IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hey, I'm Alex Case and
welcome to Foundations of Audio:
| | 00:07 | Delay and Modulation!
| | 00:09 | In this course, we'll look at the
most common delay and modulation effects,
| | 00:12 | including echo, slapback echo,
double tracking, chorus, flanger, and comb
| | 00:19 | filter effects.
| | 00:20 | You may not have heard of all of these
effects by name, but I'm certain you've
| | 00:24 | heard all of these effects
in the music you listen to.
| | 00:26 | I'll start by covering the fundamentals
of delay, including the devices that
| | 00:30 | make it and how they make it.
| | 00:32 | Then I'll break down the common controls
of the delay effect, showing you how to
| | 00:35 | set the delay time, level,
and feedback parameters.
| | 00:40 | I'll demonstrate how to utilize long
delay times for specific effects such as
| | 00:44 | delaying single words --
| | 00:46 | (music playing)
| | 00:46 | -- creating groove delays on guitar
tracks, and making use of slapback echo.
| | 00:51 | I'll then explain how to utilize
modulation rate, depth, and shape to create
| | 00:57 | chorus, double tracking, and spreader effects.
| | 01:01 | I'll then cover techniques for
making use of constructive and destructive
| | 01:06 | interference to create effects that
manipulate tone such as flanger and
| | 01:10 | comb filter effects.
| | 01:12 | Lastly, I'll integrate all of this
and discuss how to use several types of
| | 01:15 | delay in one full mix.
| | 01:17 | (music playing)
| | 01:25 | Throughout the course, I'll also provide
you with guided exercise content in the
| | 01:28 | form of Get in the Mix demonstration
sessions that you can open up in your own
| | 01:32 | digital audio workstation.
| | 01:34 | Now let's get started with Foundations of Audio:
| | 01:37 | Delay and Modulation.
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| What you should know before watching this course| 00:00 | In this course, we'll be covering many
basic and advanced topics about delay and
| | 00:05 | modulation, but we break the process
down step by step so that all of these
| | 00:10 | effects are easily understood.
| | 00:12 | I'll demonstrate some approaches
and then you'll get the chance to do
| | 00:15 | it yourself.
| | 00:16 | I designed this course to be
accessible to everyone at all levels of
| | 00:20 | audio experience, but rest assured,
if you're new to this, you will not
| | 00:24 | be left behind.
| | 00:25 | However, you'll find it quite helpful
to have some basic working knowledge of a
| | 00:29 | digital audio workstation.
| | 00:31 | If you need a refresher on the basics
of digital audio recording, mixing, and
| | 00:36 | signal flow, you may want to check out
the Essential Training Course appropriate
| | 00:40 | for your digital audio workstation in
the lynda.com Online Training Library.
| | 00:45 | Otherwise, if you're ready, I'm ready.
| | 00:47 | Let's get started.
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| How to use the exercise files| 00:00 | If you're a premium member of the lynda.com
Online Training Library, or if you're
| | 00:04 | watching this tutorial on a DVD-ROM,
you also have access to the raw audio
| | 00:08 | material used to create the exercise
content as well as all other audio examples
| | 00:13 | featured in this course.
| | 00:15 | Inside the exercise files folder,
you'll find a folder for each chapter
| | 00:19 | containing the WAV files
used throughout the course.
| | 00:22 | These files can be imported into your
own digital audio workstation and used to
| | 00:26 | follow along with the material.
| | 00:28 | If you're a monthly member or annual
member of lynda.com, you don't have
| | 00:32 | access to the raw audio files, but you
can follow along from scratch with your
| | 00:36 | own assets.
| | 00:37 | For members at all subscription
levels, I've provided you with guided
| | 00:41 | exercise content in the form of Get
in the Mix demonstration sessions that
| | 00:45 | you can open up in your own DAW.
| | 00:47 | Watch the video about Get In The Mix
content to learn more about this unique
| | 00:51 | learning experience.
| | 00:53 | So let's get started.
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| Using the "Get In the Mix" Pro Tools session files| 00:00 | This course features Get In The Mix
exercise content, living sessions with
| | 00:05 | built-in demonstrations and practice
material for you to use with your own
| | 00:09 | digital audio workstation or DAW.
| | 00:12 | Using your DAW's video track
capabilities, I'll guide you through automated
| | 00:15 | audio examples, demonstrating a
number of the concepts and techniques
| | 00:19 | discussed in this course.
| | 00:21 | And all you need to do is press play.
| | 00:23 | Since the files are actual native high-
fidelity project files, purpose-built for
| | 00:28 | your specific DAW, you can
manipulate the audio examples yourself.
| | 00:32 | So feel free to pause, rewind, repeat,
and zoom-in on sections during the
| | 00:36 | demonstrations to solidify your knowledge.
| | 00:39 | Get In The Mix project files also
feature additional practice tracks, so you can
| | 00:43 | explore the techniques you
just learned on your own.
| | 00:46 | These tracks are labeled practice and
their content is located at the end of the
| | 00:50 | demonstration material.
| | 00:52 | Before using Get In The Mix content,
you must first download the package
| | 00:56 | prepared for your specific DAW from
this course's page in the lynda.com
| | 01:00 | Online Training Library.
| | 01:02 | Inside this package, you'll
find the Get In The Mix files.
| | 01:05 | Throughout the course, I'll direct you
to open these files when appropriate.
| | 01:08 | If you have this course on DVD, the
Get In The Mix files are included on
| | 01:13 | that DVD.
| | 01:14 | Unlike premium exercise content, Get
In The Mix content is available to all
| | 01:18 | lynda.com subscribers.
| | 01:20 | If you are premium subscriber, you
also have access to the raw audio material
| | 01:24 | used to create the exercise content, as
well as all other audio examples featured
| | 01:29 | throughout the course.
| | 01:30 | So download the appropriate
content package and get in the mix.
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|
|
1. Understanding DelayWhat is delay?| 00:00 | Delay is likely the most
underappreciated effects device we have in
| | 00:04 | the recording studio.
| | 00:05 | Until you've seen it and heard it in
action, it's hard to imagine why delaying
| | 00:09 | audio has any musical purpose.
| | 00:11 | But believe me, it's
rich with musical potential.
| | 00:14 | However, before we get into the
studio use of delay, let's talk a little
| | 00:18 | bit about its origins.
| | 00:20 | We've all heard echoes before.
| | 00:21 | Shout into a tunnel, a canyon, or
any large reflective space and whatever
| | 00:26 | you shout bounces back.
| | 00:28 | That's delay at work.
| | 00:29 | Simple enough the audio signal, your
voice, is delayed by some amount of time
| | 00:33 | before being heard again later; an echo.
| | 00:36 | Delay, as an effect in music
production, first came about by using well,
| | 00:41 | slightly misusing analog tape machines,
getting them to record a sound and then
| | 00:46 | an instant later play it back.
| | 00:49 | Throughout the 50s and 60s, tape-based
delay became a staple of pop music and it
| | 00:53 | became part of the signature sound of
artists like Les Paul and Elvis Presley.
| | 00:58 | Here we see an analog tape machine.
| | 01:00 | Note the locations of the
record head and the playback head.
| | 01:03 | More importantly, recognize that
there's a bit of distance between them.
| | 01:07 | To create a delay effect here, a
signal is recorded at the record head, gets
| | 01:11 | printed on to the tape, and with tape
rolling, that recorded signal makes its
| | 01:15 | way from the record head over to the
playback head, taking time to do so.
| | 01:20 | Finally, that signal is played back off tape.
| | 01:23 | The result is a tape delay.
| | 01:25 | The signal is delayed by the amount of
time it takes the tape to travel from the
| | 01:28 | record head to the playback head.
| | 01:30 | The actual delay time then is a
function of the speed of the tape machine and
| | 01:34 | the particular make and model of tape
machine which determines the physical
| | 01:37 | distance between the two heads.
| | 01:39 | And here's what this effect sounds like.
| | 01:43 | David: Hey Alex, how does this sound?
| | 01:45 | Do I sound like Elvis yet?
| | 01:47 | Alex: Yeah, David. Elvis, exactly.
| | 01:51 | Let's do the hairdo next.
| | 01:56 | We'll discuss how to create exactly
this type of slapback effect echo later
| | 01:59 | in the course.
| | 02:00 | But to make the most of those
audio examples, let's first discuss the
| | 02:04 | fundamentals of creating delay effects.
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| Creating delay effects overview| 00:00 | Delayed audio signals can be
created in a number of ways.
| | 00:04 | So far we've talked about making
them with an analog tape machine.
| | 00:08 | However, you'll most likely be using
digital delay effects inside a digital
| | 00:12 | audio workstation, your DAW.
| | 00:14 | DAWs are particularly adept
at handling delay effects.
| | 00:17 | And unlike their analog counterparts,
DAWs can be programmed to create any sort
| | 00:22 | of delayed audio signal exactly as we require.
| | 00:26 | You'll find a variety of plug-ins
that can create delay-based effects in
| | 00:29 | your DAW.
| | 00:31 | To better appreciate what's going on
in a delay, let's take a closer look at
| | 00:34 | our audio.
| | 00:36 | A waveform can be shown as a
simple plot of amplitude versus time.
| | 00:40 | That's it.
| | 00:41 | Amplitude, how much signal,
and time, when did it happen.
| | 00:44 | Your music, your art, is entirely
represented by just two dimensions,
| | 00:49 | amplitude and time.
| | 00:51 | When we introduce delay effects, we're
simply grabbing that time dimension and
| | 00:55 | bending it to our will.
| | 00:57 | What happens when we hear an echo?
| | 00:59 | It's a straightforward concept.
| | 01:01 | Audio goes in, it waits however
long you specify, audio goes out.
| | 01:06 | We see here how a single snare
hit becomes multiple, repeating, and
| | 01:11 | decaying snare hits.
| | 01:13 | We'll dial in effects like
this later in the course.
| | 01:16 | Simple on the surface, this process
of temporarily storing a sound for some
| | 01:20 | defined amount of time and repeating
it an instant later becomes the building
| | 01:24 | block for a vast range of effects.
| | 01:26 | It's an essential, I'd even say
required processor in all recording
| | 01:30 | studio environments.
| | 01:32 | Your mastery of delay is
therefore critical to your studio success.
| | 01:37 | So let's learn more about it in the next movie.
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| Delay time, level, and feedback parameters| 00:00 | Conveniently, most delay effects have
many of the same features and parameters.
| | 00:05 | What I'll be sharing with you in this
course will apply to all delay effect
| | 00:08 | plug-ins, the ones you already have in
your studio and others you may acquire
| | 00:12 | in the future.
| | 00:13 | Three of the most important delay
settings are input/output level, delay
| | 00:17 | time, and feedback.
| | 00:19 | Input/output levels are pretty self-explanatory.
| | 00:23 | The goal is usually to set input
and output levels so that there's no
| | 00:26 | significant gain change happening as
a result of passing the audio through
| | 00:30 | the delay.
| | 00:31 | That is we use the faders in the DAW,
or on the mixing console, for major level
| | 00:35 | adjustments and try to pass signals
into and out of the delay processor without
| | 00:39 | too much level change.
| | 00:41 | Watch the input level to make sure the
device isn't overdriven to the point of
| | 00:44 | distortion, unless of course
distortion is part of your intended effect.
| | 00:49 | Next, we need a way to
adjust the timing of the delay.
| | 00:52 | So a time parameter is provided.
| | 00:54 | You can set your delay in standard
units of time like milliseconds, or by a
| | 00:58 | direct reference to your song's tempo in
various rhythmic increments like eighth
| | 01:02 | notes or quarter notes.
| | 01:04 | For plug-ins and outboard digital
processors, you can freely adjust the
| | 01:08 | delay time to taste.
| | 01:09 | On a tape delay, you're a
little more constrained.
| | 01:12 | Your only means of changing the delay
time is to change the tape speed or to
| | 01:16 | change the distance between the record
and the playback heads, or get another
| | 01:19 | tape machine if you're feeling ambitious.
| | 01:21 | While delay time adjustment seems
almost trivial on a digital delay, we can
| | 01:26 | become better mix engineers
when we learn from history.
| | 01:29 | Once upon a time, not very long ago
really, the delay parameter itself was
| | 01:34 | rather crude, offering no numeric readout.
| | 01:37 | On old analog delay lines and most early
digital delays, you turn the delay time
| | 01:42 | setting to the left to shorten
and to the right to lengthen.
| | 01:45 | There was no numeric readout.
| | 01:48 | I mentioned this bit of anachronistic
charm to emphasize an essential point.
| | 01:51 | The delay time can be set by ear, not by eye.
| | 01:55 | I'll go further.
| | 01:56 | The delay time should be
set more by ear than by eye.
| | 01:59 | So listen, please listen to the sonic
implications of your delay time setting.
| | 02:04 | What might look good on the screen or
check out mathematically when you setup
| | 02:07 | the device, may not make much
musical sense when you listen to it.
| | 02:12 | So set the delay time control
to the right sounding value.
| | 02:15 | I'll show you how to set the delay time
by ear and in mathematical relation to
| | 02:19 | the song's tempo in
upcoming videos in this course.
| | 02:23 | After level and delay time comes feedback.
| | 02:27 | Feedback, sometimes called regeneration,
is another common feature in almost
| | 02:30 | all delay processors.
| | 02:32 | It allows us to send the output of
the delay right back into the input.
| | 02:36 | With this parameter, our
delayed signal gets delayed yet again.
| | 02:39 | Strange at first, you'll soon see
that it offers intriguing possibilities.
| | 02:43 | Through this feedback control, a
single echo can be made to repeat.
| | 02:47 | It can repeat as many times as we like.
| | 02:49 | (music playing)
| | 02:53 | Level, delay time, and
feedback, but we're not done.
| | 02:56 | I'll show you some additional
delay parameters in the next video.
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| Utilizing a low-pass filter and polarity reverse | 00:00 | Our discussion of delay parameters
so far has covered level, delay time,
| | 00:04 | and feedback.
| | 00:06 | A lot of effects can be built with
just these parameters alone, but more
| | 00:09 | cool features await.
| | 00:11 | Another common parameter in delay
devices might be a bit surprising at first,
| | 00:15 | a low-pass filter.
| | 00:16 | Low-pass filters attenuate high
frequencies but allow the low frequencies
| | 00:21 | to pass on through.
| | 00:23 | Utilizing the low-pass filter to
reduce the high frequencies in your delayed
| | 00:26 | signal can be effective way to create
the illusion of distance for elements
| | 00:30 | in your mix.
| | 00:31 | It can help to push your track back
deep into the mix away from the listener.
| | 00:36 | In addition, attenuating the
presence range of the delayed signal, the
| | 00:39 | mid-frequencies, can help prevent some
delay effects from cluttering the mix and
| | 00:43 | distracting your listener.
| | 00:44 | In this way, the low-pass filter helps
us fit more pieces into the mix without
| | 00:48 | things getting too crowded.
| | 00:50 | A potentially distracting delay effect
can settle neatly into a full mix with
| | 00:54 | just a little bit of this low-pass filtering.
| | 00:57 | Many types of delay effects I'll be
covering in this course benefit from having
| | 01:01 | some of the high-frequency
content of the signal tamed.
| | 01:03 | Fortunately, the low-pass filter is a
common part of many delay effects and is a
| | 01:07 | clever, stock feature in the
delay processors we'll be using.
| | 01:11 | Now let's discuss the last of our five
delay parameters, the polarity switch.
| | 01:16 | This switch turns things around
a bit for interesting results.
| | 01:20 | Take a look at this simple waveform.
| | 01:23 | Reversing the polarity
simply reverses things vertically.
| | 01:26 | The part of the waveform above
the line is now mirror imaged below.
| | 01:30 | And the below-the-line portion
flips up with the exact same shape to a
| | 01:33 | position above the line.
| | 01:35 | Have you ever seen the
woofer and a loudspeaker move?
| | 01:37 | Music hits and the
loudspeaker cone snaps forward and back.
| | 01:41 | The sounds we hear come from the motion
of that speaker cone which vibrates very
| | 01:44 | quickly back and forth, forward and
back from 20 to 20,000 times per second or
| | 01:48 | more as it reproduces the music.
| | 01:51 | When the loudspeaker reproduces a kick
drum sound, that sound might begin with
| | 01:55 | the woofer cone moving towards you
only to move back and forth repeatedly.
| | 01:59 | Polarity reverse swaps the
motion of that speaker cone.
| | 02:02 | Reproducing the same kick drum, the
woofer with the polarity reversed would
| | 02:06 | first snap back away from you
only to vibrate back and forth.
| | 02:10 | If you want the sound of a kick drum
or a piano or a vocal to be reversed in
| | 02:14 | this way, hit the polarity reverse button.
| | 02:16 | On its own, it's not a
particularly audible change.
| | 02:19 | But when your delayed signal is
interacting with other signals in your mix,
| | 02:23 | interesting things start to happen.
| | 02:25 | You'll find times when a polarity reverse
is particularly useful, and later in this
| | 02:29 | course when we look at the tonal impact
delays can have through cone filtering
| | 02:32 | and through flanging,
you'll hear this in action.
| | 02:35 | The polarity reverse switch lets us
shift the spectral impact of the effect to
| | 02:39 | different frequency locations.
| | 02:42 | The need to reverse the polarity of
the delay effect is common enough that it
| | 02:45 | too is a standard feature in delay processors.
| | 02:47 | Input/output level, delay time, feedback,
low-pass filter, and polarity reverse,
| | 02:55 | these are the basic building
blocks of a delay processor.
| | 02:58 | Knowing how to work with these
parameters prepares you to use not just your
| | 03:02 | processors but pretty much any
delay unit you'll ever encounter.
