sculpting every drum around the overhead sound or you can use them to primarily accent the cymbals and air around the kit.
By adding the overheads to the mix early on, you can get a better sense of the full sound of the kit, making your drum mixing easier.
Just notice how different a snare drum microphone sounds compared to a snare that's coming from the overhead mics.
By adjusting the overheads with the rest of the close miked drums you can get a different sound.
By focusing on the overheads you can get a roomier sound, but if you want a close in-your-face drum sound you would rather use the overheads as complimentary to the rest of the drums, mainly using them to accent the cymbal sounds.
The Hi-Hat
Mixing drums is a selective process, meaning that certain elements of the drum-kit only need specific frequency ranges.
You only need a specific frequency range from the hi-hat. Considering that the hi-hat microphone is probably picking up a lot of bleed from other drums, some heavy high-pass filtering is in order. Filter up to 250 Hz at least, even higher if you feel that you aren't losing anything from the hi-hat sound with higher filtering.
Now if you feel that there is something lacking from the hi-hat, or that you want to bring out the gong sound, you can find it in the 200 Hz area. So if your hi-hat needs a little more gong to it, you will have to sacrifice that aggressive filtering. Like everything else, just filter until you start hearing the sound becoming compromised and then back off a little bit.
Cutting at 1Khz can reduce the cheap jangly sound from the hi-hat, but you can enhance and give it some sparkle with a boost from 7 Khz or so. Use a high shelving EQ if you want to enhance the high end with some air, but a parametric bell EQ if you just want to accent a specific frequency area.
Room Mics
Room microphones give a different sound to the drum kit than the regular overhead mics.
Due to the distant miking technique most room mics are recorded with, we get a full sound of the drum-kit as well as a great amount of the reverb of the room it was recorded in.
Which, depending on the sound of the room, can either sound amazing or horrible.
Mixing Drums With a Roomy Sound
But let's assume our recording room is great. With a nice room mic picking up the complete kit we can try a few different techniques. We can apply some heavy compression to the room mics to get an even punchier sound.
We can EQ the kit as to draw out the most important elements, such as kick and snare and we can add it underneath an already great drum sound for that final touch.
Mixing Drums Into a Room
If the drums weren't recorded in a nice sounding room and sound quite dead when they come from the recording stage, it's time to add some space to our drum tracks.
A good way to add some ambience to our drum tracks is to add a 0.5 second drum room reverb. You can add a a nice amount to the overhead tracks, and maybe even a slightly different reverb to the snare to make it stand out. Go through your reverbs to try to find the best sound to your particular track.
I actually want to stop the article here and give it up for my buddy David Glenn of David Glenn Recording. He has a really cool video on mixing acoustic drums, especially when it comes to creating space and reverb using some nice plug-ins:
He actually has a cool video series on Mixing Drums if you want a complete, 7 hour in-depth tutorial on the matter.
Conclusion
Mixing drums is a challenging but enjoyable aspect of audio production. Since there are so many different ways of getting the drums to sound with EQ, compression and other mixing tricks there is no actual right way of mixing drums.
The only solid piece of advice I can give you for mixing drums is to experiment with all the tools you have on hand. Get every element to sound as good as possible and then try to mold them together to make them sound like a complete whole.
As always, there are trends in the music industry as to what sounds good right now, but being able to get whatever sound you want, whether it's huge 80's toms or a 90's arena rock snare is an important aspect of being a well rounded mixing engineer.
We've gone through quite a long journey on the different aspects of mixing drums, which I hope you enjoyed.
Drums can be one of the most problematic instruments to get right in a mix.
If you did a great job recording the drum kit, then mixing your drums can only be a pleasurable experience.
BUT WHERE TO START?
Kick Drum Sound
Mixing drums starts with the foundation of the kick drum. The sound of the kick drum, along with the snare will be the defining factors of your drum sound. If you leave the kick drum sounding bad, the whole foundation of the song will lose its footing. The kick drum needs to be tight and punchy, with enough low end to fill up the bass range and enough mids to cut through the mix.
