CAN WE FORMAT A NEW FUTURE IN MUSIC?

I am writing this as a live blog whilst taking advantage of some sky high WIFI (WI-FLI maybe in this case?) in response to the recent Music Week national poll.  The poll is to "assess user interest in quality audio files for music."  They state "This is your chance to make a difference and get rid of sub-standard MP3 files NOW".

This statement really got me thinking and I would welcome a discussion / feedback on the below to see what people really think?

I am someone who takes a keen interest in new technologies and especially new file formats, their history and their future.  So I am keen to know just WHO is (or would be) developing this new file format being discussed?

By gaining support from professional musicians, engineers and producers what will the owners of the file format do with all the royalties they make if their new format is embraced by us all?

I am aware of how difficult it is to get a new format taken on by large manufacturers - it has to come from the biggest corporate powers otherwise it doesn't reach enough people and so therefore isn't adopted as a standard by the all important general public.

The thing is that none of these major corporations (like Apple) are keen on letting someone outside of their organisation make all that money, they would prefer if at all possible to create their own format to use on devices.  However this of course also causes deadlock - unless of course one company has a complete stranglehold over the market.

I was once lucky enough to meet a gentleman whose company owned MP3 (M-PEG layer 3 patent) whilst on a trip to Japan.  This guy earns a royalty for EVERY device in the world thats plays, reads or records MP3 format files.  It seriously blew my mind.

He was at the AES Japan show launching his new MP3 HD format.  I had got chatting to him as was the first person that day to correctly identify the different bit depths and sample rates of the files he was using for listening tests on his booth.  The MP3 HD format offers exactly the same quality as CD (16 bit 44.1kHz) he said it would be the next big thing.  This was back in 2008, 5 years later and nothing has changed as the industry didn't embrace it.  i think perhaps they do not want to send him any more cheques!

Passing the new format onto someone else i'm not against; by all means let someone else forge a new format into our audio world with better quality.  My main worry is a different issue.

I do not believe that any consumer or music maker likes sub-standard audio.  I believe that its the money machine behind the consumer industry, the big corporations that are stopping the flow of a new format coming to market.  The technology for better audio already exists.

So, let me pose this:

Imagine if a file format offering better quality audio was created, owned and patented by a not-for-profit organisation (maybe a fuse of industry organisations like MPG, APRS, AES, MU etc).  If this was then embraced by the wider international community of industry individuals, imagine all the good that could be created by the profits from the format.  If you let your imagination run, this could be a whole new form of income stream into the wider industry or used for research, education, community work, independent funding pools - options are vast.

I think this is also the best chance to get major corporations on board as they would then not be supporting a competitor but embracing an industry that gives them content and helps them sell and market their products globally. They could see it as a brand credible endeavour and embrace the format without fear of driving the competitors revenue, or making another single person incredibly rich.

It would need to be a format that DAW software titles allowed you to save / bounce down work to and that download stores offered for sale and that manufactures of hardware allowed compatibility with to read / play.  A big task, but not impossible?

Thoughts?

Sarah x

SNAPSHOT OF SOUND

I glance from the window of the train, watching the landscape that cradles its inhabitants in various abodes stream past my vision. I consider that within each snapshot of time I am capturing a view of differing stories hidden within it. The patchwork of eccentricity contained within any town or city is embodied into a singular, momentary view.

There are a rollercoaster of emotions filled with positive and negative energies happening all at once.

Music is said to also capture a snapshot of society, echoing the emotion of the society it comes from and the social, political or economical status quo.

Songs which appeal cross genre, race and demographic tend to have the ability to take a more universal snapshot of the world highlighting and bowing to the most commonly apparent expressions of feeling.

When mixing and producing a record, it is important to endeavour to embody this flow of emotion. The exhilaration and misery, love and hate, excitement and angst. Let the record express itself colourfully and freely by taking care not to quash its expressiveness.

Dynamics are key to achieving this. The dynamic of a song can be affected by 3 main things; space, level and tone. These dynamic ingredients can be shaped by you through editing, level mixing, equalisation and compression (as well as other dynamic treatments).

Never underestimate the importance of silence, this alone can breathe tremendous dynamic and expression into a phrase – especially when you are trying to create tension or anticipation, or even just to tease the listener in a cheeky way.

