Archive for 'Plugins'

Looking for a way to tighten up your drum tracks and bring clarity to your mix? Using a gate/expander on tracks like Kick, Snare, and Toms can go a long way to giving you a more focused sound with less unwanted noise. Today’s 5 minute mixing tip covers exactly how to make that happen in your sessions.

For Both Studio And Stage

Something to keep in mind as you watch today’s video. Gates are a great tool both in the studio and in a live setting. Once you learn the concept, you can apply it to more than drums and more than studio situations. If you can control sound on a crowded stage you can really clear up your mix and prevent feedback. Nice!

Welcome to another edition of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix, where we’re looking at 31 mixing video tips in the month of May. Today’s tip is so simple yet it will totally change your world if you aren’t already using it. It’s called rocking a high pass filter in your sessions; and it couldn’t be easier to implement…

The Best Technique You Won’t Hear

Using a high pass filter on your tracks is one of the best things you can do for your mix that you don’t actually hear. It’s what you take out that actually helps your mix come together. Do you have 5 minutes? Watch today’s video and start mixing better!

Welcome to day 2 of our month of mixing tutorials! I’ve got another 5 minute mixing video for you, and this one covers how to (and why you’d want to) use a compressor on your mix bus or master fader.

A Classic Technique

Compressors can really help bring some punch and energy to your mix, and if you use one properly on your mix bus, it can really gel or glue your entire mix together before you even begin to do the actual mixing as it were. Take the next 5 minutes to find out what to do and not to do with a compressor on your master fader and try it out in your mixes!

Did you know that Pro Tools has both real time and non-real time plugins? Typically you’ll use an RTAS plugin on a channel insert (Real Time Audio Suite), but there is also the non real time AudioSuite plugins to choose from. Sometimes when you want an effect on just part of a track, using these non-realtime AudioSuite plugins can be a great option. This quick Pro Tools video tip will show you how to do just that!

I always say it, but drum overheads are the backbone of your drum sound. If you can get those sounding just right, you’ll have a much easier time bringing all the other elements of a drum kit together. This applies to not only recording them well, but mixing them well.

In today’s video I cover how I like to EQ stereo drum overheads in order to “leave room” for the other close mics that I’ll mix in later. Enjoy!

[The following is a clip from my REthink Drums video tutorial series]

A while back, Nashville based mixing engineer Joe Carrell was kind enough to do an interview with me. He covered so many important topics related to mixing and offered real practical advice for a beginner mixer. Many of you after listening to the interview emailed Joe some questions for further clarification. Joe was kind enough to pass them on to me to post for everyone’s benefit. Enjoy!

Signal Levels In My DAW?

Q: When I mix and place plug ins on each track, should I still try and keep my overall output signal below Odb?

Joe: Yes definitely, avoid clipping before and after the plug-in if possible. You’ll often turn down the input or output of an eq type plug to avoid clipping when using substantial frequency boost.  Vice-versa, you’ll often use make-up gain to restore ouput level when using heavy compression.

Q: What can I do when I get a session where each track is recorded pretty hot before any clipping?

Joe: Concerning sessions you receive with “Hot” recording levels, if they aren’t clipping the channels LED or clipping your plug-ins I would probably leave them as they are and just turn down the faders to make certain I wasn’t slamming the master output.  If you receive some that are clipping during playback, I would use the “Gain” audiosuite plug-in to bring it down a few db.  You could also use the “trim” plug as your first insert.  Unfortunately, any distortion that was printed as a result of the overloading will not go away, you’ll just clear some headroom for that channel’s playback and plug-ins.

High End Converters?

Q: Do you use apogee, lynx converter and which of two is better?

Joe: Both Lynx and Apogee are great products that I have used with success. I wouldn’t recommend either one over the other. In my personnel studio, I use the stock Digidesign HD converters.  Since my room is primarily a mix studio, they are used mostly to send and return to outboard effects units, etc.

Q: To get more width in a mix do the converters help?

Joe: I don’t know that I would say high end converters give me more ”width”…there is just a difference in the air or reality of the instrument.  It’s hard to explain, but I compare it to looking at a photograph of a snare drum versus being in the room with that actual drum. If you have the budget..go for it.  But, don’t feel that you have to go out and get them right away to make a great record.  I’ve mixed top ten singles where every vocal part was cut into Digi 002 pres and converters.

Saturation Plugins?

Q: Distortion on the stereo bus, really?

Joe: Well…yes and no.  It is not commonly on my master, but i’ve most certainly used it a few times as I found it’s “flavor” very cool for that song.  Even then, it was very limited, as far as, the actual amount of the process I was using. It was 95% the sound of the plug with only a slight bit of distortion added.  In the interview, I was just listing the things I use.  All the others mentioned are there nearly always.

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Check out Joe’s work and discography at www.mojoemix.com

The recording world is a buzz about tape saturation plugins and all the magical “warmth” they bring to your tracks. Pro mixer Joe Carrell spent much of our interview praising saturation. Well there actually is something to it. Since most of the records we grew up listening too were recorded to tape and mixed on analog consoles, part of what we like about them is that analog sound. Turns out digital recording is so clean and perfect, we’ve noticed that something is “missing”.

Saturation (or distortion) caused by the analog components and namely the tape, really brings a specific sound that is pleasing to the ear. But thanks to saturation plugins, we can now have the best of both worlds. In this video I take a look what a mix sounds like with and without tape saturation as well as give you some pointers on how to best use it in your sessions.

Part of what makes a DAW like Pro Tools so powerful is the automation. We’ve already looked at how to automate volumes in your mix to bring out parts as needed, so today I want to show you how to automate plugins and effects. Whether it’s simply turning an effect on or off in a song, or tweaking small parameters of an effect in real time, you can automate it all. Enjoy!

This video is inspired by many of your requests. I did a video a while back on using reference mixes for mastering, and from that point on I recieved many of the same comments, “Can you please do a video on mastering?” or “Can you demonstrate what a mastering plugin can do?” So I’m here to make good on that request.

Today I want take a brief look at what mastering software is, what it can do, and how it can be helpful to you. As you continue your journey of educating yourself and growing in your craft, it’s important understand all aspects of the music production process, whether you do them all yourself or if you hire professionals to work with you. Hopefully this video will help you in that process!

If you’re getting into music production then you’ll at some point need to pitch correct vocals. Despite some people’s claim that pitch correction is cheating, it is a viable tool in the studio and you’d be wise to at least learn how to do it well. One of the most popular tools for pitch correction is Auto Tune from Antares. So today I want to go over the basics of this classic plugin and how to get a natural sounding tuned vocal when using this effect.

*The following video is an excerpt from REthink Vocals, my tutorial video series covering vocal recording/production in the home studio. For the entire 2+ hour training series head over to www.REthinkVocals.com and download your copy today.