EQ
A boomy kick drum can also cloud up the clarity of your kick drum sound, so it's normally a good idea to cut around 200 - 250 Hz if you feel there is too much muddiness in your kick drum sound. A boxy kick drum sound is also a common nuisance, which can be fixed with Eq'ing out the boxiness that resides in the aread around 300 - 600Hz or so.
If your kick drum is all thump and no snap then we need to bring out the sound of the beater. We can usually find it around the 2 - 4 Khz area. Depending on the genre of the song, and the type of beater used, different frequency boosts in the beater area generate different sounds. A boost at 2.5 Khz is more of a typical rock sound as opposed to a narrower boost at around 4 Khz, which results in a Hardcore Metal type snap.
EQ is very important to me, which is why I spend a considerable time educating my email subscribers on the topic. From getting rid of muddiness to EQ'ing your kick and snare effectively, my newsletter subscribers get exclusive articles that help them get better at using EQ to create separation in your mixes. Take a quick second to subscribe right here.
Compression
When mixing drums, along with everything else, using compression is a subjective subject and everyone has an opinion on how things should be compressed. That said, there are a few guidelines you can follow to get a steadier kick drum sound.
How much gain reduction you want from the compressor depends on the genre, the steadiness of the drummer and the feel of the song. I usually start with a ratio of 4:1 or 6:1 and lower the threshold down until I'm compressing around 6 dBs.
Then I adjust the attack and release depending on what sort of sound I want. A fast attack clamps down on the transient of the kick drum, dulling the initial attack down somewhat, but a slower attack lets the attack of the beater break through before the compressor starts working.
I try to time the release in time with the beat, so that the compressor has stopped compressing before the next hit. It's easy to do this in modern DAWs because you are able to see the gain reduction meter working, enabling you to tweak the release perfectly in sync with the song.
EQ and Compression are the fundamental processors for any mix session. If you understand how these two processors work, then you've solved at least 80% of your mixing problems.
Snare Drum Sound
Partner in crime with the kick drum, the snare drum is the other defining rhythmic factor to the song. It's all about the snare” an experienced engineer once told me, because it's what supplies the song with that steady backbeat. Since it's such an important aspect of mixing drums, there needs to be a lot of care taken with getting the best sound possible.
EQ
EQ-wise, there is not an awful lot you need below 100 Hz, so you can start by high-pass filtering all the low end away.
The body of the snare can be brought forward with a little boost at around 150Hz, if you feel like it's lacking some thickness.
I like thick snares so I often catch myself adding a little weight to the snare around that area.
If your snare has ringing frequencies that you find annoying you can try pinpointing them by boosting a specific frequency band with a high Q and sweeping the spectrum until they pop out. I find that sometimes the snare needs a little cut in the mids, either resulting from boxiness at 500 - 800 Hz or too much of a nasally attack from the area around 1 Khz.
Enhance the attack of the snare with a broad boost around 2 - 4 Khz and search for the sizzle of the snares in the higher frequencies.
Compression
Like I do with the bass drum, I try to make the snare compress in time with the song. By timing the attack and release I can get a nice steady snare sound that breathes with each hit. I normally leave the attack at a medium to slow setting so that the snap of the snare is unaffected, and time the release so that it stops compressing just in time for the next hit.
I start with a ratio of 3:1, often going way higher as it depends on the genre how hard I want the compressor to be pumping. You can adjust the threshold so that it is only lightly compressing the peaks for a subtle sound, or you can push the threshold down harder for a heavily compressed sound.
Snare compression is perhaps one of the most argued about subjects in audio production. Every engineer has a certain method to mixing drums, and I think it's up to you to experiment and get acquainted with the knobs and sliders on your audio compressor so that you can create the sound that you want.
REVERB
You can create a completely different snare sound by just applying an interesting reverb to it. Whether that's a rock arena reverb, subdued room or even a spring reverb, different reverbs can transform the sound of your snare drum.
