IntroductionWelcome| 00:03 | Hi! I am Brain Lee White, and welcome
to Pro Tools Mixing and Mastering!
| | 00:08 | In this course I will show you how to
take your projects to the next level, using
| | 00:12 | Pro Tools, to tie together all the
pieces into a killer sounding mix.
| | 00:17 | Together we'll explore the Pro Tools
mixer and understand the basics of Signal Flow,
| | 00:23 | Plug-Ins, Effects Returns, and Submixing.
| | 00:27 | I will discuss the importance of
setting up a solid mixing plan and give you
| | 00:32 | advice on working through
the critical stages of the mix.
| | 00:35 | I'll cover the basic mixing
tools every producer should know.
| | 00:39 | From using EQ to add clarity and focus,
to effectively using dynamics processors
| | 00:44 | to add impact and power to your mixes.
| | 00:47 | I'll explain how to achieve that
commercial radio-ready sound during the
| | 00:51 | mastering stage by using compression
and limiting to maximize the level of the remix.
| | 01:00 | So if you're ready, I'm ready.
| | 01:02 | Let's get started with Pro Tools
Mixing and Mastering.
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| What is mixing? The past, present, and future| 00:00 | With more and more individuals making
music with computers and finishing a
| | 00:04 | complete musical idea from start to
finish all by themselves, the traditional
| | 00:09 | steps known as Mixing and Mastering--
once performed by men in lab coats--
| | 00:14 | now blur into the bigger
picture of music production.
| | 00:17 | Well, proper mixing and mastering
engineers remain a very relevant part of the
| | 00:22 | professional music and post-production process.
| | 00:25 | Many producers and songwriters are now
taking on the role of mixer, especially
| | 00:30 | as the quality and affordability
of the necessary tools increases.
| | 00:35 | But it is important to remember that
it's not the gear that makes the mixer,
| | 00:39 | it's their intuition, inspiration,
and instincts that take a song to the next level.
| | 00:45 | Now you can generally think of two
definitions of mixing: one being the actual
| | 00:50 | signal flow concept of mixing, or
physically summing or combining together
| | 00:55 | multiple audio signals into a single output.
| | 00:59 | And we can also think about mixing as an
art and an extension of the songwriting
| | 01:03 | and production process.
| | 01:05 | Mixing is the journey, the final step in
the production process where the mixer
| | 01:09 | attempts to effectively deliver the
song to the listener and extend the vision
| | 01:14 | of the songwriter or producer.
| | 01:16 | And in doing this they seek to
highlight the important components, creating a
| | 01:21 | hierarchy or focus of what the
listener should pay attention to.
| | 01:25 | Historically, mixing existed well
before computers and analog mixing consoles.
| | 01:31 | If we think about symphonies and
composers, an arranger of a symphony had to be
| | 01:36 | their own mixer by understanding the
instruments and the concert hall, and the
| | 01:41 | conductor had to understand all these
instruments in order to balance them by
| | 01:45 | ear with hand gestures.
| | 01:46 | In the early days of recording,
physical placement of the members of the
| | 01:51 | band was used to mix.
| | 01:53 | So you were placed around a
gramophone-style recording device, based on the
| | 01:57 | loudness or relative volume of your
instruments So the louder instruments
| | 02:01 | would actually be seated more towards
the back, furthest away where the quieter
| | 02:06 | instruments would be moved closer. And
they were recording straight to the
| | 02:10 | master, no multi-tracking.
| | 02:12 | Now in the early days of tape-
recording they had some limited mixing
| | 02:16 | capabilities, but they were also
recording most things all together in the same room.
| | 02:22 | Now with modern-day recording as we
moved into the '70s and '80s, a lot of people
| | 02:27 | like to consider this the golden age of
recording and mixing and outboard gear.
| | 02:31 | This is when large-format mixing
consoles and million-dollar studios really
| | 02:36 | started coming on the scene, and 24
and 48 track mixing capabilities really
| | 02:41 | started changing the sound of pop music.
| | 02:43 | DAW recording kind of invaded the
world in the late '90s and continues through
| | 02:48 | today, and really what we've seen is
gear has gotten really good and really cheap
| | 02:53 | at the same time, and software
recording and mixing has become a viable
| | 02:58 | professional workflow and format.
| | 03:01 | Now because of all these changes, we
can definitely see and hear how mixing is
| | 03:06 | evolved over the years.
| | 03:07 | It's evolved for one because of the
tools available to us and technology, and
| | 03:12 | it's also evolved to accommodate the
method by which music is recorded and
| | 03:18 | produced as opposed to all the members,
let's say, sitting in the same room and
| | 03:22 | recording at the same time.
| | 03:24 | Now people will record things one track
at a time, and they might not be even in
| | 03:27 | the same city.
| | 03:29 | Mixing has also evolved to meet the
demands of a new listening audience and
| | 03:33 | new styles of music.
| | 03:35 | Much like filmmaking and special
effects have evolved to tell new and different
| | 03:40 | kinds of stories and in different ways.
| | 03:43 | Traditionally, most think of
mixing and mastering as the final step of
| | 03:47 | the production process.
| | 03:49 | Tying up any loose ends and
really putting the song into an easily
| | 03:53 | digestible package.
| | 03:55 | And while this definition still holds
true--and it's important to recognize the
| | 03:59 | origins of these finite steps--much of
today's mixing is being done as part of
| | 04:04 | the songwriting and production process.
| | 04:07 | Because of today's technology, I often
make decisions as early as the first day
| | 04:12 | of recording that will carry on
through the mix and mastering stage.
| | 04:16 | And many times, because I think of the
big picture while I work through each
| | 04:20 | stage, my mix is sometimes 90%
finished when I complete the production
| | 04:26 | arrangement process.
| | 04:27 | So regardless of your approach, the
ideas outlined in this course will help
| | 04:32 | you take your mixes to the next level,
both from a technical standpoint as
| | 04:36 | well as an artistic one.
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| Exploring strategies for mixing and mastering| 00:00 | Many have described mixing as a black art,
or something you just hear and can't learn.
| | 00:05 | And I won't lie, it is one of
the more difficult areas of study in a
| | 00:10 | production workflow, but you can learn
how to be a better mixer if you approach
| | 00:15 | the subject with the right
mind-set and expectations.
| | 00:18 | So, is mixing really a black art?
| | 00:20 | Well, because mixing involves many
technical aspects used in very artistic or
| | 00:26 | creative ways, it can seem very
confusing at first, but when approached as an
| | 00:31 | artistic skill that has no absolute
answer or outcome--as opposed to let's say a
| | 00:37 | very objective skill like repairing an
air conditioner--your chances of becoming
| | 00:42 | a better mixer over time increase exponentially.
| | 00:45 | So mixing is really no more of a black
art than composing a song or learning to
| | 00:50 | master a new instrument.
| | 00:52 | The best way to approach learning how
to mix is you understand mixing's place
| | 00:57 | in the bigger picture.
| | 00:59 | What I'm trying to do with the song
and how is the mixing process is going to
| | 01:04 | help me reach that goal?
| | 01:06 | Mixers aren't alchemists.
| | 01:08 | Good mixing won't fix bad arranging,
recording, editing--stuff like that.
| | 01:14 | But a good mix can make a strong
arrangement and recording sound great.
| | 01:18 | So you always want to make sure
you're managing your expectations come mixed out.
| | 01:22 | So, garbage in equals garbage out, and
always keep that in mind when you're
| | 01:27 | working through the production process--
that at the end of the day a great mix is
| | 01:31 | not going to save a bunch of garbage
that you put in at the songwriting,
| | 01:34 | recording, arranging, and production stages.
| | 01:38 | To me, mixing is just as much about
knowing what you want as it is knowing
| | 01:43 | how to get it.
| | 01:44 | In other words, mixing is more about
expressing your vision for the song than
| | 01:48 | any one special technique
or trick or magic preset.
| | 01:53 | So, an example would be you might know
every chord and scale on the guitar, but
| | 01:59 | this doesn't translate directly
into a hit song without that additional
| | 02:03 | sometimes intangible component
of vision or artistic direction.
| | 02:08 | I like to think of a good
mixer like a master chef.
| | 02:12 | A master chef, given a set of
ingredients, can evaluate those ingredients for,
| | 02:17 | let's say, freshness, quality and decide
how to best execute the tastiest recipe
| | 02:23 | based on what's available.
| | 02:25 | On the contrary, if you're approaching
mixing like a less-capable chef relying
| | 02:30 | purely on a recipe, you assume specific
ingredients are present and that they
| | 02:36 | are the best quality the original recipe
specified, you'll almost never have these
| | 02:41 | ingredients. Only you can
really know what you want in a mix.
| | 02:45 | I can't tell you what to want; I
can only show you how to achieve a desired result.
| | 02:50 | For example, I can show you how to make
a vocal sound like it's coming from the
| | 02:54 | back of the room, but it's still up to
the individual to decide whether that is
| | 02:59 | appropriate for the song or not.
| | 03:01 | Above all, you want to keep an
open mind when learning how to mix.
| | 03:05 | There's always more than one way to
achieve a goal. Some techniques and workflows
| | 03:10 | are more common than others, but in
the end, there's no right or wrong way to
| | 03:14 | approach mixing, just as there is no
universally-accepted best style of music or
| | 03:19 | best tasting cuisine.
| | 03:21 | So try to explore as many different
styles of mixing as possible. Read articles,
| | 03:26 | talk to other mixers, but always
remember to take everything you hear or read
| | 03:31 | with a grain of salt.
| | 03:32 | The mistake many beginning mixers
make is to take everything they read as
| | 03:36 | gospel, especially if it comes
from an authority on the topic.
| | 03:41 | Make sure the tip or technique you're
learning works for you and carefully
| | 03:45 | consider how it might help your unique workflow.
| | 03:49 | Listen as much as possible.
| | 03:51 | In the end, you will learn more by
listening to other mixes than any book or
| | 03:56 | tutorial will ever teach you. Just like
many songwriters gather inspiration from
| | 04:01 | the Beatles, gather inspiration for
your mixes from your favorite music.
| | 04:06 | In the end, there is not going
to be any magic recipe or secret.
| | 04:10 | Many beginning mixers think that if
they just knew that one trick, they would
| | 04:14 | transcend space, time and become
the world's best mixer overnight.
| | 04:19 | Believe me, there is no conspiracy where
the pros keep all the tricks from the
| | 04:23 | amateurs and control the world's amazing
mixes, like so.e sort of secret society.
| | 04:27 | If there is any secret, it's an intangible one.
| | 04:31 | The same intangible secret that makes
one song a hit and another song a flop
| | 04:36 | when they both share the same chord
pattern, tempo key, and vocal style.
| | 04:40 | So learn and practice the techniques.
But remember that ultimate goal: that
| | 04:45 | mixing is an extension of the production
process, and it's all about the mixer's vision.
| | 04:51 | Think of learning mixing like
learning a musical instrument. You'll need to
| | 04:55 | learn and practice the chords and scales,
the technique of the instrument, but you
| | 05:00 | also have to keep in mind the ultimate goal
of playing that instrument like writing
| | 05:04 | a song or performing.
| | 05:06 | The ultimate goal of a mix is to best
facilitate the idea or message of the song.
| | 05:13 | Knowing and using a thousand different
mix techniques is useless if you aren't
| | 05:17 | working towards that ultimate goal.
| | 05:20 | Now there will be struggles, especially
in the beginning, and you will continue to
| | 05:24 | struggle and grow for the rest
of your career. But don't give up.
| | 05:28 | Somewhere down the road, you will
reach a point of competency and feel that
| | 05:32 | you're getting the results you want.
But if approached correctly, mixing isn't
| | 05:36 | something that you learn how to do
and then just move on. It's a skill you
| | 05:40 | will work with and evolve incrementally
over the course of many years
| | 05:44 | as technology and genres evolve.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you are a Premium member of the
lynda.com Online Training Library, or if
| | 00:04 | you're watching this tutorial on a
DVD-ROM, you have access to all of the
| | 00:09 | exercise files used throughout this title.
| | 00:12 | I have made the main session available
to everyone as a free exercise file, and
| | 00:16 | you can download it from this course's
page on the Online Training Library
| | 00:20 | and play the session back in
your own Pro Tools system.
| | 00:24 | The exercise files are laid out in
the Exercise Files folder that I have
| | 00:27 | placed here on my Desktop, and inside
that folder there is a series of Pro Tools sessions.
| | 00:34 | Now, for most of the videos we'll be
using the Take Me Down Pro Tools session,
| | 00:38 | and I have included a copy that
will work with Version 7 to 9.
| | 00:43 | So if you're using Pro Tools 10 and
above, you'll use the ptx session.
| | 00:48 | If you are using Pro Tools 9 or lower,
you will use the Copy of Take Me Down -
| | 00:52 | Final 2012 for PT version 7-9.
| | 00:56 | While the Take Me Down session is
available to all subscribers, Premium members
| | 01:02 | have access to the other
sessions used in this course.
| | 01:05 | Take Me Down Mastering is used
throughout the Mastering chapter, and there are
| | 01:09 | some other sessions used to illustrate
specific points throughout the course.
| | 01:14 | So download the Exercise package
and let's get started.
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|
|
1. Preparing to MixMixing "in the box"| 00:00 | Traditionally, records were made
using entirely analog equipment,
| | 00:04 | from the tape machines that recorded
the tracks to the mixers that sum them together.
| | 00:09 | While there are many advantages to
completely analog workflow, like the warmth,
| | 00:14 | saturation, and nonlinear qualities of
tape and tube gear, engineers often found
| | 00:19 | it hard to edit tape-based material,
recall complex mixes, or collaborate and
| | 00:24 | share ideas outside of the studio.
| | 00:26 | Not to mention the fact that this
analog recording gear was generally extremely
| | 00:31 | expensive, making high-quality
recording only available to a select few.
| | 00:36 | If we fast-forward to today, because of
the speed and power afforded by modern
| | 00:41 | computing, it is not uncommon for the
recording process to take place entirely
| | 00:45 | inside the compute--or in
the box--from start to finish.
| | 00:50 | While we will still continue to use
many analog tools like microphones and
| | 00:54 | speakers that we still need to
interface with the digital realm, it is safe
| | 00:59 | to say we are fully transitioned
into the era of the DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation.
| | 01:04 | So what is a DAW?
| | 01:06 | In the DAW world, we're replacing most
of the components of the analog studio
| | 01:11 | with DAW software and an interface
running with a computer.
| | 01:15 | So the DAW is replacing the
recording medium the tape as well as the
| | 01:19 | editing environment--let's say the
razor blades that cut that tape--as well
| | 01:23 | as the mixing and effects.
| | 01:25 | So the console and the outboard gear
are replaced by the DAW's mixer and plug-ins.
| | 01:31 | Now there are quite a few
advantages to working this way.
| | 01:35 | First of all, we have complete recall
ability. So that means we can be consistent.
| | 01:40 | Your mix is going to sound the same
today, next month, next year because we can
| | 01:45 | simply save and reopen our session.
And it's going to sound exactly the same.
| | 01:50 | In the analog days, recalls could
take hours to patch all the cables back together.
| | 01:55 | Today I can save a session and recall it
a month later in an entirely different city,
| | 02:00 | and it's going to sound exactly the same.
| | 02:03 | And I find that this allows me
to develop my mix over time.
| | 02:07 | Now another thing that I really like
about DAW's is the amazing automation.
| | 02:11 | You can automate anything.
| | 02:13 | Try automating a real 1176 or a pull
tech EQ in the analog environment.
| | 02:18 | You can't really do it.
| | 02:20 | Now Pro Tools has probably the best
automation package available in any mixing
| | 02:24 | environment, both analog or digital.
| | 02:27 | The best thing about the DAW world
is the price to performance ratio.
| | 02:31 | Those with the right skills can make it
sound like a million-dollar studio with
| | 02:36 | basically a few thousand dollars and a laptop.
| | 02:39 | Now some people will say there are
some disadvantages--or I like to say
| | 02:43 | considerations--of mixing in a DAW.
| | 02:45 | First of all, the lack of tactile control
that you get with the analog world--
| | 02:49 | the buttons and the knobs--is a little bit weird.
| | 02:52 | Now control surfaces have allowed us
to supplement this by giving us faders
| | 02:58 | and knobs that allow us to change
parameters in our software without having to
| | 03:03 | use the mouse, but I find that a lot of
my peers are just fine mixing entirely
| | 03:08 | with a mouse.
| | 03:09 | So it's really about what
you're comfortable with.
| | 03:12 | Another knock that DAWs get often is
the lack of built-in warmth or saturation
| | 03:17 | that you would traditionally gain
with analog gear, like tubes and tapes.
| | 03:21 | For me this is not necessarily a bad
thing but just a fact of working in the box.
| | 03:26 | The mixer is not going to add any
default coloration like an analog mixer does.
| | 03:31 | So I need to add it by taste, using the
saturation plug-ins and processing to get
| | 03:37 | just the feel I want.
| | 03:39 | And I actually prefer it this way.
| | 03:41 | The bottom line is you can get a great
mix inside of Pro Tools, so don't let
| | 03:45 | highbrow articles and fancy advertisements
get you down about mixing in the box
| | 03:50 | or not using analog gear.
| | 03:52 | What works for one person
might not work for someone else.
| | 03:55 | At the end of the day, a strong mixer
can create a great mix inside or outside
| | 04:00 | the box, and no one would
be able to tell either way.
| | 04:03 | I used to supplement my plug-ins with
expensive outboard gear, but I've been
| | 04:07 | mixing entirely inside of Pro Tools
for the last four to five years,
| | 04:10 | as I find that I value recall ability
and flexibility more than any slight
| | 04:15 | advantages I gain by tying my
workflow to a physical piece of equipment.
| | 04:20 | Is that to say that using analog
outboard gear or summing mixers is a waste
| | 04:25 | of time or money?
| | 04:26 | Not at all. Everyone has to find what works
best for their style and voice as a mixer.
| | 04:31 | For me personally, I find that mixing
in the box inside of Pro Tools offers the
| | 04:36 | greatest amount of flexibility in my
work for providing an excellent sounding
| | 04:40 | environment to creatively shape the
mix exactly how I hear it in my head.
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| Setting up the studio: monitors| 00:00 | Almost as important as a mixer's
signal processing tools and mix technique is
| | 00:05 | the environment that he
or she will be mixing in.
| | 00:08 | This includes your monitors or
speakers, their placement, and the room
| | 00:11 | they are placed in.
| | 00:13 | The mix environment can make or
break even a seasoned engineer's mix.
| | 00:17 | So before we dive into the nuts and
bolts of the mix process, I would like to
| | 00:21 | share with you some basic ideas and
considerations for setting up your mix room.
| | 00:26 | Monitors or speakers are
the windows into your mix.
| | 00:30 | So a dirty or colored window can
distort your perception of this view.
| | 00:35 | A lot of people will ask me what's
the best choice of a monitor for them,
| | 00:40 | and what I usually say is there is
tons of excellent sounding and affordable
| | 00:44 | monitors on the market, but not
all monitors are right for everything individual.
| | 00:49 | Typically, we break monitors
down into three major categories:
| | 00:53 | Near field, or smaller monitors; Mid field,
slightly larger; and Far field,
| | 00:58 | or what we called mains.
| | 01:00 | Now typically, in your home or project
studios, you are going to find near field
| | 01:05 | monitors, and these typically range from
about five inches to eight inches on the
| | 01:09 | woofer, and they are generally
ideal for smaller to mid-sized rooms.
| | 01:14 | I usually tell people you want to pick
a monitor that's right for you. And a lot
| | 01:19 | of times the magazine articles and
fancy endorsements, they can kind of steer
| | 01:25 | you one way or the other. But if you
really think about it, everyone's ears are
| | 01:30 | different, everyone's tastes are different.
| | 01:32 | So you want to ask yourself: how do you
enjoy music or how do you idealize sound?
| | 01:38 | Do you like a lot of low end?
Do you like a little bit of low end?
| | 01:43 | Do you like crispy highs?
Do you like overblown highs?
| | 01:46 | Each of the different kinds of monitors
are going to play out these different
| | 01:49 | frequencies a little bit differently.
| | 01:52 | And so what you want to do is you want to
try to pick a monitor that is aligned with
| | 01:56 | your ideal of sound and how music would sound.
| | 01:59 | It's going to do you no good to pick a
monitor where there's not bass coming out
| | 02:03 | of it, and you just love bass because
what's going to happen is you are going to
| | 02:07 | sort of project your ideals of wanting
to put a ton of bass into that music in
| | 02:12 | monitors that were playing down the bass.
| | 02:14 | So you are going to end up with an
unbalanced mix that doesn't translate.
| | 02:18 | Once you get to a certain price point,
it's a lot like luxury cars, like a
| | 02:22 | Mercedes versus a BMW versus an Infinity, right?
| | 02:26 | Once you start paying for premium
monitors in your studio, they are all going to
| | 02:31 | give you a great sound that are going
to last you a long time. And it's really
| | 02:35 | just a matter of preference.
| | 02:37 | Every speaker is different.
| | 02:38 | So what I like to do is listen to my mix
in as many rooms, on as many speakers as
| | 02:43 | I can get ahold of.
| | 02:45 | Generally, I want to do something that's
kind of a higher-fi system, right, that's got
| | 02:49 | a little bit more bass, and I also want
to include a lower-fi system, maybe an
| | 02:53 | iPod dock or ear buds, because a lot
of people are going to be listening on those systems.
| | 02:59 | I also--in this whole scheme of picking
which monitors and which environments I
| | 03:04 | am going to listen to--I consider
the genre that I am working on.
| | 03:07 | So if I am mixing for a specific
audience that I know is going to be mostly
| | 03:11 | made up of teenagers on iPod ear buds,
then I am definitely going to make sure
| | 03:16 | my low end translates really well to
them, versus--let's say--an audiophile jazz
| | 03:20 | record where I might not work as hard
on the iPod mix and maybe focus more on hi-fi systems.
| | 03:27 | Another thing I get asked a lot about
mixing, since people are mixing a lot in
| | 03:31 | bedrooms and hotel rooms and cafes
is: is it okay to mix on headphones?
| | 03:37 | Well, the answer is yes and no.
| | 03:39 | There are definitely some
benefits to knowing a good pair of cans.
| | 03:43 | You have a consistent listening
environment and consistent low end response
| | 03:48 | if you really learn your headphones.
| | 03:51 | However, some other concerns include
lack of stereo bleed, so you don't get this
| | 03:56 | left-right bleed between your left
and right headphones like you would in a
| | 04:00 | real space where if you put your hand
over your right ear, you'd still be able
| | 04:04 | to hear the right speaker.
| | 04:07 | What this does is it makes it hard to
set the center channel level or balance of
| | 04:11 | elements, so your vocal might turn
out too hot or too weak in the mix.
| | 04:16 | The other thing is you are not getting
any room ambience that you would get in
| | 04:19 | a normal space or room.
| | 04:21 | So it could cause you to add a little bit
too much reverb or delay to your mixes.
| | 04:26 | Now, there are some speaker simulation
programs that attempt to simulate this
| | 04:32 | cross-bleed when using headphones.
| | 04:34 | I found them, for me, to be a little bit
hit or miss, and so if you are going to
| | 04:38 | mix on headphones, be sure to learn how
your specific headphones translate--
| | 04:43 | not only in things like bass and top end,
but also with stereo field center channel volume.
| | 04:48 | And if you can--if at all possible--
check it on some real speakers, living in
| | 04:53 | a real acoustic space.
| | 04:55 | The last thing I want to talk about in regards
to monitoring is mixing with a subwoofer.
| | 05:00 | You kind of have engineers
split on this at this point.
| | 05:03 | Some say, "No, I never mix with a subwoofer,"
while others say, "I always mix with a subwoofer."
| | 05:08 | I definitely have found that more
people are mixing with a subwoofer,
| | 05:12 | especially in the urban and pop genres.
| | 05:15 | More and more people have subs in
their homes and home theatres and the
| | 05:20 | car stereo systems that are
coming stock in cars oftentimes are
| | 05:24 | incorporating subwoofers also.
| | 05:26 | So I find that it's important for me
to at least be able to check how my mix
| | 05:30 | sounds with a subwoofer to
hear that extra low bass.
| | 05:33 | The other reason I like to mix with a
sub sometimes is I can actually adjust it
| | 05:37 | so I can mix at a lower volume and
compensate for the lack of bass response.
| | 05:42 | Some of the cons to mixing with a sub
is that if you have the sub supporting
| | 05:46 | your low end, you may fail to create an
accurate representation of your low end,
| | 05:51 | especially if you set your
subwoofer up improperly.
| | 05:54 | What it tends to do for me is it tends
to take my focus off the really critical
| | 05:59 | low mids--the stuff that's going to
make it translate really well on ear buds
| | 06:03 | and smaller speakers--is kind of getting
masked by that nice warmth in that low end
| | 06:08 | that's kind of pushing you in the chest.
| | 06:11 | So ultimately, if you are going to mix
with a subwoofer, you really want to make
| | 06:15 | sure to constantly check your mix
without that subwoofer on, just to make sure
| | 06:20 | that it translates correctly
to smaller speaker systems.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the studio: acoustics| 00:00 | Do you ever find that your mix sounds
great in your studio but absolutely
| | 00:05 | terrible when you listen to it in your
car or in any other room or in any other
| | 00:08 | speaker system? You can spend thousands
of dollars on fancy monitors, but if your
| | 00:15 | room is inaccurate, those
monitors will also be inaccurate.
| | 00:19 | Now here is a little exercise you
can try in your own Pro Tools system.
| | 00:24 | If you go ahead and open up
under multi-mono > Other,
| | 00:30 | this Signal Generator plug-in.
| | 00:31 | And go ahead and tune that down to
something like around 60 Hz, let's say.
| | 00:37 | You can kind of turn that up a
little bit so you can really hear it.
| | 00:41 | Now what I want you to do is I want
you to get up and walk around your room.
| | 00:46 | Now this is not going to work on headphones,
of course, so you got to be playing
| | 00:50 | this out on your speakers.
| | 00:51 | If you get up, see if you can notice that
sound turning up or turning down as you
| | 00:59 | hit different spots in your room.
| | 01:01 | Try walking into the corners.
See if it raises or lowers.
| | 01:08 | So what you're hearing when you hear
these pockets of build up, where the sound
| | 01:12 | or tone is louder or areas where the
sound appears to be soft, is a result of the
| | 01:18 | sound waves developing in your
unique space--and modal ringing.
| | 01:24 | What's happening is standing waves are
being created in your room at different
| | 01:29 | spots, as a result of constructive or
destructive interference of the waveforms
| | 01:35 | reflecting off the walls, and
interacting with the original waveform.
| | 01:40 | This can be really, really bad in
small rooms or perfectly square rooms with
| | 01:45 | equal width and length dimensions.
| | 01:48 | Now the problem with this is, let's
say right at your mix position, right
| | 01:51 | where your chair is, there is a big
mode that's sucking out 60 Hz.
| | 01:57 | And let's say that is the center--or the key--
of your lowest bass note or the center of
| | 02:02 | your kick drum.
| | 02:04 | What's going to happen is you are going
to mix as a result of not hearing a lot
| | 02:09 | a 60 Hz. And so when you take that
mix elsewhere, what's going to happen is
| | 02:13 | you're going to hear way too much of
60 Hz in the car or in another room.
| | 02:19 | Likewise, you could be hearing,
let's say, too much of 75 Hz at your mix
| | 02:23 | position, which would cause you to
pull out that frequency when you really
| | 02:28 | didn't need to. And so your mix might end up
sounding hollow or a lacking bass in other spaces.
| | 02:34 | So what tends to happen is people
tend to overuse EQ because of this modal
| | 02:40 | ringing or these standing
waves happening in the rooms.
| | 02:44 | Another thing that can happen in your
space are flutter echoes, or reflections.
| | 02:50 | And this is more of a high frequency
problem where the sounds reflect off
| | 02:54 | hard parallel surfaces.
| | 02:56 | So if you just have bare drywall,
your room is probably a little bit too
| | 03:01 | reflective, and that's going to make
setting the reverb levels or the delay
| | 03:05 | levels in your mix difficult. And it's
also going to make setting your stereo
| | 03:10 | image or panorama difficult, because
what you're hearing is the right speaker
| | 03:15 | is playing out and bouncing off your
left wall and hitting your left ear, and
| | 03:19 | it's going to make things sound a little
too wet or a little blurry in the stereo field.
| | 03:25 | Now, what can we do about these problems?
| | 03:28 | Well, short of rebuilding your entire
room, generally what you can do is you can
| | 03:33 | invest in or build your own acoustic treatment.
| | 03:37 | Bass traps are great for standing waves.
They are going to help soak up some of
| | 03:41 | those standing waves that are creating
that modal ringing that is making
| | 03:45 | certain bass notes pop out or suck in.
And we can use some high frequency
| | 03:50 | absorbers or diffusers to help the
flutter echo issue, and that's usually the
| | 03:55 | foam you see on the walls.
| | 03:57 | Now what a lot of people do is they
just put foam all over their walls and they
| | 04:00 | don't treat the room for low end.
| | 04:03 | And the problem with just that one inch
or two inch foam on your walls is that's
| | 04:06 | going to soak up and make the room sound
really dry in the high frequencies, but
| | 04:10 | you are still going to have a lot of
low-frequency modal ringing. You're going
| | 04:14 | to still have those issues with the low-
end, except now you're going to assume
| | 04:18 | that everything sounds great because
you're not hearing any of those really
| | 04:21 | obvious flutter echoing.
| | 04:23 | So you really want to make sure to
treat all the frequencies in your space.
| | 04:27 | Recently some EQ treatment solutions
have come out, so either the speakers
| | 04:31 | themselves try to EQ to your room or
there are software or hardware solutions
| | 04:35 | that try to EQ to different modes or standing
waves that are happening at the mix position.
| | 04:41 | To me, these can be a bit hit or miss,
and I generally find them to be a solution
| | 04:46 | to try after I've already
sought out acoustic treatment.
| | 04:50 | Mixes can tend to sound weird to me
when they are over-EQ'd with these
| | 04:54 | treatment solutions, so your mileage may vary.
| | 04:57 | Ultimately, the free solution and the
solution that everybody has to end up using--
| | 05:01 | because even with a lot of acoustic
treatment the room is never going to be
| | 05:05 | perfect--is to learn your room's problems
and listen to your mixes on as many
| | 05:10 | speakers as you can.
| | 05:12 | Try using headphones to get the low-end
right, because those aren't going to be
| | 05:16 | affected by the modal ringing
of your specific space.
| | 05:20 | Try running a cable to your car's aux jack
or, you know, move your laptop into
| | 05:25 | another bedroom on another speaker system.
| | 05:28 | If you can learn the quirks of your room,
by listening to other commercial
| | 05:33 | recordings that have already been
mastered and making notes about those
| | 05:36 | recordings, you can then take those
observations and apply them to your mixes.
| | 05:41 | So, for example, if you find that all
your favorite commercial recordings don't
| | 05:45 | have a lot of bass in your specific room,
that means you're going to kind of
| | 05:48 | have to mix bass lean in that space,
because you're probably having some modes
| | 05:53 | that are sucking out some of the 60, 70,
80 Hz that's going to give you a lot of
| | 05:57 | that chesty sub-base.
| | 06:00 | Obviously, the scope of this course
is not meant to provide a comprehensive
| | 06:04 | in-depth look at studio monitoring and
room acoustics, but all I really wanted
| | 06:09 | to do is inspire you to
learn more about the topic.
| | 06:12 | Understand that it is an issue in all
studios, even million-dollar ones, and it
| | 06:18 | plays a major role in your mix results.
| | 06:20 | There are many free resources
available on the Internet, including plans to
| | 06:25 | build your own acoustic treatment
solutions very inexpensively and tons of
| | 06:30 | message boards with professional
acousticians answering people's questions
| | 06:34 | on this very topic.
| | 06:35 | So, go ahead and do a simple Google search,
and that should start you off in the
| | 06:39 | right direction as far studio acoustics go.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Staying organized: labeling tracks and clips| 00:00 | I truly believe an effectively
organized session--or what I like to call
| | 00:04 | good Pro Tools hygiene--can take a lot of
the mystery out of the mixing process and
| | 00:09 | can really help you stay
focused and on the task at hand.
| | 00:13 | Rather than racing around a huge
session looking for unnamed mystery tracks
| | 00:18 | labeled audio 7 or sorting through a
list of thousands of unused clips, a clean
| | 00:24 | and organized session is not only an
efficient way to work, it's an absolute
| | 00:29 | necessity when working on collaborative
projects with other engineers.
| | 00:34 | Let me show you a few things that I
do to every session before I even touch
| | 00:38 | a single fader.
| | 00:40 | Now, the Take Me Down session that I
have open right now is a really good
| | 00:43 | example of a session that's already
been organized. But to take you through a
| | 00:47 | roadmap of what I would do is that
always start a mix by doing a Save As.
| | 00:52 | So, File > Save As, and I'm just going
to append a new version name to this session.
| | 00:59 | And what this allows me to do
is it allows me to archive my mix process,
| | 01:04 | or separate the mix process from the
editing and recording processes,
| | 01:09 | where I can actually go back like little
breadcrumbs and find my way back to different
| | 01:14 | parts of the mix.
| | 01:15 | And what I do is I create different
revisions as I'll go and do a Save As, and
| | 01:20 | we know that a Save As does not save
the audio, it just saves the session
| | 01:25 | document as a new file.
| | 01:26 | So all this session is doing is pointing
back to the same audio files in the
| | 01:31 | audio files directory.
| | 01:32 | So I'm going to call this my initial mix,
and if I was doing a revision,
| | 01:38 | I might do something like rev1, 2, 3, 4, et cetera.
| | 01:42 | That way I can always get back to the
clean unmixed session--or if I'm mixing for
| | 01:48 | a client, I can always get back
to what their mix sounded like.
| | 01:52 | So, if they said, "Hey Brian, I kind of
want you to have the vocal a little bit
| | 01:56 | more like I gave you in the rough mix."
| | 01:58 | If I'd just blown right over their mix and
just started saving right into the same
| | 02:02 | document, I wouldn't really
have that reference anymore.
| | 02:06 | Now, once I have done a Save As and I
have a new file to work on, I'm going to
| | 02:10 | start by working through the
labeling of the tracks and the clips.
| | 02:14 | So if any tracks aren't labeled--let's
say they are called audio 1, audio 2 as
| | 02:19 | opposed to Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat--
what I'm going to do is I'm going to
| | 02:23 | double-click on the track name and label it.
| | 02:26 | Here I also have the option of
giving a comment to that track.
| | 02:30 | Now I want to pay attention to these comments.
| | 02:32 | If I need to make any notes I'm going
to make them in the Comments, but I also
| | 02:36 | want to make sure--if this isn't my
session--I want to see if the engineer before
| | 02:40 | we had left any comments.
| | 02:42 | Now, you can show the comments in
either the Edit or the Mix view by going
| | 02:45 | to View > Edit Window View > Comments
or in the Mix window, View > Mix Window
| | 02:52 | View > Comments, and you can edit them
simply by just clicking and typing.
| | 02:59 | It's that easy.
| | 03:00 | So, I use comments quite a bit
to take notes as I'm mixing.
| | 03:04 | Now, once you've labeled all your tracks,
you also want to manage the labeling of your clips.
| | 03:10 | So, a track name here doesn't necessarily
have to share the same clip name of
| | 03:15 | any clips that live on that track.
| | 03:17 | So what I can do is to label a clip,
I can use my grabber tool and I can
| | 03:23 | double-click on any clip and
I can choose to see Tomborine.
| | 03:27 | That's wrong. I'm going to change that
to Tamborine, and I'm going to name the
| | 03:31 | clip and the disk file.
| | 03:33 | That's actually going to
name the file on the hard drive.
| | 03:35 | Now, if I wanted to access this file
on older sessions, I might choose to only
| | 03:40 | name the clip Tamborine.
| | 03:43 | I don't want to rename the actual disk
file in case I'm pointing to that disk
| | 03:47 | file from other sessions.
| | 03:48 | So, I'm going to click OK there.
| | 03:51 | Now, the other thing I'd like to do
with my clips is if I have a high edit
| | 03:54 | density--that is to say, let's say I had
a track that had quite a few edits or
| | 04:00 | cuts in it, like so.
| | 04:03 | Now the problem with that is that
creates an issue for pulling those files from
| | 04:07 | the hard drive, especially if we've got
lots of little clips playing back-to-back
| | 04:12 | and they're representing lots of
different files on that hard drive.
| | 04:16 | What happens is your hard drive has to
pull this file, then it has to pull that
| | 04:19 | file, and that can really slow your
system down, especially when you have
| | 04:23 | 50-60 tracks with high edit density in your
session, like you did beat detective to
| | 04:28 | your drums or something like that.
| | 04:29 | So, what I'll do is I'll actually
consolidate the clips before I mix to make
| | 04:34 | things a little easier on my computer.
| | 04:36 | So, I'll just triple-click to select
all the clips on a track, and then I will
| | 04:40 | choose Edit > Consolidate Clip. And what
that's going to do is going to fuse all
| | 04:46 | those clips together into one new audio
file on the hard drive, and that makes it a
| | 04:51 | little bit easier on the hard drive
when streaming that back.
| | 04:54 | Now, inevitably what I'm going to have
in any big session that's gone through
| | 04:58 | a lot of editing is quite a few extra
clips in the Clips List over here, ones
| | 05:04 | that I'm not using.
| | 05:05 | So if those are distracting me from the
task of mixing, I'm going to go ahead and
| | 05:10 | I'm going to clear out the unused clips
by choosing the Clips List pop-up menu,
| | 05:15 | and I'm going to choose Select and
I'm going to choose Select > Unused.
| | 05:19 | Now I can also choose Unused Except
Whole Files, and what that's going to do,
| | 05:25 | it's going to select everything that's
not a bold region or representing a whole
| | 05:29 | file or a wave file on the hard drive.
| | 05:32 | Now I can actually choose from the
Clips pop-up menu, Clear, and I can
| | 05:38 | remove all that mess.
| | 05:41 | Now, you might get a little error message
that says, "Hey, that's used in the Undo
| | 05:46 | queue," or that's something in your clipboard.
Well, in this case this was just using
| | 05:51 | in my Undo queue, so I'm just going
to go ahead and say Yes.
| | 05:53 | And here's a little trick to keep the
menu from keep popping-up saying Yes, Yes, Yes.
| | 05:58 | You can hold down Option on the Mac, or
Alt on the PC, and that says Yes to All.
| | 06:03 | And so that'll clear out my Clips
List, make everything really clean and
| | 06:07 | organized for me to continue on with the mix.
| | 06:10 | Now, something that a lot of mixers
like to do before they start mixing is
| | 06:14 | change the order of the tracks as they display
in both the Edit window and the Mix window.
| | 06:20 | Now, if we switch to the Mix window, what
we know about Pro Tools is that the Mix
| | 06:25 | and the Edit window are kind of tied
hand-in-hand so that the order in the
| | 06:30 | Edit window is going to be
the same in the Mix window.
| | 06:33 | Now, some mixers like to have their
drum tracks all the way to the left, some
| | 06:37 | of them like to have their vocal tracks
or their master fader all the way to the left.
| | 06:42 | It doesn't matter how you organize
your tracks. All that matters is that you
| | 06:47 | use a consistent system, so that when
you're working on a big session you're
| | 06:52 | not scrolling all over the place
trying to find your drum tracks, your vocal,
| | 06:56 | your aux returns.
| | 06:57 | Now for me, if we take a look at the
example session, I've got my drums starting
| | 07:04 | at the left, then I move to percussion
to the tamborine and shaker, then I've got
| | 07:09 | the bass guitar, the electric guitars,
rhythm, the electric guitar leads and
| | 07:15 | tops, my keys, the B3, then I have my
lead vocal and my background vocals.
| | 07:22 | Now, after that, I've got all of my
effects returns all the way to the right-hand
| | 07:27 | side of my mix and eventually my master fader.
| | 07:30 | Now, you don't have to do it this way.
| | 07:32 | This is just a way that I like to do it.
| | 07:34 | Every mixer kind of has their own
little system, but try to come up with a
| | 07:37 | system that's consistent for you, so that
you're not scrolling around all over the place.
| | 07:41 | Now, if you find yourself working in a
really large session, a cool trick is this
| | 07:47 | Scroll to Track key command.
| | 07:49 | So what you can do in your Tracks list
is you can actually use Ctrl+Shift on
| | 07:54 | the Mac, or Start+Shift on the PC, and
click on a track, and that's going to
| | 07:59 | quickly scroll into view--
either the Mix or the Edit window.
| | 08:04 | So that's really neat if you're
working in a 60-70 track session.
| | 08:07 | The Tracks list clearly shows a nice
text list of all your tracks, and if I just
| | 08:13 | want to grab the Tele Main
electric guitar, boom!
| | 08:15 | There it is.
| | 08:16 | The other cool thing about this is
if you're using a control surface, it's
| | 08:20 | automatically going to bank
that track to your leftmost fader.
| | 08:25 | Now, some people like to color code
their elements, tracks and clips.
| | 08:30 | You can do this via Window > Color palette.
| | 08:33 | It's really easy.
| | 08:34 | All you have to do is select an
element like a track and choose a color.
| | 08:40 | Now, in this session I've done some
arbitrary color coding, and again, this is
| | 08:45 | one of those things that you really need
to come up with either a system of your
| | 08:48 | own--or if you're working in a team--
come up with a system that works for you.
| | 08:53 | I've got my drum tracks, they're green.
| | 08:55 | Your drum tracks could be yellow.
| | 08:57 | All that matters is that you're staying
organized and using a consistent system
| | 09:01 | that you're going to remember.
| | 09:03 | Now, another thing I'd like to label--
and this is one of the things I find that
| | 09:06 | few people take advantage of in
Pro Tools--is the I/O pathnames.
| | 09:11 | Now, you might notice in this session
that my sends and my inputs and outputs
| | 09:16 | are actually labeled, things like Bass Bus.
| | 09:19 | So I can see the Bass is going out the
Bass Bus, and I'm picking it up on this
| | 09:23 | aux track. That's my return there.
| | 09:25 | I can see when I'm using my reverbs.
I've actually labeled them Room Verb, Short Delay.
| | 09:31 | And the trick to doing this is using
Setup > I/O Setup, and I/O Setup allows you
| | 09:37 | to label all your Input-Output and Bus
pathways, so that instead of seeing Bus
| | 09:43 | 1 and 2, Bus 3 and 4, you're actually
seeing a name that represents what you're
| | 09:47 | using it for.
| | 09:49 | Now, what I'd like to do is a little trick.
| | 09:52 | If I'm inside the mixer, I can right-
click on any element and choose Rename and
| | 09:57 | rename it right there without
having to go into I/O Setup.
| | 10:01 | Now I'd like to use consistent names in
my sessions, but the bottom-line is in
| | 10:07 | a big session, if you're using 30-40
buses, you're really not going to know what
| | 10:11 | Bus 5 and 6 is at a glance. You're
going to have to trace it down and see where
| | 10:15 | it's going, whereas if I label my I/O
pathways--something like Room Verb--
| | 10:20 | I instantly know at a glance where that
send is going and where it's going to be
| | 10:24 | picked up on the other end.
| | 10:26 | Now, one thing I do often in a very
complex session is something entirely
| | 10:31 | outside of Pro Tools, and that's create
a session text document in Notepad or
| | 10:36 | Text Editor. And in that I'll add any
additional information that's not going to
| | 10:40 | fit in the Comments view.
| | 10:41 | So, maybe the lyrics, the key and the
tempo of this song, maybe some tracking
| | 10:46 | notes about what gear I used, or if
I'm using outboard gear I'll have some recall settings.
| | 10:52 | I've even seen engineers take pictures
of their mic placement and their outboard
| | 10:57 | gear with a digital camera and they
put that in a little sort of session info
| | 11:01 | folder inside the session folder.
| | 11:04 | So, at the end of the day a well-organized
session is going to run efficiently
| | 11:08 | and navigate quickly and effectively.
| | 11:11 | Because it's hard enough trying to make
difficult aesthetic decisions in a mix
| | 11:15 | without having to hunt down tracks when
creativity calls. This is actually such
| | 11:19 | a big topic of discussion amongst
professional Pro Tools users that an official
| | 11:24 | guideline has been developed to help
direct you in organizing a Pro Tools
| | 11:27 | session with much more detail
than I've outlined in this video.
| | 11:30 | I highly recommend you do a search for
the Naras Pro Tools Guidelines in Google.
| | 11:36 | You'll find a wealth of information on organizing
and managing a squeaky-clean session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Staying organized: memory locations and window configurations| 00:00 | Another set of tools you can use to
effectively organize and navigate
| | 00:04 | your session are memory locations
and window configurations.
| | 00:09 | Memory locations and window configurations
are a super powerful way to organize
| | 00:13 | your session during any stage
of the production, but are especially
| | 00:16 | helpful during mix-down because they
allow you to quickly recall specific
| | 00:20 | sections of a song or project
without switching window views, as well as
| | 00:25 | quickly focus on a set of tracks.
| | 00:28 | Now in the Take Me Down session,
I've already organized all of my memory
| | 00:32 | locations for the different parts
of this song like the Intro, Verse,
| | 00:37 | Pre-chorus, Chorus, and I can
access those in one of two places.
| | 00:42 | I can show my Markers link in the Edit
window by going to View > Rulers, make sure
| | 00:48 | Markers is checked, and I can also get a
list if I go to Window > Memory Locations--
| | 00:54 | that's Command+5 on your
numeric keypad, or Ctrl+5 on Windows.
| | 01:00 | Now the Memory Locations list is going
to show me a list of all of my memory
| | 01:03 | locations, both markers as well as non-
positional locations here. And an example
| | 01:10 | of where this is really, really useful
is let's say I am in the Mix window, and I
| | 01:14 | am working on, let's say, maybe I am EQ'ing
the kick-drum here and I really want to
| | 01:19 | hear what that sounds like in the verse.
| | 01:22 | What I can do is, instead of switching
to my Edit window, I can just click here
| | 01:25 | on my verse.
(music playing)
| | 01:33 | Start tweaking my EQ, and
maybe I want to hit the Chorus.
| | 01:38 | (music playing)
| | 01:46 | And so even during playback I can
click on these marker memory locations, and
| | 01:50 | it's going to jump me right to that point.
| | 01:52 | Now if you notice, there is a numeric
value attached to these, and what I can do
| | 01:58 | is--I don't even have to have this
memory locations window up to access these.
| | 02:02 | I can use a shortcut on my
numeric keypad using this number value.
| | 02:07 | So if I hit Period, the number
and another period on my numeric
| | 02:13 | 10-key keyboard, I can access that memory location.
| | 02:15 | So, for example, here I have
Verse 1 as 11, I can hit .11. to access that.
| | 02:23 | Now if you are using a laptop, you
generally don't have access to the 10 key
| | 02:28 | or numeric keypad. Now some laptops
have a function key that you can press
| | 02:32 | down, some don't.
| | 02:34 | Now, I find that the numeric keypad is
so effective for navigating with memory
| | 02:38 | locations--as well as using just basic
transport start and stop--that I like to
| | 02:44 | have a full-size keyboard when I'm
working with Pro Tools, even if I'm using
| | 02:47 | a laptop, but that's totally up to you.
| | 02:50 | Now, when you create a memory location,
you can use the Enter key, just place the
| | 02:56 | cursor anywhere you'd like, and hit
Enter on a numeric keypad--or click the
| | 03:01 | Plus sign if you're using a laptop--you
can click the + sign in markers, and you
| | 03:06 | can actually assign a number when you
create the memory location as well as give
| | 03:11 | it a name. And you can choose whether
you want it to be a marker--that's a single
| | 03:15 | point in time--a Selection spanning two
points in time, or None. And a non-marker
| | 03:23 | or selection memory location
allows you to just save General Properties
| | 03:27 | settings like track Zoom, Pre/Post Roll,
what tracks are showing or hiding, the
| | 03:32 | heights of those tracks, if any groups
are enabled, as well as window configurations.
| | 03:37 | We will discuss those a little bit later.
| | 03:39 | You can also tie a comment to your
memory location or marker--maybe that's a
| | 03:44 | lyric or an edit note that you want
to remember and those comments. Check this out.
| | 03:49 | If I add a comment here to the Verse, it
says Verse Markers 11, 12, 13 for verse
| | 03:55 | 1, 2, 3 and I hover over that comments pops up.
| | 04:01 | Now specifically what this is telling is
that I have set up my song, so I have a
| | 04:06 | little bit of rhyme to my
reason here with my numbering.
| | 04:09 | All the verses are 1, so Verse 1
is 11, Verse 2 is 12, and so on.
| | 04:16 | All the choruses are 3,
so Chorus 2 is 32, 33, 34.
| | 04:22 | Now you don't have to use this same
system, but for me what this allows me to do
| | 04:26 | is totally close this window down and
as long as I am consistent with this
| | 04:31 | system in every session that I'm using,
I can be anywhere--I can be in the Mix
| | 04:35 | window, the Edit window--and I can
quickly recall any point in the song just from
| | 04:39 | memory using my numeric keypad.
| | 04:42 | Now some of the other cool things
you can do with memory locations--if we
| | 04:45 | open the window back up.
| | 04:46 | Window > Memory Locations, is I have
set up in this session, some show/hide
| | 04:51 | memory locations.
| | 04:52 | For example, I have a Drums view, Bass,
Guitar, Organ, and I can actually use
| | 05:00 | those together with other memory
locations, so I can go to Verse 1 and see what
| | 05:07 | the lead vocal is doing.
(music playing)
| | 05:10 | How about the drums?
(music playing)
| | 05:14 | And I always make sure to create an
All Tracks view, so I can easily show all tracks.
| | 05:20 | So the idea is you can use these show/hide
memory locations in combination with
| | 05:27 | the marker points, you can also create
memory locations that are combination of
| | 05:31 | both the marker point, as well as show
and hide. But what I want to point out is
| | 05:36 | you don't have to have a marker or a
selection tied to a memory location.
| | 05:41 | You can simply just be a track view.
| | 05:43 | Now if you use a control surface with,
let's say, just 8 or 16 faders, the show
| | 05:49 | and hide memory locations are excellent
for quickly focusing to a specific bank of tracks.
| | 05:55 | Now another cool thing we can tie into
memory locations that can save us a lot
| | 05:59 | of time setting up our
session are Window Configurations.
| | 06:02 | If I go to Window > Configurations, in
this session I have set up three. I've got a
| | 06:07 | Default Layout, I've got a Mix Wide,
what that did is it widenend the Mix view and
| | 06:14 | showed me my tracks list, and I have
an Edit window. And that shows me my Edit
| | 06:19 | Window, and what's going on here is the
window configuration actually stores the
| | 06:23 | placement and the size of all my columns
in the Edit or Mix window and whether
| | 06:28 | or not I am showing specific sub or
floating windows, like the Transport, the
| | 06:34 | Big Counter, things like that.
| | 06:36 | Now to create a window configuration--
let's say I want to create a window
| | 06:39 | configuration that included the Big
Counter--you can open that up, and maybe I
| | 06:44 | wanted to get rid of these side columns.
So I am going to do that there, and I
| | 06:49 | am going to place that right there.
| | 06:50 | I can say Window > Configurations, and I
am going to do a New Configuration, and I
| | 06:57 | am going to store the window layout here.
| | 07:00 | Now if I include the Mix and the
Edit window, this is going to store the
| | 07:04 | layout of all the windows that are
open, so even if my Mix window is hiding
| | 07:08 | behind there, it's also going to
recall that setup. And this is actually
| | 07:12 | really effective if you have two or
three screen systems. A lot of times you
| | 07:16 | open a session from somewhere else and
it's not really optimized for your twin
| | 07:21 | or a triple-screen system, you can
actually import window configurations to
| | 07:25 | quickly align that session to the number
of screens you have and your screen's resolution.
| | 07:30 | For now I just want to do
the Edit window right here.
| | 07:33 | You can also just choose the Mix window,
and we will just call this Edit window.
| | 07:42 | And now that shows up in my list.
| | 07:44 | So I've got a second Edit window there.
So we will switch between those.
| | 07:47 | You can see I get rid of those columns there.
| | 07:50 | Window configurations can store even
the placement of plug-ins. So let's say
| | 07:55 | you are working on your vocal track and
you wanted to store a setting where you
| | 07:58 | are looking at your vocal track's EQ,
you can actually save that in the window configuration.
| | 08:03 | Now I can open all this up in the
Window Configurations list here, and I can
| | 08:08 | quickly click through just
like my memory locations on those.
| | 08:11 | Now the shortcut to recall a window
configuration is very similar to a memory location.
| | 08:16 | I hit Period, the number, but then I had
Asterisk so, .1* calls up default layout.
| | 08:22 | .2* brings up the Mix Wide view.
| | 08:26 | So using those key commands between
Window Configurations and Memory Locations--
| | 08:31 | and even tying your Memory Locations
to Window Configurations. So if you had
| | 08:36 | the Vocal view, you might want to tie
a window configuration that brought up
| | 08:41 | the EQ for that.
| | 08:42 | You can do that by attaching a window
configuration to your memory location.
| | 08:48 | You have a ton of flexibility in
regards to quickly navigating to really any
| | 08:52 | kind of view or location within your
session, no matter where you are.
| | 08:57 | And you can do most of this stuff right from
a key command without even having to open
| | 09:01 | up either of these windows.
| | 09:03 | Now this session is very organized, but
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not
| | 09:07 | Super OCD when it comes
to a session organization.
| | 09:10 | In other words, if I spend more time
trying to organize than actually getting the
| | 09:14 | mix done, I'm wasting time.
| | 09:16 | That said, it should only take you a few
minutes to quickly rough out a session
| | 09:20 | with key memory locations. I guarantee
it will be worth the effort, especially on
| | 09:24 | a mix that you may end up spending 20 hours on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing system resources during mixdown| 00:00 | Bottom line, when mixing in a DAW
like Pro Tools, the faster your computer the better.
| | 00:05 | In a non-DSP accelerated or native
environment, the Pro Tools mixer and plug-ins
| | 00:11 | pull all their resources
directly from the computer's processor.
| | 00:15 | So it stands to reason that the faster
your computer is, the more simultaneous
| | 00:19 | tracks and plug-ins you can run while mixing.
| | 00:21 | That's said, there's some optimizations
you can to make any Pro tool system to
| | 00:26 | improve the resources available while mixing.
| | 00:29 | Our first line of defense in
this is the Setup > Playback Engine.
| | 00:33 | Well, you might already know that the
hardware buffer size should be set low
| | 00:38 | when recording to reduce overall system latency.
| | 00:42 | Setting it higher when mixing gives
a system more time to process things like
| | 00:47 | plug-ins and higher track counts.
| | 00:49 | Now we don't really need a low
latency when we are mixing because we're not
| | 00:53 | actively holding an instrument in our
hands and recording to disk and hearing
| | 00:58 | the output back through our headphones.
| | 01:00 | So if there's an extra 20 milliseconds of buffer
time, we are not really going to notice
| | 01:05 | that just during the playback.
| | 01:06 | So again, when you're recording you
want to use lower settings, when you're
| | 01:11 | mixing you want to take advantage of
higher settings to get more out
| | 01:15 | of your computer's processor.
| | 01:16 | Now the second thing we can do here
is set up the number of host processors.
| | 01:21 | In a multicore machine--which almost all
machines these days are--you can set the
| | 01:26 | number of cores or processors
that you want Pro Tools to use.
| | 01:30 | Right now, I have it set up to
use one minus the total number of
| | 01:34 | processors available.
| | 01:35 | And I like to do this personally
because I like to leave at least one core for
| | 01:40 | the operating system or anything else
I have going on. Maybe I am running the
| | 01:43 | Internet, my email client.
| | 01:45 | Now if you are the kind of person
that's also running a rewire client, like
| | 01:49 | Ableton Live or Reason, you are
going to want to play with the host
| | 01:53 | processor settings to make sure you
leave a little bit of processor headroom
| | 01:57 | for those programs.
| | 01:58 | There has been situations where I have
choked out other programs by allowing
| | 02:02 | Pro Tools to use all of the resources.
| | 02:04 | So you can play with the Host
Processors and the CPU Usage Limit, which is
| | 02:08 | basically like a red line meter on a
car--which is if you get to that point of
| | 02:12 | using that core, that CPU,
it's going to throw back an error.
| | 02:16 | Now, I find that I have a lot of
success leaving it at a high setting like
| | 02:20 | 99, as long as I have an extra processor
left over for other tasks, but your
| | 02:25 | mileage may vary.
| | 02:27 | When you're using Pro Tools to record
audio, you want to make sure that you
| | 02:31 | don't have this button checked:
Ignore Errors During Playback and Record,
| | 02:35 | because you might actually get some
clicks or some pops from some dropped samples.
| | 02:39 | During playback, I find it's kind of a
mixed bag, so when I am mixing, I don't
| | 02:45 | necessarily find that it helps me
that much in a bigger session.
| | 02:47 | Sometimes I feel that it causes
more problems than not, but you can
| | 02:51 | experiment with that setting as
long as you're not recording--and that
| | 02:55 | includes bouncing your mix.
| | 02:56 | So one thing you might want to
consider here is if you're running a ton of
| | 03:00 | plug-ins and this is checked, and come
time to bounce your mix you can't actually
| | 03:05 | balance it without un-checking it,
you haven't left enough headroom to
| | 03:09 | successfully balance your mix--or
print your mix--without those errors.
| | 03:13 | So for me, I generally just leave it unchecked.
| | 03:17 | Now, we will talk about Delay Compensation
in another video. And the Plug-In
| | 03:21 | Streaming Buffer, well, if you're not
using the structure virtual instrument,
| | 03:25 | you don't really need to worry about that.
| | 03:27 | What that is, is a buffer specifically
for the structure sampler that comes
| | 03:31 | with Pro Tools.
| | 03:32 | And if you're mixing, you should
actually print your virtual instruments anyway,
| | 03:37 | so you generally wouldn't be running
the sampler while you are doing a mix.
| | 03:40 | However, this wouldn't affect any
of the other virtual instruments on your system.
| | 03:45 | So once I have set those up, I can go
to my Window > System Usage, and I can
| | 03:49 | really see how the current session I
have open is pulling from the system.
| | 03:54 | The CPU here is showing me we
what kind of draw my plug-ins are having
| | 04:00 | on my system, so my EQs,
my compressors, my reverbs.
| | 04:03 | And I could see it's kind
of hover around and never--
| | 04:05 | It's never really going to stick somewhere.
| | 04:08 | And when it gets up to around 90%, you
might start getting errors thrown back at you.
| | 04:13 | Now you may ever see the CPU (Clip) or
Disk move, and that's because you might
| | 04:18 | not be using elastic audio or clip based
gain. The CPU (Clip) would show you any
| | 04:24 | CPU processes being used up by elastic
audio that's not been rendered.
| | 04:29 | And in that regard, you generally want to
render any elastic audio that you're using
| | 04:33 | before the mix, so you
can free up those resources.
| | 04:36 | If you want to learn more about elastic
audio, check out my Pro Tools Projects:
| | 04:41 | Time Manipulation with Elastic Audio
in the Online Training Library.
| | 04:45 | Now, the Disk meter is going to show
you disk activity from your hard disk.
| | 04:50 | And again, depending on the size of your
session, it might not move that much.
| | 04:53 | It might only move when
you start and stop playback.
| | 04:56 | So that's going to really vary,
depending on the number of tracks you have.
| | 04:59 | So let's say you get enough to around 90%
on that CPU meter, and you find that
| | 05:05 | you're maxing out your system, short of
buying a new computer, what are some of
| | 05:09 | the things you can do to
free up those resources?
| | 05:11 | Well, you can start printing
instruments and printing plug-ins.
| | 05:16 | To print an instrument, or print a
whole track that has a bunch of plug-ins
| | 05:20 | running on it, you can actually click
on the track's output, choose to new track,
| | 05:25 | and choose to route it into a new audio track.
| | 05:28 | So I could label this Kick Print, and
then I can record enable that and I could
| | 05:34 | record through the output of
this track and all the plug-ins.
| | 05:38 | When I was done, I would be
listening to the Kick Print track and I could
| | 05:42 | actually take this track, I could
right-click on its name plate and Make it Inactive.
| | 05:47 | And what that does, it frees up any
resources that's taking up with any of its plug-ins.
| | 05:52 | I do this with all my virtual instruments
come mix down because I am done
| | 05:55 | arranging and now I want to start mixing.
| | 05:57 | So all the resources those are
taking up, I want to dedicate to mixing.
| | 06:02 | The other thing you can do is
you can use AudioSuite plug-ins.
| | 06:05 | AudioSuite are going to be rendered versions
of your plug-ins that you apply to clips.
| | 06:11 | This is an actual rendered process.
| | 06:13 | So it creates a new file on your hard drive.
| | 06:15 | To do this, you can simply select
the file you want to render and click
| | 06:19 | Render, and that's going to create a
new file in your clips list with the processing intact.
| | 06:25 | When that happens, what you can
actually do is go to whatever plug-in you
| | 06:29 | rendered, right-click, and make it inactive.
| | 06:32 | So that's not taking up any resources,
but if you right-click it again and make
| | 06:37 | it active, it's still going to come back
up with all the settings that you have.
| | 06:41 | When I'm doing a big mix, a lot of times
I'm getting to that 90% point, and my
| | 06:46 | session kind of gets a little
bit unstable and it might crash.
| | 06:49 | So in that case, I always want to
make sure that I have set up Preferences,
| | 06:53 | Operation, Auto Backup enabled.
| | 06:56 | So I want to Enable the
Session file Auto Backup.
| | 06:59 | I can keep up to 99 in the most recent
backups, and I can backup at an interval
| | 07:03 | of as low as 1 minute, so I am
literally keeping a backup every minute.
| | 07:08 | And where I would find those backups--
it's actually not saving your session
| | 07:11 | file itself. It's actually dumping
them to a folder inside your session file,
| | 07:17 | and that folder is found inside the
session file called Session File Backups.
| | 07:22 | And I can sort by date.
| | 07:24 | Because the number might not be a
good representation, because it might have
| | 07:28 | gotten to ten and then rolled back to
one. And so I want to sort by date, and that
| | 07:33 | allows me to pull the most recent
version in the case where my system crashed.
| | 07:38 | So ultimately, while a new computer
might not be in your budget right now,
| | 07:42 | effectively using these optimization
techniques should help you get the absolute
| | 07:46 | most of your current setup.
| | 07:48 | If you have to work in a modular way,
in print stems or virtual instruments, do it.
| | 07:53 | If you have to AudioSuite
from your plug-ins, do it.
| | 07:56 | Remember that the Beatles made some of
the most amazing recordings of all time
| | 08:00 | using 4-track technology.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Working with the Pro Tools MixerIntroducing the Pro Tools mixer| 00:00 | The Pro Tools mix window is where we
will spend most of the time during mixing
| | 00:04 | and acts as the core environment and
utility for combining all of the individual
| | 00:09 | audio tracks into a common output.
| | 00:11 | But what is a mixer?