Try cutting the last bar or few notes of a phrase, cutting the rhythm section works really well, or maybe even cutting all instruments and just leaving the bass part in, play around with your pauses and notice the different emotions that they help create. Don’t feel forced to have everything on the beat either. Having some parts coming in on the 3rd beat of the bar can add interest, or try having stabs or counter rhythm percussion coming in on the off beat.

As I’ve mentioned before, when starting to mix levels, I always like to start with the percussive elements of the track. I see the drums as the foundations of the audio track I am building – if these foundations aren’t right then my whole audio building feels unstable. I do not tend to play around with the drum parts once they are mixed, having snares pan round and kicks automated up and down in level is not something I think sounds good. Maybe some effects in places to add a stutter or delay, but I think it is more important to have a stable beat under your track. The excitement can come from varying beats, rhythms and parts rather than trying to make it sound like a drum kit is whirling around the listeners head.

The sounds you balance in level against your beats are then free to be more dynamically adjusting, allowed to roam more and be manipulated through automation and fades.

Use your automation of levels to signpost phrases in the lyrics or hooks in the guitar line. Use it to build excitement before the chorus or middle 8 section. Create a journey through the song that shies away from mono-dynamic monotony.

The tonal spectrum of your music can also be a way to manipulate the dynamics of a piece. This is something that is a favourite in dance music, with producers often using low pass and high pass filters to build excitement or create musical signposts.

Instead of increasing the volume of a part, you can add the perception of dynamic excitement by mirroring the phrase in a different octave or with a different instrument or indeed both of these variants. Also try automating between different equalisation settings for instruments as you move through the different sections of a song – maybe going for a sparse, thinner sound for the striking yet cold verse and a thicker, shaped sound for the more powerful chorus.

All of these aspects can help you create your snapshot of human emotion, a moment in time that can mirror the hidden stories of society and relate your music to the panoptic population.

THE SOUND BETWEEN THE SOUND

I am writing this months article whilst airborne heading towards the Frankfurt MusikMesse Trade Show. Whilst glancing out the window at the vast amount of air and space between the ground, and myself - I am reminded of the ratio of very little breathable air compared to the somewhat excessive and unusual facial hair that tends to fashion itself at this smoky, busy, industry trade show.

My current spatial position (and thankfully not the MusikMesse facial hair) has inspired me to really consider the concept of moving air in terms of transition of sound and how we think about it.

As you know when an instrument sounds, it sends out soundwaves, frequencies that ripple and resonate through the air. It is our job as an engineer to capture that movement of air using a microphone to reproduce and record its emitting patterns.

Due to the way that we interpret this movement of air into voltages and then often again converted into binary figures, it then tends to focus our mind very much onto a final precise value. We tend to forget about the variants, the subtle movements that weren’t picked up or were lost along the way. We also mask out the frequencies that have less content within the final sound capture. We disregard these things as “unwanted noise” or “interference”, but is that really the case?

As a comparison, if you were monitoring the sky as my plane flew threw your vision, the object that is seen as moving and most important is the actual plane. Your perception of the fact the plane is flying would be that it is not stationary on the one constant of your vision, the ground. However, if you were to just take note of the actual plane (the moving object) and the ground (the constant), you would be disregarding all the information in-between (in this case the air in-between, which is obviously quite important!).

What I am trying to say is that the sounds between the sounds that we noticeably perceive are arguably just as important. The human ear usually picks up frequencies from as low as 20Hz right up to 20kHz with perfect hearing (although in reality and also with age this number decreases). Even with these figures, it has been proven that humans can “feel” frequencies outside the realm of their hearing capabilities. This means we must be very sensitive to different frequencies and even if we cant easily pick them out in our hearing, we may still be aware of their existence and possibly even rely on them to make things sound “natural”.

In Physics and Astronomy, many have discussed “dark matter”, a fascinating topic that really is delving into the furthest reach of our understanding of the universe. Basically with dark matter, it is the “stuff” that isn’t there, the space between the space that must exist - and helps to explain the workings and expansion of our universe. It is said, that just because we cant see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there and so should respect its existence. I think the same could be said with sound, that just because we cant hear all the sounds, between the sounds we can hear, doesn’t mean they are not there and we should have respect for them in the recording and mixing process.