Go through your reverbs and see what type of reverb sounds best with the song you're mixing. Are you going to add a bright plate reverb to make it stand out, or will you be mixing it into a specific room with a small room sound? If you are in a particularly adventurous mood, you can try adding some gated reverb to your snare.
Mixing the Toms
EQ'ing
If the toms are playing a big part in your drum sound, mixing them so that they sound punchy and powerful is crucial to a great drum sound.
Get them punchy with EQ. The best way to EQ toms is to find the unflattering frequencies with your equalizer. Normally, these are the middle frequencies, from 300 - 800 Khz or so.
Find the boxy and unwanted frequencies, cut them out and then add low end power and high end punch as needed.
When mixing drums like toms, sometimes you need to finely cut a few adjacent frequencies instead of scooping out a big portion of the frequency spectrum.
Compressing
By adding a generous amount of compression to your toms you can get a larger than life sound out of them. You can fatten them up considerably with some tight compression, and with the addition of a little reverb you can make them sound huge and powerful. If that's what you want to go for.
The same rule of subtle compression applies as well to toms if you only want to control the peaks and lightly color their signal.
Overheads
The overheads might be the most important microphones on the kit. The overheads are the microphones that are supposed to pick up every drum and give a complete sound to your drum kit.
There are two ways of mixing drums with the overheads; you can either use them as the primary sound, sculpting every drum around the overhead sound or you can use them to primarily accent the cymbals and air around the kit.
By adding the overheads to the mix early on, you can get a better sense of the full sound of the kit, making your drum mixing easier.
Just notice how different a snare drum microphone sounds compared to a snare that's coming from the overhead mics.
By adjusting the overheads with the rest of the close miked drums you can get a different sound.
By focusing on the overheads you can get a roomier sound, but if you want a close in-your-face drum sound you would rather use the overheads as complimentary to the rest of the drums, mainly using them to accent the cymbal sounds.
The Hi-Hat
Mixing drums is a selective process, meaning that certain elements of the drum-kit only need specific frequency ranges.
You only need a specific frequency range from the hi-hat. Considering that the hi-hat microphone is probably picking up a lot of bleed from other drums, some heavy high-pass filtering is in order. Filter up to 250 Hz at least, even higher if you feel that you aren't losing anything from the hi-hat sound with higher filtering.
Now if you feel that there is something lacking from the hi-hat, or that you want to bring out the gong sound, you can find it in the 200 Hz area. So if your hi-hat needs a little more gong to it, you will have to sacrifice that aggressive filtering. Like everything else, just filter until you start hearing the sound becoming compromised and then back off a little bit.
Cutting at 1Khz can reduce the cheap jangly sound from the hi-hat, but you can enhance and give it some sparkle with a boost from 7 Khz or so. Use a high shelving EQ if you want to enhance the high end with some air, but a parametric bell EQ if you just want to accent a specific frequency area.
Room Mics
Room microphones give a different sound to the drum kit than the regular overhead mics.
Due to the distant miking technique most room mics are recorded with, we get a full sound of the drum-kit as well as a great amount of the reverb of the room it was recorded in.
Which, depending on the sound of the room, can either sound amazing or horrible.
Mixing Drums With a Roomy Sound
But let's assume our recording room is great. With a nice room mic picking up the complete kit we can try a few different techniques. We can apply some heavy compression to the room mics to get an even punchier sound.
We can EQ the kit as to draw out the most important elements, such as kick and snare and we can add it underneath an already great drum sound for that final touch.
Mixing Drums Into a Room
If the drums weren't recorded in a nice sounding room and sound quite dead when they come from the recording stage, it's time to add some space to our drum tracks.
A good way to add some ambience to our drum tracks is to add a 0.5 second drum room reverb. You can add a a nice amount to the overhead tracks, and maybe even a slightly different reverb to the snare to make it stand out. Go through your reverbs to try to find the best sound to your particular track.
