Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to ensure your guitars are properly setup for recording.

There are many elements that make up a solid guitar recording, the player, the amp, the speaker, the microphone and the microphone placement but in order to set yourself up for the best start before recording, it is vital that the instrument itself is properly setup.

This includes, new strings, intonation, pick-up height, truss-rod adjustment and even a small oil treatment on the fretboard. All these factors will ensure the best tone from the instrument is directed through the signal chain, not only this but the player will be more comfortable with their instrument and therefore, more likely to produce a better recording.

An extra tip when setting up a guitar for recording is to tape-off or mute the strings that are over the nut or over the bridge. This can be done with a bit of foam or tape and even though it is a little unsightly, it will perform very well and reduce excess string noise during the recording process. 

Check back next week for more Knowledge Wednesday tips!

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Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is 100% relevant to mixing and developing your skills but it doesn't actually involve doing any mixing. In actual fact, one of the best things you can do to learn about balance, EQ, compression, effects and so on is to listen to a wide variety of professional mixes (commercial music if you want to call it that) and analyse with your ears what is actually going on.

Pay attention to what elements of the mix are most prominent, what instruments are panned in the centre, what sounds are panned out wide, what is occupying the low end and high end etc.

It's good to listen critically to the genres of music that you like the most however, I strongly recommend broadening your scope to other types of music, even the stuff you may not like because this will give you a better understanding of how sounds work together in the context of a mix and therefore, ensure you are better equipped for when you begin your own mixes.

Check back next week for more Knowledge Wednesday tips.

If you are looking for online editing, mixing and mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk   and get in touch via the contact page. There are currently December Deals in place so be sure to check it out!

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to always remember that small cuts with an EQ make a big difference to the sound of the source and the overall mix.

Small cuts with an EQ remove problem frequencies and make space for important fundamental frequencies of other instruments that you want to prioritise in your mix.

Check in next week for more Knowledge Wednesday tips!

If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page, I would love to hear about your next project!

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to try starting your next mix by working into a mix buss.

Many home studio engineers including myself have worked on mixes in the past, spending time carefully attending to all the sounds that make up the mix only to come to the end of it, add what we think will be subtle changes and then suddenly what we set out to achieve has just become wildly different and moved the goal post again.

It is a common practice to mix into a working mix buss, but it's just at what point you discover this and try to implement it into your workflow.

To give you some idea of what I have on my mix buss for a typical rock mix - I use console emulation, tape saturation, EQ, compression and a limiter. They are all contributing small amounts to the 'bigger picture' and these decisions are what bring together the tens of hundreds of tracks that can be present in a session.

If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to always remember to use the makeup gain on a compressor to match the output level with that of the input level.

If you've spent time balancing all your instruments and getting the right levels, don't make your work go to waste by using the make-up gain on the compressor and then losing track of the output levels before you added the compressor.

Matching the output level when using a compressor is all part of good gain staging.

If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.

knowledge wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is for the musicians who are also engineers or producers.

One of the fundamental elements of recording with any instruments is the timing - make sure you are comfortable with a click track because the benefits transfer into more than just a uniform track. Editing becomes much easier, audio manipulation becomes cleaner and locking in with grooves in a live situation will become stronger.

Practice with a metronome to lock into the groove and ensure every take is super tight. This will improve your skills as a recording musician, producer and engineer.

Check back next week for more tips!

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is on drum editing, particularly in pro tools but the principal can be applied to all DAWs.

When using beat detective or other similar quantizing tools, keep in mind that the best results are achieved when applied to drums that are slightly late or behind the beat. 

Another important tip when quantizing drums is to focus your attention on the overheads after you have quantized them as these will show the audio artefacts, if any and then you can apply appropriate crossfades.

Check back next week for more tips!

If you are looking for editing, mixing or mastering services, then head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to cut frequencies on your drum overheads before boosting.

Drum overheads can present a large amount of harsh frequencies and also create an excessive build up in the mid-range depending on mic placement, drum tuning etc, so it is a good idea to start EQ'ing by cutting in these problem areas to smooth out the overhead sounds to set you on your way to achieving a great drum mix.

Check in next Wednesday for more great tips!

If you require editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch about your project via the contact page.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to always check phase coherence on your drum tracks.

Not checking phase can be a common cause for loss of low end and punch on drum tracks, but the good news is that it can be rectified quite easily.

Firstly, you can ensure the transients from the kick and snare line up with the overheads. 

