Busy week this week, but I wanted to bring some of my previous tutorial videos covering mixing techniques all into one convenient place for you to enjoy. Take a few minutes, review the content in them, and apply them to your songs. If you do, I know you’ll see an improvement in your mixes. Also, please let me know if these videos have helped you in any tangible way. Have fun!
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…
Well you asked for it. Here is a video going over what plugins and processing I used to mix the raw drum tracks you heard in last week’s post. In it I briefly touch on EQ, compression, and some busing techniques to get the drums sounding clear and punchy. Enjoy!
Recording and mixing drums is a huge challenge. A few weeks ago I posted a video showing you how I recorded drums in someone’s living room. We used 7 microphones going straight into some affordable mic pres, straight into Pro Tools. We were all very pleased with the raw sound we got. Today however I want you to hear an audio example of the raw verses mixed drum track so you can get a feel for what you can do in a home studio.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A lot of what goes on in mixing drums is getting the right EQ balance. You want to make sure you’re hearing both the low end in the kick as well as the click of the beater. The snare needs to be deep and fat but at the same time crack and cut through the rest of the mix. Obviously you’re hearing the drum mix out of context with the rest of the band so it’s hard to explain my mixing decisions, but I wanted to show you some screen grabs of the plugins I was using on this track.
Here you can see I’ve got a generous boost on the kick drum at around 56hz to emphasize some of that low end, while at the same time I’ve got a slight cut around 150hz to get out of the way of my bass guitar. I also wanted to bring out the attack of the beater on the drum head, but felt it best to really affect a copy of the kick drum track and blend it in with the original. So I bussed the kick out to an aux track and applied some serious EQ to it. See below.
The two kick drum tracks combine nicely to give me that low end that I want as well as that “click” to cut through the mix (especially on speakers with bad bass response like little earbuds).
The snare is my most favorite drum so I tried to take some time with this. There is compression, EQ, an expander, reverb, and even harmonic distortion on this track. Right now I just want to show you my EQ curve for the snare as well as some grit I added with the free Massey Tape Head plugin I mentioned in a post a while back.
Using an analog tape emulator plugin like Massey’s Tape Head is a great way to give a snare track some “air” and crackle. I simply flipped the mode to “bright” and adjusted the drive knob to taste.
For the snare EQ I used a high pass filter to roll off a lot of low end. I boosted a smidge around 350hz to bring out the fullness in the drum. Then I cut some of the “boxiness” out around 625hz or so to get rid of the cardboard sound. And finally I used a subtle shelf to boost the highs to open up the air and presence of the snare.
I tend to run all the drum tracks through a stereo bus and treat it like a group fader. What I also do is run a copy of all the drum tracks to a second stereo bus and then compress the heck out of it. This gives me a lifeless, but slamming, stereo mix of the drums which I can mix in underneath the uncompressed kit. I used another free plugin, the Bomb Factory 1176 that comes with Pro Tools to slam those drums down.
I obviously used more plugins than these, but really all I ever use to get drums to where they need to be are the basics: EQ, compression, reverb, and the occasional distortion plugin. There is no real secret to mixing drums other than listening a lot and using your basic tools to bring it all into focus. And like anything, the more you mix, the better you’ll get. Now get to it!
–
For a video covering the techniques I used in mixing these drums click here!
Today let’s get right to the point. If you’re recording music, then typically you want the final product to be quality. You want a great, clear, exciting sound that displays your creativity and talent and moves people to tears (or joy, or head banging, or whatever…you get the idea). If this is a given, then why in the world do most of us tend to record our tracks as if the mixing stage of the process is going to somehow make that desire a reality?! Here’s the real secret to getting a great final mix…
Here’s the truth people. The most important tip I could give you as a producer and engineer (and musician!) is to record your tracks the way you want them to sound in the final mix. It’s that simple. Don’t assume the “magic” will happen in the mix. The “magic” happens in the tracking room with the actual instrument/performer and your microphone.