I actually want to stop the article here and give it up for my buddy David Glenn of David Glenn Recording. He has a really cool video on mixing acoustic drums, especially when it comes to creating space and reverb using some nice plug-ins:
He actually has a cool video series on Mixing Drums if you want a complete, 7 hour in-depth tutorial on the matter.
Conclusion
Mixing drums is a challenging but enjoyable aspect of audio production. Since there are so many different ways of getting the drums to sound with EQ, compression and other mixing tricks there is no actual right way of mixing drums.
The only solid piece of advice I can give you for mixing drums is to experiment with all the tools you have on hand. Get every element to sound as good as possible and then try to mold them together to make them sound like a complete whole.
As always, there are trends in the music industry as to what sounds good right now, but being able to get whatever sound you want, whether it's huge 80's toms or a 90's arena rock snare is an important aspect of being a well rounded mixing engineer.
We've gone through quite a long journey on the different aspects of mixing drums, which I hope you enjoyed.
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Technology And The Audio Engineer
Audio engineering is an art form that is typically appreciated only by audiophiles and those who engineer or produce music for a living. Behind every engineer is the technology that helped create the sounds we hear. Ask the average person to name a recording engineer and they will most likely have no reply. Ask them to name any of the equipment used to make a recording and they will be equally dumbfounded. Although the names may not be known by those outside the music industry, the impact they have had on music production throughout the decades is immeasurable.
The expertise and ingenuity of the audio engineer has brought many artists to the forefront of the industry. In many cases, those accomplishments were backed by advancements in recording technology. The Beatles, for example, were known for many amazing creative and technical feats in the recording studio. The vision of George Martin and the genius of the Fab Four had to be realized in physical form by engineers who found ways to make that vision a reality. They stretched the boundaries of what was possible, by embracing new technology, and made history in the process.
1900-1940's: Vinyl Discs and cutting lathes rule into the late 40's
During this era technology was fairly limited. Even though there were major technological developments, their use in the recording studio was limited by the marketplace. Vinyl disc sales had not quite grown big enough to support large recording budgets and thus support radical change in the design of recording studios. As you will see in the coming decades, this outlook would change dramatically.
All records, during this period, were largely made the same way with the same recording techniques and recording technology. The audio engineer, sporting a white lab coat, was not generally considered part of creative process. The audio engineer was primarily there to just capture performances. Artists, composers and arrangers were largely responsible for the success or failure of their production. At this point in history, the limitations of cutting lathe technology did not allow the audio engineer enough latitude to enhance the artist's performance by any great measure.
1950's: Analog tape machines replace cutting lathes in the recording studio.
Analog recording technology was developed in the late 40's but its true impact was not felt until the 50's. The physical limitations of vinyl were coming to a head. Performances captured on cutting lathes for vinyl production were limited by the time available on a disc side, the amount of low frequency content, and the dynamics of the performance. Any of these basic issues, out of balance, could easily render a beautiful performance destroyed.
Analog tape changed these parameters dramatically. At worst, performances that were too long, bass heavy or with excessive dynamics might require editing or suffer from some distortion or tape compression. Multiple performances or takes could be easily edited together to make one better performance. Performances that would not fit on one side of a record could be easily split between Side A and Side B or edited in length to fit on one side of a vinyl disc. The transfer engineer, now known as mastering, was born.
1960's: Multitrack recording technology and the release of stereo recordings.
The 1960's saw the full realization of stereo technology that was created in the 50's. The recording technology that emerged from the 60's would change the way recordings were made forever. While consumers were enjoying stereo on vinyl discs, recording engineers were working with multitrack recording. Multitrack recording allowed individual instruments to be recorded on separate tracks. Once separated they could be processed individually when mixed into stereo for the commercial release. The Mix engineer's position was born.
Sel-Sync multitrack recording (selective synchronization) allowed the audio engineer to rerecord individual performances synchronously with other tracks on the same tape machine.