Also, check the bottom snare mic is phase coherent with the snare too mic and this can be done by inserting a plugin with a phase switch and toggling between between the two sounds. One should sound immediately different because the low end and punch will become clear.

Phase can be a complex topic but by following the two simple steps above, you will be well on your way to achieving a punchy a low end full drum mix which may have been lacking before without careful attention to the phase coherency.

Check back next week for more tips!

knowledge wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday tip is to manually remove silence and bleed from your Tom drum tracks. 

This method is much cleaner than gating and it is usually easier to achieve your desired result. 

Using careful editing and smart fades, you can achieve Tom drum tracks with unwanted silence and very minimal bleed and by doing this, you can focus your EQ and compression decisions because you will only be hearing the Toms being hit.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

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.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

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.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

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.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

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.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's Knowledge Wednesday is a quick tip on a couple of keys frequency bands to be aware of on distorted electric guitar.

400Hz - 500Hz 

2KHz - 3KHz 

The above frequency bands are areas that i'm known for cutting in and sometimes boosting, but i want you to listen for yourself. Create a fairly wide bandwidth (Q) a boost in these areas and listen to the difference both boosted and cut. Let your ears be the judge.

Please keep in mind that guitar EQ varies massively depending on the guitar, the pickups, the amp and the microphone.

The obvious thing to do is spend time achieving the sound you want at the recording stage however if you find yourself mixing guitars that have already been committed to, then the areas above are a couple to focus on.

knowledge wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

This week's tip is to try using an EQ before a compressor in your channel strip.

The goal of this is quite simple - to control the frequencies that are going into the compressor for example, you will want to remove problematic resonant frequencies before hitting the compressor otherwise the compressor could be overly reactive to these specific areas and you may not be able to achieve your desired result.

Sculpting your sound with EQ first ensures that your compressor will only react to the frequencies you want it to.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

Always use fades on audio files when you are editing.

This is particularly important when comping because using fades is a way of smoothing out any audio artefacts that might appear between the takes. If it is just one audio file on its own, then a simple fade-in and fade-out will be perfect, but when it's multiple audio files that need gluing together, it's worth applying a good cross-fade to ensure a smooth transition and to minimise the audible differences as much as possible. This will become much easier if the quality and consistency of the performance is high.

Clean and accurate editing is a major factor in setting up for a solid mix so never neglect it!

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

 Instrument busses  can be very useful when you have a group of audio sources such as drums, multiple rhythm guitars and bass guitar with clean and distorted tracks because you may want to apply processing to them as a whole and have more convenient control over the levels. For example, all the individual tracks that you balanced earlier are great but you just want to reduce the overall level by 1 or 2 dB to have them sit just right in the mix. You may also want to apply processing such as console emulation or tape saturation on an instrument buss for extra colour and warmth.

Try your next mix using utilising instrument busses for a extra way of balancing your mix and applying extra processing across groups of instruments. 

If you are looking for mixing and mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk  and get in touch via the contact page.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

If your goal is to reduce low frequencies, but not remove them completely, try using a low shelf cut instead of a high pass filter.

Low shelf cuts on an EQ can sound more musical and less drastic than a high pass filter particularly when you are removing a lot of the low frequency content from your audio signal. You can still use a high pass filter before a low shelf cut to get rid of the absolutely unecceassary frequencies such as 40Hz and below on certain instruments. 

Try a low shelf cut on your next mix and listen to how much smoother your audio track can be.

If you require any editing, mixing or mastering services, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

Remember that the pre-delay parameter on a reverb plugin is your best friend!

When your goal is to achieve definition and clarity whilst having a lush reverb effect engaged on your track, use the pre-delay setting to offset when the reverb kicks in. In the real world, this is exactly how reverb/echo behaves because there is always a delay before we actually hear the reflections and of course, this all depends on the dimensions, materials and obstacles within the room. 

In the mixing world, pre-delay is a very helpful parameter that can help you find a careful balance between a dry, clear audio track and a performance and character enhancing reverb effect.

Give the pre-delay trick a try and listen to your track become much more clear. I find it particularly useful on vocals and I start with the pre-delay set between 60-150ms. More extreme settings can produce a certain rhythmic effect which is sometimes desirable on drums depending on the type of music you are producing.

If you are looking for online editing, mixing or mastering, head over to www.jwaudioproductions.co.uk and get in touch via the contact page.