You could look at the process of creating and capturing sound - right through to the mixing and monitoring of it - as an energy flow process, where the energy is the sound.

So now your whole system (your studio technique) and your task (as engineer) is to help this energy flow freely and passionately (yet controlled accurately by you) through your entire recording, mixing and monitoring process.

This should help you focus on elements that are all vitally important in creating a great record.

The recording space, the microphone, the pre amp, the mix bus, the converters, the processing power, the editing, the effects, the dynamics, and the monitors all play a part in how you can respect this flow of energy. Each element when explained in this way, can help make sense of why these separate considerations and processes are important and what effect they could each have on the sound energy flow process.

So next time you begin to venture into a fresh capture of moving air, or sit down to process your captured energy, be mindful and respectful to allow it to flow with the freedom and passion that nature intended, yet helped along with your inspired and creative hand.

VOCAL PLACEMENT

One can sometimes forget the power that a single voice can contain. It has been a single voice that with the correct delivery can inspire a generation or inject fear into a nation. A voice can carry valuable information as well as hopes and fears and desires. A voice using speech, is one of the oldest forms of communication and has always been an essential basis for many cultures, passing on wisdom, skills and stories that in many societies formed the foundations of their modern religions, culture, beliefs and moral identity.

Within music, the vocal is also ever dominant. A badly mixed or balanced vocal can ruin the entire feel of a song and loose its power and charm. Often the vocal contains important lyrics to define the songs meaning, but even if not, the tone and placement of the vocal is in essence a primary colour within the songs sound canvass.

So where do you start in helping to achieve a well-mixed vocal? Let’s start at the beginning, the actual recording.

Choosing the correct microphone for your vocalist is not always as easy as you think. There is not one magic microphone that is perfect for every vocalist. Each studio microphone tends to have a slightly different frequency response and “sweet spot”. This means that in the same way your vocalists have a different tonal make up, so in turn do the microphones you can use to record them.

Don’t be put off from using a mic aimed at recording acoustic guitar or other instruments, for use on vocals, it may just work out as the best option. Try and get to know your mic collection and get accustomed to the tonal qualities of each one to make this process easier. Getting a good recording to start with is like making sure you have quality fresh ingredients before you cook, the end result will be much tastier and easier to achieve.

Once you have finished all your recording and are starting to mix, you need to have a general playback listen to account for obvious problems. Listen out for if the vocal gets lost on quiet passages or becomes overpowering on more energetic phrases; do you loose the vocal when the piano is playing or the guitar?

Getting the vocal mix right isn’t just to do with the level. Its how it balances against the other components of the track. Compression can help get a more consistent level on your vocal but sometimes people are guilty of over-compressing to try and cover up tonal clashes and imbalances in the mix. When compressing a vocal the ideal settings will vary dependant on the vocalist, but the compressor shouldn’t be making the track louder, just more even, preventing large peaks and troughs in the dynamics. Try to avoid using presets on plug ins, play around with settings or use a dedicated outboard unit to really get to know how the compressor you use works and sounds.

If you find that you are loosing the vocal on the verse because of the guitar, you could try two different solutions, firstly ducking. This is where you use a gate in “ducking” mode. Normally a gate acts almost like a switch in an electronic circuit or a binary digit, in that it has one of 2 values – open or shut. When open, a gate lets the sound freely through, when shut it mutes sound completely. The input threshold usually controls the gates parameters, so if signal goes below a threshold of so many dB, the gate is shut and sound muted. When a gate operates in “ducking” mode however, the sound isn’t muted, but instead is lowered in volume by several dB. In this mode the way in which you activate the process differs too. For the case of our vocal struggling with the guitar to be heard, we would insert a gate over the guitar track and set to “ducking” mode. We would then insert the vocal track into the sidechain input of the gate. This enables the vocal to become the trigger for the ducking gate and force the guitar down in level when the vocal sounds, creating manipulative automation.