This would allow the vocalist to rerecord their part if the band captured a perfect take but the vocal performance was not up to the same standard. With careful forethought, It would also be possible for additional parts to be layered. Harmonies, doubles and additional instruments could be added to a performance to enhance or sweeten the sound of the recording.
The term "overdubbing" was now part of audio engineer's vocabulary.
This was a truly revolutionary change in the production process. The ability to separate and layer performances would grow exponentially in the coming years. It would expand the time artists spent in the recording studio dramatically. The early albums of the 60's might take a few days to complete. By the end of the 60's those same records would take weeks or even months to complete.
The expertise and ingenuity of the audio engineer has brought many artists to the forefront of the industry. In many cases, those accomplishments were backed by advancements in recording technology. The Beatles, for example, were known for many amazing creative and technical feats in the recording studio. The vision of George Martin and the genius of the Fab Four had to be realized in physical form by engineers who found ways to make that vision a reality. They stretched the boundaries of what was possible, by embracing new technology, and made history in the process.
1900-1940's: Vinyl Discs and cutting lathes rule into the late 40's
During this era technology was fairly limited. Even though there were major technological developments, their use in the recording studio was limited by the marketplace. Vinyl disc sales had not quite grown big enough to support large recording budgets and thus support radical change in the design of recording studios. As you will see in the coming decades, this outlook would change dramatically.
All records, during this period, were largely made the same way with the same recording techniques and recording technology. The audio engineer, sporting a white lab coat, was not generally considered part of creative process. The audio engineer was primarily there to just capture performances. Artists, composers and arrangers were largely responsible for the success or failure of their production. At this point in history, the limitations of cutting lathe technology did not allow the audio engineer enough latitude to enhance the artist's performance by any great measure.
1950's: Analog tape machines replace cutting lathes in the recording studio.
Analog recording technology was developed in the late 40's but its true impact was not felt until the 50's. The physical limitations of vinyl were coming to a head. Performances captured on cutting lathes for vinyl production were limited by the time available on a disc side, the amount of low frequency content, and the dynamics of the performance. Any of these basic issues, out of balance, could easily render a beautiful performance destroyed.
Analog tape changed these parameters dramatically. At worst, performances that were too long, bass heavy or with excessive dynamics might require editing or suffer from some distortion or tape compression. Multiple performances or takes could be easily edited together to make one better performance. Performances that would not fit on one side of a record could be easily split between Side A and Side B or edited in length to fit on one side of a vinyl disc. The transfer engineer, now known as mastering, was born.
1960's: Multitrack recording technology and the release of stereo recordings.
The 1960's saw the full realization of stereo technology that was created in the 50's. The recording technology that emerged from the 60's would change the way recordings were made forever. While consumers were enjoying stereo on vinyl discs, recording engineers were working with multitrack recording. Multitrack recording allowed individual instruments to be recorded on separate tracks. Once separated they could be processed individually when mixed into stereo for the commercial release. The Mix engineer's position was born.
Sel-Sync multitrack recording (selective synchronization) allowed the audio engineer to rerecord individual performances synchronously with other tracks on the same tape machine.
This would allow the vocalist to rerecord their part if the band captured a perfect take but the vocal performance was not up to the same standard. With careful forethought, It would also be possible for additional parts to be layered. Harmonies, doubles and additional instruments could be added to a performance to enhance or sweeten the sound of the recording.
The term "overdubbing" was now part of audio engineer's vocabulary.
This was a truly revolutionary change in the production process. The ability to separate and layer performances would grow exponentially in the coming years. It would expand the time artists spent in the recording studio dramatically. The early albums of the 60's might take a few days to complete. By the end of the 60's those same records would take weeks or even months to complete.
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Top 10 Vocal Mixing Tricks And Techniques Audio Issues
You know the vocals are usually the most important part of every mix.
That's why I thought I'd put together a handy tip sheet for you that you can use the next time you're struggling with mixing vocals.