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| Setting up an effects loop for delay| 00:00 | To use the effects we talk about in
this course, we need to know how to set
| | 00:03 | it all up.
| | 00:05 | We get delays into our mix
by setting up an effects loop.
| | 00:08 | The effects loop is the path our audio
takes as it goes from the source track
| | 00:11 | into the delay processor and back to the mix.
| | 00:14 | We've got to hook this up right, or
none of our mix ideas can be realized.
| | 00:18 | Beginning with the track we want to
process, we need a way to tap into the
| | 00:22 | signal and send it to our delay.
| | 00:24 | In order to hear that delay, we
feed its output to the mix too.
| | 00:28 | Typically, an auxiliary send and
return structure is employed using bus
| | 00:32 | outputs and so-called aux returns to
get our signal into the delay processor
| | 00:36 | and then back into our mix.
| | 00:38 | While simply inserting a delay directly
on the track might work, we commonly set
| | 00:42 | up a type of delay effect that we
want to use on more than one track.
| | 00:46 | Using the aux send and return approach
means that when we dial up a delay-based
| | 00:49 | effect we like on the guitar, we can
also apply it to the piano or any other
| | 00:53 | instrument by raising the appropriate
additional aux sends feeding the exact
| | 00:57 | same instance of the effect.
| | 00:59 | In the next couple of movies, we'll take
a look at how to set up an effects loop
| | 01:02 | in some common digital audio workstations.
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| Setting up an effects loop in a DAW| 00:00 | Pro Tools, Logic and all DAWs make
it easy to add delay to your session.
| | 00:04 | Pro Tools provides a representative example.
| | 00:07 | Seek out the Essential Training title
for your particular DAW in the lynda.com
| | 00:11 | Online Training Library for a deeper
exploration of this process as it applies
| | 00:15 | to you.
| | 00:16 | Pro Tools provides two signal flow
structures for introducing effects to your
| | 00:20 | session, and both the signal flow and
the nomenclature are borrowed directly
| | 00:24 | from large-format analog consoles.
| | 00:27 | So if you happen to recorded Led
Zeppelin in the 70s, Tears for Fears in the
| | 00:31 | 80s, or Pearl Jam in the 90s,
then you already know what to expect.
| | 00:35 | The two approaches are inserts and sends.
| | 00:38 | Inserts locate the plug-in directly in
the signal flow of the track, the entire
| | 00:42 | track feeds the plug-in, and the plug-
in output feeds right back to the track,
| | 00:46 | making its way to the fader and into your mix.
| | 00:49 | Inserts are an all or nothing sort of
approach, you either have the effect
| | 00:53 | or you don't.
| | 00:54 | Insert and activate an effect on the
track and you only hear the affected track.
| | 00:59 | None of the unaffected signal gets
through unless the effect has a wet/dry mix
| | 01:03 | parameter allowing you to mix together
the desired amount of effect; that's the
| | 01:07 | wet part, and original signal, the dry part.
| | 01:10 | For effects like EQ and
compression, inserts are perfect.
| | 01:13 | The effect fixes and improves the
track and there's no desire to hear the
| | 01:17 | original, unprocessed,
still broken unimproved track.
| | 01:21 | If you're using EQ to tame unwanted
shrillness and add needed low-end power,
| | 01:25 | it does our mix no good to hear the
EQ'd signal and still hear the shrill
| | 01:29 | low-end wimpy signal.
| | 01:31 | Inserting an EQ allows us to
hear the EQ track and none of that
| | 01:35 | un-EQ'd disappointment.
| | 01:37 | Sends offer an important signal
processing alternative, one more appropriate to
| | 01:41 | using the delay effects
we discuss in this course.
| | 01:44 | It's a bit more complicated at first,
but bear with me, because it's an
| | 01:47 | essential skill in audio.
| | 01:48 | The sends structure begins with a
source track which itself is of course
| | 01:52 | routed to the mix.
| | 01:53 | The source track is also made to feed a
bus, any one of the hundreds of internal
| | 01:58 | buses available for
exactly this purpose in Pro Tools.
| | 02:01 | This mix window is a good place to view
this, though you'll find that the same
| | 02:04 | functionality appears in
the edit window as well.
| | 02:07 | This electric guitar track labeled
EGT has its output assigned to the mix,
| | 02:12 | otherwise we won't hear the electric guitar.
| | 02:14 | Up above we have an insert section,
with a send section just below.
| | 02:19 | Inserts A-E offer us the chance to
insert five different effects using
| | 02:23 | the insert structure.
| | 02:25 | The View menu reveals Inserts F-J
exist, offering another five when
| | 02:29 | you're feeling greedy.
| | 02:30 | To keep the workspace clear, I only
turn on this view of the additional
| | 02:33 | Inserts when I need them.
| | 02:37 | Below the inserts are the Sends A-E,
five opportunities for using sends.
| | 02:42 | Well, no, wait, as is so often the
case in our DAWs, there's additional
| | 02:45 | capability when we need it.
| | 02:46 | The View menu shows we can
see Sends F-J if we wish.
| | 02:52 | Let's choose an available Send.
| | 02:54 | Some people start at the top, Send A,
and work their way down as they need more
| | 02:58 | effects later in the mix; a
nice, neat logical approach.
| | 03:01 | Some people start at the bottom, Send
E, and work their way up as they mix.
| | 03:04 | The ones closest to you, lower on the
screen, near the fader, mute, and solo
| | 03:08 | buttons are used first, perhaps making
mousing around the DAW a little easier.
| | 03:12 | I sometimes start in the middle,
thinking of it as a primary effect, and I
| | 03:15 | add supporting effects above and below
as needed in the course of a mix session.
| | 03:19 | The decision of which send to choose
first is all about ergonomics and feeling
| | 03:23 | comfortable with your own personal workflow.
| | 03:25 | Sonically and logically,
all ten sends are equal.
| | 03:28 | So click a send and we observe a few choices.
| | 03:31 | Up top we have no send, that's our
current status, but if we ever want to delete
| | 03:36 | a send we're using, clicking here turns it off.
| | 03:38 | The next choice is output.
| | 03:40 | Grabbing an output lets you route
your audio out of your DAW through any
| | 03:44 | available input/output hardware you
might have to access outboard gear for
| | 03:48 | an effects loop.
| | 03:49 | To use a plug-in, we select the bus
submenu and choose any of the more than
| | 03:53 | 100 available buses.
| | 03:55 | Let's grab Bus 1.
| | 03:57 | A Send level control opens where we
raise a fader to determine how much of this
| | 04:00 | guitar track will feed the bus.
| | 04:02 | We'll fine-tune it as needed to suit our
mix later, but for now, let's raise the
| | 04:06 | fader to 0 DB, so the feed to the bus
is the same level as the track's fader
| | 04:10 | setting in the mix, Option + Click
the fader to do this instantly.
| | 04:15 | Okay, with some guitar feeding and effects
in on Bus 1, we now need to insert an
| | 04:19 | effect on that bus.
| | 04:20 | To do this we need an auxiliary input.
| | 04:23 | Insert a new track by clicking Track >
New, you'll do this so often that the
| | 04:27 | keyboard shortcut, Shift +
Command + N will prove useful.
| | 04:30 | And notice the choices in the dialog that opens.
| | 04:33 | Highlighted when the menu
opens is the number of new tracks.
| | 04:36 | You can imagine that if you're recording
drums, you'd pop open a dozen or more
| | 04:39 | tracks at once, but here
we only need one aux input.
| | 04:43 | Next we see a menu currently at Mono
that lets us choose Mono or Stereo.
| | 04:48 | Mono will do for now.
| | 04:50 | Next we see Audio Track is selected.
| | 04:53 | If you needed a new Audio Track,
you've come to the right place, but notice
| | 04:56 | there are other choices;
| | 04:57 | Aux Input, which we will select.
| | 05:00 | Master Fader, if you want a fader to
conveniently ride gain across the entire
| | 05:03 | mix or some specified subset.
| | 05:06 | Or you can choose a MIDI or
Instrument Track for software synths and MIDI
| | 05:10 | data instead of audio.
| | 05:14 | Clicking Create places an aux input
next to our electric guitar track.
| | 05:18 | The aux input provides the full DAW
functionality for not an audio track, but
| | 05:23 | any live input we choose.
| | 05:25 | Set its input to the bus we
chose for our insert, Bus 1.
| | 05:29 | To get a delay going, we simply
insert a Delay on the Aux Input.
| | 05:33 | Now you've got unprocessed guitar on
the first fader and whatever delay effect
| | 05:37 | you desire on the Aux Input.
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| Setting the delay time by tempo| 00:00 | Approximately 99.9% of the time, and I'm
just guessing here, it might be 99.99%,
| | 00:06 | echo should be set to a
time that makes musical sense.
| | 00:09 | You don't simply pick a
random delay time and mix away.
| | 00:13 | A musical delay time is carefully
dialed in, should it repeat with a quarter
| | 00:16 | note rhythm, an eighth note, a triplet,
it's worth thinking this essential
| | 00:20 | step through carefully.
| | 00:22 | Sometimes in our search for a
specific musical time value, we calculate a
| | 00:26 | delay time.
| | 00:27 | How is this calculated?
| | 00:28 | It's time for a useful bit of algebra.
| | 00:31 | If the tempo of the song is known in
beats per minute, shown here as BPM, and
| | 00:36 | the duration of a quarter note delay in
milliseconds is desired, let's call it Q
| | 00:40 | for quarter note, perform
the following calculation.
| | 00:44 | In music a song's tempo is notated
in beats per minute, BPM, but how many
| | 00:48 | minutes are in a beat?
| | 00:50 | First convert beats per minute into
minutes per beat by taking the reciprocal.
| | 00:54 | BPM, beats per minute,
becomes 1 over BPM minutes per beat.
| | 01:00 | Time and minutes now needs to
be converted to milliseconds.
| | 01:03 | There are 60 seconds in a minute and 1000
milliseconds in a second, so 1 over
| | 01:09 | BPM, minutes per beat, times 60 seconds
per minute, times 1,000 milliseconds per
| | 01:16 | second, leads to milliseconds per beat.
| | 01:20 | Putting it altogether, the length of
time of a quarter note in milliseconds per
| | 01:23 | beat is given by this equation.
| | 01:26 | Plug in the BPM of your tune and out
pops the duration of a quarter note
| | 01:30 | in milliseconds.
| | 01:32 | Let's try one.
| | 01:33 | A song with a tempo of 60 beats per
minute ticks like a watch, with a quarter
| | 01:37 | note occurring exactly once per second.
| | 01:40 | Let's plop it into the equation: BPM
equals 60, Q equals 60,000 divided by BPM,
| | 01:46 | 60,000 divided by 60 is 1,000. And we're done!
| | 01:51 | A quarter note lasts 1,000
milliseconds, exactly 1 second.
| | 01:56 | Double the tempo to 120 beats per
minute: 60,000 divided by 120, and we're
| | 02:02 | allowed to reach for a calculator if
we need one, is 500, a quarter note is
| | 02:06 | 500 milliseconds long.
| | 02:08 | Makes sense, right?
| | 02:09 | We doubled the tempo, so the
quarter note lasts half as long.
| | 02:12 | I should mention that units of
milliseconds are used here for two reasons.
| | 02:17 | First, the millisecond is the
magnitude most delay processors expect.
| | 02:21 | Second, it typically leads to
comfortable numbers in musical applications.
| | 02:26 | For the frequencies we can hear and for
the effects we're likely to use, units
| | 02:30 | and milliseconds generate numbers of
manageable size, not too many decimal
| | 02:34 | places, not too many digits.
| | 02:37 | Using seconds, minutes, years, or
fortnights would still work theoretically,
| | 02:41 | these are all units of time, but the
millisecond is the more convenient order
| | 02:45 | of magnitude.
| | 02:46 | We could track our age in weeks or
months, but I prefer using years so that I
| | 02:51 | get a smaller number.
| | 02:53 | Calculating first the quarter note
delay makes it easy to determine the time
| | 02:56 | value of an eighth note, a sixteenth
note, dotted or triplet values, et cetera.
| | 03:01 | For MIDI-based, clip-based, or tempo
mapped projects, your DAW takes care of
| | 03:06 | the math for you.
| | 03:07 | In almost every delay plug-in in your
DAW you'll find a Tempo Sync button,
| | 03:11 | click that, and your delay effects will
automatically be synced with the tempo
| | 03:14 | of the song.
| | 03:16 | From there you simply select the
time division you need, eighth note,
| | 03:19 | quarter note, et cetera.
| | 03:21 | We'll cover specific examples of
this in later movies in this course.
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| Setting the delay time by ear| 00:00 | If the tempo of the song you're working
on is unknown, or if you're working on
| | 00:04 | music that was not recorded to a
click track, try using the snare to tune a
| | 00:08 | delay, to set a delay time
that makes musical sense.
| | 00:12 | Even if the plan is to add delay to
the vocal, piano, or guitar, it's usually
| | 00:15 | easiest to use the snare for finding
the appropriate delay time, both because
| | 00:20 | it's a rhythm instrument and
also because it hits so often.
| | 00:23 | So much of pop music has a backbeat.
| | 00:26 | The snare following
regularly on beat 2 and beat 4.
| | 00:29 | Send the snare to the
delay and listen to the echo.
| | 00:32 | Starting with a long delay of about
500 milliseconds and with some feedback
| | 00:36 | to make it repeat, adjust the time
until echoing snare hits fall on a
| | 00:40 | musically relevant beat.
| | 00:42 | If the delay falls at a nonmusical time
interval, it can be pretty jarring, but
| | 00:47 | when it's adjusted into the time of
the music, you'll instantly feel it.
| | 00:51 | It's perhaps easiest to find a
quarter note delay, and with practice and
| | 00:55 | concentration, finding triplet and
dotted rhythms becomes perfectly intuitive.
| | 01:00 | You can also make use of the delay
time calculations discussed earlier in
| | 01:04 | this chapter.
| | 01:05 | After the delay time value
appropriate to the tempo of the song is found by
| | 01:09 | ear, don't forget to pull the snare
out of the effects send and send the vocal
| | 01:13 | or whichever track is to be
treated with echo to the delay instead.
| | 01:17 | That use of snare was a device for
tuning the delay, not a mix move.
| | 01:21 | Once the correct delay time has been
found, undo the snare routing and return
| | 01:25 | the snare to its rightful place in the mix.
| | 01:28 | The delay now sits, ready to add the
perfect echo to any track you feed it.