And why do we need one anyway?
| | 00:14 | If we didn't have a mixer, we would
need a speaker for each unique track in our session.
| | 00:19 | The mixer acts to combine all of the
tracks or audio signals in our session
| | 00:24 | into a single output, for example,
a stereo left or right,
| | 00:27 | and sends that out to our interface
and eventually our speakers.
| | 00:33 | In the process, we also get basic level
and pan controls to decide how much of
| | 00:39 | the signal and where we want to add
the signal as it combines in the mix.
| | 00:44 | Historically, we can think of a tape
machine and a console. The tape machine
| | 00:48 | feeding the mixing console as the Pro
Tools Edit window feeding audio clips
| | 00:57 | into the mixer.
So, you can think of a track here,
| | 00:59 | feeding this audio clip as it plays
back off the hard drive down, funneling
| | 01:04 | through that track, inserts, sends,
finally to its output, after being told
| | 01:11 | what level to mix that.
| | 01:13 | The mixer serves as the environment
for adding signal processing and routing
| | 01:18 | tracks in our session.
| | 01:19 | And the cool thing about Pro Tools
is that the mixer is much like
| | 01:23 | an analog mixing console,
only it grows and shrinks
| | 01:25 | in response to the size
or track count of your session.
| | 01:30 | Each track in the session represents
what we call a channel strip, and each
| | 01:34 | channel strip contains a reoccurring
set of features per track.
| | 01:39 | What I have are 10 inserts and 10 sends.
| | 01:42 | These are each in groups of 5, and if I
go to View > Mix Window, I can show or hide
| | 01:49 | my second bank of inserts
or second bank of sends.
| | 01:53 | Now we will talk about what inserts are
and how we use them and what sends are
| | 01:57 | and how we use them in a future video.
But right now I just really want you to
| | 02:01 | understand the resources we have available
and how to show and hide those in the mixer.
| | 02:06 | You can get a breakaway view of any
track in the Pro Tools mixer simply by
| | 02:11 | clicking next to its output on the little
mini folder. And if I hold Shift, I can
| | 02:16 | open up more than one and lay those up.
| | 02:19 | These are basically just a representation
of what you see in a fixed mix window.
| | 02:25 | These will stay floating, however,
when you switch to the Edit window.
| | 02:28 | So these will be great when you're
doing things like automation, or you need to
| | 02:32 | be in the Edit window but
have that fader showing up.
| | 02:35 | The mixer is also going to provide us
with metering of each of our signals.
| | 02:39 | So you can see that the
mono tracks have a single meter;
| | 02:42 | the stereo tracks have a left and right meter.
| | 02:45 | And that shows us the dBFS--or decibels
full scale level--of each of our tracks
| | 02:51 | as they come off the hard drive
and travel through the mixer.
| | 02:54 | Now over to the next few videos. I
want you to take some time to familiarize
| | 02:59 | yourself with the Pro Tools
mixer and all of its resources.
| | 03:03 | Understanding the ins and outs of the
mix environment is the first step in
| | 03:07 | learning how to craft a great mix.
| | 03:09 | Also if you haven't already done so,
you might want to check out the
| | 03:13 | Pro Tools 10 Essential Training Title
in the online training library
| | 03:17 | for additional Pro Tools tutorials.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding mixer signal flow| 00:00 | The term signal flow refers to the path
an audio signal takes as it plays back
| | 00:05 | from the recording medium, in this
case the hard drive, through all of the
| | 00:09 | routing and signal processing
of the mixing environment.
| | 00:12 | If you've ever worked with an analog
mixing console, you'll be very comfortable
| | 00:17 | with the signal flow of the Pro Tools Mixer.
| | 00:19 | If not, don't worry, because it mimics
the design of most analog consoles.
| | 00:24 | The signal flow in Pro Tools is
actually fairly easy to understand.
| | 00:28 | If we trace the signal from disk to
output, we can imagine the signal as
| | 00:33 | traveling from a clip in the Edit window
into a channel strip where it passes
| | 00:39 | through our inserts and our sends
out into that channel's output.
| | 00:44 | Now we have the ability to control the
volume and the pane of that signal before
| | 00:49 | it's added to the rest of the tracks.
| | 00:52 | Now you'll notice that some of the
tracks in this session have no input, so
| | 00:55 | where's the signal coming from?
| | 00:57 | Well, once we've recorded audio to an
audio track in Pro Tools, we no longer
| | 01:02 | need to have any input set because
the input is assumed to be coming off the
| | 01:07 | clip from the Edit window.
| | 01:10 | Now you'll notice that some tracks,
specifically auxiliary tracks, have their
| | 01:15 | input set to something, and that's
because these are special types of tracks that
| | 01:19 | we don't record audio to
but only pass audio through.
| | 01:23 | So we'll be using them as sort of
smaller mixing summing points to add together
| | 01:29 | or signal route other sets of
tracks within the larger mix.
| | 01:33 | So sub-mixing, or using sends and returns
for effects relationships. And we'll go
| | 01:39 | over each of those in a unique video.
| | 01:42 | If I look at my inserts, we can see
that I have 10 inserts per channel,
| | 01:47 | View > Mix Window, I can show my
second set of inserts, and I have 10 sends,
| | 01:51 | View > Mix Window > Sends.
| | 01:54 | Now this is usually too much to see,
so I'll Option+click these to hide
| | 01:58 | those second banks there.
| | 01:59 | All inserts in Pro Tools are what are
known as pre-fader, that is to say that
| | 02:04 | the inserts or any of the plug-ins you
fill in the inserts will happen before
| | 02:09 | the fader--before any volume
change happens in the Mixer.
| | 02:14 | And later on we'll see that that can
be a good thing, but it can also be a bad
| | 02:18 | thing in some cases.
| | 02:19 | Inserts run in series, so
that order actually matters.
| | 02:24 | Now sends here, we have a bank of 10 per track.
| | 02:28 | Sends are a way to take the audio
signal from a track and route it to an
| | 02:32 | alternate destination in addition to the output.
| | 02:36 | Every track has an output, and that's telling
it where that track is going in the mix.
| | 02:40 | And eventually all our tracks
are going to make their way out to our
| | 02:44 | master output, or a left and right
or our one and two of our speakers.
| | 02:49 | Now they might take some extra routing
trips along the way to take advantage of
| | 02:54 | some cool signal routing tricks, but
eventually everything's going to make it
| | 02:57 | out to our master outputs all the way
at the right of the session and our mains,
| | 03:04 | and that's our one and two in this case.
| | 03:06 | Each channel has an independent level
and pan control that takes the level and
| | 03:12 | decides how much volume you're going
to add that signal when you place it in the mix.
| | 03:17 | The pan controls how much of one side
the left or how much of the right side
| | 03:21 | it's going to be added to the stereo output.
| | 03:24 | So if you want just on the left side
in the center or on the right side only.
| | 03:29 | Ultimately, understanding how signals
flow through the mixer in Pro Tools will
| | 03:34 | become very important when trying
to understand the more complex mixing
| | 03:38 | workflows outlined in this course.
| | 03:40 | So take some time to play with this
session and the mixer signal routing
| | 03:44 | capabilities and trace some of the
signal flows that I have going on and see if
| | 03:48 | you can track them down and play with
setting up some different signal flow
| | 03:52 | scenarios in your mixes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using inserts and plug-ins| 00:00 | Most mixing environments feature
some sort of channel insert capability,
| | 00:04 | allowing the engineer to insert a
signal processor or effect directly into the
| | 00:09 | path of an audio signal in the mixer.
| | 00:12 | In the analog days this physically
patching a signal processing device to the
| | 00:16 | mixer's console insert patch point--
usually connected to a patch bay--and running
| | 00:21 | any additional effects inserts in
series until returning the signal back to the
| | 00:26 | mixer's insert input.
| | 00:28 | In the DAW era and in Pro Tools, while
we can and do continue to use hardware
| | 00:33 | gear via hardware inserts, we generally
opt for the easier to manage and
| | 00:38 | configure plug-in insert, which are
often just virtual emulations of the
| | 00:43 | hardware processors mixers have used for years.
| | 00:46 | So what is a plug-in insert anyways?
| | 00:49 | The way I'd like to think of an insert
is the ability to affect a track before
| | 00:55 | it's added to the rest of the mix.
| | 00:57 | So if we think about an example like
baking, I might choose to sift the flour
| | 01:02 | before I add it to the eggs and the sugar.
| | 01:05 | Likewise, with a vocal, I might choose
to compress it and then EQ it before I
| | 01:11 | add it to the rest of the mix, because
after it's added and all of the tracks
| | 01:15 | are combined together, I'm not going to
be able to get the same kind of control
| | 01:19 | out of a single track as I would with an insert.
| | 01:23 | Most of the time we are using
inserts like EQs and compressors, but this
| | 01:27 | can also extend to more radical effects distortion,
modulation, chorus, flange, things like that.
| | 01:36 | Now inserts in Pro Tools run in
series, so the order actually matters.
| | 01:40 | So in the case of this vocal track, I
am using a de-esser which runs into a
| | 01:44 | Compressor and then into an EQ.
| | 01:48 | So the signal is actually
being processed in series.
| | 01:51 | So in the case of inserts,
this series may matter.
| | 01:55 | And we'll talk more about why you
would choose to use certain inserts before
| | 02:00 | others later in the course.
| | 02:03 | If I want to add an insert to a track,
I can simply click on a blank insert
| | 02:07 | patch point and choose a plug-in from my list.
| | 02:10 | I can see they're ordered here by type
EQ, Dynamics, Reverb, Delay, et cetera.
| | 02:16 | If I want to blow over an existing
one, I can click on the little dot on
| | 02:21 | the left-hand side.
| | 02:23 | Now if I want to remove a plug-in, I
can simply click and choose no insert.
| | 02:27 | And instead of removing it, I can
also bypass it, so I can right-click and
| | 02:32 | choose Bypass, which
temporarily makes it inactive.
| | 02:35 | So I'm not going to hear the effect,
but I can instantly turn it back on by
| | 02:39 | un-bypassing it. And if I want to
completely remove it from the processing
| | 02:44 | chain, I can make it inactive--right-
click, Make Inactive--and that actually
| | 02:48 | frees up system resources.
| | 02:50 | It's important to know the difference
between Bypass and Inactive because
| | 02:53 | bypass doesn't actually
free up any system resources.
| | 02:57 | So I am going to make that active
again by right-clicking and choosing Make Active.
| | 03:02 | You can copy and move plug-ins simply
by dragging them and dropping them to
| | 03:06 | new insert slots.
| | 03:08 | Now if you try to drag a stereo plug-in
to a mono track, you might get a message
| | 03:12 | that says, "Hey, you can't do that
because the number of channels doesn't match."
| | 03:17 | So just be aware of that.
| | 03:19 | You can also copy plug-ins by Option+Dragging
them on the Mac, or Alt+Dragging them
| | 03:23 | on Windows, so I just Alt+Drag that
to make a copy and the copies are going
| | 03:27 | to include all of the
settings within that plug-in.
| | 03:30 | So this is a really cool trick if
you've EQ'd one vocal and you recorded a
| | 03:35 | second vocal and you just Option+Drag,
or Alt+Drag in Windows, that over and you
| | 03:39 | have the same plug-in with the same settings.
| | 03:42 | Pro Tools uses a specific
type of plug-in insert.
| | 03:46 | These plug-in inserts can either be
built into Pro Tools and come with the
| | 03:51 | program, or they can be purchased as
third-party software add-ons that run
| | 03:55 | inside of Pro Tools.
| | 03:57 | Again, a plug-in is just a way of
describing an additional piece of software that
| | 04:01 | runs inside the DAW.
| | 04:03 | Now, Pro Tools supports a specific type
of plug-in format, and this is actually
| | 04:09 | changing with Pro Tools 10.
| | 04:12 | So before Pro Tools 10, Pro Tools
supported RTAS--stands for Real Time
| | 04:18 | AudioSuite and TDM or Time
Division Multiplexing plug-ins.
| | 04:24 | RTAS were native and ran on all Pro Tools
systems, while TDM only ran on the DSP
| | 04:29 | accelerated Pro Tools HD systems.
| | 04:32 | Now with Pro Tools 10, they've
introduced a new format called AAX.
| | 04:38 | With Pro Tools 11 and on, the RTAS and
TDM formats will be discontinued in favor
| | 04:44 | of continuing with AAX.
| | 04:47 | Why is this important?
| | 04:48 | Well, if you go to buy a plug-in, if
you're shopping for some plug-ins and you
| | 04:52 | look on the little specification part
of the box or on the web site, you want to
| | 04:57 | make sure that that plug-in supports
one of these formats depending on the
| | 05:01 | version of Pro Tools that you are running.
| | 05:03 | The good news is that most plug-ins do
support the RTAS or eventually the new
| | 05:09 | AAX plug-in format; however, some do not.
| | 05:12 | In that case, if the plug-in is
supported as a VST, you may look into using
| | 05:17 | what's called a VST to RTAS wrapper,
a company called FXpansion makes this.
| | 05:24 | In either case, just make sure you try
to understand these formats before you
| | 05:27 | purchase a new plug-in.
| | 05:29 | Within a specific software format, we
actually have plug-in formats inside of
| | 05:35 | Pro Tools in regards to
whether it's mono or stereo.
| | 05:39 | So if you have a mono track, we have
the option of doing mono-in/mono-out plug-ins
| | 05:45 | but you may see some plug-ins,
specifically likely reverbs, that take a
| | 05:49 | mono signal in but output a stereo signal.
| | 05:53 | So this is what's called a mono/stereo plug-in.
| | 05:57 | Now on a stereo track I have two options.
| | 05:59 | I can choose multichannel plug-in,
which is basically a left and a right-hand
| | 06:04 | side stereo process, where the left
and the right-hand side are linked.
| | 06:08 | That is, if I choose to EQ one side,
the other side is going to be
| | 06:14 | EQ'd identically.
| | 06:16 | Now, I can also choose that same
plug-in as a multi-mono plug-in.
| | 06:22 | Now in this case, it looks very much the same.
| | 06:25 | And actually, if you don't do
anything, it acts very much the same.
| | 06:28 | However, I can unlink the left and the
right-hand sides by clicking on the Link
| | 06:33 | option and choosing the Right side, so
I could actually have a separate EQ for
| | 06:38 | the left and the right-hand side.
| | 06:40 | The idea behind this is that this is
basically using two mono inserts that are
| | 06:46 | separate from each other.
| | 06:47 | It's a little bit like doing a stereo
process in the analog domain where you
| | 06:51 | had two analog mono EQs and you would
attach that to, let's say, a stereo drum overhead.
| | 06:58 | You could actually choose to add some
top in to the right-hand side where your
| | 07:02 | right symbol was, but let's say a
slightly different EQ to the left-hand side
| | 07:06 | where your snare was sitting.
| | 07:07 | So, when you see how your plug-ins
are organized in your plug-in list, it
| | 07:12 | generally starts by type, but you can
actually going into your Preferences and
| | 07:16 | organize them by manufacturer.
| | 07:18 | So if you go to the Display tab, you can
actually go in and organize plug-ins by
| | 07:25 | Category or Manufacturer or
both or just see a Flat List.
| | 07:29 | So depending on how many plug-ins you
have, you can play with these options.
| | 07:33 | We can also use what are called
hardware inserts in Pro Tools.
| | 07:37 | And a hardware insert requires that we have
an additional input/output pair on our interface.
| | 07:41 | That is to say, if we just have an
interface that just is a stereo output,
| | 07:46 | we don't have an additional set of
outputs to run out to analog or even
| | 07:51 | digital outboard gear.
| | 07:53 | How we can set up hardware inserts
is in Setup > I/O, under the Insert tab.
| | 08:00 | And since I am just using the
Macintosh soundcard as my Pro Tools output,
| | 08:05 | I don't have access to any inserts.
| | 08:07 | But if you're using an interface that,
let's say, had 8 ins 8 outs--or 16 ins or
| | 08:12 | 16 outs--you could actually tie into
Inserts 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 that would use the
| | 08:18 | input/output pair of your interface
to go out to analog processing gear or
| | 08:24 | additional digital processing gear in
a rack that you had. And the way that I
| | 08:29 | would work instead of choosing a plug-in,
you choose the I/O pair from the I/O > Insert menu.
| | 08:36 | So, in this course we are going to
talk about a variety of plug-in processors
| | 08:41 | and techniques for using them in your mixes.
| | 08:43 | For more info about choosing and
evaluating new plug-ins for your systems, be
| | 08:48 | sure to watch the tips for evaluating
plug-in processors video
| | 08:52 | in the Additional Topics chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with plug-in settings| 00:00 | In the past, engineers had to use
complex recall sheets to manually record
| | 00:05 | and recall the settings of
analog gear in their studio,
| | 00:08 | sometimes taking hours to recall a complex mix.
| | 00:12 | Fortunately, today all plug-ins in Pro Tools
support a built-in librarian system
| | 00:17 | for storing and recalling settings or presets.
| | 00:21 | These presets allow you to quickly
access a preset sound for that plug-in and a
| | 00:26 | great way of working across multiple sessions.
| | 00:29 | For example, the same EQ on
a singer across multiple songs.
| | 00:34 | So first off, many plug-ins come with
built-in settings or factory presets from
| | 00:39 | the manufacturer. These can act as
great starting points for using these
| | 00:43 | plug-ins in a mix.
| | 00:45 | All of the DigiRack plug-ins and the
air plug-ins come with quite a few presets
| | 00:50 | that you can experiment with in your mixes.
| | 00:53 | Now, where I find the real power of the
preset system comes in is when I store
| | 00:58 | my own presets, so I can access
them across any session on my system.
| | 01:04 | So, to save a user preset, I would
first configure the plug-in, how I wanted it
| | 01:10 | to sound, and I can choose from the word
Preset--there is a little menu here--
| | 01:15 | and I can choose Save Settings As.
| | 01:18 | Now what I can do is I can give this
a name, and that shows up in my Presets list here.
| | 01:26 | Now when you're saving presets, you
can choose to save them to one of two
| | 01:30 | places, you can save them with the
system, or you can save them just with that session.
| | 01:35 | So, for example, in the exercise session
Take Me Down, I've actually saved all
| | 01:41 | the Presets for all of the plug-in
settings in the Session Settings folder.
| | 01:46 | So that actually lives with the session
and travels with the session, regardless
| | 01:50 | of whatever computer it gets opened on.
| | 01:53 | You can tell your plug-ins to save to
the session folder by choosing
| | 01:57 | Preset menu > Settings Preferences > Save Plug-in
Settings To Session Folder, so your
| | 02:03 | choices are root settings folder which
would be systemwide--so you could access
| | 02:07 | that preset from any session--or session
folder, in which case you only be able to
| | 02:12 | access that preset from that specific session.
| | 02:15 | So, typically if you want to share
presets across sessions, you choose the Root
| | 02:20 | Settings Folder, and that is the default setting.
| | 02:24 | So, after you've already saved a
custom preset, if you want to modify it,
| | 02:28 | you'll notice that it will italicize the
preset name, and the Compare button comes on
| | 02:33 | allowing you to compare it to the
original preset and your changes. And you can
| | 02:37 | choose the Save Settings to update that preset.
| | 02:42 | Now if you saved all your settings
to the root folder--or saved all your
| | 02:45 | settings to the session folder--you
can actually manipulate these plug-in
| | 02:49 | settings files on your hard drive.
| | 02:52 | So if I travel to my session folder
here on the desktop, I can see that I have
| | 02:59 | a Plug-in Settings folder, and I can
actually go into that Air Kill EQ and I can
| | 03:05 | see the .TFX file that it's pulling from.
So I can actually see the High Hat EQ TFX file.
| | 03:14 | So, if I wanted to copy or move this
High Hat EQ TFX file to the root settings
| | 03:21 | folder, so that it showed up
under my Root Preset settings,
| | 03:26 | what I could do is I could actually
copy it, and I can move to my root
| | 03:33 | directory, Macintosh hard
drive Library > Application
| | 03:38 | Support > Digidesign > Plug-in Settings.
| | 03:42 | And I could actually find that Air
Kill EQ and I can paste that item.
| | 03:47 | And we can see there is that previous TFX
file that I saved in there, and now we
| | 03:51 | actually see that showing up there in
that root folder. And I could actually go
| | 03:56 | in here and delete these
just to clean up my mess.
| | 04:00 | One of the cool things about saving plug-
in presets is you can actually set them
| | 04:05 | up to be a user-assignable default
setting whenever the plug-in is inserted.
| | 04:10 | That is to say whenever you instantiate
that plug-in instead of calling up the
| | 04:15 | factory default, it's going to call up
your own unique preset. How this works is
| | 04:20 | I can go to the Preset menu > Settings
Preferences and choose Set Plug-in Default
| | 04:26 | To > User Setting, then I can call up any
one of my presets, and I can choose from
| | 04:33 | the Presets menu to Set As User Default.
| | 04:36 | Now if I ever insert this Kill EQ
anywhere else, it's going to call up this
| | 04:44 | Mids Only preset that I had set as my user
default. So that's a really cool trick
| | 04:49 | that I use quite often.
| | 04:50 | A lot of times you're going to get plug-
in settings that come with your plug-in,
| | 04:56 | and you're going to be tempted to use
those because they're labeled great
| | 05:00 | vocal or killer snare, and I like to
think of these as just great starting points
| | 05:06 | and a great way to showcase
what the special feature that plug-in is,
| | 05:11 | but I always want to remember that the
person designing the preset had no idea
| | 05:15 | what my track sounds like.
| | 05:17 | There is no way that they could know
what kind of guitar I have, how I miked it,
| | 05:22 | how I was feeling that day.
| | 05:24 | So, don't just assume a preset--
because it was made by a quote professional
| | 05:29 | somewhere in a lab--that it's going
to work for you 100% of the time.
| | 05:33 | So, don't be afraid to tweak that
or completely throw it away if it's
| | 05:37 | not working for you.
| | 05:39 | Ultimately, plug-in presets are a great
way to store and recall your personal
| | 05:43 | favorite ways of using specific
plug-ins across sessions and tracks.
| | 05:48 | So, try storing your own presets when
you come up with an interesting sound,
| | 05:52 | even if it might not be relevant to the
current project. You never know when
| | 05:55 | it might be useful.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using sends and creating effects returns| 00:00 | While inserts are great for applying
effects processors directly to a signal,
| | 00:05 | another method that engineers commonly
use to route effects is via a track's send
| | 00:10 | into a common effects return channel.
| | 00:13 | A send-return relationship allows a
mixer to share a single effect amongst
| | 00:18 | multiple tracks, and it's ideal for
time-based effects like reverb and delay.
| | 00:24 | So I've got a bunch of sends and
returns working in this session, and the best
| | 00:29 | way to get a feel for them is let's
listen to some, and then I'll show you how
| | 00:33 | to create one from scratch.
| | 00:34 | So if we roll over to the vocal track,
I can see that I'm feeding my vocal into
| | 00:40 | three sends, so I have the Chorus Send,
the Short Delay, and the Long Delay here.
| | 00:49 | Now I've labeled these buses.
| | 00:51 | If I look here, these are just bus
pathways that I've labeled Stereo bus
| | 00:55 | pathways, and I can trace them down to
aux tracks that I've created at the end
| | 01:02 | of my session, Chorus--which is listening
to the bus labeled Chorus. And on that
| | 01:08 | I have some effects.
| | 01:11 | Now, I can actually share that
effect across multiple tracks.
| | 01:15 | So what you'll see is that the background
vocals are also using the chorus bus
| | 01:19 | in getting some of that effect.
| | 01:21 | So let's take a listen to how that works.
| | 01:24 | I'm going to solo the vocal here, and
we're going to play with that chorus send level.
| | 01:29 | (music playing)
| | 01:50 | And how about the short delay?
| | 01:55 | (music playing)
| | 02:01 | And on the background levels.
| | 02:06 | (music playing)
| | 02:09 | So I'm actually sharing the same
effects across multiple tracks.
| | 02:14 | So let me show you how I'll
set something like this up.
| | 02:17 | What I can do is on one of my track's
ten available sends, I can take an output
| | 02:24 | to a bus, a bus that I'm not using.
| | 02:27 | So I'm going to go down here and
choose Bus 31-32, because I'm going to do
| | 02:33 | a stereo send and return.
| | 02:35 | And this is only half the equation.
| | 02:37 | What's happening now is I'm sending
some of the vocal in addition to what's
| | 02:40 | going out to the main mix bus. I'm also
sending some of the vocal out based on
| | 02:46 | this volume fader to Bus 31-32.
| | 02:49 | Now if I just stopped here, I
wouldn't ever be able to hear what was coming
| | 02:54 | in to Bus 31-32.
| | 02:56 | So it's critical that I
create what's called a Return.
| | 02:59 | And to do this, I'm going to create a
new stereo because I'll use a Stereo Bus
| | 03:06 | Aux Input track, and that's going to pop
up right here at the end of my session,
| | 03:13 | so I'm going to move that back
over right next to the vocal.
| | 03:17 | And on that track's input, I'm
going to choose the same bus path.
| | 03:22 | So we can see that some of the vocal
track via a send coming out 31 and 32 is
| | 03:28 | making its way into this aux track's input.
| | 03:31 | Remember, we said an aux track doesn't
actually record audio but allows audio to
| | 03:37 | pass through it, so we can do cool
routing, sub-mixing, and send and return
| | 03:42 | tricks when we're mixing.
| | 03:44 | Now at this point, if I just solo the
two tracks, all I'm going to hear is
| | 03:48 | additional level coming through.
| | 03:50 | (music playing)
| | 03:55 | That's interesting, but what I
really want to do is add an effect to the aux track.
| | 04:01 | And if I click here and I go ahead
and add something like a long delay, so
| | 04:06 | we can really hear that--and
typically I would mix this 100% wet on the
| | 04:12 | return track because the dry signal
is still going to filter through the
| | 04:15 | main output here.
| | 04:17 | The send is just making its way over to
this wet track, or effects track, that I'm
| | 04:23 | processing with this delay. Let's listen.
| | 04:25 | (music playing)
| | 04:37 | Now the amount that I send over that
Bus 31-32 is going to really control the
| | 04:44 | amount of wet/dry blend.
| | 04:46 | Right now, I have the send set up as post-fader.
| | 04:50 | What that means is this value is
directly affected by this value.
| | 04:54 | So if this is at unity, and I push this
up, what I'm getting is roughly a 50/50--
| | 05:00 | 50 dry to 50 wet--whereas
this is pulled down a bit.
| | 05:06 | I'm still going to maintain the
overall ratio of wet to dry when I change
| | 05:11 | this level in the mix.
| | 05:12 | However, if I set this as pre-fader by
clicking the PRE button here, again, I've
| | 05:17 | just opened up my send as a breakaway,
I can also view my send as View > Sends,
| | 05:24 | and I'm going to take a look at Send B
because that's what I'm using, I can see
| | 05:28 | a small fader version of this. And I
see a little P button as well as a little fader there.
| | 05:33 | Pre-fader says to ignore this fader's level
and output as if this fader didn't exist.
| | 05:41 | So in this case, I could use a pre-
fader send to do let's say a headphone mix
| | 05:45 | where I truly wanted an
independent level coming out the send.
| | 05:48 | So I could actually have this
track muted and still be sending...
| | 05:51 | (music playing)
...to that delay.
| | 05:54 | (music playing)
| | 05:57 | So in a pre-fader send, this level
is not in context of this level here.
| | 06:03 | Now that I have this set up, what I
can do is rename this Bus 31-32 by
| | 06:09 | right-clicking and choosing Rename.
So I'll name that 1/4 note delay.
| | 06:16 | And that gives me a visual
representation of the routing. So I'm not just kind
| | 06:20 | of tying down buses or
tracking down buses all over my mix.
| | 06:24 | I actually know where it's going.
| | 06:26 | Now I could go ahead and apply this
quarter note delay to something else.
| | 06:29 | I could actually go over to the other
side of my mix, and if I really wanted to,
| | 06:36 | I could apply it to my snare by
choosing as output bus 1/4 note delay.
| | 06:43 | (music playing)
| | 06:52 | So in this case, I'm actually sharing
that same delay effect across two tracks,
| | 06:57 | and I could add this same send
to every track in my session.
| | 07:01 | So if you look around the demo session
here, you'll see that I'm sharing all
| | 07:08 | the effects towards the right-hand
side of the mix, all these aux tracks are
| | 07:12 | all effects returns.
| | 07:14 | And you can look at their input and
get a sense of what they're doing--
| | 07:18 | Big Plate, Chorus, and Flanger--and you
can see all the places in the mix that
| | 07:22 | I'm sharing these.
| | 07:24 | And what that does is it allows me to have
multiple tracks sharing the same space,
| | 07:29 | so I kind of get a vibe.
| | 07:30 | I'm also able to process things in
parallel, so you'll see that a lot of times
| | 07:35 | I'm processing the send with multiple plug-ins.
| | 07:38 | So in the case of just using a wet
and dry blend of a reverb or delay as an
| | 07:43 | insert on the track, I wouldn't be
able to EQ and add Flanger to the delay
| | 07:49 | if it was all in line without
actually adding EQ and Flanger to the vocal track itself.
| | 07:56 | So Send/Returns actually allow for
parallel processing chains that are more
| | 08:00 | complex than you can achieve with just inserts.
| | 08:03 | They also save on processing power
because reverbs and delays can take up a lot
| | 08:08 | of CPU on your computer.
| | 08:10 | And so by sharing them amongst
multiple tracks, I can just have a single
| | 08:15 | instance instead of having
20 reverbs on 20 vocal tracks.
| | 08:19 | And this actually makes a lot of sense
because historically a studio would have
| | 08:23 | a single echo chamber or a single
spring reverb or plate reverb unit, and you'd
| | 08:28 | have to have a way of feeding all the
tracks into that because they were really
| | 08:32 | expensive--in the case of an echo
chamber--the physical space that you had to
| | 08:37 | have to feed signals into.
| | 08:38 | So we had to use something like a send
and return relationship to share that.
| | 08:43 | Pro Tools offers up to 256 buses, and
they can be either mono or stereo.
| | 08:49 | You can actually create mono sends or stereo sends.
| | 08:52 | So using sends and returns is an
extremely common routing task in mixing and
| | 08:57 | critical to becoming a strong mixer,
as it provides signal processing chains
| | 09:02 | not possible with inserts alone.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Submixing with aux tracks| 00:00 | Like sends and returns, creating
submixes is a fairly common signal flow concept
| | 00:05 | in the mixing world, and one
you should be familiar with.
| | 00:08 | Submixes allow us to route a group
of tracks into a single channel strip,
| | 00:13 | making group processing possible and
simplifying track management and level
| | 00:18 | balancing over big mixes.
| | 00:20 | So, let's take a look at the drums in
this session. And we can see that the Kick
| | 00:26 | and the Sub Kick are being routed to a mono bus.
| | 00:29 | Remember, a bus is an internal signal
routing pathway inside of Pro Tools that
| | 00:35 | allows us to route tracks from one to
another without exiting the system or
| | 00:39 | going out to our speakers or interface.
| | 00:42 | So, I'm going to the Kick Bus, and then
I have a mono aux track that's welcoming
| | 00:47 | the two signals--the Kick and the
Sub Kick--in on that same Kick Bus.
| | 00:51 | So, what I can see here if I solo
this track, is I'm combining these two
| | 00:58 | signals to a single track. And on that
single track I have a common volume
| | 01:02 | control as well as common inserts and sends.
| | 01:08 | So, I'm actually EQ'ing the
two kicks together as a submix.
| | 01:14 | And this is more powerful than just
being able to EQ the kicks on their own,
| | 01:18 | which I've actually done here, and we'll
talk about that a little bit more later.
| | 01:22 | The bottom line is that I'm using a bus--
or an internal routing pathway--to submix
| | 01:28 | common groups of tracks over to a
single auxiliary track, and I've done this
| | 01:32 | again with the entire drum bus.
| | 01:34 | So, I've taken all the drums who are
going to the Stereo > bus > Drum Bus,
| | 01:39 | and they're being welcomed in here
over on the Drum Submix as well as the
| | 01:44 | Drum Squash Bus.
| | 01:45 | So we can listen to those
and control them as a group. Group processing.
| | 02:07 | So, how about I do something
like this from scratch?
| | 02:10 | Well, what I could do it is let's say
these two kicks were just going to set
| | 02:14 | them back to the main output, and
we'll pretend this never existed.
| | 02:18 | So, I'll take this bus that I created.
| | 02:20 | We're going to go ahead and delete that.
| | 02:22 | Now, what I want to do is I want to
take these two kick tracks and I want to
| | 02:27 | submix them into an aux track.
| | 02:29 | So, the first thing I do is create a New--
Mono in this case--because I want to
| | 02:35 | do a mono submix, Aux Input. And that
shot all the way down to the end of my
| | 02:41 | session, so I'm just going to drag
that back over next to these two Kicks.
| | 02:45 | And I can see there's no input on
this aux track, and I've got my two Kicks
| | 02:49 | set to the Main output.
| | 02:50 | So, I'm going to go in and choose a
bus, let's say I can choose Bus 33--one
| | 02:54 | that I'm not already using. And then I
would choose that same input bus on the Aux track.
| | 03:02 | So, it's going out Bus 33, summing
together into this single Aux track.
| | 03:08 | The Aux track is critical because it
accepts both of the signals and then adds
| | 03:13 | them to the rest of the mix.
| | 03:15 | It also serves as a point that I can
add inserts like EQ and compression to.
| | 03:19 | There's a quick way of doing this,
if you're using Pro Tools 9 and later.
| | 03:25 | What you can actually do is if you
select two or more tracks and you hold
| | 03:31 | down Option+Shift on the Mac, or Alt+Shift
on Windows, and you click on the output
| | 03:37 | and choose New Track, you
can actually name this submix.
| | 03:42 | So, we'll call this Kicks, and
we'll choose an Aux track here,
| | 03:46 | and it automatically does all
the routing and labeling for me.
| | 03:50 | So it took the Kick and the Sub Kick
and dropped that into Aux 2.
| | 03:55 | So that's a quick little trick that
you can do, and it also labels the buses
| | 03:58 | for you if you want to.
| | 04:00 | Again, it really requires that you
understand the due to selected command.
| | 04:04 | I had to select these two tracks
first by holding Shift and then hold
| | 04:09 | Option+Shift before clicking on the
new track option of the track's output.
| | 04:16 | Again, why we do something like this
is it allows us to do group processing,
| | 04:21 | it can save on DSP, and it can also give
us an entirely different sound that we
| | 04:25 | couldn't get using inserts on individual tracks.
| | 04:28 | It also simplifies mixing tasks like automation.
| | 04:31 | So, I'm controlling one track's
volume instead of ten tracks' volume.
| | 04:35 | I can also use this technique to bounce
groups of tracks down to an audio track.
| | 04:38 | So, instead of using an aux track, I
could use an audio track and I can record
| | 04:42 | through to that audio track.
| | 04:44 | When we create these setups, I generally
want to solo safe the submix by Command
| | 04:50 | on the Mac or Ctrl+Clicking on the
Solo button, and that goes out.
| | 04:55 | What that does is it allows me to solo
other tracks that are part of the submix
| | 05:00 | and not have to solo the return track
or the aux track. Otherwise, you'd have to
| | 05:05 | come and click on the Solo button there.
| | 05:06 | Because that track is only listening
to stuff, I don't need it to be in the
| | 05:11 | solo mute calculation
whenever I click on a Solo button.
| | 05:15 | And so anytime you have an aux return
that's acting as an effects return or a
| | 05:19 | submix, you generally want what's
called solo safe or solo defeat that by
| | 05:23 | Command or Ctrl+Clicking on Windows
on that track. And so that way, I don't
| | 05:28 | have to solo that track.
| | 05:33 | Anytime I solo any part of that submix.
| | 05:38 | So, submixing can really open up a
whole new world of processing to your
| | 05:43 | mixing palette and really simplify
large sessions and make complex mixes
| | 05:47 | easier to manage and control.
| | 05:49 | Now that you've learned about sends
and submixing, go ahead and take some
| | 05:53 | time to familiarize yourself with the
way the buses and submixes are working
| | 05:58 | inside the example session and try
out some of these techniques
| | 06:02 | in managing your sessions.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using groups while mixing| 00:00 | The Pro Tools track grouping feature
allows you to easily control many tracks
| | 00:05 | with a single mouse move.
| | 00:07 | Take a look at this Drum group. Notice
that because the group is active, moving
| | 00:12 | one fader moves all of the drum
tracks faders. As well as in the Edit window,
| | 00:17 | making a selection across one of the
drum tracks selects all of the drum tracks.
| | 00:23 | Unlike sub-mixing, Mix and Edit groups
are used to tie tracks together at the
| | 00:28 | software level but not the signal level.
| | 00:31 | In Pro Tools, when a set of tracks
are grouped and that group is enabled
| | 00:36 | from the Groups list,
moving one fader causes
| | 00:39 | all the faders of that group
to move, but the signals
| | 00:43 | are not physically summed
together as in a submix.
| | 00:47 | To create a group in Pro Tools, all you
have to do is select the tracks you want
| | 00:52 | to add to that group. So I can select
across a range by Shift+clicking or select
| | 00:57 | incrementally by holding down
Command on the Mac or Ctrl on the PC.
| | 01:03 | So let's say I was going to
recreate that Drum group there.
| | 01:08 | Now all I need to do once they're
selected is choose Track > Group or Command+G,
| | 01:14 | or Ctrl+G in Windows, and I can give that
group a name, and that's the name that
| | 01:20 | will show up with in the Groups
list on your lower left-hand side.
| | 01:25 | And it also gets assigned a letter.
| | 01:28 | You actually have 104 total groups; it's
four lettered banks of A through Z.
| | 01:36 | Now I can name this Drums 2 since I
already have a Drum group, and I can choose
| | 01:41 | whether I wanted to be a group in the
Edit window only, the Mix window only,
| | 01:46 | or both the Edit and Mix window.
| | 01:49 | And I have some level of control
over what is linked or not linked in that group.
| | 01:53 | For example, our Solos linked
or our Mutes linked.
| | 01:56 | And if you have Pro Tools HD or
Complete Production toolkit, you have even
| | 02:00 | more options here.
| | 02:01 | So I can see these are the members
that are going to be put into that group
| | 02:04 | and click OK.
| | 02:05 | Now I see that shows up
down here called Drums 2.
| | 02:08 | So I'm going to go ahead and click on
each one of these groups to turn them off.
| | 02:16 | And the cool thing about groups is
when they're inactive or turned off, it's
| | 02:20 | like they didn't exist at all.
| | 02:22 | So if I turn this Drums group off, I can
move to the Mix window, and I can control
| | 02:27 | the individual levels of the drum tracks.
| | 02:30 | As soon as I turn that on, now I
control all of them, but you can see that they
| | 02:35 | maintain their relative relationship.
| | 02:37 | So this is really cool when I'm doing
automation and I don't have a control
| | 02:42 | surface and I want to be able to move
more than one fader with the mouse.
| | 02:46 | A group can really save the day.
| | 02:48 | Also in editing, I can take
advantage of groups when I'm working with
| | 02:52 | phase coherent tracks, like this
drum kit, where I need to edit all
| | 02:56 | the mikes simultaneously.
| | 02:59 | You can enable or disable the group
simply by clicking on it, or in the Mix
| | 03:02 | window you can actually use the letter
of the first 26 groups on your keyboard
| | 03:07 | to activate and deactivate that group.
| | 03:10 | So I'll hit J, turn that on and
off, B, E for the B3 there, et cetera.
| | 03:16 | Now you also have a special group
called the All group. The All group is in
| | 03:21 | every session you create. You can't
get rid of it, and it's basically all the
| | 03:24 | tracks tied together.
| | 03:25 | So if you use in the Mix window, all the
tracks are going to be gained together,
| | 03:30 | and in the Edit window all
the tracks are tied together.
| | 03:34 | Now this can be really cool for editing;
however, I find if I have a complex mix
| | 03:38 | setup in terms of sub-mixing--
got some master faders,
| | 03:43 | got some sends and returns
set at unity--
| | 03:46 | the All group really doesn't work for me,
because what I will get is a double dip.
| | 03:49 | Where I might pull down the Drum tracks,
I'm also pulling down the drum sub-mix,
| | 03:53 | so I'm kind of getting a
multiplier effect with the All group.
| | 03:58 | If I need some sort of All group, and
I have a lot of submixes going on, I'll
| | 04:02 | actually create my own special All group
where I'll select all the tracks except
| | 04:06 | for my submixes and effects returns
and master faders, and I'll create my own
| | 04:12 | All group out of those and use that.
| | 04:14 | Now groups can be nested, so you can have
a group within a group. And the size
| | 04:21 | and the order that you've created it in
are going to determine the priority.
| | 04:25 | For example, I can group these two
Kick tracks, and I can group my two Snare
| | 04:30 | tracks top bottom, but then they can
belong to the larger group of drum.
| | 04:35 | So I can actually turn my Drum group
off but enable my Snare group--turn that
| | 04:40 | All group off there. And now I'm just
controlling the Snare level as soon as
| | 04:45 | that Drum group gets turned on, which is
the larger group we can see that that's
| | 04:49 | the one that takes priority there.
| | 04:51 | If you want to get rid of a group,
you can right-click and choose Delete.
| | 04:55 | Deleting the group does not delete the tracks.
| | 04:58 | You can also choose to modify that
group to add or subtract members, so if you
| | 05:02 | add a track later and you want add it
to the group, just double-click on it on
| | 05:05 | the left-hand side and click OK.
| | 05:07 | Now remember, groups are not submixes,
nor do they affect the track's signals in
| | 05:13 | any way, but they're a great way of
simplifying the process of working with
| | 05:17 | multiple tracks simultaneously and
generally play an important role in creating
| | 05:22 | a clean and efficient session.
| | 05:24 | So take some time to explore some of the
groups I've created in the Take Me Down session
| | 05:28 | and explore using groups
in your own sessions.
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| Using master faders effectively| 00:00 | By far, one of the least understood
aspects of the Pro Tools mixer is the
| | 00:04 | Master Fader track.
| | 00:06 | Many just assume it's a master volume
control. Although it does affect the final level
| | 00:11 | of a summing point or output pair,
understanding this track's function is
| | 00:14 | critical in creating a mix that does not
clip your converters, while at the same
| | 00:18 | time uses as much of the 24-bit
output resolution as possible.
| | 00:23 | The easiest way to take advantage of
a Master Fader in your mix is create a
| | 00:28 | stereo master fader. I put mine at
the side here. And point its output to
| | 00:32 | your master bus.
| | 00:33 | In this case, I'm sub-mixing
everything to mix bus here.
| | 00:37 | If you weren't doing a sub-mix to an aux
track or an audio track, you could just
| | 00:41 | set the master fader to the default
output one and two, and what that's going to
| | 00:45 | give you, it's going to give
you a master output control.
| | 00:48 | So that instead of having to adjust
individual levels in your mix if all the
| | 00:52 | tracks are adding together to
something that exceeds 24-bit or exceeds the
| | 00:57 | 0dBFS clipping point.
| | 00:59 | Instead of pulling down individual tracks,
you can just pull down the master fader.
| | 01:04 | And the reason that this works
is because Pro Tools is collecting all
| | 01:08 | the 24-bit tracks into a larger 64-bit mix
bus, so it's retaining all that information.
| | 01:16 | So if you turn a track up really loud
or pull a track down really soft, you are
| | 01:21 | not actually truncating any of the
bits. It's all gathering into this much
| | 01:25 | larger 64-bit bucket.
| | 01:28 | Then at the end of the mix, our master
fader allows us to tap into that 64-bit
| | 01:34 | mix resolution and choose exactly which
24 bits we want to exit the mix with to
| | 01:39 | our converters, because no matter how
many bits are semi-mixer as in Pro Tools,
| | 01:45 | we still have to deal with the fact
that our output converters--our D/A--
| | 01:50 | are 24-bit, and we don't want to clip those.
| | 01:53 | So the easiest way to use a master
fader is simply go to the loudest part
| | 01:58 | of your session.
| | 01:59 | So, I'm going to my memory locations
here, and I'm going to bring up the last
| | 02:05 | chorus. That's probably going to be
where it gets the loudest in the song, and
| | 02:09 | I'm going to go ahead and turn
these plug-ins off so that they're not
| | 02:13 | influencing my decision. And I'm going
to turn the automation off on this track too.
| | 02:16 | And I'm going to play back this session.
I'm going to adjust the master fader
| | 02:20 | so that my final output is not clipping.
| | 02:22 | (music playing)
| | 02:36 | And I'm going to just click on
the red lights to clear those out.
| | 02:40 | I can also use Option+C, or Alt+
C on Windows, to clear the clips.
| | 02:49 | And what I'm looking for is I'm looking
for a level that at no point in the song
| | 02:53 | is the addition of all of the
signal and all of the tracks adding up to
| | 02:57 | something that exceeds my
converter's 24-bit limit.
| | 03:02 | And the reason I'm not losing resolution
here by doing this is that Pro Tools is
| | 03:06 | actually gathering all the
signals into this larger 64-bit bucket.
| | 03:11 | This is much different than an analog
mixer would treat this kind of situation.
| | 03:16 | Typically, analog mixers will be very
wary of the master fader, because what
| | 03:21 | they're actually doing is they're
bringing down the summed output.
| | 03:25 | So if any individual channels had
clipped or had distortion in them, what they
| | 03:29 | are just bringing down is something
that already distorted. Whereas in Pro Tools,
| | 03:33 | you're actually tapping into
that larger 64-bit mix bus and cherry
| | 03:39 | picking the perfect 24-bits of your mix.
| | 03:42 | And so it's allowing us to throw away
the quieter bits while not clipping
| | 03:45 | the louder bits.
| | 03:46 | Now the quieter bits can be thrown away,
because they're going to be buried in
| | 03:50 | the thermal noise of the converter
anyways, whereas the louder bits, we don't
| | 03:53 | want those to clip our D/A, because
we'll audibly hear those as little square
| | 03:58 | waves, nasty digital distortion.
| | 04:01 | Now the other thing we're going to
use master faders for in Pro Tools is
| | 04:04 | Master Bus Processing.
| | 04:05 | You see, the master fader has post
fader inserts here that allow us to insert
| | 04:10 | up to 10 plug-ins across our entire
mix bus. So these plug-ins are going to
| | 04:15 | affect the entire mix, and that's
where I'm going to insert any of my
| | 04:19 | mastering style plug-ins like my
Brickwall Limiters and master EQ,
| | 04:24 | stereo wideners, and things like that.
| | 04:26 | These inserts are post fader, unlike
track inserts which are pre-fader. So if we
| | 04:32 | want to follow the signal chain, we
have the fader of the master, we have
| | 04:37 | inserts, and then we have our output
meter, so the inserts are actually
| | 04:41 | sandwiched between this
fader and the output meter.
| | 04:44 | So we could actually drive these
inserts by turning this up or turning it down.
| | 04:50 | And that's important to recognize
when you're using things like
| | 04:53 | Brickwall limiters and compressors
on your master fader.
| | 04:56 | Now we'll talk a little bit more
about using limiters and compressors on
| | 05:00 | the master bus in a later video,
but I just want you to understand that
| | 05:03 | master faders can also be used to
add plug-ins to an entire set of tracks
| | 05:08 | or your entire mix.
| | 05:11 | Ultimately, there's a lot more to
this 64-bit mix bus thing, and not all
| | 05:16 | Pro Tools systems feature
a floating-point mix bus.
| | 05:19 | For example, the Legacy Pro Tools TDM
systems feature a 48-bit fixed point
| | 05:24 | mixer, and I highly encourage you to
read the whitepapers on Avid's web site.
| | 05:29 | One is called Mixing In The Box, and the
other is called the 48-bit Mixer.
| | 05:34 | I've also written an easy to digest
two-part article that you can find on my
| | 05:38 | blog called Master Faders Demystified.
| | 05:41 | So, while it might seem difficult to
wrap your head around at first,
| | 05:44 | using master faders effectively will allow
you to create clean unclipped mixes in the
| | 05:49 | Pro Tools mixer and will serve as the
final processing point for mix bus and
| | 05:53 | mastering effects when finishing your mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Mixing Tools and StrategiesConceptualizing the mix and making a plan| 00:00 | Going into a mix with a solid plan--
or at least a general direction--is a
| | 00:05 | great way to keep on task and prevent
yourself from getting lost in the sea of minutia.
| | 00:10 | Let's face it, mixing can be a highly technical
detail-oriented task, but don't forget that
| | 00:16 | it's also very subjective, and
your opinion or taste matters.
| | 00:21 | And I would argue that it's what
ultimately makes or breaks the end result.
| | 00:25 | Shaping the sounds of individual tracks,
scrutinizing every note in sound, it is
| | 00:30 | easy to lose sight of our core goal,
creating an interesting and compelling mix
| | 00:35 | that complements the song's message,
ultimately serving the song and the vocal
| | 00:41 | and delivering that idea
to the listener effectively.
| | 00:44 | A great mix can take a great song to the
next level, while a bad mix can heavily
| | 00:48 | mask that genius and be a real
turnoff for the listener.
| | 00:52 | Here are a few things that I
consider when I begin to mix.
| | 00:56 | I start by thinking about what's
going on with the arrangement. What's the vocal saying?
| | 01:01 | Do I anticipate any problems that
may exist outside the realm of strictly
| | 01:05 | mixing or sonics?
| | 01:07 | For example, is the vocal out of tune?
Are the drums out of time?
| | 01:11 | Are any of the instruments recorded poorly?
| | 01:15 | If you produced or arranged the track,
it's likely that the mix has already taken
| | 01:19 | on a direction in the production stage.
| | 01:21 | So think about extending this idea
into the mix. And if you didn't produce or
| | 01:28 | arrange it, you want to discuss with the
producer the direction he or she thinks
| | 01:32 | the tune is moving in.
| | 01:34 | I like to start by getting
emotionally invested in the song, so I can get
| | 01:37 | really hyped up and take
the song to the next level.
| | 01:41 | Now I also want to take consideration
of any genre norms or the listening group
| | 01:46 | I am trying to focus on for this mix.
| | 01:49 | Is anything typical in this genre?
| | 01:51 | Do I know this genre well?
| | 01:53 | For example, does it have a lot of bass?
A little bass? Is it very bright, dark?
| | 01:59 | Lots of reverb? Very dry?
| | 02:02 | If it's not my song, what kind
of mixes does the producer like?
| | 02:06 | I am going to take this all into account
when I am building the master plan in my head.
| | 02:11 | To do this, I will often bring in some
reference tracks in a similar genre or
| | 02:16 | something that the producer has asked
me to listen to, and I'll listen to those
| | 02:19 | right side by side with my mix,
referencing that as I make a plan.
| | 02:24 | I also think about who is
going to be listening to this mix.
| | 02:28 | Is it something that's going to be
posted to YouTube and Facebook?
| | 02:31 | Or is it something that I want to
attract audiophiles with?
| | 02:35 | This can affect my decisions on
monitoring overall loudness, style,
| | 02:40 | and shape of the mix.
| | 02:42 | I generally start by listening to the
tracks as they sit when I get them.
| | 02:47 | Some mixers like to set all the faders
to zero and just kind of start listening
| | 02:52 | to the song as it is.
| | 02:53 | I personally like to listen to it
with the mix from the production stage,
| | 02:57 | because this tells me a lot about
what the producer or artist thought was important.
| | 03:02 | And if I produce the song, well, I
have already kind of got a mix going on.
| | 03:07 | As I am listening to this mix, I start
thinking about stylistic adjectives, like
| | 03:12 | do I want it to be shiny, dark, deep,
intimate, big, or small?
| | 03:18 | And I try to imagine the finished
mix in my mind's ear.
| | 03:21 | I am going to use these adjectives as an
overall guide while making more focused
| | 03:27 | mixing decisions so I can always keep
my eye on the ultimate prize, rather than
| | 03:32 | getting lost in the details.
| | 03:34 | I then try to decide what elements
will be the focal point of the mix.
| | 03:39 | What elements are active foreground
elements, or lead characters?
| | 03:42 | And what are going to be the background or
supporting elements of the mix?
| | 03:47 | I think about how I am going to
highlight these focal elements--and usually it's
| | 03:52 | the lead vocal or a lead instrument--
and complement those focal elements with
| | 03:57 | background or secondary elements.
| | 03:59 | I am going to continuously ask myself, is
any decision I am making get any closer
| | 04:04 | to my overall goal? And I'm always
remembering that mixing is only half
| | 04:10 | technique; the aesthetic and
artistic direction is the other half.
| | 04:14 | So I always try not to ignore that, and
I'll try to write down any notes I have
| | 04:18 | so that I can keep on task.
| | 04:20 | One way I like to think of my mixes
is a lot like a movie treatment, and I'm the director.
| | 04:26 | So I am going to think about who my cast
of characters are and how I am going to
| | 04:30 | costume them and light them
to best present the story.
| | 04:35 | A director isn't normally writing the
movie, and they are not normally casting
| | 04:39 | the characters, but they have to kind
of take these elements and make them
| | 04:43 | all work together.
| | 04:45 | So, is your mix a sci-fi movie that's going
to need a lot of tricks and special effects?
| | 04:48 | Or is it more of a dialog-based
drama where you just kind of want to
| | 04:53 | mix it clean and let the song
and arrangement speak for itself?
| | 04:58 | Now as I do this, I try not to get mired
in all the details, and I like to mix at
| | 05:03 | a moderate, not fast pace.
| | 05:06 | I don't want to get overly infatuated
with any one element of the mix.
| | 05:10 | Remember, the listener probably doesn't
care about how the snare drum sounds if
| | 05:14 | the song is delivered effectively
and the entire mix is interesting.
| | 05:18 | Now if I don't have any ideas of where I
want to start, what I will do is I will
| | 05:23 | start by organizing the session,
labeling things, moving tracks around, routing,
| | 05:28 | pushing faders around. And this is going
to get my brain thinking about mixing,
| | 05:33 | and the ideas always
start flowing at that point.
| | 05:36 | When in doubt, I'll start by
emulating a reference track.
| | 05:39 | I will identify the key sounds that make
that mix happen and work towards those.
| | 05:46 | You might not know how to get a sound
at first, but at least you have a goal to
| | 05:50 | work towards in your mind.
| | 05:53 | Above all, have fun and be creative.
| | 05:55 | Remember, there is no right way, no
best mix, so try every idea, because you
| | 06:01 | never know if that might work.
| | 06:03 | Just remember that the mix is not the
end all be all of the song. And while it
| | 06:07 | can heavily influence a listener's
perception, sometimes keeping it simple
| | 06:12 | and clean is the best solution,
allowing the song to speak for itself.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting volume and pan to balance the mix| 00:00 | While mixing may seem to be all about
the tricks and techniques of esoteric
| | 00:04 | signal processors and plug-in magic,
the mixer itself is actually the core tool
| | 00:10 | we will use to shape the mix
from start to finish.
| | 00:13 | Using the basic level and pan
facilities provided on each track, the mixer
| | 00:18 | is where we set the relative
balance between each mix element.
| | 00:21 | This balance will serve as the first
step towards defining the focal point and
| | 00:26 | overall sonic goals outlined in your mix plan.
| | 00:30 | Getting initial levels of a mix, I
don't really have one specific way that I
| | 00:35 | always do this, and in today's modern
production environment it's safe to say
| | 00:40 | that you're generally starting
with some sort of scratch mix
| | 00:44 | from the production stage.
| | 00:45 | So unlike traditional analog tape-based
workflows--where it's fairly common to
| | 00:51 | load up the 2-inch, bring into the
console with everything at unity, and have to
| | 00:55 | start pushing levels around
and kind of finding the mix--
| | 00:59 | 99% of all the mixes that I do these days
already have some sort of scratch mix going on.
| | 01:05 | So the levels and the pan are
already set with some basic ideas.
| | 01:11 | And I personally like to use this as a guide
because it tell me a lot about what the
| | 01:16 | producer or songwriter felt was
important in the mix, and I can kind of take
| | 01:21 | this and run with it.
| | 01:22 | Now if you're the kind of person that
wants to reset all their faders to unity
| | 01:27 | and really listen to the mix from a
fresh perspective, it's totally fine.
| | 01:31 | Ultimately, you want to do what works for you.
| | 01:34 | Now, I generally start working with
basic levels and pan first, adding a few
| | 01:40 | insert effects as I move through the
tracks, but when I first start a mix,
| | 01:44 | I'm not totally scrutinizing the effects.
| | 01:47 | A lot of times I'll have
effects from the production stage.
| | 01:50 | I might be evaluating them, taking
some of them off, changing them, but I'll
| | 01:54 | generally make sure that my levels of
everything are correct until I start
| | 01:59 | really piling on the effects.
| | 02:01 | Now, some people like to work in order
on a mix, and in this case I've organized
| | 02:06 | the mix left or right starting with
drums, bass, guitars, keys, and vocals.
| | 02:11 | Some people actually like to start
working with the rhythm elements first--
| | 02:15 | the drums and the bass--then they'll add
in the vocal, then they'll add in other
| | 02:19 | elements and work around this.
| | 02:22 | There is no one single way to approach this.
And for me, I generally think about
| | 02:28 | what's interesting me in the song,
and I'll start working with that first.
| | 02:31 | So it might be the drums and the
rhythm section, and so I might solo up those
| | 02:35 | drums and kind of listen to them.
| | 02:38 | (music playing)
| | 02:40 | Kinda get a sense of yeah, this
is really going to drive the songs.
| | 02:43 | Then I might add the bass in.
(music playing)
| | 02:50 | But whatever I do, I'm always going to
try to get that main focal point, that
| | 02:54 | a vocal in as soon as possible.
| | 02:57 | (music playing)
| | 03:03 | So there's no specific order
that I take when I mix a song.
| | 03:06 | I just kind of follow what inspires
me, and so when you read about engineers
| | 03:11 | following a specific regimen, try it
out and see if it works for you, but
| | 03:16 | also don't be afraid to throw it out
the window and kind of work towards what inspires you.
| | 03:21 | With the panorama of my mix, once I've
kind of got a good level going on,
| | 03:26 | the panorama allows me to set the
left/right balance of an element in the mix.
| | 03:32 | Now historically, pan and stereo
recording, when it first came out was
| | 03:38 | kind of over used.
| | 03:39 | So they have the vocal on the right-
hand side and the drums on the left-hand
| | 03:43 | side, just because it was a novelty
to actually have a stereo field.
| | 03:48 | In modern-day mixing, we've kind of
really honed in on the stereo field and kind
| | 03:52 | of take advantage of it in a more subtle way.
| | 03:55 | Now, I might change my panorama as I
get inspired by the instruments or sounds
| | 04:01 | during the mix process.
| | 04:02 | But just having a basic plan of how
I'm going to pan my elements usually gets
| | 04:07 | me quite a bit a ways into my mix.
| | 04:09 | There is no hard and fast rules about
where to pan what, but generally I like to
| | 04:14 | keep my low end elements like the kick
drum and bass guitar towards the center.
| | 04:21 | This helps the speakers
produce those low frequencies.
| | 04:24 | Now, stereo kicks and stereo basses
are trendy, so no doubt there are some
| | 04:29 | instances where you're going to want
to have a stereo kick, or you're going to
| | 04:33 | want to have something or do something
in the stereo field, and that's okay.
| | 04:37 | But if you don't know where to start,
generally keeping your low-frequency
| | 04:40 | elements towards the center is a good idea.
| | 04:43 | A lot of people used to make a
big fuss about Mono compatibility.
| | 04:47 | So if you've made kind of crazy pan
decisions, your mix may or may not sum
| | 04:52 | to mono correctly.
| | 04:53 | I find these days that mono in most
situations is dead, unless you're mixing for
| | 04:59 | really huge club systems that're
going to play back in Mono, and even most
| | 05:02 | of those in stereo.
| | 05:03 | Most people's TVs are in stereo these days.
| | 05:06 | Most people are listening to ear buds.
| | 05:08 | So I tend to find if I can make it an
interesting stereo mix that sacrifices
| | 05:12 | a bit of mono compatibility, you
know what? I'm okay with that.
| | 05:16 | It's like color correctionist these
days. They don't do color correction with
| | 05:20 | black-and-white TVs in mind, and so
kind of think about who your audience is
| | 05:25 | before you stress out too
much on mono compatibility.
| | 05:29 | I find that some engineers
try to avoid hard pans.
| | 05:32 | So they'll kind of pan a little bit
to the left or little bit to the right,
| | 05:35 | while others only pan hard left or hard right.
| | 05:38 | This is called LCR mixing,
or Left-Center-Right mixing.
| | 05:42 | Some mixers are very successful at
only having elements pan either hard left,
| | 05:47 | dead-center, or hard right, while
others are successful using other techniques.
| | 05:51 | I tend to not take any hard
and fast approach to this, you know.
| | 05:55 | I do what is necessary for my mix.
| | 05:58 | When in doubt, try to create a
balanced panorama. And if you go through this
| | 06:02 | Take Me Down session, what you'll find
is things like the Guitars, while there's
| | 06:07 | quite a bit of panning going on here,
left and right, I'm creating a balanced
| | 06:12 | representation of those guitars.
| | 06:14 | So I have something hard left, I
have a similar part pan hard right.
| | 06:18 | If I have a shaker pan right, I
have the tambourine panned left.
| | 06:23 | So if we listen to these guitars...
| | 06:25 | (music playing)
| | 06:30 | Having that acoustic right and that
electric left really creates this nice wide
| | 06:35 | sound stage, whereas if I pan those
dead center, it wouldn't be as interesting.
| | 06:40 | (music playing)
| | 07:00 | So you see that makes nice space for
the vocal, the kick drum, and the snare and
| | 07:05 | really kind of pushes out that stereo feel.
| | 07:08 | So I'm really creating a balanced
panorama but a wide panorama with these guitars.
| | 07:14 | It's common to make these level and
pan decisions right up through the
| | 07:18 | final stages of mixing.
| | 07:19 | So don't beat yourself up in this initial stage.
| | 07:22 | Unlike the days of analog tape, almost
all of the mixes that I work on these
| | 07:26 | days already have a rough mix going on
from the production or recording stage.
| | 07:30 | But don't underestimate
the power of volume or pan.
| | 07:33 | A lot of times people will overuse
compression in EQ when it's really just
| | 07:38 | a volume or pan issue.
| | 07:39 | So before going through a ton of plug-
ins in your library, make sure that a
| | 07:44 | simple volume or pan change won't solve
your issue and get you where you want to go.