Another method is one of my most used “mix tricks”. Using a simple EQ inserted on the vocal track, sweep up and down the spectrum to find the most prominent and favourable frequency. Have this frequency boosted by at least 3dB with a narrow Q of at least around 7. Then on the opposing track, set up the same EQ but this time cut the same frequency by the same amount. This method of mixing is sometimes referred to as spectral mixing or what I call a sound amnesty, allowing each frequency and instrument to be heard fairly and coexist in harmony within the frequency spectrum.

Once you have a well-balanced vocal, its important to add the correct dimension to it, this can be done using reverb to help place it in the mix. The less reverb, the further “forward” the vocal will sound. A vocal without any reverb added will sound unnatural and also as if it is just hovering aimlessly above the track. Too much reverb and the vocal will be swallowed into the mix, loosing power and intelligibility.

As a general rule, always use more reverb on backing vocals and keep the main vocal a little drier. Pay attention to the tone of the reverb you add and check it with just the vocal soloed and against the whole track, don’t be scared to layer reverbs either – sometimes layering reverbs can help the trail sound lusher and more natural.

Prioritise your vocal and use your ears and the tools of your trade to make sure it has the attention it deserves, help your mixes to stand out and be remembered through your commanding and enchanting, well balanced and mixed vocal. Strive to achieve a vocal that can communicate with the listener by resonating through the universal language of music in the most harmonious way.

SKY HIGH AUDIO

As we now enter the beginning of a new decade, we are able to look back at the achievements of the noughtie’s and the technology that they brought us.

The advancement in computer based hard disk recording, software integration, digital live consoles and affordable pro-sumer recording and mixing equipment has been substantial.

Now, with the consumer and manufacturer ever more conscious of money efficient solutions, will this halter advancements? I think not. Tougher trading and more competition for work amongst users will mean that there will be a newly generated demand for intuitive ideas and products that cater to the demands of the market.

Looking at the way technology and trends are moving in other industries, there is one very sensible progression I see coming to the world of audio in the very near future.

Cloud computing. Google are doing it, Microsoft are doing it, they’re all working towards it. When Global corporations such as these are championing a technology, you know it is just a matter of time before it is employed into business practise and then home computing too.

For those who have not seen the many articles on the subject, cloud technology basically enables you to store and share data in a dedicated virtual (online) ‘cloud’ space and access hosted services and software via the Internet.

Within the audio world, this could be very interesting. Although there are already some provisions for online music making and sharing data, they can still be a little clunky and there are no official services from the main audio software giants like Digidesign Pro Tools, Steinberg Cubase / Nuendo, Apple Logic, or Propellerhead and Ableton.

With the current economy driving the change of business models it would be a perfect time to adapt to a way of working that would benefit both the manufacturer and the consumer.

As a software manufacturer you suffer from software piracy and the constant pressure to attract new paying customers. These customers, through whom you receive a one off payment for the DVD installation disk, instruction manual, software license agreement and the packaging; form your only income stream. It is also a general expectation by customers to receive any minor updates to this purchase for free. Therefore it becomes ever harder to attract a constant, steady income beyond the initial purchase.

As a software user, keeping up to date with software becomes harder too. As new operating systems are released there are always compatibility concerns. Being left with an un-operational DAW because of version incompatibility between your software / plug-ins / OS is a worst nightmare.
Wouldn’t it be great to not have to spend hours installing new software, going through Challenge / Response and iLok complications and be able to access a session anywhere in the world, from any computer with Internet?

I think this would be a winner all round. Software companies could attract a steadier income stream by offering a “lite” version for free / demo, then a pro version either by utility type usage or via subscription fee. You could have features where you can access any plug-ins in real time with a trial or buy functionality. Whatever you need for your session available immediately at your disposal and without the need to clog up your personal computer with software, data files and unnecessary features.

As Internet technology speeds up and becomes more accessible worldwide it will make this technology even better. Imagine musicians working on a session in 5 different parts of the world simultaneously, linked via the Internet in an online cloud session, you then join the cloud and start comping and editing files ready to mix down the track in your studio later that day… A finished track in a day, recorded with musicians from around the world without any travel expenses. It also will make recording and production software available to anyone with an internet connection, this alone could tremendously diversify the creative output into the music world and offer us all some interesting things to think about. There are many possibilities with cloud computing, lets see who from our industry will be the first to harness it.