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|
|
2. Echo EffectsOverview of short, medium, and long delays| 00:00 | Delay isn't one effect, it's several
families of effects, and it's driven
| | 00:04 | largely by the length of the delay time setting.
| | 00:07 | Long delays lead to echoes, medium
delays create chorus and doubling, and short
| | 00:13 | delays lead to flanging and comb filtering.
| | 00:16 | So any discussion of delay effects
needs to begin by identifying which of the
| | 00:20 | three classes of delay we're using;
| | 00:22 | long, medium, or short.
| | 00:25 | It's like we're ordering food at a
fast food restaurant, do you want
| | 00:28 | large, medium, or small?
| | 00:30 | Here's how it breaks down.
| | 00:32 | Long delay effects use delay times
greater than about 50-60 milliseconds, while
| | 00:37 | medium delays live between about 20
and 50 milliseconds, and short delays are
| | 00:42 | less than about 20 milliseconds.
| | 00:45 | The long delay is unique, in that the
delayed sound happens so long after the
| | 00:49 | source sound, we hear it as
a separate event, it echoes.
| | 00:53 | Just how long does the delay have
to be before we hear it as an echo?
| | 00:57 | Well, it depends.
| | 00:58 | Our ability to hear an echo depends
on the type of signal we're processing,
| | 01:02 | but it's fair to say that the vague
line between echo and non-echo is about
| | 01:06 | 50-60 milliseconds.
| | 01:09 | Delay times greater than this
are good candidates for echo.
| | 01:12 | Sounds with delays of less than 50-
60 milliseconds are hard to discern as
| | 01:16 | distinct separate events.
| | 01:18 | Instead they are a different class of
delay based effect, occurring too soon to
| | 01:22 | be perceived as an echo.
| | 01:24 | Sharp, transient, percussive sounds
like drums are easier to hear as an echo
| | 01:29 | than round, gentle, more sustained
sounds. That's why there's no single rule of
| | 01:34 | thumb for echo times.
| | 01:35 | Sharper sounds like a kick drum echo
at shorter delay times, closer to 50
| | 01:40 | milliseconds, but rounder sounds, like
a whole note on an upright bass played
| | 01:44 | with a bow, they don't easily
reveal themselves as a separate echo.
| | 01:48 | So a delay time of 60
milliseconds or even more is needed.
| | 01:52 | Philosophically, we consider a delay
time long when it accesses the family of
| | 01:57 | effects built on echoes, and the
musical use of an audible repetition.
| | 02:02 | What happens below the echo
threshold at delay times less than this
| | 02:05 | 50-60 millisecond range?
| | 02:08 | As we shorten the delay time, both the
undelayed and the delayed signals start
| | 02:12 | to fuse into a single sound.
| | 02:14 | It's not that we no longer hear the
delay, it's just we no longer hear it as
| | 02:18 | a distinct echo.
| | 02:20 | Instead the two signals start to sound
like a doubling, like two very similar
| | 02:24 | tracks being played at the same time.
| | 02:26 | Is it one guitar?
| | 02:27 | No, it's two.
| | 02:28 | Wait, no, it's one.
| | 02:29 | When we get a blur of what seems to
be more then one performer playing very
| | 02:33 | nearly the same thing, we've fallen
into what we call a medium delay, and
| | 02:37 | doubling is just a starting point.
| | 02:39 | You'll soon see, and hopefully hear,
related effects based on medium delay, such
| | 02:44 | as chorus and thickening.
| | 02:46 | But this medium delay classification has limits.
| | 02:49 | You're now familiar with the upper limit.
| | 02:51 | Above a delay time setting of 50-60
milliseconds, the effect transitions back
| | 02:56 | to echo.
| | 02:57 | Below 15-20 milliseconds, something
else happens, we call this range of
| | 03:02 | delays short delays.
| | 03:04 | When delays are very short, they're
heard as a single undelayed sound.
| | 03:09 | The mix of signal plus delayed
signal becomes a new entity, with a
| | 03:12 | different sound quality.
| | 03:14 | Comb filtering and flanging are the
unique results of mixing together a source
| | 03:18 | signal with a short delay.
| | 03:20 | The delay time is so short that when the
two signals, the original and the short
| | 03:24 | delay itself are combined, they create a
pattern of cycle by cycle additions and
| | 03:29 | cancellations that alter the tone of the track.
| | 03:32 | So in order to understand the rich
production potential of delay, we need to
| | 03:37 | break it down into long, medium, and
short, because these three tiers of delay
| | 03:42 | time have vastly different sonic outcomes.
| | 03:44 | All right! Here we go, let's start with
long delay.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Long delays| 00:00 | Let's talk about using long
delays for an echo effect.
| | 00:04 | Set the delay time to a few hundred
milliseconds and here's what happens.
| | 00:08 | (music playing)
| | 00:11 | This is easy to setup.
| | 00:13 | Our snare sound is essentially split.
| | 00:15 | It continues to make its way to the
loudspeaker so that we can hear it, but it's
| | 00:19 | also being routed to a delay
processor using our DAW's effect sense.
| | 00:23 | The output of the delay also feeds the mix.
| | 00:26 | In this way, we are monitoring the
actual drumhead as well as some number of
| | 00:30 | delayed repetitions.
| | 00:32 | But we've done a bit more for this echo effect.
| | 00:34 | Notice that the snare echo repeats
several times, with each repeat fading
| | 00:39 | gradually to silence.
| | 00:40 | That's the feedback control in action,
sending the output of the delay right
| | 00:44 | back into the input, but at a rather
low level, we get an additional echo.
| | 00:49 | That echo is fed back as well.
| | 00:51 | So like the original snare hit, it
repeats again, but at an even lower
| | 00:55 | level each time.
| | 00:56 | (music playing)
| | 01:00 | Ah! But we've done even a bit more for
this echo effect.
| | 01:04 | The low-pass filter is engaged here too
so that each repeating fading snare echo
| | 01:09 | grows more gentle and dives off
into a vibey, low fidelity direction.
| | 01:14 | If this were part of a complete tune
instead of a single isolated snare hit,
| | 01:18 | this low-pass filter would pull the
listener in a bit, adding another layer of
| | 01:22 | interest to the mix.
| | 01:23 | (music playing)
| | 01:27 | There are many opportunities to
use echo-based effects in your mix.
| | 01:31 | Echoes applied to your lead vocal or to
individual words of your lead vocal can be
| | 01:35 | a great way to add emphasis
to key lyrics in the song.
| | 01:39 | The echo becomes a catchy hook
that grabs the listener's attention.
| | 01:43 | A carefully placed echo can add
meaning to the song, when the echoed word is
| | 01:47 | important, ponderous, dreamy, ironic, or
in some way important and unique to the
| | 01:52 | content of the lyrics.
| | 01:53 | Ditto for your guitar
solo, a sax line, et cetera.
| | 01:57 | You can use echo to highlight any
section of any track in your mix and to
| | 02:00 | support the performer at
critical musical moments.
| | 02:04 | It's a curious idea adding an echo to
a snare, a singer, or any other track.
| | 02:08 | It doesn't seem to have any
motivation based on reality.
| | 02:12 | The only way to hear an echo on the
vocal of a song without the help of studio
| | 02:15 | signal processing is to go to a terrible
sounding venue, like an ice hockey rink
| | 02:20 | or the Grand Canyon, and listen to music
there.
| | 02:23 | The sound of an echo across the
entire mix that occurs in these types of
| | 02:27 | places, places not designed for musical
listening is quite an
| | 02:30 | unpleasant experience.
| | 02:32 | It's sonic chaos.
| | 02:34 | It's hard to hear who's playing what.
| | 02:36 | The lyric becomes an unintelligible mess.
| | 02:39 | Echo on the entire tune is distinctly unmusical.
| | 02:43 | The echoes found in recorded music
tend to be used with more restraint.
| | 02:47 | In some cases, the echo is added
to a single track, not the whole mix.
| | 02:52 | But to keep things from becoming too
confusing the output of the delay is often
| | 02:55 | mixed in at low level so
as to be nearly inaudible.
| | 02:59 | It's an almost subliminal effect at times.
| | 03:01 | And a useful refinement to this
approach is to apply echo only to keywords, key
| | 03:07 | phrases, or licks instead of the entire track.
| | 03:10 | This focuses the effect and cleans up the mix.
| | 03:13 | We will hear some examples in
the following several movies.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Using long delay on key lyrics| 00:00 | Let's use echo to emphasize
key lines and phrases in our mix.
| | 00:04 | We are going to setup
the DAW for a delay effect,
| | 00:06 | dial in an appropriate long
delay time, and add some nice details.
| | 00:10 | So let's get in the mix.
| | 00:12 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 00:15 | If you don't have access to a DAW
right now, you can continue watching this
| | 00:18 | video to see the Get In The Mix demonstration.
| | 00:27 | The addition of echo to a track is
pretty simple to do, but we will need to keep
| | 00:30 | an ear on the musicality of the effect.
| | 00:33 | First, I'll add a quarter
note echo to an entire vocal track.
| | 00:36 | You will hear that this
crowds and confuses the mix.
| | 00:39 | To fix that problem, I'll limit
the delay echo to a few discrete
| | 00:43 | key words instead.
| | 00:45 | Then I will fine tune it all by
finding a more appropriate echo time.
| | 00:48 | Instead of a quarter note,
a half note feels right.
| | 00:51 | And the effect grows more interesting
still when followed by a fading repetition
| | 00:55 | a quarter note later.
| | 00:58 | Echo was added to this vocal by using
an aux in feeding this delay plug-in.
| | 01:02 | The duration of the delay time has been
aligned to the tempo of the song using
| | 01:06 | the Tempo Sync capability built into
this and most other delay plug-ins.
| | 01:10 | I'll start with a quarter note duration.
| | 01:13 | First, I will play the mix without
any delay on the vocal, and then I'll
| | 01:16 | automate the Bypass button engaging
the delay and bringing the echo into
| | 01:20 | the mix.
| | 01:21 | (music playing)
| | 01:53 | To my ear, no amount of fussing
with level or panning makes this echo
| | 01:56 | particularly helpful to our mix.
| | 01:59 | Too loud, and it's distracting.
| | 02:01 | Too soft, and it adds nothing beautiful,
nothing useful to the overall sound
| | 02:05 | of the song.
| | 02:06 | And in between, well, there
is no perfect in between.
| | 02:10 | This always-on vocal echo is always annoying.
| | 02:12 | It's never musical.
| | 02:14 | A more typical echo effect is to
emphasize only key words of the vocal instead
| | 02:19 | of the entire performance.
| | 02:21 | I created a new audio track and I
placed in it a copy of the lead vocal track.
| | 02:25 | I then deleted everything but the
words I wish to send to the echo, being
| | 02:29 | careful to offer clean, quick, click
free fades at the beginning and end of
| | 02:33 | each word.
| | 02:34 | I think the words wishing well are
begging for a lonely, reverberant echo.
| | 02:39 | This new key word track feeds
only the effects loop to the delay.
| | 02:43 | It doesn't go to the mix.
| | 02:44 | Remember, these words are still present
in the original vocal track, and I don't
| | 02:49 | want to double these words by having
them come from two tracks simultaneously.
| | 02:53 | This new track feeds the delay not the mix.
| | 02:56 | We don't hear the new track
directly, but the delay processor does.
| | 02:59 | (music playing)
| | 03:12 | Okay, it's getting better.
| | 03:14 | The echo no longer annoys, but
it's hardly adding to the mix.
| | 03:18 | Now we've got to do a bit of fine tuning.
| | 03:20 | Let's try adjusting the delay time.
| | 03:22 | Let's compare the sounds of the phrase
with that quarter note, then a half note,
| | 03:26 | and then a whole note echo.
| | 03:27 | (music playing)
| | 04:05 | The interesting emotional potential
of the echo is starting to be revealed,
| | 04:09 | though you owe it to yourself to
spend a lot of time exploring this.
| | 04:12 | I hear the quarter note echo was
crowding the line, and the whole note echo
| | 04:15 | was a bit too late.
| | 04:16 | I'm liking the half note echo.
| | 04:19 | But let's do a bit more with it.
| | 04:20 | Let's let it repeat
using the feedback parameter.
| | 04:23 | (music playing)
| | 04:38 | Hmm. That's too much. Feedback which sends
the output of the delay back to the input
| | 04:43 | causes any number of gently fading repetitions.
| | 04:46 | While appropriate in other contexts, I
don't what even a small cloud of repeats.
| | 04:50 | A single repetition might be better.
| | 04:53 | So we turn off the feedback and
activate the second delay tap.
| | 04:56 | I explored this for a while and I
found I like the repeat best when it came a
| | 05:00 | quarter note after the first echo,
sort of haunting and lonely, yet
| | 05:04 | rhythmically appealing.
| | 05:05 | (music playing)
| | 05:18 | We can hard pan them.
| | 05:20 | (music playing)
| | 05:33 | But I like when they're tucked in a bit.
| | 05:34 | So I'll pan them part way back towards center.
| | 05:37 | (music playing)
| | 05:49 | Finally, add a bit of EQ to the
echo that thins the spectral content to
| | 05:53 | something closer to a whisper, and
give it some reverb and these echo
| | 05:57 | slide nicely into place.
| | 05:59 | Let's hear it from the top.
| | 06:00 | (music playing)
| | 07:05 | That echo was the perfect mix
embellishment for a rich, lyrical idea.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Establishing groove with long delays| 00:00 | Well timed long delays, echoes, are an
excellent way to fill in part of the
| | 00:04 | rhythm track of a song.
| | 00:06 | Reggae is famous for its
clich? over the top echo.
| | 00:10 | Drum programmers have been known to put
an eighth or a quarter note delay across
| | 00:13 | the entire groove in some dance
music, and guitarists use delay too.
| | 00:17 | Let's go into the Live Room where David
has his guitar running through a delay
| | 00:20 | effect and give it a listen.
| | 00:22 | (music playing)
| | 00:41 | In this example, David played just a few
notes and the delay filled in the rest.
| | 00:45 | This repeating echo becomes an
integral part of the performance itself.
| | 00:49 | Now let's add some excitement to
a song with a bit of echo-based
| | 00:52 | groove enhancement.
| | 00:53 | Time to Get In The Mix.
| | 00:55 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 01:02 | The bridge of this tune is
pretty wacky, but it's on purpose.
| | 01:05 | That's what I'm going for.
| | 01:07 | (music playing)
| | 01:34 | There's a lot going on here, but top
of the list is some groove echo I've
| | 01:37 | added to the driving
strums of that acoustic guitar.
| | 01:40 | (music playing)
| | 01:47 | This tune features a common challenge,
a surprisingly simple instrumental
| | 01:51 | arrangement needs
somehow to rise to an occasion.
| | 01:54 | In this case, there's the thrilling
vocal arrangement that is the focal point
| | 01:57 | of the bridge.
| | 01:59 | We just need to get the relatively
simple rhythm section underneath those vocals
| | 02:03 | to grow stronger and more exciting.
| | 02:05 | Sure, some added electric guitars or
well-designed synth parts would do the
| | 02:09 | trick, but here I'd like to go for an
emotional lift through mix moves only.
| | 02:13 | I want to try to make the acoustic
guitar swirl and move and groove and to
| | 02:18 | communicate excitement.
| | 02:20 | And don't forget, the repeated lyric
here is the title of the song, This
| | 02:23 | Time Around.
| | 02:24 | The word around naturally invites some
emotion, some well-placed echoes on the
| | 02:28 | acoustic guitar might be just right.
| | 02:31 | (music playing)
| | 02:59 | The guitar echo is built from five
taps of a multi-tap echo, a delay with at
| | 03:03 | least five individually adjustable delays.