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| Knowing when to process: mix problems vs. mix solutions| 00:00 | One of the toughest things for new
mixers is to understand when learning how to
| | 00:04 | mix is how to separate the technique
from the underlying goal of the mix.
| | 00:09 | In other words, separating the
technical how of using an EQ or Compressor
| | 00:14 | with the very opinion and aesthetics
oriented, why would I use one in any given situation?
| | 00:21 | Before I get into the core signal
processors and how to use them in your mix, I
| | 00:25 | want to first discuss this concept of
knowing not only how but why we do what
| | 00:31 | we do during mixing.
| | 00:32 | For example, there're thousands of
magazine articles and message board posts on
| | 00:36 | the web, telling you that
compression should be used on vocals.
| | 00:40 | This would be an example of a specific
solution or technique used in mixing.
| | 00:45 | But if we don't fully understand why
that technique is used in our ultimate
| | 00:50 | goal of creating a great mix, how can
we be expected to know when or when not to use it?
| | 00:56 | You would think that not understanding
why when we do something would stop that
| | 01:00 | person from doing that. Not true.
| | 01:03 | I see mixes every day that showcase
mixed techniques totally out of context and
| | 01:08 | without purpose with the only
explanation being, "I heard about it in a magazine,"
| | 01:13 | or "A friend told me to do it this way."
| | 01:16 | Maybe you can get away with this.
| | 01:17 | Heck, maybe even half the time you get away
with just following the recipes of other mixers.
| | 01:23 | But if you think about mixing in the
same context as being a master chef, to be
| | 01:27 | a truly talented mixer, you need to
understand your ingredients and the
| | 01:31 | preparation techniques used
to put them into great mixes.
| | 01:35 | Any competent Sous-Chef can follow
his boss's directions and cook up
| | 01:39 | a predefined recipe, but music
is not nearly as forgiving.
| | 01:44 | You really need to think about the
underlying goal of a processor or
| | 01:47 | technique before using it.
| | 01:49 | If you do this, at some point your
experience and intuition--just like a master
| | 01:54 | chef's sense of smell and taste--will be
able to guide you effortlessly through the process.
| | 02:00 | So before processing a track or tracks,
think about how it'll help you achieve
| | 02:05 | your overall goal as defined in your mix plan.
| | 02:08 | Determine the challenge or aesthetic
goal, then work out a solution or plan for
| | 02:14 | approaching this challenge
or achieving that goal.
| | 02:16 | An example of healthy mix problem-
solving would be, I'm going to try to use
| | 02:22 | a compressor on the vocal because it is
overly dynamic and the compressor will
| | 02:26 | help it sit more balanced in the mix
and make the vocalist stand out and sound special.
| | 02:31 | You see, I defined the challenge or
aesthetic goal, making the vocals sit better
| | 02:36 | in the mix to help define its place as
the main focal element, and I've come up
| | 02:41 | with a preliminary solution to
that challenge, using the compressor.
| | 02:45 | Now I can approach a challenge with
a direct goal in mind and check my progress
| | 02:50 | against that goal as I work.
| | 02:52 | Consider that signal processing
may not always be the solution.
| | 02:56 | Maybe it's a problem with the
arrangement, like the tracks just don't fit with
| | 02:59 | each other or problems with the
recordings of the instrument, too much noise,
| | 03:04 | it's out of tune, it's out of time.
| | 03:07 | My goal on this course is to not show you
every trick or recipe that I've ever heard of.
| | 03:12 | I know that you're smart enough
to know how to Google and read.
| | 03:16 | What I want to teach you is how to
think like a mixer and grasp the basic
| | 03:20 | techniques enough to trust your own
opinion on how a mix should sound.
| | 03:24 | When you learn to think like a mixer,
you'll be able to easily evaluate and
| | 03:28 | implement any tip, trick, or technique
you find during your career,
| | 03:32 | and there'll be lots.
| | 03:34 | Some will be appropriate for everyday use,
while others just won't apply to your workflow.
| | 03:39 | Remember, mixing is half techniques
and tricks and half about knowing how and
| | 03:44 | when or where to use them to
achieve your artistic goal.
| | 03:48 | I want you to begin thinking
critically about the mixing process.
| | 03:53 | Don't be a student that gets assigned
a term paper and turns in a finished one
| | 03:56 | you've downloaded off the Internet.
| | 03:58 | That strategy may work from time to
time, but the old adage rings true:
| | 04:03 | you only chain yourself in the long run.
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|
|
4. Understanding and Using EQ (Equalization)Understanding the mechanics of sound| 00:00 | Before we can dig into equalization and how
it relates to the mixing process, it's
| | 00:04 | important to review the basics
of sound waves and frequencies,
| | 00:08 | and how they relate to instruments
and the musical concept of pitch.
| | 00:12 | In nature, sound exists and travels
as mechanical vibrations in some form of medium.
| | 00:18 | We generally associate this
medium with air or atmosphere,
| | 00:21 | but sound can also travel through
solid mediums like dry wall or liquids like water.
| | 00:26 | When a speaker or instrument
generate sound waves, these vibrations are
| | 00:31 | propagated as positive and negative
changes to the atmospheric pressure, which
| | 00:35 | are in turn perceived as variations
in pressure against our eardrums, and
| | 00:39 | subsequently processed by the
brain into what we perceive as a sound.
| | 00:44 | The speed at which the sound waves
oscillate, or increase or decrease over
| | 00:48 | time like waves on the ocean, is
called frequency, and is measured in cycles
| | 00:54 | per second or Hz.
| | 00:56 | The power, or amount of push and pull
at which the sound waves vibrate, or the
| | 01:01 | y axis in the graph, is known as
amplitude and determines the loudness of the
| | 01:07 | sound that we will perceive.
| | 01:08 | Now humans can hear frequencies in a
range between about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, with
| | 01:15 | that upper range diminishing with age.
| | 01:17 | When this oscillation is periodic or
repeating, we perceive the sound as
| | 01:23 | a specific pitch.
| | 01:25 | When an instrument propagates a sound
wave, the frequency at which the entire
| | 01:30 | wave vibrates is known as the fundamental.
| | 01:33 | The fundamental of a waveform
contains the most power or amplitude and this
| | 01:38 | defines the perceived
pitch of the note, for example,
| | 01:42 | a middle C on the piano.
| | 01:44 | Other higher frequency waveforms or
overtones generally travel with these
| | 01:49 | fundamental waveforms.
| | 01:50 | Now all these frequency components
that make up the total waveform, including
| | 01:55 | the fundamental and the overtones, are
called partials and together they form
| | 01:59 | the harmonic series.
| | 02:01 | A note's fundamental and its overtones
combine to create the pitch and unique
| | 02:06 | complex timbre or tonal
character of any specific instrument.
| | 02:11 | Now, most instruments' frequency range--
the fundamental plus the overtones--
| | 02:16 | live within the human range of hearing,
and there are many charts that you
| | 02:20 | can reference when mixing to
determine the general frequency range of a
| | 02:24 | specific instrument.
| | 02:26 | But in the end, we will always use your
ears and gut to tell us whether or not
| | 02:31 | an instrument is sitting in the mix.
| | 02:33 | However, these charts can help guide
us in the right direction. Ultimately
| | 02:38 | understanding where an instrument
lives in the frequency spectrum can be
| | 02:41 | especially useful during arrangement stages.
| | 02:44 | For example, symphonic composers
must have a strong understanding of each
| | 02:48 | instrument range when writing their scores.
| | 02:51 | But sometimes, in the era of virtual
instruments, we take for granted the
| | 02:55 | sounds and ranges of specific
instruments and how they relate to the
| | 02:58 | composition process.
| | 03:00 | Remember these relationships when
you're using EQ to blend, balance, and
| | 03:04 | creatively shape instruments in a mix.
| | 03:08 | I go into greater detail on the topics
of frequency and amplitude in my course
| | 03:13 | Foundations of Audio: EQ and Filters.
| | 03:15 | So, if you want to dig deeper into
this topic, be sure to check that out on
| | 03:19 | Online Training Library.
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| Learning the basics of EQ: frequency-specific level control| 00:00 | Even if you didn't know it, you have
probably used an EQ sometime in your life, on
| | 00:04 | a boom box or a car stereo.
| | 00:07 | Now that we know where a sound comes
from and how its frequency relates to
| | 00:10 | instruments and pitch, we can move on
to understanding how an equalizer, or what
| | 00:16 | I like to call a frequency-specific
level control, helps us shape and blend
| | 00:21 | tracks into the mix.
| | 00:22 | So, why do I call it a
frequency-specific level control?
| | 00:26 | Well, a standard volume control in the
mixer is going to allow us to raise or
| | 00:31 | lower the overall level
of that track in the mix,
| | 00:35 | while an equalizer is going to allow us
to increase or decrease a certain band
| | 00:42 | of frequencies' energy relative to the
rest of the frequencies in that signal.
| | 00:48 | So, let's just take a listen to this vocal here.
| | 00:50 | (clip playing)
| | 01:06 | When volume and pan aren't enough to
shape a track in the mix, EQ can help a
| | 01:11 | mixer reshape or refocus a
track's frequency balance.
| | 01:15 | This can be for the creative
reasons or for corrective ones.
| | 01:18 | But generally, when the engineer
doesn't like the current tonal balance or
| | 01:22 | frequency makeup of a specific track or
tracks, they are going to reach for an
| | 01:27 | equalizer to change this.
| | 01:29 | Now let's go back to the mix
challenge and solution model.
| | 01:33 | Let's say we have a guitar and its
fundamental frequencies are masking or
| | 01:38 | obscuring the frequencies of the lead
vocal. And in this case, we are assuming
| | 01:43 | that the lead vocal is the
main focal point of the mix.
| | 01:46 | Reducing the entire level of the
guitar would not be an ideal solution, as its
| | 01:52 | overtones and harmonics may be
providing a nice melodic and rhythmic component
| | 01:57 | to the tune.
| | 01:58 | Using an EQ, we could reduce only the
lower fundamentals, leaving the higher
| | 02:05 | harmonics intact, helping it sit
correctly in the mix against the vocal and
| | 02:10 | the other elements.
| | 02:12 | Another way I like to think of an EQ is
sort of like a mini-mixer for a single
| | 02:16 | instrument, where each band is kind
of like a fader in the larger mixer.
| | 02:21 | In fact, a graphic EQ looks
surprisingly similar to a mixer.
| | 02:26 | If the mixer allows the engineer to set
the relative levels of each element in
| | 02:30 | the mix track for track, then the EQ
allows us to set the relative frequency
| | 02:36 | levels between the low, mid, and high
frequencies of an individual track.
| | 02:43 | Now, EQ is one the fundamental tools in
mixing and will probably be your most
| | 02:47 | commonly used processor.
| | 02:49 | In the next video, we will get into the
specific parameters generally found in
| | 02:53 | equalizers, but when approaching EQ, try
to remember its relation to the bigger
| | 02:58 | picture of frequencies and the
range that different instruments occupy.
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| Using DigiRack EQ 3| 00:00 | The DigiRack EQ 3 is one of the
built-in EQs that ships with Pro Tools.
| | 00:05 | It comes in three flavors: 1-Band, 4-Band and 7-Band, all of
which sound identical, the only difference
| | 00:12 | being the number of bands available.
| | 00:14 | The DigiRack EQ was designed to be a
clean, easy-to-use channel strip EQ
| | 00:19 | and does just that.
| | 00:20 | Because of its intuitive user
interface, I found myself using it all over the place.
| | 00:25 | So, when we think about EQs as plug-ins,
there are generally two types of EQs
| | 00:31 | that I'll use in mixing:
| | 00:32 | a parametric equalizer--the DigiRack here--
which allows me total control over the
| | 00:37 | frequency of any band here or a graphic
equalizer, like this waves API, where I
| | 00:45 | have a fixed bands that I can boost or
cut. But I can't change the fact that
| | 00:51 | this is 1K and this is 2K.
| | 00:55 | Now EQs are usually split up into
multiple bands, representing the number of
| | 01:00 | unique changes in amplitude that
you can make over the frequency range.
| | 01:04 | So in this 7-Band EQ, I have two
filters: a high-pass and a low-pass. I have
| | 01:13 | five opportunities to boost or
cut across the frequency range.
| | 01:20 | So, five plus two equals seven total
bands, or opportunities to change the
| | 01:27 | frequency energy or makeup of any given track.
| | 01:31 | Now, this DigiRack EQ is
very transparent and uncolored.
| | 01:36 | So, generally the only reason I
would ever want to use the 4- and 1-Band
| | 01:41 | version of this EQ--4-Band, 1-Band
here--will be in a case that I want to
| | 01:47 | conserve processing power.
| | 01:49 | However, I find that with modern computers,
just loading up the 7-Band to have it
| | 01:55 | available, I don't find that
it takes up that many resources.
| | 01:59 | However, this 1-Band version can be a
great way to learn and understand the
| | 02:05 | different types of filters
available in the DigiRack EQ.
| | 02:09 | So let's go through and on these drum
tracks, listen to the different types of
| | 02:14 | filters on this 1-Band EQ.
| | 02:16 | So I'll start with the High-Pass filter here.
| | 02:19 | (music playing)
| | 02:25 | And you can see what it's doing is it's
cutting out all the low frequencies or
| | 02:28 | in other words, letting the highs pass through.
| | 02:31 | I also have a Low-Pass
that's going to do the opposite.
| | 02:34 | (music playing)
| | 02:42 | Next, I have my shelves.
| | 02:45 | A shelf is going to boost or cut,
based on the amount of gain, at the given
| | 02:51 | frequency, but instead of just boosting
an amount in, it's actually going to do
| | 02:56 | the boost or cut and then continue that
boost or cut either down or up through
| | 03:02 | the frequency range, like a shelf. Let's listen.
| | 03:05 | (music playing)
| | 03:23 | Now the peak filter, or a parametric filter,
allows me to apply a boost or cut, that is,
| | 03:31 | an increase or decrease in gain at
any frequency. I can sweep through the
| | 03:36 | frequencies here.
| | 03:38 | And I also have a Q, or bandwidth
control, that controls the shape of that
| | 03:45 | boost or cut.
| | 03:46 | So lower Q values give me a wider
boost or cut, while higher Q values give me
| | 03:53 | a smaller bandwidth.
| | 03:55 | So we would use things like this
for notching out specific frequencies. Let's take a listen.
| | 03:59 | (music playing)
| | 04:07 | Whereas I would use lower Q values
for just doing more general EQ tasks.
| | 04:12 | Now you can see we also have
this extra filter here, the Notch.
| | 04:16 | It's basically just like the parametric,
but it's only for cutting and has a
| | 04:20 | very extreme bandwidth setting,
so it can be very, very narrow.
| | 04:24 | And this would be ideal for just
removing a certain frequency, like a 60-cycle
| | 04:28 | hum or something like that.
| | 04:30 | Now, inside the DigiRack EQ, there are a
couple of really cool key commands that
| | 04:35 | you can take advantage of.
| | 04:36 | I am going to load back up the 7-Band version.
| | 04:40 | Now, the reason I really like using
this EQ is instead of having to move the
| | 04:45 | actual knobs, which I certainly can do,
I can control all these functions by
| | 04:51 | dragging these nodes with my mouse.
| | 04:54 | So I can hit playback.
| | 04:55 | (music playing)
| | 05:01 | Boost or cut. And if I hold the
Control key on the Mac or the Start key on
| | 05:08 | Windows, I can actually adjust the Q.
| | 05:11 | (music playing)
| | 05:19 | Now another cool trick is if you have
a boost or a cut and you want to reset
| | 05:23 | that, you can Option+Click or
Alt+Click on Windows. And if you want to swap
| | 05:29 | that boost for a cut or vice versa, a
cut for a boost, you can Shift+Click. See
| | 05:36 | how that swaps that?
| | 05:37 | And if you hold Control+Shift or Start+
Shift on Windows, you can actually drag
| | 05:45 | to just hear that specific band, and this
is really, really cool when you're just
| | 05:49 | trying to find that problem area. Take a listen.
| | 05:52 | (music playing)
| | 06:00 | Let's say I wanted to then notch that
out. I just kind of pull that down.
| | 06:02 | Boom, there I am.
| | 06:07 | Again, learning how to use the
DigiRack EQ will allow you to use almost any
| | 06:13 | equalizer, plug-in, or otherwise, but
I think you'll find that's actually a
| | 06:17 | great-sounding transparent EQ that you
come back to as a go to equalizer for
| | 06:21 | any situation.
| | 06:23 | Take some time to listen to the
different filter types and how they affect the signals.
| | 06:27 | Commit these sounds to memory and
reference them when deciding how to achieve
| | 06:31 | a specific sound.
| | 06:33 | If you want to dive deeper into EQs
and filters, be sure to check out my
| | 06:37 | Foundations of Audio: EQ and Filters
course on the Online Training Library.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring EQ strategies in mixing: correcting vs. creating| 00:00 | When working through a mix, I
generally like to break my EQ decision process
| | 00:04 | into one of three categories.
| | 00:06 | I like to call it the three C's:
corrective, creative and complementary.
| | 00:12 | Using the challenge-and-solution
approach, I first identify what I think is
| | 00:17 | missing or needs correcting with the
specific instrument in the context of its
| | 00:21 | place and importance in the mix,
and then I will seek a solution.
| | 00:26 | If I determine that a possible
solution might be EQ, I'll proceed.
| | 00:31 | So, first of all, corrective EQ is the
process of taking a instrument as it was
| | 00:36 | recorded and attempting to
improve on that recording.
| | 00:40 | So, a lot of times you're going to
find that, especially with acoustic
| | 00:44 | instruments, recording them with a
microphone, you're going to get a less-than-
| | 00:48 | ideal signal come mix time.
| | 00:50 | So the mic was placed wrong in the
room or the room is adding some kind of
| | 00:54 | weird sound or resonance, a lot of
those problems that we discussed in the
| | 00:58 | "Setting up the mix space" video.
| | 01:00 | So the EQ in this scenario is used
to rebalance the frequencies of the
| | 01:05 | instrument, returning them back to
what I feel like should have been the
| | 01:09 | original result of the recording.
| | 01:11 | So an example here, on the vocal track,
I'm dipping out a little bit of the
| | 01:17 | lower mids to kind of clean up some
of that proximity effect of being too
| | 01:21 | close to the microphone.
| | 01:23 | I'm also boosting some of the low
lows just to give a little bit more chest
| | 01:27 | there. And I'm cutting out the ultra
low lows, and that's just going to remove
| | 01:32 | any of the rumble that's not even
associated with the actual vocal.
| | 01:36 | Now the vocal for a male vocalist,
the fundamental is going to live between
| | 01:41 | 80 and a 100 Hz,
| | 01:42 | so I'm actually rolling off just
below 80 here right at around 70 Hz, just to
| | 01:48 | remove any low-frequency rumble that's
not going to contribute to this signal.
| | 01:53 | Once I've done my corrective EQing,
I can move on to the other two C's:
| | 01:57 | creative and complementary.
| | 02:00 | Creative EQing is using EQ to make wild
changes to a track, or sometimes they can
| | 02:06 | be subtle changes, but I'm
looking to achieve a specific result.
| | 02:10 | I'm looking specifically to change the sound.
| | 02:13 | Maybe it's not making it ideal in
the sense of a textbook example of that
| | 02:17 | recording, but I'm looking to make
it special and stand out in the mix.
| | 02:22 | An example of this would be let's say
the telephone effect on the vocal or
| | 02:26 | extreme high- or low-pass filtering on a
loop, just to really make something pop.
| | 02:32 | Now a lot of times this bleeds into the
complementary EQ task, where I'm actually
| | 02:39 | taking and looking to complement how
things sit against each other in the mix.
| | 02:45 | And this is by far the
most important use of EQ.
| | 02:49 | I find a lot of people stop after the
creative and the corrective EQ process.
| | 02:56 | So what they tend to do with the track--
let's say I go to this guitar here--
| | 03:01 | is they tend to solo it up, pull up
an EQ, and start pushing and pulling the
| | 03:06 | bands until they get an ideal
representation of the instrument in solo.
| | 03:12 | (music playing)
| | 03:21 | So I might add a little low end here, and
my thought process is, I just want to
| | 03:27 | make this guitar sound great.
| | 03:29 | Now you can start out that way,
but if I don't actually listen to how that
| | 03:34 | guitar complements or conflicts with
the lead vocal and the other elements, all
| | 03:40 | that work is for naught. And so I
really want to make sure when I'm doing
| | 03:44 | complementary EQ that I'm assigning
the correct focus of the most important
| | 03:49 | elements of the mix, and with the other
elements, I'm doing EQ moves that allow
| | 03:54 | them to complement those focal elements.
| | 03:57 | So this is a little like depth of
field in photography where I'm making some
| | 04:02 | elements purposefully
blurry so that others stand out.
| | 04:06 | So in the case of this guitar track,
what I would likely do is after I got it
| | 04:12 | sounding like the guitar that I thought
I wanted in isolation, I'd probably kick
| | 04:17 | in the rest of the mix or at least the
lead vocal, so that I can hear how or
| | 04:23 | where it's conflicting with that track.
| | 04:26 | (music playing)
| | 04:32 | So you can see right in here,
it's really going to get in the way the vocal.
| | 04:35 | (music playing)
| | 04:41 | Now I want to be careful up here--
| | 04:43 | (music playing)
| | 04:50 | --to make sure that nothing conflicts
with that lead vocal and I'll kick in the
| | 04:53 | entire mix to make sure that guitar
is sitting just right with the base and
| | 04:57 | the kick drum.
(music playing)
| | 05:12 | And a lot of my guitars, I'm doing
quite a bit of complementary EQ by pulling
| | 05:17 | out some of the low mids. And it's not
necessary that I think a guitar needs
| | 05:22 | to have less mids;
| | 05:23 | it's just that in the case of my
lead vocal, I want to make sure my lyric
| | 05:27 | is very audible.
| | 05:28 | And in these sort of to lower to mid
mids sections, 200, 500, 700, that's where
| | 05:35 | a lot of the vocal intelligibility lives,
and so I want to make sure to kind of
| | 05:39 | pull some of that out on those
instruments that are going to compete.
| | 05:43 | Now this is not to say that every
guitar needs to have its mids pulled up.
| | 05:47 | It's just in this case, when I was
listening to the guitar in the context of the
| | 05:51 | vocal, I kind of thought that they were
competing with each other, and I wanted
| | 05:55 | to prioritize or assign the focus of the
mix to the vocal. And I'm doing that by
| | 06:01 | panning these guitars, as well as
applying complementary EQ curves that really
| | 06:07 | allow the vocal to pop out of the mix.
| | 06:10 | Again, complementary EQ must be done
in context with the other elements,
| | 06:15 | so avoid doing too much
solo each EQing of your tracks.
| | 06:20 | Ultimately, a combination of the three
C's are going to be what you're going to
| | 06:24 | use in an everyday mixing scenario.
| | 06:27 | So again, starting with some corrective
and then moving on to some cohesive or
| | 06:31 | complementary or creative EQ tricks to
blend the elements together and really
| | 06:37 | get a nice coherent mix going on.
| | 06:40 | Using EQ to shape and define your mix
is definitely an iterative process and
| | 06:46 | making a change to one track may
require changes to other tracks.
| | 06:51 | Always think about the bigger picture
of the mix and when in doubt, review your
| | 06:55 | plan to remember, what is it that's
important in this mix and is this EQ task
| | 07:00 | going to affect those elements?
| | 07:03 | As a self-guided exercise,
go through the rest of the EQ settings in this
| | 07:07 | demo mix of Take Me Down and think
about the specific frequency choices I
| | 07:12 | made and why I made them in the
context of that instrument and the other
| | 07:17 | instruments inside the mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A working example: kick drum and bass| 00:00 | In a pop rock song like Take Me Down,
it's the kick drum that's going to drive
| | 00:05 | the beat, and it definitely needs to
hit deep in your chest while carrying the
| | 00:09 | song and staying audible,
even on smaller speakers.
| | 00:14 | In this tune, the bass tends to play
faster notes and it's going to carry the
| | 00:18 | mid-forward warmth or body of the track.
| | 00:22 | Together they must complement each
other and glue the bottom into the rest of the mix.
| | 00:28 | Let's check out how I treated the
kick drum and the bass guitar in this
| | 00:31 | song, Take Me Down.
| | 00:33 | First of all, I want to identify
what I've got going on with my kick drum
| | 00:38 | as it's been recorded.
| | 00:40 | So I am going to go ahead and solo
this up and we will take a listen.
| | 00:43 | Bypassing the EQ--
| | 00:46 | (music playing)
| | 00:53 | Now I have a beater mic--
| | 00:56 | (music playing)
As well as a Yamaha Sub Kick.
| | 01:04 | This is actually kind of a trick
people used to do with an NS 10; they would
| | 01:08 | wire it in reverse and use it like a microphone.
| | 01:11 | Now Yamaha actually makes a microphone
that's designed this way. Check it out.
| | 01:16 | (music playing)
| | 01:27 | And so what's going on here that I've
got my beater and my Sub Kick. The beater
| | 01:31 | is going to give me a nice
clicky part of the kick drum.
| | 01:34 | It's going to allow it to stick out on
smaller speakers, while the Sub Kick is
| | 01:38 | going to give it that nice sub push.
| | 01:39 | Now the problem is, is left un-EQed,
there is a lot of boxiness, or mid
| | 01:45 | frequencies in this drum that it's really
going to get a lost, especially in the
| | 01:50 | bigger sections of the mix.
| | 01:51 | Let's just take a listen
in context now, with no EQ.
| | 01:54 | (music playing)
| | 02:01 | And again in the chorus--
| | 02:03 | (music playing)
| | 02:10 | The kick is still there, but it's
really taking on this kind of pillowy feel,
| | 02:14 | and that's really just not
going to cut it for a rock tune.
| | 02:17 | So what I have done with EQ here is I
have gone ahead and on the beater mic, I
| | 02:24 | have just kind of accented some of the
top frequencies. So right around 1.5 and
| | 02:29 | 3K, I'm doing a pretty broad boost,
just to give it a nice clicky feel.
| | 02:34 | Let's take a listen to that real quick--
| | 02:36 | (music playing)
| | 02:45 | Now on the Sub Mic, I am just pulling a
little bit out of right around 180, and
| | 02:52 | this is going to make sense when we
actually look at the bass guitar's EQ.
| | 02:56 | I am just kind of notching out a little
bit of those lower mids so that my bass
| | 03:00 | has a nice little pocket to sit in,
and I am just kind of rolling off some of
| | 03:04 | the ultra-low lows to make sure there's
no rumble or anything from the studio.
| | 03:09 | It's really here on the KickBus
I've actually combined these two tracks
| | 03:13 | together onto the KickBus, and I am
EQing them as one. And this is where the
| | 03:21 | heavy lifting is taking place.
| | 03:23 | Again, let's listen in context.
| | 03:25 | I am going to bypass these
EQs and then kick them in.
| | 03:28 | (music playing)
| | 03:47 | So, as you hopefully heard, it goes from
pillowy to punchy, exactly what I want
| | 03:52 | in a rock tune. And how I am really
achieving that is I am tucking up a lot of
| | 03:57 | the lower mids, and that's where the
boxiness of a kick drum is going to be.
| | 04:01 | Now on a rock tune we generally have
fairly scooped mids on a kick drum;
| | 04:07 | however, this is not to say that you
should pull out all the mids on your kick
| | 04:10 | drum in every context.
| | 04:12 | In a jazz or folk song you
kind of want that pillowy sound.
| | 04:16 | So you want to make sure that you are
doing things that are appropriate for the
| | 04:20 | genre and the mix itself, rather than
following any kind of preset, I would say,
| | 04:25 | great kick drum mic, because you don't
know what that preset was being used for
| | 04:30 | in the genre context.
| | 04:32 | I'm also boosting a little bit of 60
hertz, and that's kind of that sub speaking
| | 04:37 | note, or the fundamental
note of the kick drum there.
| | 04:40 | I am adding a little bit more high end
to both of the mics, and this is really
| | 04:45 | going to drive that top end or that
click, and that's going to make this kick
| | 04:49 | drum translate to very small speakers,
like a laptop, when you are not going to be
| | 04:53 | able to hear anything under 200 hertz.
| | 04:56 | I still want to make sure that that
kick drum is present and driving the song.
| | 05:01 | Now another thing that I've done by
pulling out the mids, if we go ahead and
| | 05:04 | take a look at the bass EQ, we could
see that on the bass, I am actually adding
| | 05:11 | some mid frequencies, while I am
pulling out that same exact frequency right
| | 05:16 | around 50 hertz that I have boosted on the kick.
| | 05:19 | And this is kind of lock-and-key
approach really allows me to create a pocket
| | 05:24 | for the bass to sit and a lower end
for the kick drum to really pop out.
| | 05:28 | It's kind of like a little
sandwich that I'm creating.
| | 05:31 | I'm creating this hole in the middle
of the kick drum where my guitars and my
| | 05:35 | bass are really going to fill in and
provide that warmth or body of the track,
| | 05:40 | while that kick drum is got a nice
chesty sub and that clicky top end that's
| | 05:45 | sandwiching all those cool
mid-frequencies together.
| | 05:49 | Let's take a listen to the
bass and the kick drum--
| | 05:52 | (music playing)
| | 06:02 | Now I am going to take away this bass EQ --
(music playing)
| | 06:10 | Mute that track there.
(music playing)
| | 06:23 | Now it's subtle, and the reason you
heard that boost come up there is because
| | 06:26 | I am actually ducking out quite a
bit of the input here on this bass
| | 06:31 | distortion track. And I'm doing
that because I'm adding quite a few
| | 06:34 | frequencies, and whenever you do a
lot of boosting on an EQ, you definitely
| | 06:39 | want to take advantage of the input
and output controls to make sure you're
| | 06:43 | not clipping the output.
| | 06:44 | So this actually allows you to trim
down the signal before you do your boost.
| | 06:49 | So for example, if your signal is
already sitting right around 0 dBFS or the
| | 06:53 | clip point, and you want to go add an
extra 3 or 5 dBs at any given frequency,
| | 06:59 | you are going to have to make some
space for that, and that's actually what I'm
| | 07:02 | doing here at the input.
| | 07:03 | And you will see that all throughout
this mix, oftentimes I will tweak the input
| | 07:08 | and the output of my EQs to
make headroom for other elements.
| | 07:14 | Together, I am kind of creating this
nice coherent gel in my low end by pulling
| | 07:19 | out the low mids of the kick drum and
emphasizing those on the bass guitar.
| | 07:25 | Again, this really illustrates
this complementary EQ approach.
| | 07:29 | I am not just going to solo my kick and
make it sound great, I am not just going
| | 07:32 | to just going to solo my bass and
make it sound great; I want them to sound
| | 07:36 | great together, and I want them
to complement the other elements--
| | 07:39 | the guitars, the vocals--
without getting in the way.
| | 07:43 | Placing the kick in the bass and
mix can be tricky because they like to
| | 07:47 | occupy the same space,
| | 07:50 | so what I generally do is pick one to
dominate a specific frequency range.
| | 07:55 | In a rock song like this, the kick is
driving most of the song in the sub
| | 07:59 | frequencies, and the
bass is filling in the mids.
| | 08:02 | In another genre, I may choose a
different relationship where the bass is much
| | 08:06 | lower than the kick drum.
| | 08:07 | For example, in a speed metal tune, the
kick drum is often playing too fast of
| | 08:12 | notes to add too much sub frequency to it.
| | 08:15 | So I'm always going to be
looking to complement the kick and bass
| | 08:20 | relationships in my mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A working example: filtering loops| 00:00 | While not part of the Take Me Down
session, I thought this was an important EQ
| | 00:04 | example to point out.
| | 00:06 | Many of us are working with prerecorded,
looped, or sample material these days,
| | 00:11 | either exclusively or as
components of a larger production.
| | 00:14 | And one of the problems that I find
with commercial loops, synth, or sampler
| | 00:20 | patches is that as they ship, they tend
to be way too big to combine with other
| | 00:25 | large loops or elements in a mix effectively.
| | 00:29 | Why would a company make a sound huge?
| | 00:32 | Well, it sells more loops.
| | 00:34 | If you listen to something in
isolation and it sounds really thin, you're
| | 00:38 | probably going to say, eh, I
don't really want to use this.
| | 00:41 | And so you're finding that a lot of
companies aren't making things pre-built to
| | 00:45 | fit in hundred-track pop arrangements
more than they're building things to
| | 00:50 | sound really impressive by themselves.
| | 00:52 | In an example I'd like to relate
that to is stock photography or clipart.
| | 00:57 | You're generally going to get it in a
very high resolution which are probably
| | 01:02 | going to need to scale that down to a
smaller size to fit into the context of
| | 01:07 | the project you're working on.
| | 01:09 | The other thing is many loops have
kick drums and when we add a bunch of
| | 01:14 | kick drums together, it usually kind of
creates a low-frequency nightmare, both
| | 01:19 | from an arrangement standpoint in
then you've got different kick drums,
| | 01:22 | different rhythms playing, as well as a
sonic standpoint, where all the loading just
| | 01:26 | kind of blurs into one line note.
| | 01:28 | So let's take a listen to
these two loops here in isolation.
| | 01:32 | (music playing)
| | 01:39 | And Loop 2.
| | 01:41 | (music playing)
| | 01:48 | Both are fairly broadband,
containing both low frequencies as well as
| | 01:52 | high frequencies,
| | 01:54 | and they both have kick
drums with a lot of sub-bass.
| | 01:56 | Now the kick drums are playing different
rhythms, so if I combine these together
| | 02:01 | without EQ, it could get kind of messy.
| | 02:04 | (music playing)
| | 02:13 | Now, unless I really liked that kick-
drum pattern that resulted from combining
| | 02:18 | those two loops, what I want to do is
I want to carve off, or scale down, one
| | 02:25 | of the loops to remove the low
frequencies, and I can do this using a
| | 02:31 | high-pass filter.
| | 02:32 | So if I activate this EQ, I've set a
high-pass filter right around 1K, and if
| | 02:38 | we listen an isolation --
| | 02:39 | (music playing)
| | 02:45 | --we can hear that the kick-drum
has almost completely disappeared.
| | 02:49 | You hear a little bit of the top
end, and that's normal, but all that
| | 02:52 | low-frequency stuff is just gone.
| | 02:54 | So now when I combine the two--
| | 02:56 | (music playing)
| | 03:09 | --I basically get to keep the hi-hats
in the percussion of Loop 2 while using
| | 03:16 | the low end of Loop 1.
| | 03:17 | Now I could actually swap this so
that I kept the low end of Loop 2 --
| | 03:21 | (music playing)
| | 03:34 | --but the clap of Loop 1.
| | 03:37 | So the idea here is I'm
scaling these sounds down.
| | 03:40 | I'm taking what are very broadband
sounds and I'm scaling them down using a
| | 03:45 | high-pass or sometimes a low-pass filter.
| | 03:49 | Let's say I wanted to remove
the high frequencies from Loop 2.
| | 03:54 | I could use a low-pass filter--
| | 03:56 | (music playing)
| | 04:05 | --and maybe I want to
use a high-pass filter here.
| | 04:10 | (music playing)
| | 04:22 | So basically, I'm using these filters
to rein in or wrangle the frequencies that
| | 04:27 | I want and throw away the
frequencies I don't want.
| | 04:31 | Now with a high- and low-pass filter
your Q value is going to determine the
| | 04:35 | role off or the aggressiveness of that filter.
| | 04:38 | So here I'm at 12 dbs/octave, but I
could go all the way up to 24 dbs/octave.
| | 04:45 | That means if my filter starts at
1K x 2K, the signal has been attenuated by 24 dbs.
| | 04:54 | Using high-pass and low-pass filters
is a good example of complementary EQ,
| | 05:00 | because I'm adjusting the frequency
spectrum of one element to fit better with
| | 05:05 | the other elements in my session.
| | 05:07 | I can also add automation to these
filters to get cool DJ-style effects.
| | 05:11 | (music playing)
| | 05:23 | Effectively using high- or low-pass
filters to rein in your big-sounding loops
| | 05:27 | and samples is a great way to fit
many ideas in a mix space without things
| | 05:32 | getting too out of hand.
| | 05:34 | Remember, while it may be attempting to
add lots of percussion and drum loops
| | 05:38 | layered into one session, even if
things sonically fit together, there is no
| | 05:43 | guarantee that they will fit
together from an arrangement standpoint.
| | 05:46 | In other words, too much may just be too
much for the listener to comprehend, but
| | 05:51 | the next time you're working with
loops or really big synth sounds, definitely
| | 05:55 | try to integrate low-pass and high-
pass filters to effectively place big
| | 06:00 | elements into a dense mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring mixing tips and tricks: EQ| 00:00 | EQ is an extremely powerful tool
for shaping the frequency balance of
| | 00:04 | elements in a mix.
| | 00:06 | It can bring things forward or push
them back, allowing you to create or
| | 00:10 | take away focus, and highlight
important elements while keeping others from
| | 00:13 | being distracting.
| | 00:15 | EQ can help repair poor recordings
and make samples and play nice with
| | 00:19 | each other in the mix.
| | 00:20 | Here are some tips that I've learned
over the years when mixing with EQ.
| | 00:24 | One thing you always want make
sure you do is never to EQ completely in isolation.
| | 00:30 | This can be really hard for new mixers.
| | 00:32 | It's really tempting to solo up a track
and just make it sound good and call it a day.
| | 00:37 | The problem with this is that it
doesn't pay attention to the context of the
| | 00:41 | other tracks in the mix.
| | 00:42 | So what I like to say is it's okay to
solo a track to get a sense of what it's
| | 00:46 | doing and how it was recorded, but be
sure you put it back in the mix as quickly
| | 00:51 | as you can to make sure that you're
getting the right contrast between the
| | 00:54 | different vocal points of your mix.
| | 00:57 | It's very common to actually make a
track sound dull, or even bad, in isolation
| | 01:02 | but end up working really well in context.
| | 01:05 | Sometimes instead of soloing, I will
just turn the track up while I am EQing to
| | 01:10 | hear it better in the context of the mix.
| | 01:12 | Another trick is I like to always
keep my vocal and my bass soloed when I am
| | 01:17 | EQing other elements.
| | 01:19 | This allows me to make sure that I
am not going to be messing up my low
| | 01:22 | frequencies with the EQ decisions I am
making, as well as not disrupting the
| | 01:27 | intelligibility of the vocal.
| | 01:28 | Now avoiding soloing while EQing
really blends into this concept of using EQ
| | 01:34 | to create perspective.
| | 01:36 | Mixing is largely about
directing the listener to a vocal point.
| | 01:41 | So it's not weird to think that one
might purposefully make an element sound as
| | 01:45 | if it were in the background so that an
other element stood in the foreground.
| | 01:50 | You can cut high frequencies out of
a sound to move them further back in the mix,
| | 01:55 | so play with using low-pass filters,
high shelves, things like that to move
| | 02:01 | elements to the background of the mix.
And it can really help things like the
| | 02:05 | vocal, which you might do some
boosting on the top end, really pop out.
| | 02:09 | Now sometimes the Mute
button is the most effective EQ.
| | 02:14 | If something isn't working out and then
as you just can't seem to get it to EQ
| | 02:18 | into the mix, sometimes it's best to
reevaluate the arrangement and ask yourself
| | 02:23 | if it really belongs there.
| | 02:26 | Remember, not all elements
have to be playing all the time.
| | 02:29 | An interesting arrangement in a
mix evolves and changes over time.
| | 02:34 | Cutting is generally preferred over boosting.
| | 02:37 | That is to say, I'd like to remove
frequencies just as much as I like to add
| | 02:42 | frequencies, if not even more.
| | 02:44 | So throughout this session, while I
do boost things to bring them out in the mix,
| | 02:49 | I do quite a bit of cutting as well.
| | 02:52 | Cutting isn't going to reveal the
color of the EQ or filter as much, whereas
| | 02:57 | boosting will really allow the color
of the EQ to come out, because you're
| | 03:01 | actually adding gain.
| | 03:03 | Be especially mindful of
tracks with a lot of low end,
| | 03:05 | like the kick drum and the bass.
| | 03:08 | Remember that low frequencies are
physically much larger than high frequencies
| | 03:13 | and thus take up more space in a mix.
| | 03:16 | So it's common to aggressively cut
the low end out of tracks that aren't
| | 03:19 | vital to the bass component of the
mix, using things like shelves and
| | 03:23 | high-pass filters.
| | 03:25 | You can see on most of the guitars I am
aggressively cutting out quite a bit of
| | 03:29 | the low end, and if we
listen to a guitar in isolation --
| | 03:32 | (music playing)
| | 03:46 | --I am rolling off a lot of the
subfrequencies, and you can see that is a
| | 03:50 | common trend throughout all my guitar
tracks. What I really want to do is
| | 03:55 | remove any of that speaker mud or
resonance from things like the acoustic guitar
| | 04:00 | that's going to clutter my kick drum and bass.
| | 04:03 | I am going to generally follow this
same tactic with the top end of the guitars
| | 04:07 | too, so what you'll see sometimes,
especially on these lead guitars, is that I am
| | 04:12 | actually rolling off the top, or I am
band-pass filtering, filtering out the
| | 04:16 | lows and the highs, to really focus
that element in the mix and complement the other signals.
| | 04:24 | Make sure that you work
within an instrument's frequency range.
| | 04:27 | All too often I find people boosting
in areas where that instrument doesn't
| | 04:32 | actually have any frequency.
| | 04:34 | So again, these guitars, there is not a
whole lot up past 10K, which is actually
| | 04:39 | why I'm cutting those frequencies
because it's just going to be a whole bunch of
| | 04:43 | speaker cabinet noise.
| | 04:45 | Now if I want to brighten up the guitars,
I am going to focus 1.5 to 3K. That's
| | 04:51 | where really the strings that are
going to come out and I am going to get that
| | 04:54 | nice bite. But if I go up and I boost
something like 15K, I am really just
| | 04:58 | bringing up a whole bunch of noise.
| | 05:00 | So make sure you reference some
frequency charts, that you can visualize where an
| | 05:05 | instrument's frequency range is, so
that you're not boosting in areas where
| | 05:09 | there isn't actually any frequency.
| | 05:11 | Above all, when you're
EQing, make sure you listen.
| | 05:15 | I find that too many times people are
getting frequencies from a book that say,
| | 05:19 | oh, the thump of the kick is at X hertz,
or the snap of the snare is at Y hertz.
| | 05:23 | But until you actually bring up that
track, sweep around with an EQ, you won't
| | 05:28 | really know where those
traits live in your specific track.
| | 05:32 | And one trick that I use quite a bit,
both for boosting and cutting, is I'll
| | 05:37 | actually take an EQ, I will play the
track back, and I'll boost and sweep until
| | 05:43 | I find the frequency I want or the
offending frequency that I want to cut.
| | 05:48 | Check it out.
| | 05:49 | (music playing)
| | 06:04 | And I want to make sure I do this in context.
| | 06:06 | (music playing)
| | 06:13 | Just to check to make sure everything
is fitting. So try using the boost-and-
| | 06:17 | sweep trick, whether you are looking
for resonance to cut or you're looking
| | 06:20 | for that sweet spot,
| | 06:21 | let's say the fundamental of a kick or
the bite in a guitar. This is way better
| | 06:27 | than just trusting some presets
because you're actually using your ears, and
| | 06:30 | you're listening to the
actual material in your mix.
| | 06:34 | Remember that frequencies directly
relate to pitches and octaves in the musical world.
| | 06:39 | Think about where the fundamental
and the harmonics of the instrument
| | 06:42 | you're treating live.
| | 06:43 | For example, the lowest notes on the
vocal can provide important clues as to
| | 06:48 | where to filter the low end.
| | 06:50 | Some mixers like to do what I call
spectral mixing, where they're relating
| | 06:54 | frequency to pitch while EQing.
| | 06:57 | An example of this would be boosting
their kick drum in a frequency that
| | 07:01 | complements the actual key of the
song, rather than let's say boosting a
| | 07:05 | frequency that causes the kick to take
on a pitch that creates dissonance with
| | 07:10 | the key of the song.
| | 07:11 | So if we actually listen to our kick
drum in isolation, and I do a really sharp
| | 07:17 | boost on my EQ, you will hear
that it actually takes on a pitch.
| | 07:21 | (music playing)
| | 07:34 | Now once we get below about 60, you are
going to be feeling it more than you're
| | 07:38 | hearing it, so take this tip with a
grain of salt. But the idea is, you want to
| | 07:43 | understand that frequency and pitch
relate, so if you're doing things to
| | 07:47 | complement the key or the notes in
your song or doing things to create
| | 07:52 | dissonance, just be aware of that.
| | 07:54 | Now, different styles and tempos
of music will often have different
| | 07:58 | approaches for EQ.
| | 07:59 | So a fast heavy metal tune may often
have very light bass in the kick drum and
| | 08:06 | be very beater-heavy whereas a reggae
track is going to have a whole ton of low
| | 08:11 | end, maybe some kind of 808 kick drum.
Or a hip-hop tune that's playing at, let's
| | 08:15 | say 90 BPM can have a lot more
breathing room for a super-low kick sound.
| | 08:21 | An idea that I like to keep in mind is
that faster songs tend to have less room
| | 08:25 | for low end because the notes are so
close together, whereas slower songs tend
| | 08:30 | to have more room for ultra-low lows
because there is actually quite a bit of
| | 08:34 | space between the notes.
| | 08:36 | So take some time to go through this
demo session and examine some of the EQ
| | 08:40 | choices I made and see if you can
identify some of that thought processes that
| | 08:44 | went into these decisions.
| | 08:46 | Would you have made different choices, and why?
| | 08:48 | Remember, there is no wrong answers
here. The goal is to learn how to
| | 08:52 | think critically.
| | 08:53 | To learn even more about using EQ in a
variety of difference scenarios, be sure
| | 08:58 | to check out my course, Foundations of
Audio: EQ and Filters, right here in the
| | 09:02 | lynda.com Online Training Library.
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|
|
5. Understanding and Using Dynamics ProcessorsUnderstanding dynamics and dynamic range| 00:00 | In the last chapter, we looked at the
frequency spectrum and how it relates to
| | 00:04 | equalization in the mixing process.
| | 00:06 | We learned that a sound wave's
frequency determines its pitch,
| | 00:10 | but it is its waveform amplitude
that determines its relative loudness in
| | 00:15 | relation to other sound waves and
even itself, as it propagates over time.
| | 00:20 | In other words, if frequency defines
the differences between high and low,
| | 00:25 | dynamics define the
differences between loud and soft.
| | 00:29 | Dynamic range is simply the difference
between the loudest and softest part of a
| | 00:34 | changing signal over a period of time.
| | 00:37 | In mixing, this can be measured over a
short period of time, like the difference
| | 00:42 | between the transient peak of a snare
drum and its ringing decay, or over a
| | 00:47 | longer period of time, like the
volume difference between the loud and soft
| | 00:52 | words of a vocal phrase.
| | 00:54 | We experience dynamic range
constantly in our everyday lives.
| | 00:59 | Think of the sound of a horn honk
that shocks you when you're driving down the highway.
| | 01:03 | It's the relative difference of the
mild road noise versus that super-loud car
| | 01:09 | honk that makes you kind of jump
out of your seat and take notice.
| | 01:13 | We also talk about dynamics in
musical notation, for example, piano or fortissimo.
| | 01:19 | In the mixing world, dynamics processors
work within this realm of dynamic range
| | 01:24 | and react to these changes in a variety
of different ways, by detecting changes
| | 01:29 | in dynamics and reacting
to them in a predefined way.
| | 01:33 | You can think of them like automatic
volume controls, turning things up or down,
| | 01:38 | providing control over a
signal's dynamics or level.
| | 01:42 | Over the next few videos, I will
discuss why, when, and how we use these
| | 01:46 | processors in our mixes.
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| Working with dynamics processors| 00:00 | As I said, dynamics processors allow us
to manipulate a signal's dynamic range
| | 00:04 | in a variety of different ways,
| | 00:06 | sometimes reducing it, sometimes increasing it.
| | 00:10 | These processors are able to do this by
measuring a signal's level over time and
| | 00:15 | reacting to these changes in a
predetermined way, defined by you,
| | 00:19 | the mixer. Generally how this works is by
defining the signal level at which the
| | 00:24 | processor begins to react--this is
called the threshold--and then creating a
| | 00:30 | rule for when that event happens.
| | 00:32 | For example, when signal level Y is
greater than the threshold, do this to the
| | 00:38 | signal--for example, turn it up or turn it down.
| | 00:43 | Think it this way:
| | 00:44 | if you're watching TV, and a loud
commercial comes on, you instinctively reach
| | 00:49 | for the remote control and turn it down.
| | 00:52 | In effect, you are acting as a
compressor. That commercial was so loud that it
| | 00:58 | triggered a threshold in your brain
that told you, wow, this is really loud.
| | 01:02 | It's going to bothering me.
I'm going to turn it down.
| | 01:05 | Now when your TV program comes back on
again, you instinctively reach for your
| | 01:08 | remote and tune it back up.
| | 01:10 | So, in this case, you're controlling
the dynamics of the TV based on some sort
| | 01:15 | of threshold in your head
that says "too loud" or "too soft."
| | 01:20 | Now, in a mix we will do the same
thing for something like a vocal.
| | 01:24 | For example, a typical vocal is going
to have some softer phrases and some
| | 01:29 | louder phrases, and may even change
wildly from word to word or even within a word.
| | 01:36 | If we take a look at the vocal in the
Take Me Down session, and I use my memory
| | 01:40 | locations and bring up the Lead Vocal
view, I can see just by looking at the
| | 01:47 | waveform that we have some soft
parts and some really loud parts.
| | 01:53 | And what the compressor is going to
allow me to do is even these out so that I
| | 01:57 | can pick a specific level for the
vocal in the mix at that point in the song,
| | 02:02 | and it's going to float above the
instruments, not jumping out too much or
| | 02:06 | tucking into the mix too much.
| | 02:09 | Now some of the common dynamics
processors we are going to work with mixing are
| | 02:13 | compressors, limiters, gates
or expanders, and de-essers.
| | 02:20 | Now these processors, next to EQ, will
quickly become your most useful tools in
| | 02:25 | mixing. Just like those TV commercials,
many signals often tend to be overly
| | 02:30 | dynamic when recorded and need a
little help staying in control.
| | 02:34 | Dynamics processors will allow us to
create a tight punch and focus mix that
| | 02:39 | sound like a record.
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| Using the DigiRack Dyn 3 compressor/limiter| 00:00 | I like to think of a compressor or
limiter as just a level-dependent volume
| | 00:03 | control, just like an EQ is a
frequency-dependent volume control.
| | 00:08 | The DigiRack time 3 Compressor/Limiter
is the stock channel strip compressor in
| | 00:12 | Pro Tools and serves as a great way
to familiarize yourself with the basic
| | 00:16 | parameters of compression and limiters.
| | 00:18 | If you can understand and use the
DigiRack compressor, you will be able to use
| | 00:23 | 95% of the compressors out
there, plug-in or otherwise.
| | 00:27 | So, I first want to show you a really
easy way to use most compressors that's
| | 00:32 | going to work with most signals in your mix.
| | 00:35 | And using the acoustic guitar here as
an example, I am going to go ahead and
| | 00:41 | reset this compressor to the factory
default and I am going to bring the
| | 00:45 | threshold all the way back to zero,
so that we can hear this guitar without any compression.
| | 00:50 | (music playing)
| | 00:55 | And notice the spikes as the notes are picked.
| | 00:59 | (music playing)
| | 01:06 | And so the reason I want to use
compression on this guitar is I just want to
| | 01:10 | tuck in some of that picking.
| | 01:13 | So we are going to fill out the body of
that guitar so it's not jumping out of
| | 01:17 | the mix and just firm that up a little
| | 01:19 | so that picking hand is a bit more even.
| | 01:22 | And this is pretty common with acoustic guitar.
| | 01:24 | So, without adjusting all these
parameters, all I am going to do is just start
| | 01:29 | with the factory default.
| | 01:31 | And I'm going to work with the
Threshold and Gain to apply compression to the signal.
| | 01:37 | I am going to start by pulling back the
Threshold, and that's the point at which
| | 01:42 | the compressor is going to begin compressing.
| | 01:44 | And as I play back the signal, I am
going to pull this Threshold back until I
| | 01:48 | see a few DBs of gain reduction.
| | 01:51 | That means the compressor is
working, or turning the signal down on the louder parts.
| | 01:56 | (music playing)
| | 02:04 | So as you can see in the louder picks,
it's starting to turn the signal down.
| | 02:10 | Now all I have to do is make up that
gain reduction using my Gain control. This
| | 02:17 | is often referred to as makeup gain,
and this allows me to hear the before and
| | 02:21 | after at roughly the same volume in
the mix, so that I can actually evaluate
| | 02:26 | what the compressor is doing.
| | 02:28 | So let's listen to the before and after.
| | 02:30 | (music playing)
| | 02:41 | And so you are getting a bit of fill
and a little bit of firming, and that's
| | 02:45 | really going to help this acoustic
guitar sit a little bit more confidently in the mix.
| | 02:50 | (music playing)
| | 03:03 | It's really evening out that pick hand.
| | 03:06 | Now, I didn't adjust Attack, Release,
Ratio, Knee, any of these other controls.
| | 03:11 | All I did was simply used Threshold
to tell the compressor when to start
| | 03:16 | reacting, and then I used the Gain just
to bring the volume back up after just
| | 03:21 | getting a few DBs of compression.
| | 03:23 | Now, a lot of times all I really need
are 2 to 4 DBs of gain reduction and I am
| | 03:28 | really getting something sitting in the mix.
| | 03:31 | Now, most compressors are going to
feature an input and an output that lets you
| | 03:36 | see what's coming in and
what's going out after compression.
| | 03:39 | This can really help you match your
input and output levels, so you can
| | 03:43 | truly evaluate the compression with no
net gain change, and really hear that compression.
| | 03:48 | One of the mistakes a lot of people
make is that they add too much volume when
| | 03:52 | using their compressor and so when
they bypass it, what they're hearing is a
| | 03:56 | result that's so much louder, and it's
really hard to tell whether or not you're
| | 04:00 | adding anything to the mix,
other than just volume.
| | 04:03 | Now, most compressors will feature an
attack and release control, and this
| | 04:08 | tells the compressor how fast to grab
hold of this signal once it passes the threshold.
| | 04:12 | Not all signals are going to pass over
the threshold, but the ones that do are
| | 04:17 | going to be compressed.
| | 04:18 | And how fast that compressor reacts,
or grabs hold of it, is going to be the attack.
| | 04:24 | It's sort of like when that loud
commercial comes on, how fast are you in
| | 04:27 | reacting to grabbing your
remote and turning it down?
| | 04:31 | The release would be a lot like when
your show comes back on and you want to
| | 04:35 | turn the program back up, how fast do you react?
| | 04:39 | So how fast does the compressor let go
of the signal after it's passed below the
| | 04:44 | threshold is the release.
| | 04:46 | If you set the attack too slow, the
whole signal is just going to go all the way
| | 04:51 | through without any compression.
| | 04:53 | If you set it to fast, it's going to
take a lot of the brilliance or the
| | 04:56 | brightness away from the transients.
| | 04:58 | Whereas with the release, if you set it
to slow, it doesn't have enough time to
| | 05:02 | recover in between notes. Whereas
if you set it to fast, this can cause
| | 05:07 | distortion in low-frequency material.
| | 05:10 | Now compressors also generally feature
a ratio which tells the compressor how
| | 05:15 | much to compress once the
signal has gone over the threshold.
| | 05:19 | A ratio of 2:1 would mean that if a
signal went 2 DBs over the threshold, only
| | 05:26 | 1 DB would come back out, whereas a
10:1 ratio would mean if 10 DB went over
| | 05:34 | the threshold, only 1 DB over
the threshold would be the result.
| | 05:40 | And that's effectively a limiter.
| | 05:42 | Remember, there may be times when the
signal is completely under the threshold.
| | 05:46 | In that case, the
ratio is not doing anything.
| | 05:49 | It's only determining how much gain
reduction is going to happen when the signal
| | 05:54 | goes over the threshold.
| | 05:56 | Now some compressors feature knees
that allow you to soften the transition
| | 06:01 | between the threshold and compression.
| | 06:05 | So it's starting the compression a
little bit early and ending it a little bit late.
| | 06:09 | This can help smooth out the
compressor's performance, and I find it works really
| | 06:14 | great for vocals and even this acoustic guitar.
| | 06:17 | Now, if I was going to set this
compressor up from scratch without using a
| | 06:21 | factory default, again, I would set my
Threshold to 0 so that no compression
| | 06:26 | is taking place. And remember, in the
digital world, we count up to 0, from
| | 06:31 | negative numbers up to 0.
| | 06:32 | So generally, you will see a
threshold displayed as negative numbers.
| | 06:36 | So we are actually digging into the signal.
| | 06:39 | Now, I am going to set my Attack to
moderately fast, so something around 50 ms,
| | 06:48 | and I am going to set my Release
to let's say right around 250 ms.
| | 06:53 | And this is just a general starting
point for instruments like vocals and guitar
| | 06:57 | and things like that.
| | 06:58 | Now, I will set the Knee to 0 and the
Ratio to 4:1, not a strong ratio but not
| | 07:05 | exactly a light ratio.
| | 07:07 | And again, I am going to play the
signal back. Listen as I pull the
| | 07:10 | Threshold down.
| | 07:11 | (music playing)
| | 07:21 | And once I see I am getting some gain
reduction, I will make that back up.
| | 07:24 | (music playing)
| | 07:32 | I will use my input and output to make
sure I am being honest with my makeup
| | 07:37 | gain, in that case, a little too hot.
| | 07:39 | And for the most part between 2, 4,
maybe 4 and 6 DBs of gain reduction is all I
| | 07:45 | am going to need to firm up the signal.
| | 07:46 | You don't really need to crush a
signal, unless that's the effect you are going for.
| | 07:51 | I find that the DigiRack compressor
is a no-nonsense channel-strip dynamics
| | 07:55 | processor that's not intended to
be colored or saturated in any way.
| | 08:00 | Depending on the genre of music and your
stylistic goals, you may ultimately opt
| | 08:04 | to use the compressor with a bit more character.
| | 08:07 | But learning the DigiRack is a great
way to familiarize yourself with the
| | 08:11 | common controls found in most
compressors, and its preset service a great
| | 08:16 | starting point for understanding the
thought process behind attack, release and
| | 08:20 | ratio relationships.
| | 08:22 | For an in-depth look at every
parameter you might find in the compressor
| | 08:26 | or dynamics processor, be sure to
check out my course Fundamentals of
| | 08:30 | Audio: Compression and Dynamics
Processing, here in the lynda.com Online
| | 08:34 | Training Library.