AUDIO SENSES

After a bit of a break, I'm back with my latest blog!

For many, finding ways to arouse the 5 senses influence much of our leisure decisions. Finding ways to invigorate feeling through sensory indulgence, form the basic platform for the notion of pleasure in most humans.

Within music, we tend to link audio with vision, maybe originally from the association of seeing a band or orchestra perform in all their glory and also enjoying listening to their musical talents at the same time.

In current years, the music video generation has helped to continue the visual association with audio. However, I do feel that this focus transferred into the world of audio engineering, has actually become rather detrimental to the way that we work - especially over the last decade as we work more in the advancing digital domain.

There are many sessions I have both witnessed and participated in where we are all guilty of obsessively watching (staring at!) the cursor glide across the screen of the Pro Tools or Logic Arrange page whilst listening back to a mix. Somehow feeling that the colourful bars and pretty patterns of blocks from different instruments, takes and edits, are essential viewing to fully hear what is happening - like “how will I know when the second chorus starts or the string section comes in, unless I’m staring at my beautiful Apple cinema screen representation?”

I personally feel that the focus on the screen whilst mixing really takes away from the way that you listen to the mix, in several different ways. Firstly, when looking at the screen (especially in recent years where there is so much crammed onto the arrange page), there is too much distraction for the eye, to many other thought processes away from audio for the brain to do. Also, like when reading a book, the brain actually scans ahead of what you are looking at, so subconsciously you have already read / looked ahead of where you are focusing. This means that your brain is already preparing for the blocks of instruments its seen are coming in within the next 4 bars - so will you really notice if the second verse starts at the right level and balance, if you are already pre-empting and expecting the rather ‘triumphant sounding’ brass section that your added yesterday? Possibly not.

The focus on the screen can also force us to become far too precise, I remember smiling to myself watching an engineer turning a channel fader up by 0.5dB. I do not feel you are going to audibly notice that. If you were using a real console I doubt you would really turn something up by 0.5dB, if you were just listening to it rather than watching it.

Another big problem of sitting and staring at the arrange page whilst listening to a mix is the position of the computer screen within your set up. Is your screen located in a place where you can see it clearly whilst staying in the “sweet spot”? Are you in the ideal listening position when at your screen? Or are you, like in many set ups I see, located quite severely off centre and quite possibly at risk of encountering some phasing issues or sitting in a bass peak or trough? Listening to your mix in different parts of your room (or even outside the room) can be useful for detecting problem frequencies, but doing any major percentage of your listening off-axis cannot be helpful at all, and will make well balanced mixes a lot harder to achieve.

I want to start a mono sensory revolution – lets get back to focusing just on the sound and boycott the screens as much as possible when mixing. Just focus on the music and listen!

So I urge any guilty readers to come to your audio senses and try listening and mixing without staring at that beautiful arrange page with your carefully constructed edits, to come back into the sweet spot and mix in an easier positioned environment and not to let the ever so precise visual data to override what your ears are actually hearing. Helping us all to get one step closer to that better balanced audio world.

EQUALLY OPPOSITE

The entire environment we reside within is full of equals and opposites and parallels.
That statement can be taken in the most basic forms of light and dark, day and night, or hot and cold; or it could indeed be used to describe eastern and western culture, or the different variants of species that habitat our planet.

The fact remains that these aspects are not only part of everyday life, but also one of the reasons the planet can flourish, adapt and evolve.
It makes sense then that we endeavour to continue these patterns into our work.
The music industry is continually changing and evolving, usually playing catch up with modern society and cultural trends most of the time.
Although some aspects and requirements are a constant, it is important to evaluate the current state of play, the fluctuations, and be realistic. We should take advantage of the facilities we do have access to now, and be creative.

So what have the parallels of life got to do with making a record? I will explain.
Often modern budgets are being cut to a fraction of what they once were or even cancelled all together, relying on personal funding or development of an artist through their producer or management rather than from a record label.
Labels are understandably cautious about investing in new artists for fear of not making any return.
Artists are expected to have already created an underground following, have an image, a sponsor… and a guaranteed song placement and synch rights would go down nicely too.