| | 03:07 | We need to place the resulting echoes
into the mix in a way that supports what
| | 03:10 | the guitarist is playing.
| | 03:12 | It's always the case that the engineer
must get along well with the guitarist.
| | 03:17 | We definitely want musically relevant
delay times for each of these delay taps.
| | 03:21 | We're thinking in terms of quarter
notes and half notes, not in terms
| | 03:24 | of milliseconds.
| | 03:25 | So using the Tempo Sync
feature of the plug-in is a big help.
| | 03:30 | Good rhythmic syncopation of this
sort performance will come from patterns
| | 03:34 | built on 16th notes.
| | 03:36 | (music playing)
| | 03:41 | Tap 1 is set to a quarter note which
is of course 4 sixteenth notes.
| | 03:46 | Tap 2 is a dotted quarter note
made up of 6 sixteenth notes.
| | 03:51 | Tap 3 is set to 10 sixteenth notes.
| | 03:55 | This one might be a bit confusing at first.
| | 03:57 | I think of it as 8 sixteenth notes which
is a half note, plus two more sixteenth
| | 04:02 | notes, which delays it all
by a further eighth note.
| | 04:06 | A delay of a half plus an eighth means
the echo falls on the upbeat half a bar
| | 04:11 | later, a classic syncopation move.
| | 04:15 | Tap 4 lands with a rhythmically
strong eighth note anticipation to a full
| | 04:19 | bar delay.
| | 04:21 | And Tap 5 is that one whole bar
later, 16 sixteenth notes of a delay.
| | 04:27 | I spent some time with this trying
many different patterns and I'm currently
| | 04:31 | liking this sort of pattern, and in
fact, I prefer it with the first Tap
| | 04:34 | turned off.
| | 04:35 | (music playing)
| | 04:40 | The levels of these delay taps follow a
typical strategy that later echoes are
| | 04:45 | quieter than earlier echoes.
| | 04:47 | You can see them falling off
to -3 then -6, and finally -9dB.
| | 04:52 | The left/right panning of each delay is
quite important here too, and reminds us
| | 04:57 | of another creative variable we have to
work with even as we play with groove,
| | 05:01 | stereo.
| | 05:03 | You can of course keep the entire
effect mono, but it's common to add motion to
| | 05:07 | the mix by ping-ponging the
delays back and forth across the mix.
| | 05:12 | A hard-panned left to right ping
pong is rather a blatant effect.
| | 05:16 | So I placed the early echoes closer to
center and the last delay is hard-panned.
| | 05:22 | So as this effect unfolds, the echoes
grow slightly lower in level and pan
| | 05:26 | gradually farther out to the side.
| | 05:28 | (music playing)
| | 05:33 | This pattern isn't the only option.
| | 05:35 | With groove-based echoes you get to
explore, create, and express yourself.
| | 05:40 | What I like most about this pattern
is how the late echoes act as a sort of
| | 05:44 | anticipatory acceleration back to the
strong down strum on the downbeat falling
| | 05:49 | on beat one of each bar of the bridge.
| | 05:51 | It creates a kind of crescendo
that we built from our echoes.
| | 05:55 | (music playing)
| | 06:08 | These echoes form a pattern that fits
with the performance and adds to the mix.
| | 06:12 | (music playing)
| | 06:40 | I should point out that I didn't
use that early quarter note echo.
| | 06:44 | It was helpful to have it on while
explored all the options, but just because
| | 06:48 | the plug-in gives us the delay
output, doesn't mean our mix needs it.
| | 06:52 | The quarter note at Tap 1 crowded in
too close to the performance and it
| | 06:56 | interfered with the groove
the guitarist established.
| | 07:01 | This groove echo pattern
turns out to have other uses.
| | 07:04 | Listen to the acoustic guitar
part immediately after the bridge.
| | 07:07 | (music playing)
| | 07:25 | Echoes can linger and churn faintly
beneath the track to give it support, to
| | 07:30 | help it keep up with a busy mix.
| | 07:32 | The elegantly simple two note
alternation part that follows this bridge is
| | 07:36 | melodically grounding even as the
choruses grow more exciting, but we need to
| | 07:41 | help this humble acoustic guitar
to keep up with the rest of the mix.
| | 07:45 | Low-level echoes can do the trick.
| | 07:47 | (music playing)
| | 07:53 | We get just a bit of extra energy and
time blurring to help this simple part
| | 07:58 | get heard in the mix.
| | 07:59 | Letting the prior note linger on as
the guitarist plays the next note lets
| | 08:03 | them overlap more, upgrading a
melodic part to something with more harmonic
| | 08:07 | interest too.
| | 08:08 | (music playing)
| | 08:28 | In this way, a pattern of rhythmic
echoes can provide a bed of support, a
| | 08:32 | foundation for a track in need
of subliminal sonic enhancement.
| | 08:37 | Acoustic guitar, background vocals,
harmonica, falsetto voice, triangle rhythm
| | 08:43 | patterns, any fragile sound might
welcome exactly this sort of treatment.
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| Get in the Mix: Creating slapback echo with long delays| 00:00 | A popular sound in 1950s Rock,
slap-back echo, is sometimes part of
| | 00:04 | a contemporary mix.
| | 00:06 | If you've heard Elvis sing, you've
heard slap.
| | 00:09 | Guitarists playing the Blues
sometimes reach for it too.
| | 00:12 | It adds liveness and
excitement wherever we use it.
| | 00:15 | So let's go to the Live Room
where David is playing the drums.
| | 00:17 | In the control room we will add slap echo.
| | 00:21 | Alex: All right David, we're rolling.
| | 00:22 | (music playing)
| | 00:32 | Alex: Let's add some slap to that.
| | 00:34 | (music playing)
| | 00:43 | This single audible echo between
about 80 and 200 milliseconds adds a
| | 00:48 | distinctive bounce and pulse to every drum hit.
| | 00:51 | On a vocal, slap echo can
add a retro feel to the sound.
| | 00:54 | Elvis and his contemporaries reached for
this effect so often that it has become
| | 00:58 | a clich? that's evocative of the time.
| | 01:00 | Listeners today associate slap back
with those happy days of the 1950s.
| | 01:05 | You can almost hear the fins on the car.
| | 01:08 | On a solo instrument like guitar, or a
rhythm instrument like drums, slap echo
| | 01:12 | makes a performance sound more live,
putting the listener in the noisy bar
| | 01:16 | with the band.
| | 01:17 | It reminds us of the music club with
that short echo of sound bouncing off the
| | 01:21 | back wall of the venue.
| | 01:22 | To add slap to a mix, all we need is a
long delay of about 120 milliseconds and
| | 01:27 | a track to put it on.
| | 01:29 | Let's Get In The Mix.
| | 01:30 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 01:38 | I've added slap echo to the guitar part
on the track labeled EGT, which is how
| | 01:42 | I abbreviate electric guitar in most
sessions, by setting up a standard
| | 01:45 | effects loop.
| | 01:46 | The electric guitar feeds a Bus to the
aux input labeled slap, which in turn
| | 01:51 | has a slap echo plug-in inserted.
| | 01:54 | While you might find plug-ins
specifically named slap echo, or find delay
| | 01:58 | plug-ins with presets labeled slap echo,
the fact is any delay capable of delay
| | 02:02 | times in excess of 120 milliseconds will do.
| | 02:06 | The plug-in opens with these
default generic stereo delay settings.
| | 02:10 | I'll take it from generic to specific
by dialing in delay times left and right
| | 02:15 | of about 120 milliseconds, choosing
slightly different delay times for each side
| | 02:20 | leads to a spatially
wider more interesting effect.
| | 02:23 | Let's listen to the delay as I pull the
left sides delay time down, which is too
| | 02:27 | long and distracting, to
something just above 120 milliseconds.
| | 02:31 | I'll then pull the right delay
time down to a value just below
| | 02:35 | 120 milliseconds.
| | 02:36 | (music playing)
| | 02:49 | That's not a bad sound.
| | 02:51 | The guitar feels a bit
more retro, a bit twangier.
| | 02:54 | It has a distinct character.
Compare the dry sound to the version with
| | 02:57 | slap echo.
| | 02:58 | We'll play them back to back,
first without slap, then with the effect.
| | 03:02 | (music playing)
| | 03:16 | It certainly isn't always the right
sound, but in a mix crowded with too many
| | 03:19 | midrange parts, too many guitars, pianos,
synths, strings, horns, you name it,
| | 03:25 | try making one track unique
with a little bit of slap echo.
| | 03:29 | Push the effect a bit, making it a bit
more obvious by adding some feedback.
| | 03:34 | Now the slap echo bounces
energetically on just a bit longer.
| | 03:37 | (music playing)
| | 03:51 | If the slap is a bit too distracting, and
that's a risk, engage a low-pass filter
| | 03:56 | and strategically dull the sound a bit.
| | 03:58 | The slap is still audible,
but without any rhythmic hiccup.
| | 04:02 | Listen as I pull down a low-pass
filter in the slap delay.
| | 04:05 | The sound really starts to change
when we fall below the strong presence
| | 04:09 | range, about 4 kHz.
| | 04:11 | I'll push it even a bit lower
to something between 2 and 3 kHz.
| | 04:15 | (music playing)
| | 04:29 | Add a bit of short ambient reverb to
the delay and soften it further while
| | 04:33 | adding more to that live feeling.
| | 04:35 | I'll unmute the send and add a plate
reverb sound with a reverb time near
| | 04:39 | 1 second, just a touch of this is
all we need.
| | 04:42 | (music playing)
| | 04:55 | The guitar sound has really transformed now.
| | 04:57 | (music playing)
| | 05:24 | I must emphasize that this effect is
very much about rather subtle audio
| | 05:27 | qualities, like character and flavor.
| | 05:30 | You have an important aesthetic choice
to make when you dial in a slap echo,
| | 05:34 | changing the type and the amount of
reverb, the cutoff frequency of the low
| | 05:38 | pass filter, the amount of feedback,
and the delay time settings; these all
| | 05:42 | affect the sound.
| | 05:43 | Spend some time massaging these values
until you find a quality you love,
| | 05:48 | or even an ear-grabbing sound
you hate, but love to hate.
| | 05:51 | And if your collection of plug-ins
includes more than one type of delay suitable
| | 05:55 | to this challenge, well,
you've got to try them all.
| | 05:58 | Even the type of delay
itself contributes to the sound.
| | 06:01 | Some delays are pristine and high
fidelity, others are a bit grungy, grainy,
| | 06:07 | dull, or in some way low fidelity.
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| Advanced tape-delay effects| 00:00 | If you want to create tape delay and
happen to own your own tape machine, or work
| | 00:04 | in a studio with one, or are simply
tape curious, this movie is for you.
| | 00:09 | A tape machine represents a
mechanical source of delay.
| | 00:12 | Usually, a tape machine has only a
few tape speeds and thus only a few
| | 00:15 | delay times.
| | 00:17 | Sure, it might cost several thousand
dollars for those few delay settings, but
| | 00:21 | it is a way to create delay.
| | 00:23 | Tape delay was originally used,
because it was one of the only choices at
| | 00:26 | the time.
| | 00:27 | It's still used today so we'd like to
know more about it.
| | 00:31 | Using a two track recorder is a bit
clumsy, so manufacturers solved the problem
| | 00:35 | by introducing tape-based delay units.
| | 00:38 | These were tape machines with a loop of
tape inside, where the spacing between
| | 00:42 | the record and the playback heads
could easily be changed to make the delay
| | 00:46 | time adjustable.
| | 00:48 | Nowadays, studios have more options.
| | 00:51 | Life is good.
| | 00:52 | Today, we can buy a digital delay
that is easily adjustable, wonderfully
| | 00:56 | flexible, cheaper than a tape
machine, and it either fits in one or two
| | 01:00 | rack spaces, or exist conveniently in
a pulldown menu in our digital audio
| | 01:04 | workstation.
| | 01:06 | Why bother with tape delay?
| | 01:07 | There is one major reason and it's the
most important motivator in our field.
| | 01:12 | Sound.
| | 01:13 | Some great sounding, old
recordings made effective use of tape delay.
| | 01:17 | That's inspiration enough for some engineers.
| | 01:19 | Retro for retro's sake.
| | 01:21 | Tape delay is such a unique sound,
so rich with character and subtleties
| | 01:26 | that plug-in makers continue to try
to emulate it to import those sound
| | 01:30 | qualities into our DAW.
| | 01:32 | While these emulations might sound great,
there is no way they can exactly match
| | 01:36 | the sound of your tape machine.
| | 01:38 | You should go to the trouble to
use a tape delay when you really want
| | 01:41 | that sound.
| | 01:42 | An analog tape machine introduces
it's own complex, but understated
| | 01:46 | coloration to the sound.
| | 01:47 | It adds a slight low-frequency lift
to the frequency content of the signal.
| | 01:52 | The exact frequency and gain of this
low-frequency emphasis depends on your
| | 01:55 | tape machine.
| | 01:56 | The tape speed, the tape gauge,
and how the machine is calibrated.
| | 02:01 | If you push the recording level into
the red, that signature sound of analog
| | 02:05 | tape compression is introduced.
| | 02:07 | At hotter levels still, saturation
distortion, a sound wholly unique to
| | 02:12 | analog tape results.
| | 02:14 | So as it turns out when we give it a
closer listen, tape offers far more
| | 02:18 | than just delay.
| | 02:19 | It's a delay plus equalizer, plus
compressor, plus distortion device.
| | 02:23 | It can be darn difficult to simulate digitally.
| | 02:27 | It sometimes the perfect bit of nuance
to make a track special within the mix.
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|
|
3. Modulation, Chorus, and Doubling EffectsLFO| 00:00 | We've gotten a lot done with delay so
far using the parameters of level, delay
| | 00:04 | time, feedback, low-pass
filtering, and polarity reversal.
| | 00:08 | It's time to take it to the
next level using what are known as
| | 00:11 | modulation controls.
| | 00:13 | Modulation is simply a
secret codeword for change.
| | 00:16 | We want to introduce a way for the
delay time to fluctuate during the song.
| | 00:20 | The delay effects we've discussed so
far, echo for emphasis, echo for groove,
| | 00:25 | and slap back echo, use only a static delay.
| | 00:28 | Interesting new effects can be
built on a changing delay time.
| | 00:32 | And while we might manually change the
delay time ourselves, a recorder delay
| | 00:36 | time changes into the mix automation system.
| | 00:39 | It is really useful to have the delay
processor itself introduce the change.
| | 00:43 | And this is done using a simple
low-frequency oscillator or LFO.
| | 00:49 | The LFO is an oscillating waveform
that drives the delay time parameter.
| | 00:52 | We don't listen to this signal.
| | 00:54 | Instead, the delay time is controlled by it.
| | 00:57 | If the LFO is a slowly moving sine
wave, then the delay time parameter will
| | 01:01 | sweep slowly with a sine wave
trajectory through a range of delay times.
| | 01:06 | If the LFO is a quickly moving sawtooth
wave, then the delay time changes more
| | 01:10 | quickly in a sawtooth pattern.
| | 01:13 | The LFO has three simple
properties, rate, depth, and shape.
| | 01:18 | Rate is the frequency of the LFO.
| | 01:20 | Remember, we aren't listening to this signal.
| | 01:22 | It's only used to change the delay
time parameter in our delay processor.
| | 01:27 | Rate specifies whether the manipulation
of the delay time will be slow, quick,
| | 01:31 | or somewhere in between.
| | 01:34 | Depth is the amplitude of the LFO.
| | 01:36 | It determines the amount of
change to the delay time.
| | 01:38 | Do we modulate that delay by 5
milliseconds, 50 milliseconds, 500
| | 01:43 | milliseconds or more?
| | 01:46 | Shape is the waveform of the LFO.
| | 01:48 | A sine wave is common.
| | 01:49 | It changes the delay time in a
regular sine wave pattern through the range
| | 01:53 | of delay values you specified
using depth, doing so as quickly as you
| | 01:57 | specified using rate.
| | 01:59 | But a sine wave is not the only choice.
| | 02:01 | The delay changing trajectory might
follow any standard waveform, sawtooth,
| | 02:06 | triangle, and square
waves are common LFO shapes.
| | 02:08 | And maybe most interesting of all, many
delay processors let you select a random
| | 02:13 | wave shape so that the delay time moves
without the regular pattern of the more
| | 02:16 | structured, repeating wave shapes.
| | 02:18 | This can lead to a more
organic form of modulating delay.
| | 02:22 | Mastering the modulation section of
your delay by understanding these LFO
| | 02:26 | building blocks, opens the door to a
variety of new delay effects, doubling,
| | 02:31 | chorus, spreaders, thickeners, and
flanging are all built on changing delays as
| | 02:36 | we discuss in the upcoming videos.