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| Balancing and shaping track dynamics| 00:00 | So, I showed how to use the DigiRack
compressor in the basic compression
| | 00:04 | workflow, but I want to talk more
about why and when we use compression
| | 00:07 | and limiting in mixing.
| | 00:09 | Much like the three C's of using EQ,
I would like to break down my compression
| | 00:14 | approaches into two general categories:
program dynamics and envelope shaping.
| | 00:20 | Just as EQ will shape a signal's
frequency balance, giving the mixer the ability
| | 00:25 | to fit element effectively into the
context of the mix, a compressor can be used
| | 00:30 | to blend or shape a track's dynamics,
helping it sit nicely in the mix when
| | 00:35 | volume, pan, and EQ aren't enough.
| | 00:38 | But why is this necessary?
| | 00:40 | Many times, instruments, especially
acoustic instruments and vocals, tend to be
| | 00:45 | overly dynamic for dense mixes,
| | 00:47 | too loud in some parts but too soft
in others, requiring a bit of compression
| | 00:52 | to be audible but not stick out of a mix.
| | 00:56 | Think of a mountain range with peaks
and valleys. The compressor's goal will be
| | 01:00 | to tame the peaks, while simultaneously
bringing up the valleys so that a track
| | 01:05 | sits evenly throughout the mix,
not getting lost or not jumping out at you.
| | 01:10 | An example of this would be, let's say
evening out of vocal tracks or lyrics
| | 01:15 | so that the some of the lyrics don't
get lost under the power of the guitars,
| | 01:18 | while others don't jump out and bite you.
| | 01:22 | This would be an example of using a
compressor to control program dynamics.
| | 01:26 | So you are looking to control the
note-for-note dynamics so that it sits
| | 01:29 | consistently in the mix.
| | 01:31 | However compressors and limiters can
also be used in a more micro sense of
| | 01:36 | reshaping a single note's
envelope or its attack or sustain.
| | 01:41 | By experimenting with the attack and
release parameters, a compressor can be
| | 01:44 | used to make percussive instruments
cut through the mix or fill out or fatten
| | 01:49 | up certain elements.
| | 01:51 | Compression can be hard to hear and use
when you first start out, and can quickly
| | 01:55 | ruin a mix or instrument if overused.
| | 01:58 | I suggest that when you are first
learning how to use compressor in your mixes,
| | 02:01 | make sure you try a challenge-and-
solution approach. Determine the goal of the
| | 02:06 | processing before you seek a solution.
| | 02:08 | For example, if you think your vocal
needs compression to sit in the mix, try and
| | 02:14 | understand why that is, before applying it.
| | 02:16 | So, are you hearing words drop out or
words pop out too much? Are certain notes
| | 02:21 | of your base guitar too loud and some too soft?
| | 02:25 | This would let you know that you need
a compressor to solve that issue, rather
| | 02:29 | than just slapping it on
there because someone told you to.
| | 02:32 | At first try using compression in small
increments. Over time your instincts will
| | 02:38 | develop and soon you will be reaching
for compressors without blinking an eye.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using gates and expanders| 00:00 | A gate or its close sibling, the
expander, are also very common
| | 00:05 | dynamics-based mixing tools.
| | 00:07 | They're generally used to remove the
underlying bleed or noise from a track, like
| | 00:12 | drum tracks or headphone bleed from a
vocal, things like that, leaving behind a
| | 00:17 | clean signal to process.
| | 00:19 | You can think of a gate sort of like
the automatic door at the supermarket.
| | 00:23 | When it sees you, it opens up and lets
you through, but when it doesn't detect
| | 00:28 | anything, it closes back up to keep
the heating and cooling costs down.
| | 00:32 | It's the same way with the signal,
because the signal that we want to record is
| | 00:37 | generally separated from the bleed--or
at least a little bit louder. We can
| | 00:41 | actually set the threshold of a gate,
so that it opens up when the signal is
| | 00:45 | there or present and closes back
down when the signal is not there.
| | 00:51 | We tend to use gates to control the
bleed on a track and while bleed may not
| | 00:56 | seem too intrusive on just a single
track, it's important to understand that it
| | 01:00 | can add up over the mix, add up
across many, many tracks, and it can also be
| | 01:06 | exaggerated by extreme compression or use of EQ.
| | 01:11 | If we use a gate or expander, we can
remove or reduce this bleed, making the
| | 01:16 | tracks more malleable in our mix.
| | 01:18 | Now historically, we used quite a few
gates in the era of tape machines and tape
| | 01:24 | hiss, and this would be to control
that tape hiss when running it through
| | 01:28 | additional compression and limiting.
| | 01:30 | Today, in the DAW environment,
we have very, very low noise floors,
| | 01:35 | so typically were using it to combat
things like multi-mic drum setups or
| | 01:40 | headphone bleed on vocals and stuff like that.
| | 01:44 | If we look at some examples of gates
in the Take Me Down session, on the kick
| | 01:48 | drum I'm using a gate on both the
kick beater mic as well as the sub-kick
| | 01:54 | mic, and if we listen--
| | 01:57 | (music playing)
| | 02:10 | --we can hear that I'm cutting
out almost all of that snare bleed.
| | 02:15 | The reason I want to gate this kick
is because I want to be able to add
| | 02:19 | compression, just to give it a little
bit of a spike on the transient, but in
| | 02:25 | adding that compression, I don't want
to draw out that snare even more, because
| | 02:30 | later, I'm going to be aggressively EQing it.
| | 02:32 | So, all this aggressive top end that I'm
adding and low end, I don't want that to
| | 02:38 | be exaggerated with the bleed of the snare.
| | 02:41 | In a sense, a gate is kind
of like a reverse compressor.
| | 02:45 | When a signal passes the threshold, it
actually lets it through untouched and
| | 02:50 | when it's under the threshold, it's
actually reducing or completely cutting
| | 02:55 | out the volume.
| | 02:56 | Now, the attack and the
release work in the exact same way;
| | 03:00 | however, the attack controls how fast
that gate opens up when the signal goes
| | 03:05 | over the threshold, and the release
controls how fast it closes back down when
| | 03:11 | the signal falls under the threshold.
| | 03:13 | Let's play with that a little bit here.
| | 03:14 | (music playing)
| | 03:26 | As you can hear, if the attack is not
fast enough, the gate doesn't open up
| | 03:31 | quickly enough to allow the
transient of the kick drum through.
| | 03:34 | This would be kind of like running at that
door at the supermarket and the doors
| | 03:38 | just don't open fast enough
before you ram into the glass.
| | 03:43 | (music playing)
| | 03:46 | Now, the release, if set too fast,
I'm cutting off all the sustain.
| | 03:55 | If too slow, it's not closing between
the notes, and so I'm back to where I
| | 04:03 | started with all that bleed.
| | 04:05 | So, I want to make sure that I'm setting
my attack and release to open and close
| | 04:09 | fast enough to accommodate
the signal I'm working with.
| | 04:12 | Now, in a typical hard gate, the
ratio would be infinite, or in this case,
| | 04:18 | I've got a 100:1, which is pretty
much cutting out everything below the
| | 04:22 | threshold completely.
| | 04:23 | (music playing)
| | 04:28 | Now, if I want to preserve a little
bit of the bleed but just attenuate it, I
| | 04:32 | can actually turn this into an expander.
| | 04:35 | It's actually what's called a downward
expander because everything below the
| | 04:39 | threshold is actually being turned down
based on the ratio here, and this allows
| | 04:44 | a little bit of the bleed to come
through but turns it down enough to where I
| | 04:49 | have it under control.
| | 04:50 | And this is really effective on things
like the snare drum here where what I
| | 04:56 | have on the snare drum, there're some
ghost notes, there's some rafts, real
| | 05:01 | intricate snare work that I want to preserve.
| | 05:03 | So, you can see that my ratio is really low.
| | 05:05 | Let's take a listen.
| | 05:08 | (music playing)
| | 05:16 | Now, if I hard gate this--
| | 05:17 | (music playing)
| | 05:21 | --do you hear how I lost all those ghost notes?
| | 05:23 | I actually want to keep those ghost notes.
| | 05:25 | (music playing)
| | 05:33 | So I'm actually using a very soft ratio.
| | 05:36 | (music playing)
| | 05:43 | Again, I'm using an attack that's very,
very fast, and I'm even using the Look
| | 05:46 | Ahead setting right here,
| | 05:48 | so it actually looks ahead of the
signal and it anticipates when something is
| | 05:51 | going to breach the threshold.
| | 05:53 | And I'm using a release that's
recovering fast enough so it's actually
| | 05:57 | swelling between hits, enough to give
the gate the effect I'm looking for.
| | 06:02 | Now, some gates have a Hold setting
which tell it to stay open for a certain
| | 06:06 | amount of time, and most of those
automatic doors will actually stay open for a
| | 06:10 | period of time after they sense
somebody that's in front of them, just to make
| | 06:13 | sure that they are not closing down
on any little kids that are following behind you.
| | 06:17 | Again, the threshold is going to work
the same way as it does in a compressor;
| | 06:21 | it's setting the reaction point.
| | 06:23 | So, it's picking the point where
you want the gate to open up and then
| | 06:28 | close back down.
| | 06:29 | So, loud signals come through when
they're over the threshold and the bleed gets
| | 06:34 | cut off when it's under the threshold.
| | 06:37 | Now, just some general ideas
when working with the gate.
| | 06:40 | Make sure you spend some time adjusting
the attack and release so that the gate
| | 06:45 | isn't chattering or reacting
or coughing in a weird way.
| | 06:49 | Make sure it's actually reacting to
your signal at all the different parts of
| | 06:52 | the song, how you want it.
| | 06:54 | You might set it up in a verse only to
have the signal get louder in the chorus
| | 06:59 | and require a different gate setting.
| | 07:01 | So, in that situation, what I like to do
is I actually like to edit in my gates
| | 07:07 | using the Edit window, so not using a
plug-in at all. And if we take a look at
| | 07:12 | the toms here we can see that all the
bleed has been edited out of the toms.
| | 07:18 | So, I'm using the gate; rather, I'm
using the Selector tool to select the bleed
| | 07:24 | and completely remove it.
| | 07:25 | Now, this takes a little bit more time,
but because the tom volume changes
| | 07:30 | throughout the track--here it's a bit soft;
| | 07:32 | here it's a little bit louder--
| | 07:34 | in this specific song, I found that it
was very hard to set the gate's threshold
| | 07:39 | to react to all of the different
parts of the song. And I didn't want to
| | 07:42 | automate the threshold, so I found
it easier just to cut that all out.
| | 07:46 | Another thing to remember when you're
using gates, especially on very delicate
| | 07:51 | instruments like vocals, is avoid over-gating.
| | 07:54 | You don't always have to cut
the bleed out of everything.
| | 07:57 | Even on drums, sometimes the bleed is
good and you want to embrace it, and it's
| | 08:00 | going to give the song a vibe.
| | 08:03 | I think a lot of people, when they first
learn gates, and they think noise is bad
| | 08:07 | and they just tend to over-gate
everything, so even the breaths of the vocal
| | 08:10 | are being gated, when it can be a
little bit awkward not to hear the breaths of the vocals.
| | 08:15 | So, make sure you're making
those conscious decisions.
| | 08:19 | Gates can also be cool in the context
of side-chain processing, and we're going
| | 08:23 | to look at that later in another video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using de-essers to eliminate sibilance| 00:00 | Sibilance, or the hard S sound of
a vocal, can be quite overwhelming.
| | 00:05 | It can be especially bad when
certain singers are recorded with a less-
| | 00:08 | than-optimal mic choice.
| | 00:10 | This challenge is so prominent in the
recording world that a specific type of
| | 00:14 | dynamics processor was developed to tackle it.
| | 00:16 | It's called a de-esser.
| | 00:19 | A de-esser is what is also referred
to as a frequency-dependent compressor.
| | 00:23 | In other words, the compression or
gain reduction in level is triggered only
| | 00:28 | when specific frequencies breach the threshold.
| | 00:32 | In the case of the de-esser, it's
generally set up to react to only the high
| | 00:37 | frequencies of a vocals S or shh
sounds or other harsh or brittle sounds: for
| | 00:42 | example, poorly recorded cymbals or an
overly bright mix come mastering stage.
| | 00:50 | So, how does it work?
| | 00:52 | Basically, a de-esser takes only a
specified high-frequency band and feeds it
| | 00:57 | into its compression-
detection circuit, or side chain.
| | 01:01 | When this band becomes excited by an
overly sibilant word or phrase, it tells
| | 01:07 | the compressor to turn down a
signal by a specified amount.
| | 01:11 | So, let's take a look at the
de-esser on the vocal track of the Take Me Down session.
| | 01:16 | And I am actually going to switch to
the Edit window and use my memory location
| | 01:23 | to bring up the lead vocal.
| | 01:28 | And let's take a listen
here without the de-esser.
| | 01:30 | (music playing)
| | 01:38 | All right, let's take that S there in "sound."
(music playing)
| | 01:44 | And that could get a little bit hot,
especially because I'm adding all this
| | 01:49 | top end here in my EQ.
| | 01:51 | So, what I am going to do is I am
going to pull up the De-Esser Dynamics 3 here.
| | 01:58 | And let's take a listen at what I've got going on.
| | 02:00 | (music playing)
| | 02:03 | Notice how it only reacts
to the S of that phrase.
| | 02:06 | (music playing)
| | 02:09 | And that's because I have set
the de-esser up only to look at
| | 02:13 | specific frequencies.
| | 02:14 | So I am telling this de-esser, hey,
look around 6k and if you detect something
| | 02:20 | that's fairly loud in that range, turn it down.
| | 02:24 | Again, it's a frequency-specific compressor.
| | 02:27 | Now the Range control is saying, how
much I want to turn it down, in this
| | 02:31 | case up to 70 beats.
| | 02:34 | And I have also engaged the
high-frequency only option, so that's only
| | 02:38 | turning down the
frequencies around 6K and higher.
| | 02:43 | If I don't use the high-frequency
option, it's actually turning everything
| | 02:47 | down at that point.
(music playing)
| | 02:50 | Then I find what can happen if I'm not
using high-frequency only and I
| | 02:54 | am using a lot of range, is I can
actually add a lisp to this singer.
| | 02:59 | (music playing)
| | 03:06 | So, not it's also getting into the TH
sounds and unless I am trying to play a
| | 03:11 | joke on the vocalist, I generally don't
want to dig too deep into the range or
| | 03:17 | use too much broadband de-essing.
| | 03:20 | Now, in order to find the sweet spot
frequency, for most lead vocalists, it's
| | 03:26 | going to be between 6k and 7k, but what
you can do is just select a particularly
| | 03:32 | sibilant portion and check the LISTEN box.
| | 03:36 | And now you can actually go through and
adjust the frequency while listening just
| | 03:41 | to the side change. Check it out.
| | 03:42 | (music playing)
| | 03:50 | And I can find where it gets really bad.
| | 03:52 | (music playing)
| | 03:59 | So, right around that 6k,
I don't like that sound,
| | 04:03 | so I will turn that off and I will
bring that RANGE down and then engage my
| | 04:07 | indeed my high-frequency only
option. Get a little de-essing going on.
| | 04:12 | Now you're definitely going to want to
adjust this in the mix and in context with
| | 04:17 | your EQ, because you might want to add a
bit more top end, once you are hearing
| | 04:23 | things in the mix. But I often find
that I'm always using a little bit of
| | 04:28 | de-essing on all my vocals, unless for
some reason they are not doing any S
| | 04:32 | sounds or there was an ideal mic selection.
| | 04:36 | And if you look around this specific mix,
you will see that I'm actually using
| | 04:39 | the de-esser other places, specifically
the drums here. So on my overhead tracks
| | 04:47 | I am using a de-esser to kind of
tame some of these harsh cymbal sounds.
| | 04:53 | I didn't exactly like how the cymbals
were recorded in the room and if we just
| | 04:58 | kind of listen here.
(music playing)
| | 05:03 | Especially in the chorus.
(music playing)
| | 05:08 | I'm adding some air at the top end,
but to me it just got a little bit harsh.
| | 05:12 | And so I wanted to do is just do
bit of high-frequency-only
| | 05:16 | de-essing above 7K.
| | 05:18 | (music playing)
| | 05:25 | And to me, that's just smoothing out the
top end a little. Some people might be
| | 05:31 | surprised when you say de-essing can
actually allow you to increase the amount
| | 05:35 | of high frequencies in a mix,
because it's taming the nastier parts.
| | 05:40 | So what you'll find is mastering
engineers will actually use it quite a bit so
| | 05:43 | they can add a bunch of high-
frequency air to an entire mix without it becoming harsh.
| | 05:50 | I will use de-essers anywhere where
I think things are going to get a bit
| | 05:54 | harsh in the top end.
| | 05:55 | So even on reverb and effects returns, a
lot of times, a plate reverb can really
| | 06:00 | exaggerate sibilance.
| | 06:02 | Now some other ideas, instead of
using de-essing, would be try using volume
| | 06:07 | automation to control the sibilance.
| | 06:09 | So instead of using a de-esser
that would dig into your TH sounds or P
| | 06:14 | sounds a little bit too much, what
you can actually do is draw in volume
| | 06:18 | automation, and we'll talk
about that little bit later.
| | 06:21 | This allows you to total control
over when that signal is getting ducked.
| | 06:27 | What I like to do when I am checking
my sibilance is always check my mix on
| | 06:30 | small speakers or ear buds, as the
high frequencies tend to be even more
| | 06:35 | fatiguing on these systems.
| | 06:36 | De-essers are a great little utility
that once you start using them in your mix,
| | 06:41 | you'll never know how you lived without them.
| | 06:44 | Plus most are incredibly
hands-off and plug-and-play,
| | 06:47 | so there is no reason to be afraid
of integrating them into your mixes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A dynamics workflow example: vocal| 00:00 | Did you ever wonder how the lead
vocal in your favorite song just sounds
| | 00:04 | larger-than-life: upfront, full,
present, sometimes in your face but always in control?
| | 00:11 | Well, let me let you in on a little secret.
| | 00:13 | The proper use of compression is going
to be the main component in giving your
| | 00:17 | vocalists that celebrity treatment.
| | 00:19 | Now there's typically two reasons
why we need compression on vocals.
| | 00:24 | One is going to be to even out the
performance, either word for word or within
| | 00:28 | a word so that no words stick out or
hover over the mix, but we don't lose any
| | 00:34 | words of the lyric.
| | 00:36 | Compression is going to effectively
restrict the dynamic range of the vocal,
| | 00:41 | allowing us to set it at a level in the
mix at any given point in the song and
| | 00:46 | always be able to hear the lyric.
| | 00:49 | The other reason we're going to use
compression on vocals will be to firm and
| | 00:53 | strengthen the tone.
| | 00:55 | So especially with character
compressors, either vintage or vintage-model
| | 01:00 | compressors, more than just dynamics
control, we're going to get a bit of
| | 01:04 | firming and tonal strengthening,
really making the vocalist sound strong and
| | 01:10 | upfront, more so than just, let's say
using automation controlling the relative
| | 01:15 | dynamics, word for word.
| | 01:18 | So let's take a look at the use of
compression on Joshua's vocal in Take Me Down.
| | 01:23 | I'm going to start by pulling up the
lead vocal view on my Memory Locations.
| | 01:27 | And I want to show you the Edit window here,
because I want to take a look and just
| | 01:34 | visualize what's going on with the waveform.
| | 01:38 | And this can be a really great way
to help you visualize why we need
| | 01:42 | compression. And if you do a little
audio sweetening on your compressor, you can
| | 01:47 | really see what's actually
happening to the resulting waveform.
| | 01:51 | And I can see here, in the second verse
we've got some loud parts, some softer
| | 01:58 | parts, and even louder parts, but even
in this section, we've kind of got loud
| | 02:03 | parts mixed in with softer parts.
| | 02:05 | Now, if we listen to this without
compression, what we're going to hear is that
| | 02:12 | some of these just pop out too much
and some of them die below the mix, where
| | 02:16 | we're not even able to
understand what he's saying.
| | 02:18 | So I'm going to bypass the
compressor here and play this back.
| | 02:22 | (music playing)
| | 02:40 | So hopefully you heard that in this
section, especially right here and in these
| | 02:46 | sections, it just pops out way too
much from the mix, as if the vocal is
| | 02:51 | disconnected from the rest
of the song and not sitting.
| | 02:54 | And no matter what volume level we
choose, even if we choose to turn it up or
| | 02:58 | turn it down, it's always going to seem
as if this vocal is a bit disconnected,
| | 03:02 | because word for word and in between
words, there's quite a great deal of
| | 03:07 | dynamic range, or
difference between loud and soft.
| | 03:10 | So we're going to use the compressor
to restrict this dynamic range, and it's
| | 03:15 | kind of a two-part process.
| | 03:17 | What I want to do is tame those peaks,
so compress those louder sections, so
| | 03:23 | that I can add makeup gain to
inflate the softer sections.
| | 03:28 | And this is going to be your most
common use of compression, to tame program
| | 03:33 | dynamics or sort of long-term dynamics
so that we can hear each note evenly.
| | 03:39 | Now on this vocal, I decided to use
the BF76, and let's just take a listen
| | 03:46 | with that in.
| | 03:48 | (music playing)
| | 04:05 | And so now what you're hearing is we
can hear all of the lyrics. It's gelling
| | 04:09 | with the mix, it's tucked in, but
everything is audible. Nothing is dying
| | 04:14 | behind the power of the guitars or the drums.
| | 04:17 | So again, if we solo this up,
just take a quick listen before.
| | 04:21 | (music playing)
| | 04:29 | And after.
(music playing)
| | 04:47 | Now this is a rock tune, so I'm using
a bit more compression than I typically
| | 04:51 | would in, let's say something
like a ballet or a jazz standard.
| | 04:56 | I really want to kind of give it a
bit of that aggressive attitude kind of
| | 04:59 | sound, and that's why I chose to use the BF76.
| | 05:02 | The BF76 is actually based on the
classic 1176 from Universal Audio, and this
| | 05:11 | compressor can kind of confuse
people because it's not like a typical
| | 05:14 | compressor in that it doesn't have a
threshold control, and you don't see
| | 05:19 | something labeled gain for makeup, as
well as the attack and the release are
| | 05:23 | kind of backwards.
| | 05:24 | So let's just walk through how I
would set this compressor up on a vocal.
| | 05:28 | So if we just went from whatever the
factory default, just the no settings
| | 05:33 | here, what I'm going to do with the
1176 is I'm going to use the input to drive the threshold.
| | 05:40 | So the 1176 is famous for having a
fixed threshold, so you can imagine that
| | 05:45 | there's this threshold in here
between the Input and the Output. And what
| | 05:48 | you're going to do is instead of
bringing the threshold down to meet the
| | 05:53 | program, you're actually going to turn
the Input up to force it into that fixed threshold.
| | 05:58 | Then once I get the amount of
compression I'm looking for, I'll use the Output
| | 06:02 | control as my makeup gain.
And oftentimes when I'm doing this, because I'm
| | 06:06 | adding so much to the Input side, I'm
actually using the Output to turn the
| | 06:10 | signal down, so that it's about the
same level as the vocal before compression,
| | 06:15 | and then I can really evaluate
what that's doing in the mix.
| | 06:17 | So, check it out.
| | 06:18 | (music playing)
| | 06:36 | So that sounds pretty good.
| | 06:37 | Now what I'll do is I'll kind of
bypass and get an idea of where I need to
| | 06:40 | send my output.
| | 06:41 | (music playing)
| | 06:46 | A little bit louder, so I'm
just going to tuck that in a bit.
| | 06:49 | (music playing)
| | 06:51 | I'm going to do this in the mix.
(music playing)
| | 07:00 | Now the Ratio control, you're going to
get 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1, and you can get
| | 07:05 | an all-buttons-in if you hold Shift.
| | 07:07 | And that's kind of going to give
you a different style of compression,
| | 07:11 | something you really just kind of have
to play with to understand on a bunch of different material.
| | 07:15 | It's not really for this vocal and
this session, but try it out sometime.
| | 07:19 | I'm going to stick with the 4:1 ratio.
| | 07:21 | Now the Attack and Release really
confuses people on the 1176, because they
| | 07:26 | often think it's measured in
milliseconds and so they think 1 is faster and 7 is slower.
| | 07:32 | And it's actually the opposite;
| | 07:33 | 7 is the fastest setting
for both Attack and Release.
| | 07:37 | So you can think of it as more being
faster, like the miles-per-hour gauge
| | 07:43 | on your car.
| | 07:44 | So the attack is actually always really fast.
| | 07:47 | Even at 1, the attack is still in the
milliseconds. So very, very fast. So it is
| | 07:52 | fast to extremely fast at 7.
| | 07:54 | So what I'm going to do on this vocal is
I'm going to leave it a little bit open,
| | 07:58 | just to let a bit of the
bite or the presence through.
| | 08:01 | I don't want to totally close down
those transients on his vocals, because
| | 08:05 | that's going to come and take some of
the brightness away, and I want to retain
| | 08:09 | some of that spit or brightness in this track.
| | 08:12 | Now with the Release, what I want
to do is I want to make sure that the
| | 08:15 | compressor is recovering
between words and phrases.
| | 08:18 | So if I set it too slow,
the compressor might not recover.
| | 08:21 | Check it out.
(music playing)
| | 08:26 | It's not quite recovering between those words,
| | 08:30 | so I'm going to kick it up a bit.
| | 08:32 | And really, how I use the 1176 a lot
is I kind of use this 10 and 2 kind of
| | 08:38 | setting, and that's kind of
a classic starting point.
| | 08:41 | I've got my Attack in around 3, my
Release at around 5, and that's going to do a
| | 08:46 | pretty good job on most types of
program material, including vocals.
| | 08:51 | Now I could also experiment with
setting the release very fast, and especially
| | 08:56 | on a compressor like the 1176, I'm going
to pull out a lot of the sustain because
| | 09:01 | the compressor is recovering so quickly
that that makeup gain is taking over, and
| | 09:06 | it's really filling out all
the valleys of the signal.
| | 09:09 | Check it out.
| | 09:10 | (music playing)
| | 09:18 | Really breathy.
| | 09:19 | (music playing)
| | 09:26 | So hopefully you can hear,
it's recovering so fast that it's swelling his breath
| | 09:32 | between those two words up. And that can
be kind of a cool effect if that's what
| | 09:35 | you're looking for, something that
aggressive, whereas in this tune, maybe what
| | 09:39 | I want to do is just slow it down
just a bit so that it's not recovering so
| | 09:44 | quickly or so aggressively between those words.
| | 09:46 | Let's try that.
(music playing)
| | 09:52 | So hear the difference there?
(music playing)
| | 09:58 | You're really drawing out that breath.
| | 09:59 | And that can be really cool for snare
drums or drum buses where you just want to
| | 10:03 | kind of go totally crazy
and bring out that swell.
| | 10:07 | Now, sometimes when I add
compression to vocals, I'll do it via parallel
| | 10:12 | compression where I'm actually creating
a second track and compressing that and
| | 10:16 | bringing that up
underneath the uncompressed track.
| | 10:19 | We'll talk about parallel
compression in another video.
| | 10:22 | Another consideration I generally
have with vocals is that I want to do my
| | 10:26 | EQing, or at least my boost EQing, if
I'm going to do some top end boost, after I
| | 10:33 | apply my compression, especially in a
rock song like this where I'm doing a lot of compression.
| | 10:37 | At the bare minimum, I want to check
it, because the compression is going to
| | 10:41 | steal a lot of the top end from the vocal,
especially if we're getting into 8, 10,
| | 10:45 | 12 dBs of gain reduction,
like on a rock tune like this.
| | 10:50 | Again, you may also consider
automation, volume automation, as opposed to
| | 10:55 | compression or in addition to compression.
| | 10:58 | In certain styles of music, you're
going to want to retain some of the dynamics
| | 11:02 | in the vocal. You're going to want to
retain some of that original swagger from
| | 11:07 | the vocalist, them moving
towards and back from the mic.
| | 11:11 | And you can use automation, volume
automation, which we'll talk about in a bit,
| | 11:15 | to really get the lyric where you
want it to be, level-wise, but not have the
| | 11:20 | artifacts of the compression. Whereas
in a rock song like this, actually the
| | 11:25 | artifacts of compression sound
really cool; it really gels it with the mix.
| | 11:29 | Ultimately, the proper use of
compression, in addition to EQ, can really make the
| | 11:34 | vocalist sound like a star.
| | 11:36 | While the amount you use in the style of
compressor will vary based on the genre
| | 11:40 | of music and the vocalist's particular technique,
| | 11:43 | I would say that I use compression on
vocals 99% of the time in my mixes.
| | 11:47 | And sometimes it's only a few dBs of gain
reduction, while other times I'm squashing
| | 11:52 | it beyond recognition.
| | 11:53 | To help decide how much is appropriate
for your tune, go back to your mix plan
| | 11:57 | and use your ears as your guide.
Play around with the amount of compression, if
| | 12:02 | only to identify what each kind sounds
like, and use those reference tracks of
| | 12:06 | your favorite music to compare to your track.
| | 12:09 | Also, be mindful of when using
presets to at least set your threshold and
| | 12:14 | makeup gain controls, because there's
no way for the preset to know how loud
| | 12:19 | your source material is.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A dynamics workflow example: drums| 00:00 | Do you ever wonder how a mixer is able
to almost knock you over with the power
| | 00:04 | of a snare drum, or how about that clap
on a hip-hop track that just slaps you
| | 00:08 | right in the phase?
| | 00:10 | You see, while acoustic instruments in
vocals tend to be overly dynamic in over
| | 00:14 | the course of a group of notes or words,
tend to have wild dynamic differences,
| | 00:19 | most percussive elements, especially
electronic drums and percussion, tend to
| | 00:24 | have fairly controlled
dynamic range, note for note.
| | 00:28 | But they may lack that extra punch on
each note or hit that will allow it to
| | 00:32 | cut through a dense mix effectively.
| | 00:35 | Why we compress drums is a
little bit different than why we would compress vocals.
| | 00:40 | Again, typically the drums don't need
much help with note-for-note dynamics.
| | 00:46 | That is to say, unless the drummer is
really inconsistent, the differences
| | 00:50 | between each drum hit are, in
my experience, pretty much even.
| | 00:54 | However, what I want to do with
compression on drums is really use the
| | 00:59 | compression to envelope each note
individually to draw out its attack, or bite, or
| | 01:06 | lengthen out its sustain, or
release portion of the sound.
| | 01:11 | So this is going to help me add punch.
It's going to allow the drums to cut
| | 01:16 | through a really dense mix full of
guitars. And the secret to doing this is
| | 01:21 | actually taking advantage of the attack
and release settings that you will find
| | 01:27 | in most compressors.
| | 01:29 | By setting the attack setting slow
enough to allow a bit of the transient of a
| | 01:35 | drum through without any compression,
what I can do is then compress the body
| | 01:41 | of the signal and use the makeup gain
to, in a sense, inflate the attack or
| | 01:47 | transient portion.
| | 01:48 | I can also use the release control, and
just like I did with the vocal by setting
| | 01:52 | the release very fast, I can
draw out the sustain of a note.
| | 01:56 | Really what I am doing in that case is
I am allowing the compressor to recover
| | 02:00 | very quickly after the transient and
using that makeup gain to inflate the note.
| | 02:05 | So let's take a listen to an example of
this on the snare drum in Take Me Down.
| | 02:10 | I am going to solo up the drums just
so we can listen to them for a bit.
| | 02:13 | (music playing)
| | 02:28 | And let's just take a listen to the
snare drum, right here in the first verse.
| | 02:34 | So we've got a top and a bottom snare here.
| | 02:37 | (music playing)
| | 02:47 | I am going to bypass the compression.
| | 02:49 | (music playing)
| | 02:57 | And here is on. And one more time in the mix.
(music playing)
| | 03:15 | So it's subtle. I am not doing a ton of
compression on the snare, but it's just
| | 03:18 | giving me just a little bit of that
extra bite that I need to let the snare
| | 03:23 | cut through the mix.
| | 03:24 | Now, because I am using a snare top
and bottom, what I have actually done is
| | 03:29 | made sure that on my EQ I am
inverting the phase of the bottom mic, because
| | 03:36 | when you mic a snare drum top-bottom
and you strike the top snare skin, the top
| | 03:42 | mic's diaphragm is actually getting
pulled, pulled towards the direction of the
| | 03:47 | skin pushing down, whereas the bottom
mic's diaphragm is getting pushed in the
| | 03:52 | same direction as that bottom
head pushing out towards it.
| | 03:56 | So inverting the phase allows them
to have better alignment so that the
| | 04:01 | waveforms are pushing at the same time
and pulling at the same time, rather than
| | 04:06 | fighting with each other, which can
cause a weakening in the sound. And you can
| | 04:10 | really get a sense of this just
by zooming in on some waveforms.
| | 04:16 | And you can see, while the bottom mic
is actually rarefaction when the top mic
| | 04:24 | is a compression here.
| | 04:25 | So the top mic is pushing while the bottom
mic is pulling and what we want to do to
| | 04:30 | fight that is flip the phase.
| | 04:33 | It's really easy. Actually if you
have a double mic set up on kick drums or
| | 04:37 | snare drum, flip the phase. See if it
sounds better, see if it sounds stronger.
| | 04:41 | If it sounds worse,
you don't really have a problem.
| | 04:44 | If you can't really hear the difference,
then you know what? Don't worry about
| | 04:47 | it; it's probably not
going to be that big of a deal.
| | 04:50 | So back to what we're doing with this
compressor here. What I am doing is I have
| | 04:54 | actually got an attack of 10
milliseconds, and what that's going to do is allow a
| | 04:59 | bit of the transient of
the snare to come through.
| | 05:02 | And the way I want to illustrate this
is actually I want to take this preset
| | 05:07 | and I am going to copy it. I am
going to disable my Groups here, so I can
| | 05:13 | select just the snare drum. And I am
going to select a couple of hits, and I am
| | 05:17 | going to AudioSuite them.
| | 05:18 | Dynamics, let me go down to that same
compressor, and I am going to paste that
| | 05:23 | preset just like that, and
then I am going to hit Render.
| | 05:29 | What I want to do is let's
compare these two waveforms.
| | 05:32 | So you can see, the body is about
the same, but I really spiked out
| | 05:37 | that transient.
| | 05:38 | So if you compare this one here to the
one that I processed within AudioSuite
| | 05:44 | here, you can really see there is that
first 10 milliseconds that went through
| | 05:49 | the compressor uncompressed, and then
the rest of the body got compressed.
| | 05:54 | But after that makeup gain, it really
inflated that transient by about 4 db
| | 05:59 | here, as opposed to if we, let's say,
take and select these guys here, and if I
| | 06:05 | were to do that same compression--
and I am going to paste this again.
| | 06:10 | But what I am going to do is I am
going to change the attack to be super, super fast,
| | 06:14 | so too fast to let any of the transient through.
| | 06:17 | Wow! Look at that. It totally cut all the
transient off, and now I have even less than
| | 06:23 | what I started with.
| | 06:24 | So I hope this illustrates how powerful
the attack and release controls are in a compressor.
| | 06:31 | Now, some of the other cool tricks I
can do--I am going to undo both of those,
| | 06:38 | and we'll solo these two guys up again.
| | 06:41 | So if we listen here, listen as I
pull the attack down, make it faster and slower.
| | 06:46 | (music playing)
| | 07:08 | Now, if I go too slow, it's just
going to miss the drum entirely.
| | 07:11 | It's like trying to catch a ball
that already flew through your hands.
| | 07:15 | (music playing)
| | 07:17 | A cool trick to do, if you're in
your DAW, is to just go ahead and make a
| | 07:22 | selection of your drum and switch your
grid to minutes and seconds and look at
| | 07:29 | the length of your actual drum envelope.
| | 07:32 | Well, I can see that the drum is
pretty much dead after 160 milliseconds,
| | 07:36 | so having an attack over 100
milliseconds isn't going to do a whole lot for me.
| | 07:43 | So try this trick sometime.
Take advantage of your DAW's time measurement and
| | 07:50 | really use that to help govern some
of your attack and release choices.
| | 07:54 | Now, another cool trick I can do outside
of the attack--let's just set that back
| | 07:59 | to 10--is play with that release
to bring out some of the sustain.
| | 08:02 | So take a listen to this.
| | 08:05 | (music playing)
| | 08:23 | Now, I had to dig real deep in the
threshold and use a whole ton of makeup gain
| | 08:28 | to really get that sustain to swell out.
This is actually a really cool trick.
| | 08:32 | If you want to have a little bit more
ring to your snare, you can really play
| | 08:37 | with that Release setting and try
digging deep in Ratio and Threshold to
| | 08:42 | really draw that out.
| | 08:43 | (music playing)
| | 08:55 | Now, what I find when I do that is
sometimes I can compromise the attack
| | 08:59 | portion, so a cool trick you can try
is actually duplicating your snare track
| | 09:03 | and processing one for more attack and
processing the other for more release or
| | 09:08 | sustain sounds, and kind of
setting up a parallel workflow.
| | 09:12 | In a DAW, this takes you
like five seconds to set up.
| | 09:16 | I find that I am always experimenting
with duplicating tracks and applying
| | 09:20 | different kinds of compression to draw
out one thing on one track and another
| | 09:26 | thing on the other track.
| | 09:28 | Ultimately, some considerations for
using compressors on drums. I tend to like
| | 09:32 | to use faster, more time-accurate
compressors. Some compressors are just too
| | 09:37 | slow to give me the full control
of these envelope-shaping tricks.
| | 09:42 | They just don't grab hold of signal fast enough.
| | 09:44 | Now, they still could be cool on drums,
so always try every compressor you have
| | 09:48 | and see what it sounds like.
| | 09:50 | You might be surprised. But I find that
using a compressor with an attack and
| | 09:55 | release that I can set really helps
me hone in exactly on my drum envelope.
| | 10:01 | One thing you want to be careful of,
when I was getting into these extreme
| | 10:05 | settings here, is I am actually
clipping the output of my compressor.
| | 10:08 | So because you're letting that
transient through and you're using a lot of
| | 10:12 | makeup gain, it's really easy to have
an output. That transient is just so much
| | 10:21 | bigger than the body of the snare that
that output is actually clipping the
| | 10:24 | output of your compressor.
| | 10:26 | Now, some plug-ins deal with this
gracefully; others just straight clip and distort.
| | 10:31 | So be mindful of your headroom inside
the compressor, or how much room you have
| | 10:37 | left before it hits 0. And sometimes
what you might want to do is actually bring
| | 10:41 | the level of the signal down entirely.
| | 10:45 | I might want to use the EQ before this
to just really bring the output down
| | 10:50 | so that when I go into my compressor,
I've got a whole ton of room to spike
| | 10:54 | out that transient.
| | 10:56 | Remember, plug-ins sometimes don't
have as much headroom as the mix bus in Pro Tools.
| | 11:01 | So what I will do a lot of times is I
will really manage my gain stages within
| | 11:06 | the plug-ins to make sure I am not
clipping an individual plug-in's output, and then
| | 11:10 | I will use the mixer's level control to
get that track placed in the mix where I need it.
| | 11:15 | You can also use transient shapers to
spike out the attack and the release.
| | 11:20 | These are special tools, things like
the SPL Transient Designer, TransX, Sony
| | 11:26 | Trans Mod. I use these quite a bit, and
it's just sort of an alternative to a
| | 11:30 | compressor, because the idea with
those is that they spike out the transient
| | 11:34 | without actually doing
any compression to the body.
| | 11:38 | So if you get a chance, download a
couple of demos of those and check them out.
| | 11:42 | Ultimately, a well-mixed tune is
generally characterized as having a nice punchy
| | 11:48 | rhythm section, and the proper use of
dynamics is really the key to achieving this sound.
| | 11:53 | In denser sections with tons of guitars,
it really helps to have that nice point on
| | 11:58 | your snare drum and your kick. And I
really want you to take some time to
| | 12:02 | experiment with the compressors in this
session, especially on the drums, and turn
| | 12:08 | them on, turn them off, play with some
of the settings, and really see how at the
| | 12:12 | different parts of the song, they are
complementing the track and really pushing
| | 12:17 | it forward with each hit.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring mixing tips and tricks: dynamics| 00:00 | Trust me, effective use of dynamics
processors is really going to take your
| | 00:04 | mixes to the next level.
| | 00:06 | And while it may take a bit of practice
and you might not hear the subtleties at
| | 00:10 | first, stick with it, because if there
really is a big secret of mixing, it's
| | 00:14 | hidden in the dynamics.
| | 00:15 | Here are some of my favorite tips,
tricks, and considerations when working with
| | 00:19 | compressors, limiters, gates,
and other dynamics processors.
| | 00:22 | First off, every compressor sounds
different and reacts to the signal
| | 00:26 | differently. Even with the
exact same attack, release ratio and
| | 00:30 | threshold settings,
| | 00:32 | two different compressors are likely
going to sound completely different.
| | 00:35 | So compared to the, let's say
Compressor Dyn 3 versus something like the 1176,
| | 00:43 | even if we can get the attack and
release close, they are going to have a
| | 00:47 | different character.
| | 00:48 | The 1176 is based off an analog compressor,
| | 00:52 | so it's designed to sound like
the rack mount unit, whereas the
| | 00:57 | Compressor Limiter3 is not really
designed to sound like anything.
| | 01:00 | It's just a very clean dynamics controller.
| | 01:03 | So you can really manipulate it to get
it to do what you want without adding
| | 01:07 | any extra color.
| | 01:08 | Sometimes you want color; sometimes you don't.
| | 01:10 | So play around with the different
compressors you have access to, and kind of
| | 01:14 | commit to memory what they do to
this sound besides compressing.
| | 01:18 | So think about not only do they
control the dynamics, but how do they
| | 01:22 | control the dynamics?
| | 01:23 | I find that certain compressors, for
example the DBX 160, sounds on snare. Even
| | 01:28 | though I can't control the attack and release,
| | 01:31 | it's got the perfect attack to add that
spike to kick and snare drums. And so I
| | 01:36 | know that in my head and so I reach
for that when I need that in my mix.
| | 01:41 | Different compressors will use
different circuitry, or if it's a plug-in, it's
| | 01:45 | going to be modeled after different circuitry.
| | 01:47 | Opto compressors use photo-optic
sensors to determine the gain reduction, or
| | 01:53 | if the signal is getting too loud
Electric compressors, FET compressors,
| | 01:57 | there is a bunch of
different kinds of compressors,
| | 01:59 | so try to educate yourself on
the different sounds of each.
| | 02:03 | If you're a geek, maybe you can
read on the Internet and check out
| | 02:07 | some schematics and really try
to understand how they work at the
| | 02:10 | electrical engineering level.
| | 02:12 | But if you're just an artist, what I
find that I'm doing is I'm just listening,
| | 02:15 | and I'm trying to commit to memory what
this compressor sounds like on different
| | 02:19 | material so that I can draw from that.
| | 02:21 | Now another thing that you want to take
into consideration is that the denser
| | 02:25 | the mix the more elements, the faster
the tempo, generally the more compression
| | 02:30 | you're going to need to get
everything to gel together.
| | 02:34 | If it's a slower song and there's not a
lot of elements, say a three-piece jazz
| | 02:38 | band, well, you might be able to get
away with just the musician's dynamics, or
| | 02:42 | just a few DB of gain reduction on each.
| | 02:45 | If it's a 100-track rock mix or pop mix,
you really can't be having things move
| | 02:50 | in and out of a very small dynamic range.
| | 02:54 | Otherwise, they're going to get lost in the mix.
| | 02:56 | They're going to poke out too much.
| | 02:57 | Now you might want this so just be
aware that generally, denser songs require
| | 03:04 | a bit more aggressive dynamics control
to get everything to fit and play nicely.
| | 03:09 | We talked a lot about attack and release
and how you can really use that to shape
| | 03:14 | an envelope, or make a sound darker or
brighter by having a faster attack is
| | 03:20 | really going to close off that
transient and take away some of the bite or the
| | 03:22 | brightness versus a slower one,
it's going to let it through.
| | 03:25 | Really, attack and release are the
key to getting the sounds you want.
| | 03:29 | So some engineers think of attack
and release even in terms of the BPM of
| | 03:33 | their songs, so they are setting a
release time to the BPM so that they're
| | 03:37 | swelling into the music.
| | 03:39 | Avoid too fast of attack and release
times on very low-frequency instruments,
| | 03:44 | especially release times on
things like kick and bass.
| | 03:48 | What you're going to get is
their waveforms are so big.
| | 03:50 | They last for so many milliseconds that
if you have a very fast release, let's
| | 03:55 | say 1 millisecond, what's going to
happen is the compressor is going to start
| | 03:59 | coughing on that compressor and it's
going to grab a hold and actually modulate
| | 04:04 | with the waveform, creating this
really, really nasty distortion.
| | 04:08 | A lot of times people ask me if
they should add EQ before or after the compression.
| | 04:12 | Really that just depends on how
much compression you're using.
| | 04:15 | In this mix, you can see that I'm
using EQ sometimes before, sometimes after.
| | 04:21 | And really, with small amounts of
compression, it's not going to matter.
| | 04:24 | However, with more compression, what
I like to think about is, what do I want to take away?
| | 04:29 | So do I want to take away frequencies so
that compressor can't see them and thus
| | 04:32 | trigger off of them?
| | 04:33 | So for example here, on this DrumSquash
track, I'm taking out some of the low end
| | 04:38 | because I'm doing quite a bit of
compression, and I don't really want to
| | 04:41 | influence the compressor
with a lot of my kick drum.
| | 04:44 | So I'm actually taking that out beforehand.
| | 04:46 | Whereas other times I'm adding the EQ
after the compression, because I really
| | 04:50 | want to get back some of that low-
frequency punch and that top-end brightness
| | 04:54 | that the compressor can rob.
| | 04:56 | A lot of times people ask me if I
actually add my compressor before I add my EQ
| | 05:01 | when I'm mixing, and I find that
sometimes adding the compression to a track
| | 05:05 | first right when I'm setting the basic
volume and pan levels of a mix can really
| | 05:09 | help me kind of gel things together
so I can decide how much EQ I'm going to
| | 05:14 | need to put on a specific track.
| | 05:16 | So if a vocal is moving all over the
place, or I've got wild picks on an acoustic
| | 05:22 | guitar, it's going to be really hard
to determine what frequencies I need to
| | 05:25 | boost or what frequencies I need to cut.
| | 05:28 | If it's coming and going or jumping
out or disappearing from the mix, it's kind of like
| | 05:32 | trying to hit a moving target.
| | 05:33 | So I'll add compression first,
just to ferment up a bit.
| | 05:37 | Then I'll move on to my EQ, and then I
might come back to the compressor, maybe
| | 05:41 | loosen it up or tighten it up a bit.
| | 05:43 | It's really an iterative process.
| | 05:45 | Compression versus limiting, remember
a limiter is just a compressor with a
| | 05:48 | ratio that is greater than 10:1.
| | 05:52 | So if I go in here and set my
Ratio above 10:1, the compressor is
| | 05:57 | effectively becoming a limiter.
| | 05:58 | Now there are special types of
limiters called brick-wall limiters that we'll
| | 06:01 | talk about, when we deal with
mastering or mix-bus compression.
| | 06:05 | But what limiting can do is actually
find that layering my compressors with
| | 06:09 | limiters can really help me control
some of the plosives or wild transients,
| | 06:13 | like the pick scrapes on a guitar or
the hard P's on a vocal, before hitting my
| | 06:18 | compressor, so I can focus the
compressor more in the average level of the
| | 06:22 | signal rather than on a few of these wild peaks.
| | 06:25 | So these are really fast
limiters to control them beforehand.
| | 06:29 | You can all use compressors on whole
groups or buses of music, and check out
| | 06:33 | through this mix, I'm
actually using them on the drum bus.
| | 06:36 | I'm using them on the entire mix,
on the background vocal bus.
| | 06:39 | Sometimes it's actually better to
compress a group of tracks, in addition to
| | 06:43 | compressing them individually, or as
opposed to compressing them individually,
| | 06:48 | because it can gel things
together in a different way.
| | 06:50 | So the compressor on a drum bus is
actually reacting to all the elements of the
| | 06:56 | drum kit, the kick and the snare.
| | 06:58 | So when the snare hits, causing the whole
compressor to swell and all the symbols
| | 07:02 | are swelling with that when the kick
hits all this, symbols are swelling with
| | 07:05 | that. And it's a unique sound, as
opposed to individual track compression.
| | 07:11 | Sometimes I'd like to use tape
saturation plug-ins as compressors.
| | 07:15 | These can be really cool because tape
actually would do a bit of compression.
| | 07:19 | It doesn't have a linear dynamic performance.
| | 07:22 | So I can drive a tape saturation
plug-in fairly hard and get a bit of
| | 07:26 | compression on elements.
| | 07:28 | I'll often use parallel compression,
which we're going to talk about in the next
| | 07:32 | video, for ultimate transparency.
| | 07:34 | It's just a matter of splitting the
track into two and only compressing one, and
| | 07:38 | bringing in and out that compressed track.
| | 07:40 | I'll also use sidechains with the
compressor to key the compressor from another track.
| | 07:45 | As far as considerations with how
you'd use compression on specific
| | 07:50 | instruments, generally acoustic
instruments tend to need more compression in
| | 07:54 | pop music, so vocals, electric bass,
acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, clean
| | 07:59 | electric guitar, whereas distorted
electric guitars are already kind of
| | 08:02 | compressed; it's already heavily overdriven.
| | 08:05 | Whereas other elements like MIDI
virtual instruments, you can kind of control
| | 08:09 | the dynamics at the velocity
stage, when you're programming them.
| | 08:12 | So I'm only using compression as a
tonal shaper or an envelope shaper, just to
| | 08:17 | kind of give them a character.
| | 08:19 | Remember, at the end of the day, we'll
use compression for adding character to
| | 08:23 | something, as opposed to only using
compressors for controlling dynamic range,
| | 08:28 | so keep that in mind when
you're selecting your compressors.
| | 08:31 | And again, sometimes automation can be
used in place of compression, and we'll
| | 08:36 | look at some of the automation in this
Take Me Down session a little bit later,
| | 08:40 | and I'll show you where I've used
automation to kind of bring out different
| | 08:44 | sections, as opposed to
using so much compression.
| | 08:47 | So one question I get asked a lot is,
how can I hear my compression better?
| | 08:52 | I find that a lot of new mixers will
say things like, I just can't hear the game induction, or
| | 08:57 | I just can't hear the compression,
especially in small quantities.
| | 09:01 | They just don't hear the difference.
And one trick or technique that I'd like to
| | 09:05 | share with them is turn your monitors down.
| | 09:07 | I find that half the time the reason
you can't here the compression is because
| | 09:12 | you have your headphones or your
monitoring speakers so loud and there's so
| | 09:16 | much gain competing for your ears that
you're not going to hear a one or two DB
| | 09:21 | change in gain.
| | 09:24 | So what you can do is, try turning
your monitors down really, really soft
| | 09:28 | so they're just barely there, and see
if you can hear the compressor then.
| | 09:32 | It's actually a really cool trick.
| | 09:35 | So what I just talked about are just a
few of the things that I think about when
| | 09:38 | using dynamics processors in my mixes,
and I'm sure you can find tons more of
| | 09:42 | tips and tricks on the
Internet and in books and magazines.
| | 09:45 | I just want you to remember that
understanding what they do and why we use them
| | 09:50 | is the key to unlocking all of these tips.
| | 09:52 | So try to understand what a compressor
does and how it sounds before you just
| | 09:57 | implement some tip you heard, like, I
always compress my drums this way.
| | 10:01 | Try to understand why that tip
is effective for that engineer.
| | 10:05 | And once you have the basics down
and can put things into context, the sky
| | 10:09 | is really the limit.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building parallel, or upward, compression| 00:00 | So you may have heard about parallel
compression in an interview or some article before.
| | 00:05 | While that sounds like some overly
complex math equation, it's actually quite
| | 00:09 | easy to understand and implement.
| | 00:11 | Parallel, or sometimes referred to as
upwards, compression is simply combining an
| | 00:16 | uncompressed signal with a
compressed one and blending to taste.
| | 00:21 | This best-of-both-worlds approach
preserves the dynamics, openness, character,
| | 00:25 | and frequency response of the
unprocessed signal, while solving the issue of the
| | 00:30 | overly dynamic track getting lost in the mix.
| | 00:33 | Let's take a look at how it works
here in the Take Me Down session.
| | 00:38 | I'm actually using parallel
compression on the Drum Sub Mix here.
| | 00:44 | And what I have is an aux track
without compression, just a little bit of EQ,
| | 00:50 | and a little bit of low end and a little
bit of top end to the drums. And I also
| | 00:55 | have an aux track feeding from the same
drum bus, so all of these drum tracks are
| | 01:01 | going into both aux tracks. And the
DrumSquash track here is being fed into an
| | 01:09 | EQ and a compressor.
| | 01:14 | And what I am going to do here is I
am actually going to blend the two to
| | 01:17 | taste. And what this is going to do
for me, it's going to give me some extra
| | 01:20 | fill on the drum.
| | 01:21 | So let's take a listen without--
| | 01:24 | (music playing)
| | 01:33 | --and with--
| | 01:35 | (music playing)
| | 01:38 | Now, you really don't appreciate
this until you hear it in the mix,
| | 01:43 | so let's take a listen to the drums
with and without in the mix. And I am going
| | 01:46 | to move to a chorus, so I am going to
bring up my Memory Locations and move
| | 01:52 | into a Chorus. And the reason this
parallel compression really helps me there
| | 01:57 | is that the drums tend to get lost in
the denser, more powerful guitar sections
| | 02:02 | of the chorus.
| | 02:03 | And this parallel compression is
really going to help them sit right where I
| | 02:06 | want them in the mix.
So here is before --
| | 02:08 | (music playing)
| | 02:33 | So hopefully you could hear that when
that parallel compression track dropped
| | 02:37 | out, it was subtle, but the drums lost
all their sustain, all their power.
| | 02:42 | You could still hear the tackiness of the
kick and the snare, but of all the swell
| | 02:47 | and the wash of the cymbal that's
really filling out the track in the big
| | 02:51 | sections were being lost behind
the power of the distorted guitars.
| | 02:56 | So this parallel track is really just
bringing up, or filling out, the sustain
| | 03:02 | of these drums. And how I've set this
up, if we just go ahead and listen to
| | 03:07 | our DrumSquash--
| | 03:08 | (music playing)
| | 03:18 | --I've just taken a basic Digirack
compressor and I am using not too strong of a
| | 03:24 | ratio, about 4:1, I am using a very fast attack.
| | 03:27 | I don't want to allow too
much of the transient through.
| | 03:31 | I am really wanting to use this track
to build the sustain, so I am using a
| | 03:34 | faster attack and a faster release.
| | 03:38 | Remember, the release is going to allow
me to really draw out that sustain. And I am
| | 03:42 | using a deeper threshold.
| | 03:44 | So what you can see around
the Gain Reduction meter--
| | 03:46 | (music playing)
| | 03:50 | --is I am getting about 12 dB of gain
reduction, and I'm making that up over here,
| | 03:56 | just to fill that out.
| | 03:57 | So let's listen without.
(music playing)
| | 04:05 | So you really hear the ride cymbal, the
crash cymbal. All the quieter parts of
| | 04:10 | the drum kit that generally get lost
into the power of the kick, the snare, and
| | 04:14 | the toms are really kind of filling out,
because I am really evening out the
| | 04:18 | dynamics of something that is very,
very punchy. Kind of flattening that out
| | 04:23 | so I get this nice fill.
| | 04:26 | Where does this work?
| | 04:27 | It actually works great on everything.
| | 04:29 | I use it on drums quite a bit. I use it
on vocals. I use it on electric guitars.
| | 04:35 | Pretty much anywhere you are going to
want to use compression you can try using
| | 04:38 | parallel compression. And again, the
benefit is I can take and not lose any of
| | 04:45 | the punch or frequency response of my
original track that I am not compressing.
| | 04:50 | And I also have the opportunity to
actually carve out an EQ of the parallel track
| | 04:56 | just to include the
frequencies that I want to strengthen.
| | 04:58 | So what you will notice here on the
DrumSquash track is I am pulling out some
| | 05:03 | of the ultra-low lows.
| | 05:04 | I actually don't want that
to influence the compressor.
| | 05:07 | I don't want the compressor triggering
a lot off of the sub of the kick drum,
| | 05:11 | and I am kind of brightening
it up at the top end a bit.
| | 05:14 | And one thing that I really like to do
is I aggressively EQ my parallel tracks
| | 05:20 | quite a bit, just to hone in on the
frequency areas that I want to add back or
| | 05:25 | blend back in, because you're not
hearing just the parallel track; you are
| | 05:30 | actually hearing bold tracks play
together, so it's a great way to strengthen
| | 05:34 | certain weaker frequency
spectrums of any given signal.
| | 05:38 | Now what I like to do once I have
set up that parallel track is I like to
| | 05:42 | automate it in and out, up and down
in the mix through different sections.
| | 05:46 | So for these drums, what I might do is
I might, from the verse to the chorus,
| | 05:51 | automate that DrumSquash track up and
really push it into the next section of
| | 05:56 | the song. And then maybe during the
outro, I just crank it up an extra 2 or 3 dBs,
| | 06:01 | just to really get huge and fill out
that dense final moment of the song.
| | 06:07 | Some compressors will feature a mix
parameter built into them, and so you don't
| | 06:12 | even have to split out two tracks.
| | 06:14 | You don't even have to duplicate
your tracks. You can simply set up your
| | 06:17 | parallel compressor and then use the
mix knob to mix back in some of the dry,
| | 06:22 | uncompressed signal.
| | 06:24 | So if we take a look at a compressor,
let's say, for example, the Waves H-Comp,
| | 06:30 | this guy has a mix parameter. So how
I might use something like that is I
| | 06:33 | wouldn't even need a separate parallel
track; I could just start compressing
| | 06:39 | right here on my sub mix.
| | 06:40 | (music playing)
| | 06:51 | And blend some of that dry back in.
(music playing)
| | 07:03 | So it's actually a pretty common thing
these days to find mix parameters on
| | 07:08 | compressors, where typically you'd
only find them on things like reverb and
| | 07:11 | delay, and so I actually
find it extremely useful.
| | 07:15 | Parallel compression is a great
technique to kind of get this best-of-both-
| | 07:20 | worlds with your compressors.
| | 07:22 | It's something that engineers have
been using for a long time. Especially
| | 07:25 | mastering engineers have been using
these tricks on entire mixes for many, many years.
| | 07:30 | So definitely experiment with this
technique. It's not appropriate or necessary
| | 07:35 | for every situation, but it's a
good trick to have up your sleeve.
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| Reviewing dynamics concerns: How much is too much?| 00:00 | Compression and limiting
are very powerful tools.
| | 00:03 | They have ability to make tracks come
alive, providing power and strength to the
| | 00:07 | weak, and taming the wild.
| | 00:10 | But the same tools that can make a
track stand out can also burry it in to the ground.
| | 00:15 | Too much compression can take the life
out of otherwise lively, brilliant, and
| | 00:20 | dynamic tracks, making them sound weak and dull.
| | 00:23 | It's definitely a fine line.
| | 00:26 | Some of the things you want to
consider when using a compressor is first and
| | 00:30 | foremost, watch your transients.
| | 00:32 | Just as a compressor can exaggerate a
signal's transient response, making it
| | 00:36 | sharper or snappier, it can
just as easily take this away
| | 00:40 | if you're using the attack and release
controls incorrectly, or if you're over-
| | 00:44 | compressing a signal.
| | 00:46 | At the end of the day, remember that
loud is only relative to quiet, and hard is
| | 00:51 | only relative to soft.
| | 00:53 | So, if you take away this contrast,
if everything is just flattened and loud,
| | 00:59 | you actually have no dynamics left in
your track; there is nowhere for the
| | 01:02 | speaker to actually move.
| | 01:04 | This can make a track sound lifeless
and just flat, and so just remember to play
| | 01:10 | with the contrast when you're using dynamics.
| | 01:12 | Don't always think of just squashing
things into oblivion. Over-squashing can
| | 01:17 | kill your frequencies, so one thing you
also want to the watch is the frequency
| | 01:21 | response of a signal after compression.
| | 01:24 | You might want to add a little bit
extra low end or top end if you do want an
| | 01:29 | over-compress something a bit, because
this can really help bring back some of
| | 01:33 | the brilliance and the bottom end to the track.
| | 01:36 | Ultimately, at the end of the day, try
to you understand compression's aesthetic
| | 01:41 | use versus its utility use.
| | 01:44 | So the aesthetic use of making a track
sound like it's got a ton of attitude or
| | 01:50 | sustain or gritty, versus just
controlling the dynamics, word for word.
| | 01:56 | Because extreme compression can be really,
really amazing when used in the right
| | 02:01 | context, but it can sound
totally amateur when not.
| | 02:05 | My best advice is to experiment, listen
to all the different compressors, and use
| | 02:11 | and abuse them and figure out if you
can get them to break and when they break
| | 02:16 | and how they break on different sounds.
| | 02:19 | And remember that mixing is all
about contrasts. And with EQ, we strive to
| | 02:26 | create focus and draw focus to certain
elements while layering things around
| | 02:33 | those focal points.
| | 02:34 | We are going to do that with dynamics too.
| | 02:36 | So, make sure you leave some dynamics
in your session so that the mix stays
| | 02:41 | interesting and those speaker
cones have somewhere to move.
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| Using Avid Channel Strip| 00:00 | With Pro Tools 10, Avid introduced the
new Channel Strip plug-in, which combines
| | 00:06 | an EQ, a compressor limiter with an
expand/gate, all into one plug-in, and I
| | 00:12 | wanted to take some time to show you
how I might use this Channel Strip plug-in
| | 00:17 | to replace a track of EQ and compression.
| | 00:21 | So if we go ahead and take a look at
our overhead mics here, what I've got
| | 00:25 | going on with the EQ is I'm dipping out
a bit of the ultra-low lows to just make
| | 00:30 | some room for the actual kick-drum mic,
point out some of the boxiness of the
| | 00:35 | kick drum that did make it into the
overhead, and just giving myself a little
| | 00:39 | bit of top-end air for those
symbols. And then on the compressor--
| | 00:43 | (music playing)
| | 00:48 | --just giving it a little bit of fill.
| | 00:50 | (music playing)
| | 00:53 | --because I can actually use that
room mic to kind of bring out the natural
| | 00:57 | reverb characteristics of the room.
| | 01:00 | So, we don't have to use as much
reverb on the individual drums like the
| | 01:04 | snare and the tom.
| | 01:05 | So, if I was going to use the Channel
Strip to do this same thing, what I could
| | 01:08 | do is I'll just bypass those two plug-
ins. We'll drop in the Channel Strip.
| | 01:12 | You'll find that either under EQ >
Channel Strip or Dynamics > Channel Strip;
| | 01:17 | it's the same thing.
| | 01:18 | And what it's going to do; it's
going to load up, and you're getting EQ
| | 01:22 | compression and gating all in the same plug-in.
| | 01:24 | Now, you can hide different sections.
| | 01:27 | You don't have to use everything.
| | 01:29 | You can actually turn
things off in the FX chain here.
| | 01:35 | It's very easy; just click that button.
| | 01:37 | But I want to use EQ, my
Filters, and my Dynamic section.
| | 01:41 | I also have a Volume section that I
can control, just to use this kind of
| | 01:45 | an output gain.
| | 01:46 | So, leave that there.
| | 01:47 | I'm going to show both my
EQ and Compression section.
| | 01:52 | Now, I have a Expand/Gate in here too.
| | 01:55 | Now, I'm actually not going to use the
gate, so I'm going to click on the little
| | 01:58 | power button to turn that off.
| | 02:02 | When you are using the gate, you
actually will see your compressor and your
| | 02:06 | gate's transfer curve and
thresholds at the same time. This can be really cool.
| | 02:12 | So, if I'd set up some compression here
and a bit of Gating, you can see this is
| | 02:20 | the Gating section, so signals under
this orange threshold will be cut out or
| | 02:26 | expanded, downward expanded.
| | 02:28 | And this is the compression section,
so signals above this orange threshold will
| | 02:32 | be compressed. And this is
the ratio. And it's really neat:
| | 02:35 | you can actually drag and
manipulate these functions with your mouse;
| | 02:39 | you're not actually having to twist these knobs,
| | 02:42 | although I tend to be a little bit
more comfortable twisting the knobs myself.
| | 02:47 | You also have a Side Chain section.
| | 02:49 | We're going to talk about that a little
bit more later when we look at mix bus
| | 02:53 | compression, but I can see all of
these parameters in the All page.
| | 02:57 | If I just want to see numbers, just
kind of quickly go type some things in there.
| | 03:01 | Let's go ahead and leave it on the
Compressor and take a look at the EQ section.
| | 03:07 | I'm actually going to hide this so
that I can see that EQ real clear there.
| | 03:12 | And what I have are four bands here.
| | 03:15 | So, I have a Low Frequency, Low
Mid Frequency, High Mid Frequency, High Frequency.
| | 03:20 | Now, the Low Frequency and High
Frequency can be switched between a peak or
| | 03:24 | parametric filter and a shelf just
by clicking those buttons right there.
| | 03:30 | And if you're wondering where your
filters are, they're actually over here.
| | 03:33 | You can turn those on and the filters show up.
| | 03:36 | There's the high pass and the low
pass that I can enable and I can drag that down.
| | 03:42 | I can also grab any of these.
| | 03:45 | So, just like the EQ 3, I can grab
any of these nodes and manipulate them.
| | 03:51 | So, what we're going to do is we're
going to get a little bit of that low
| | 03:55 | frequency cut there, just to clean up
that kick drum that's coming through the room mic.
| | 04:02 | I'm going to disable my low-pass filter.
| | 04:05 | I want to let all those highs through.
| | 04:06 | I'm going to do a little dip here in
the low mids. I'm going to need to
| | 04:11 | adjust my Q. I don't want
that radical of a Q there.
| | 04:17 | I'm just going to listen as I'm doing
this to make sure I'm matching that.
| | 04:21 | (music playing)
I'm going to switch that to a high shelf.
| | 04:24 | (music playing)
| | 04:34 | Maybe bring out a little of the snare.
(music playing)
| | 04:48 | Then I'll close that down and
move over to my compressor.
| | 04:50 | (music playing)
| | 04:53 | I get a little bit of compression.
I'm going to pull that Threshold back.
| | 04:59 | Sounds real good!