The problem with taking an artist from their underground circuit and trying to turn them mainstream; or taking a new artist and trying to throw them straight into the commercial playground, is the aspect of retaining a 'cool' factor to them.
Doing this over a 10-15 track album is costly and timely, and a big commitment from a label, even if these days the Major labels at least more act as just a distributor / plugger.
I think we should look to go back to doing more EP style releases, 'projects' that contain around 5 or 6 songs.

This way the artist, management, producer and label, can focus n just generating the best songs for this mini project, rather than stuffing it with filler songs. It also helps focus the project towards a particular market. If the project doesn’t work, it also means there has been less money spent on making it.

Something that is also interesting to consider is that with this way of working, you also have the option to release
alternative projects, or remix projects alongside the main release, perhaps targeted more for the clubs or the underground circuit, or maybe just a live or acoustic project.
Not only does this expand your audience and exposure possibilities, it also means more revenue. Two different projects means a wider spread of radio play and club play and also if someone is a fan of one project, there is a good chance they will purchase the other too.

Remix and underground releases can also help with achieving this “got to be cool” requirement, adding credibility to an artist, by having this equal and opposite force present alongside the more mainstream focused project.

It is also good as a producer to split your work into at least 2 parts, under different aliases, one for your own independent projects and compositions and one for more commercial releases and remixes. Allowing you to take advantage of different types of work available whilst maintaining your name and credibility for your other projects. It is the same principle.

Taking the concept of equal and opposite throughout your work ethic can produce very creative work that helps you stand out.

Combining opposite music genres always works well, imagine rock and classical, drum and bass and opera, reggae and country and western… although it may sound unusual at first, you can quickly realise that there are endless possibilities to create something new and appealing.

Different textures and instruments compliment each other, like the different herbs and spices you can use in cooking, the flavours of the sounds come together sounding quite delicious.

Also in the structure of the song having for instance very hard sounding drums with a soft and chilled keys part over the top, or maybe a gentle and enchanting drone of an Indian Tambura, can be very complimentary and intriguing.

The principal can also be used in presentation of your music. If you are an electronic producer, try forming an acoustic live version of a track and video it, presenting it back to people on an electronic format.

So, focus your ideas, encapsulate your being and sound into an area, then diversify with an equal and opposite approach to your work and create a parallel project or piece of work and get in synch with the modern and diverse world in which we live.

IN BALANCE?

This month it’s all about balance. Not just ones own equilibrioception that may suffer somewhat come closing time of your favourite haunt on a Saturday night, but of our general perception of placement, proportions and ability to coexist within an allocated space.

“Balance” may be an unmentionable and offensive word to the Chancellor of the Exchequer right now, as he frantically tries to make Britain’s income and expenditure books balance; but for us studio geeks, it really can and should be a much simpler process.

So where do we start in endeavouring to create a good balance in our mix? Well firstly, lets actually consider what a good balance is. As mentioned in one of my previous months articles, a good balanced mix should be like ‘Amnesty International’ for audio; a mix where each individual part has its own space to coexist with its neighbours, adopting a fair share of the frequency spectrum and given the right to be heard fairly and accurately.

So before we go off to paint up some protest banners to campaign for a better balanced audio world, lets discuss the first stumbling block of our auditory ideal – gain staging.

Getting the levels right during the recording process seems to be a bone of contempt for many. Poor management of input signals and recording levels can lead to an array of difficulties when trying to balance a mix, so here are a few points to consider. To start with, in the recording stage, make sure you use the appropriate microphone for your sound source. Condenser and ribbon mics are very sensitive to high-pressure levels, so not ideal choices for percussive sounds like a kick drum or high level sources such as the front of a guitar cab.

The sensitivity of some condenser / preamp combinations also means they are not always the best choice for some vocalists. If you are finding that your vocals are clipping or distorting you may try just turning the input gain down. However, if this just gives you a quieter source and a lot of background noise, try either applying a high pass filter on the preamp (to cut out some of the room noise and rumble), or use a dynamic mic which can be more capable of handling the dynamic changes of the vocalist and is also more directional - so should pick up more of the direct signal rather than unwanted noise.

The key is, never to overload your inputs on your DAW and make sure you always leave yourself with plenty of headroom. Your recording levels should not be at 0dB as some commonly presume, try maybe -6dB as a rough guide or even less.

