This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to try out Serial Compression.
Serial Compression is using two or more compressors on one signal chain to achieve a desired a effect which may sound better with them acting differently to the same audio signal.
For example, on vocals I like to use an 1176 style compressor as the first mode of compression and use it to handle the faster transients of the signal. I then like to add a LA-2A style compressor, typically a slower attack style compressor to smooth the overall performance and maintain a more consistent level.
Be careful though as it is very easy to over-compress and create a performance that has no dynamic range at all, however this may be your goal and as ever, the topic is subjective. The best way to learn is to try it for yourself and listen to the results.
Try out Serial Compression on your next mix and remember that vocals is just an example of something you can use it on.
This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to EQ your effects such as reverb and delay.
Some reverb and delay plugins have EQ options built in, but if you are using one that doesn't then you can load up a separate EQ plugin.
The best starting point with EQ'ing reverb and delay is to apply and high pass and Low pass filter to remove some of unnecessary frequencies. Removing high end frequencies on reverb and delay is a good way to give the effect a more 'analog' feel, essentially just making the sound warmer rather than sounding unnatural.
Cleaning up the low end is also important if you are trying to create space in the mix because any 'boomy' or overly resonant frequencies in a signal will easily be accentuated by reverb and delay. A high pass filter can help with this and even a notch filter to remove particular problem frequencies.
Try EQ'ing your effects, there are no limits!
If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, please head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch about your project via the contact page.
This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to remove the unnecessary low end on drum overheads.
A good starting point is to remove everything up to 50Hz however, you can go much further with the low frequency filtering depending on the role the overheads are playing in your drum sound.
Sometimes you may want the drum overheads to occupy both ends of the frequency spectrum for a more natural and full sound where you may not have a great drum room sound to rely on.
Personally, I filter drum overheads from anything between 80HZ up to 180Hz to remove the low frequencies that are better represented by the kick drum microphones. I also like to leave some of the low-mid frequencies in to emphasise the weight of the snare drum, but of course this depends on how well the drum overheads are captured in the recording stage. I also follow this kind of approach with programmed drums, but I also treat them on a song-to-song basis.
If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, please head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.
I recently had a great question on how I handle the spacial aspect of mixing and in this post, i'm going to cover exactly how I tackle it.
Firstly, I want to say that the spacial aspect of a mix can seem a bit complex and as a beginner, it can be quite daunting however, there are simple techniques you can apply to help achieve a great mix.
Creating space and placing elements in a mix starts with balance and I have an earlier post which covers this in great detail... All About Balance
The balance aspect is the most important process to begin with as this is the most primary way of placing the elements that make up the song. Think of the loudest element as being the most 'in your face' and the quietest being the furthest away.
Panning is the next process I go to and generally, when I am working on rock, pop or metal mix I keep the kick, snare, bass guitar and the main vocal 100% central. I always pan rhythm guitars hard left and hard right to create space in the centre of the mix and also to give the perception of a wider stereo-field. Drum overheads are also hard left and hard right, but I do vary the configuration of these depending on whether I want the drummer perspective (behind the kit) or audience perspective (in front of the kit). Drum room mics are also panned out wide to match the configuration of the overheads. I usually pan the toms across the stereo field according to how they are set out on the drum kit, but this depends on how many there are on the actual kit for example, a hi-tom would be panned just off the centre to the left and two floor toms would be panned to the right, almost hard right, based on the drummers perspective. For any other instruments, I usually judge based on how much they are contributing to the song so they may end up being in the centre or panned hard left or hard right, but either way they are contributing to the 'bigger picture'.
EQ is another key process in helping to place elements that make up a mix. For the purpose of this post, I am only going to talk about EQ as a means of creating a space and depth in a mix and not as a process of cutting unnecessary frequencies etc.
An immediate way of making an element of the mix sound further away to create a sense of depth is to use a low pass filter on an EQ. Rolling off some of the high frequencies on particular source to create a darker sound, giving the perception of depth. For example, backing vocals that are panned out hard left and hard right can benefit from a gentle high frequency roll off to place them further back in the mix and leave the main central vocal at the forefront.
Similarly, a gentle boost on the high frequencies using a high shelf on an EQ can help give a greater perception of proximity.
Compression is another great way of creating depth in a mix, especially if the goal is to bring an element of the mix to the front. It is particularly useful on a main vocal to reduce the dynamic range of performance by controlling the peaks and bringing up the quieter parts to create an 'in your face' vocal.
Effects are the final tools I use in a mix, not only to place instruments in more audibly satisfying places, but also to add 'sparkle' and 'polish' to a song.
My general rule that I go by when using reverb is to try and stick with 2 different reverbs and no more than this otherwise I'm at risk of creating a mix that doesn't sound cohesive to the listener.
I usually choose a reverb for the vocals and a reverb for the snare. I won't go into the detail of the reverb settings as this is completely up to you as the engineer of your own mix however, I will point out that one of the most important parameters of the reverb plugin to pay attention to is the pre-delay.
The pre-delay controls how quick the reverb kicks in after the signal has run through the plugin.
It's a very useful and powerful parameter of a reverb because it gives you the ability to keep the initial transient of a signal dry and up front, but also have the benefit of a pleasing reverb tail. Equally, you can keep the pre-delay at zero and place a instrument directly into the space.
I hope I have made it pretty clear in this post that there is a lot of powerful processes you can do to affect the spacial aspect of a mix before you even load up a reverb or delay plugin and I highly recommend that you start this way because you will learn that not every song requires effects, you will become a better judge of when reverb is needed or when it would complement a performance. You can create a killer, deep and wide mix with the most basic tools of mixing.
If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, please head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch about your project via the contact page.
This week's tip is to utilise manual editing of gain on tracks to avoid time consuming automation on elements such as compression and EQ.
Manually editing gain on an audio track to reduce abnormal peaks or generally louder sections in a performance can enable you to commit to your chosen compression and EQ settings without having to use automation to compensate for changes like this. Doing this means that you will find it easier to set your compression and EQ because you will have achieved a more consistent level for your plugins or hardware to work with.
Although editing can be a time consuming and laborious task, it's the one thing after the recording stage that helps you set up for a successful mix.
If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, please head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.
In this weeks post, I want to talk about Saturation and although it is something I use on a variety of sources including the mix buss, I want to focus specifically on saturation on the snare drum.
The important thing to remember when using saturation is that it is best used sparingly, too much can destroy the character of a sound rather than enhance it, but of course this all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
I use saturation on a snare drum to soften the peaks and add a little character to the sound.
My favourite plugins for saturation are PSP Micro/Vintage Warmer and FabFilter Saturn, but most of the time I tend to use the PSP Micro Warmer for single instruments.
Depending on the source, I run the plugin in mono mode, set the drive control between +4 and +8dB and reduce the output volume to compensate for the boost in volume. I sometimes use the low and high controls to reduce or boost depending on what i'm going for, but more often than not, I leave them at 0.
I tend to place the saturation plugin at the end of the snare signal chain and occasionally a final EQ to shape the sound further depending on how aggressively i have used the saturation.
Saturating the snare drum not only adds more sonic character to the sound, but it also allows you more head-room on your drum buss and your main mix buss because it flattens out the peaks in the same way that traditional tape saturation did. Along with good gain staging, saturating the peak-heavy sounds in your mix means that when you get to the limiting stage, you will be able to achieve a louder mix without it reacting only to heavy transients such as the kick and snare.
If you are looking for online editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.