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| Get in the Mix: Modulation rate and depth| 00:00 | Delay effects based on a changing
delay introduce a whole new layer of
| | 00:04 | interest to your mix.
| | 00:05 | A changing delay is an ear-grabbing
alternative to the fix delay, and it has an
| | 00:09 | intriguing side effect.
| | 00:11 | Changing the delay also changes the pitch.
| | 00:14 | The slow modulation of delay time that
is common in so many effects, introduces a
| | 00:18 | slight detuning of the track.
| | 00:20 | A moving delay leads to a wobbling pitch.
| | 00:24 | We have to be careful here,
because an out of tune track can sour
| | 00:26 | any production.
| | 00:27 | But if the delay modulation is
slow, the pitch bending might be a
| | 00:31 | subtle positive.
| | 00:33 | It can sound human and expressive.
| | 00:35 | On the other hand, if you want an
aggressively altered pitch pattern as part of
| | 00:39 | a special effect, don't hold back,
and let a modulating delay do the job.
| | 00:44 | So let's listen to what the
modulation section can do.
| | 00:47 | We will start here with the modulation
rate and depth and cover modulation
| | 00:51 | shape in the next video.
| | 00:58 | Rate controls how quickly the delay
time parameter within the effects device
| | 01:02 | has changed.
| | 01:03 | You'll find mix situations when you
want to sweep the delay time imperceptibly
| | 01:07 | slowly and other times where you
need a fast, very audible rate.
| | 01:11 | This electric guitar
provides a good illustration.
| | 01:14 | The electric guitar abbreviated EGT,
feeds a Bus to the aux input labeled Echo,
| | 01:19 | which in turn has a
medium delay plug-in inserted.
| | 01:22 | (music playing)
| | 01:36 | Adding a fixed medium delay with a
duration around 30 to 40 milliseconds creates
| | 01:41 | a kind of doubling effect.
| | 01:43 | An effect we explore in more
detail later in this course.
| | 01:46 | Hear how it almost sounds like two guitars?
| | 01:49 | (music playing)
| | 02:02 | Modulating this delay transforms and
upgrades this effect substantially.
| | 02:06 | I'll raise the depth now so that the
modulating LFO has some amplitude, so that
| | 02:11 | our delay is ready to change when we
turn on the modulation section next, which
| | 02:16 | we do by raising the rate
control to just a fraction of a hertz.
| | 02:19 | (music playing)
| | 02:33 | Now it's starting to sound
interesting, like two guitars.
| | 02:36 | It seem our ears, our minds really,
are quite intrigued by even a slightly
| | 02:41 | changing delay time.
| | 02:43 | To understand this better, let's do
something a little unconventional.
| | 02:47 | While this isn't a typical approach
during a mix, I'll temporarily convert the
| | 02:52 | aux-in we are using for this
delay into a pre-fader send.
| | 02:56 | This means the electric guitar
signal that's fed to the delay plug-in is
| | 03:00 | actually sourced from a point in the
DAW before the electric guitar fader
| | 03:04 | and mute functions.
| | 03:05 | We usually don't use a pre-fader send
on effects, because we want the effect to
| | 03:09 | rise and fall proportionally, as we
raise and lower the electric guitar track in
| | 03:13 | the mix as needed creatively.
| | 03:15 | Push the level up a bit for excitement
one moment, and pull it down so that it
| | 03:19 | doesn't drown out the vocal the next.
| | 03:22 | So a post fader send to
an echo effect is typical.
| | 03:25 | But we use a pre-fader send here so
that we can mute the guitar track and
| | 03:29 | still hear the echo.
| | 03:30 | It's a good way to start
to hear what's going on.
| | 03:33 | So listen to the output of our slowly
modulating delay alone, and I'll increase
| | 03:38 | and decrease the rate control while we listen.
| | 03:40 | (music playing)
| | 03:54 | When the rate control is high
enough, we hear a strong pitch wobble.
| | 03:58 | That's the sound of a changing
delay causing a change in pitch.
| | 04:02 | As the delay times sweeps up to a
slightly higher value, the pitch drops down.
| | 04:06 | When the delay times sweeps back
down to a lower value, the pitch swings
| | 04:10 | back up.
| | 04:11 | Pitch change is an inevitable side
effect of delay modulation, even at this very
| | 04:16 | slow modulation rate, the
guitar is slightly detuned.
| | 04:19 | (music playing)
| | 04:33 | If you aren't noticing the
pitch wobble here, don't worry.
| | 04:36 | It's subtle and slight.
| | 04:37 | But it's absolutely there, and it's an
essential part of effects like doubling,
| | 04:42 | chorus, spreaders, and thickeners
discussed elsewhere in this course.
| | 04:46 | We may not hear a pitch change directly,
but our ears and brains do grab onto
| | 04:51 | something different.
| | 04:52 | Let's add the original electric
guitar back into the mix and listen to what
| | 04:55 | happens as even this very slowly
modulating delay is pulled down to a rate
| | 05:00 | of zero hertz.
| | 05:01 | No modulation.
| | 05:02 | (music playing)
| | 05:16 | Hear how the effect becomes much
more disappointing when it's a static
| | 05:20 | medium delay?
| | 05:21 | As soon as the delay time is changing
even slightly, so slowly that we don't
| | 05:26 | actually hear a pitch change when
listening to the delay alone, the effect
| | 05:30 | becomes indescribably more interesting.
| | 05:32 | When two guitarists play the same part
they're never perfectly synchronized.
| | 05:38 | We know that note for note, one guitar
will play a fraction of a second ahead of
| | 05:42 | the other, and I'm not
picking on guitarists here.
| | 05:45 | Any two musicians will exhibit at
least slight performance timing variations.
| | 05:50 | This medium delay effect is a
starting point for simulating two guitarists
| | 05:55 | from one.
| | 05:56 | But a modulating delay adds
more realism to this effect.
| | 06:00 | With two different performances,
that time offset between them doesn't
| | 06:04 | remain perfectly fixed.
| | 06:06 | It flexes and moves humanly, a bit
early one moment and a hair later the next.
| | 06:11 | The modulating delay is therefore far
more convincing than a fixed delay at
| | 06:15 | creating a doubling or chorus effect.
| | 06:18 | And file this observation away.
| | 06:20 | Fixed delays lead to great effects,
but changing delays, even slowly changing
| | 06:25 | delays, lead to surprising,
textually strong results.
| | 06:30 | You owe it to yourself to explore this.
| | 06:33 | Depth controls how much the delay is modulated.
| | 06:36 | It bounds the delay time at the extreme,
defining the shortest and the longest
| | 06:40 | delay times allowed.
| | 06:42 | The original fixed delay time
might be increased and decreased by 5
| | 06:46 | milliseconds, 10 milliseconds,
15 milliseconds, or more.
| | 06:51 | Listen to the delay output with rate
set to a couple of hertz and depth cranked
| | 06:55 | to its highest extreme.
| | 06:56 | I'll then reduce the
depth to a more modest level.
| | 07:00 | Listen carefully to how the
extreme pitch wobble is narrowed.
| | 07:03 | (music playing)
| | 07:17 | At high depth settings I'm getting a
bit motion sick, is the guitarist on
| | 07:22 | a boat?
| | 07:23 | Reducing the depth control doesn't
stop pitch shifting from happening, but it
| | 07:27 | tames it significantly.
| | 07:29 | Depth controls the tonal range of
delay modulation, and rate controls how fast
| | 07:34 | it gets there.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Modulation shape| 00:00 | Modulating delay effects represent
so many opportunities for creative
| | 00:04 | signal processing.
| | 00:05 | We have mastered the rate and depth
controls in the prior movie, let's tackle
| | 00:09 | the shape control next;
| | 00:10 | it's time to Get In The Mix.
| | 00:12 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 00:20 | With modulation rate and depth under our
belts we can now focus on mastering the
| | 00:25 | third LFO parameter.
| | 00:27 | Shape is the waveform of the LFO.
| | 00:30 | It describes the trajectory of the
delay processor as it changes the delay
| | 00:34 | time within the bounce set by the depth
control, at the speed determined by the
| | 00:38 | rate control.
| | 00:40 | The two most common modulation
shapes we're likely to see are sine wave
| | 00:44 | and triangle wave.
| | 00:46 | Let's apply them to our electric guitar track.
| | 00:49 | Here's the guitar with a sine
wave modulated chorus effect.
| | 00:52 | (music playing)
| | 01:06 | And here it is with the
triangle wave modulated chorus effect.
| | 01:10 | (music playing)
| | 01:23 | If you're thinking they both pretty
much sound like a chorus effect with only
| | 01:27 | slight differences in quality, you're right.
| | 01:30 | The primary use of the shape control
on most delay effects is to introduce a
| | 01:34 | slight change in character to the effect.
| | 01:37 | You simply choose the one that sounds
better to your ear for that track, in that
| | 01:41 | mix, on that day, but we can hear
deeper into this by using a sine wave test
| | 01:46 | signal to evaluate the
effect of modulation shape.
| | 01:49 | (tone)
| | 01:59 | Let's insert this chorus on the sine wave.
| | 02:02 | (tone)
| | 02:13 | Wait a second, what's going on?
| | 02:15 | It doesn't sound like a sine wave anymore.
| | 02:17 | Let's figure this out.
| | 02:19 | Recall that a changing delay
causes a changing or shifting pitch.
| | 02:22 | Well, that's all I have done here.
| | 02:24 | Subjecting a 400 Hz sine wave to a
changing delay will change the pitch of
| | 02:28 | that sine wave.
| | 02:30 | Listen again to the sine wave
as I turn the effect on and off.
| | 02:34 | (tone)
| | 02:47 | Here is a better way to
hear the effect come and go.
| | 02:50 | I automate the depth to move
up and down while we listen.
| | 02:54 | With depth at zero, we hear the sine
wave unmodulated, it's a pure tone, a
| | 02:58 | single frequency.
| | 03:00 | As I raise and lower the depth,
the pitch bending comes and goes.
| | 03:03 | (tone)
| | 03:18 | It's a sine wave all right, but the
modulated delay makes the pitch wobble,
| | 03:22 | almost like a vibrato on a musical instrument.
| | 03:25 | Now let's return to the shape of the modulation.
| | 03:27 | (tone)
| | 03:41 | The exposed pitch impact of delay
modulation shown here is quite helpful.
| | 03:46 | Moving the delay with a sine wave LFO
bends the pitch up and down smoothly with
| | 03:51 | that familiar shape of a sine wave.
| | 03:53 | (tone)
| | 04:07 | Moving the delay with a triangle wave
LFO snaps the pitch of our source signal
| | 04:11 | back and forth between two pitches.
| | 04:13 | (tone)
| | 04:28 | While a sine wave sweeps smoothly
up and down, curving back and forth
| | 04:32 | continuously, the triangle wave has
two slopes with a sharp turnaround at
| | 04:36 | the top and the bottom.
| | 04:38 | The triangle wave has two states, it's
either moving up or it's moving down,
| | 04:43 | it's a straight-line slanting up and
then it's a straight-line slanting down.
| | 04:47 | A changing delay leads to a changing pitch.
| | 04:50 | If you change the delay in a steady
way, you create a steady amount of
| | 04:54 | pitch change.
| | 04:55 | When you keep increasing or decreasing
that delay at a fixed rate, you change
| | 04:59 | that pitch to a new fixed frequency.
| | 05:02 | So the upward slope of the triangle
wave leads to one new steady pitch and the
| | 05:07 | downward slope of the triangle wave
leads to a different new fixed pitch.
| | 05:12 | The result is interesting, a sine
wave now snaps back and forth between
| | 05:16 | two pitches.
| | 05:18 | Let's compare again the smooth
bending of pitch by a sine wave LFO to the
| | 05:22 | toggling back and forth of
pitches by a triangle wave LFO.
| | 05:26 | (tone)
| | 05:40 | With that in mind, maybe we can hear
what's going on a little better with a more
| | 05:43 | complicated musical signal,
like the electric guitar.
| | 05:47 | (music playing)
| | 06:00 | It's still might be subtle.
| | 06:01 | If we take them to extreme settings,
clearly new sonic possibilities emerge
| | 06:05 | for each LFO shape.
| | 06:06 | (music playing)
| | 06:33 | The choice of shape of the LFO can be tricky.
| | 06:35 | The sound signature of the sine wave
LFO is that smooth continuous sweeping
| | 06:39 | of your sound.
| | 06:40 | The signature of the triangle wave LFO
comes in two places, that steady up then
| | 06:46 | down motion tends to create two
forms of steady new sounds, and the sharp
| | 06:50 | turnaround at the top and bottom of the
triangle, the kink in the waveform, often
| | 06:55 | creates an instantaneous sonic artifact.
| | 06:59 | Look for other wave shapes
available on some delay plug-ins.
| | 07:02 | Sawtooth and square wave LFO shapes
have their own strong sonic qualities.
| | 07:07 | Variations on the triangle
wave sounds you've just heard.
| | 07:10 | A random shape is provided on some
delays, all the other shapes have some
| | 07:14 | regularity to them, and that can
reveal the ghost in the machine.
| | 07:18 | The repeating pattern, whatever it is, sine,
triangle, sawtooth or square leads to
| | 07:23 | a pattern shifting of sound qualities.
| | 07:26 | Making the delay move more
randomly can lead to a more organic, less
| | 07:30 | predictable dynamic.
| | 07:33 | At extreme settings the
wave shape has a clear impact.
| | 07:36 | At more modest settings the choice of
wave shape is more about just choosing
| | 07:41 | the slightly better one expressing your
taste, your opinion, for this detail in
| | 07:45 | a mix.