Here we go:
1. Filter and cut - This is simple but important. Filter the low-end, cut the nasally mids and smooth out the highs if they're too sibilant.
2. Cut guitars between 1 - 3 kHz - It's not the vocal's fault that it doesn't fit in the mix. Sometimes you need to cut the guitars in the high-mids to make room for the voice.
3. In your face but spacious - Increase the early reflections on your reverb to separate it from the vocal. That means you can still have plenty of space without making the reverb clutter up the early phrases of the voice.
4. Separate stereo - You might be tempted to put a doubler or a stereo spread on the main vocal track. Don't. Send your main vocal to a separate bus so you can keep the punchiness of the main vocal track with some extra stereo spread from the bus underneath.
5. Accent phrases - If you have a good single vocal track but want some extra accents for certain phrases, copy the vocal track and use slight pitch-shifting and delay to make only certain phrases sound doubled. They'll cut through the mix and give the voice more dynamics.
6. Side-chain your guitar to the vocal - If the guitar and vocal are fighting you can duck the guitar out of the way every time the voice is singing. Easy automatic automation.
7. Mix up the spaces - Is the verse quiet and the chorus big? Use short delays and hard compression in the verse and spacious reverbs and smoother compression in the choruses to break things up.
8. Make the vocal the priority - Try to get a good vocal sound as soon as possible during the mix. If you've mixed the drums, bass, guitar, synths, percussion and orchestra first there's not a lot of space for the vocal anymore. Save yourself some time and give the vocal the space it needs. Then, add the other instruments.
9. When in doubt, simplify - Is the vocal sounding great with just that one channel strip and a reverb? Great. Your job's done. No need for 5 extra processors to take down the rabbit hole. Focus on the rest of the mix.
10. Double and Pan Wide - Double your vocal(either artificially or using the actual double), pan them hard left and right in the choruses. This makes the chorus stand out more and sound wider.
Use some of those next time you're working on vocals.
That's why I thought I'd put together a handy tip sheet for you that you can use the next time you're struggling with mixing vocals.
Here we go:
1. Filter and cut - This is simple but important. Filter the low-end, cut the nasally mids and smooth out the highs if they're too sibilant.
2. Cut guitars between 1 - 3 kHz - It's not the vocal's fault that it doesn't fit in the mix. Sometimes you need to cut the guitars in the high-mids to make room for the voice.
3. In your face but spacious - Increase the early reflections on your reverb to separate it from the vocal. That means you can still have plenty of space without making the reverb clutter up the early phrases of the voice.
4. Separate stereo - You might be tempted to put a doubler or a stereo spread on the main vocal track. Don't. Send your main vocal to a separate bus so you can keep the punchiness of the main vocal track with some extra stereo spread from the bus underneath.
5. Accent phrases - If you have a good single vocal track but want some extra accents for certain phrases, copy the vocal track and use slight pitch-shifting and delay to make only certain phrases sound doubled. They'll cut through the mix and give the voice more dynamics.
6. Side-chain your guitar to the vocal - If the guitar and vocal are fighting you can duck the guitar out of the way every time the voice is singing. Easy automatic automation.
7. Mix up the spaces - Is the verse quiet and the chorus big? Use short delays and hard compression in the verse and spacious reverbs and smoother compression in the choruses to break things up.
8. Make the vocal the priority - Try to get a good vocal sound as soon as possible during the mix. If you've mixed the drums, bass, guitar, synths, percussion and orchestra first there's not a lot of space for the vocal anymore. Save yourself some time and give the vocal the space it needs. Then, add the other instruments.
9. When in doubt, simplify - Is the vocal sounding great with just that one channel strip and a reverb? Great. Your job's done. No need for 5 extra processors to take down the rabbit hole. Focus on the rest of the mix.
10. Double and Pan Wide - Double your vocal(either artificially or using the actual double), pan them hard left and right in the choruses. This makes the chorus stand out more and sound wider.
Use some of those next time you're working on vocals.
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