The art of recording is that…the recording! Great mixes (and great songs for that matter) come much easier when they start with great recordings. Whatever sounds you hear in your head, make them a reality before you ever hit “record” in your DAW. Is the instrument in tune? Do you have new strings/drum heads etc? Have you rehearsed the music enough? Is your mic placement ideal for the sound you’re going for? Do you know whether or not you want to double/triple your vocals? All of these are the types of quesions you need to ask yourself (of the band) and then answer and execute.
I’ve written about mic placement before and how this one simple skill (that comes from experience and practice) will affect your recordings way more than which mic you are using. This huge truth simply reiterates what I’m trying to say in this article: the best sounding tracks are the ones that started with the best sounding recordings. You will get a better mix and a better album when you take the recording process seriously and try to think of the mix with every take you capture.
This tip goes hand in hand with The #1 Rule of Home Recording. If you don’t work in your studio with this rule in mind then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. So read the free eBook if you haven’t already, focus on being intentional with your recordings, and stop leaving things for the mix. Your tracks will be better off, trust me.
In light of the recent launch of REthink Pro Tools, I wanted to share a sample video from the tutorial series. In video 6 I go over putting the finishing touches on your mix and in one section I cover your options for bouncing your tracks down to a stereo audio file, ready for distribution.
Of course you can just simply use the built in Bounce To Disk option, but there are some great benefits to using the sometimes little known record to disk option. This video should shed some light on the issue. Enjoy!
Sometimes when working on an album or series of songs you tend to mix with some similar plugin settings. For instance, your kick drum may have been recorded the exact same for each song. Therefor any tweaks you needed to do on it for one song may very well be needed for all the songs. Instead of having to remember what EQ curve you tweaked for the kick in one session wouldn’t it be nice if you had saved a custom preset in your EQ plugin that you could recall in a separate session? Heck yes it would! And you can. Here’s how:
What ever settings you have your plugin set to, this is what you are going to capture as a preset. Click on the drop down menu in the Presets section of the plugin window and choose Save Setting.
Give your “new setting” a name. Try to name it something practical that you’ll recognize when you see it later. Try to be as specific as you can also. Click Save and you’re done. Pro Tools has automatically placed your new setting in the correct folder for that plugin.
Now when you want to apply that custom preset to a new track (even in a new session) you can simply open the plugin, click on the factory default button, and BOOM! there’s your brand spankin’ new preset ready and waiting for you to open it up. Select it and watch your plugin settings change to your custom preset.
With custom plugin presets in Pro Tools, your possibilities are limitless. You can save custom delay settings for vocals, EQ effects for guitars, even mix bus compressor settings ready to be recalled at a moments notice. Remember, the more time you save in Pro Tools mumbo jumbo, the more time you get for making music. And isn’t that what this is all about anyways?
So I keep getting asked the same question by readers and YouTube subscribers, “How do you process your vocals in a mix?” Or put this way, “What plugins do you use to get your sound?” Since that is a subjective topic, I figured the best way to handle it was to do a video showing you my way of mixing vocals. There is no right or wrong here people. That’s what I love about music, the freedom to create sounds that YOU enjoy.
There are however some helpful things to keep in mind if you want your mixes, and specifically your vocals, to translate well in the real world. Hopefully this video will get you on your way to rockin’ vocal bliss! Enjoy.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Melodyne, the fantastic pitch correction (and manipulation) software from Celemony, and how I believe it to be the best way to touch up vocals. We had a healthy debate brewing about pitch correction, in general, over on my Facebook fan page and some interesting comments surfaced. Today I want to briefly touch on this debate and let you decide for yourself whether or not pitch correction is “cheating.”
One person, Monique, argued on my post that any kind of pitch correction is cheating. “As a vocalist/musician, Auto Tune and Melodyne should just go away. I believe it is offensive to all real musicians who have been working on their craft.” This sentiment is shared by many people, and I understand why.