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| Delay effects examples in various plug-ins| 00:00 | Having a long list of delay plug-ins
to choose from can be intimidating at
| | 00:04 | first, but I have some good news.
| | 00:06 | When you learn how to use one delay,
you've pretty much mastered all of them.
| | 00:10 | The basic parameters of level,
delay time, low-pass filter, feedback,
| | 00:14 | polarity reverse, modulation rate,
and modulation depth are all found on
| | 00:18 | almost every delay processor.
| | 00:21 | This is one the most basic delay plug-
ins you might find, but it's rich with all
| | 00:25 | the controls we discussed.
| | 00:26 | We have level control shown here as gain,
we specify the delay time here, there
| | 00:32 | is a low-pass filter, feedback,
polarity reverse and a modulation section.
| | 00:38 | Because it's a plug-in, it has a view
to the tempo of your project if you're
| | 00:41 | using the tempo maps within
your digital audio workstation.
| | 00:45 | This lower section lets you take
advantage of that, to simply specify the delay
| | 00:48 | time in musically useful amounts,
entering a quarter note or a dotted eighth
| | 00:53 | note, or any other musical value,
instead of a delay time in milliseconds.
| | 00:58 | (music playing)
| | 01:11 | Here's a more advanced delay
plug-in, a 6-Tap delay from Waves.
| | 01:15 | The six simply refers to the number
of delay outputs this plug-in has.
| | 01:19 | Even this more complicated plug-in
still has the familiar fundamental
| | 01:22 | parameters we like to see.
| | 01:24 | It's got a global level control and
a global delay time. Then each of the
| | 01:29 | six delay taps has its own
individual level, delay-time, and low-pass
| | 01:34 | filter, and here's feedback.
| | 01:37 | With so many delay outputs, we add the
ability to pan each of the six outputs to
| | 01:41 | any location in the stereo field
leading to some nice spatial effects.
| | 01:45 | (music playing)
| | 02:12 | Delays come in many flavors
sonically and in terms of user interface.
| | 02:17 | The Waves H-Delay, or Hybrid Delay
has all the usual culprits present.
| | 02:22 | We see output level, delay time,
filters, low-pass and high-pass on this one,
| | 02:27 | polarity reverse, and a modulation section.
| | 02:30 | This delay also adds some adjustable
coloration to the signal, with an ear on
| | 02:33 | some vintage delay lines that were
themselves not exactly high fidelity devices.
| | 02:38 | This LoFi button pulls out the
high frequencies from the delay.
| | 02:42 | It alludes to early digital delays
which ran at such low sample rates that
| | 02:46 | depending on the make and model they
sometimes couldn't encode audio much
| | 02:49 | above 6 kHz or so.
| | 02:51 | We know we're lucky to be alive
in audio at this moment in history.
| | 02:54 | Our high sample rates today mean we can
work with audio systems that are clean
| | 02:58 | and full bandwidth, but a strategically
narrow-band can help some tracks play fair
| | 03:02 | with all the other tracks in the mix.
| | 03:04 | LoFi means our delay won't compete
with the other tracks at high frequencies.
| | 03:09 | Another source of sonic character on
this delay is the analog parameter. Turn it
| | 03:13 | off and this delay is clean and pristine.
| | 03:16 | Engage any one of the four analog
modes for unique character, largely tonal,
| | 03:20 | inspired in part by older
analog circuits and tape machines.
| | 03:23 | For some applications, we like the
character and charm of the imperfections of
| | 03:27 | old, and this plug-in makes it possible.
| | 03:30 | It's got a lot going on right now,
let me strip it down and then build back
| | 03:33 | up to this.
| | 03:37 | (music playing)
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| Medium delays| 00:00 | Medium delays represent
their own family of effects.
| | 00:04 | This time window, greater than about 15
to 20 milliseconds, but less than about
| | 00:09 | 50-60 milliseconds creates effects
known as doubling, chorus, spreading,
| | 00:14 | thickening, and more.
| | 00:16 | As we've seen and heard earlier in
this course, echoes live at delay
| | 00:19 | times greater than this.
| | 00:21 | Medium delay effects exploit the fact
that the delay can be too short to be
| | 00:25 | heard as a separate echo.
| | 00:27 | Simply lowering the delay time into
this medium-range gives you access to
| | 00:30 | new sounds.
| | 00:31 | It converts your delay
processor into a new effect.
| | 00:34 | Of course, it's the same effects device,
but when it is set to a medium delay
| | 00:38 | time, completely different effects are created.
| | 00:42 | And in this middle zone of delay
times we're going to take strong advantage
| | 00:45 | of the modulation section of the
delay processor to make these effects more
| | 00:49 | powerful still.
| | 00:51 | Shifting delay times are an essential
part of the doubling, chorus, spreading,
| | 00:54 | and thickening effects.
| | 00:56 | With echoes mastered, let's get to
know the effects that live in the band of
| | 00:59 | delay times known as medium delays.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Chorus| 00:00 | An alternative name for the heavy use
of modulated medium delays to simulate
| | 00:04 | more than one player is chorus.
| | 00:07 | The idea is that through the use of
several different modulating delays in the
| | 00:11 | 20 to 50 millisecond range, one could
transform a single track into the sound
| | 00:16 | of several voices.
| | 00:17 | The delays simulate other voices
singing along but phrasing things a bit
| | 00:22 | late, humanly out of sync.
| | 00:24 | The modulation of those delays
introduces small amounts of pitch shift,
| | 00:28 | creating the illusion of a natural
amount of pitch variation for these added
| | 00:32 | simulated performers.
| | 00:34 | No two performers sing with identical
pitch and phrasing and 40 singers would
| | 00:38 | create 40 unique sounds even
as they try to sing together.
| | 00:42 | Modulated medium delays evoke the
sound of several simultaneous performers,
| | 00:47 | converting one voice into a
choir, thus the term chorus.
| | 00:52 | Naturally, stacking up to 39 medium
delays around one single live vocalist will
| | 00:57 | not convincingly sound like
a choir of 40 different people.
| | 01:01 | Think of it instead as a special
electronic effect not an acoustic simulation.
| | 01:06 | And it isn't just for vocals, while we
might instinctively avoid walking into a
| | 01:10 | room with 40 actual guitarists, it
turns out that the chorus effect on a single
| | 01:14 | guitar track makes it richer and
lusher, converting a six-string guitar into a
| | 01:19 | 12-string like sound.
| | 01:20 | (music playing)
| | 01:32 | Chorus is a kind of pop-polish that
fits in the certain mixes, and plan to get
| | 01:36 | creative because there is no reason we
can apply this mix move to bass, keys,
| | 01:40 | or any other track.
| | 01:42 | Let's hear some examples; this is a good
time to Get In The Mix.
| | 01:45 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 01:53 | Chorus plug-ins provide us delay
processors tailor-made for providing multiple
| | 01:58 | modulated delays with
feedback and filtering possibilities.
| | 02:02 | I'll add a chorus effect to transform a
two-part harmony into a richer sounding
| | 02:06 | full chorus of singers; here's
the original unaffected track.
| | 02:10 | (music playing)
| | 02:34 | Listen, as I increase the delay time on
this chorus effect to a spot that sounds
| | 02:38 | appealing, and makes it sound
like more than two singers.
| | 02:41 | (music playing)
| | 03:02 | That's sounding more interesting, when
the delay time is too long it reveals the
| | 03:06 | effect too much and sounds like a studio
gimmick, too short and the vocal starts
| | 03:11 | to sound phasey and psychedelic.
| | 03:14 | The happy middle ground does the
best job of sounding like more people
| | 03:17 | are actually singing.
| | 03:19 | Okay, I admit it.
| | 03:20 | There are times when the sound of a
studio gimmick or psychedelic phasey
| | 03:23 | quality is desirable.
| | 03:25 | I don't mean to suggest the other delay
times are wrong, just that they aren't
| | 03:28 | exactly what I'm going for now.
| | 03:30 | We make these kinds of decisions
track by track and tune by tune whenever
| | 03:35 | we mix.
| | 03:36 | Adjusting the modulation rate and depth
also reveals settings which span that
| | 03:40 | continuum from obvious to not so
obvious, synthesized to natural.
| | 03:45 | Listen as I tweak the modulation parameters.
| | 03:47 | (music playing)
| | 04:09 | Again here I'm going for the
most natural sound possible.
| | 04:13 | Some chorus plug-ins let you pull out
the lows from the effect and when they
| | 04:16 | don't, I often insert a separate one.
| | 04:18 | The purpose of a low-cut filter is to
let the source tracks themselves be the
| | 04:22 | sole source of low-end warmth for the vocals.
| | 04:25 | Introducing multiple medium delays will
cause variable amounts of phase-based
| | 04:29 | increases and decreases in level
for the slowly moving low frequencies.
| | 04:34 | While this is embraced when we go
for flanging effects, it undermines our
| | 04:38 | purpose here.
| | 04:39 | So I find it helpful to cut some
lows especially for what happens next.
| | 04:43 | This chorus effect is
built on two modulated delays.
| | 04:46 | One singer becomes three, the
original, plus these two delays.
| | 04:50 | In this way two singers become six.
| | 04:53 | For the illusion of even more
singers and the pleasure of listening to a
| | 04:56 | larger-than-life cluster of voices, we
can make the chorus effect richer by
| | 04:59 | simply adding more voices.
| | 05:01 | (music playing)
| | 05:23 | Let's listen to that in the context of the mix.
| | 05:25 | (music playing)
| | 05:49 | Of course this is a mere starting
point, you owe it to yourself to
| | 05:53 | experiment further.
| | 05:54 | Chorus comes in countless flavors found
by exploring a vast range of parameter
| | 05:58 | settings available to you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Double tracking| 00:00 | All right, remember how a long delay, a delay
time greater than 50-60 milliseconds,
| | 00:05 | results in an audible echo?
| | 00:07 | We've used delay times of 100
milliseconds or more to create interesting echo
| | 00:12 | effects, but let's shorten that delay time.
| | 00:14 | Pull the delay time down below 50
milliseconds, down to say 20 or 30
| | 00:19 | milliseconds, do that and the sound changes.
| | 00:22 | We can no longer hear the output of
our delay as a separate repetition of the
| | 00:26 | sound, it no longer echoes.
| | 00:29 | In fact, this amount of delay time
makes one track sound like two, we call
| | 00:33 | this doubling.
| | 00:35 | The term comes from the technique of
double tracking, this is when you record
| | 00:39 | your singer and after you capture a
performance you think is perfect for the
| | 00:42 | tune, you go and record it
again on a different track.
| | 00:46 | The goal is to have two perfect performances
so that when you mix them together,
| | 00:50 | the vocal track sounds more
interesting, rich, textured.
| | 00:54 | If you don't have the actual double
track, you can simulate it using a
| | 00:58 | medium delay.
| | 00:59 | The idea is that when a singer sings
the same part again, they don't do it with
| | 01:03 | the exact same timing, at the exact same pitch.
| | 01:06 | A modulating medium delay simulates
this human performance variation nicely.
| | 01:12 | Let's Get In The Mix. Pause this
movie, and open the appropriate file for
| | 01:15 | your DAW.
| | 01:20 | Let's work here with a medium
delay to create a doubling effect.
| | 01:24 | Listen as we try something in the 30-40
millisecond range on a vocal track for a
| | 01:28 | good clue about what's going on.
| | 01:31 | Focus on the lead vocal as you
listen to the end of Verse 1 and the
| | 01:34 | first chorus.
| | 01:35 | (music playing)
| | 02:09 | Here we have a classic production
challenge, creating a lift into the chorus.
| | 02:14 | Musically, melodically, emotionally, we
rise up from the verse to a new higher
| | 02:19 | level at the chorus.
| | 02:20 | In the chorus, we've got a lead
vocal floating over some delicate high
| | 02:24 | harmony parts.
| | 02:25 | This is a good place for a doubling effect.
| | 02:28 | I've instantiated a stereo delay on the
lead vocal track labeled LV using an Aux
| | 02:33 | Input and set each delay time to
something close to 30 milliseconds, a bit above
| | 02:38 | 30 on the left and a tick blow on the right.
| | 02:41 | To begin with I've made sure there's
no low-pass filter engaged, no polarity
| | 02:45 | flip, no feedback, and no modulation.
| | 02:48 | This medium delay of about 30 milliseconds
doesn't quite jump out of the mix as
| | 02:52 | an echo, instead it sounds a little bit
like a second and a third person singing
| | 02:57 | the same words in melody.
| | 02:59 | Actually, it's the same person
singing the same thing three times.
| | 03:03 | Listen for it as it comes in at the chorus.
| | 03:05 | (music playing)
| | 03:38 | It's a common multi-track production
technique to have the singer sing the same
| | 03:42 | part two, three, four, or more times.
| | 03:44 | The resulting sound is stronger and richer.
| | 03:47 | It even shimmers a little.
| | 03:49 | This layering of nearly identical
performances borrows from the tradition of
| | 03:53 | forming instrumental
sections in orchestras and choirs.
| | 03:57 | Consider the sound of one violin, then
imagine the exact same piece of music
| | 04:02 | with 12 violins playing the
same line in perfect unison.
| | 04:06 | The value of having multiple
instruments play the same musical part is
| | 04:10 | almost indescribable.
| | 04:12 | Adding more players doesn't just create
more volume, the combined sound is rich
| | 04:16 | and ethereal, it transports the listener.
| | 04:19 | Doubling type delay
effects can mimic this sound.
| | 04:21 | (music playing)
| | 04:43 | The other essential delay
parameters enrich this doubling effect.
| | 04:47 | Introduce a very slight amount of
delay modulation to help these synthesize
| | 04:51 | doublings move a little in time
relative to the original source track.
| | 04:55 | This helps it sound more organic, not
like a cloned copy of the original track.
| | 05:00 | The addition of a bit of feedback
creates a few additional doubling layers of
| | 05:04 | the track underneath the primary one.
| | 05:07 | With these additional parameters in
play across the plug-ins to delay outputs,
| | 05:11 | the effect sounds even more like the
lead vocal was actually double tracked
| | 05:15 | twice in the chorus.
| | 05:16 | (music playing)
| | 05:49 | We've now taken the doubling effect pretty far.
| | 05:52 | Using multiple modulated medium delays
to transform one track into the sound of
| | 05:57 | many, layering a voice into a choir is
such a common use of delay that it is its
| | 06:02 | own class of plug-in called a chorus.
| | 06:05 | As with all studio effects, make
sure the sonic result is appropriate to
| | 06:09 | the song.
| | 06:10 | The solo folk singer doesn't usually
benefit from this treatment, neither does
| | 06:14 | the jazz trumpet solo, but many pop
tunes welcome this as a special effect on
| | 06:19 | lead vocals, backing vocals, keys,
strings, pads, and of course ukulele.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Get in the Mix: Spreaders and thickeners| 00:00 | The doubling and chorus effects we
just discussed are only a starting point.
| | 00:05 | Introducing multiple modulating
delays with additional pitch shift, panning
| | 00:09 | them out across the stereo field,
we develop a class of effects we call
| | 00:13 | spreaders and thickeners.
| | 00:15 | These effects take an isolated track
and let us increase their apparent size
| | 00:19 | in the mix.
| | 00:20 | It's an essential way to help one
track hold its own with others in a
| | 00:23 | crowded mix.
| | 00:24 | For example, you might add the
spreader to a vocal track to help prevent the
| | 00:28 | lead singer from being overshadowed
by all the guitars and synths in a full
| | 00:32 | pop mix.
| | 00:34 | This is an advanced mix move;
| | 00:36 | it's a complicated combination of
processes, so plan to spend some time
| | 00:40 | fine-tuning the various parameters on
each of the many delays that make up
| | 00:43 | this effect.
| | 00:44 | Once you've got it under control,
you'll find this effect is an essential part
| | 00:48 | of building an exciting mix,
that helps you sound like the pros.
| | 00:52 | Let's give it a try,
it's time to Get In The Mix.
| | 00:55 | Pause this movie and open the
appropriate file for your DAW.
| | 01:02 | The transition from verse to chorus is
a frequent one in music, and while the
| | 01:06 | songwriting and performing are the
essential drivers of that emotional journey,
| | 01:10 | we need to make sure that the audio
engineering decisions we make are consistent
| | 01:14 | with and supportive of the
intended response from the listener.
| | 01:18 | As we did in our earlier discussions
on creating doubling with medium delays,
| | 01:22 | let's focus on the lead vocal track at
this critical musical moment from Verse
| | 01:26 | 1 to Chorus 1.
| | 01:27 | (music playing)
| | 02:01 | Spreaders and thickeners provide one
of the best solutions to this production
| | 02:05 | challenge, that need for an
emotional lift into the chorus.
| | 02:09 | The performing artists have done their
part to take the energy of the verse to a
| | 02:12 | higher level at the chorus.
| | 02:14 | In terms of mixed arrangement, we
have a lead vocal floating over lush
| | 02:17 | harmony vocals.
| | 02:18 | A spreading effect introduced at the
chorus is a great mixing tool for enhancing
| | 02:23 | this dynamic in the song.
| | 02:26 | The signal processing elements of
spreading are delay, multiple pan taps with
| | 02:30 | modulation and filtering, plus a
small amount of pitch shifting to further
| | 02:35 | detune each modulating delay.