I'm going to go ahead and make up about 3dB.
| | 05:03 | (music playing)
So, here's before.
| | 05:07 | (music playing)
| | 05:12 | Here's after.
(music playing)
| | 05:19 | Just a little bit more compression.
(music playing)
| | 05:31 | And I'm going to ease up on the
attack just a little, let a little bit of that
| | 05:34 | snare through.
(music playing)
| | 05:38 | Speed up the release a bit.
(music playing)
| | 05:44 | Now, this compressor has a really cool
Depth setting, and if you're wondering
| | 05:47 | what that is, it actually allows you
to control the overall amount of gain
| | 05:51 | reduction or in the sense limit,
the overall amount of gain reduction.
| | 05:54 | So, you can actually go in and say,
you know what, no matter how deep my
| | 05:59 | threshold digs, don't compress more than 6.8dB.
| | 06:04 | So, what I can actually do is set
that to something, let's just set that
| | 06:08 | to something real soft, like 3.6, and
now I'm going to really dig deep with my threshold.
| | 06:14 | (music playing)
| | 06:19 | So, now you can see the compressor is
always compressing, for the most part, but
| | 06:22 | it's never going over
that maximum than I've set.
| | 06:26 | This can actually be a really cool thing
because it prevents the compressor from
| | 06:31 | over-compressing in really dynamic
sections like fills, where maybe you want a
| | 06:36 | little bit extra push to come through.
Maybe just that extra dB or two is really
| | 06:41 | going to take that section over the top.
| | 06:47 | So, play around with that Depth control.
| | 06:49 | I think you'll find that the Channel
Strip plug-in sounds really, really great,
| | 06:54 | and it's an excellent addition to Pro Tools.
| | 06:57 | It now comes with every Pro Tools system.
You don't have to pay extra for it.
| | 07:01 | And it's got a really cool pedigree
because it comes from the System 5 console,
| | 07:05 | Euphonix System 5 five, and it's
basically just a port of the Dynamic and EQ
| | 07:12 | sections from that digital console.
| | 07:14 | So, essentially what you're getting
is the EQ and Dynamics from a 6-figure
| | 07:19 | console, and it sounds excellent.
| | 07:22 | I've found myself using it quite a
bit since Pro Tools 10 has come out.
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|
|
6. Mixing with Reverb, Delay, and Other Time-Based EffectsUsing time-based effects to add depth and width| 00:00 | By mastering the use of EQ and dynamics
processors, you'll be able to achieve a
| | 00:05 | solid, clean mix, no doubt.
| | 00:08 | But if you want to take your mix
aesthetics to the next level and really extend
| | 00:12 | the emotional context of the song and
the vocal, time-based processors like
| | 00:17 | reverb and delay are going
to be your key ingredient.
| | 00:21 | I like to think of my mix as a cast
of characters, standing in a line across
| | 00:26 | the middle of the stage.
| | 00:27 | Now, if no character is allowed to come
forward or step backwards, no sense of
| | 00:33 | depth or perspective is expressed, and
it might be hard for the audience to know
| | 00:38 | who's the main character
and who's just the background.
| | 00:41 | Now imagine you're the director and
you're able to place any character at any
| | 00:47 | point within the stage and
light them in a specific way.
| | 00:51 | Now the audience has perspective on
the cast and no problem knowing who's
| | 00:56 | important and who's just a background element.
| | 01:00 | Time-based effects like reverb and
delay give the mixer the ability to
| | 01:04 | creatively place elements in the
mix, much like a director chooses a
| | 01:08 | treatment for a film.
| | 01:10 | By placing elements in a virtual three-
dimensional space, the listener is able
| | 01:15 | to visualize the song in a whole new way.
| | 01:18 | When you're thinking about adding these
effects to your mix, it's a good idea to
| | 01:22 | review your mix plan.
| | 01:25 | Think about if you want the mix to seem
close and intimate, like the singer is
| | 01:29 | whispering into the listener's ear.
Or maybe you want it to appear as if the
| | 01:33 | listener is viewing the band from
a distance, behind a glass panel.
| | 01:38 | The decisions you make about reverb
and delay will ultimately have the
| | 01:41 | biggest effect on the perceived
aesthetic or mood of the song and its
| | 01:46 | presentation to the listener.
| | 01:48 | So the two main processors we'll use
are Reverb and Delay, and they're both
| | 01:53 | closely related.
| | 01:55 | A reverb is going to simulate an
acoustic space, and sometimes it's going to use
| | 02:01 | a mathematical algorithm to do this;
other times it's going to use an impulse
| | 02:06 | response or a sound file recorded
from an actual room, as in the case of
| | 02:10 | convolution reverbs.
| | 02:12 | Basically, the way you can understand
reverbs is a lot of little delays packed
| | 02:16 | closely together as the
sound bounces around the room.
| | 02:20 | This is combined with the direct or
dry signal and simulates an actual space.
| | 02:26 | Now, historically, before we had
plug-ins or even rack-mount reverbs, engineers
| | 02:32 | would use echo chambers. And this was
just a room. It could have been a wooden
| | 02:36 | room, it could've been a concrete room,
hey, it could've just been a bathroom in
| | 02:39 | someone's house. And they would place a
speaker at one end and a microphone at
| | 02:44 | the other, and they would feed the mix
in there and actually record the sound of
| | 02:49 | whatever element bouncing around that room.
| | 02:52 | Now a delay is just going to hold a
signal back in time and when it combines
| | 02:58 | that with the original sound, you're
going to hear the original and discrete
| | 03:03 | repetitions of this signal.
| | 03:05 | Now, historically, we use tape-based
delays. And the way those work is you
| | 03:10 | would actually have two tape machines,
and the distance between them, if you
| | 03:14 | fed the tape through in a loop, you
could actually get cool, regenerative
| | 03:19 | echoes going on.
| | 03:20 | Now we have plug-ins and hardware
delays to do that, and they even simulate the
| | 03:25 | degradation of tape sometimes.
| | 03:27 | Now, at the end of the day, I can't
teach you what is aesthetically or
| | 03:32 | emotionally correct for your individual style.
| | 03:34 | That would be like telling you what
the best genre of music is or the best
| | 03:38 | flavor of ice cream.
| | 03:40 | But what I can do is teach you how to
use these processors and give you some
| | 03:43 | tips for using them in your mixes, so
you can work towards achieving that
| | 03:47 | sound in your head.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring DigiRack D-Verb| 00:00 | A reverb's goal is to
simulate an acoustic space.
| | 00:04 | When a signal is fed into a reverb,
it's as if that signal was played back in
| | 00:08 | that space, whether it's a room, a hall,
a church, and allowed to bounce around.
| | 00:14 | So some of the frequencies are going to
reflect off the surfaces and come back
| | 00:18 | to the listener, while others will be absorbed.
| | 00:21 | The D-Verb is ProTools' stock reverb
plug-in, and it's a straight-ahead digital
| | 00:25 | reverb with a simple set of controls.
| | 00:28 | While it might not be the fanciest
reverb on the market, I use it all the
| | 00:31 | time, and learning its controls will
allow you to be comfortable with almost
| | 00:36 | any reverb unit.
| | 00:38 | In the example session Take Me Down,
I've set up all of my reverbs using a send-
| | 00:43 | and-return relationship.
| | 00:44 | So rather placing the reverb
directly on the track and using the Mix
| | 00:48 | parameter to blend the wet and dry,
I've actually created aux return tracks
| | 00:54 | where I've placed the reverbs with
some other plug-ins, including a de-esser and an
| | 00:58 | EQ, and I'm sending to them.
| | 01:01 | So to get to my Big Plate, I'm
actually sending using the bus, Big Plate,
| | 01:09 | from multiple tracks sharing that
reverb, and it's funneling back into the aux return.
| | 01:16 | So if I solo this track up and we kick
up that Big Plate, we'll actually hear
| | 01:22 | some of the vocal coming
back through on this aux track.
| | 01:25 | (music playing)
| | 01:32 | And notice how I have solo-safed this.
| | 01:34 | Again, that's Command+Click on the
Mac or Ctrl+Click on the PC. And that
| | 01:39 | keeps me from having to solo the
return when I isolate a track in the mix, by
| | 01:44 | soloing it over here.
| | 01:46 | Again, I tend to set up all my reverbs
and delays on return tracks so that I can
| | 01:51 | share them and save on DSP, but it also
gives things a common place to blend in
| | 01:57 | the mix. And I find that this gives a
slightly different effect than actually
| | 02:00 | applying reverb directly to every track.
| | 02:04 | It would be like you had a band and
they're each playing in four separate-but-
| | 02:09 | equal rooms, rather than all playing
in the same room and allowing all those
| | 02:13 | sounds to kind of blend
together and bounce off the walls.
| | 02:16 | In most sessions, I like to have a few
different reverbs on returns set up that
| | 02:21 | I can point my tracks towards.
| | 02:23 | I like to have some short stuff,
maybe some medium stuff, in terms of length or
| | 02:28 | delay of the reverb, and some really
long reverb decays. And so that way I can
| | 02:33 | kind of really set the stage.
| | 02:35 | Again, if we're thinking about our mix
as a stage with a cast of characters, I
| | 02:40 | want to be able to push things back
towards that back wall of the stage, as well
| | 02:45 | as bring things forward.
| | 02:46 | And having some short-decay
reverbs and some long-decay reverbs really
| | 02:52 | allows me to do that.
| | 02:54 | Now in the D-Verb here, if we just go
through the controls, I have an Input
| | 02:59 | control that determines how loud
the signal is, coming into D-Verb.
| | 03:04 | Generally, this starts at -4, just to
keep you from clipping the input of the reverb;
| | 03:09 | however, oftentimes I'll just move this
to 0, because I'm managing my gain stage
| | 03:14 | correctly at the send.
| | 03:15 | But if you find that you're clipping
the input or the output of D-Verb by
| | 03:20 | feeding too much of the send into it,
you may want to take the Input and drag
| | 03:24 | it down a bit.
| | 03:25 | Now like we said, the Mix control is
going to determine the wet/dry blend and
| | 03:30 | when we're using it on a return,
I'll tend to leave this at 100% wet.
| | 03:35 | The Algorithm determines how
the reverb is going to sound.
| | 03:39 | So it's actually a physics math
equation that determines how this space will be
| | 03:45 | simulated, how the signals will bounce
around that space and either be absorbed
| | 03:50 | into the walls or reflect back into the room.
| | 03:55 | So let's just listen to these as we
play back the vocal in isolation, and try to
| | 03:59 | get a sense for the different
tonal qualities of the tails.
| | 04:04 | (music playing)
| | 04:31 | So we can see the hall kind
of sounds like a concert hall.
| | 04:36 | It starts with a longer decay as its
default, but we can make it shorter.
| | 04:42 | Halls are going to be very smooth
at the top end, and I use them for shorter
| | 04:46 | programs as well as longer programs.
| | 04:49 | A church is going to tend to have a
very long tail but a darker tail than the hall.
| | 04:55 | Think about a church and the materials
that it's built out of. And every reverb
| | 05:00 | has a slightly different-sounding church,
but it tends to be the go-to when we
| | 05:04 | really want tons of ambience
and just tons of reverb tail.
| | 05:09 | The plate is very similar to a hall,
but it's got a kind of metallic and diffuse
| | 05:15 | quality to the top end.
| | 05:16 | You'll notice when we hear the plate--
| | 05:18 | (music playing)
| | 05:24 | --versus the hall--
| | 05:25 | (music playing)
| | 05:28 | --they're similar, aside from the plate
having a bit more top end, again, more of
| | 05:33 | that metallic quality, because it's
actually simulating an old-school plate
| | 05:37 | reverb, that a plate reverb in
itself was trying to simulate a room.
| | 05:41 | It was never a room itself;
| | 05:43 | it was a large plate that would
vibrate, and there were pickups on it, and this
| | 05:47 | would try to simulate a
sound bouncing around the room.
| | 05:51 | Now, the two room programs
are going to be very short.
| | 05:54 | They're great for giving a sense
of real space to something without
| | 05:58 | just drowning in reverb.
| | 05:59 | I like using them on drums or any kind
of instrument where I close-miked and I
| | 06:05 | didn't get any kind of room mic and I
want to add back some room ambience to it.
| | 06:09 | A lot of times we're not
recording in ideal spaces;
| | 06:13 | we're kind of recording in our bedrooms,
our living rooms, and stuff like that.
| | 06:16 | So we tend to drive mic stuff because
the sound of our room is not that great.
| | 06:21 | We really put that mic close to the
instrument. And then we'll use reverbs at
| | 06:26 | the mixing stage to kind of add back
some of that room sound in the mix.
| | 06:31 | Now the ambient program is great when
you want to keep something very forward in
| | 06:36 | the mix, but you just want it
to have a little bit of space. Listen to this.
| | 06:40 | (music playing)
| | 06:48 | So very, very short decay. So it's not
going to muddy up our mix. You're not
| | 06:53 | going to have that tails
bleeding into the next word.
| | 06:57 | But if you're trying to get away from
that completely dry sound and just give it
| | 07:01 | something, a very short
ambient program can do that for you.
| | 07:05 | Now Non-Linear is going
to simulate a gated reverb.
| | 07:09 | A gated reverb is one whose tail
doesn't decay evenly over time.
| | 07:15 | If you've heard any '80s like Phil
Collins snares that have that kind of splat to
| | 07:20 | them but then decay very
quickly, that's a gated reverb.
| | 07:24 | The D-Verb does an
excellent '80s gated reverb sound.
| | 07:28 | So try it out;
it may be just what you need in your mix.
| | 07:31 | Once I pick an algorithm, I'm going to
pick a size, and you can see that the size
| | 07:36 | determines the starting point for the decay.
| | 07:39 | And ultimately, the decay is going
to be the most important parameter in your reverb.
| | 07:43 | Once you've chosen the algorithm, or the
tone of that reverb, the decay is going
| | 07:48 | to be the setting you're almost always
manipulating to get right in your mix.
| | 07:52 | And again, I like to have some short
stuff and some long stuff, but within that,
| | 07:57 | I like to set my decay based on
the tempo and the mood of the song.
| | 08:00 | If it's slower, I can get
away with longer decays.
| | 08:04 | If the instrument is more percussive
and fast moving, eighth notes, sixteenth
| | 08:08 | notes, I'm going to need shorter
decays so the reverb doesn't get muddy and
| | 08:12 | start overlapping my articulations.
| | 08:15 | Now the Diffusion control here, the
diffusion determines the echo density, or
| | 08:20 | number of discrete delays.
| | 08:22 | Really, all a reverb is is a bunch of
delays from sound bouncing off the walls
| | 08:28 | and coming back and reaching your
ears at a time after the direct signal.
| | 08:33 | And that gives our brain a sense
of what kind of space we're in.
| | 08:36 | Our brain is tuned to listen for the
direct signal as well as what's bouncing
| | 08:41 | off the walls, and that lets us know
if we're in a closet full of coats or a huge church.
| | 08:47 | Even if our eyes are closed, just using
our hearing and our brain, we can kind
| | 08:52 | of determine and sense what kind of
space we're in, just based on the diffusion
| | 08:58 | and the time it takes for the
echoes to get back to our ears.
| | 09:02 | With higher Diffusion settings, we're
going to get more discrete delays, sort of
| | 09:07 | spread out that echo density.
And that's better for percussive sounds, because I
| | 09:11 | don't want to hear the delay or the
zipper effect of the reverb, whereas with
| | 09:17 | vocals and more legato instruments,
having lower Diffusion percentages actually
| | 09:23 | can work well, because it's not so
percussive and transient-oriented where we're
| | 09:27 | actually going to hear a lot of
the discrete delays of the reverb.
| | 09:31 | However, it can be really cool to have
a low diffusion with percussive sounds
| | 09:35 | and really hear the discrete delays
of the sound bouncing around the room.
| | 09:40 | Now, another really important parameter
on a reverb, besides decay, is going to be Pre-Delay.
| | 09:45 | Pre-Delay basically tells the reverb to
wait a bit before releasing the tail.
| | 09:53 | And in a regular room, we don't really have this,
| | 09:57 | so this is kind of something
that's cool about a digital reverb.
| | 10:00 | I can actually say, hey, hold
back the reverb for 50 milliseconds.
| | 10:06 | So let's take a listen to this on this
vocal track. It's actually kind of cool.
| | 10:10 | (music playing)
| | 10:28 | So in effect, it's actually becoming a
delayed reverb, and what Pre-Delay is
| | 10:33 | really great for is separating
the dry signal from the wet signal.
| | 10:37 | So let's say yeah, I really want this
vocal track to be super wet, but I don't
| | 10:42 | want to muddy it up in the mix.
And a trick that you can use is setting the
| | 10:46 | Pre-Delay. Even to something 10, 20,
30 milliseconds is really going to help
| | 10:52 | isolate that reverb from the dry
signal and allow some of that dry, direct
| | 10:56 | transient to come through
without any reverb on it.
| | 10:59 | It's just going to really sit back
forward in the mix. Whereas if you
| | 11:03 | really want to focus on something
sitting far back in the mix, you might
| | 11:07 | use less Pre-Delay.
| | 11:09 | An extreme Pre-Delay setting can
actually completely delay the whole reverb so
| | 11:14 | that it sounds like delay taps, eighth
note, sixteenth note taps in your session.
| | 11:20 | The other controls you're going to find
in a reverb are going to be some sort of
| | 11:24 | EQ controls or tonal color controls,
| | 11:27 | and the thing about adding reverb to
something is oftentimes we want to set that
| | 11:31 | back further in the mix.
| | 11:32 | And if it has a ton of high
frequencies, it's really hard to kind of give
| | 11:37 | distance to something.
| | 11:38 | So think about if you're standing right
next to your friend and talking to them
| | 11:42 | versus yelling at them from across the street.
| | 11:44 | You're not going to hear as much of
the high frequencies as they're just
| | 11:47 | soaked up into the air.
| | 11:49 | And so reverbs tend to have EQs built
into them that allow you to cut the high
| | 11:53 | frequencies or even low-pass
filter them so that they become darker.
| | 11:59 | And so let's just take a listen here.
| | 12:01 | I'm going to bypass the EQ that I have
on the reverb, and let's listen to this.
| | 12:05 | (music playing)
| | 12:12 | So it's a very dark plate.
| | 12:13 | (music playing)
| | 12:19 | And that's a really bright plate, and
you can hear that the bright plate is
| | 12:23 | really stressing those S's on the
vocals, and it's kind of starting to sound a
| | 12:28 | little bit metallic and not so great.
| | 12:30 | Because I find that the D-Verb and a
lot of reverbs don't have as many EQ
| | 12:35 | parameters that I would like to have,
I tend to just drop an EQ to all my
| | 12:40 | reverbs, as I've done here in this session.
| | 12:42 | And this gives me total control over the
tail, because not only do I like to pull
| | 12:47 | out some of the high frequencies to
kind of simulate the fact that the room
| | 12:51 | might have some drapery or something
socking up the high end, I also like to get
| | 12:56 | out of the low frequencies and some of
the lower mids, or frequencies that are
| | 13:01 | going to affect the
intelligibility of the dry signal.
| | 13:04 | So you see here I'm pulling out some
of 500, because, if we listen here--
| | 13:09 | (music playing)
| | 13:23 | --do you see how boosting right around
that 500 really just masks his vocal to
| | 13:28 | the extent that it's going to kind of
get hard to hear what he's saying in the lyric?
| | 13:32 | And so a lot of times I will shape my
reverb around the dry sound and around
| | 13:37 | the rest of the mix so I'm getting the
space that I want but I'm not muddying up the mix.
| | 13:43 | And taking out a lot of the low
frequencies and the high frequencies can
| | 13:47 | really help you with this.
| | 13:48 | However, taking out some of
the low mids can help you too.
| | 13:51 | So experiment with that a little bit.
| | 13:54 | Ultimately, you're going to want to set
your overall level of reverb in the mix,
| | 13:59 | so in context, because something can
sound really great in isolation, both in
| | 14:04 | terms of EQ and the amount of reverb,
only to find that you don't have enough
| | 14:08 | reverb in the mix, because the tails are
kind of being blurred by the guitars.
| | 14:12 | Or maybe you have too much reverb on something.
| | 14:16 | And if you're using headphones to mix,
be sure you check your mix on actual
| | 14:21 | speakers to make sure you're
not adding too much reverb.
| | 14:24 | Headphones don't add any ambience like
listening to your speakers in a room do.
| | 14:29 | So make sure you're checking your mixes
on real speakers to determine if you're
| | 14:33 | adding too much reverb at the mixing stage.
| | 14:36 | So in this case of adding the Big
Plate, I'm going to play it back in the
| | 14:39 | mix and tone this down.
| | 14:40 | (music playing)
| | 14:51 | And actually, because I have some
delays and some chorus on this vocal too, I'm
| | 14:56 | not going to use too much of the Big Plate.
| | 14:58 | A trick that you'll see that I'm using
in this song is I'm feeding a lot of the
| | 15:01 | elements into the longest
reverb, which is the Big Plate.
| | 15:05 | And that's kind of just giving a little
bit of the longest reverb to each sound,
| | 15:09 | and that's going to kind of help glue
things together, kind of pull the track
| | 15:13 | together as it extends over time.
| | 15:16 | Ultimately, the D-Verb is a great
learning tool, and it's surprisingly a decent
| | 15:22 | reverb, if you give it a chance.
| | 15:24 | And learning all of its controls will
help you graduate to more complex reverbs
| | 15:28 | in the AIR collection or
other third-party reverbs.
| | 15:31 | So I highly suggest that you take
some time to listen to the different room
| | 15:35 | types using the example session, or
your own sessions, and commit their unique
| | 15:39 | sonic texture to memory and keep them
in your lexicon of spaces, just like a
| | 15:44 | director scouting for
locations for the next shoot.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the DigiRack delays| 00:00 | While a reverb is designed to simulate
a sound wave's reflections in an acoustic
| | 00:05 | space, a delay is much simpler.
| | 00:08 | Basically, a delay's main job is to
take its input, hold onto it for a defined
| | 00:12 | amount of time, and then let it go.
| | 00:14 | When we combine this time-delayed
signal with the original on-time signal, it
| | 00:20 | sounds like an echo, or repeat, of
the original, tapping out in time.
| | 00:25 | The DigiRack Delay suite is an easy-
to-use, straightforward digital delay,
| | 00:30 | meaning it will create an exact
replica of the input held back in time.
| | 00:35 | In most of my mixes, I like to
separate my delays into a few different
| | 00:39 | categories, and I have done so here
in the example song, Take Me Down.
| | 00:43 | First, I like to have some very short or
spatial delays that are going to give me
| | 00:48 | some spread, and these tend to be
under 100 millisecond timed delays.
| | 00:54 | Then I like to have maybe slightly
longer delays, something that's a slap, kind
| | 00:58 | of like an Elvis-style delay that I
can add to things. And then I get into my
| | 01:02 | longer note value delays that are
actually delays held back by certain note
| | 01:08 | values of the BPM of the song:
| | 01:10 | quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note.
| | 01:13 | So here in the Take Me Down session,
I am using a short delay and the short
| | 01:19 | delay is the ModDelay 3.
| | 01:21 | This was added as a new
AAX plug-in in Pro Tools 10.
| | 01:24 | It's just an extension of the Delay 2 plug-in.
| | 01:29 | It's got a new skin, a couple of new features.
| | 01:32 | Here what I am doing is I have
actually got a separate left and right delay
| | 01:37 | setting, and this is going to give me
some Haas effect or some spread where on
| | 01:41 | the left side I have got a 55-
millisecond slap, and on the right side, I have
| | 01:46 | got a 110-millisecond slap.
| | 01:48 | This is very shot, so this isn't going
to act as much as a conscious delay--you
| | 01:53 | are going to hear it tapping out--as
much as it's going to sound like just a
| | 01:57 | widening of the stereo field. And this
is going to be extended by the fact that
| | 02:02 | have separate left- and right-hand settings.
| | 02:04 | Now just like my reverbs, I have
set up all my delays on return tracks.
| | 02:09 | So, if we go ahead and listen to the
short delay with the lead vocal...
| | 02:17 | (music playing)
| | 02:39 | Now hopefully you can hear it's
giving a nice widening and almost doubling
| | 02:44 | effect to the vocal in the stereo
field, and you can really achieve that with
| | 02:48 | your shorter delays.
| | 02:49 | Now if we take a look at a delay's
basic controls, in this case, I'm using a
| | 02:55 | stereo delay so I have a
separate left- and right-hand side.
| | 02:58 | If you can understand one side,
you can understand the other side.
| | 03:02 | The most important control in a
delay is the actual Delay function.
| | 03:06 | So how long is it actually going
to hold the signal back in time?
| | 03:11 | So if we just take a listen again
as I adjust this delay--I'm going to turn the
| | 03:15 | automation off so I can push that up--
just listen as I adjust the delay time.
| | 03:20 | (music playing)
| | 03:29 | 16th, 8th note.
(music playing)
| | 03:37 | Now this is based on 120 BPM.
| | 03:40 | If I hit the Sync button, it
actually reads the tempo of my session and
| | 03:45 | automatically adjusts the delay
time in milliseconds based on the note
| | 03:50 | value that I choose here.
| | 03:52 | So these note values and the Sync
control here all just tie back to the
| | 03:57 | master delay control.
| | 03:58 | Now it can be really cool to
synchronizer delays in time; this really
| | 04:02 | reemphasizes the tempo and can
kind of be a cool rhythmic effect.
| | 04:07 | However, it can also be cool to unsync
your delays from the tempo of this song
| | 04:11 | for something a little bit different. So in that case, I would
just manually control the delay, especially if I wanted
| | 04:18 | to let's say shuffle or swing the delay
off the tempo, and in that case I can use
| | 04:23 | the Groove function. The Groove
function is actually going to pull or push the
| | 04:28 | delay forward or backwards in time to
kind of give it a certain feel. And this
| | 04:33 | can be cool, depending on
what's going on in the song.
| | 04:36 | Now the second most important
control in any delay is going to be the feedback control.
| | 04:42 | The feedback control is going to
determine how much of the delay signal is
| | 04:46 | going to get fed back into the input of
the delay and therefore, regenerate as multiple taps.
| | 04:52 | With a feedback of 0, you are only
going to hear a single tap. Check it out.
| | 04:57 | (music playing)
| | 05:01 | Whereas if I set the feedback to 50%,
it's feeding back 50% of that delayed
| | 05:08 | signal back into the input of the
delay, so it's going to continue
| | 05:11 | regenerating on top of itself.
| | 05:13 | (music playing)
| | 05:18 | If I push this up to 100%, it's fully
regenerating the output signal back into
| | 05:24 | the input, and I can
actually overload this delay.
| | 05:27 | Check it out.
(music playing)
| | 05:42 | Now, you might notice that there are
actually negative feedback settings.
| | 05:44 | This does the same as positive
settings, except they are phase-reverse.
| | 05:48 | So you can kind of get some cool kind
of tunnely, phasy effects by having the
| | 05:53 | feedback in negative numbers.
| | 05:55 | Just kind of play around with
it and get a feel for this sound.
| | 05:57 | Now most delays have some sort of
built-in equalizer, or at least a low-pass
| | 06:02 | filter, and this is going to give you
that tape-style regeneration distortion, or
| | 06:06 | regeneration high-frequency suck from the delay.
| | 06:10 | And traditionally, with tape delays, as
they were fed back into themselves, you
| | 06:15 | would lose a lot of the high end.
| | 06:17 | So this would kind of give it a cool
sound, almost as if you're in a canyon:
| | 06:22 | you're not in the get back all of the
high frequencies as your voice bounces
| | 06:26 | around the canyon walls. And again,
this really extends that effect of pushing
| | 06:32 | something towards the back of the mix.
| | 06:34 | If we retain all the high frequencies,
it sort of stays up front and doesn't
| | 06:39 | give the same feeling of distance that
a delayed signal with slightly less high
| | 06:44 | frequencies would give.
| | 06:45 | Take a listen.
(music playing)
| | 06:57 | So hopefully, you can hear that with a
lot of low-pass filtering, this delay is
| | 07:02 | getting pushed even further back into
the mix, and so it really blends nicely.
| | 07:07 | Now again, just like my reverbs, what
you will notice in the session is that I'm
| | 07:12 | actually EQing my delays with an equalizer.
| | 07:15 | So a cool little trick that you can do
is take your delay, strap an equalizer to
| | 07:20 | it, and then really shape the frequencies
of your delay. And this is something you
| | 07:26 | really can only do with a send-
and-return delay relationship.
| | 07:30 | So I am using a 100% wet setting right
here, as opposed to putting the delay right
| | 07:35 | on the track and using the wet/dry balance.
| | 07:38 | In this case, I can add a
radical EQ to the delay.
| | 07:42 | (music playing)
| | 08:00 | So it's kind of a telephone-style delay.
| | 08:03 | So don't be afraid to add
effects to your delay chain.
| | 08:06 | What you can actually see here, on some
of the other delays that I have got going
| | 08:11 | on here, like the eighth note in the long delay.
| | 08:14 | For the eighth note, I am using the
older, much simpler delay 2 plug-in.
| | 08:19 | It has mostly the same controls.
You are going to have your delay setting.
| | 08:24 | You are also going to get some
modulation settings, here Depth and Rate.
| | 08:27 | That's a pitch modulation, so you can
control how much pitch modulation is on the
| | 08:31 | delay signal and what the
rate of that pitch modulation is.
| | 08:36 | And you have got your Tempo controls here.
| | 08:38 | Now on this, I am actually EQing as
well as adding a Stereo Width plug-in to
| | 08:43 | it, and what that's doing is actually
widening, or spreading out, that delay even further.
| | 08:49 | I have got this really cranked up.
| | 08:50 | So don't be afraid to add
effects to your delay returns:
| | 08:55 | Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, things like that.
| | 08:59 | And even here, on my longest delay,
again, I am using the ModDelay 3.
| | 09:04 | The ModDelay's modulations in the center here;
| | 09:06 | you have Rate and Depth for each channel.
| | 09:09 | What I am doing is I am actually
feeding that into the short delay as well
| | 09:13 | as into the room verb.
| | 09:15 | Delayed reverbs can be really, really cool.
| | 09:17 | Sometimes what I will do as a neat
effect is I will actually take a reverb and a
| | 09:23 | delay and run it on the same track.
| | 09:25 | So if I take that D-Verb here--and I am
going to set the Mix levels to, let's
| | 09:30 | say, around 40%, do a room.
| | 09:34 | Make sure this is still set up here.
| | 09:36 | I've got my EQ.
| | 09:38 | Let's listen to that on
the lead vocal in isolation.
| | 09:43 | (music playing)
| | 09:53 | As I increase the Mix.
| | 09:54 | (music playing)
| | 10:00 | So that can be really, really neat
because I'm kind of getting the best of both
| | 10:04 | worlds, delay and reverb. And the
reason I like to do this is, if I can do
| | 10:08 | anything to separate the dry signal
from the really wet signal that I'm using
| | 10:13 | sort of extended back in the mix, what
that allows me to do is it allows me to
| | 10:17 | keep the lead element upfront and
the focus point of the song, while really
| | 10:22 | extending it back into the
third dimension of the mix.
| | 10:25 | So I am getting wide and deep,
but it's staying upfront because I am actually
| | 10:31 | separating that signal from the delay,
from the reverb, using the delay time
| | 10:37 | or either the pre-delay time or
actually setting up a physical delay in my reverb chain.
| | 10:44 | So really experiment with different
delay chains, both the long and short, and
| | 10:51 | applying different layers of plug-ins,
and don't be afraid to use the sends on
| | 10:55 | those returns to feed into other effects.
| | 10:59 | You can get some really cool chains
going on that just aren't possible with
| | 11:04 | placing plug-ins directly as an
insert and using the wet/dry parameter of
| | 11:09 | the delay.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mixing with reverb| 00:00 | So I wanted to take some time to walk
through the way I'm using reverb in the
| | 00:05 | Take Me Down session.
| | 00:07 | And as a big-sounding rock tuning
with a crunchy opening chorus, this song
| | 00:12 | incorporates reverb to help define
its size and place elements in the mix.
| | 00:17 | One thing I think many people find
surprising about mixing with reverb is how a
| | 00:21 | little can go a long way, or how a
lot on a single element is all that's
| | 00:27 | necessary to create a big sound.
| | 00:30 | We talked a little earlier about the
different reverb returns I am using in this
| | 00:34 | session, and like I said, I like to
use something small, maybe something a
| | 00:38 | little bit longer or medium-
length and a longer reverb.
| | 00:42 | And in Take Me Down, I have three reverbs:
| | 00:45 | a Drum Room, a Room Verb, and a Plate.
| | 00:47 | And how I'm using the Drum Room is I'm
actually kind of replacing the drums in
| | 00:55 | a new room, because I didn't quite
like the sound of the room that the drums
| | 00:59 | were recorded in.
| | 01:00 | So what I am actually doing here, if I
show my second set of sends, is I've got
| | 01:08 | the Drum Room here on my overhead and
room tracks and that's giving kind of a
| | 01:13 | bit of overall room reverb sound in
addition to the room sound in the overheads.
| | 01:18 | So let's take a listen to this
right here on the overheads first.
| | 01:22 | (music playing)
| | 01:38 | And I am also adding a bit of that to
the snare and the kick to kind of give it
| | 01:42 | a little bit extra space.
(music playing)
| | 01:50 | Now, in addition to that Drum Room, I
am also adding the Big Plate to certain
| | 01:56 | elements of the drum kit.
| | 01:58 | I generally won't add the longer
reverbs to the lower-frequency elements
| | 02:03 | like the kick drum.
| | 02:04 | Here you see I am keeping it fairly dry.
I am just giving it a little bit of
| | 02:08 | space. But with stuff like the snare,
I can actually change the entire size
| | 02:14 | of the kick, just by adding more or
less reverb or a longer reverb to the snare drum.
| | 02:20 | Take a listen.
| | 02:22 | (music playing)
| | 02:34 | So listen to how the rest of the drum
kit is really sharing that tail from the
| | 02:38 | snare. The snare is driving the song,
but it's also driving how our mind
| | 02:44 | imagines this drum kit in the mix.
| | 02:48 | Dry.
(music playing)
| | 02:59 | So the cool thing is is I don't have
to add a ton of reverb to every element
| | 03:03 | in the kit.
| | 03:04 | I can add a bit of that shorter Drum
Room and if we take a look at that Drum
| | 03:09 | Room reverb, we can see that it's a
D-Verb. Very short decay time, right
| | 03:16 | about 500 milliseconds.
| | 03:17 | This would be generally considered a
short or small reverb program, and that's
| | 03:23 | just giving me a bit of ambience.
| | 03:24 | Like I said, I didn't like where the
drums were recorded 100%, and I wanted to
| | 03:28 | just kind of fancy them up a little bit.
And then with the snare drum, that's
| | 03:33 | getting fed into this plate
that's got a two-second decay.
| | 03:38 | As I drive the send from the snare drum,
I can really increase the size of the
| | 03:45 | entire kit just by adding reverb to the
snare. And I've also added that reverb
| | 03:50 | to my tom drums and I've added quite a
bit of the Big Plate to the tom drums.
| | 03:55 | Now the tom drums don't hit all the time,
| | 03:58 | so I wanted to give them a lot of that
plate so that when they did hit it, it
| | 04:02 | was really dramatic.
| | 04:05 | What I am saying here is you don't have
to use a lot of reverb on your snare or
| | 04:09 | you can use a lot of reverb on
your snare or your entire kit;
| | 04:12 | all I am saying is that a little
bit can go a long way on just single
| | 04:16 | instruments, or you can use a lot on a
single instrument and that can really
| | 04:20 | drive how the entire
instrument sounds in the mix.
| | 04:25 | I like to call this sharing tails.
| | 04:27 | Now if we move along to some of the
other reverbs, I have a different room
| | 04:32 | reverb in my session that I
am just calling Room Verb here.
| | 04:37 | And this is actually a very,
very, very short reverb.
| | 04:41 | It's an ambient program,
| | 04:42 | so it's not even what I would consider
a room. And all I am using this for is
| | 04:47 | just to give the impression of a space
to certain elements, and you can see I am
| | 04:52 | using it on things like
the background vocals here.
| | 04:57 | I might use it a little bit on the lead
vocal or the lead vocal effects track.
| | 05:03 | I'm using it here on the organ, and
I'm using it quite a bit on some of
| | 05:09 | these guitars here.
| | 05:11 | So if we take a listen to some of
these guitars in this Room Reverb...
| | 05:15 | (music playing)
| | 05:23 | You see that acoustic guitar, it's pretty dry.
| | 05:25 | I just want to fancy it up a bit.
| | 05:26 | (music playing)
| | 05:34 | Now here is a really cool trick.
| | 05:36 | You notice that the acoustic guitar is
panned hard right whereas the Room Verb
| | 05:42 | is panned to the left.
| | 05:44 | So what that's doing is I am actually
throwing the guitar to the verb on the
| | 05:50 | left-hand side, that's a Stereo
Reverb, and this kind of gives me this cool
| | 05:54 | widening effect to my acoustic guitar.
| | 05:56 | The acoustic guitar is clearly panned
hard right, and that's because I'm kind of
| | 06:01 | spacing these guitars out to
create a nice wide guitar mix.
| | 06:05 | But this trick of panning the effect
to the left, right, I am panning the
| | 06:11 | signal going into the reverb hard left,
allows me to create an even wider image
| | 06:17 | of this guitar.
| | 06:18 | And so what I can do is I
can kind of swap sides here.
| | 06:21 | You see this is going a
little more towards the center;
| | 06:25 | this one is hard left, even
though that guitar is right;
| | 06:29 | this one is panned towards the right.
| | 06:31 | So, play around with the panning of your
effects, and sometimes panning effect to
| | 06:36 | the opposite side gives
you a really cool result.
| | 06:39 | Now I'll throw some things into the
Big Plate at some sections of the song,
| | 06:44 | just a hint.
| | 06:45 | Like I said before, I like to put a few
different things into the longest reverb
| | 06:50 | to kind of help gel everything in the
mix together, so you can kind of mix and
| | 06:55 | match your reverb to kind
of help a mix gel together.
| | 06:59 | Just be sure not to overdo it.
| | 07:02 | On the vocal track, I'm actually
not really using that much reverb.
| | 07:06 | So in this plate, it's actually
not a lot of going to that plate.
| | 07:10 | I'm using quite a bit of delay, and long
delay is being automated in at certain
| | 07:16 | sections towards the end,
and I am using some chorus.
| | 07:19 | And you can hear that the lead
vocal has a lot of space, but it's not
| | 07:22 | coming from reverb.
| | 07:23 | (music playing)
| | 07:35 | And that's because I really
don't want to drench it in reverb.
| | 07:38 | It's the main focal point of the song.
| | 07:40 | What I want to do is I don't
want it to be complete dry;
| | 07:43 | I want to give it some sense of space
or depth so that it's larger than life.
| | 07:48 | He sounds like a star, but I am not
just going to drench him in reverb.
| | 07:52 | I am not trying to do a throw-
back mix to something from the '80s;
| | 07:56 | I am trying to do a modern pop mix,
and I want that listener to really connect
| | 08:01 | with the lead vocal.
| | 08:02 | So I want to make the vocal sound
special, and so I am going to do that with
| | 08:06 | delays rather than a lot of verb.
And that's really one of the big secrets of
| | 08:09 | mixing with reverb and delay is that
a lot of times you can use more delay than reverb.
| | 08:16 | One cool trick you can also do with
reverb is you don't have to add a ton of
| | 08:21 | reverb to all your
instruments to get a really big section.
| | 08:26 | One of the tricks that I'm using in
this session on the solo guitars here is I
| | 08:31 | am actually adding a
whole lot of reverb to those.
| | 08:34 | So if I look at the plates and the Room
Verbs, wow, tons of Room Verb here on
| | 08:39 | this high-rock guitar and
this high-chorus guitar.
| | 08:43 | And what that's going to do is
it's going to define the back wall.
| | 08:47 | So what I want to do is I am going
to move to a section of the song where we
| | 08:50 | have these high-chorus guitars, and I
am going to bring the reverb in and out
| | 08:56 | and I want you to listen to how that
back wall comes forward when those elements
| | 09:01 | don't have reverb on them.
| | 09:02 | (music playing)
| | 09:27 | See how the mix just comes forward
without all those washed-out guitars?
| | 09:32 | So what I am doing is by adding these
kind of high, jangly guitar parts, it's
| | 09:37 | kind of half an arrangement trick and
half of mixing trick, because there's
| | 09:43 | this jangly part here.
| | 09:45 | (music playing)
| | 09:48 | And when that's layered --
(music playing)
| | 09:56 | --it creates this really cool back
wall, so as if that guitar is coming from
| | 10:00 | the back of the room, and it really
pushes the mix back so that we have a
| | 10:04 | really deep mix.
| | 10:06 | But instead of just having a mix
that we added way too much reverb to
| | 10:10 | everything, I am just adding a lot of
reverb to certain elements so that some
| | 10:15 | things are upfront and
some things are in the back.
| | 10:17 | Again, mixing is all about contrast.
| | 10:21 | So if you apply too much of one effect
to everything, you lose that contrast, and
| | 10:26 | the same is true with reverb and delay.
| | 10:29 | So in the case of this guitar, yes,
part of it is that it's meant for that much
| | 10:34 | reverb. That part of the arrangement is
kind of this jangly little guitar part.
| | 10:37 | I couldn't get away with putting that
much reverb on the chunky power cords.
| | 10:42 | But by taking what was done at the
arrangement stage and kind of running with that
| | 10:47 | idea, adding that extra reverb, adding
a little bit of short delay here, I can
| | 10:51 | really push the emotion of
that part and take the song home.
| | 10:56 | In my opinion, the biggest-sounding
mixes generally showcase a distinct
| | 11:00 | perspective of depth, or close to far.
| | 11:04 | Without this relative relationship,
everything is either really, really far away
| | 11:08 | or really, really close, which is
totally fine if that's what you want, or if
| | 11:12 | that's the vibe you're trying to capture.
| | 11:14 | But just remember that using your
reverb sparingly on a few elements of the mix
| | 11:20 | can really go a long way and create
that nice back wall for the listener and
| | 11:25 | give them a real sense of space.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mixing with delays| 00:00 | While reverb will be our go-to effect
for simulating an acoustic space and
| | 00:05 | lending that overall vibe to the
aesthetic of a mix, delay can achieve the same
| | 00:10 | depth and space-defining effects as
reverb with more control of the tail.
| | 00:15 | Because delay is characterized by
distinct echoes or taps, it may not be
| | 00:20 | perfect for very complex rhythmic parts,
but works excellent on vocals, guitars,
| | 00:25 | synths, and other melodic instruments.
| | 00:27 | For example, a delay is a great
way to make a vocal sound huge and
| | 00:32 | special without washing out or
obscuring the lyrics with the density of a
| | 00:36 | bunch of reverb.
| | 00:38 | Because delays are also distinct taps,
they can really help reinforce the tempo
| | 00:42 | and groove of the song in
a way that reverb cannot.
| | 00:46 | So I already discussed a little bit of
how I use the delays on the lead vocal of
| | 00:52 | Take Me down, as opposed to a lot of this
Big Plate, to really give the vocal that
| | 00:57 | rock star treatment that's not washing
it out. And if we listen, if I were to
| | 01:03 | take away the delays in the chorus here
and just focus on reverb, it would push
| | 01:08 | this far too back in the
mix for this style of song.
| | 01:11 | (music playing)
| | 01:22 | As opposed to these delays, if we
take a listen in isolation real quick--
| | 01:26 | (music playing)
| | 01:31 | --it's definitely giving that vocal
the rock start treatment; however, the
| | 01:35 | vocal stays in front of the mix.
| | 01:37 | (music playing)
| | 01:42 | Especially in the verses where
we definitely don't want to wash that vocal out;
| | 01:47 | we want to keep it nice and
intimate and right in the listener's face.
| | 01:50 | (music playing)
| | 01:55 | So we don't want to do this--
| | 01:57 | (music playing)
--unless that's really what I am going for.
| | 02:01 | (music playing)
| | 02:12 | And what I am doing is I am actually
automating some of these longer delays.
| | 02:15 | I have two delays on the vocal here,
and if I take a look at those delay
| | 02:20 | returns, I have this short delay.
And we talked about how this short delay is
| | 02:25 | really given at this left-right throw.
| | 02:26 | So I've got a 55-millisecond the left,
110 on the right, and that's really
| | 02:32 | giving it this widening effect because
the left and the right are out of sync
| | 02:37 | with each other.
| | 02:38 | So what happens is we are getting
what's called the Haas effect, where our ear
| | 02:42 | hears the shorter delay first and then
it hears the longer delay on the opposite
| | 02:48 | side, and that's really kind of giving
this crazy spatial information to our
| | 02:52 | brain that, in effect, makes that mono
vocal that's originally just a mono signal
| | 02:58 | sound very, very wide.
| | 03:01 | Now I also have a much longer delay here,
if I look at Long Delay. And I've got
| | 03:06 | a delay that's got a EQ, a very
aggressive EQ, kind of doing a telephone effect
| | 03:13 | on the tail.
| | 03:14 | And if we listen to that delay--let's go
over here and listen to what that delay
| | 03:18 | is doing on the lead vocal--it's also
giving me that spread, that left-right, but
| | 03:25 | I am actually using rhythms of this song.
| | 03:29 | So I am using quarter note and a half note here.
| | 03:32 | Let's take a listen.
| | 03:33 | (music playing)
| | 03:46 | And I am not using it on every
word and in every part of the song.
| | 03:51 | So if you can see here, if I play back
the session and I don't touch this send,
| | 03:56 | it's actually being automated for certain words.
| | 03:58 | Check it out.
| | 03:59 | (music playing)
| | 04:12 | So you are just getting these little
hints and especially when it's in the mix,
| | 04:16 | you are not actually hearing delays;
they are kind of getting buried behind.
| | 04:20 | But your brain is getting the sense of
space, and it just really creates this
| | 04:25 | nice gel of the vocal with the rest
of the mix and really makes it sounds
| | 04:29 | special, or larger than life.
| | 04:31 | A lot of the reason I use delays on
vocals and any effects on vocals is I
| | 04:36 | really want to give that vocalist or
whatever that focal element is that star
| | 04:41 | treatment, really make them sound
larger than life, really connect that vocal
| | 04:45 | with the listener in kind of this
fantasy space of the song and really sell that lyric.
| | 04:51 | Now on the guitars, I am actually
using some of these short delay.
| | 04:56 | There are actually some delays
recorded with the guitars, and I wanted to just
| | 05:01 | talk about this concept of, should you
record with delay? And I think in the
| | 05:06 | case of guitars, if it's part of your
performance that's kind of an edge style,
| | 05:12 | U2 edge style guitar, definitely yes,
record with those delays, because it's
| | 05:17 | going to change the way you are
performing. It's going to change the way you
| | 05:21 | record that track and feel
your way through that track.
| | 05:25 | If we listen to this high chorus
guitar at the last chorus, take all the
| | 05:29 | effects off--
(music playing)
| | 05:36 | --it had a delay pedal that
was recorded with the signal.
| | 05:39 | Now a lot of engineers, when they
first realize that they can add this stuff
| | 05:44 | after the fact, they get very, very
focused on always maintaining total
| | 05:49 | control over everything.
| | 05:50 | So they'll get the guitar player in
the room and they'll say, oh, I am going
| | 05:53 | to add delay later,
| | 05:55 | so I don't want you playing with your
pedals and I want total control over this sound.
| | 05:59 | And what happens, and you'll notice if
you are a guitar player, when you play
| | 06:04 | the guitar and you are expecting to
hear that delay and you are not hearing it,
| | 06:09 | it's totally going to change the way
you are fingering the part. It's going to
| | 06:12 | change your emotional investment in
that part, and I definitely don't want to
| | 06:17 | do that to somebody.
| | 06:18 | I want to make sure that they
are as comfortable as possible,
| | 06:21 | so I will definitely record with
the effects embedded into the signal
| | 06:26 | where appropriate.
| | 06:28 | And, of course, with DAWs today, you
can actually use guitar amp simulators
| | 06:32 | and things like that
| | 06:33 | that will give you the best of both worlds.
| | 06:34 | You can actually track with the
delay on and then adjust it later within the simulator.
| | 06:40 | One more delay I want to show you, and
it's another example of widening, and
| | 06:45 | this is a really cool trick you can
do with your synthesizers, is the delay
| | 06:50 | here on the B3.
| | 06:52 | Let's just take a listen to the B3.
(music playing)
| | 06:59 | Now I am going to kill the delay.
(music playing)
| | 07:03 | Did you see how it moved in towards the
center, and then out towards the side?
| | 07:09 | This is a really good example of
using a delay to get the Haas effect. That's H-A-A-S.
| | 07:17 | You can do a search for that on
Wikipedia if you want more information.
| | 07:20 | But what I am really doing is
I am just delaying one side,
| | 07:25 | by a tiny bit. You can get this effect
by just delaying a side by 10, 20, 30
| | 07:31 | milliseconds and you can experiment
with the amount and kind of just feel
| | 07:35 | that out by the ear.
| | 07:36 | But what this does is by slightly
delaying one side, it kind of tricks the
| | 07:41 | brain into kind of wondering hey,
is that coming from the left or is that
| | 07:45 | coming from the right?
| | 07:46 | So what ends up happening is the side
that's been delayed sounds a little
| | 07:50 | bit softer in the mix, and we get kind
of this widening effect and you can do
| | 07:54 | this on mono tracks, but you can also
do it on stereo tracks. This organ here,
| | 08:01 | I've got it going to the left and the right.
| | 08:03 | So it was already mic stereo, the
Leslie cabinet was mic stereo. But I am just
| | 08:08 | extending this stereo a little bit
wider using this kind of Haas effect delay.
| | 08:15 | And it's not really a delay in the
traditional sense, but I am using the mod
| | 08:19 | 3 delay just to give me a
little bit of delay at one side.
| | 08:22 | You could also achieve this effect
by actually nudging the region in the Edit window.
| | 08:28 | Some engineers like to split a stereo
track up into two and nudge the left side
| | 08:33 | forward by 10 milliseconds and the
right side backwards by 10 milliseconds to
| | 08:37 | kind of get this cool stereo effect.
| | 08:40 | And these effects usually
sum to mono fairly well.
| | 08:44 | Sometimes what I like to do is if I
feel like one side is getting ducted
| | 08:49 | down too much from that Haas effect,
I'll actually turn the one side down to compensate.
| | 08:56 | So I'll kind of level-
match the two sides by ear.
| | 08:59 | I won't use the meters because the
meters are not going to really tell me
| | 09:02 | anything, but I'll actually
level-match the output by ear.
| | 09:07 | So you see I have a left and a right output.
| | 09:09 | So what I might do here is kind of
turn down the left side to compensate for
| | 09:14 | that Haas effect, right, because the
left side is hitting our ear first.
| | 09:18 | (music playing)
| | 09:28 | You want to make sure you check this in
headphones, check this on speakers,
| | 09:31 | because it kind of present itself
differently if the left and the right aren't
| | 09:36 | combining in a physical space,
| | 09:38 | as in the case with having
monitor speakers versus, let's say,
| | 09:40 | headphones where the left is just
going to your left ear and the right is
| | 09:44 | just going to your right ear.
| | 09:47 | Delays are a great way of placing
sounds in the distance or even keeping them
| | 09:51 | upfront while extending them through
the back of your mix, and I've definitely
| | 09:56 | done mixes that use delays as the
primary source of depth as oppose to reverb.
| | 10:01 | And I would even say that if I had to
choose whether I could use reverb or
| | 10:05 | delay in a mix, just one of the other,
I probably opt to use delay because of
| | 10:10 | the amount of control that I have in
the tail. I can EQ it. I can add effect to
| | 10:15 | it. I can pan it. I can
place it exactly where I want.
| | 10:18 | So if you learn anything about delays,
it's that you can use them in place or in
| | 10:24 | combination with reverbs, and I think
that's one thing that beginning mixers
| | 10:28 | tend to overuse reverbs
and not use enough delays.
| | 10:32 | So the next time you are doing a mix,
experiment with delays, as opposed to using
| | 10:37 | reverbs, for certain depth tasks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring mixing tips and tricks: creating mix depth| 00:00 | Remember, through the use of reverb,
delay and other time-domain processors, you
| | 00:04 | can really start to capture
the vibe and message of the song.
| | 00:08 | But before drenching everything with
verb and slap-back echoes, go back here mix
| | 00:13 | plan and think about how these
spatial processors can work to achieve your
| | 00:17 | idealized goal for the song.
| | 00:20 | Is it wet and dreamy or
is it close and intimate?
| | 00:23 | Is it off in the distance or
in your face and big at the same time?
| | 00:27 | Here are some of my tips for
using reverb and delay in your mixes.
| | 00:31 | I talked about is already a bit, but I
can't stress enough that a little goes a long way.
| | 00:37 | I find that many beginning mixers tend
to overuse reverb and delay on too many
| | 00:44 | elements of their mix, where everything
is too wet and too out of control.
| | 00:50 | And especially in faster tempo songs
everything can kind of just bleed together
| | 00:54 | and sound messy.
| | 00:56 | It's totally normal to have a few
completely dry elements in your mix,
| | 01:01 | so don't feel like everything
has to have reverb added to it.
| | 01:05 | Remember dry elements will borrow the
tales of the wet ones, all becoming one in the mix.
| | 01:11 | Also, you want to avoid adding a lot
of reverb, especially the long-tailed
| | 01:16 | reverb to very low-frequency instruments.
| | 01:19 | There's only so much bass space in the
mix and a reverb is just going to extend
| | 01:26 | the decay of a sound in time. And so if
you're trying to keep up punchy tight
| | 01:30 | low end to adding that kind of reverb
to your kick drum or base can tend to
| | 01:35 | fight you on that.
| | 01:36 | When you're setting up your
reverb times, consider the following.
| | 01:40 | Percussive instruments and
faster rhythms need shorter tails.
| | 01:44 | So if you're instrument is doing
intricate 8th or even 16th note, or even faster,
| | 01:50 | rhythms, you don't tend to want to put
a ton of five-second reverb on it, or a ton
| | 01:56 | of church on it, because what's going
to happen is those intricate rhythms are
| | 01:59 | going to get lost in the tail and that
tail is just going to keep building up and
| | 02:03 | building up and building up.
| | 02:05 | So when you want to add reverb to
percussive elements, think about adding
| | 02:09 | shorter reverbs to those and then adding
longer reverbs to more legato elements,
| | 02:15 | your pads: your background vocals, even
lead vocals, to kind of give a sense of
| | 02:20 | that back wall and that space.
| | 02:23 | Remember, the percussive
instruments will borrow the tails of the other elements.
| | 02:27 | That's why adding a whole bunch of
reverb to the snare, especially if it's just
| | 02:30 | playing on the two and four, can really
define the whole size of the drum kit,
| | 02:34 | rather than adding a ton of reverb to
every percussive element in the mix.
| | 02:39 | When you're thinking about how long to
time your vocal reverbs, generally, I
| | 02:43 | like to pick somewhere in the middle.
Depending on the style of song, too long
| | 02:48 | may begin to obscure the lyrics, just
like they would with the percussive sounds
| | 02:52 | and tend to muddy the vocal.
| | 02:54 | However, this can create a really
cool sound in certain styles of music.
| | 02:58 | So, if you do experiment with really
long reverb tails on your vocals, make sure
| | 03:03 | you use things like pre-delay and
delayed reverbs and EQ on your reverb tails to
| | 03:09 | keep that vocal from getting too
muddy or obscured from that verb tail.
| | 03:14 | When you're setting delay times, think
about tempo and rhythm and the tempo of
| | 03:20 | your song and how that relates to those delays.
| | 03:23 | Rhythmic drums probably won't benefit
from long delays, unless you're trying to
| | 03:28 | create some kind of cool polyrhythm.
| | 03:31 | So maybe you saved your longer quarter
note, half note, whole note delays for the
| | 03:35 | more legato elements: the vocals,
the pads, things like that.
| | 03:39 | Rhythmic delays can really help define
the tempo of the tune, but sometimes what
| | 03:44 | happens is off-tempo delays stick out
better than on-tempo delays, and this can be
| | 03:50 | a really cool effect in your song.
| | 03:51 | So you don't always have to set your
delays in increments of the tempo of your song.
| | 03:57 | Now under 40-millisecond delays, it's
give you more of a double sound, good for
| | 04:02 | thickening or stereo effects.
| | 04:04 | Over a 40 milliseconds, let's say 40
milliseconds to a 120 milliseconds, is going
| | 04:09 | to be really that slap area, that Elvis
kind of old '50s, '60s slap-tape echo.
| | 04:15 | Anything longer than that is really
going to be heard as a discrete delayed tap,
| | 04:19 | tapped out on the tempo of time.
| | 04:22 | Again, experiment with separate right
and left delay settings and how you feed
| | 04:27 | the send, pan-wise, into that delay.
| | 04:31 | So if something is paned hard right,
you can try to feed it into a delay
| | 04:35 | that's pan hard left.
| | 04:36 | It can really widen your stereo image
and create some cool effects in your stereo field.
| | 04:42 | Try treating your returns with other effects.
| | 04:44 | So I like to de-ess my reverbs,
especially in the Take Me Down mix.
| | 04:48 | His vocal can get a bit sibilant,
| | 04:50 | so I like to add a de-esser and EQ to
my reverb, especially plates to keep them
| | 04:55 | from getting too essy.
| | 04:57 | I always EQ my reverbs and delays
with a separate EQ. This is just a habit of mine.
| | 05:03 | But a lot of delays and reverbs have
built in EQs that you can tap into also.
| | 05:07 | Sometimes, I will flange or chorus my
reverb tails or my delays to get an extra
| | 05:12 | cool effect, or feed that into another effect.
| | 05:15 | So I might go the vocal into a delay
and then take that delay into another
| | 05:20 | reverb or modulation effect, like a flanger.
| | 05:24 | Sometimes, I also like to
create manual delays via editing.
| | 05:27 | So I will actually create a new track,
copy stuff to that track, and push
| | 05:32 | it later in time.
| | 05:34 | This gives me total control
over the tap at a specific moment.
| | 05:37 | So let's say I have a vocal and I want
to do one word at a half note and then
| | 05:42 | another word at quarter note.
| | 05:44 | Instead of automating my delay, I
might just create a new track and actually
| | 05:48 | edit in those delays with
copies of the performance.
| | 05:53 | The example session here, Take Me Down,
is a very straight-ahead live rock song,
| | 05:57 | so its use of reverb and delay
is pretty standard in that genre.
| | 06:01 | But don't let that stop you
from heavy experimentation.
| | 06:04 | You can get some really cool sonic
textures by layering delays and reverbs.
| | 06:09 | Just be mindful of the additional
frequency considerations that come along with
| | 06:13 | extending elements' decay in time.
| | 06:16 | For even more tips and tricks on
using the reverbs, delays, and other
| | 06:19 | modulation effects do a search for
"Foundations of Audio Courses" on the Online
| | 06:24 | Training Library.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Introducing the Pro Tools Creative CollectionWorking with the Creative Collection| 00:00 | The AIR suite of plug-ins is broken
down into two main categories: time-domain
| | 00:05 | and modulation-style processors like
reverb, chorus, flange, things like that,
| | 00:10 | and filter/saturation processors
like EQ, distortion, bit crushers.
| | 00:16 | Most of these plug-ins generally fall
under the more creative side of mix
| | 00:20 | processors, so there's really not hard
and fast rules for using them in your
| | 00:24 | mixes, and you're kind of going to
want to experiment and feel them out on
| | 00:27 | different style of tracks and music.
| | 00:29 | I just wanted to go through how I'm
using a few of these processors in the demo session.
| | 00:34 | Now on my effects returns, towards the
right-hand side, I'm using AIR Flanger
| | 00:40 | just by itself on the flange return.
And let's just take a listen to what this
| | 00:47 | sounds like, here on the background vocals.
| | 00:50 | (audio playing)
| | 01:07 | So I'm getting a little extra
grit, a little extra character.
| | 01:11 | Again, this is really just an aesthetic choice.
| | 01:14 | I kind of wanted to do something that
sent the background vocals just into the
| | 01:18 | back a little bit more, and kind of
filled out the stereo field. And Flange or
| | 01:23 | Phaser is really cool for doing stuff
like that because it adds a little bit of
| | 01:28 | grit or attitude to things. And I
might even experiment with adding something
| | 01:33 | like that to the lead vocal if I
wanted to make it gritty or different at a
| | 01:38 | certain section and maybe
automate that in and out.
| | 01:41 | Now I'm also using the AIR Chorus, here
on the Chorus track, but I actually have
| | 01:50 | the slap delay that's happening
before the chorus, and just doing a tiny
| | 01:55 | amount of delay on each side.
| | 01:57 | Now it's different on each side,
and that's going to kind of give me a unique width effect.
| | 02:02 | Then I have the chorus. The chorus is going to be a
lot cleaner than the flanger.
| | 02:07 | It's going to give this nice lush
modulated doubling effect of things like
| | 02:12 | vocals and instruments.
| | 02:14 | And to top off that width, I'm AIR
Stereo Width plug-in, which is kind of doing,
| | 02:21 | in the setting that I have here, kind
of a mid-side process that's bringing up
| | 02:26 | this side information, as
opposed to the center channel.
| | 02:29 | So it's actually turning up the left
and right signal, versus what's center-
| | 02:34 | channel information.
| | 02:35 | Let's take a listen to this on that lead vocal.
| | 02:38 | I'm going to bypass the two delays
so we can here that in isolation.
| | 02:45 | (audio playing)
| | 03:01 | So you can hear that the Delay plus
the Chorus plus the Stereo Width stack is
| | 03:06 | really adding that nice doubled, wide
sound to just a mono lead vocal. And so I
| | 03:13 | like to use this style of processing
when I only have a single lead vocal and I
| | 03:17 | didn't get a double take of the lead vocals.
| | 03:20 | Generally, I find it's cool if I can
get a double or triple take, and that
| | 03:24 | lends a totally different sound than
doing fake doubling with chorus and
| | 03:29 | things like that.
| | 03:30 | But in this case, I just had a mono
lead vocal and I wanted to get it a little
| | 03:34 | wider, a little more filled out, a
little larger than life for the choruses.
| | 03:39 | And I can bring that in and out
at different sections of the song.
| | 03:47 | Now a totally different style of AIR
effect that I'm using here over on the drums
| | 03:53 | is called AIR Kill EQ. And really where
it is is it's just an easy-to-use low-pass
| | 04:00 | or high-pass filter, and what it's
doing for my hi-hats here is just
| | 04:05 | cutting out the low-end mud from the
hi-hat mic. And this is something that I
| | 04:09 | do pretty much every time I am mixing a
full kit drums, as I want to get all of
| | 04:15 | the kick drum and the snare drum low
end and low mids out of that hi-hat mic,
| | 04:20 | so it can really just focus
on being a hi-hat mic.
| | 04:22 | Take a listen.
| | 04:23 | (audio playing)
| | 04:48 | Now in the mix, you're not going to
notice that all the low end has been
| | 04:52 | sucked out of the hi-hat, because
I'm getting the low end from the direct
| | 04:55 | kick, snare, and overhead mics.
| | 04:57 | So this is just a way of getting all
that low-end information out of that mic,
| | 05:02 | because it's not really
contributing anything to my hi-hat sound.
| | 05:06 | Now that AIR Kill EQ is
just an easy way to do that.
| | 05:08 | I just kick in the Low here and I
just adjust the frequency, and that's very
| | 05:13 | similar to adjusting a high-
pass or low-pass filter on an EQ.
| | 05:21 | It's just an easier way of accomplishing that.
| | 05:23 | I just throw it on and I say hey, I
want to cut out the lows or I want to cut
| | 05:27 | the highs, or I want to cut out both,
and that's going to act kind of like a
| | 05:31 | band-pass filter, if you listen
to that. Turn off the automation there.
| | 05:35 | (audio playing)
| | 05:48 | Just the lows.
| | 05:49 | (audio playing)
| | 05:57 | So from me, it's just a
unique little utility effect.
| | 06:01 | Now if you look in your plug-in
folders, you will see anything labeled AIR
| | 06:06 | here, it's going to be part of that suite.
| | 06:09 | And like I said, there's quite a few
things to experiment with, especially in
| | 06:12 | the Modulation section and in
Harmonic. And again, these are really just
| | 06:17 | creative effects that you can try out
when you need a little extra inspiration.
| | 06:22 | Try going through some of the presets.
| | 06:25 | I find that they're really
effective in kind of get in a good sense of
| | 06:28 | what that plug-in does.
| | 06:31 | Don't be afraid of use these kind of
style effects during the production or
| | 06:35 | arrangement stage, where you are really
trying to get sounds and create a vibe.
| | 06:39 | I find that sometimes people tend to
push things off too far into the mixing
| | 06:44 | stage and so therefore they don't
really have a sound in their head when
| | 06:49 | they're writing a song, and things can
fall a little bit short when they load all
| | 06:54 | that heavy weight on the mixing and say
oh, make it sound really cool and maybe
| | 06:59 | they're missing any cool element to draw out.
| | 07:02 | So don't be afraid to play with
these effects, these modulations, delays,
| | 07:06 | reverb, courses, flangers while
you're producing and recording and getting
| | 07:12 | sounds, because I think they can
really inspire you to take the song in
| | 07:16 | different directions.