If every source you have is already at a max it is much harder to balance these parts together without clipping the master track. You are also leaving no room for subtle fader movements to have an audible effect. During mix down, having as much headroom as possible on individual sources is great for when you start creating stem mixes or summing down your track.

On analogue equipment it is true that you can push the piece hard without causing huge problems. However in digital equipment, the signal should never clip as this produces a nasty sounding square wave cut off to your audio and once it has been distorted there is no way to undo it, so keep those levels controlled.

Another problem area for achieving balance tends to be EQ. If you find that your mixes are well balanced in level but appear a bit “foggy” or “muddy” it is more than likely due to a fight breaking out between two or more instruments all trying to be in the same frequency range. A method known as ‘spectral mixing’ that I refer to in previous articles is particularly useful here. This process involves cutting a space for each individual track using EQ, focusing just on the key frequencies of the instrument that you want to be heard and cutting unnecessary bass content, high frequency content, and problem mid range frequencies out.

EQ alone cannot always help with balancing your bass sounds though, sometimes some spectral mixing between the bass drum and bass guitar is all that’s needed, but this is not always the solution. Many seem to struggle to avoid mixing seriously bass heavy or seriously bass light. This is usually due to the mix environment causing you to end up sitting in a peak or trough part of the waveform and therefore not hearing an accurate representation when mixing. To check this, try listening to the material in other playback systems, like your hifi, car stereo or at a friend’s studio facility if possible. It will then be easier to identify any problems that exist within your mixing space.

It may be however, that the frequency content of your bass is too low and too narrow and is causing it to lack energy or excitement in the mix. Try adding some fundamental frequencies above, either by dialling back in some of the higher frequencies you rolled off, or by putting the bass through an exciter, or maybe by adding a mirror bassline in the next octave up slightly lower in the mix, or just by transposing the whole line into a different, more legible key. Always be wary of adding too much sub bass content. Most home and project studio systems monitoring facilities don’t extend to sub frequencies, so you may get a nasty surprise when played in a club or a kitted-out car system.

If you can get your bass and your drums “gelling” together piecing everything else on top becomes much easier, treat the beat and bass like the foundations of your audio building and if they are not correct anything on top of that will never be balanced.

Lastly another way to help create a good balanced mix is to start the habit of stem mixing. This is basically creating sub groups like many live engineers do, but it has several benefits for the studio engineer too.

Once you have a nice mix of your drums, it is much easier to control their overall level within one group fader than individual ones, same goes for any other instrument group. It also makes it easer if you are planning to sum your mix externally with analogue outboard or a console. Not only does it bring the channel count and required interface spec down, it again makes it less work to balance between the instrument groups and you can keep a closer eye on the changes you are making.

So pay attention to your gain staging, EQ spread, and find easier ways to balance the levels, like stem mixing, and you will soon find yourself feeling a lot more balanced and possibly “in tune” with your audio. Besides, let us not forget that balance is actually one of the most natural phenomenon’s of existence…

AUDIO IDENTITY

There are over 6 billion people that populate this planet, each having their own individual genetic make up. The sheer diversity enriches our cultures, traditions and inspiration and makes up this eccentric patchwork of identity that we possess as human beings. Although we indulge in our self-proclaimed title of being top of the food chain and the most powerful and intelligent mammal that inhabits our Earth, it is amazing how sheep-like many among us seem to be. Herded together following each other aimlessly through fields of fashions, fads and ideals.

If you want to be able to stand out from this flock and be heard by many (not just “herd” by Bo Peep), embracing your individuality is essential.

The same can be said with your approach to your music production and mixing.

If everybody had the same gear, the same software, using the same sounds, with the same rules, would that really be good for the music? I think not. Forming your own identity and sound by combining your choice of equipment and forming your own sound bank is how you really can express yourself creatively as an individual.

When choosing equipment, you should consider many factors. It is always hard to base purchase decisions on adverts or reviews but this is a good way of finding out information and narrowing your choices. It is also strange to base your decisions on listening to someone’s opinion that seems to spend more time on Internet forums then in their idyllic (?) studio.