| | 02:37 | So you can create this effect with the
delay only based doubling discussed in
| | 02:41 | the earlier movie, followed by a
pitch shifting plug-in, or you can use
| | 02:45 | something like this plug-in, which has
all the essential elements in one place.
| | 02:50 | This plug-in for the vocal is inserted
on an Aux Input labeled Spreader reached
| | 02:55 | by bus from any send, in
this case the lead vocal.
| | 02:59 | This effect opens with two
of the four voices activated.
| | 03:02 | (music playing)
| | 03:35 | That's a good starting point,
but I want to fine-tune it.
| | 03:38 | I turn off the direct sound containing
the unprocess lead vocal, because the
| | 03:42 | original vocal track lives on its own fader.
| | 03:45 | I'm mixing the effect with a vocal
in the mixer, not in the plug-in.
| | 03:50 | This leaves the two voices.
| | 03:52 | Reading left to right, we see familiar
parameters, each voice has gain and pan,
| | 03:57 | placing it in the mix under our careful
control, and each voice has a Delay time
| | 04:01 | parameter with feedback.
| | 04:03 | So far the plug-in is provided us
with the core functionality of a
| | 04:07 | typical multi-tap delay.
| | 04:09 | This is the first building block of the effect.
| | 04:12 | The next three parameters focus on pitch;
| | 04:15 | changing the pitch of each delayed
signal will contribute richly to the
| | 04:18 | spreading of the sound left to right in our mix.
| | 04:22 | The detune parameter applies
a small fixed shift in pitch.
| | 04:26 | How small?
| | 04:27 | Listen to the effect again and notice
that while the vocal sounds different, it
| | 04:31 | doesn't sound grotesquely out of tune.
| | 04:33 | (music playing)
| | 04:54 | Pitch shifts are expressed in cents,
there are 100 cents in a dollar, and in
| | 04:59 | music there are 100 cents
separating two adjacent notes on a piano.
| | 05:02 | 1 cent is one 100th of a half-step.
| | 05:06 | There are fully 1,200 cents in an octave.
| | 05:09 | 6 cents then is a tiny fraction
of a half-step, 6% to be precise.
| | 05:16 | So the pitch adjustments here are very
slight, at 6 cents up for Voice 1 of the
| | 05:20 | effect, and 6 cents down for Voice number 3.
| | 05:24 | That small pitch offset is further
detuned in a familiar way, using the
| | 05:28 | modulation of the delay.
| | 05:30 | We're offered the standard
parameters of depth and rate to do this.
| | 05:34 | Modulating the delay, as we've
discussed many times in this course, causes
| | 05:38 | pitch shift.
| | 05:39 | So the spreading effect is a
delay plus pitch shift process.
| | 05:43 | And while two voices of this patch
achieve a lot, we should listen to the effect
| | 05:47 | when it's built of four voices.
| | 05:49 | Here's the chorus of the song, I'll
start with two voices on and turn on the
| | 05:53 | other two halfway through.
| | 05:54 | (music playing)
| | 06:17 | This process spreads the vocal out
left to right and seems to thicken the
| | 06:22 | texture and harmonic content of the track.
| | 06:24 | I've overdone things here a little bit
to make the effect easier to hear, but
| | 06:28 | also to suggest that for an attention-
getting special effect, this can be a
| | 06:32 | creative avenue to explore.
| | 06:34 | But for this mix, I want to keep a
more natural sounding vocal, so let's
| | 06:38 | adjust these parameters to tuck the
effect into the mix, to place it in a more
| | 06:42 | supportive role.
| | 06:44 | First I'll introduce some delay
modulation to each voice, very much with the
| | 06:48 | traditional chorus in mind.
| | 06:50 | Listen as the effect grows richer.
| | 06:51 | (music playing)
| | 07:15 | I want the effect to be wide and
harmonically thick and dense, but I need to
| | 07:19 | make sure it only adds to the lead
vocal without taking over the mix, so some
| | 07:24 | adjustments to the level and
panning bring the effect in line.
| | 07:27 | (music playing)
| | 07:50 | And then I set the overall level of the
effect, it's too loud in the mix now, so
| | 07:54 | I'll pull it down, first too far and
then ride it back up, and pull it back
| | 07:58 | down, all as needed until I feel
like the vocal gets the necessary added
| | 08:02 | strength and interest that I
want it to have in this chorus.
| | 08:06 | (music playing)
| | 08:29 | Now, we need more context for this effect,
let's listen to the verse to reorient
| | 08:34 | ourselves to the sound of the lead
vocal without the spreader, followed by the
| | 08:38 | chorus of the tune to hear and
feel the impact of this effect.
| | 08:42 | (music playing)
| | 09:46 | The goal here is to help fabricate
that pop music, larger-than-life, layered
| | 09:50 | vocals sound in the chorus.
| | 09:51 | This effect does it quite nicely.
| | 09:54 | I'm going to make one important change
though, having the effect kick in at the
| | 09:58 | chorus is great, but I'm a sucker for
a bit of anticipation into that chorus.
| | 10:03 | Melodically and emotionally our singer
starts to rise up on the line leading
| | 10:06 | into the chorus, offering a sort of
emotional pick up into the chorus.
| | 10:10 | So I introduce the spreader effect
ahead of the chorus on that phrase right
| | 10:14 | before, when she sings, we got
to know exactly why we came here.
| | 10:19 | Let's listen from the very top of the
tune, acclimate ourselves to how the song
| | 10:23 | unfolds, and make sure we've
appropriately contributed to that.
| | 10:27 | (music playing)
| | 11:51 | This build into the chorus, based on
the musical edition of the spreading
| | 11:55 | effect, serves the music well.
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|
|
4. Spectral Effects from DelayConstructive and destructive interference| 00:00 | Multi-track mixing combines all the
tracks you have into a stereo signal.
| | 00:04 | Really two different signals;
| | 00:06 | one intended for the left
loudspeaker and the other for the right.
| | 00:09 | You go from several tracks to two, but
a curious thing happens when two similar
| | 00:14 | signals are combined.
| | 00:16 | To illustrate this important concept,
let's take a look at a few simple
| | 00:20 | sine waves;
| | 00:21 | we'll extend the concept to more
musical signals before we're done.
| | 00:24 | If we combine these two sine waves, mix
them together, the resulting signal is
| | 00:28 | simply the same frequency
sine wave doubled in amplitude.
| | 00:32 | Each of the two sine waves we're
mixing is the same frequency and they're
| | 00:35 | perfectly aligned, moving up
and down sinusoidally together.
| | 00:39 | Their interaction is perfectly additive.
| | 00:42 | This is known as constructive interference.
| | 00:45 | But let's change the second wave,
sliding it to the right along the time axis
| | 00:49 | by half a cycle.
| | 00:51 | If we combine these two sine waves,
the resulting signal is silence.
| | 00:55 | These two waves are pushing
and pulling against each other.
| | 00:58 | At every instant one wave is
doing the opposite of the other.
| | 01:01 | They are the same frequency,
but they're exactly misaligned.
| | 01:05 | Their interaction is perfectly subtractive.
| | 01:08 | This synchronized form of opposition
is called destructive interference.
| | 01:13 | It took a shift to the right down
the time axis to make this happen.
| | 01:16 | So not surprisingly, this
conversation is about delay.
| | 01:20 | When we mix together any signal with a
short delay of itself, constructive and
| | 01:24 | destructive interference will occur.
| | 01:26 | That short delay will align some
frequencies for constructive interference and
| | 01:30 | misalign others for destructive interference.
| | 01:33 | Some frequencies get louder, others
cancel out, leading to a frequency response
| | 01:38 | curve known as comb filtering.
| | 01:40 | We see here the frequency footprint of a
short delay, and it's a deep footprint,
| | 01:44 | having strong spectral impact.
| | 01:47 | It's called comb filtering
exactly because of this image;
| | 01:50 | the frequency response gets chopped up
into this pattern, which looks very much
| | 01:54 | like the teeth of a comb.
| | 01:56 | Because of constructive and destructive
interference, mixing in a short delay
| | 02:00 | will alter the tone of any track
into this pattern of peaks and dips.
| | 02:04 | Some frequencies are
enhanced, others are attenuated.
| | 02:08 | In the next few videos we'll take
advantage of this to create some really
| | 02:11 | interesting effects, all
built on the short delay.
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| Short delays| 00:00 | Let's take stock of how much we've
accomplished so far in this course.
| | 00:04 | Long delays are used to create echoes,
emphasis, support, groove, and slapback.
| | 00:11 | Medium delays are used to create
doubling, chorus, spreading, and thickening.
| | 00:16 | Next we'll tackle the third and
final class of delays, short delays.
| | 00:21 | Short delays live entirely
below about 15-20 milliseconds.
| | 00:25 | When delays are this short,
we get new types of effects.
| | 00:28 | The constructive and destructive
interference patterns, unique to such short
| | 00:32 | delays, lead to strong spectral effects.
| | 00:35 | A quality not part of the long or
medium delay effects we've been using.
| | 00:39 | Equalizers are thought of as the
primary tool for altering the frequency
| | 00:43 | content of a signal.
| | 00:44 | In this chapter, I'll show you
how short delays can be used to
| | 00:47 | manipulate frequency.
| | 00:49 | Add a short delay to a track and
it causes that unique comb filter
| | 00:53 | frequency response.
| | 00:55 | Kick in the modulation section and that
comb filter starts to sweep up and down
| | 00:59 | along the frequency axis.
| | 01:01 | We call this effect flanging.
| | 01:03 | We dial-in these effects next.
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| Get in the Mix: Creating a comb filter and a flange effect| 00:00 | So far we've talked about how
constructive and destructive interference leads
| | 00:04 | to comb filtering.
| | 00:06 | Let's see how we can make musical use of this.
| | 00:08 | The comb filter frequency response
represents a radical reshaping of tone.
| | 00:13 | Modulating that comb filter gives us
flanging, all we need is a track and
| | 00:17 | a short delay.
| | 00:19 | Let's Get In The Mix. Pause this
movie and open the appropriate file for
| | 00:23 | your DAW.
| | 00:28 | Plug-ins with the word flanger in
their name typically provide us delay
| | 00:31 | processors with a single short delay,
accompanied by all the usual parameters;
| | 00:36 | feedback, filtering, polarity
reverse, and modulation capability.
| | 00:41 | Electric guitar offers a great
opportunity for the flanging effect.
| | 00:45 | (music playing)
| | 00:59 | Recall that flanging comes from the
mixing of a signal with a very short delay.
| | 01:03 | It's most pronounced at very short
delay times, one millisecond or less.
| | 01:07 | But the effect remains audible up
to as much as 15 or 20 milliseconds.
| | 01:12 | Adding flange transports the guitar
textually, spectrally, and it might even
| | 01:17 | transport us a bit back in time, back
to the 60s, when rock and roll guitarists
| | 01:22 | first introduced us to the sound.
| | 01:24 | (music playing)
| | 01:38 | Longer delay times lead to spectrally
rich and complex flange effects, shorter
| | 01:43 | delay times create more
distinct alterations to timbre.
| | 01:46 | There is no right answer here,
fine-tune the effect to taste.
| | 01:49 | (music playing)
| | 02:30 | That's the sound, the surprising vibey
sound of the swept pattern of constructive
| | 02:35 | and destructive interference
across the entire tone of this guitar.
| | 02:39 | Certain frequencies are being
canceled, while others are doubled.
| | 02:43 | As the delay time is modulated, the
frequencies of the cuts and boosts
| | 02:46 | move accordingly.
| | 02:48 | Flipping the polarity of the delay
shifts the frequencies of the cuts and
| | 02:51 | boosts to new locations.
| | 02:53 | (music playing)
| | 03:06 | A great way to understand this better
is to apply the effect temporarily to a
| | 03:11 | pink noise test signal.
| | 03:13 | Pink noise is random energy with an
equal distribution across the audio band.
| | 03:18 | It has as much lows, as mids, as highs.
| | 03:21 | It is a distinctly nonmusical signal,
but it's an interesting way to estimate
| | 03:25 | the spectral content of
all possible musical signals.
| | 03:30 | (tone)
| | 03:44 | Flanging the pink noise makes the
spectral pattern of dips and bumps
| | 03:47 | more obvious.
| | 03:48 | (tone)
| | 04:03 | This test signal now makes the
sonic impact of our delay parameter
| | 04:06 | adjustments quite clear.
| | 04:08 | (tone)
| | 04:47 | Use the noise signal to support your
exploration, but don't forget, all that
| | 04:51 | matters is how it sounds on the track.
| | 04:54 | (music playing)
| | 05:31 | Your ability to contribute to
future mixes depends on your comfort and
| | 05:35 | fluency with flanging.
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| Get in the Mix: Flanger and phaser effects| 00:00 | Dialing in a very short delay time
and modulating it via the three delay
| | 00:04 | modulation controls leads to
an effect known as flanging.
| | 00:08 | The only rule is that the delay time
needs to be in that range short enough to
| | 00:12 | lead to audible comb filtering.
| | 00:14 | That suggests a starting delay
setting of less than about 10 milliseconds,
| | 00:18 | though the effect may be more obvious
at delay times closer to 5 milliseconds.
| | 00:22 | This ensures audible comb filtering will occur.
| | 00:25 | Set the delay modulation controls to taste.
| | 00:27 | (music playing)
| | 00:49 | That ringing, hollow, ear tingling sound
that is created by a flanger comes from
| | 00:54 | the simple comb filter effect
enhanced by these modulation controls.
| | 00:58 | While a fixed short delay creates a
comb filter, a changing short delay creates
| | 01:03 | a sweeping comb filter;
| | 01:05 | as the delay time sweeps,
| | 01:07 | the tone is radically reshaped.
| | 01:09 | And that's flanging.
| | 01:10 | So let's Get In The Mix. Pause this
movie and open the appropriate file for
| | 01:14 | your DAW.
| | 01:19 | The bridge of this tune offers
opportunities for some aggressive shifts in
| | 01:22 | the mix.
| | 01:23 | A change of scene, of arrangement, or
of texture, I want to sonically separate
| | 01:28 | this part of the song from the rest of
the verse and chorus structure in this
| | 01:31 | tune, flanging immediately comes to mind.
| | 01:35 | Let's listen to the bridge and for
context we'll start one phrase before the
| | 01:39 | bridge starts and listen
onward for one phrase after.
| | 01:42 | (music playing)
| | 02:26 | You've probably heard this tune
before elsewhere in this course.
| | 02:29 | If so, you already know that this
production is rich with exquisitely layered
| | 02:33 | interwoven vocal arrangements.
| | 02:36 | These intense vocal sections
embellish not just this bridge, but also
| | 02:40 | every chorus in the song.
| | 02:42 | We set them off sonically in the
bridge by inserting a dedicated
| | 02:45 | flanging effect.
| | 02:46 | (music playing)
| | 03:09 | I like how this sounds, but if you
were mixing and had other ideas, you keep
| | 03:13 | adjusting the parameters to taste.
| | 03:16 | This sort of mix idea invites you to
bring your own personal touch, your own
| | 03:19 | artistic maturity to the mix.
| | 03:22 | Flanging is a strong effect that, if
taken too far, might make the bridge too
| | 03:26 | different, too weird.
| | 03:29 | Transporting the bridge of this song to
the 1960s with images of purple paisleys
| | 03:34 | and peace signs would be a distraction.
| | 03:36 | The 60s have no real
connection to the meaning of this song.
| | 03:39 | There's a fine line between your
flanging effect being a nice touch and
| | 03:44 | too much.
| | 03:45 | Listen as I push the delay parameters too far.
| | 03:48 | (music playing)
| | 04:10 | Bear with me as I get a bit
philosophical here, I think it's important for us as
| | 04:15 | recording engineers to draw
comparisons between the sounds we hear and the
| | 04:19 | meaning we invest in them.
| | 04:21 | It can be fairly abstract, it might not
be the least bit obvious to the casual
| | 04:25 | listener who plays the recording later,
but having a mental motivation for how
| | 04:30 | the mix supports the songwriting, how
the engineering supports the performing is
| | 04:34 | important to the success of your recordings.
| | 04:38 | It reaches attentive listeners
directly and casual listeners subliminally.
| | 04:42 | What do you feel when this bridge
ends and the next chorus unfolds?
| | 04:46 | (music playing)
| | 04:57 | In my mind this bridge makes me
think of the following, growing layers
| | 05:01 | of abstraction.
| | 05:02 | First, I want the mix to support
the song form and the arrangement.
| | 05:06 | Verses to choruses to bridges, the mix
is under no obligation to sound the same;
| | 05:12 | most of the time they don't.
| | 05:14 | Mixes, the faders, pan pots, and
mutes are all changing, and so are many of
| | 05:19 | the effects.
| | 05:20 | Introducing the flange effect
on these vocals is part of that.
| | 05:24 | I want to sonically distinguish the
bridge from the other parts of the tune.
| | 05:29 | Listen, critically and
emotionally to the full context.
| | 05:32 | Let's listen to the full chorus before
the bridge, through the entire bridge,
| | 05:36 | and into the chorus that follows.
| | 05:38 | (music playing)
| | 06:42 | In addition to contrast, I'm also
thinking that I want a bit of swirling
| | 06:46 | motion in this bridge.
| | 06:48 | That lyric, the song title, it's
called This Time Around, makes me want some
| | 06:52 | things in the mix to move around.
| | 06:54 | A modulating delay does exactly that.
| | 06:57 | Lastly, I really want to come out of
this bridge into the final choruses with a
| | 07:02 | climactic lift that all
listeners can't help but feel.
| | 07:06 | For the bridge, I'm picturing it woven
into some sort of cocoon, followed by the
| | 07:11 | feeling of a butterfly
taking first flight in the chorus.
| | 07:14 | Corny I know, but that's what's in my
head as I set up the sonic contrast from
| | 07:19 | the bridge to the chorus, tangled,
tight constraint, to soaring freedom.
| | 07:25 | I'm sure no listener receives the same
image, but it serves as a mental template
| | 07:29 | to keep me focused while mixing.
| | 07:31 | Effects like flanging are so abstract
and so subjective that we benefit from a
| | 07:36 | bit of philosophizing.
