Archive for 'Avid'

So just this week my band released our most recent EP entitled Lower. It’s a simple 5 song album that was tracked, mixed, and mastered in my own project studio. I thought today I would not only share it with you, but highlight a few lessons (good and bad) that I learned from this specific project.

Less Is More

I would say the biggest lesson that was re-enforced on this project was that less is more in the recording phase. I think I did this well when it came to guitars. During the tracking process I kept stripping away guitar parts until we were left with the absolute foundational parts. This made the songs easier to mix and they sounded bigger in the long run. Go figure.
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Part 15 of 31 - If you’re still looking to fatten up your snare drum and our EQ treatment alone isn’t cutting it, there’s another great tool at your disposal. It’s called a compressor. Jackpot!

Squash The Peaks

So to fatten up this snare, we’re actually going to squash the peaks a little bit. Why? Well by turning down only the peaks, we can turn up the whole snare, which in effect turns up the tone and the tail of the drum. And to our ears that sounds like fat awesomeness!

Part 14 of 31 - Working with a thin, maybe weak sounding snare drum in the mix? Need to fatten it up a bit? No problem. Just grab your stock EQ and let’s get to work.

Find The Fat Frequency

The key to using an EQ to fatten up a snare is to go searching for the fat frequency. Every snare has one. Usually in the low mids. Once you find it, you can emphasize it over some of the other frequencies in the track, gain match it, and KABAM: fatter snare!

Part 8 of 31 - Wish you could save CPU power and bring your mixes together faster? It might be time to consider processing your tracks on the buss level first before putting plugins on the individual tracks.

Start Global. Then Zoom In.

One thing I’ve been doing a lot more of lately is processing my drums, guitars, and other similar instruments on the group level with a buss or aux track first. With fewer plugins I can bring my mix closer to the sound in my head, in less time. And isn’t that what many of us are short on these days: CPU power and time?

Part 7 of 31 - Want to mix faster and learn your plugins better? Then treat your DAW like an analog console and only use one EQ and compressor for everything in the mix.

Pick One EQ And Compressor

The great thing about mixing consoles is they have only one EQ and one compressor on every channel. It makes mixing fast, intuitive, and fluid.  We have too many choices when mixing in a DAW so keep it simple, pick one eq and one compressor to the lion’s share of your mixing and you’ll work faster and learn more in the process.

Lately I’ve been adopting a more minimalistic approach to plugin usage in my mixes. Part of it is I want to be very intentional about every single thing I do to a mix so that nothing is arbitrary. I also believe there’s something to what Michael Fitzpatrick is saying about tweaking less and less with EQ and effects to achieve a more organic and natural sound. Today I want to demonstrate one example of what I call the minimal plugins mindset. Enjoy!

Wish you could double the number of plugins you can run on your Pro Tools rig? Turns out, the answer is simple. Use AAX plugins instead of RTAS. With the launch of Pro Tools 10 we learned about the new plugin format, AAX and how it was the future. After some recent conversations with the guys at Avid I’ve finally realized that these plugins are way more efficient under the hood than their RTAS counterparts. Here, I’ll show you…

When it comes to making a great recording or mix, your creativity will get you further than your technical prowess (or lack thereof). In reality these two pillars on which all great recordings are built (creative taste and technical knowledge) are both critical. But at the end of the day, I see time and time again that it’s the creativity pillar that trumps the technical one.

Homemade EP Lands Record Deal

A great example of this is the first EP from the band Fitz And The Tantrums. I was at the recent NAMM show in Anaheim California this weekend and enjoyed a great live taping of Pensado’s Place (with legendary mixer Dave Pensado hosting of course) at the Avid booth. Their guest for the segment was founding member and lead singer Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick.

Pensado was asking Fitz about the band’s debut EP. Turns out Fitz recorded it all himself in his house with an old version of Pro Tools LE (version 6) and one microphone. That EP, Songs for a Breakup, Vol. 1, lead to performances on Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, and eventually a record deal.
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Did you know that Pro Tools can have custom tempo changes throughout the song and the click track follows it along perfectly? Perhaps you need your song to slow down right at the very end for a dramatic final chord. You can easily write that in for the click to follow. Or if you want the bridge to pick up the pace, Pro Tools can do that too. And your grid follows it as well! Here’s how…

Did you know the meters in Pro Tools can tell you two different things? In one setting (pre fader) the meters will show you the actual audio signal either coming into Pro Tools or playing off the raw audio. In the other setting (post fader) the meters will display the current signal level after running through your plugins and the fader volume. In today’s video I show you how and when to use these setting.