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| Building distortion and saturation| 00:00 | I always like to have a distortion or
saturation plug-in handy come mix time.
| | 00:05 | Not only does it allow me to achieve a
specific aesthetic within my mix, in the
| | 00:09 | age of all digital recording, it's
almost a necessity to have something a little
| | 00:14 | gritty in your mix toolkit.
| | 00:16 | Now, what you get with Pro Tools, in
regards to saturation and distortion, are
| | 00:21 | a few cool plug-ins.
| | 00:23 | If we take a look here under the
Harmonic category, you see I have a AIR Distortion,
| | 00:30 | and this is just going to be
your basic distortion drive.
| | 00:32 | It's going to introduce some
nonlinearities and some saturation.
| | 00:36 | It's going to drive the harmonic series.
| | 00:39 | I find that it does get a bit gritty.
| | 00:42 | You do have Hard, Soft, in this Wrap
mode here and you can blend a mix, wet or dry.
| | 00:49 | It can be very useful for kind of
just shredding stuff up, really nasty.
| | 00:54 | You also have some amp simulation, and
I find I am using this quite a bit to
| | 00:59 | mixing, and not just on guitars.
| | 01:01 | If we take a look at the bass track,
specifically in this mix, actually what I
| | 01:09 | have done here with the bass guitar is
the bass was recorded with a DI, so just
| | 01:15 | direct into this system.
| | 01:17 | And what I felt was missing on the bass
was a bit of that amp or grittiness, that
| | 01:22 | rowdiness that you would get out of
recording a cabinet, and I really wanted to
| | 01:26 | bring that to certain sections of the songs.
| | 01:29 | So what I did is I just duplicated the
track; I could just say Track > Duplicate.
| | 01:34 | And on that Duplicate, I built kind
of a distortion chain that I could
| | 01:39 | then blend in.
Let's take a listen.
| | 01:41 | (music playing)
| | 01:59 | And it sounds a little bit farty in
isolation, but what I find is when I mix
| | 02:05 | it with the rest of the elements in
the distorted guitars, it really helps drive
| | 02:09 | that chorus. And what I like to do is automate the
bass distortion here, up and down through
| | 02:15 | different section to the song.
| | 02:17 | So, actually what I did is I
automated it out in Verse1 and I brought it in
| | 02:23 | the first chorus.
| | 02:24 | So if we take a listen to the pre-chorus.
| | 02:26 | (music playing)
| | 02:50 | So it's just giving me a little more
attitude in that section. And what I am
| | 02:54 | using is the SansAmp.
| | 02:56 | The SansAmp is a plug-in model of
the original PSA-1 hardware unit, and it
| | 03:02 | sounds really great.
| | 03:03 | It's meant to be a guitar amp
simulator, but I find it more useful for just
| | 03:08 | messing stuff up, messing drums up.
I add it to bass, I add it to vocals.
| | 03:12 | I like to play with a lot of these
presets in here, because they are
| | 03:15 | actually pretty good.
| | 03:16 | I will usually go through and find a
preset that I like, maybe in-your-face
| | 03:20 | bass, and then what I like to do
is I like to hone that with an EQ.
| | 03:24 | So anytime I'm adding saturation
effects, I like to kind of hone them with an
| | 03:29 | equalizer to kind of put them in
the space where I want them to be.
| | 03:33 | I think a lot of people pull up
presets or pull up specific plug-ins and
| | 03:37 | kind of just take them at face value,
but if you add an EQ and you start
| | 03:42 | crafting and you really start focusing
on what you want to get out of adding
| | 03:46 | that plug-in, you can take that
extra step to really fit it and make it
| | 03:50 | special in your mix; make it yours.
| | 03:53 | Now, I also use the SansAmp on the
vocal track, and this is a cool trick that I
| | 03:59 | like to do with vocals.
| | 04:01 | A lot of people would think that
distortion on vocals is really something you
| | 04:06 | only do in a very heavy industrial song.
| | 04:09 | However, I find that I use it in pop
songs all the time, and not in an overt way,
| | 04:14 | but in a very subtle way,
where I am blending it in.
| | 04:17 | Let's take a listen to this LV
Crunch track, and that's just a duplicate of
| | 04:20 | the lead vocal.
| | 04:21 | It's not a unique performance.
| | 04:23 | (music playing)
| | 04:29 | So I have got my de-esser, my
compressor, and then we get into our saturation.
| | 04:36 | So I have got the SansAmp. And I am
using this vocal thru amp preset that I
| | 04:40 | have modified a little bit. I kind of
tone down some of the lows, maybe added
| | 04:45 | a little bit more crunch and drive.
But the secret here is I'm really
| | 04:49 | manipulating it with this EQ.
| | 04:51 | Take a listen.
| | 04:52 | (music playing)
| | 04:57 | That's really muddy.
| | 04:58 | That's going to take away
intelligibility from my lead vocal, confuse the lyrics.
| | 05:03 | So I'm aggressively pulling out the
low mids. I'm totally cutting out all the lows.
| | 05:10 | I am kind of giving myself a little
point here, around 1.75, and that's going to
| | 05:14 | give it a little bit of
honkiness, a little bit of attitude.
| | 05:17 | And I am making sure to cut out all of
my highs here because I don't want to
| | 05:20 | create any kind of shrill
exaggeration of the sibilance, or the top end.
| | 05:25 | And I topped it all off at a little
bit of ModDelay, and is just a kind of a
| | 05:29 | left-right spreader thing that's
giving it that cool stereo effect.
| | 05:35 | (music playing)
| | 05:38 | And this isn't necessary, but I find
that it kind of spreads the distortion to
| | 05:43 | the left and the right so that the
vocal itself can stay in the center.
| | 05:47 | I can create this really kind of
cool ghosting effect on that vocal.
| | 05:50 | Let's listen to the vocals together.
| | 05:52 | (music playing)
| | 06:09 | And you can see I am actually
automating that track up into the chorus.
| | 06:12 | So, anytime I want to make the vocal
more aggressive, I will take this parallel
| | 06:16 | chain that I have added saturation
to, and drive that a little bit more.
| | 06:22 | There are quite a few options inside
of Pro Tools. In addition to the PSA-1,
| | 06:27 | you probably want to check out the
Eleven Free plug-in. That's another
| | 06:31 | Amp simulator.
| | 06:33 | Again, the AIR Distortion, the
AIR Lo-Fi is really great, as is the original Lo-Fi.
| | 06:40 | I will use this one all the time,
just the distortion and the saturation sliders here.
| | 06:45 | This plug-in is well over ten years old,
but I still use it in almost every mix I
| | 06:50 | do, because it drives the
harmonic series really, really well.
| | 06:53 | One of the reasons that engineers like
saturation of analog consoles is that
| | 06:58 | they would take ultra-low low
frequencies, and by adding a little saturation,
| | 07:03 | you would drive some of the upper
harmonics, which would make the bass and the
| | 07:07 | kick drum sound a little bit warmer
and more present on smaller speakers.
| | 07:12 | Now, you don't get this by default in a DAW.
| | 07:14 | The mixing is 100% linear,
| | 07:17 | so the summing is super-clean, so
actually need to add these nonlinearities in
| | 07:22 | the harmonic distortion back into
the signal, if I want that there.
| | 07:27 | Ultimately, in a session like Take Me
Down, because it was recorded with all
| | 07:32 | real instruments, real guitars, real
amps, a real organ with a real Leslie, a
| | 07:36 | real drum kit, I'm not using a ton of
saturation besides the bass and that vocal trick.
| | 07:42 | I find that that's just enough to get
the attitude that I'm looking for in this
| | 07:46 | tune. But for sessions built
primarily of virtual instruments or loops and
| | 07:50 | samples, familiarizing yourself with
some saturation plug-ins is a must.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Automating the MixUnderstanding automation| 00:00 | When we start a mix in Pro Tools,
the parameters in the mixer are by default static.
| | 00:06 | That is to say, once you set them in a
specific value or state, they will remain
| | 00:11 | fixed until you decide to manually change them.
| | 00:14 | This may be fine for a simple
composition with fewer instruments but often
| | 00:19 | presents a problem as track count
and arrangement complexity increases.
| | 00:23 | Automation allows us to record
changes in the mixer over the course of the
| | 00:27 | session, which is great because it
gives us the ability to react dynamically as
| | 00:32 | the arrangement or project evolves,
expanding or contracting with the
| | 00:37 | progression of the tune.
| | 00:39 | So, for example, let's take a lead
vocal in a song with a basic verse-chorus-
| | 00:44 | verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure,
| | 00:46 | kind of like Take Me Down here.
| | 00:49 | During the first verse, we can hear
that the arrangement is a bit more sparse
| | 00:53 | than let's say in the
choruses or later in the song.
| | 00:56 | So I might have one level that works
great during that intro period, or the first
| | 01:01 | verse, but as soon as I hit that chorus,
the density of the extra guitars and
| | 01:07 | elements coming into the session are
going to cause that vocal to get drowned
| | 01:12 | out if I don't change something.
| | 01:14 | So automation to the rescue here,
and we can see that in this session, as
| | 01:19 | I move through from verse to chorus,
I've actually bumped up the vocal to
| | 01:24 | accommodate the new instrument
density of the chorus. And there are little
| | 01:28 | sections where I actually take it up
even more to make sure it doesn't get lost.
| | 01:32 | For example, right in this
little section, take a listen!
| | 01:36 | (music playing)
| | 01:43 | So what's happening right there is the
instruments are going out of the tag and
| | 01:47 | into the second verse. And the first
lyrics of his second verse are fairly
| | 01:52 | important, and I want to make sure that
kind of lower or more mellow verse vocal
| | 01:57 | styling that he is using doesn't get
lost behind the exiting intensity of that
| | 02:03 | chorus or tag section.
| | 02:05 | Now, automation in Pro Tools gives
the mixer complete control over all the
| | 02:10 | parameters throughout the entire mix,
and this can help us inject interest,
| | 02:15 | dynamics, tension and release, and
overall fluidity throughout a mix.
| | 02:21 | If we think about how automation would
be used in post-production or audio for
| | 02:25 | video, automation is critical in helping
create perspective and believability in
| | 02:30 | the dialogue and sound
effects and ambience tracks.
| | 02:33 | In most productions, dialogue is
at least in some sections, if not all,
| | 02:37 | re-recorded in the studio to compensate
for uncontrollable production variables,
| | 02:42 | like noise onset, wind,
performance issues, things like that.
| | 02:46 | This re-recorded dialogue, often
called ADR, will likely not match the camera
| | 02:51 | perspective and ambient
characteristics of the space the shot was filmed in.
| | 02:55 | Automation is often required not only
to balance the re-recorded dialogue in
| | 03:00 | context with the other sound elements,
but to help bring back some of the
| | 03:03 | perspective to the viewer.
| | 03:05 | Often reverbs are automated, along with
EQ, level, and pan, to help the re-recorded
| | 03:10 | dialogue match the original scene and
restore a sense of reality to the viewer.
| | 03:15 | If you can ever recall watching a
poorly dubbed Kung Fu flick, you know exactly
| | 03:19 | what I'm talking about.
| | 03:21 | Now, historically, automation was
reserved only for the most exclusive
| | 03:26 | large-format consoles.
| | 03:27 | But today, most modern DAWs feature
some form of automation package, and Pro
| | 03:32 | Tools has the industry-leading
automation package, geared towards both music
| | 03:37 | and post-production.
| | 03:38 | Now, in Pro Tools, nearly every mixer
parameter and plug-in parameter can be
| | 03:43 | automated, from just the basics, like
Volume and Pan, to complex parameters in
| | 03:48 | a reverb or EQ.
| | 03:50 | Automation can be recorded in both
real time using the mouse or a control
| | 03:55 | surface, or edited graphically using
the enhanced automation lane views in Pro Tools.
| | 04:01 | In the next couple of videos, I am
going to walk you through the basics of
| | 04:04 | automation in Pro Tools, and throw
out a few tips for using automation
| | 04:08 | effectively in your mixes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording real-time automation moves| 00:00 | Automation in Pro Tools can be
approached in one of two ways:
| | 00:04 | real-time recording of mixing moves
or graphically, via the edit tools.
| | 00:09 | For real-time automation, each track
in Pro Tools has an Automation Mode
| | 00:14 | selector that can be
accessed via the Edit or Mix window.
| | 00:19 | The default state of a
track's automation mode is Read.
| | 00:23 | Read mode will play back any
previously written automation for that track.
| | 00:28 | If no automation is present, a track
is considered open and will attain its
| | 00:32 | static state when manually adjusted.
| | 00:36 | Now, we have a specific window
to treat automation in Pro Tools,
| | 00:39 | under Window > Automation.
| | 00:43 | And here we have a master Suspend
value that will turn off all automation for
| | 00:47 | all tracks. As you can see,
the read goes gray here.
| | 00:51 | I also have Write Enable, and this
is going to be important when I want to
| | 00:55 | perform or record real-time
automation, as I want to make sure that the
| | 00:59 | property that I want to apply--let's
say Volume or Pan--is Write Enabled, or
| | 01:05 | highlighted red here.
| | 01:07 | So if I wanted to do some plug-in
automation, I'll have to make sure that was lit
| | 01:11 | up; otherwise, the real-time automation
recording would ignore any plug-in moves
| | 01:17 | if that was gray there.
| | 01:18 | Now, there's a few basic steps
for writing automation in real time.
| | 01:23 | What I'm going to do is I'm going
to bring up the lead vocal here as an
| | 01:26 | example, and take my Memory Locations,
bring up the Lead Vocal view, and I also
| | 01:33 | just want to slide that over so that
I can see what's going on here in the
| | 01:38 | Edit space as well.
| | 01:41 | Right now, I'm looking at the volume
lane here in the Edit window. As opposed to
| | 01:46 | waveforms, I'm looking at the volume
view, so I can see what's going on.
| | 01:50 | And to help you do real-time automation,
if you don't have a control surface and
| | 01:55 | you want to visualize this a little
bit better, oftentimes I'll open up a
| | 01:58 | breakaway fader by clicking
just to the right of the output.
| | 02:01 | So I have this nice little fader here,
and I can go ahead and close that Mix
| | 02:06 | window down and just leave
that floating right on top.
| | 02:10 | Now, the steps to record real-time
automation are to select one of the real-time
| | 02:16 | automation record modes,
| | 02:18 | so Touch, Latch, or Write, because in
Read mode, it's just going to read back
| | 02:22 | any automation you already have.
| | 02:24 | And if you don't have any automation
in the track--so let's say I just wipe
| | 02:28 | this all out--Pro Tools is just
going to leave the fader at whatever that
| | 02:33 | static value is.
| | 02:35 | So I'm going to start by
placing the Auto mode to Write.
| | 02:39 | Now, at this point, I can simply hit
the spacebar to play back this session and
| | 02:44 | it's going to record any
changes I make here on this fader.
| | 02:48 | Now, one thing to remember is you
don't have to be recording to write this automation.
| | 02:53 | A lot of people think they need to
go to their transport and actually be recording.
| | 02:59 | Now, this Record button is
for recording audio or MIDI.
| | 03:03 | Recording automation is completely
separate from the audio recording features
| | 03:07 | of Pro Tools.
| | 03:08 | So you just have to be playing back
in any Automation Record mode, like
| | 03:13 | Write, Latch, or Touch.
| | 03:15 | So let's check this out real quick.
| | 03:17 | (music playing)
| | 03:38 | Now, once I hit Stop, I'll see the
automation moves I just recorded as
| | 03:43 | these break points here.
| | 03:45 | And if I zoom in on these
break points, we can see it's basically a game
| | 03:50 | of Connect the Dots.
| | 03:52 | Each break point represents a level
value on my volume fader, and Pro Tools is
| | 03:57 | connecting those break points with
the vector-based automation move.
| | 04:02 | So going up, staying static, up a
little bit more, and then down here.
| | 04:08 | Now, auto-write is what's known
as the destructive automation mode,
| | 04:14 | in that, if I go back to
Write again and I hit spacebar --
| | 04:19 | (music playing)
| | 04:21 | you could see it's just blowing out
all my previous automation, and not just
| | 04:26 | on the volume lane; It would also
blow out any pan, send, mute automation I
| | 04:31 | had on that track as well.
| | 04:33 | So typically, the only time you're
going to use Write mode is for your very,
| | 04:38 | very first pass. And some
people never use Write mode at all.
| | 04:42 | I like to just use Latch mode and
then I'll use Touch mode for updating.
| | 04:47 | They call Touch and Latch modes Update
modes because they allow us to preserve
| | 04:52 | existing automation and go and add a
new automation when we feel like it.
| | 04:57 | So let's check out Touch first.
| | 04:59 | (music playing)
| | 05:02 | It's not automating until I actually
touch the parameter, and as soon as I let
| | 05:08 | go, it goes back to my previous automation.
| | 05:13 | Again, when I touch the fader, I'm writing.
| | 05:18 | I let go, it stops.
| | 05:20 | (music playing)
| | 05:22 | So, Touch is aptly named.
| | 05:25 | When you're touching the parameter,
automation is being written; when you let
| | 05:28 | go, it stops writing.
| | 05:30 | You can use this to go in and update passes.
| | 05:32 | So if you don't like a move you made
in a certain section, you can just roll
| | 05:36 | back over that section and do a new move.
| | 05:42 | Now, Latch mode is kind of like the
first half of touch and the end of write.
| | 05:48 | So it's going to act like Touch mode,
in that it will play back existing
| | 05:53 | automation until I actually grab a
parameter, and then it's going to latch on
| | 05:58 | and allow me to let go while it
continues to write automation.
| | 06:02 | Check it out!
(music playing)
| | 06:04 | Following the automation curve, up and
down. Now as soon as I grab it, it's now
| | 06:10 | latched, and I can let go and it's
going to continue writing at that value.
| | 06:16 | (music playing)
| | 06:28 | So again, it's a little bit like
Touch, a little bit like Write.
| | 06:31 | But unlike Write, it's not
destructively blowing over any other parameters
| | 06:36 | that I don't grab on to.
| | 06:38 | So in Touch or Latch modes, if you
don't grab the Pan control, if you don't
| | 06:42 | grab mute or any of the send levels,
it's not going to write automation to those levels.
| | 06:49 | Now, once you're happy with any
automation you've written in real time, just go
| | 06:53 | ahead and switch back to Read mode, and
that protects that track from getting
| | 06:58 | any additional automation written to
it if you accidentally move the fader up or down.
| | 07:03 | Now, it's important to remember that
once a track has automation, Pro Tools is
| | 07:08 | now going to follow those break points.
| | 07:10 | So any static moves you make--
(music playing)
| | 07:15 | you can see will just snap
back to the automation pass.
| | 07:18 | (music playing)
| | 07:21 | So you don't get to have it both ways;
you can't make static changes and have
| | 07:26 | an automation graph.
| | 07:27 | What we'll see is if I want to add
more or less to this whole graph, I'll
| | 07:32 | actually have to use a technique
like the Trim tool to trim that line up or down.
| | 07:38 | I can't simply just move this fader
up or down, because as soon as I hit
| | 07:43 | spacebar, Pro Tools is going to say, hey!
I see break points here.
| | 07:47 | I'm going to go follow them.
(music playing)
| | 07:52 | Now, if you decide you totally don't
want any automation on that track, or just
| | 07:56 | temporarily don't want to deal with the
automation and want to revert back to
| | 08:00 | manual control, simply set the selector to off.
| | 08:04 | Off says ignore any of the
break points on the track, set that track back
| | 08:09 | to manual control.
(music playing)
| | 08:18 | And there's also a global Suspend,
like I said, under Window > Automation.
| | 08:22 | I can suspend all automation for all
tracks, and that's essentially the same as
| | 08:28 | switching all tracks to off.
| | 08:32 | And as soon as I'm ready, I can just
turn that back on and everything follows
| | 08:36 | any break points that were
written to their automation lanes.
| | 08:40 | Ultimately, you may be the kind of
person that likes to push faders and record
| | 08:44 | those moves, kind of do it by ear;
| | 08:46 | however, I find that using a mouse to
do real-time automation can be difficult
| | 08:51 | sometimes, and so what I'll generally
opt for when I'm working with the mouse is
| | 08:56 | graphical editing of
automation, which we'll talk about next.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Viewing and editing automation| 00:00 | Once you've recorded in some real-
time automation, or if you prefer to edit
| | 00:04 | automation in Step Time with the mouse,
you'll need to be familiar with the
| | 00:09 | track automation views of the Edit window.
| | 00:12 | Now, every track in Pro
Tools has a view selector.
| | 00:17 | Normally, in audio tracks, view
selector is set to waveform, which displays the
| | 00:21 | waveforms of the recorded audio.
| | 00:24 | Now if I click on that view selector,
I can choose the automation lane views
| | 00:29 | for that track, such as volume, mute,
pan, and what we'll see is any sends that
| | 00:37 | we're using will show up.
| | 00:39 | Now if I am not using a send, for
example I'm not using send b on this track for
| | 00:45 | anything, and so I don't see a send b
control; you only see those if you
| | 00:49 | actually assign the send to a bus or an output.
| | 00:53 | And I would be able to see the
level and any automation that I had on
| | 00:59 | those tracks.
| | 01:01 | If you want to be able to see the
waveform and the automation at the same time,
| | 01:06 | or you want to be able to edit the
waveform and see the automation at the same
| | 01:11 | time, you can actually take advantage
of these automation views by flipping out the
| | 01:18 | little triangle there. And now I can
select any one of those automation views,
| | 01:24 | those break point views, while still
keeping my main track view set to waveform.
| | 01:31 | Now I can add views by clicking the plus
sign, so I could show volume as well
| | 01:36 | as pan, and I can subtract those by
hitting the minus button. And at anytime, I
| | 01:41 | can just fold those in.
| | 01:43 | So really you have a lot of
flexibility in terms of how you see automation.
| | 01:47 | I personally like to see the volume
automation, especially, overlaid on top of
| | 01:53 | the waveform.
| | 01:54 | This really helps me by giving me
visual cues as to where I'm applying the
| | 01:59 | automation, rather than seeing it
directly below. But it's totally up to you on
| | 02:04 | how you want to work.
| | 02:06 | Like I said in the last video, all
automation in Pro Tools, whether you pencil
| | 02:11 | it in with the mouse or record it
in by making automation moves using a
| | 02:15 | real-time automation record mode like
touch, latch, or write, it all eventually
| | 02:21 | gets put into break points.
| | 02:23 | And break points are basically this
game of Connect the Dots that tell the Pro
| | 02:29 | Tools mixer to be at that
state at that point in time.
| | 02:33 | So if I click with my Grabber tool to
create a break point, I am creating two
| | 02:38 | nodes that tell Pro Tools, at this point
in time you need to be at 2.3 db and at
| | 02:44 | this point in time you need to be at 8.8 db.
| | 02:48 | And it's going to crate a vector
between the two that tells the Pro Tools
| | 02:53 | the rate of change.
| | 02:54 | So Pro Tools is going to determine how
much to increase the volume and at what
| | 02:59 | rate, based on the position
of these two break points.
| | 03:03 | In other words, automation
is vector-based in Pro Tools.
| | 03:07 | There is only one automation
playlist for each track in Pro Tools.
| | 03:11 | So if you're using playlist workflows,
it's important to understand that the
| | 03:17 | automation lives on the
track and not with the playlist.
| | 03:22 | That is to say I could have ten vocal
takes and ten different playlists, but
| | 03:26 | I am still only going to have one set
of volume parameters for all of those eight takes.
| | 03:32 | To graphically edit break points,
I don't have to be in Touch, Latch, or Write
| | 03:38 | mode; I could be in any of these modes.
I could be even be in Off mode; however,
| | 03:42 | that automation will not play back in Off mode.
| | 03:45 | Typically, I just like to leave it in
Read mode and under the Window > Automation
| | 03:50 | Window, the Write Enables do not
affect graphic editing of automation.
| | 03:56 | So these could be completely turned
off and I could still make changes or add
| | 04:00 | break points and in Read mode, Pro
Tools is still going to follow those.
| | 04:04 | So these Write Enables only affect
the real-time input of automation.
| | 04:10 | To graphically edit these break points,
you are going to use two different tools:
| | 04:14 | the Grabber tool and the Pencil tool.
| | 04:16 | The Grabber tool can click to
insert a single node or break point.
| | 04:21 | You can grab an existing one, move it
up or down or left or right, and to delete
| | 04:27 | one, you can hold Option.
You see how I get a little minus there.
| | 04:35 | And if you notice, I'm in Slip mode
right now, but if I switch to Grid mode--and
| | 04:41 | let's change the grid to something
rigid like a half note--you could see that
| | 04:49 | the automation break point edits will
follow the grid, so this allows me to do
| | 04:54 | cool rhythmic things.
| | 04:56 | Now, the other way that I am going to
edit automation is using the Pencil tool.
| | 05:00 | So the Pencil tool is great for drawing
in continuous curves of automation, so
| | 05:05 | you see that just doing a bunch of break points.
| | 05:08 | I can switch that from Free Hand to
Line by clicking and holding on the Pencil tool.
| | 05:13 | So I am going to use the Line mode, and
this is great for doing straight lines of
| | 05:17 | extended automation.
| | 05:19 | And check out some of these other
ones. Triangle and Square, these are really neat.
| | 05:22 | You can actually draw in shapes.
| | 05:25 | Notice those shapes follow the grids,
| | 05:27 | so if I set to a quarter note,
it's going to be a different shape.
| | 05:32 | Now I can use Triangle, Square and Random,
however Parabolic and S-Curve, those
| | 05:39 | are not going to work; those are
reserved for editing tempo events in the Tempo Editor.
| | 05:43 | So you are just going to be using Free
Hand, Line, Triangle, Square, and Random.
| | 05:48 | Again, Random is going to use the
grid in order to space out random events.
| | 05:55 | That can be cool for things like
let's say you are editing a filter
| | 05:58 | frequency on a low-pass filter on a
synthesizer. This can create kind of a
| | 06:03 | really cool movement in the filter.
| | 06:07 | So check out those different
tools with the Pencil tool.
| | 06:10 | Now, I can also edit automation
using my Selector and Trimmer tools.
| | 06:16 | The Selector tool is great for just
selecting big groups of break points.
| | 06:21 | And maybe what I want to do is just clear those out.
| | 06:22 | So I could hit Delete or I could use
Edit > Clear, but I could also use my Cut,
| | 06:28 | Copy, Paste commands.
| | 06:30 | So I could cut some custom
automation, place my cursor, and paste it
| | 06:34 | somewhere else.
| | 06:35 | I can even use the Duplicate commands.
| | 06:38 | So undo that, if I took a section
here and I chose Edit > Duplicate, I could
| | 06:45 | duplicate that automation just
like a copy-and-paste to the right.
| | 06:51 | So, automation is going to edit
much like your waveforms edit;
| | 06:56 | cut, copy, paste, delete, things like
nudging, so the plus and minus keys
| | 07:02 | on your numeric keypad.
You can nudge your automation.
| | 07:07 | And what's really cool is when you
start using the Trim tool for automation--I
| | 07:11 | am going to delete all of
that, select that whole track--
| | 07:15 | if you ever need to select the whole
track of automation, just triple-click
| | 07:18 | there and it's going to select all
that automation and you can hit Delete.
| | 07:21 | You can also clear automation across
multiple playlists by using the Edit >Clear
| | 07:26 | Special > All Automation, or let's
say just Pan or Plug-In Automation.
| | 07:33 | Now the Trim tool, I love using
the Trim tool with automation.
| | 07:37 | The Trim tool allows me to trim
up or down just a specific section.
| | 07:42 | So a lot of times my automation is not
really fancy drawn-in curves, but I just
| | 07:49 | need to get things louder
or softer in different parts.
| | 07:52 | I would say that's probably 85% of all
of the automation I'm doing, is just going
| | 07:57 | and selecting a certain section and
saying that needs to be louder or that needs
| | 08:02 | to be softer, what I call section dynamics.
| | 08:05 | As the arrangement changes, I need
to change the level of the tracks to
| | 08:09 | accommodate that, or keep things interesting.
| | 08:13 | Now the Trimmer tool will
trim whatever you have selected.
| | 08:16 | Now if you don't make a selection,
it's just going to trim that whole line.
| | 08:19 | However, what you'll find is it's
trying to trim the line here based on the
| | 08:25 | end point of that region.
| | 08:26 | You see that? It's kind of trimming
based on the end point of that region.
| | 08:31 | And here is a trick: if you actually
want to trim your whole line, go out past
| | 08:36 | the last region or the last
break point in your session.
| | 08:40 | See that? Now I can actually
trim that whole line up or down.
| | 08:43 | And this is great if you've got a bunch
of automation written, you did a whole
| | 08:48 | set of complex passes that may have
included some real-time automation, but also
| | 08:52 | you've edited some of those
break points, and you just need to turn the whole
| | 08:55 | thing up by 2 dB or down by 2 dB.
| | 08:58 | You can take your Trim tool and trim up
or down, and you can see that I have the
| | 09:02 | little delta change happening on the
left-hand side that's telling me how much
| | 09:07 | I've changed it, as well as where that
absolute position is on the volume fader.
| | 09:13 | Now if I hold down the Command key
when I trim, I get extra-fine 0.1 dB
| | 09:19 | increments. And this is really neat if
you, let's say just want to bump the vocal
| | 09:24 | up in one spot by 0.2 dB.
| | 09:27 | So with the Trimmer tool, just hold down
Command. Now it's really easy for me to
| | 09:34 | get that tenth of a dB change.
| | 09:36 | Now, when you're editing in the Edit
window and you're moving clips--let's say
| | 09:41 | I switch back to Waveform view and I
start moving this around--the question is,
| | 09:48 | will my automation move along with
that? And the answer is, that depends.
| | 09:52 | If you go to Options, you have a
checkbox for Automation Follows Edit.
| | 09:56 | So right now if I move this and I switch
back to the volume view, we'll see that
| | 10:01 | that automation followed those edits.
| | 10:04 | So if I cut and paste or move something
left or right, the break points are going
| | 10:08 | to stay sticky to the clip.
| | 10:11 | However, there are situations
where you don't want that to happen.
| | 10:14 | You want to copy and paste something to
a later point in the song, but you are
| | 10:18 | going to add different automation there.
| | 10:19 | So what you would do is turn off that
Automation Follows Edit option. Now you
| | 10:26 | could freely move the clip while the
automation stays stuck to the track.
| | 10:30 | And again, break point automation is track-based.
| | 10:34 | It doesn't live with the clip.
| | 10:36 | So if you have, let's say, clips that
you added automation to in the Edit window
| | 10:43 | and you delete them and they go back
to the Clips list over here and you pull
| | 10:48 | that back out again, I can see pulling
that clip back out didn't include that
| | 10:54 | same automation over here,
| | 10:55 | so it's important to remember
where those break points live.
| | 10:59 | They live with the track in the
mixer, not the clips in the Clip list.
| | 11:06 | You can graphically edit
any parameter of automation;
| | 11:09 | really, in Pro Tools,
anything is freely automatable.
| | 11:13 | Plug-ins we'll talk about in a bit.
| | 11:15 | There is an extra step with plug-ins,
but things like volume, mute, pan,
| | 11:19 | all your send levels.
| | 11:20 | Now, one thing about mute that I want
to mention: you can automate the mute on
| | 11:26 | and off; however, I generally suggest
you don't automate the mute button in
| | 11:30 | favor of using something called mute clip.
| | 11:33 | And here's why:
| | 11:34 | if you automate your mute, then the
problem is that that mute function is
| | 11:40 | no longer open.
| | 11:41 | That is to say if I want to hear the
session played back without the lead vocal and
| | 11:46 | I go to mute it, I am kind of stuck there.
| | 11:50 | It automatically tries to follow the
automation graph, and now I can't mute
| | 11:55 | that out of the session.
| | 11:56 | So what I'd rather do is instead of
using mute automation, I'll actually use the
| | 12:03 | Mute Clip function and I can take
and break off a section here of a clip.
| | 12:08 | I am going to say Edit >
Separate Clip > At Selection.
| | 12:14 | Now I can go to Edit > Mute Clips, or
Command+M on the Mac or Ctrl+M on the PC, and
| | 12:21 | what that's going to do is it's going
to mute that clip. It's going to leave it
| | 12:24 | there so I can continue to edit it
and see it, and I know that it's muted
| | 12:27 | because it's grayed out,
but you are not going to hear it.
| | 12:31 | This is a lot better than Mute
Automation, especially if you're sending your
| | 12:34 | session to another engineer, because
Mute Automation is not always obvious.
| | 12:38 | Unless I switch to the Mute Automation lane,
| | 12:41 | I can't see that you've muted sections,
whereas Mute Clip, I can clearly see that
| | 12:46 | hey, this section is not going
to play back; it's grayed out.
| | 12:50 | Ultimately, depending on your
preferences and whether or not you have access
| | 12:54 | to a control surface, you may wish to
do all your automation graphically in
| | 12:57 | the Edit window.
| | 12:58 | So, take some time to look at the
automation and the demo session and try to
| | 13:03 | figure out whether I added that as an
edit with the mouse--the Grabber tool, the
| | 13:07 | Trimmer, the Pencil--or I added that
with real-time recording of automation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using clip gain| 00:00 | Track automation is a great way to make
the volume changes in the mixer over the
| | 00:04 | length of your track.
| | 00:06 | However, if we recall from our
earlier discussion of inserts being
| | 00:10 | pre-fader, any changes to a track's
volume control comes after the track's
| | 00:15 | inserts or plug-ins.
| | 00:17 | Well this doesn't make much of a
difference for plug-ins like EQ. Dynamics
| | 00:22 | plug-ins measure the incoming signal
level against a threshold to determine
| | 00:26 | when to react.
| | 00:27 | This is where Pro Tools clip-based
gain comes in handy.
| | 00:31 | For example, if we take my vocal
track here and the compressor, the 1176, is
| | 00:38 | always going to be listening to this
signal as it exists from the disk, so
| | 00:43 | therefore, any changes in volume that
happen at the automation stage happen
| | 00:50 | after any of the inserts.
| | 00:51 | So the fact that I'm kicking up the
volume here and even more here is not going
| | 00:57 | to affect what's coming into my compressor.
| | 01:00 | This is ideal actually because it
allows me to set my dynamics processors like
| | 01:04 | compressors, limiters, gates and
things like that, and not have to worry about
| | 01:09 | resetting their threshold if I'm
changing the volume level in the mix.
| | 01:13 | Again, because I want to set up that
compressor and then I want to be able to
| | 01:17 | automate that track up and down as
the arrangement grows and shrinks.
| | 01:21 | But let's say I recorded vocals on a
few different days and let's say the first
| | 01:27 | day I recorded with one level, and the
next day with an entirely different
| | 01:32 | level, so that within the same track,
I had wild differences between the
| | 01:36 | different take days.
| | 01:38 | Now the problem with that would be, is
if I go to set my compressor's threshold
| | 01:43 | setting, I'd be setting it against
one set of levels or the other, so that
| | 01:48 | what would happen is, if on the day
where I recorded louder, that's where the
| | 01:52 | threshold got set.
| | 01:54 | I go into the softer sections and my
compressor is just not reacting the
| | 01:58 | same way.
| | 01:59 | Now, what you can do to combat this is
you can actually use a feature called
| | 02:05 | clip-based gain and it was
introduced in Pro Tools 10.
| | 02:09 | Before clip-based gain, what you'd have
to do is, if you wanted the compressor or
| | 02:14 | any inserts to react to, let's say, pre-
insert gain changes is you'd actually have
| | 02:20 | to insert a Trim plug-in, Other > Trim,
and you have to automate that Trim plug-in,
| | 02:27 | and this will create gain
changes before you hit the compressor.
| | 02:31 | The other way to handle this would
be using the AudioSuite gain plug-in.
| | 02:35 | You could actually select something
that was, let's say, a little too low or
| | 02:39 | little too hot and use
AudioSuite > Other > Gain.
| | 02:43 | The problem with that is that
actually rendered the files.
| | 02:45 | If you decided you wanted to change your
mind, you'd have to actually go back to the
| | 02:50 | Clips list and figure out where
that old clip was and replace it.
| | 02:54 | Now with clip-based gain, I can make
adjustments that are stored within the
| | 03:00 | clip, that is to say, I can make automation moves,
gain moves that are stored in the clip.
| | 03:07 | So even if I delete that clip and I
bring it back from the Clips list, it's
| | 03:12 | still going to be there.
| | 03:13 | Now all of these clip-based gain
changes are going to happen pre any inserts.
| | 03:18 | So they're great for handling
situations where you want to even out the track
| | 03:23 | before you apply your dynamics processing.
| | 03:25 | Let's take an example here.
| | 03:27 | I've got two very light phrases and a
very loud phrase, and if I didn't want to
| | 03:33 | be as aggressive with my compressor
here and I wanted to go a little lighter
| | 03:37 | on this, just automating these up and
this one down is not going to change anything.
| | 03:44 | However, if I go to View and I go to
Clip, and I want to make sure that I'm
| | 03:50 | showing the Clip Gain Line here, I'm
also showing Clip Gain Info, and I can see
| | 03:54 | right now I have 0 dBs of Clip Gain going on.
| | 03:58 | I get a little line right here showing
up on my lead vocal and what I can do is
| | 04:03 | I can actually make changes to this line.
| | 04:06 | So I can go in and turn that down and
you can see with my Trimmer tool it's
| | 04:11 | actually reducing the size of the waveform.
| | 04:15 | Now I can actually go in and make
little selections here and trim that up, and
| | 04:23 | what I could do is I could even out this
performance visually--I want to take that
| | 04:32 | one down a little bit.
| | 04:42 | So that when it hits the compressor,
the compressor is actually seeing a more
| | 04:46 | even signal, and this is actually
really great to do with hard esses or plosive
| | 04:53 | sounds that, even if you automate them
out with volume automation, it's still
| | 04:58 | causing your compressor to react.
| | 05:00 | So, using clip-based gain is a great
way to get into the gain structure of a
| | 05:05 | waveform before you hit your inserts.
| | 05:09 | Now, some cool tricks with clip-based gain.
| | 05:11 | If you want to show and hide this line
you can actually use the Ctrl+Shift+Minus
| | 05:16 | shortcut, that would be
Start+Shift+Minus on Windows.
| | 05:21 | And you can also make changes to
the line, if I make a selection here.
| | 05:25 | If I hold Ctrl+Shift on the Mac and
hit the Up and Down arrows, I can actually
| | 05:30 | make little incremental changes to this,
kind of like nudging the gain almost
| | 05:36 | and that will be Start+Shift on Windows.
| | 05:40 | Now, these act much like automation
breakpoints in that I can actually do
| | 05:45 | fade ins and fade outs that
are at the clip gain level.
| | 05:51 | Now when all is said and done, if I actually
want to render this to a new file I can.
| | 05:57 | I can select this clip and
I can choose Clip > Clip Gain.
| | 06:03 | Now you can either bypass that or turn
it off, or I could render it permanently.
| | 06:08 | And that renders a new file to my hard drive.
| | 06:11 | Now that's nondestructive, you can see
that it changed this to LeadVocal-Gain.
| | 06:16 | So I'll still have my lead vocal clip
in the Clips list that I could pull back
| | 06:20 | out, and I could even create a new
Playlist to do this on, so that I could always
| | 06:24 | get back to what I had before.
| | 06:26 | Here's my lead vocal clip right there.
| | 06:29 | Having real time clip-based gain is
going to use a little bit of CPU power, so
| | 06:34 | if you had a slower computer, or we're
using a lot of clip-based gain, rendering
| | 06:38 | it would save some CPU cycles.
| | 06:40 | However I find that it doesn't take
up too many resources, so I like the
| | 06:44 | flexibility of being able to change that there.
| | 06:47 | I'm just going to undo those changes.
| | 06:49 | So to get rid of those I'm going to go
to Edit > Clear Special > Clear Clip Gain,
| | 06:58 | clear that all out there.
| | 07:00 | It may be intuitive to go in and try to
adjust all your levels using clip gain,
| | 07:06 | so that you visually see them at the
same level, thinking that that's going to
| | 07:10 | help the performance of your compressor.
| | 07:13 | And while this maybe the case, you
always want to check things in context
| | 07:18 | and listen to them.
| | 07:20 | In this case, I find that if I use clip
-based gain too much to increase these
| | 07:25 | softer phrases and decrease these
louder phrases, what it does is it actually
| | 07:30 | brings up the noise floor too
and it can sound kind of awkward.
| | 07:34 | So, listen to it how it sits now.
| | 07:37 | (music playing)
| | 07:52 | And if added some clip gain here,
kind of try to match those levels--
| | 07:57 | (music playing)
| | 08:06 | --what I find is that it kind of brings
up some of the headphone bleed and the
| | 08:10 | compressor is protecting a little bit
of that, so it's compressing harder.
| | 08:13 | If I lighten up the threshold
you'd hear that a little bit more.
| | 08:17 | So again, use your ears and not just
your eyes when you're making these changes
| | 08:21 | to make sure they're
really going to work for you.
| | 08:24 | Like I said, I like to use clip-based
gain when I've recorded in two or three
| | 08:28 | different sessions and the
levels don't quite match up overall.
| | 08:33 | Unlike in this situation, he just
was performing the verses softer at
| | 08:39 | certain parts.
| | 08:40 | So, I do kind of want to retain some
of that dynamic and tonal feel there.
| | 08:45 | Clip-based gain is a great way to even
out a track pre-insert, or regain track
| | 08:51 | headroom on extremely hot
tracks before hitting any plug-ins.
| | 08:55 | Think of it this way, if you have a
track approaching 0 dBFS and you want to
| | 08:59 | boost 12dB at 5 K in your EQ, you'll
need to either trim the input of the EQ or
| | 09:05 | use something like clip-based gain to
lower the clip to accommodate the boost.
| | 09:10 | Well Pro Tools uses a 64-bit mixer,
not all plug-ins handle levels beyond
| | 09:14 | 0 dBFS with grace.
| | 09:16 | So, using clip-based gain to
practice proper gain staging can only make
| | 09:21 | your mixes sound better.
| | 09:22 | And if you want to check out an example
of that in this session, you can look at
| | 09:26 | the kick track. And the kick track
actually has been knocked down by 3 dB using
| | 09:33 | clip-based gain, because I found
that the recorded level of the kick was
| | 09:38 | actually clipping my compressors.
| | 09:40 | So I wasn't able to get as
much punch out of it as I wanted.
| | 09:44 | So what I did is I trimmed it down, so
that I could actually add more transient
| | 09:49 | peak at the compressor
using my makeup gain there.
| | 09:53 | So clip-based gain is really great for
optimizing your gain stages pre-inserts.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Automating plug-ins| 00:00 | When automating volume and pan isn't
enough, sometimes you have to dig deep into
| | 00:05 | plug-in parameters to get
the sound you're looking for.
| | 00:08 | Fortunately, Pro Tools allows you to
automate almost every plug-in control
| | 00:12 | with a few extra steps.
| | 00:14 | So let's first take a look an example
of when I would use plug-in automation in
| | 00:19 | the context of a mix.
| | 00:20 | Here in the Take Me Down session, I'm
actually automating the kick drum EQ to
| | 00:27 | pop up a little boost around 1.5K
just in the chorus sections of the song,
| | 00:34 | because what I was finding is that in
the verse, I liked the sound of the kick,
| | 00:38 | but it was getting a
little bit lost in the chorus.
| | 00:41 | So let's just listen to what that
sounds like coming out of the pre-chorus
| | 00:47 | and into the chorus.
| | 00:48 | (music playing)
| | 00:57 | Little more tackiness on
the kick, just disable that.
| | 01:01 | (music playing)
| | 01:12 | So it's subtle, but it's just giving
that kick just a little bit more presence
| | 01:17 | in the chorus sections, when the
guitars are really crunchy and there is a lot
| | 01:20 | of stuff going on.
| | 01:22 | However, during the verses, I kind of
want to keep it a bit more mellow, and I
| | 01:26 | might decide that I want to keep it in,
in verse two just to keep the energy up,
| | 01:31 | but that's my decision and I can't
do this with volume or pan alone.
| | 01:36 | I have to do this by automating an EQ.
| | 01:40 | In order to automate a plug-in in Pro
Tools there is an additional step I need
| | 01:45 | to take, because the plug-in parameter
is not going show up in my track views
| | 01:51 | by default.
| | 01:52 | Here I have already enabled it so I
see my mid-band enable and where I've
| | 01:56 | automated it, in-out, in-out
here for the verse and choruses.
| | 02:03 | But notice I don't see any of the
other parameters of my EQ in this list.
| | 02:08 | That's because Pro Tools requires that
I take the additional step of telling it
| | 02:13 | what parameters I want to enable before
it adds them to the list, and the reason
| | 02:18 | for this is not to confuse you, but to
actually save you some time of digging
| | 02:23 | through a ton of parameters
that you don't want to automate.
| | 02:26 | For example, I want to leave this high
mid frequency where it is, just static.
| | 02:31 | I want to keep that boost of around
5 dB at 3K through the whole song.
| | 02:35 | I don't want to automate that, so
therefore I don't want to see that in my
| | 02:39 | list confusing me, and all these other
bands, I'm not using them, so I don't
| | 02:44 | want to see them in there.
| | 02:45 | Let's set this up from scratch.
| | 02:47 | I am going to go ahead and remove the
automation of this mid-frequency parameter
| | 02:53 | and I'll click on the little Auto
button, I am going to remove that parameter,
| | 02:57 | and it's going to give a warning that
says, hey, you've got automation here, do
| | 03:01 | you really want to remove it?
| | 03:02 | And I'll say, yeah, I do.
| | 03:04 | Now I'll see that that is no longer in
my Track View Selector, and so what I can
| | 03:09 | do is I have already decided that around
a 3 dB boost at 1.5K sounds good, now I
| | 03:15 | want to think about how do I want
to approach adding that in and out.
| | 03:18 | Now I could do this in one of two ways.
| | 03:20 | I could unable it to come in and out,
or I could leave that in and I could
| | 03:25 | actually automate the gain line up
and down in the different sections, and
| | 03:31 | that would actually work if I wanted
to boost it even more at later sections
| | 03:36 | of the song.
| | 03:38 | Now in this case, I'm fine with just
kicking it in and out, keeping it simple,
| | 03:42 | so we'll leave that out for now.
| | 03:44 | And so I want to enable
automation for the In/Out button here.
| | 03:49 | Now there is one of two ways that I can do this.
| | 03:51 | I can click on the Auto button here,
right under the word Auto, the little
| | 03:55 | button with the two windows, and I
see a list of all the parameters I can
| | 03:59 | automate on the left side, and on the
right side is a list of parameters that are
| | 04:04 | going to show up in my
Track View Automation list.
| | 04:07 | So these are the eligible
parameters for automation.
| | 04:11 | These are the ones just waiting
to be added to the right-hand side.
| | 04:14 | So I am going to find that, that's
my mid-band enable and I'll add that.
| | 04:19 | Now some people find that left-hand,
right-hand side list confusing because
| | 04:23 | there are so many parameters there
that they kind of get lost as to what they
| | 04:27 | want to automate, and so there's
actually a really easy way to just click on the
| | 04:31 | parameter you want to
automate if you know the key command.
| | 04:34 | So if we hold down Ctrl+Option Command
on the Mac and click on any parameter, I
| | 04:40 | can enable that parameter for automation,
and that automatically adds it to the
| | 04:44 | right-hand side of the list.
| | 04:46 | On Windows that is Start+Alt+Ctrl-Click.
| | 04:50 | Now if I do the same key command again
on a parameter that's already enabled,
| | 04:55 | I'll get the Disable option, and if I
use that key command on the actual auto
| | 04:59 | button, it quickly moves everything to
the right-hand side of the list so you
| | 05:04 | see everything turned green here,
that's because I'm in Read Mode, and that's
| | 05:08 | telling me that I am eligible to
automate any of these parameters and I could do
| | 05:13 | that in real time by setting this to
touch, latch or write, or I could draw that
| | 05:18 | in by switching to that
parameter's view, using my Edit Tools.
| | 05:23 | Now again, you see this list, it's a
little overwhelming and I don't want that.
| | 05:28 | All I want to do is automate the
Mid Frequency In button so I am going
| | 05:32 | Ctrl+Option Command-Click and enable
that, and I am going leave that in the
| | 05:39 | off state for now.
| | 05:41 | I am going to close this down and open
up that parameter here on my Track View.
| | 05:46 | So I can see the line is on the
bottom for off, I am going to go on with my
| | 05:51 | Grabber Tool and I am going to draw
that in at the chorus, and then out again
| | 06:00 | at the verse.
| | 06:01 | Let's take a listen to that.
| | 06:03 | (music playing)
| | 06:19 | Cool! Now the nice thing about leaving all
the other parameters open is I could go
| | 06:24 | ahead and add other EQ moves, I don't
have to worry about automating those, or I
| | 06:29 | don't have to worry about
the automation resetting those.
| | 06:31 | So I could even choose to boost even
more or less without changing the fact that
| | 06:38 | this is coming in and out via the Enable.
| | 06:41 | So I might decide, wow, 3 dB is a
little too aggressive or maybe I want 4 dB,
| | 06:46 | so I could kick it up and notice that
does not affect the automation move that
| | 06:50 | I already programmed.
| | 06:51 | (music playing)
| | 07:04 | Now a couple of things you want to
keep in mind with plug-in automation, if I
| | 07:08 | remove this plug-in, all that
automation is removed from the track.
| | 07:12 | So if I switch it to a different EQ,
that automation is not going to be
| | 07:17 | compatible with a different EQ.
| | 07:19 | So if I switch this to a waves EQ,
it's not intelligent enough to know that I
| | 07:23 | automated a boost at 1.5K.
| | 07:27 | And if I copy this plug-in, it's
actually going to copy the automation
| | 07:30 | along with it.
| | 07:31 | So if I copy this EQ to another track
because I like the settings, I better make
| | 07:35 | sure to either remove the automation
from that EQ on the other track, or maybe I
| | 07:42 | want that automation, I
just want to be aware of that.
| | 07:45 | Remember you can clear automation or
just plug-in automation by selecting over a
| | 07:49 | track and choosing Edit > Clear Special >
Plug-In Automation.
| | 07:54 | You can also, if you were to copy this
plug-in, say I copy this to the Sub Kick
| | 07:59 | track, Option+Drag or Alt+Drag on the
PC, that automation makes its way down
| | 08:06 | there and if I don't want it, I could
just open that plug-in up and I could go
| | 08:11 | into the Automation window and remove that.
| | 08:13 | I'll get that warning there.
| | 08:15 | Now let's say you are the kind of
person that always wants to automate all of
| | 08:18 | their parameters or their plug-
in just by reaching for them.
| | 08:21 | I just want to set my Automation
Mode to Latch and I just want to grab a
| | 08:25 | control, I don't want to have to
worry about enabling all my parameters.
| | 08:29 | Well there is actually a preference
that's purpose built for that under
| | 08:32 | Setup > Preferences, and if I go to the
Mixing tab, and if I go here to Automation,
| | 08:39 | I can check Plug-in Controls Default to
Auto-Enable, and what this does is every
| | 08:44 | time I bring up a new plug-in, it's
only for new plug-in, it's not existing
| | 08:49 | plug-ins, so I'll go here and bring up
that EQ and I'll see it's enabled all of
| | 08:55 | these automatically, including the Bypass.
| | 08:59 | And the Bypass is
actually an important parameter.
| | 09:01 | A lot of people, they go in and they
automate a bunch of different parameters
| | 09:05 | when really all they wanted to do is
automate the plug-in turning on and off.
| | 09:09 | So don't forget that you can actually
automate the Bypass of a plug-in to kick
| | 09:14 | in an effect in just a specific section.
| | 09:17 | So the next time you're trying to carry
your song forward or make a moment more
| | 09:22 | interesting in a session, try
out some plug-in automation.
| | 09:26 | I think you'll find it's a very
valuable part of mixing inside the DAW that we
| | 09:30 | didn't get to take advantage of
in traditional analog workflows.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring automation strategies for mixing| 00:00 | Like most mixing topics, every
engineer approaches his or her automation a
| | 00:05 | bit differently.
| | 00:06 | Some tracks with static arrangements
will often need little to no automation,
| | 00:10 | while other projects may have
constant dynamic changes requiring detailed
| | 00:14 | automation through every section.
| | 00:17 | Many times, automation is
more of a production decision.
| | 00:20 | For example, the decision to add
more or less reverb to a single note or
| | 00:24 | drum hit.
| | 00:25 | Because of this, it's not uncommon to
start the automation process early on,
| | 00:29 | during the producing and arranging stages.
| | 00:32 | So don't be afraid to start the
process, at any stage inspiration strikes.
| | 00:36 | Understanding automation can not
only make you a better mixer, but a more
| | 00:40 | effective producer,
composer and all-around arranger.
| | 00:44 | In any case, from a functional standpoint,
a good mix always has a defined focal
| | 00:50 | point, whether it would be the lead vocal,
an interesting instrumental part or a
| | 00:54 | catchy rhythm or lick.
| | 00:55 | It's the mixer's job to help
guide the listener through the song,
| | 00:59 | highlighting these focal points,
retaining the listener's interests all the
| | 01:03 | way through to the end.
| | 01:04 | Automation can be a lifesaver and is many
times the only way to achieve this goal.
| | 01:09 | Like I said, there's a million ways
to approach an automation workflow, but
| | 01:14 | here're some of the things I consider
when deciding how to best use automation,
| | 01:18 | and how I use automation
in the Take Me Down session.
| | 01:21 | The first thing I'll do when I'm
deciding how I want to use automation in a mix,
| | 01:25 | is say to myself, can I hear everything?
| | 01:28 | I'm going to listen through the song
and make sure that I can hear every part
| | 01:32 | clearly from section to section and
that the balance of those parts feels
| | 01:36 | good to me.
| | 01:37 | Do I feel like at any one time
throughout the tune, any element is too loud
| | 01:41 | or too soft?
| | 01:43 | And to do this, I'll just through the
tune section-by-section, listening and
| | 01:47 | noting any elements that stand out.
| | 01:49 | At this stage, I'll use the Trim tool to
selectively trim up or down elements in
| | 01:54 | each section, and if we take a look
at the automation in the Take Me Down
| | 01:58 | session, I'm just going to go ahead
and make all these tracks bigger, and I'm
| | 02:02 | going to switch every track to Volume
View by holding Option or Alt on the PC,
| | 02:09 | and changing all tracks to
Volume, make a little room.
| | 02:14 | And in the Take Me Down session, you
can see there's quite a bit of section
| | 02:18 | dynamics or automating things up or
down in each section, and generally, this
| | 02:23 | is the first stage of automation that
I'll perform on a mix, making sure that
| | 02:28 | each part is loud enough, as the
arrangement changes density or adds or
| | 02:32 | subtracts elements.
| | 02:33 | So we can see that even on the Kick Bus,
small little details here pumping it
| | 02:39 | up in the courses, bringing it back
down on the versus, pushing it back up for
| | 02:44 | the rest of the song.
| | 02:45 | As I scroll down, snare, I will have a
sampled snare part that I kick in, in
| | 02:52 | the chorus and leave in through the
rest of the song and this really reinforces
| | 02:57 | that snare drum part.
| | 02:58 | Now if we move down and take a look
at the entire Drum Bus, all we've got
| | 03:04 | are some rides.
| | 03:06 | So ones I've done my section dynamics,
what I'll do is I'll think about any
| | 03:10 | areas that I can make more dramatic by
putting in rides where I'll actually
| | 03:15 | increase the level into a section.
| | 03:19 | So for example here, I'm increasing
my Drum Squash Bus into this course.
| | 03:23 | Take a listen.
| | 03:24 | (music playing)
| | 03:33 | So in addition to just doing those
section dynamics, I think about where can I
| | 03:37 | add drama by pushing or
pulling elements with rides.
| | 03:41 | Now I say rides because the term
comes traditionally from riding a fader.
| | 03:45 | However, you can see that I drew
those in just with my Grabber tool.
| | 03:50 | So you don't have to worry about
riding them in physically with the mouse.
| | 03:55 | Just think about adding drama to
different sections by pushing or
| | 03:58 | pulling elements.
| | 03:59 | Now if we scroll down here, I can see
that the lead vocal probably has the most
| | 04:04 | automation and that's because, to me,
in this song, it's the most important
| | 04:09 | element and I always want to make that
audible and I always want to keep things
| | 04:13 | interesting for the listener.
| | 04:14 | One way that I'm doing that is by
adding this lead vocal crunch track in and
| | 04:20 | layering that with the original vocal,
and then automating that up or down in
| | 04:24 | the different sections to kind of add
contrast in a little bit more grit as we
| | 04:30 | move to the later parts of this song.
| | 04:32 | When you're automating your vocal,
and you're not familiar with the lyrics,
| | 04:36 | sometimes it can be nice to have a
lyric sheet from the songwriter or the
| | 04:40 | producer, so that you can kind of decide,
hey, can I really understand what he's
| | 04:44 | saying there, did he say
this or did he say that?
| | 04:48 | Now, some songs, the lyric is just
something that carries the rest of the tune.
| | 04:54 | Maybe it's not that important
whereas other songs, the difference between
| | 04:57 | hearing that last S, making something
plural or not, can totally change the
| | 05:03 | context in the message of the tune.
| | 05:05 | So be aware of what the lyric is
saying, and make sure you're using your
| | 05:10 | automation to put that at
the forefront of the track.
| | 05:14 | And actually, instead of using automation,
I'll use Clip Mute is taking elements
| | 05:20 | out of an arrangement.
| | 05:22 | A lot of times new arrangers and new
producers tend to add a lot of elements to
| | 05:28 | their tracks because they can, because
you have hundreds of tracks available to
| | 05:32 | you in your DAW, and you just
keep stacking, stacking, stacking.
| | 05:36 | The problem with that is that if
everything stays static in your mix and just
| | 05:41 | it's just a ton of tracks all the time,
everything just battering the listener's
| | 05:45 | ears, it can get a little bit
overwhelming and I find that sometimes it's really
| | 05:50 | interesting to mute things out or take
things out of the session to create more
| | 05:54 | contrast between, when
they actually do come back in.
| | 05:57 | So instead of having that tambourine
happen throughout the whole song, think
| | 06:01 | about taking it out, so that when it
comes back in, it kind of adds a new
| | 06:06 | interesting element to the mix.
| | 06:08 | So once you've covered the basics of
getting your levels, making sure you can
| | 06:12 | hear everything at different sections of
the song, you may have added some rides
| | 06:17 | in to create some more drama,
this is when you can get creative.
| | 06:21 | Sometimes I'm adding my creative
automation when I'm producing the track.
| | 06:24 | Sometimes it's more during the mixing
stage, but I think about any creative
| | 06:29 | automation that I could use either via
plug-ins, volume, send volume, pan, that's
| | 06:36 | going to bring the track to life;
| | 06:39 | create more drama, carry the
interest on through the last chorus.
| | 06:44 | That could be plug-in automation, where
I showed you I automated the Kick Drum
| | 06:49 | to get a little bit brighter, that's
going to just help the song be a little
| | 06:51 | more exciting during the chorus.
| | 06:53 | One thing that I'm doing here, with
the lead vocal on the bridge is I've
| | 06:58 | actually automated down the main lead
and I've taken a duplicate of the lead
| | 07:02 | vocal that I've added a few plug-ins to.
| | 07:04 | So take a listen to this LV FX track.
| | 07:08 | (music playing)
| | 07:28 | So what I wanted to do with the bridge,
because I just had one lead vocal track
| | 07:33 | to work with, I wanted to take that
lead vocal, duplicate it to another track
| | 07:38 | and change something.
| | 07:39 | Make it a little bit more interesting so
that there is a nice musical break when
| | 07:44 | it comes to the bridge with the lead
vocal, and in addition to automating the
| | 07:48 | volume of the main lead vocal
track, I'm not completely killing it.
| | 07:52 | I've actually added a new track of processing.