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|
|
ConclusionUsing delays in a real-world mix| 00:00 | A quick inventory of all the
different effects a delay processor can create
| | 00:04 | is in order.
| | 00:05 | Short delays create a comb filter and flanger.
| | 00:09 | Medium delays create doublers,
chorus, spreaders, and thickeners.
| | 00:14 | Long delays create echoes for
emphasis, support, groove, and slap back.
| | 00:19 | Let's hear many of these effects in
action all in a single real-world mix.
| | 00:23 | We're using a full mix by the artist Iyeoka.
| | 00:26 | The song is called This Time Around.
| | 00:28 | It can be hard to get oriented when
you see someone else's mix for the
| | 00:32 | first time.
| | 00:33 | So first let me show you around, then
we'll zoom in on some of the delay-based
| | 00:37 | effects that became essential to this mix.
| | 00:40 | For now, let's get acclimated by
auditioning the mix from the intro through
| | 00:44 | the first chorus.
| | 00:45 | (music playing)
| | 02:09 | It's helpful to
understand the full song structure.
| | 02:12 | Looking at memory locations I've set
up, we see a pretty typical song form.
| | 02:17 | The Intro, verse 1, and CHORUS 1 that
we just heard is followed by verse 2,
| | 02:22 | CHORUS 2, Bridge, two more repeats of
the CHORUS, and a Coda or a Vamp during
| | 02:27 | the fade at the end.
| | 02:29 | Switching over to the edit window of
the digital audio workstation and looking
| | 02:33 | at the memory locations on the
timeline across the top reinforces our
| | 02:37 | understanding of who
plays when and for how long.
| | 02:40 | As we step through the many delay-based
effects in this mix, you'll eventually
| | 02:44 | gather more than enough comfort with a
song not to feel that intimidation that
| | 02:48 | comes from staring at so many tracks
and so many effects for the first time.
| | 02:52 | Don't worry, I've been there,
I'll get you through it.
| | 02:55 | Let's switch back to the mix window
where we'll focus first on the vocals.
| | 03:00 | In this mix, I consolidated many
dozens of vocal tracks into five
| | 03:04 | vocals categories.
| | 03:06 | There is the lead vocal, you'll soon
hear some lead vocal ad-libs for those
| | 03:11 | repeating choruses at the end.
| | 03:13 | Those take place here.
| | 03:14 | The song also has a stereo track
made up of just a few high harmonies.
| | 03:19 | Every single chorus, not just the
ones at the end, has a lush arrangement
| | 03:23 | of background vocals.
| | 03:24 | In fact, we have a stereo track made
up of many layers of background vocals
| | 03:28 | singing in the choruses only.
| | 03:30 | Lastly, there is a stereo track made
up of many layers of background vocals
| | 03:34 | singing in the bridge only.
| | 03:36 | Let's have a listen to the delay
effects that are on the vocals.
| | 03:39 | Here's the first one
likely to catch your attention.
| | 03:41 | (music playing)
| | 03:57 | The lead vocal gets an echo, but it's
only on the words wishing well right
| | 04:01 | here in the first verse.
| | 04:03 | Switching back to the mix window,
let's solo the vocal effect.
| | 04:08 | (music playing)
| | 04:23 | It's done with this 2-tap delay
here on the aux input labeled Key Echo.
| | 04:28 | A separate track containing only these
words was created labeled key words, and
| | 04:33 | it's this track that feeds the
delay, not the main lead vocal track.
| | 04:37 | In this way, the echo happens only on
the words, wishing well, not on every
| | 04:41 | word of the lyrics.
| | 04:43 | Delay timing, level, and panning are important.
| | 04:46 | You'll spend time getting it to sound good.
| | 04:48 | You want ear candy without distraction.
| | 04:51 | Two additional processors help
this echo slide deep into the mix.
| | 04:55 | First, I added this EQ to gently pull
out most of the energy below 1 Kilohertz
| | 05:00 | and to roll off the extreme highs.
| | 05:02 | This converts the echoes to
something of a more distant whisper.
| | 05:06 | I also send it to a large hall reverb.
| | 05:09 | Here's what it would sound like
without those added echo effects.
| | 05:12 | I'll mute the send to the reverb and
bypass the EQ.
| | 05:15 | (music playing)
| | 05:29 | Those echoes are too literal,
too similar to the original vocal.
| | 05:33 | I much prefer to separate
the echo from the track here.
| | 05:36 | Keep in mind, these effects are on
the echo only, not the actual lead
| | 05:40 | vocal, which in order to carry the
song, must maintain its full bandwidth,
| | 05:44 | its more intimate sound.
| | 05:46 | Here it is again with those
important added effects restored.
| | 05:49 | I'll return the EQ and reactivate the reverb.
| | 05:54 | (music playing)
| | 06:08 | And let's hear it in the
full context of the mix.
| | 06:14 | (music playing)
| | 06:28 | Another delay-based effect on the
lead vocal is a doubling effect we've
| | 06:32 | synthesized using this plug-in on
the aux input labeled Double.
| | 06:37 | The doubler is introduced to the mix
for the entire chorus every time it
| | 06:40 | happens in the song.
| | 06:42 | Listen as I turn it on and off during
playback, but listen carefully because
| | 06:46 | this doubling effect is only on
the lead vocal, the lush harmony part
| | 06:50 | underneath remains lush.
| | 06:53 | Try to focus on the quality of the lead vocal.
| | 06:55 | When this doubler is off, it's a
single great-sounding vocal track.
| | 06:59 | But when it's on, the lead
vocal becomes a layered doubling.
| | 07:03 | Well, this plug-in creates four double
tracks, so we hear the real track plus
| | 07:07 | four delay-based doublings,
I guess it's a quadrupling.
| | 07:11 | (music playing)
| | 07:34 | Have a listen to the soloed
lead vocal with the effect.
| | 07:38 | (music playing)
| | 08:01 | The added sheen of the doubling actually
makes more sense to me coming in on the
| | 08:04 | line before the chorus.
| | 08:06 | Let's listen to verse 1 into
CHORUS 1 and note when the track labeled
| | 08:10 | Double un-mutes.
| | 08:12 | (music playing)
| | 09:14 | The repeating choruses at the end
introduce an additional lead vocal like
| | 09:18 | track, labeled LV ad-libs, in which the
artist ad-libs around the basic vocal
| | 09:23 | arrangement.
| | 09:24 | At this point in the song, this mix
is pretty much as full and crowded as
| | 09:28 | it ever gets.
| | 09:29 | And to help that ad-lib vocal keep up,
we add some supportive echoes so these
| | 09:34 | strong melodies swirl and soar.
| | 09:37 | (music playing)
| | 09:53 | That bed of supportive echoes lives
on the aux send labeled SuportEcho.
| | 09:58 | It's based on this simple stereo
delay, a quarter note on the left and a
| | 10:02 | half note on the right.
| | 10:04 | Feedback makes them repeat and fade.
| | 10:07 | The low-pass filter pushes
them back a little into the mix.
| | 10:10 | (music playing)
| | 10:22 | The same supportive echo helps out
these high harmonies, so the last chorus is
| | 10:26 | rich and complicated.
| | 10:28 | (music playing)
| | 10:55 | Have you heard the bridge in this tune?
| | 10:57 | (music playing)
| | 11:09 | This layered harmony vocal section on
the track labeled BGV Bridge gets some
| | 11:14 | flanging, courtesy of this plug-in.
| | 11:16 | And it sonically helps set off this
section of the tune from the choruses
| | 11:20 | on either side.
| | 11:21 | (music playing)
| | 11:32 | There's really nothing quite like flanging.
| | 11:34 | Let's compare the sound of these
vocals with and without flanging.
| | 11:37 | Watch as I bypass the effect.
| | 11:39 | (music playing)
| | 12:01 | That gives you a good sense of most of
the delay effects on the various vocal
| | 12:04 | elements in this arrangement.
| | 12:05 | While we're at the bridge, let's check
out the groove-based delay effect on the
| | 12:09 | acoustic guitar on the track labeled AGT Strum.
| | 12:13 | (music playing)
| | 12:23 | The guitar track is the simpler part.
| | 12:25 | This rhythmic echo comes from four
well-chosen delay settings in this 6-tap
| | 12:29 | delay inserted on the aux
input labeled GroveEcho.
| | 12:33 | Here's the guitar part without the delay.
| | 12:35 | (music playing)
| | 12:41 | Okay, I admit it has slap echo, but
we're talking about groove echo right now.
| | 12:45 | There are so many effects we can get from delay.
| | 12:48 | The pattern of delays for this groove
echo is revealed by kicking the effect
| | 12:51 | with just the first acoustic guitar strum.
| | 12:54 | (music playing)
| | 12:58 | An important added touch is that
these echoes get flanged by this effect.
| | 13:03 | The flanging softens the echoes so
that the actual guitar track cuts
| | 13:06 | through more strongly.
| | 13:07 | I'm just trying to add some
excitement to the bridge, but don't want to
| | 13:10 | undermine the core performance this
guitar has created.
| | 13:13 | Let's hear it in the context of the full mix.
| | 13:15 | I'll give you four bars without the
flange on the rhythmic echo and then
| | 13:18 | four bars with.
| | 13:20 | You'll hear a slight
change hopefully for the better.
| | 13:23 | (music playing)
| | 13:43 | That same groove echo sounds nice on
the simple guitar part that follows.
| | 13:47 | The alternation between two notes
that happens on the chorus is right after
| | 13:50 | the bridge.
| | 13:51 | (music playing)
| | 14:04 | Even though I'm using the same
delay plug-in here as I did for those
| | 14:07 | more powerful strums of the acoustic
in the bridge, the intent here is
| | 14:11 | not to enhance the groove.
| | 14:13 | When the same pattern of delays
pedals softly underneath the simpler guitar
| | 14:17 | part, it serves more of a support
function decorating the guitar with
| | 14:21 | interesting ear-pleasing pulses.
| | 14:24 | Other delays linger in the mix.
| | 14:26 | There's very long delay on the synth
line that we've lovingly labeled ooze.
| | 14:30 | (music playing)
| | 14:46 | That long delay simply adds
complexity to a simple part.
| | 14:49 | It's surprising at first that such a
long echo would work, but it simply lingers
| | 14:54 | ghostly at low level, adding
motion and harmonic complexity.
| | 14:58 | We heard earlier that there was a bit
of slap echo on the acoustic guitar.
| | 15:01 | There is also a slap on the Rhodes keyboard.
| | 15:04 | The motivation here was to
highlight the vintage of the instrument.
| | 15:07 | The Rhodes is a keyboard from the 70s,
so I gave it a 70's sounding tape delay,
| | 15:11 | it has no other more
important motivation than that.
| | 15:14 | It's a simple, small, easy-to-ignore detail.
| | 15:17 | (music playing)
| | 15:22 | Delay-based effects pervade most pop
mixes from flange to chorus to echo, from
| | 15:27 | front and center to
background, from loud to soft.
| | 15:30 | We embellish the tracks we're given to
make the most of the three-and-a-half
| | 15:34 | minutes we might have with the
listener whenever we pull them into our mix.
| | 15:37 | (music playing)
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| Course summary and goodbye| 00:00 | A single delay processor, tape,
outboard, or plug-in offers a broad range of
| | 00:05 | audio opportunities representing a
nearly infinite number of sound qualities
| | 00:09 | to be explored.
| | 00:11 | Short delays create that family of
effects called comb filtering and flanging.
| | 00:15 | Medium delays lead to doubling,
chorusing, spreading, and thickening.
| | 00:19 | And long delays lead to echoes;
echoes for emphasis, support, groove,
| | 00:24 | and slap back.
| | 00:26 | Making sound recordings is a
wonderfully open-ended creative process, but there
| | 00:30 | is the risk especially if you're new to
this craft, that at any given moment, you
| | 00:34 | may not be sure what your next step
should be.
| | 00:37 | Maybe like me, you've been in this situation.
| | 00:40 | You push up the faders
and you wonder what to do.
| | 00:42 | There are too many
possibilities and you have so many ideas.
| | 00:46 | You wonder, where do I start?
| | 00:49 | So let's rule something out.
| | 00:50 | You should never add delay to a track
simply because you think it needs delay.
| | 00:54 | That's too vague.
| | 00:55 | Delay can do so many
different things to a track.
| | 00:58 | Instead, you should try to have a
clearly defined sonic target in mind, a
| | 01:03 | mix strategy.
| | 01:04 | Once you've become familiar with the
sound of a groove enhancing echo, a
| | 01:08 | shimmering chorus, a radical comb filter,
and the many other delay-based effects
| | 01:13 | we've explored in this course, you
will have access to a functional sonic
| | 01:17 | vocabulary that can inform and inspire you.
| | 01:21 | Knowing more instinctively when to
reach for delay and what parameter settings
| | 01:24 | you might need can help you stay
oriented towards the production goal and not
| | 01:28 | get bogged down in the
effects devices themselves.
| | 01:32 | When you know, in your mind's ear, what
your track could sound like, you're able
| | 01:36 | to bring it to life using the techniques
we've explored throughout this course.
| | 01:41 | Separating long delays from medium
delays from short delays, and knowing what can
| | 01:46 | be accomplished with each, gives
you a sharper production focus.
| | 01:49 | It can help you get to work more
efficiently, and more importantly free you
| | 01:53 | up creatively.
| | 01:54 | I'm certain this leads to better sounding mixes.
| | 01:57 | Thanks for watching Foundations of Audio:
| | 02:00 | Delay and Modulation.
| | 02:01 | If you like this way of thinking,
come visit me at recordingology.com.
| | 02:06 | And be sure to check out the other
Foundations of Audio courses here
| | 02:10 | at lynda.com.
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