Pitch correction software (and hardware) has enabled some vocalists who would potentially struggle in having consistently in tune performances to hang with those “more talented” than themselves. In a way (the argument goes) it removes the need for a lot of practice as well as the challenge of nailing a vocal take in the studio. I can identify with that last point, and in fact I wrote about it in my eBook The #1 Rule of Home Recording. I firmly believe that all the technology afforded us these days has a tendency to make us “lazy” when recording. We lose a sense of urgency and focus because heck, we can record a million more takes or “fix” it later…right?
Like Monique mentions, performing as a musician, even in the studio, is a craft that takes time to hone. If pitch correction makes us progressively more lazy, then music will inevitably suffer.
On that same Facebook post, many fans were quick to defend pitch correction and gave a slew of reasons. “[Pitch correction]“, Joe says “is no more cheating than using reverb. Or should we all just record in a cavern to get that pure reverb effect?” Toby mentions, “After-the-fact pitch correction is a legitimate time-saving tool that allows for great performances without fussing over a few suspect pitches.”
As I mentioned on Facebook, I believe that there are primarily two reasons anyone would (and should) use pitch correction: to subtly correct pitch, or as an effect. Seems obvious, but here’s the point.
Even the best musician needs some help in the studio. Whether you realize it or not, right now, in studios all across the world, top talent performances are being edited. What I mean is, drum fills are being tightened a bit, bass lines are being cleaned up, stray guitar hits are being pasted over. It’s a fact of life in the recording process. Even before digital recording, editing was happening. If it were that easy to record everything perfect, every time, there would be no need to edit at all!
But there is no conspiracy in having to edit a recording. It’s simply making it sound the best it can. We do it with movies, photographs, word documents, radio broadcasts, so why not with music? When when I have a vocalist in the studio and he or she is laying down some great takes of the lead but misses a note or two, I can be confident (and grateful) that Melodyne exists because I can keep that fantastic performance with it’s tone and emotional appeal, and then simply tighten up those stray notes so it’s not a distraction to the lyrics.
Then there’s the whole other reason to use pitch correction software, as an effect! Despite programs like Auto Tune being invented to fix a problem, it can be used instead to make an obvious (and non-human) effect. One that has clearly gained popularity over the years. If that’s what you’re going for, then I don’t see any reason to debate. It’s no different than using a chorus, phaser, or auto filter effect.
At the end of the day don’t spend much more than 20 minutes debating pitch correction…then make a decision and get back to creating great music. Melodyne and Auto Tune are simply tools. If you need them (or want them) then use them. If not, great…one less thing you need to purchase!
There is no right or wrong with pitch correction, as one of my readers mentioned on that post: “Perhaps this is more of a matter of doing what’s appropriate than a good vs. bad debate,” Akshay says. “For example, Damien Rice would sound a little strange with Auto Tune. It would detract from the raw and unfiltered mojo many have come to love. Auto Tune can have merit when utilized with artistic intention. When all is said and done, you have to do what is appropriate for the music.”
When you start working in Pro Tools for any length of time you’ll most likely find yourself reaching for an EQ and compressor on virtually every song you mix. And if you’re like me you tend to stick with one go-to EQ and compressor instead of changing it up a lot. Not that this takes a whole lot of time to digging for your main plugs, but Pro Tools has a setting that allows you to choose your default EQ and compressor which makes them much easier to find and will save you some precious time in the long run. Let’s take look at this quick optimization.
Simply head up to the Setup menu, click and choose Preferences. Once the Preferences dialog box opens, click on the Mixing tab and look in the top left section of the box labeled “Setup”.
You’ll notice drop down boxes next to Default EQ and Default Dynamics. Any EQ or compressor/limiter you have installed in Pro Tools will show up here. Simply choose a plugin for each category and click OK.
Now, any time you insert a plugin on a track, your chosen default EQ and compressor will show up in the menu just above your plugin categories. You don’t even need to go digging for them in their respective folder.
Talk about convenient! Just another way to save time in Pro Tools and focus more energy on making music instead of messing with software!
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.