| | 07:55 | So sometimes I think of my
automation as not just actually the automation
| | 08:00 | features of the DAW, pushing and
pulling volumes, but actually the fact that I
| | 08:04 | can duplicate tracks and add alternate
processing to those tracks so I can do
| | 08:08 | parallel chains or entirely different
chains at different points of the song,
| | 08:13 | because I find that today's
computers are very, very powerful.
| | 08:17 | Sometimes it's easier for me to just
create a new track for that special sound,
| | 08:21 | rather than trying to automate it in.
| | 08:23 | But these kind of ideas live in the
same realm as automation because we're
| | 08:28 | thinking of ways to make the track
more interesting as it plays out.
| | 08:32 | A few other things that I'm doing here,
towards the end of the session that
| | 08:36 | are more creative decisions is I'm
actually automating quite a few of the sends
| | 08:41 | on the lead vocal.
| | 08:43 | So as we moved to the end of this song,
actually getting more of my Chorus,
| | 08:50 | Shorts Delay, and Long Delays
and I am automating the sends here.
| | 08:55 | So if we just go the levels, the few of
these, see here on the snd C Level, which
| | 09:02 | is the Short Delay, I'm kicking that
up a bit into the last chorus and
| | 09:06 | that's just going to make that vocal a
little bit wetter in that last chorus,
| | 09:09 | and that Short Delay is kind of
acting as a stereo widening effect.
| | 09:13 | So it's just going to make that vocal
a little bit wider towards the end of
| | 09:17 | this song.
| | 09:18 | At the end of the day, if you feel
overwhelmed with all this automation and all
| | 09:23 | this level of detail in your mix, start small.
| | 09:26 | Less can be more.
| | 09:29 | Be tasteful and be discreet.
| | 09:31 | Just because you can automate pan
spins, reverb tails and filter sweeps on
| | 09:36 | every single note of a track,
doesn't mean you always should.
| | 09:41 | Always keep in mind that the average
listener can only simultaneously digest a
| | 09:45 | tenth of what you can as a producer or engineer.
| | 09:48 | So keeping it simple is always a safe bet.
| | 09:52 | A well-automated mix generally
doesn't sound like it's automated.
| | 09:56 | So listen to your favorite tunes as a guide.
| | 09:59 | Do you hear wild volume or pan automation?
| | 10:02 | Usually not.
| | 10:03 | It's usually integrated in a way that carries
you effortlessly through the song.
| | 10:09 | Above all, be creative with your
automation and when in doubt, stick to your
| | 10:14 | plan, using your reference
material as a guide, and follow your gut.
| | 10:19 | Try to make this song a
journey for the listener.
| | 10:21 | If it sounds the same and measure 1 as
it does in measure 100, what incentive
| | 10:26 | does the listener have to keep listening?
| | 10:28 | Always remember that a mix
is an extension of the song.
| | 10:32 | The mix should exist to service the
song and not the other way around.
| | 10:36 | Keep your aesthetic goals in mind and
know that workflows can vary radically
| | 10:39 | from genre to genre, song to song.
| | 10:42 | Always keep in mind the message of
the song and use automation to strength
| | 10:46 | this message.
| | 10:47 | Is this song primarily a catalyst for the lyric?
| | 10:50 | Then make sure the listener can
always hear the lyric clearly.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Putting It All TogetherUnderstanding the characteristics of a great mix| 00:00 | Ultimately, mixing is all about having
an opinion or taste for what you think a
| | 00:05 | great mix should be, making a plan
based on that taste and executing that plan.
| | 00:11 | While something as subjective as
mixing is never going to have a set of hard
| | 00:16 | and fast rules or a list of traits that
make a mix pass or fail, there are some
| | 00:21 | common elements that most mixers agree
on when discussing the components of a
| | 00:26 | great sounding mix.
| | 00:28 | First and foremost, the mix exists to
serve the song with the goal being to help
| | 00:34 | guide the listener
through the important elements.
| | 00:38 | One thing that I tell new mixers and
newer producers to remember, is that most
| | 00:43 | people hear music as a solid block
of sound with a vocal attached to it.
| | 00:48 | They are listening as first-time
listeners not 200th or 300th time listeners
| | 00:54 | like you are, and can't necessarily
differentiate that 100th element that you've
| | 01:00 | added or that the 5th counter
melody you've added to the song.
| | 01:03 | So above all, I always suggest that
people think about mixing for the first time
| | 01:09 | listener as opposed to mixing for
themselves as the 300th time listener, unless
| | 01:15 | you're the only person that's going to
be enjoying your music, and in that case,
| | 01:19 | hey, nobody can tell you what to do.
| | 01:22 | Ultimately, at the end of the day,
no one can tell you what is or isn't
| | 01:25 | important, but if you're working in the
pop idiom, it's generally the vocal that
| | 01:30 | is the lead element and will
resonate most with the bulk of listeners.
| | 01:34 | So be sure to serve the vocal in your mix.
| | 01:38 | Now it's really easy to lose
perspective as the producer or arranger and even
| | 01:45 | just as the mixer of the song.
| | 01:46 | So when you're thinking about what
makes a good mix, go back to some reference
| | 01:50 | material, take a break from the project,
and try to regain some of that first
| | 01:56 | time listener perspective.
| | 01:58 | Sometimes I like to step away even a
week or maybe even a month from a song that
| | 02:02 | I wrote before I start mixing it.
| | 02:04 | Now I can tell you what I think makes
a good mix, and to me, a good mix is
| | 02:10 | wide, tall, and deep.
| | 02:12 | That is to say a good
mix for one has definition.
| | 02:17 | Each element can be clearly heard
and holds a place in the depth and
| | 02:21 | stereo field.
| | 02:23 | A good mix is also balanced, so no
one instrument sticks out unless that's
| | 02:28 | the intention.
| | 02:30 | Likewise, nothing is buried
so deep that I can't hear it.
| | 02:34 | The dynamics are lively but not out of control.
| | 02:38 | A good mix is full but also has clarity,
so fat but not muddy, airy and smooth
| | 02:46 | but not brittle, bass-heavy, or dull.
| | 02:50 | I like a mix that has a wide and
detailed stereo image, one that really lets me
| | 02:56 | dive into the song and place each
element between the speakers, a mix that I
| | 03:01 | can really walk into.
| | 03:03 | To me, a good mix evolves
and keeps things interesting.
| | 03:07 | Now this is very subjective;
| | 03:09 | sometimes the song itself is so
interesting that you don't need any mix
| | 03:13 | trickery, let's say, the lyric itself
carries a song so much that the lyric and
| | 03:18 | an acoustic guitar is going to
keep the listener interested.
| | 03:22 | But when you're mixing a song and you
feel the content needs a little bit of
| | 03:25 | help, it's okay to push that
arrangement further with the mix process and add
| | 03:31 | some interesting elements.
| | 03:32 | But remember, at the end of the day, no
amount of mix trickery is going to take
| | 03:36 | a terrible song and make it totally intriguing.
| | 03:39 | Now a lot of times there'll be genre-
specific considerations and while I'd like
| | 03:44 | to say hey, you can just ignore
everything and do what you want, and again, if
| | 03:49 | you're the only one listening to your
music and you don't really care that much
| | 03:52 | about what other people think,
awesome, rock on, do your thing.
| | 03:55 | However, a lot of times, people come to
me and say look, I am really trying to
| | 03:59 | put my best foot forward in the genre
that I'm working on because I am trying to
| | 04:03 | get a deal, I am trying to make some money.
| | 04:04 | So try to learn what the genre norms
are that define a great mix in that genre.
| | 04:11 | For example, the bass levels in a hip-
hop mix are not going to be appropriate
| | 04:16 | for a rock tune a lot of times, or the
abundance of dynamics in a great jazz mix
| | 04:21 | might not work for a radio pop song.
| | 04:24 | So try to figure out what some of the
genre norms are of your style of music,
| | 04:29 | listen to reference tracks, and at first,
try to emulate those tracks when you
| | 04:33 | are first trying to get your wings as a mixer.
| | 04:36 | Now some people will argue that
music should just sound natural like a
| | 04:40 | band playing in a room;
| | 04:42 | no editing or heavy mixing or tricks,
while others like the opposite, and this
| | 04:47 | is why having an opinion matters.
| | 04:49 | Some people really like sci-fi films
with lots of special effects, whereas other
| | 04:53 | people like watching
dialogue-based drama movies.
| | 04:56 | It doesn't mean one is wrong and the
other is right and I would even argue to
| | 05:00 | say that for me, someone who interacts
with lots of different styles of music
| | 05:04 | and lots of different personalities, I
have to treat things with an open mind.
| | 05:08 | If this story is really kind of a sci
-fi thing that's going to need a lot
| | 05:13 | of special effects, if I'm the
director, I am not going to say, no, I need
| | 05:17 | everything to be performed as if it was acted
out in the live stage, or vice-versa.
| | 05:22 | If it was a dialogue-based drama, I am
not going to have the stuff exploding all
| | 05:26 | over the place and aliens landing in
the middle of the romance scene, or maybe I
| | 05:31 | am, maybe that's cool.
| | 05:32 | I like to keep an open mind and I like
to serve the song with what it needs.
| | 05:36 | So if it needs a lot of tricks in doing
special effects, and that's really going
| | 05:40 | to take the listener where they want
to go in that genre and make them happy,
| | 05:44 | then I am going to do that, whereas if
it doesn't need anything else, if it sits
| | 05:48 | just fine, as the song as is,
I am going to use a light hand.
| | 05:52 | So remember that mixing is just as
much about knowing what you want as it
| | 05:57 | is knowing how to get it, and really,
the knowing what you want is usually
| | 06:02 | the hardest part.
| | 06:03 | So continuously challenge yourself,
ask if it could be better, get outside
| | 06:07 | opinions from people you know will
give you constructive feedback and
| | 06:11 | eventually, just let it go and finish the mix.
| | 06:14 | I don't think there has ever been one
mix I've done where I've looked back and
| | 06:17 | thought everything was absolutely perfect.
| | 06:19 | You live, you learn, and
you do better next time.
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| Working with a reference track| 00:00 | When working towards a great sounding
mix, why not start with another one that
| | 00:04 | you already now sounds great?
| | 00:06 | A reference track provides a known
quantity that helps eliminate some of the
| | 00:10 | guess work when balancing,
EQing, and leveling the track.
| | 00:14 | What I like to do in my mixes,
especially if I'm working towards a specific
| | 00:18 | genre or have a client who's asked me to
listen to a couple different mixes that
| | 00:24 | they really like and emulate, I will
bring in a reference track directly to this
| | 00:29 | session that I'm mixing.
| | 00:30 | And so in this example, I'm just going
to move to the Exercise Files folder and
| | 00:35 | I'm going to bring in just a
balance of the Take Me Down Master.
| | 00:40 | Now typically, this would be a
separate song, but in this case this will
| | 00:47 | serve as a good example.
| | 00:49 | So I'm going to drag that in and that's
going to give a new track, all the way
| | 00:56 | over here at the right end of my session.
| | 00:59 | Now there're some considerations for
pulling in an already mastered file into
| | 01:05 | your session, and one of those is if
you're not mixing to a Mix Bus like I am
| | 01:11 | here, and your Master Fader is applying
plug-ins to just your main outputs,
| | 01:17 | your outputs 1-2.
| | 01:19 | The problem is, is you're going
to be doing double limiting.
| | 01:23 | If you're doing any compression or
limiting on your Master Bus, you don't want
| | 01:27 | to add that to your reference mix,
because for the most part, it's probably
| | 01:31 | already been mastered and that's not
going to be a very good reference if you're
| | 01:35 | pushing it through even more limiting.
| | 01:38 | What I like to do is I'll either set
my reference to another set of outputs.
| | 01:42 | In my studio I actually have it set up
so that I can set the reference to output
| | 01:47 | 3-4 and using my monitoring
switching, I can quickly switch between the
| | 01:53 | reference track and my actual mix.
| | 01:55 | But if you don't have those
capabilities, a great way to solve this issue is
| | 02:00 | mix into a bus, mix into a stereo
aux track, and set your Master Fader to
| | 02:07 | control that bus.
| | 02:07 | So you're only applying the plug-ins to
the Mix Bus here and not your main outputs.
| | 02:17 | Now another consideration for working
to a reference track is that most likely
| | 02:22 | that reference track is going to be
louder than your mix, because it's probably
| | 02:28 | been commercially mastered.
| | 02:31 | Now, I don't like to compete on level
immediately, when I'm working my way
| | 02:36 | into a mix.
| | 02:38 | Even to the extent that, I'm generally
not starting with something like Maxim
| | 02:42 | on my Mix Bus.
| | 02:43 | I am generally not starting with
anything on my Mix Bus when I'm first getting
| | 02:48 | my levels and setting my dynamics, I
don't want that Brickwall Limiter to catch
| | 02:53 | me off guard or influence me in
any way when I'm first starting the mix.
| | 02:57 | Because of that, my mix is going
to be much lower than the reference.
| | 03:01 | So if we just listen here.
| | 03:03 | (music playing)
| | 03:08 | Versus
(music playing)
| | 03:16 | You can see the mix version is much lower.
| | 03:20 | Now it can be really hard to compare
relative levels of frequency response and
| | 03:27 | instrument balance, stereo field
when one is a lot louder than the other,
| | 03:32 | because you're constantly going to be
going wow, it just sounds much better, when
| | 03:36 | actually it's just more
gain coming to your ears.
| | 03:39 | So you always want to level match your
reference track, and so what I like to
| | 03:43 | do is, once I bring that reference in,
I'll actually pull it down and I'll just
| | 03:47 | match it by ear.
| | 03:49 | You could use a meter like the Phase
Scope and you could use the average level
| | 03:53 | to kind of get a good sense.
| | 03:55 | I find that by ear is a lot better.
| | 03:58 | It keeps me honest and keeps me
working towards the overall sound of a mix
| | 04:05 | rather than getting this
huge level right off the bat.
| | 04:09 | So I'll just listen.
| | 04:10 | (music playing)
| | 04:15 | A little bit lower.
(music playing)
| | 04:26 | When you're working to your reference,
you want to make sure that you're working
| | 04:27 | And I think that will sound good.
| | 04:31 | to a reference that's actually
going to help you along in your mix.
| | 04:36 | Different engineers have different
takes on what they look for or I should say
| | 04:42 | listen for in a reference.
| | 04:45 | Some engineers will pull in a song in
the same exact genre, let's say, something
| | 04:50 | that is a current radio hit or current
chart topper in that specific genre that
| | 04:56 | they want to go ahead and try
to be competitive with or match.
| | 05:01 | Other engineers pull in, let's say, a
few different reference tracks, maybe from
| | 05:06 | completely different genres, but what
they're doing is that they're saying well
| | 05:09 | this track has just the sweetest bass
when I take it to any speaker system, and
| | 05:14 | this track's got the best top-end, so if
I can match that top-end, I'm there, or
| | 05:19 | this track has a great lead vocal presence.
| | 05:23 | So, as long as I'm measuring my track
against this track, it doesn't really
| | 05:27 | matter the genre is different and
I'm still a seeking those traits.
| | 05:32 | So just be aware of what traits you're
seeking in the reference, whether it's
| | 05:37 | just purely sonics, like great low-end or
great top-end, or you're actually trying
| | 05:42 | to create a similar vibe, like vocal
processing, and reverb, and delay, and drum
| | 05:48 | sounds and guitar tones and things like that.
| | 05:52 | Some engineers are going to refuse to
use reference tracks because they think it
| | 05:56 | influences them and stifles their
creativity, and you know, there's definitely a
| | 06:01 | chance of you following the reference
too closely, but what I find is that if
| | 06:06 | you're just starting out in mixing, you
need just a little bit of help to stay
| | 06:11 | on task, to keep your eye on the prize.
| | 06:14 | I think definitely working to a
reference track or multiple reference tracks
| | 06:18 | in the same session is really going to help
you be able to get consistent results quicker.
| | 06:25 | The reference track is really going to
help you in situations like getting the
| | 06:27 | correct bass level, even in a room with
poor acoustics, because you can really
| | 06:31 | A-B the two, and if you're close in
terms of bass level or top-end, and it's a
| | 06:38 | material that you know really well and
you know it translates to the outside
| | 06:41 | world, well then you know your mix is probably
going to translate to the outside world.
| | 06:46 | Now once you're fully confident in your art
and your tools, sure you can go ahead,
| | 06:51 | you don't have to mix with a reference.
| | 06:53 | You can totally just go it on your own
and be creative, but I find it really
| | 06:58 | does help mixers who're
first trying to learn how to mix.
| | 07:02 | And to that end, it might be a
good idea to create yourself your own
| | 07:07 | personal go-to reference playlist or
CD of different styles and genres and
| | 07:12 | different sonic qualities.
| | 07:14 | That way you can easily
import them into your session.
| | 07:17 | Now I like using lossless files or
files from CDs so that I'm not also
| | 07:22 | listening to the compression, the
MP3 compression of a finished mix and
| | 07:27 | trying to match that.
| | 07:29 | Hey, but there might be something to that.
| | 07:31 | If your mix is going to ultimately end
up being compressed to an MP3, you might
| | 07:36 | even add that to your reference list,
like hey, this mix sounds really good when
| | 07:40 | it's compressed with the really high bit rate.
| | 07:43 | So experiment with this idea of using
a reference track in your mix, in your
| | 07:47 | mastering process, and I think
you'll find it really useful.
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| Avoiding common pitfalls| 00:00 | There's no denying that mixing is
a difficult skill to learn and make
| | 00:04 | progress in because many of the
realizations and aha moments have to be
| | 00:09 | earned rather than learned.
| | 00:12 | Even after reading it in a book or
seeing it in a video a hundred times, a lot
| | 00:16 | of your progress is going to be
incremental, much like learning an instrument is.
| | 00:22 | Would you think that it was reasonable
to buy a guitar today having never played
| | 00:26 | it before in your life and expect to be
performing at a virtuoso level tomorrow
| | 00:31 | just because you took one
lesson or saw one video on YouTube?
| | 00:35 | Probably not, and mixing is very similar.
| | 00:38 | But here are some of the common
pitfalls that many of my students and even
| | 00:42 | myself have experienced over the years.
| | 00:45 | First off, mixing your own music or
music that you've been heavily involved in
| | 00:50 | can be very difficult.
| | 00:52 | It's much different than
mixing other people's music.
| | 00:55 | Each is a skill on its own.
| | 00:58 | I find mixing my own music to be
particularly challenging, but extremely
| | 01:03 | rewarding at the same time.
| | 01:06 | Whenever you find you have to mix your
own music, try to come at it with a fresh
| | 01:11 | perspective by taking a break.
| | 01:13 | If you find you're having problems with
the mix, don't immediately mix the song
| | 01:17 | after finishing the arrangement.
| | 01:19 | Now another than can be hard when
mixing your own music is really being honest
| | 01:24 | with yourself with the arrangement stage.
| | 01:26 | A lot of times when I'm mixing other
people's music, I can identify issues that
| | 01:31 | happened at the arrangement
stage and make recommendations.
| | 01:34 | For example, you know what, there's
quite a bit going on at this section and I
| | 01:39 | think it would actually be better to
mute this out, it would make the song
| | 01:42 | stronger if you did.
| | 01:44 | Now if you're working on your own
project, then you've got a ton of arrangement
| | 01:47 | vanity, as what I like to call it,
invested into it where you're doing all
| | 01:51 | kinds of cool tricks and
leads and everything like that.
| | 01:54 | Sometimes it can be hard to be
honest with yourself and go, wow!
| | 01:57 | Is this part really serving the song,
the idea of the song and the vocal, or is
| | 02:02 | this just in here because I think it's
really neat but it's going to ultimately
| | 02:06 | end up ostracizing the listener?
| | 02:08 | So try to be honest with
yourself when mixing your own music.
| | 02:10 | Now another thing new mixers find
difficult is bass management and often it
| | 02:16 | manifests itself as either too much or
too little bass in the final mix down.
| | 02:21 | And this is usually due to monitoring
conditions, the room acoustics, or how you
| | 02:27 | have your monitor set up.
| | 02:29 | Even personal taste for low end can affect this.
| | 02:32 | Some people really like a lot of low
end and in combination with the room sort
| | 02:37 | of telling them that there's no low
end and lying to them, they create a mix
| | 02:41 | that just has so much low end that it's
overpowering on any other system.
| | 02:46 | To combat this, use reference tracks
that you really admire and follow them even
| | 02:52 | if it seems like they sound
wrong in your mixing environment.
| | 02:55 | If you know that, hey man, in the car
and my headphones, this mix just has great
| | 03:00 | bass and it's sounding a little weird
in my room, so my instinct is to make it
| | 03:04 | sound like it has more bass than the reference.
| | 03:06 | I think if you're referencing that
track and you know it sounds good, you can
| | 03:10 | really do some great stuff even
in a compromised acoustic space.
| | 03:14 | Now, dynamics control is a major
problem for new mixers and I find that a lot
| | 03:20 | of amateur mixes lack dynamics control
and actually need to take advantage of
| | 03:25 | compression better.
| | 03:27 | Not necessarily use compression
more, but take advantage of it;
| | 03:30 | learn and understand the use of
compression in dynamics control in tucking
| | 03:36 | things in that are sticking out of the
mix and kind of giving it a karaoke or
| | 03:40 | disconnected sound and really filling
in those things that are falling below
| | 03:45 | the mix.
| | 03:46 | So strive to understand compression
from a dynamics control standpoint and your
| | 03:52 | mixes will be better for it.
| | 03:54 | Another major problem I hear in a lot
of new mixers' mixes is the simple fact
| | 04:00 | that the source material is
just poor to start out with.
| | 04:04 | One of the problems is when you're
first starting out, there's this catch-22 of
| | 04:08 | bad tracks equals bad mixes.
| | 04:10 | Because you're also probably first
learning how to record or may be you're an
| | 04:14 | engineer and you're not able to record
the finest musicians, you're just kind of
| | 04:19 | practicing with your friends and the
gear that you have, what can happen is you
| | 04:23 | take those bad tracks and you go to mix
stage and you kind of wonder, man, am I
| | 04:27 | missing something here in mixing?
| | 04:29 | These mixes aren't sounding like the
commercial stuff I'm hearing on the radio.
| | 04:33 | And the reality is mixing is a
holistic process, so garbage in, garbage out.
| | 04:38 | If you start with really great
sounding tracks, it's easy to get a really
| | 04:42 | great sounding mix.
| | 04:44 | If you start with really poorly
recorded material, no matter how great a mixer
| | 04:49 | you are, it's still not going to sound
as good as a session that was recorded
| | 04:53 | properly in the first place.
| | 04:55 | So what I suggest you do is try to look
at other sessions as much as possible.
| | 05:00 | Try to go and experience other
engineers' sessions so that you can hear what the
| | 05:05 | source material sounds like.
| | 05:06 | So any opportunity you get to
download an artist's stems or the bare tracks
| | 05:11 | where you can actually hear just the
vocal or just the drums, do it and listen
| | 05:15 | to it and compare that to what you're recording.
| | 05:18 | Does it sound like those recordings are
at a higher fidelity or a better source
| | 05:23 | material than what you're putting into the mix?
| | 05:26 | Now we talked about this earlier, but
another major problem when first learning
| | 05:30 | how to mix is you want to solo things too much.
| | 05:33 | Your instinct is to solo something so
you can hear it and then you start EQing
| | 05:37 | and compressing and making it
sound really great with presets.
| | 05:41 | The problem with that is yeah, it sounds
great on its own, but when you add it to
| | 05:44 | the rest of the mix, there's no
contrast or no context with the other elements,
| | 05:49 | and mixing is all about context and contrast.
| | 05:52 | So get used to mixing in
context as soon as possible.
| | 05:57 | And one thing that you can do to
practice this is early on, instead of soloing,
| | 06:03 | make sure that whenever you solo a track,
you also solo your vocal, or at least
| | 06:07 | your vocal and maybe your bass.
| | 06:10 | And what that's going to do, it's going
to be easier to hear that element, maybe
| | 06:13 | it's a guitar or something like that.
| | 06:15 | But you're also going to be checking
it against your main focal point, that
| | 06:19 | is your vocal.
| | 06:20 | And this can really give you lots of
insight as to what frequencies you can add
| | 06:25 | or can't add in context of the
important elements of the song.
| | 06:29 | And at the end of the day, presets and
tips are great, but I find that because
| | 06:35 | there are so many presets and tips and
videos and even myself making things like
| | 06:41 | this out there on the Internet that
sometimes we tend to be lazy and we tend to
| | 06:46 | just kind of use things that we found
and just take them at face value without
| | 06:51 | really learning how to use our
gut or our problem solving skills.
| | 06:55 | Just because you read it in a magazine
or saw it in a video doesn't mean it's
| | 06:58 | working for you in your mix.
| | 07:00 | So give yourself some credit, have
an opinion, trust your ears sometimes.
| | 07:05 | If you implement a tip and you're
really hearing it in your mix is not quite
| | 07:09 | working, don't be the guy that says,
well, they said that this was the way it's
| | 07:13 | going to be and it sounds bad that I'm
just going to kind of leave it because
| | 07:16 | I'm not trusting myself.
| | 07:17 | Don't do that.
| | 07:19 | The sooner you can start trusting
your ears and trusting your opinion and
| | 07:22 | actually having opinion, the sooner
you'd be on the road to being a great mixer.
| | 07:27 | Another thing that you definitely
want to do when you're mixing is avoid
| | 07:30 | clipping, avoid clipping the
mixer, avoid clipping plug-ins.
| | 07:34 | It just sounds bad.
| | 07:35 | Now in the DAW era, there's a lot of
things that protect you against this, but
| | 07:39 | what I'm finding is that with all of
these vintage model plug-ins, these vintage
| | 07:42 | model plug-ins have specific
expectations with the signal level that's coming
| | 07:48 | into them and the algorithms weren't
necessarily built to handle the 64-bit
| | 07:53 | floating-point signals just
slamming into their algorithms.
| | 07:57 | So if we think about how the original
hardware was used, when we think about
| | 08:02 | how the plug-in is modeled, there's going to
be a sweet spot in some of these plug-ins.
| | 08:07 | So what I find is that going easy
on my headroom, avoiding clipping and
| | 08:11 | avoiding too hot of signals throughout
the mix actually gives me a better mix
| | 08:16 | at the end of the day.
| | 08:17 | And another thing that's related to
this is try not to mix too loudly.
| | 08:21 | One of the problems with mixing with
your monitors cranked is that it sounds
| | 08:24 | awesome, but you're actually going to
get natural compression from the speakers
| | 08:29 | or the drivers and the
amplifiers in those speakers.
| | 08:33 | And things just sound good when cranked.
| | 08:36 | The problem is when you turn it
back now and listen to it on a moderate
| | 08:39 | level, it kind of just sounds flat,
whereas if you mix at a lower level and
| | 08:44 | it's just slamming and popping and
you turn it up, rarely does it stop
| | 08:48 | slamming and popping.
| | 08:50 | So I tend to mix at a lower level and
make sure it's really exciting and then I
| | 08:54 | turn it up and it usually stays exciting.
| | 08:57 | Mix at different levels but don't
mix too loudly the whole entire time.
| | 09:04 | Another tip that I often offer up to
my students is be honest with yourself,
| | 09:08 | try not to force an agenda on a song
that doesn't really require just for
| | 09:12 | novelty sake.
| | 09:13 | So a lot of guys will have these
personal preferences for, let's say, drums and
| | 09:18 | so they'll try to force a Steely Dan
drum sound on a punk song just because
| | 09:23 | that's how they idealize that
when drum sound in their head.
| | 09:27 | And I guess if you're making your
own music, this is great, but if you're
| | 09:29 | working for other people and you're
trying to help their song get better,
| | 09:34 | don't try to force your own personal
agenda onto someone else's song if it
| | 09:40 | doesn't benefit from that.
| | 09:42 | You can definitely have your own
style and you can have your own voice as a
| | 09:46 | mixer, but that's different than let's
say forcing a sound onto something that
| | 09:50 | wouldn't necessarily benefit from it.
| | 09:52 | And this bleeds into the other thing
that I tell people about being honest with
| | 09:56 | themselves is quit making
excuses about your mixes.
| | 10:00 | One of the biggest things I'm always
hearing is, oh, my gear isn't great and if
| | 10:04 | I only had this Summing mixer or if
I had this analog compressor that was
| | 10:09 | $5,000, I would be the most awesome
mixer ever, but I don't, so my mixes suck.
| | 10:14 | Seriously, it's not your
gear that's holding you back.
| | 10:17 | At the end of the day, if you take away
anything from this course, it's that I
| | 10:22 | want you to trust yourself and I want
you to experiment and learn all you can.
| | 10:26 | Understand it, and then throw it
out the window and go with your gut.
| | 10:30 | Know and accommodate for the limitations of
your studio and your setup and move on.
| | 10:34 | Remember, mixing is one part of a
larger workflow, so you can't put all
| | 10:39 | your money on the mix.
| | 10:40 | A bad song is a bad song, great mix or
otherwise, and a truly great song, well,
| | 10:45 | that's pretty hard to screw up.
| | 10:46 | Think about how many songs you've loved as
a kid and how poorly they were mixed.
| | 10:51 | Above all, make sure you're having fun.
| | 10:53 | Don't take things too seriously and
learn to let go when the song is finished.
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| Building healthy mixing habits| 00:00 | Engineers can be a pretty obsessive
bunch, listening to a song or individual
| | 00:04 | track over and over until we
don't remember our own names.
| | 00:09 | While this passion is a key component
in the success of today's top mixing
| | 00:12 | engineers, we must still pay attention
to our bodies and take care of our minds.
| | 00:17 | On top of the healthy session topics I
already covered, here're some things to
| | 00:22 | help keep your head on
straight during the mix down.
| | 00:24 | First off, avoiding mixing for more
than three to four hours at a time, take
| | 00:29 | frequent breaks and let
your ears rest and reset.
| | 00:33 | For me, personally, it can take a
solid day for my ears to regain perspective
| | 00:37 | on a tune.
| | 00:38 | In the first day, I generally spend 70
to 80% of that total time on a mix and I
| | 00:43 | usually take a break and finish the
remaining 20% the next day or maybe even a
| | 00:48 | few days later after I've had a chance
to listen to it in the car, and take some
| | 00:53 | mental notes on the changes I
want to implement with fresh ears.
| | 00:57 | In the DAW age, there's no reason for
us to kill ourselves over these mixes
| | 01:01 | because we have total recall.
| | 01:03 | Be mindful of your monitor levels when mixing.
| | 01:07 | Every engineer has a different opinion
on how loud you should monitor during
| | 01:11 | mixing and some even say a specific
DB level or SPL level based on equal
| | 01:16 | loudness contour graphs or what
they call Fletcher-Munson curves.
| | 01:20 | I find that my personal preference
is I like to change things up.
| | 01:25 | I monitor at lower SPLs, 75 dB to 78 dB.
| | 01:30 | I can go longer that way and then I
turn my monitors up, maybe when I'm trying
| | 01:36 | to get my bass tones and just to kind
of hear what things are sounding like and
| | 01:41 | I'll turn it down really low, just
to kind of hear where's the vocal sitting,
| | 01:45 | where's the snare drum is sitting.
| | 01:47 | But generally, it's not really a good
idea to mix too loud, just because we
| | 01:52 | want to protect our hearing as well as that it
probably won't translate well at other volumes.
| | 01:58 | Now, you're also want to be extra
careful when mixing with headphones, even
| | 02:03 | outside the studio when listening to your iPod.
| | 02:06 | We have the tendency when we get in the
subway and on the train to really crank
| | 02:10 | those ear buds to super high SPLs
without even noticing, and that can really
| | 02:15 | damage our hearing over the long-term.
| | 02:18 | On that note, I like to get my ears
checked out semi-regularly with the
| | 02:22 | audiologist and I definitely wear
earplugs to concerts and band practice because
| | 02:28 | my ears are my tools and I want to
protect them for as long as possible.
| | 02:33 | Something that a lot of people
don't address, and I'm surprised of this, is
| | 02:38 | they don't spend any time addressing
the ergonomics of their studio, and I find
| | 02:43 | that a lot of these studio desks are
so called "studio desks" are really
| | 02:48 | horrible workstations
from an ergonomic standpoint.
| | 02:51 | You know, your monitors are kind of
high up, and you've got a crank in your neck.
| | 02:55 | Find yourself a comfortable chair that
supports your back and sit up straight.
| | 02:59 | See if you can find a desk that
really complements your workflow, prevents
| | 03:03 | repetitive motion and you know
what, go outside once in a while.
| | 03:08 | Above all, remain focused and
committed to the goal, but don't over obsess.
| | 03:13 | It's not the end of the world if that
snare drum doesn't sound exactly like the
| | 03:17 | one you had in mind.
| | 03:19 | Don't let one obsession ruin your entire mix.
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| Crafting your mix from start to finish| 00:00 | Every mix engineer has his or her own
method for starting and finishing a mix.
| | 00:05 | Some like to start with the drums
while others like to start with the vocals,
| | 00:09 | while others will change their mind each time.
| | 00:12 | Because each mix starts at a
different place, especially now that many
| | 00:15 | producers are mixing their own music
during the arranging process, I can't tell
| | 00:20 | you where to start your mix.
| | 00:21 | But I can give you some insights on to
how I mixed this Take Me Down session and
| | 00:26 | the approach of many of my other mixes.
| | 00:29 | Now I generally start out by importing some
FX returns from a template that I have.
| | 00:35 | I'll use things like File > Import >
Session Data to either pull from other
| | 00:40 | Pro Tools sessions that I've already
created, or I'll have template sessions
| | 00:45 | that I made purposely for this.
| | 00:47 | Then I can go in and import some of my
most commonly used FX returns, Reverbs,
| | 00:53 | Chorus, Flanger, Short Delays,
stereo widening tricks, things like that.
| | 00:58 | I'll also import my master fader chain
that might include some stereo widening,
| | 01:04 | a limiter, a compressor, maybe
some tape saturation and stuff like.
| | 01:09 | What this does is it gives me a
color palette to paint with immediately.
| | 01:13 | So if inspiration strikes and I
want to add some delay to the vocal,
| | 01:17 | it's already there.
| | 01:18 | I don't have to create the
Send and Return from scratch.
| | 01:22 | Now sometimes I want something
specific, so I'll have to go in and create a
| | 01:26 | specific Send and Return for that.
| | 01:28 | And almost 100% of the time, I'm
changing the parameters of the plug-ins in the
| | 01:33 | template to accommodate the song.
| | 01:35 | So I am going to go into my Plate
reverb from the template and I am
| | 01:40 | certainly going to change the decay
time, I'm going to change the EQ to
| | 01:45 | accommodate the track.
| | 01:47 | But by having this template, I can
really get started and start getting inspired
| | 01:52 | and creating some sounds quickly.
| | 01:55 | Now once I have my templates or my FX
returns set up and I've set up some of my
| | 02:00 | routing, my submixes of all the
different types of tracks, I generally start
| | 02:05 | with my drums and my bass.
| | 02:07 | So I start getting a
great kick and snare sound--
| | 02:14 | (music playing)
| | 02:19 | and I'll work in my other drums.
| | 02:21 | (music playing)
| | 02:24 | And almost immediately, I'll add my
bass, because how the kick and the bass live
| | 02:29 | together is extremely
important, especially in a rock tune.
| | 02:32 | (music playing)
| | 02:40 | Now at this stage, if I can get really
excited about the presence of my drums
| | 02:45 | and the groove the bass is laying down
and the warmth that is adding to the mid
| | 02:50 | band, well, now I know that this mix
is going to be easy because I'm already
| | 02:55 | excited about how the drums sound,
they're already kind of punchy and swollen
| | 02:59 | and that bass guitar is
really filling in the midrange.
| | 03:02 | And what I do at that point is I
immediately add in my lead vocal.
| | 03:07 | I like to get to my lead vocal early
because I want to start crafting its sound
| | 03:12 | and getting the other elements to fit
around it rather than bringing in all my
| | 03:18 | guitars and my synthesizers and EQing
them and spending a bunch of time adding a
| | 03:22 | ton of reverb and delay to them.
| | 03:24 | I'll need to bring in my lead vocal
which is going to be my main focal element
| | 03:28 | there, I'd have to change all that.
| | 03:30 | So I like to kind of craft my lead vocal sound
once I have the drums and the bass.
| | 03:35 | So this is when I'll start
EQing and compressing the vocal.
| | 03:38 | (music playing)
| | 03:49 | And I start adding some of the effects,
getting some of the effects blends, and
| | 03:53 | I know that these are going to
change as I add the other instruments.
| | 03:57 | (music playing)
| | 04:02 | Now I really just want to get into the
mood of the song, try to get inspired
| | 04:06 | by the vocal.
| | 04:07 | I find that even if I'm working on a
genre of music that I'm not particularly
| | 04:13 | interested in in my personal life, I
find that if I can invest emotionally in
| | 04:18 | the song and get really stoked on it for
that moment, I won't be faking the fun.
| | 04:23 | This is what I like to call it.
| | 04:25 | And when it comes to mixing, if you can
really pour your heart and soul into it,
| | 04:29 | all your emotion, it's really
going to show in the final outcome.
| | 04:34 | Once I've got the vocal and I've got
the vocal EQed, sounding nice and rich,
| | 04:38 | I've pulled out maybe some of the mud
from the recording stage, I've got a nice
| | 04:43 | space going on, I have some extra
presence, then I'll start adding in the rhythm
| | 04:48 | instruments like the guitars.
| | 04:50 | (music playing)
| | 04:53 | And here I've got these nice and panned
so that the vocal sits in the center and
| | 04:58 | they are filling up the sides.
| | 05:00 | And now because I have the vocal in, I can
actually EQ these elements to the vocal.
| | 05:06 | So if I feel like they're
getting in the way of the vocal--
| | 05:08 | (music playing)
| | 05:11 | I can tuck them out because I've
already handled the vocal, I've got the
| | 05:16 | vocal sounding good.
| | 05:19 | And it's not to say that I won't go
back to my vocal and change some of the EQ
| | 05:23 | settings as I add other elements.
| | 05:25 | And maybe what I find is that after
I've added all my guitars into the mix, the
| | 05:29 | vocal needs a little bit of extra
presence to cut through in the chorus sections
| | 05:34 | of something like that,
I'll go ahead and do that.
| | 05:36 | Remember, this is all an iterative
process, so there's no, oh, I just did the
| | 05:40 | drums and now they're completely done.
| | 05:42 | I'm never to going to have to touch
the level again, I can move on to the
| | 05:45 | bass and then the vocal.
| | 05:46 | No, you're always coming back
and you're adjusting things.
| | 05:49 | I just want to give you a sense of an
approach you could take to be successful
| | 05:54 | with a mix, especially a mix like a rock song.
| | 05:58 | Once all the rhythm instruments
are inserted, really I kind of just
| | 06:01 | add everything else.
| | 06:02 | So any melodic lines, I want to place
those carefully around the vocals so that
| | 06:08 | they contrast and complement the vocal
well, but the listener still can hear
| | 06:12 | them and they come across as
interesting little moments in the song.
| | 06:18 | And then at that point now that
everything is in, I'm going to re-address any
| | 06:21 | frequency or dynamics concerns.
| | 06:23 | Does anything need more
compression now that all the elements are in?
| | 06:27 | Is anything popping out too
much or dying under the mix?
| | 06:31 | Does anything need a different EQ
now that all the elements are in?
| | 06:35 | And I'm going to have to do
that for each section in the song.
| | 06:38 | Remember, a lot of arrangements change
from verse to chorus to bridge.
| | 06:42 | Now at this point, I generally have
either a static mix or a mix with very
| | 06:47 | little automation, maybe some
automation existed from the production stage or
| | 06:53 | the arranging stage where I might have
done something cool with a plug-in like
| | 06:56 | a filter or a delay.
| | 06:58 | But I don't have a lot of section automation.
| | 07:01 | At that point, I'm going to start adding
in automation to address the changes in
| | 07:07 | level over the arrangements.
| | 07:08 | So that's when I'll get
into my section dynamics.
| | 07:12 | This is what I like to call it.
| | 07:13 | I'll get in and make sure that I can
hear different elements at different
| | 07:18 | moments of the song.
| | 07:20 | And you could see with the bass guitar,
kick it up in the chorus, kick in a
| | 07:23 | little bit of that distortion track.
| | 07:25 | All right, I am automating my
guitars up a bit in the chorus.
| | 07:29 | And to do this, it really helps have
memory locations because I can really
| | 07:33 | just select that section and I can
listen to it and decide if anything needs
| | 07:37 | to come up or go down.
| | 07:39 | (music playing)
| | 07:42 | Do I hear anything that's getting lost,
do I hear anything that should come up.
| | 07:46 | And I'll just go through the
different sections of the song and ask myself
| | 07:49 | that question.
(music playing)
| | 07:57 | A lot of people don't realize
that what adds most to a mix can be
| | 08:01 | the automations.
| | 08:02 | It's what really takes it home and sells it.
| | 08:06 | Now once I've added any
automation for section dynamics, I'll start
| | 08:09 | thinking about any creative
automation I can do to evolve the track and
| | 08:13 | make it interesting.
| | 08:14 | And so I like to make sure that the
sound is changing, at least for me in my
| | 08:19 | music, that something is getting
added in subsequent choruses or verses.
| | 08:24 | So in verse two, the sound changes
a little bit and if the arrangement
| | 08:28 | doesn't change, let's say it's a hip-
hop tune and the arrangement is the same
| | 08:31 | 16 bars, I'll think about maybe
muting some things or maybe automating some
| | 08:35 | EQ or some reverb just to add a little
bit of excitement or difference to the
| | 08:41 | different parts of the song.
| | 08:44 | Now once I've performed some of that
creative EQ and I'm feeling pretty good
| | 08:49 | about the vibe of the track,
I take a good long break.
| | 08:52 | So I'm just going to stop listening for
at least an hour, I'll go do something
| | 08:56 | else, I'll rest my ears, because at that
point I won't be able to continue being
| | 09:02 | objective about the song.
| | 09:03 | I'll probably be really emotionally
invested with my mix and the song and the
| | 09:07 | vocal and I'll be grooving to it.
| | 09:09 | So I want to take that break to just step back.
| | 09:12 | And then I might come back
and listen to it in the car.
| | 09:14 | Maybe I am taking a day break, maybe
I am taking a couple-day break and I'm
| | 09:18 | listening to it on a few different systems.
| | 09:20 | I actually have a few different speaker
systems in my studio that I can A, B, C
| | 09:25 | the mix on, so I'm kind of doing
this process as I mix and making notes.
| | 09:30 | Once I have taken a break, I'll then
come back to the mix and address any notes
| | 09:35 | on levels, EQ, automation.
| | 09:38 | And at that time, if it's for a client,
I'm going to bounce them out a demo WAV
| | 09:43 | or MP3 and send it off to them.
| | 09:45 | So generally, when I'm sending the mix
off to a client, I'm always going kind of
| | 09:50 | through my own revision process where
I'm doing the mix, printing it, coming
| | 09:54 | back to it about a day later if I have
that time, and kind of listening to it as
| | 09:59 | if I were the client and going, you
know what, Brian, I think we could turn up
| | 10:02 | the vocal here and I think that
bass could be a little bit louder.
| | 10:06 | So once the client gets it, there's
probably going to be some sort of revision
| | 10:10 | process and I'll receive notes back
from the client and I'll make those
| | 10:14 | revisions and we'll go from there.
| | 10:16 | Again, I can't stress enough that
there's no one right way to approach an
| | 10:21 | entire mix.
| | 10:22 | With so many different genres out there,
what makes sense to one producer has no
| | 10:27 | place in another producer's workflow.
| | 10:29 | So I encourage you to try out my
techniques and others you pick up
| | 10:32 | throughout the process.
| | 10:34 | Take what works for you and leave what doesn't.
| | 10:36 | The goal is to get to a point where
you're confident in your core workflow and
| | 10:40 | branch out from there, trying out and
archiving new ideas as they come along.
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|
|
10. Mastering in Pro ToolsUnderstanding mastering| 00:00 | What is mastering?
| | 00:02 | Some define the mastering process as
the final stage of audio processing, while
| | 00:07 | other definitions would suggest a wider
scope, including final audio polishing,
| | 00:12 | track sequencing, master disc
creation, file format transcoding;
| | 00:16 | basically everything after the mix
up to the point before duplication
| | 00:20 | and distribution.
| | 00:23 | Most mix engineers associate the
mastering stage as the final stage of
| | 00:27 | signal processing.
| | 00:28 | So if you think of mixing like the
paint job on a car, mastering would be the
| | 00:33 | clear coat or lacquer that seals the deal.
| | 00:37 | And this generally consists of
taking the two tracks or stereo mix and
| | 00:42 | adding final dynamics, EQ, and other
processing to create a polished finish
| | 00:47 | sounding mix.
| | 00:48 | One of the main goals of a mastering
engineer is to get a consistent sound out
| | 00:52 | of a group of tracks, and make sure
that those mixes translate and are
| | 00:57 | compatible on all sound systems.
| | 00:59 | And this can include tying up any
loose ends from the mixing process,
| | 01:03 | like say, EQ decisions that were made
as a result of bad room acoustics in the
| | 01:07 | mixer room or dynamic
concerns, overly dynamic tracks.
| | 01:12 | The mastering engineer attempts to
create a sonic coherency between tracks that
| | 01:16 | may have been mixed in different
spaces at different times by different
| | 01:21 | mastering engineers, so that the record
plays back as one coherent sonic piece.
| | 01:26 | A mastering engineer will also do some
housekeeping, truncating the bit depth,
| | 01:30 | adding dither, preparing things for
the duplication, replication stages or
| | 01:36 | uploading them to web stores on the Internet.
| | 01:40 | Besides all the signal processing
stuff a mastering engineer does, they
| | 01:43 | generally will also do track
sequencing and cross-fading between the tracks.
| | 01:48 | So figuring out the order of the tracks
and how they play into each other, how
| | 01:53 | much of a gap between tracks on a CD.
| | 01:56 | This is arguably becoming less
important in the digital era where everybody's
| | 02:01 | just downloading singles or
listening the stuff on YouTube.
| | 02:05 | The mastering engineer may also be
responsible for compressing and transcoding
| | 02:09 | for the highest quality web delivery,
so making sure that it's going to sound
| | 02:14 | good when it's delivered on iTunes.
| | 02:17 | They can also be responsible for
creating a high-quality low error
| | 02:21 | duplication-ready disc for the pressing plant.
| | 02:25 | There is a difference between the CD
that you burn from iTunes and the CD that a
| | 02:30 | mastering engineer is burning and
giving to you as a master for duplication.
| | 02:36 | Mastering engineers can also prepare
signals for vinyl cutting, so there are
| | 02:41 | actually some special concerns about
low frequencies and dynamics content that
| | 02:48 | goes into cutting vinyl. The mastering
engineer would prepare a mix for that.
| | 02:53 | A lot of times people are asking me
these days, should I master my own music, or
| | 02:58 | asking me as a mixer, can you
master my song as well as mix it?
| | 03:03 | Well, there are obviously some pros to that.
| | 03:06 | It's certainly cheaper. You can
take your time. There's many plug-in tools
| | 03:11 | available for mastering.
| | 03:13 | But it's important to understand that
mastering is not a tool or a plug-in. There
| | 03:18 | are a lot of companies out there that
are selling these all-in-one mastering
| | 03:21 | solutions saying, oh, master your tracks.
| | 03:24 | It's really important to understand
that while those tools can help you in
| | 03:27 | mastering, mastering is still a highly
skilled art form and some would argue
| | 03:33 | even more so than mixing.
| | 03:36 | So be aware that there is
some skill to mastering.
| | 03:38 | Obviously, this kind of leads into some
of the cons of mastering your own music
| | 03:44 | or having the mixer master the music.
| | 03:47 | Perspective is the biggest one.
| | 03:49 | Do you have the correct perspective
on your music to be doing the final
| | 03:55 | signal processing?
| | 03:57 | You're probably hearing things
that the first-time listener won't.
| | 04:01 | You might have some level or dynamic
issues or EQ issues where because you wrote
| | 04:07 | the part, you're hearing it in a
different way than the end listener, or even
| | 04:12 | just basic technical problems like your
room doesn't have the correct acoustic
| | 04:16 | response to make final
decisions about EQ and dynamics.
| | 04:21 | More and more though, mastering is
becoming part of the mixing process because
| | 04:27 | now that I have my mix totally
recallable in a DAW, I can actually work with my
| | 04:33 | mastering engineer so that if there's
a problem with the mix come mastering, I
| | 04:38 | can go back and make EQ changes,
dynamics changes to the mix before mastering or
| | 04:45 | even during the mastering to
come up with a better end result.
| | 04:50 | I highly recommend using a
professional mastering engineer and when I can,
| | 04:54 | I always do.
| | 04:56 | But sometimes you just have to get
the job done by yourself because of time
| | 05:00 | or money concerns.
| | 05:01 | And even if you do choose to use
a professional mastering engineer,
| | 05:05 | understanding some of the components
of the mastering process will help you
| | 05:08 | better prepare your tracks during the mix stage.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with general mastering strategies| 00:00 | From a sonic standpoint, mastering
engineers will use a variety of tools to give
| | 00:05 | a mix that finish commercial sound.
| | 00:07 | But for the most part, the same
tools used in mixing are also used during
| | 00:11 | the mastering stage.
| | 00:13 | The major difference between processing
tracks during mixing and processing the
| | 00:17 | track during the mastering is that
generally you're working with only the
| | 00:22 | finished stereo mix during the mastering stage.
| | 00:25 | Any processing you do is applied to everything.
| | 00:29 | When I'm preparing a track for
mastering Pro Tools, what I generally like to do
| | 00:33 | is take my finished bounce of the
song and bring it into a new session.
| | 00:39 | What this does is it saves on DSP,
it allows me to focus on the task of
| | 00:44 | mastering, and allows me really to
clear my mind and be a little bit
| | 00:48 | more objective.
| | 00:50 | I'll also bring other tracks that I'm
going to master together in the same set
| | 00:55 | of songs into this session, and that
can help me achieve a coherent sound if
| | 01:00 | I'm working on an entire album,
because I can run each one of the tracks
| | 01:05 | through the same processing chain, and
listen to them back to back, so I know
| | 01:09 | that they have a similar tone.
| | 01:11 | In this session, I'll also bring in
already mastered reference material of music
| | 01:17 | that I think is similar to
the genre that I'm working on.
| | 01:21 | In that way I kind of A-B the two and
especially if I'm working in a less than
| | 01:27 | ideal acoustic space I can kind of
reference something that I already know
| | 01:31 | sounds good out in the world,
while I'm working on my master.
| | 01:36 | Generally mastering engineers will
use the same basic tools that we use in
| | 01:40 | mixing, so EQ and compression.
| | 01:44 | However, mastering engineers will
typically use EQs and compressors built
| | 01:49 | specifically for mastering and
this can include phase linear EQs and
| | 01:54 | multi-band compressors.
| | 01:57 | Things that are built to handle
processing in entire complex stereo signal, a
| | 02:03 | little bit more gently than your
typical EQ that you'd use on your snare drum
| | 02:08 | or your kick drum.
| | 02:09 | However you can use the basic EQ and
compression tools inside of Pro Tools
| | 02:14 | to work on masters.
| | 02:15 | Master engineers will generally use
some sort of brickwall limiting tool that
| | 02:21 | allows them to achieve an overall louder
mix without clipping the 0 dBFS maximum
| | 02:27 | of the digital system.
| | 02:29 | And they may also add additional tools
like stereo width processors, some really
| | 02:35 | high-quality reverbs, saturation and
tape processors, and things like that,
| | 02:40 | depending on what the signal needs.
| | 02:43 | What you may notice is that, I've
actually left quite a bit of headroom in this
| | 02:48 | bounce, so it's not pinning
the outputs right at zero.
| | 02:51 | I'm not clipping my outputs before
I even get to my mastering stage.
| | 02:57 | I've left in a bit of room to
go ahead and do my mastering.
| | 03:01 | And whether you're mastering things
yourself or sending it to a mastering
| | 03:05 | engineer, it's a really good idea to
leave some of your dynamics intact, so we
| | 03:10 | have some options at the mastering stage.
| | 03:13 | As far as strategies go, for getting a
good sounding master, I like to go back
| | 03:18 | to what makes a great sounding mix.
| | 03:20 | So deep, punchy, bright, depending on
the genre I'm going to think about what
| | 03:26 | can take this mix sonically to the next level.
| | 03:29 | I also want to understand that
mastering is often about subtle changes.
| | 03:34 | So I want to avoid making very dramatic
EQ cuts and boosts, and I'm going to try
| | 03:39 | to use gentle curves, maybe a half
a dB there or quarter of a dB there.
| | 03:45 | Typically using very, very wide Q
settings, using shelves, because I'm working
| | 03:52 | with the entire stereo signal, so
doing a 5 dB boost with the very narrow Q
| | 03:59 | can cause the mix to kind of take on some
nasty characteristics that I want to avoid.
| | 04:04 | If I ever find that I have problems
like some really nasty room resonance that
| | 04:09 | would force me to do some very
aggressive EQing, I often like to just go back to
| | 04:15 | the mix and fix it in the mix where possible.
| | 04:17 | I think this is something that
people don't do enough these days.
| | 04:20 | They just take whatever their mastering
brand plug-in is and say it's going to
| | 04:24 | solve all my problems.
| | 04:25 | Then they start using really crazy EQs,
tons of boosts, tons of cut, very,
| | 04:32 | very narrow Q settings, and just to
try to solve issues that they could have
| | 04:38 | solved by going back to the mix and
adjusting that EQ on your bass, adjusting
| | 04:43 | that EQ on your vocal.
| | 04:45 | So keep that in mind, we
have DAWs with total recall.
| | 04:49 | I can just open the other session, make
a change, bounce it back out again and
| | 04:54 | come back to my mastering session.
| | 04:56 | Typically compression and mastering
is used to tie up any kind of dynamic
| | 05:01 | abnormalities or help fill out
the mix, adding punch and strength.
| | 05:06 | Sometimes you may have added
compression at the mixing stage.
| | 05:09 | So really these are starting to kind
of blur one into the other, some mixers
| | 05:14 | like to mix with compression on the Mix
Bus, and we'll actually talk about that
| | 05:18 | in a dedicated video.
| | 05:19 | Well other mixing engineers don't
like to use any compression at all on
| | 05:22 | their entire mix, and so the
mastering engineer will use compression to tie
| | 05:27 | up any sort of loose ends.
| | 05:29 | So if anything is flying out of the
mix or if anything is kind of tucking in
| | 05:33 | too low, they're just going to use a
small amount of gain reduction, maybe one
| | 05:37 | to two dB, and here in this mix, we can see
that very small amounts of gain reduction.
| | 05:42 | (music playing)
| | 05:51 | Sometimes even just
a half or a quarter of a dB, just to
| | 05:55 | tie that all together.
| | 05:56 | Remember you should be doing most
of your compression on the individual
| | 06:00 | tracks or sub-mixes.
| | 06:02 | So if you find that you've got a note
that's just wildly sticking out of rest of
| | 06:06 | your mix, solving that at the
mastering stage is generally not a great idea.
| | 06:12 | Most of the time, mastering
engineers are going to use a combination of
| | 06:15 | compression to kind of tie up any lose
ends as well as limiting to bring up the
| | 06:19 | over all track loudness.
| | 06:22 | And we're going to cover that in a bit.
| | 06:25 | But if you're going to have your mix
mastered professionally, you definitely
| | 06:28 | want to leave off this final stage of
limiting because that's going to really
| | 06:33 | limit, no pun intended, what the
mastering engineer can do dynamics-wise.
| | 06:38 | So if you're using something like
Maxim, L2, L3, Massey L2007, any of those
| | 06:45 | Brickwall limiters, and you're
planning on sending your mix to a professional
| | 06:49 | mastering engineer, make sure you
bypass that when you bounce your mix.
| | 06:53 | And if you're feeling like, well the
mastering engineer is not really going to
| | 06:57 | get the balance of my mix if I take that off.
| | 07:00 | Just give him two copies, give him a
copy that has the limiting, so he can
| | 07:04 | reference what you were hearing, and
give him one with a little bit more
| | 07:07 | dynamic headroom.
| | 07:09 | Again, when you going to a mastering
engineer, be sure to retain the highest
| | 07:13 | sample rate and bit depth that you can.
| | 07:16 | Don't truncate down the 16-
bit or a lower sampling rate.
| | 07:21 | The mastering engineer is generally
going to use a higher sampling rate when
| | 07:24 | he's running it through his gear.
| | 07:25 | So I like to send the mastering engineer
whatever sample rate and bit depth that
| | 07:30 | the session was mixed in.
| | 07:32 | Some mastering engineers will ask you
to include the fades or the individual
| | 07:37 | levels of each mix, others won't.
| | 07:40 | Some want to do their dynamics
processing before they add the fades between
| | 07:44 | tracks, others would rather have you
do the fades because they're not exactly
| | 07:49 | sure where going to want them, and to
me I find this is dependent on whether or
| | 07:54 | not you're attending the session.
| | 07:56 | If you're sending it across the country
to get mastered, sometimes it's hard to
| | 08:00 | communicate that information.
| | 08:01 | So just be sure you have a
dialog with your mastering engineer.
| | 08:04 | And when in doubt create alternate mixes.
| | 08:08 | So maybe you create a vocal up and a
vocal down mix, or bass up and a bass down
| | 08:13 | mix, so that when the mastering
engineer hears that in their space, they have
| | 08:18 | some options in terms of what
they're going to take into mastering.
| | 08:22 | At the end of the day, even if you
plan on doing most of your mastering
| | 08:26 | yourself, I highly recommend you pay
for and attend atleast one mastering
| | 08:31 | session with the
professional mastering engineer.
| | 08:33 | Not only will this give you some great
insights on the mastering process, but
| | 08:37 | the engineer will be able to give you
tips about your mixes and your mix space.
| | 08:41 | For example, hey you have a real
problem in your low mids around 150, I'm
| | 08:46 | finding that I'm always cutting that,
maybe check out the acoustics of
| | 08:50 | your space.
| | 08:51 | You don't have to go to the $600 an
hour mastering studios in LA or New York.
| | 08:55 | There are many amazing professionals in
almost every metropolitan area that are
| | 09:00 | extremely reasonable and good
people to know in your community.
| | 09:03 | So check them out.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using limiting and compression to maximize track level| 00:00 | Make it loud, said the client.
| | 00:03 | A major component of the mastering
process is track leveling or achieving the
| | 00:07 | desired perceived loudness in a mix
that compares favorably or is said to be
| | 00:12 | competitive with other mixes in that genre.
| | 00:15 | Well there is much controversy
surrounding the battle for loud. Let's first
| | 00:21 | look at how an engineer might
achieve this and address some of the
| | 00:24 | considerations and concerns
surrounding brickwall limiting.
| | 00:28 | Before we can really understand
brickwall limiting and how it makes a track
| | 00:32 | loud, we need to understand headroom
and the average, or perceived loudness, of a
| | 00:39 | track, or what keeps our signal
from being as loud as we want it to be.
| | 00:44 | First of all, headroom is the amount
of dynamic range between the normal
| | 00:48 | operating level and the
maximum output level, or clip point.
| | 00:53 | In the DAW, this is 0 decibels full
scale as signals are measured from negative
| | 00:59 | numbers up to full code or 0.
| | 01:02 | Now in the analog world, the concept of
headroom is a little bit gray, where you
| | 01:07 | can push your transients up past the
headroom limits of the system and still be
| | 01:13 | okay, whereas in the digital
world it's very black and white.
| | 01:17 | So you can kind of think of the
digital world as having that concrete ceiling.
| | 01:21 | If you're jumping up and down and you run into
that ceiling, it's not going to be good.
| | 01:27 | How this relates to perceived loudness, or
how loud we actually perceive something
| | 01:32 | when we are listening to it, is that our
ears tend to average out the really fast
| | 01:38 | peaks with the rest of the audio.
| | 01:40 | So in terms of a signal's transience,
our perception of the signal is not nearly
| | 01:47 | as loud as the hottest transients in a track.
| | 01:50 | So while in a typical mix, we might have
the drums, the kick and the snare let's
| | 01:57 | say, getting very, very close to 0, we
wouldn't perceive the average level of
| | 02:04 | the audio as being that loud.
| | 02:07 | Generally, the goal of mastering is to
try to match the perceived loudness with
| | 02:12 | another similar track in the genre.
| | 02:15 | And without getting into the politics
of why this is bad, or isn't bad, I just
| | 02:19 | want to show you why we can't just
increase a track's level to increase its
| | 02:24 | perceived loudness, is that there is a
finite limit to the output of my DAW and
| | 02:29 | my converters and at some
point those are going to clip.
| | 02:32 | So if I were to just go ahead and
let's say take this mix, and using my
| | 02:36 | Clip Gain just boost the signal up to
increase the perceived loudness, that
| | 02:42 | would work.
| | 02:43 | However, you can see here that the
transient peaks of the drums are exceeding
| | 02:49 | the 0 dBFS maximum headroom of my
system and we're going to start hearing
| | 02:53 | distortion or clipping.
| | 02:54 | Let's take a listen.
| | 02:55 | (music playing)
Turn off the Limiter there.
| | 03:03 | (music playing)
| | 03:17 | While I'm getting the track louder, the
perceived loudness is going up because
| | 03:23 | I'm bringing up the body of the track.
| | 03:25 | What's happening to those transients
that are taking up a lot of the headroom
| | 03:28 | in the mix, they're actually just getting truncated
completely, just severed at the output.
| | 03:34 | And because these drums eat up so
much of a mix's headroom, I can't simply
| | 03:39 | increase the volume of the track to make
it as loud or as competitive with mixes
| | 03:44 | I hear on the radio.
| | 03:45 | And that's where a brickwall limiter comes in.
| | 03:48 | We'll reset this here.
| | 03:49 | What we're going to use a brickwall
limiter for is to simultaneously increase
| | 03:57 | the level of the track while
gracefully limiting or clipping the transients.
| | 04:03 | So what I want to do here is those
quick whips of the transient are keeping me
| | 04:08 | from raising the track's volume,
raising the average level of the track.
| | 04:13 | And so what a brickwall limiter is
going to do, it's going to squash those in
| | 04:17 | a polite way, as long as I don't
overuse it, and allow me to bring up the
| | 04:22 | overall level of the track.
| | 04:24 | Maxim here is a brickwall limiter that
ships with Pro Tools, and if we just go
| | 04:29 | to the default setting, what we have are the
threshold and the ceiling both set at 0.
| | 04:35 | And how I'm going to use these processors,
they all work fairly the same way, is
| | 04:39 | I'm going to set my ceiling to
something just under 0 and that's going to
| | 04:43 | prevent clipping or exceeding 0 dBFS,
and I'm going to bring my threshold down.
| | 04:51 | By bringing the threshold down,
most of these have auto-makeup gain.
| | 04:55 | So bringing the threshold down into
the transient material is also going to
| | 04:59 | raise the overall signal up.
| | 05:02 | So let's take a listen.
| | 05:03 | (music playing)
| | 05:10 | And I can see I'm getting some
attenuation here, some gain reduction.
| | 05:14 | (music playing)
Before.
| | 05:21 | (music playing)
After.
| | 05:24 | Now if I go too far--
(music playing)
| | 05:30 | I'm going to get distortion because
the low frequency waveforms are being
| | 05:34 | traced by the compressor reacting and
letting go of the signal and creating all
| | 05:39 | kinds of nasty low frequency distortion.
| | 05:41 | So I want to be careful that I don't
pull the threshold down too much and
| | 05:46 | introduce a ton of distortion, so
there's a fine balance between a loud mix and
| | 05:51 | a mix that stays punchy without distortion.
| | 05:55 | The way you can figure out how much
brickwall limiting a track can take is to
| | 05:59 | monitor the effects of that
limiting with no net gain change.
| | 06:03 | And let me show you a little secret.
| | 06:05 | If I go ahead and link these two
parameters together by clicking that button and
| | 06:10 | I pull the two down together, what
I'm hearing are just the effects of the
| | 06:15 | limiting and not any of
the additional makeup gain.
| | 06:18 | And so this allows me to decide at
what point am I squashing too much of my
| | 06:22 | transients to get more
average level out of the track.
| | 06:26 | And in using brickwall limiting, it's
always about a balance between how much
| | 06:31 | snap or transient we preserve in a
song versus where the average level is
| | 06:36 | going to sit at.
| | 06:37 | So if I pull this down--
| | 06:38 | (music playing)
| | 06:45 | So I'm going to bypass this
and listen to the snare.
| | 06:48 | (music playing)
| | 06:52 | All that snap and power came back.
| | 06:55 | (music playing)
| | 06:58 | Now it's gone.
