One of the most overlooked elements of recording music that separates pro mixes from demos is the quality of the arrangement. I’m not saying we all need complex arrangements, as some songs call for simplicity. But having a great arrangement will truly bring your (hopefully) well written song to life. Today I want to show you a simple technique I call “Instant Arranging” and how it can quickly and easily turn your recordings up a notch. Let’s take a look…
Graham Cochrane is a creative and versatile producer, engineer, songwriter, and worship leader based out of Tampa, FL. He provides remote recording, editing, mixing, and mastering services to clients worldwide through his service Mobile Studio Plus.
As the founder of The Recording Revolution, Graham's articles and tutorials have been featured worldwide by Avid, Presonus, Editors Keys, and Behringer to name a few, reaching readers in over 40 countries.
For more information and samples of Graham's work, please visit www.grahamcochrane.com.
Comments
No comments
Hey Graham sorry to bother you again, a question about recording and reverb:
- In your opinion if I record drums in one studio, gtr in another one and vocal in another else, which is the best way to blend everything togheter in the Mix ?
Record things dry as possible, then use an aux reverb channel for each instrument with the same plug in setup, in order to everything sound like they were sharing the same ambience ?
Greets man!
That’s what I would do. Record fairly dry and then mix to taste. That might even involve a few reverbs (or just one) on aux tracks like you mention.
Do you mean few rev. with different set-ups, like a small space inside a bigger room ?
Thx
Exactly!
Just stumbled on your blog last week and love it. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Im curious as to how you got the drum beat for this video. I love it. It has a very OneRepublic kind of feel to it. Would love to incorporate something similar to that for my EP Im working on. Thanks Graham.
Brandon
@Brandon – Thanks for checking out the site. The drums in that song were all done with Xpand (the free pro tools instrument). There is one simply loop repeated over and over, and then I layered some extra kick, snare, and shaker stuff. All from one plugin.
Thanks for the prompt response. Im amazed everyday at what pro tools is capable of doing. I’ll definitely be trying this soon. Thanks man.
I know what you mean…PT can take you where ever you want to go musically. You just have to tell it.
Graham,
Not sure if you’re willing to do this, but I thought I’d ask…Would you mind sharing with me the loop/kit that you used to generate the sounds within Xpand2? Thanks man.
Brandon
No problem bro. All the drums are with Xpand2 The main loop is under LOOPS and then RANDOM SFX GROOVE 02. In the chorus I played a custom beat to layer over the loop using the SESSION DRUMS kit from the DRUMS menu.
Hope that helps!
dude. you are awesome. thanks for the info.
Anytime my man!