(music playing)
| | 07:07 | So it's really interesting to
evaluate the effects of the limiter under
| | 07:13 | these fair conditions.
| | 07:14 | A lot of times what people just do is
they leave their output ceiling all the
| | 07:17 | way up and they drag this down
and they play their mix back.
| | 07:22 | (music playing)
| | 07:25 | And go, oh wow!
| | 07:26 | That's so much louder.
| | 07:27 | It must be better.
| | 07:30 | The reality is that people have a
volume knob and if you're taking away all of
| | 07:34 | the dynamics out of the music, all of
the power out of those transient rich
| | 07:38 | drums, you're not going to have
a very interesting mix left over.
| | 07:42 | You're just going to kind of have a
loud mix on average, but people do have
| | 07:46 | a volume control.
| | 07:47 | So a lot of times, I'm finding people
are making their mixes so loud that they
| | 07:51 | actually become weak, because
nothing is pushing those speakers.
| | 07:55 | The kick drum is not pushing the speaker much
more than anything else in the mix.
| | 07:59 | So there is no power or punch left in it.
| | 08:02 | Again, I like to evaluate it with no
net gain change by first linking them,
| | 08:06 | pulling it down to a point
I think is going to work.
| | 08:08 | (music playing)
| | 08:13 | You know what, I'm not
sacrificing too much there.
| | 08:17 | (music playing)
Now unlink and return this back--
| | 08:21 | (music playing)
just under 0.
| | 08:26 | (music playing)
| | 08:29 | Now if you find that you're digging
your threshold down even deeper into the
| | 08:33 | average level of the music and the
limiter starts to distort, try changing
| | 08:38 | your release setting.
| | 08:39 | What's happening there is that the
low frequencies of the kick drum and the
| | 08:43 | bass guitar are actually being traced
by the reaction to the threshold of the
| | 08:49 | limiter and that's creating this distortion,
the compressor sort of chattering extremely fast,
| | 08:55 | and by setting the release control to a
slower value, you can kind of alleviate this.
| | 08:59 | Check it out.
| | 09:00 | (music playing)
| | 09:05 | Now I'm just getting pumping which
doesn't sound very good, but at least
| | 09:09 | it's not distortion.
| | 09:11 | (music playing)
| | 09:19 | The reason these plug-ins are built
specifically for brickwall limiting is that
| | 09:24 | they actually feature look-ahead technology.
| | 09:26 | That is, they look ahead of the signal
to determine if something is going to
| | 09:30 | breach that threshold point
so they can react very quickly.
| | 09:34 | You can't just use any kind of
compressor or limiter for this because a lot of
| | 09:38 | times, the compressor just can't react
fast enough to make sure that no signal
| | 09:44 | goes over your maximum output value.
| | 09:46 | Now you can see that Maxim has a mix
control, and this is actually really cool
| | 09:50 | if you want to do parallel processing with Maxim;
| | 09:53 | create another track, do more limiting
on one track, kind of blend the two to taste.
| | 09:58 | You could also do that with the mix knob,
so I could do a lot of limiting here,
| | 10:03 | slow my release down.
| | 10:04 | (music playing)
| | 10:09 | And try blending to taste.
| | 10:13 | At that point, I do want to be careful
about clipping, so I might need to use an
| | 10:16 | additional brickwall limiter to
protect the overall output from going over 0.
| | 10:22 | At the end of the day, this whole
argument over absolute loudness versus leaving
| | 10:28 | dynamics in your mix is really a hot
topic in the engineering community.
| | 10:33 | Use your best judgments, use reference
tracks and understand that people do have
| | 10:38 | volume controls and that actually
mastering engineers are starting to stand up
| | 10:43 | for themselves and say, hey look, when
stuff is getting put on YouTube and into
| | 10:47 | the iTunes Store, the louder
mixes actually don't sound as good.
| | 10:51 | And when you're using things in iTunes
that actually match the level of your
| | 10:56 | tracks, you're not even getting the
benefit of the track being louder.
| | 11:01 | A lot of times people say, well, I want
louder so that it plays back louder than
| | 11:05 | the previous track that that person heard.
| | 11:08 | On the radio, the multi-band
compressors are just going to squash everything.
| | 11:11 | I don't know about you, but generally
even an old Beatles track sounds the same
| | 11:16 | level as a modern pop tune
when played back on the radio.
| | 11:20 | And in iTunes, there is a function
that automatically matches the levels
| | 11:24 | of tracks so that one track doesn't blow out your
headphones when you're using shuffle.
| | 11:29 | Think about this when you're
trying to achieve that loud master.
| | 11:35 | And at the end of the day I'm not
going to tell you not to make your
| | 11:38 | track extremely loud.
| | 11:39 | I think the rest of the recording community has
done an excellent job as wrist slappers,
| | 11:44 | and so if that's what you like, then go for it.
| | 11:46 | I just want you to understand the rationale and
repercussions behind loud masters.
| | 11:51 | A well-mastered track can be
competitive and still retain punch and dynamics at
| | 11:55 | all playback levels.
| | 11:57 | When mastering things myself, I tend to
err on the side of caution and leave it
| | 12:02 | to the professionals when I really
need to super-squash or super-loud tracks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with multiband compression| 00:00 | Remember how I said a De-Esser was a
frequency-specific compressor, working only
| | 00:05 | on the sibilant sounds within a track or mix?
| | 00:08 | Well a multiband compressor follows
the same idea, but works across the
| | 00:12 | entire frequency range.
| | 00:14 | By splitting up the compression into
multiple parts or bands, an engineer can
| | 00:18 | focus dynamic control within a
specified frequency range, leaving other
| | 00:23 | frequencies untouched or
being compressed separately.
| | 00:26 | An example in mastering where I would
use a multiband compressor would be, let's
| | 00:32 | say, the finished mix had a bit too much
dynamics in the low-end, but the rest of
| | 00:38 | the mix sounded fine, so that is to say,
maybe not enough compression was added
| | 00:43 | to the bass guitar or the kick drum,
that note for note, the level of the
| | 00:48 | low-end is kind of floating around.
| | 00:51 | Now typically, we'd want to address
this at the mix stage by adding more
| | 00:55 | compression to the bass instrument,
| | 00:57 | but if we've gotten to mastering and
we have no other choice, we can take and
| | 01:01 | use a multiband compressor and
simply focus on the low frequencies of the
| | 01:07 | multiband to tighten up the bass a bit.
| | 01:10 | Radio stations use multiband
compressors to optimize the signal for a
| | 01:14 | terrestrial broadcast; so to basically fit
as much information possible on that FM stream.
| | 01:22 | Pro Tools does not ship with any
multiband compressors or limiters, so here I'm
| | 01:27 | using the Waves C4 as an example.
| | 01:31 | And if we just play back the session,
watch how the compressor reacts to the
| | 01:37 | different frequency material; the kick
drum and the snare drum of the song, as I
| | 01:41 | pull down the threshold.
| | 01:42 | (music playing)
| | 01:48 | So you can see kick, snare,
kick, snare, kick kick snare.
| | 01:52 | (music playing)
And the hi-hat up here.
| | 01:59 | So for example, if I felt that the low
-end wasn't tight enough on this mix,
| | 02:04 | what I could do is actually bypass these
other bands and not use them at all, and
| | 02:11 | I have a unique band for the low
frequencies with its own threshold control, its
| | 02:17 | own makeup gain, its own range control;
to control how much total compression is
| | 02:22 | going to be allowed, and
its own attack and release.
| | 02:25 | So I could actually go in, and
tighten up just the low frequencies.
| | 02:29 | (music playing)
| | 02:33 | Add a little makeup gain.
| | 02:34 | (music playing)
| | 02:40 | Now that's not touching any of
the other frequencies of the mix.
| | 02:45 | So the snare, the cymbals, the hi-hat,
the vocal is not getting compressed.
| | 02:49 | (music playing)
| | 02:54 | I am typically not using multiband
compression on entire mixes most of the time
| | 03:00 | because I find that they can flatten
out the sound of the mix fairly quickly.
| | 03:05 | So if you're not careful, if you just
say load up a stock preset and you just
| | 03:11 | drag your threshold down, it
can really flatten the mix out.
| | 03:14 | (music playing)
| | 03:22 | Let's move to the chorus section.
| | 03:24 | (music playing)
| | 03:29 | So this kind of steals all the dynamics.
| | 03:31 | (music playing)
| | 03:34 | Yes, it's a little bit louder, but it's
kind of starting to sound like FM radio,
| | 03:38 | and I think FM radio sounds bad
because it's of limited bandwidth.
| | 03:42 | So unless you want your mix to
always sound like it's playing through FM
| | 03:46 | radio, you want to be careful when
you're using multiband compressors across
| | 03:50 | the whole mix.
| | 03:51 | I'll actually use them on
individual tracks quite a bit.
| | 03:54 | Let's say I have an acoustic guitar
that has quite a bit of low-frequency
| | 03:59 | resonance on certain notes, and I
want to tame those without having to
| | 04:03 | over-compress the entire thing,
without having to over-compress the top-end.
| | 04:07 | I might focus just one of the bands,
let's say the mid-band around where those
| | 04:13 | particularly resonant notes were, and
start compressing only in that specific
| | 04:20 | range of resonance leaving the higher
end of the guitar strings, nice brightness
| | 04:26 | on the top-end untouched.
| | 04:29 | At the end of the day, a multiband
compressor is just a lot of single band
| | 04:34 | compressors tied together, each focused on a
specific energy band of your mix or your track.
| | 04:40 | And ultimately, it's just another tool.
| | 04:43 | It's not an automatic solution
for mixing or mastering dynamics.
| | 04:47 | I feel that a lot of these all-in-one
mastering packages feature multiband
| | 04:52 | dynamics processors, and mixers,
especially more beginning mixers, tend to strap
| | 04:58 | these across our whole mix.
| | 04:59 | And I can hear them from a mile away,
when I hear those mixes, I hear a mix
| | 05:03 | that's just had all the life sucked out
of it from the top-end through the mids,
| | 05:08 | into the low-end, and yes, it sounds
kind of smooth and tamed out, but that's
| | 05:14 | not always a good thing.
| | 05:15 | So, do be careful when you're using them.
| | 05:17 | And if you ask many mastering
engineers, they will tell you that they only
| | 05:21 | pull them out to treat specific
problems that came from the mix stage and
| | 05:26 | they're typically using more single-
band compressors during mastering with not
| | 05:32 | as heavy of a hand.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bouncing the mix| 00:00 | I'm sure by this point, you've
bounced a mix out of Pro Tools using the
| | 00:04 | File > Bounce to > Disk command.
| | 00:07 | But I want to share with you another
way for printing or bouncing your mixes
| | 00:11 | internally inside the Pro Tools Mix Bus.
| | 00:14 | How we are going to set this up, is
after taking my entire mix and sub mixing it
| | 00:21 | into an aux track; here I have got
everything going to the Mix Bus bus, not the
| | 00:28 | outputs 1 and 2, and I am gathering
all of that on the aux track called Mix
| | 00:34 | Sub, so you can see this is
listening to the Mix Bus bus.
| | 00:39 | So if I play the mix back--
| | 00:40 | (music playing)
I have got everything coming into this aux track.
| | 00:46 | (music playing)
| | 00:49 | Now here, I actually have my Master
Fader pointing to the Mix Bus bus, as
| | 00:55 | opposed to my master outputs.
| | 00:57 | And this is going to make sense, once I create
my audio track for recording this mix,
| | 01:02 | because I want to make sure all my
mastering plug-ins, all of my master fader
| | 01:07 | inserts make it into my bounce.
| | 01:10 | So what I am going to do at this
point is create a new stereo audio track.
| | 01:17 | That's going to pop right next to Mix Sub there.
| | 01:21 | And here, I am just going to set
it to listen to that same Mix Bus.
| | 01:26 | I am going to mute my aux track
here and record enable this track here.
| | 01:32 | Now the reason I'm muting my aux
track is because otherwise I would hear it
| | 01:36 | twice, I would hear it here on this aux track,
as well as when I was recording that.
| | 01:40 | So you could choose to mute the track
you are recording to, however I like to
| | 01:44 | monitor when I am recording to that
track to make sure nothing weird is
| | 01:49 | getting laid down to disk.
| | 01:50 | So I am going to rename this TMD Bounce.
| | 01:55 | We will move over to the Edit window so
we can actually see what's going on here,
| | 02:00 | and now what I can do is I will just
bring up my Transport, hit record and play.
| | 02:06 | (music playing)
| | 02:12 | And what's happening is I am
actually recording the output of all these
| | 02:15 | other tracks into this new stereo track,
including all the plug-ins from the
| | 02:20 | Master Fader.
| | 02:24 | A lot of times where people make a
mistake is that they will have their Master
| | 02:28 | Fader set to their final analog
outputs to their converters.
| | 02:34 | And that's fine, that will protect
your final output from clipping, but the
| | 02:38 | problem with that is if I do this
internal bounce to disk here, internal bounce
| | 02:43 | to track as I like to call it, none
of these plug-ins or any of the changes
| | 02:49 | I've made on the Master Fader will make it
into that file, because they're happening afterwards.
| | 02:55 | They're taking place on the
main output not on the mix itself.
| | 02:59 | So we can see that quickly here.
| | 03:02 | (music playing)
| | 03:07 | Just by doing a test print, and this is
actually not including any of those plug-ins.
| | 03:13 | So I want to make sure that my
Master Fader in this workflow is actually
| | 03:17 | pointing to the Bus I'm printing from,
so that all these plug-ins and any of the
| | 03:22 | changes that I have made on the
master fader, I even have a little bit of
| | 03:26 | automation on my master fader,
are getting put into that bounce.
| | 03:30 | Now the cool thing about Bouncing to
Track versus Bouncing to Disk is that, I
| | 03:37 | can do this incrementally.
| | 03:38 | I can start and stop, I can make
changes and re-bounce smaller sections.
| | 03:43 | When you use Bounce to Disk, you
have to make a selection and then it
| | 03:47 | freezes out the mixer.
| | 03:48 | You can't make any
changes while that's happening.
| | 03:51 | Whereas using Bounce to Track, like I've
done here, I can make a change to my mix
| | 03:56 | if I hear something mess up or a plug-
in misfires, I can just rollback a little
| | 04:00 | bit and continue recording.
| | 04:02 | (music playing)
| | 04:15 | If I have made some updates to my bounce,
what I am going to have are multiple
| | 04:19 | clips on this track.
| | 04:22 | And I'm going to need to get
all of these into one stereo file.
| | 04:25 | Now at this point sometimes people
will do a Bounce to Disk of this track,
| | 04:31 | however, what I would like to do is I
like to select the regions on my bounced
| | 04:37 | track and consolidate them into a new file.
| | 04:40 | So what I can do is go Edit > Consolidate Clip,
and now I have a new clip over here in the list.
| | 04:48 | And that represents that stereo bounce.
| | 04:52 | There is one more problem
that we have to deal with.
| | 04:55 | This is a split left/right stereo file.
| | 04:59 | So that's represented by two files in
my audio files folder on my hard drive.
| | 05:06 | Now I'm not going to be able to pull
that into iTunes or into any standard
| | 05:11 | audio player because it's just going to play
the left side or just play the right side.
| | 05:15 | What I want at this point is I
want to get out an interleaved file.
| | 05:19 | A stereo file has the left
and right in the same file.
| | 05:23 | Now I can do this from the Clips list.
| | 05:26 | After consolidating that I can choose from the
Clips menu, Export Clips as Files.
| | 05:33 | Now from this menu I can actually
choose the format of Interleaved here, and I
| | 05:38 | can choose a folder, so I could put it
in my Audio Files folder or I could put
| | 05:44 | it in a bounce folder if I want to.
| | 05:47 | And I like to create a little folder
called bounces in my session folder, where
| | 05:51 | I put all the revisions of my mixes so
that they're just all in one nice place.
| | 05:56 | I don't have to go dig in my Audio
Files folder for them, they are not
| | 05:59 | mixing with the individual tracks of
the session, and then I know where to
| | 06:04 | go when I want to convert them to
MP3s or pull them into iTunes or upload
| | 06:08 | them to the Internet.
| | 06:09 | And so from there I can actually
export in any bit depth or sample rate here.
| | 06:17 | So if I needed to do a Bit Depth
truncation or a Sample Rate change, I could do
| | 06:22 | that here all from the Clips list.
| | 06:26 | So in the past there's been some controversy
amongst Pro Tools users about
| | 06:32 | whether the Bounce to Disk engine
sounds worse than Bouncing to Track like
| | 06:36 | I've done here, and I personally am not going
to get into that argument in this course.
| | 06:42 | All I can say is that, I really like
the flexibility of Bouncing to Track aside
| | 06:47 | from any sonic differences, just
because I like to go fix a section of my mix
| | 06:52 | and then reprint just that section.
| | 06:54 | Pro Tools still does not support
offline bouncing or faster than real time
| | 06:59 | bouncing, so you have to listen to the
whole session when you want to record
| | 07:03 | that track out to a stereo file.
| | 07:05 | So this just saves me a little bit
of time when I am doing revisions.
| | 07:09 | The other cool thing is, if I open this
session 6 months or a year later, maybe
| | 07:13 | I don't have the same plug-ins or I am
not on the same system, I still have an
| | 07:17 | archive of my finished mix right in the session.
| | 07:20 | So I can actually reference a mix that
I have already done against updates on
| | 07:26 | that mix that I am working on.
| | 07:27 | I can actually mute this track and
listen to the live stream on that aux track
| | 07:32 | there and I could compare the two.
| | 07:34 | I could say, am I making the
revisions I need to make, or am I actually
| | 07:38 | making it worse?
| | 07:40 | So I think ultimately, outside of any
sonic considerations you might hear about
| | 07:45 | regarding Bounce to Disk or Bounce to
Track, I think you'll find that it's just
| | 07:49 | a really flexible way for bouncing
your sessions to a stereo track, and if
| | 07:55 | you're working on projects that are
let's say 10 minutes, 20 minutes or even an
| | 07:59 | hour long, you are going to find this
is definitely the way you want to work.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding sample rate, bit depth, file formats, and dither| 00:00 | Part of the mastering process is
eventually obtaining a stereo mix of your track
| | 00:05 | in a format that is supported
by mainstream playback systems.
| | 00:10 | Whether that be a CD player, MP3, or
other digital format, it's important to
| | 00:15 | understand how digital audio is stored
and ultimately the effects this has on
| | 00:20 | audio quality at the end of the day.
| | 00:22 | In its uncompressed form and in
inside of Pro Tools, digital audio usually
| | 00:27 | exists as a finite series of discrete
samples or frames where each sample is
| | 00:32 | measured with a finite number of bits,
1s and 0s, from the continuous analog
| | 00:38 | waveform that's fed into the converter.
| | 00:41 | This sampling process is known as
Linear Pulse-Code Modulation and the data is
| | 00:46 | most commonly stored in
the WAV or AIFF file formats.
| | 00:50 | For example, audio recorded at 44,100
cycles per second at 24 bits is measured
| | 00:59 | 44,100 times in a second with each sample
represented by 24 bits of data, 24 1s or 0s.
| | 01:10 | The sample rate determines the
maximum frequency oscillation that can be
| | 01:15 | recognized by the system, while the bit
depth determines the quality or dynamic
| | 01:20 | range that can be stored in each sample.
| | 01:24 | Generally, when we record in Pro Tools,
we record at higher sample rate and bit
| | 01:28 | depth to achieve maximum audio fidelity.
| | 01:31 | But because your average consumer
playback system cannot read these formats, you
| | 01:36 | must truncate and or downsample our audio,
throwing away some of the precision to
| | 01:41 | comply with standards.
| | 01:43 | For example, a CD is 16
bits with a 441K sampling rate.
| | 01:47 | A lot of people will ask, well, if it's
going to 16 bits anyways, why should we
| | 01:52 | record at a higher precision
if we are throwing all that away?
| | 01:56 | Well despite truncation at the end of
the day, it's still ideal to record at
| | 02:01 | a higher sample rate and bit depth
because you're maintaining precision until
| | 02:06 | the very last stage.
| | 02:08 | So all the calculations, all the math
you're doing and all the plug-ins and
| | 02:12 | the summing process are done at a
very high precision and then truncated at
| | 02:17 | the end of the day.
| | 02:18 | It's kind of like instead of every
transaction you're rounding to the
| | 02:22 | nearest dollar, you're doing each
transaction with a very high precision
| | 02:27 | down to the tenth of a cent.
| | 02:30 | And at the end of the day, you see what you
have added up and then you do the rounding.
| | 02:34 | That's going to be a lot more
accurate than rounding at each stage.
| | 02:38 | During the mastering process when we
move from a higher bit depth to a lower
| | 02:43 | one, like 24 bits to 16 bits, an
engineer will likely use dither to help
| | 02:49 | alleviate some of the quantization
error that occurs when moving from a
| | 02:54 | higher to lower bit depth.
| | 02:56 | What dither is, is just low-level
random noise, very similar to white noise,
| | 03:01 | that's added at the truncation point
or the least significant bit, so right
| | 03:06 | around the 16th bit in 16 bit audio.
| | 03:10 | And what this dither does is it
decorrelates that truncation point from the
| | 03:15 | actual audio signal.
| | 03:17 | So when the waveform is coming in and out
of that 16th bit, instead of
| | 03:23 | correlating that on and off of that last
1 and 0 with the actual audio waveform,
| | 03:30 | the noise randomizes this, effectively
decorrelating and removing any of the
| | 03:35 | quantization distortion associated
with lopping off that lower eight bits.
| | 03:41 | Regarding rules for using dither in Pro
Tools, first of all, I want to say that
| | 03:47 | you don't always have to use dither and
the results will be extremely subtle if
| | 03:52 | you can hear them at all.
| | 03:54 | That tends to be because many times
we're using a plug-in or some audio in our
| | 04:00 | session is already naturally dithering or
adding a noise floor around that 16th bit.
| | 04:07 | So if you think about any air or bleed,
room tone, some saturation plug-ins
| | 04:14 | kind of have a noise floor as to
analog simulated plug-ins, all this noise
| | 04:19 | adding up in our noise floor,
| | 04:21 | sometimes we can actually even hear it,
is going to naturally decorrelate that
| | 04:27 | last bit with the actual
program material itself.
| | 04:30 | If you can't hear dither when
you add it, don't worry about it.
| | 04:35 | It's a very, very subtle thing.
| | 04:37 | Mastering engineers will go around in circles
talking about the different flavors.
| | 04:41 | But ultimately, sometimes just a
hard truncation without dither will
| | 04:46 | actually sound just as good.
| | 04:47 | But if you do want to take advantage
of dither in Pro Tools, some brickwall
| | 04:51 | limiters feature a built-in dither.
| | 04:54 | For example, Maxim features a
built-in dither that I can turn on.
| | 04:58 | And a lot of times dither will have a
feature called Noise Shaping, and what
| | 05:01 | this does is it shifts some of the
noise to the higher band instead of the mid
| | 05:06 | band where our ears are more sensitive.
| | 05:09 | In effect, it's kind of EQing the
dither, so adding more dither in higher
| | 05:14 | frequencies where we can't hear it and
removing some of that white noise from
| | 05:18 | the mid band frequencies that we can hear.
| | 05:21 | But again, because it's so low into
the noise floor of the audio, sitting
| | 05:26 | right around -96 dB full-scale, that
with a really loud master something
| | 05:33 | that's let's say peaking near 0 but
averaging around -10 or -8, that's just so
| | 05:39 | far above the noise floor.
| | 05:42 | It's really just going to mask in that dither.
| | 05:45 | Here with my Bit Resolution I'm
always truncating to 16 these days.
| | 05:50 | There were formats in the past like
DAT that would use 20 bits and 18 bits.
| | 05:56 | Maxim has been around for a while,
so it supports those formats, but now
| | 06:01 | typically 16 bits are going to CD.
That's a standard.
| | 06:04 | 16 bits is what we're going
to truncate and dither too.
| | 06:09 | Now if I'm going to use another dither
plug-in like POWr Dither, I will turn
| | 06:14 | that off there and I will go in and
add under the Dither column the POWr
| | 06:22 | Dither plug-in.
| | 06:23 | POWr stands Precision
Optimized Wordlength Reduction.
| | 06:28 | And here I can set the target word
length, 16 bits, and if I want to use any
| | 06:33 | Noise Shaping here, typically, if
you're unsure, just go ahead and use the
| | 06:38 | Type 1 there.
| | 06:39 | That's going to be a pretty flat dither.
| | 06:42 | Generally, you hear mastering
engineers talking about not re-dithering or
| | 06:45 | dithering your signal multiple times.
| | 06:48 | Again, when in doubt, just leave the dither off.
| | 06:50 | I guarantee you you're probably not
going to hear the difference and depending
| | 06:54 | on what you've got going on in your
mix, it may be just dithering itself
| | 06:58 | naturally with the noise
floor that you have going on.
| | 07:02 | But different shapes can
have different subtleties.
| | 07:05 | For example, if I use too aggressive
of a noise shaping curve, and I've got
| | 07:10 | some high frequency synthesizers in
the mix that have a lot of top end,
| | 07:15 | sometimes I feel that adding that
really aggressively shaped dither can push
| | 07:20 | it just over the edge.
| | 07:21 | So it gets a little bit shrill.
| | 07:23 | Again, this is very, very subtle
and you can really only hear that on a
| | 07:27 | very hi-fi system.
| | 07:29 | Regardless of whichever dither plug-in
you happened to be using, you always want
| | 07:34 | to make sure that it's the
last plug-in in the chain.
| | 07:37 | That is to say that you're not making
any gain changes to the signal, adding or
| | 07:42 | subtracting level to the
signal after your dither plug-in.
| | 07:46 | So I wouldn't want to put the dither
here because what's going to happen is
| | 07:49 | all these other plug-ins are going to
add gain, shifting that dither signal,
| | 07:55 | which needs to sit right at that 16th bit truncation
point to be effective up into louder bits.
| | 08:03 | So you can actually see the noise
here and if I pull that Maxim down, we'd
| | 08:07 | actually be able to hear that dither
if we turn our speakers up really loud.
| | 08:12 | So make sure that the dither is
happening at the last point in the chain right
| | 08:17 | before you're going to truncate.
| | 08:18 | So don't add any gain to your signal in
Pro Tools on your inserts after the dither.
| | 08:25 | At the end of the day, even the
differences between 24-bit and 16-bit, or let's
| | 08:29 | say, 48K sample rate and 441K sample
rates are extremely subtle and even
| | 08:37 | inaudible in certain circumstances, but
it is important to understand the role
| | 08:42 | they play in the mixing and mastering process.
| | 08:46 | And your goal should be to always retain
every detail from your hard work during
| | 08:50 | the mixing stage before truncating down
to the 16-bit format when the listener
| | 08:57 | is going to listen to that on CD.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Metering with the DigiRack Phase Scope| 00:00 | The Phase Scope plug-in is the built-in
metering plug-in inside of Pro Tools and
| | 00:05 | it's great to use during
both mixing and mastering tasks.
| | 00:10 | I wanted to take a few minutes to
show you how to read the meters inside
| | 00:13 | the Phase Scope, and you can find the Phase Scope
under Multichannel > Sound Field > PhaseScope.
| | 00:20 | You won't be able to use it on mono
tracks, it's only going to work as a
| | 00:24 | multi-channel plug-in, but we're
typically inserting that on our Mix Bus so we
| | 00:29 | can get an idea of how loud our peak to
average ratios on our mix is, as well as
| | 00:36 | whether or not our left and
right-hand sides are phase coherent.
| | 00:39 | So the first thing we see here are
some level meters on the left-hand side and
| | 00:45 | right now it's set for Peak metering,
so it's going to be measuring the peak
| | 00:49 | transients of our signal.
| | 00:51 | (music playing)
| | 00:54 | And you can see those meters move
fairly quickly, because the peaks are coming
| | 00:58 | and going fairly quickly.
| | 01:00 | If I want to slow that down I'll switch
that to RMS, a Root Mean Square, and this
| | 01:05 | is going to give me more of an average
level representation of my signal, so
| | 01:10 | more of how the human ear is
hearing it in terms of loudness.
| | 01:14 | (music playing)
| | 01:21 | Peak.
(music playing)
| | 01:24 | You can see how the Peak
metering is much higher then the RMS.
| | 01:29 | (music playing)
| | 01:30 | And this can just be set as a visual guide,
so it's going to turn orange as it goes over.
| | 01:37 | And if you're working in any kind of
post production environment where you
| | 01:40 | absolutely have to make sure that your
dialog, or your program material isn't
| | 01:46 | going over a specific RMS level, let's
say -20 is fairly typical, or maybe -10,
| | 01:54 | you can set this meter here, and
this isn't a limit or anything.
| | 01:57 | It's not holding the signal back in
any way, it's just changing the visual
| | 02:01 | preference of when it's going
to turn from green to orange.
| | 02:04 | (music playing)
| | 02:12 | You have some other metering types here,
I mostly stick to Peak and RMS, but
| | 02:16 | depending on what industry you're
working in and how you do your metering, there
| | 02:21 | are some useful metering types in here.
| | 02:24 | On the right-hand side is a Lissajous
Meter. What this is showing me is my Phase
| | 02:29 | Correlation in relation to the left
and right-hand sides versus amplitude and
| | 02:36 | how you can read this is the in-
phase zones are top and bottom while the
| | 02:42 | anti-phase zones are a left and right.
| | 02:45 | So, as we see this graph--
| | 02:47 | (music playing)
| | 02:50 | spread out here--
| | 02:52 | (music playing)
| | 02:57 | It's going to look kind of messy
and unless you're checking the pattern
| | 03:01 | performance of a microphone, you
are not going to get too much useful
| | 03:05 | information out of it other than the in-
phase zones were typically looking for a
| | 03:09 | mix to sit mostly in the top and bottom
triangles, when it moves to the left and
| | 03:13 | right triangles that's letting us know
that our left and right-hand sides may
| | 03:18 | be negatively correlated. I mostly
stick to the basic phase meter below and
| | 03:22 | this is really easy to read.
| | 03:25 | Values from 0 to +1 mean that your
left and right-hand sides are either not
| | 03:31 | correlated, so completely different
from each other, or positively correlated,
| | 03:35 | that is to say, that the left side is
pushing while the right side is pushing and
| | 03:41 | right side is pulling while the
left side is pulling and vice versa.
| | 03:45 | When you dip below zero into the
negative numbers that's saying there is
| | 03:49 | correlation that your left and right
-hand sides have the same material,
| | 03:53 | however they are out of phase with
each other, so one is pushing while the
| | 03:56 | other one is pulling.
| | 03:58 | What they can do is when the mix gets sum
to mono, it can cause things to disappear.
| | 04:03 | So typically when we're doing a mix,
we want to make sure that we have mono
| | 04:07 | compatibility in that mix.
| | 04:08 | I want to shoot for values over zero
here and a little trick you can do is if
| | 04:15 | you take, let's say the multi-mono EQ
plug-in here, and I'll unlink the left and
| | 04:24 | the right-hand side.
| | 04:25 | So I'll actually just flip the phase on just
the left side and check out our Phase Scope.
| | 04:29 | (music playing)
| | 04:33 | We can see it's getting way
into the negative numbers.
| | 04:36 | So the left and right are correlated,
however, they are negatively correlated.
| | 04:43 | So, one is pushing while the
other one is pulling or vice versa.
| | 04:46 | I can flip that there, and in reality
this mix is going to have really great
| | 04:55 | mono compatibility. I'm keeping that
way above zero there.
| | 05:00 | The coolest thing about the Phase Scope
has nothing to do with phase at all, and
| | 05:05 | it's this it's little LEQ(A) Meter here,
and that's an average level meter, it's
| | 05:10 | kind of similar to Adobe Download Meter.
| | 05:13 | And what this does is allows us to set
a window and it's going to measure the
| | 05:19 | average level of the audio over time,
and this is really great to get a sense of
| | 05:24 | the perceived loudness of a recording.
| | 05:27 | So if you take a master that you feel
is really loud or maybe it's just right
| | 05:33 | where you want to be, you can actually
set this up to measure over two or even
| | 05:37 | 10 seconds here, or even the whole
program, infinite, and you can get a sense of
| | 05:43 | what is the average loudness of this recording.
| | 05:45 | So I'm going to go take this to my last chorus.
| | 05:48 | (music playing)
| | 06:02 | So here I'm averaging around -13
and what that tells me is if I want to
| | 06:06 | really be aggressive with my limiter I
could probably get away with a little
| | 06:10 | bit more threshold.
| | 06:13 | You will have modern pop songs on the
radio averaging around -9, -8, just really
| | 06:20 | it just depends on how aggressive the
master is, but what this meter can do is
| | 06:25 | if you're mixing track for track
and you want to make sure they have a
| | 06:28 | consistent level, you can actually use
this average level meter to determine if
| | 06:34 | you're hitting the mark.
| | 06:36 | The idea is that peak metering--that
lets you know if your mix is clipping,
| | 06:41 | but it's going to be the average
level metering that's going to relate more
| | 06:45 | to the perceived loudness.
| | 06:47 | So how do we perceive the loudness
between two different tracks played
| | 06:51 | back-to-back? Is one louder than the
other? Do they sound about the same?
| | 06:55 | This metering can help us hit that mark.
| | 06:58 | Now we can reset it, we can also do
an Auto Reset, so every time I stop it
| | 07:03 | resets that counter that's averaging
over time, and I can tell it to Hold On Stop
| | 07:08 | just in case I want to freeze it there.
| | 07:13 | I can match that to some other audio.
| | 07:17 | There are fancier meters out there
that you can get into some companies like
| | 07:22 | Waves, the Dorrough Meters and things like that.
| | 07:24 | However, I find that I use the
Phase Scope all the time, both for the correlation
| | 07:31 | meter here as well as the average level meter.
| | 07:34 | I use this all the time when I'm
trying to get consistent levels between
| | 07:38 | projects and check to see how that compares to
some other mixes in the same genre.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Compressing audio for the web| 00:00 | Distributing audio over the Internet in
a compressed format seems more like the
| | 00:05 | rule these days rather than the exception.
| | 00:07 | In fact, depending on your genre, 90% of
your listeners may be listening to your
| | 00:12 | mix in a compressed and or streamed format.
| | 00:16 | While we can lament over the fall of
vinyl and even uncompressed CD audio, the
| | 00:21 | fact is that lossy compression codecs
like MP3, AAC, and Windows Media Audio are
| | 00:27 | more popular than ever and something
you can't ignore if you want your mix to
| | 00:32 | translate well into the outside world.
| | 00:36 | One thing you want to do when you're
working towards a master that you know is
| | 00:40 | going to be compressed for the web is
start by selecting the proper encoder.
| | 00:46 | Most of the formats are going to be
lossy, that is to say that you're actually
| | 00:50 | losing data in the compression process,
unlike let's say, a zip file where you
| | 00:56 | are zipping some data up and then
extracting the back out into the exact same 1s
| | 01:03 | and 0s as you had before compressing it.
| | 01:06 | When you use MP3 or AAC in non-lossless formats,
you're actually losing the information forever.
| | 01:15 | So even if you went back to a CD,
let's say, you downloaded some of your
| | 01:19 | favorite MP3s and then you've converted
them to WAV files to burn to a CD, it's
| | 01:26 | not the same as burning those
original WAV files to the CD.
| | 01:30 | You actually lost some information that
you can never get back.
| | 01:34 | So selecting the proper encoder is
going to give you the best results.
| | 01:39 | Once you've decided on a format,
whether that's going to be MP3 or maybe AAC
| | 01:44 | because you're encoding it for the
iTunes store, there are many encoders
| | 01:50 | that you can use.
| | 01:51 | Pro Tools has the Fraunhofer
codec built in, in its export.
| | 01:55 | So if I am doing a file Bounce to
Disk, or if I'm exporting the clip from the
| | 02:01 | Clips list using Export Clips as Files,
if I choose the file type MP3, I'll
| | 02:10 | choose Interleaved and hit Export, I
get the MP3 encoding window that comes up.
| | 02:18 | No matter what encoder you're using,
you are going to be given some decisions
| | 02:23 | about the quality of the encoding or
how lossy you want it to be, and this is
| | 02:29 | known as the bit rate and
it's really all about bit rate.
| | 02:34 | In uncompressed audio, we're always
talking about the sample rate and the bit
| | 02:39 | depth, but when we are working with
compressed formats like MP3 and AAC, it's
| | 02:44 | all about this bit rate number.
| | 02:47 | I can generally encode in a constant
bit rate and that's going to use the same
| | 02:51 | bit rate for the entire length of
the file or I can use something called
| | 02:56 | Variable Bit Rate or VBR.
| | 02:59 | What that's going to do is, it's going to
use more bits in the denser sections
| | 03:03 | where more things are going on and fewer bits
when less audio information is taking place.
| | 03:09 | In this case, I can choose as
low as 16 kb or as high as 320.
| | 03:16 | Now you can see this is also dropping
down the sample rate here that 16 setting.
| | 03:22 | Now unless you're really encoding it
for maybe audio books or old-school
| | 03:28 | telephone systems, typically we are
going to want to be encoding our files at as
| | 03:34 | high of a bit rate as we can.
| | 03:38 | Now that broadband Internet connections
are pretty ubiquitous, I tend to send my
| | 03:44 | MP3s at the highest possible bit rate
either 320 or at least higher than 256.
| | 03:52 | However, different sites have different
requirements and one exercise that you
| | 03:57 | can do on your own is just take this
standard Pro Tools MP3 encoder and take the
| | 04:03 | same track and do a few
different encoding settings.
| | 04:07 | So try one at 320 and compare that
to the WAV, see if you can tell the
| | 04:12 | difference between the two, and it's
actually going to be fairly hard at such a
| | 04:16 | high bit rate, and then start dropping it down.
| | 04:21 | And as you drop down to, let's say
128 or even 96, you are going to start
| | 04:26 | hearing some fatigue in the high end,
you are going to start hearing some
| | 04:29 | aliasing in the symbols, and what it is
really doing is that MP3 encoder is
| | 04:34 | figuring out what part of
the spectrum it can throw away.
| | 04:39 | So by doing that, it kind of thinks
about how humans hear and how that kind of
| | 04:45 | rolls off, and it removes some material
from the audio, and a lot of times you
| | 04:50 | can hear that in the high end.
| | 04:52 | An exercise that I'd like to do all
the time is go to YouTube and the stream
| | 04:58 | will start at a very low bit rate.
| | 05:00 | It will start at the 480p stream and
then I'll kick it up to the 720 or the
| | 05:07 | 1080 and what you'll notice is that the
audio instantly gets betters because on
| | 05:11 | YouTube, the quality of the audio is
connected to the quality of the video and
| | 05:16 | what you often hear is as soon as you
kick it up to the higher bit rate, all
| | 05:22 | the highs and all the brilliance of these symbols
in the top end come back into the mix.
| | 05:29 | Actually, no matter what you're using
to encode, whether it's the Fraunhofer, I
| | 05:34 | personally use the LAME encoder
and that can be rigged into almost any
| | 05:40 | program, even iTunes.
| | 05:42 | So just do a Google search for the LAME encoder
and you'll find a ton of information.
| | 05:48 | But regardless of whether using VBR or
CBR, if you are going to use lower rates,
| | 05:55 | or even if you plan on having your
audio uploaded to sites like YouTube,
| | 06:01 | Facebook, Bandcamp, things like that,
there's going to be some compression and
| | 06:05 | sometimes this compression is proprietary.
| | 06:08 | For example, SoundCloud kind of has
its own compression and I know a lot of
| | 06:12 | people that kind of use that as a
lowest common denominator, how does my mix
| | 06:16 | sound after I upload it to SoundCloud.
And some of the things that you can do to
| | 06:21 | optimize your mix for compression is
for one, just listen to it with different
| | 06:26 | types of compression, but in
terms of making changes to it,
| | 06:30 | a lot of times what's going on the
high end and the low end can actually
| | 06:34 | confuse the encoder.
| | 06:36 | So if you have a whole ton of top end,
it can actually force the priority of
| | 06:42 | bits over to the range that our ears are
less sensitive, that top end and it can
| | 06:48 | sort of waste bits on a lot
of high frequency material.
| | 06:52 | I hear people go either way.
| | 06:54 | Some mastering engineers recommend
boosting the high frequencies for
| | 06:58 | compressed formats because you are
going to lose some of the top end in
| | 07:02 | compression and I've heard other
mastering engineers say, no, I am actually
| | 07:06 | going to carve some of that off.
| | 07:08 | I am actually going to low pass filter
above a certain frequency so that that
| | 07:14 | encoder isn't getting confused by any
ultra high highs and it's focusing on the
| | 07:20 | critical mid band where our human ears
are going to be listening most closely.
| | 07:26 | Ultimately, there's a lot of
experimentation and figuring out what the different
| | 07:32 | codecs are going to sound like and
generally, I find I get the best mileage out
| | 07:38 | of just getting a really great sounding
mix in the CD 16-bit format, and I find
| | 07:44 | that if I work really hard and get a
really great sounding mix that translates
| | 07:48 | to CD well, it generally translates
really well to compressed formats also.
| | 07:55 | When you're limiting for something
that's going to be compressed, let's say,
| | 07:59 | you're using Maxim; for CD I'll
typically set my ceiling to just under 0,
| | 08:05 | because that's really all I need
to prevent the CD from clipping.
| | 08:10 | Now with encoding to MP3 or AAC,
sometimes a bit of level gets added during
| | 08:17 | the encoding process.
| | 08:18 | So knocking this down to -1, you're
ceiling to -1, in other words, leaving a dB
| | 08:25 | of headroom at the top end of your
master can actually make the encoded file
| | 08:31 | sound better because the output of
the encoding isn't actually clipped.
| | 08:36 | So again, this is
something you can experiment with.
| | 08:40 | Apple released a PDF on guidelines for
mastering for iTunes and if you go to
| | 08:46 | their web site and look it up, it's got
a ton of great information on optimizing
| | 08:51 | your mix, sample rates, bit depths,
how those get encoded into the iTunes
| | 08:57 | formats, how lossless audio is changing
the way that were distributing digital
| | 09:04 | music and kind of what
the future holds for that.
| | 09:07 | It's a really great read.
| | 09:09 | I highly encourage you to check it out,
but in the end, do the best you can.
| | 09:14 | Many listeners may be able to hear the
difference in listening tests, but it's
| | 09:19 | actually kind of funny when asked
if they ultimately care, most don't.
| | 09:23 | Remember, people just love music and
that's why you tend to hear people checking
| | 09:27 | out music videos on YouTube, listening
to songs on their iPhone speaker or their
| | 09:33 | ear buds and they love it.
| | 09:35 | So at the end of the day, make
sure your content stands out.
| | 09:41 | So if you spend all the time worrying
about your sound mix and how it translates
| | 09:45 | on YouTube, but you forgot to
actually create an interesting mix and an
| | 09:49 | interesting song, that's
what's really going to get you.
| | 09:52 | So just put all this stuff into
perspective when you're working on your mix and
| | 09:58 | ultimately, your master.
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|
|
11. Additional TopicsEvaluating plug-in processors| 00:00 | With literally thousands of plug-ins in
the market costing well into thousands
| | 00:05 | of dollars for some packages, it can be
quite difficult to know which plug-ins
| | 00:09 | to add to your system.
| | 00:11 | Well the stock DigiRack and AIR plug
-ins that ship with Pro Tools are a
| | 00:15 | great starting point.
| | 00:16 | You will eventually want
to explore more options.
| | 00:19 | Here are some things I like to
consider when researching a new plug-in.
| | 00:23 | First of all, I like to download the demo.
| | 00:25 | Many people don't know that 95% of all
plug-ins have free, albeit time-limited
| | 00:30 | fully functional demos on their web site.
| | 00:33 | So someone like Waves I could go to the
Downloads section and I'm just looking
| | 00:39 | for a demo link here.
| | 00:43 | Now at that point I need to create
Account Login and I could download that
| | 00:48 | demo to my iLok.
| | 00:49 | It's important to know that most demos
these days are going to require an iLok,
| | 00:54 | and that used to be a problem because
Pro Tools used to be run without an iLok,
| | 00:58 | but now most people running Pro Tools 9
and 10, you're already going to have an
| | 01:03 | iLok, and you can use that same iLok to
purchase plug-ins and get demo licenses.
| | 01:10 | So a lot of people don't understand
that, that iLok can hold more licenses than
| | 01:15 | just your Pro Tools license, so beware of that.
| | 01:18 | When you're evaluating a plug-in,
instead of just buying into all the hype and
| | 01:22 | all the marketing, because of course,
when a company is marketing their plug-in,
| | 01:26 | they are going to say, it's
the best thing in the world.
| | 01:28 | It's going to change your life. Yadi yadi yada.
| | 01:31 | But be honest with yourself
when you're doing the demo.
| | 01:34 | You want to consider how does it
sound, and that means how does it sound
| | 01:38 | compared to the other plug-ins
you already have?
| | 01:42 | So if you're pulling up an EQ plug-in,
do an honest demo. Compare it to what you
| | 01:48 | already have, bring it into a mix and
kind of match up some of the settings as
| | 01:53 | best as possible and do some
listening. How does it really sound?
| | 01:58 | And then compare that to how much
does it cost versus what you need.
| | 02:02 | A lot of people will go out and buy
specialty plug-ins but they won't have a
| | 02:07 | good core foundation of EQs and
compressors, and reverbs and things like that.
| | 02:12 | One thing that I like to consider is how
DSP efficient it is, so when I bring up
| | 02:18 | a plug-in, I will go to my Window >
System Usage. Plug-ins like EQs and simple
| | 02:25 | compressors might not even tick the
CPU Marker 1%, whereas reverbs and really
| | 02:31 | fancy brickwall limiters and things
like that, might take up 5%, 10% chunks of
| | 02:38 | that CPU and depending on how fast
your computer is, it can be important to
| | 02:43 | understand that the kind of plug-ins
you're using and how they are going to
| | 02:48 | affect your overall system overhead,
because the last thing you want to do when
| | 02:52 | performing a mix is get to that last
section and you want to throw in that fancy
| | 02:58 | new brickwall limiter you just bought,
and now your computer is out of juice.
| | 03:02 | Figure out how much DSP cost that plug
-in is going to utilize and consider
| | 03:07 | that in your workflow.
| | 03:09 | I also like to consider
where and when will I use this.
| | 03:12 | I have quite a few specialty plug-ins
that I will use on occasion, and that's
| | 03:18 | okay because I built my collection up over time.
| | 03:22 | However, if you don't have the basics
already taken care of, maybe consider
| | 03:27 | when you're buying that new fancy plug-
in, is this something you're going to
| | 03:30 | use a lot or is there something else
that you could purchase that you're going
| | 03:35 | to get more use out of?
| | 03:37 | And when evaluating that try to figure
out if it has any unique features that
| | 03:41 | aren't covered by your current set of plug-ins.
| | 03:44 | A lot of the plug-ins that I choose to purchase
have a unique feature that I'm not getting.
| | 03:50 | For example, one of the things we
talked about in compressors was having a
| | 03:57 | mix knob or a blend knob on your compressor.
| | 04:02 | None of the DigiRack compressors come
with this mix knob, so that might be
| | 04:06 | something that I really want and I
really like in a compressor, so that's
| | 04:10 | something I'm going to look for
when I'm out shopping for compressors.
| | 04:14 | That's just an example.
| | 04:16 | Another thing is do I like the user interface?
| | 04:19 | Sometimes I'll have a compressor that
sounds absolutely fantastic but the
| | 04:25 | user interface is horrible.
| | 04:26 | I can't navigate, I can't type in
values, and so it just doesn't fit into my
| | 04:31 | workflow when I'm moving through a mix
sort of train of thought and I'm just
| | 04:35 | reaching for sounds, trying
to get that sound in my head.
| | 04:39 | If what I'm using is stopping me in my
tracks and making me think about how do
| | 04:46 | I get that knob to go there, I don't
like that at all, and so I've actually
| | 04:50 | turned down plug-ins that sound
fantastic and just opened up the DigiRack EQ
| | 04:57 | because I could grab the actual nodes
and I could get the sound that I wanted,
| | 05:01 | quickly and move on.
| | 05:03 | Because again, mixing is all about
taking that sound in your head and making
| | 05:07 | that happen, and so if things are
stopping you or holding you back in that
| | 05:13 | process, you kind of want to
consider do they belong in your workflow.
| | 05:18 | At the end of the day write all these
things down and again compare the plug-ins
| | 05:22 | to the ones you have right now.
| | 05:25 | Maybe do some blind listening tests but
try not to be swayed by the big marketing
| | 05:30 | budgets and paid endorsements of the
major third-party plug-in companies. What
| | 05:34 | you're going to find is they are always
going to tell you that this plug-in is
| | 05:38 | going to change your life, make you a
mix star overnight, and just transcend
| | 05:43 | space/time and instantly turn
everything you do into solid gold.
| | 05:47 | Remember, mixing is a very incremental
skill just like learning an instrument,
| | 05:52 | so lots of little incremental steps
and skills and tricks with plug-ins are
| | 05:57 | going to add up over time to give you
a confident and complete skill set.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using saturation and other analog-style effects effectively| 00:00 | One of the reoccurring negative
comments made about the DAW method of recording
| | 00:04 | and mixing is that it doesn't have any
de facto warmth or character, or that it
| | 00:10 | sounds lifeless and cold.
| | 00:13 | The truth is that with today's
equipment and software, digital recording is
| | 00:16 | actually extremely accurate and
transparent, allowing the engineer to capture
| | 00:21 | every detail that existed during the
recording stage without any additional
| | 00:25 | distortion or saturation.
| | 00:27 | But sometimes, that extra
saturation that was added by using less and
| | 00:31 | transparent analog gear is
actually what we liked about a recording.
| | 00:35 | How can we satisfy our craving for
distortion in the pristine digital domain and
| | 00:40 | that's where saturation and
analog simulated plug-ins come in.
| | 00:44 | But before I show you some of these
plug-ins, I want to discuss why they can
| | 00:48 | help us make our mix sound better, and
why we actually like the sound of the
| | 00:53 | distortion added by an analog component.
| | 00:55 | I think too many people rush into it
thinking I just want to smear my whole mix
| | 01:00 | with tube and tape saturation,
thinking it's going to sound good.
| | 01:04 | But I find that if you understand
actually what it's providing, you will be
| | 01:08 | able to use plug-ins that weren't necessarily
designed to do this, to get those effects.
| | 01:15 | So one of the things that analog
equipment, both tube and solid-state gear, does
| | 01:20 | is that it drives the harmonic series
and adds subtle nonlinearities to the
| | 01:25 | dynamics and distorts the frequency
balance of the recorded signal in a way that
| | 01:30 | can be quite pleasing to the ear.
| | 01:32 | So a perfect example of this is tape,
and tape formulations when recording to
| | 01:39 | treating the dynamics in a special way
so that louder signals actually receive a
| | 01:44 | little bit of compression or firming,
so we've got some of those nice effects
| | 01:49 | smoothing out that you get from a
compressor, as well as heightening up the mix.
| | 01:55 | Tape also drives the harmonic series,
and helps fill out the lower mids, so ultra
| | 02:00 | low lows, let's say you're playing that
low E on your electric bass guitar, in a
| | 02:06 | digital recording, digital is not going
to drive any of the harmonic series, so
| | 02:10 | we're not going to get any of the
additional frequencies in the 100s, 200s, 300
| | 02:16 | hertz that are harmonics
of that fundamental low E.
| | 02:20 | So what's going to happen is that on
smaller speakers, that low note is just
| | 02:25 | going to completely disappear.
| | 02:28 | with tape and tube gear, it's actually
going to drive the harmonic series, so
| | 02:33 | that if we have a note that's at 60
hertz, it's going to drive some of 120,
| | 02:37 | 180, so on and so forth.
| | 02:41 | The way that tape and tube drive the
harmonic series is slightly different.
| | 02:46 | Tape tends to favor odd
harmonics, tube can drive both.
| | 02:51 | Solid-state analog gear drives the
harmonic series a little bit different, but
| | 02:55 | at the end of the day what this is
really doing for us and why we like it is
| | 02:59 | that it's pulling some of the ultra low
lows into the low-mid, so that it sounds
| | 03:05 | nice and warm and firm even
on smaller speaker systems.
| | 03:10 | Ultimately, you can think about
analog style effects a little bit like film
| | 03:16 | grain versus digital pristine HD.
| | 03:19 | At the end of the day you might want to
add some of that film grain back in, if
| | 03:24 | you're looking for a specific aesthetic.
| | 03:27 | However, there are some things that
benefit from a very pristine uncolored
| | 03:32 | signal processing path.
| | 03:33 | So one of the things that I often
leave the saturation off of in a hip-hop mix
| | 03:40 | is my ultra low sub-bass.
| | 03:42 | I might try to drive the harmonic
series in a different way, but sometimes I
| | 03:46 | find that a tape formulation can tend to
roll off my sub-bass a little too much,
| | 03:52 | sacrificing some of the power on
a system that has a sub-woofer.
| | 03:56 | So there's pluses and minuses to this,
it's not just something that I just smear
| | 04:01 | across everything and call it a day.
| | 04:03 | I definitely like to understand exactly what's
going on with my saturation plug-ins.
| | 04:09 | Another reason why we like the saturation effects
is simply for psychological reasons.
| | 04:15 | We're creatures of habit, so our
favorite records sound a certain way,
| | 04:19 | especially if they were made on analog gear.
| | 04:23 | Sometimes we want to get
back to that as an aesthetic.
| | 04:26 | How do we get the saturation sound,
now that we know what it does to the
| | 04:30 | frequency response and dynamic
response of a mix, how do we achieve that
| | 04:35 | entirely in the box?
| | 04:37 | I want to show you a couple of
saturation plug-ins that I use in my mixing to
| | 04:42 | simulate this and one of the big
ones is the Slate Digital VCC, or Virtual
| | 04:48 | Console Collection, and what it is, is
it's a combination of a Mixbusss plug-in
| | 04:53 | that I am going to place on my master
fader as well as channel strip plug-in.
| | 04:58 | So if I go here and I pull up the
Channel strip version, now these are going to
| | 05:07 | combine to create and simulate,
sending my mix through an analog console.
| | 05:13 | So it's going to simulate the
headroom characteristics, the harmonic
| | 05:19 | distortion, the cross talk of
sending all the channels through an analog
| | 05:24 | console and into an analog summing bus.
| | 05:28 | The effects of this can be very
subtle, but extremely powerful.
| | 05:33 | Now here I have got a few different
consoles that I can model, an SSL, API,
| | 05:38 | Neve, Trident and this really
cool Tube console.
| | 05:41 | I like it a lot.
| | 05:43 | Let's listen a little bit as I drive this Tube
console on the Take Me Down session.
| | 05:49 | (music playing)
| | 05:59 | Off.
(music playing)
| | 06:04 | On.
(music playing)
| | 06:09 | Like I said, it's very subtle, but
what it's doing it's pulling those ultra
| | 06:13 | low lows forward into the mids and
what we get, the effect of this, is warming
| | 06:19 | up the mix.
| | 06:21 | It's also going to treat the ultra high
highs, tame those a little bit, soak up
| | 06:25 | some of those ultra high frequencies.
| | 06:28 | And that's one of the things that I do
find in digital mixing is that because
| | 06:31 | the Mixbusss is completely linear, that
is to say, what I feed into it is what's
| | 06:35 | going to come out of it, unchanged.
| | 06:37 | So if I feed in a very broadband signal
with lots of low end and lots of top end
| | 06:42 | into the Mixbuss, that's
what's going to come out.
| | 06:45 | However, the problem with that is when I
have got all these virtual instruments,
| | 06:49 | synthesizers, sample sets, that just
have a ton of top end, I find that can add
| | 06:54 | up to be very, very fatiguing and what I
am missing is some of that soak that we
| | 06:58 | get from analog and tube gear, some of
that soak of the high frequencies that
| | 07:03 | tape is going to give us.
| | 07:04 | That can kind of soften those ultra
high highs, smooth them out in a way that a
| | 07:09 | DeEsser would on the Mixbuss, and make the
mix overall less fatiguing to listen to
| | 07:16 | at really loud volumes.
| | 07:18 | One of the other saturation plug-ins
that I will use, if I want a bit more
| | 07:23 | heavy handed approach, and I will show you here
on the drums sub mix, is the Decapitator.
| | 07:30 | So if I go into Harmonic and pull this up,
the Decapitator is from SoundToys and
| | 07:37 | this is going to simulate distortion on
different types of analog gear; tube, and
| | 07:43 | tape gear, just by switching the
different styles here, I can get different
| | 07:49 | colorations and then I can go in and
shape that sound using a high pass and low
| | 07:55 | pass filters and a tone control, plus
this mix knob, so check it out on the
| | 07:59 | drums here, it's really cool.
| | 08:01 | (music playing)
| | 08:07 | Now, I am going to blend it back a bit.
(music playing)
| | 08:17 | Just getting a little color, a
little crunch that I like to layer in.
| | 08:22 | (music playing)
| | 08:26 | Now that Punish button, that's really
cool, and I just want to take it over the
| | 08:29 | top and kind of layer that.
| | 08:32 | The Decapitator, in this case, is a bit
more heavy-handed than the Slate VCC, and
| | 08:37 | that's something I like to
have access to in the mix.
| | 08:40 | I like something that's going to be
subtle, that's just going to give me that
| | 08:43 | nice little bit of tube or tape or
console saturation that, you know what, I
| | 08:48 | might not be able to hear unless I am
really paying attention, but it's going to
| | 08:53 | add up overtime and make
for a slightly better mix.
| | 08:57 | I also like some heavy-handed
stuff where I can just crush something.
| | 09:00 | It's like the difference between a ball
-peen hammer and just a sledge hammer
| | 09:04 | because sometimes that's just what
things like drums and bass guitar and maybe
| | 09:09 | the vocal during the bridge
are really going to benefit from.
| | 09:13 | If I can share with you kind of any
secret towards using the saturation plug-ins
| | 09:20 | at a mix level, it's that
I like to mix through them.
| | 09:23 | So any kind of console simulation like
the VCC or maybe McDSP Analog Channel,
| | 09:29 | things like that, I am going to put that
on my mix at the early stage so that it
| | 09:33 | actually influences my EQ
and compression decisions.
| | 09:37 | A lot of mixers will talk about
mixing through a compressor. I like to mix
| | 09:42 | through my saturation effects,
depending on the style of music, like if it was a
| | 09:46 | rock song like this, I would mix through
the saturation as if I was listening to
| | 09:50 | it, mixing on a console and
this changes my decisions.
| | 09:55 | So rather than taking and slapping it
on at the end of the mix, I am putting
| | 10:00 | it on near the beginning so that
every move I make is through that filter,
| | 10:04 | through that lens.
| | 10:06 | So it's sort of like if you put on
orange-tinted glasses and you started doing a
| | 10:10 | painting, your color selection would be
a bit different and I find that can give
| | 10:16 | me a more pronounced analog
feel to the end result of my mix.
| | 10:22 | At the end of the day, I really love
having the option of making some things
| | 10:25 | dirty and leaving other things clean
in my mix, so that's why I like DAW
| | 10:30 | mixing because I have the choice to decide where
I want to apply that analog aesthetic to.
| | 10:36 | And I truly believe that you can
achieve the analog warmth you want if you
| | 10:40 | desire by understanding and working
within the rules of the digital system.
| | 10:45 | Many times people assume the rules
for mixing in the analog world directly
| | 10:51 | translate to the digital world without
any modification and I truly feel that
| | 10:56 | that's a reason why people think that
mixing in the box sounds bad because
| | 11:00 | they're taking all their analog techniques
mixing through a console, and outboard
| | 11:03 | gear, and just directly moving them
into Pro Tools and without modification and
| | 11:09 | that's not going to work.
| | 11:11 | You have to understand what the
Mixbuss in the Digital Audio Workstation is
| | 11:16 | adding, and what it isn't adding and
in reality it's not adding anything.
| | 11:20 | So you have to add it all yourself and
you have to be aware of when to add those
| | 11:24 | things to get the most analog feel.
| | 11:28 | If that's what you're looking for.
| | 11:30 | So ultimately, learning and
understanding the limits of what a DAW does and
| | 11:36 | doesn't add to the mix, and then working
with those limitations in your workflow
| | 11:41 | is going to yield the best results.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up side-chains| 00:00 | Did you ever wish you could control the
dynamics of one element using another?
| | 00:05 | Maybe you never thought about that,
but I promise after learning about
| | 00:08 | side-chains, you will.
| | 00:10 | A more advanced dynamics processing
technique called side-chaining allows you to
| | 00:14 | control the dynamics of one
signal using the dynamics of another.
| | 00:19 | In fact, you've already used the
technique if you've ever used a DeEsser.
| | 00:23 | Some examples of this
woul |
|
|