Base your choices on what you are drawn too, what you understand and what inspires you. Audio shouldn’t be about snobbery either; there are great products and tools out there that do not break the bank. So do not disregard products thinking that low price equals poor quality, as this is not always the case.

Research is important. Many make poor decisions on equipment, as they don’t fully understand the process the equipment does or what they are trying to achieve, never be scared to ask, but if you have a question about a product, contact the manufacturer. They designed and built the product and probably have the gear set up within their building, if anyone should be able to give you an accurate response to your query, I feel it is more likely to be them.

For me, I always like to consider the end format, where will this music end up and how would I like it to sound? The other day I visited a studio that makes Drum and Bass and Electronic music, they had a PC set up and for monitoring had some cheap PC speakers and then general small club PA Speakers. The explanation for this was that they didn’t see the point in having “3 grand” studio monitors, as the music either ends up on a website, listened to on an ipod / computer speakers, or played out in a club. If they got it sounding balanced on the PC speakers and it transfers well in the bass frequencies to the PA set up, that’s all they needed. The sound they had was indeed very good and you would never know much was mixed on £40 computer speakers.

Having your own arrangement of gear not only should inspire you but should also help you to create your own sound. Try linking different pieces together, get out those patch cables and take advantage of inserts, sidechains and programmable effects. It is surprising how quickly you can discover new ways of working, new sounds and some cool effects.

Do not be scared to experiment in how you connect or use your gear, so long as you understand and respect the different levels of some inputs and outputs and that tweeters can be delicate things… what’s the worst that could happen?

Also try using products for different purposes than they are created for… how about feeding your guitar amp or pod with some piano or percussion? Maybe use a vocoder on strings? You can quickly get some interesting sounds that you can use in conjunction with the original audio, instead of the original audio, or just as an effect. Rules are there to be broken and forcing yourself to go against the grain can form some fantastic creations.

It is easy to get caught up in the equipment rat race, and also hard to keep up with what’s new or available, so of course we sometimes need to see what others are doing and choosing. Apply logic to your opinions though and research the technology and functions the gear offers. If I make denim jeans, it doesn’t matter what logo I put on the back pocket, they are still denim jeans. If I want a tube microphone, ribbon tweeter monitors or a discrete class A preamp, all products in those categories will use the same technology, but some will be mass manufactured, some made by hand, some will have a better frequency response and some will just rely on their “back pocket logo” to pull on the heart strings of consumerism.

Choose the products that are right for you and offer you the tools that you need to be creative so to put your individual stamp on the music you make. Technology is advancing daily and more and more options are available to the consumer, but remember, it is all there to get the job done better, or quicker or make what you do easier.

So break away from the herd and approach your work as a one in six billion individual, rather than just another lamb to the slaughter.

TIMELESS MUSIC

Time. A measurement of existence, a constant tied to an event of past, present and future or a common consciousness in which we participate? Without going to into one of those 4am conversations on the theories and ideals of philosophy, science and religion, I still would like to touch on the importance of the way we view time and its significance upon our approach to our activities.

In this current social and economic climate, I am constantly hearing that “times are changing”, well this is obvious is it not? Regardless off the constant fluctuation of exchange rates and the weak pound, the growing unemployment statistics and the divide in social standing between the rich and the not very rich, time is always changing. Fashions and fads come, go and are reinvented. Life starts, life ends and life is created. So how do some of our peers manage to create works that escape the constraints of time and a changing, evolving world?

“A timeless classic”, a common phrase for such works, and one we would be honoured to have associated with anything we create within our lifetimes I’m sure. What is it that allows certain songs, mixes, productions and scores to be remembered and praised long after their creation though? There is not a simple rule or formula to this; there are however some good points for consideration when starting work on your album project or production. So this month is a bit of theory for us to endeavour to put into practise.

A universally appealing track is one that people from different places, races, cultures and ages can relate to in some way. For them to be able to, the track needs to have strength to it and a power to be emotive.

I think as a producer of a project it is essential to recognise early on what the strength of the project is and make this the key feature of the sound and shape of the album. For example, if the singer writes fantastic lyrics, keep the music simple to focus the listeners ear on the words, go for a nice warm sound on the vocals, maybe using a ribbon mic and tube preamp combination. Add compression to bring the vocal upfront and closer to the listener, but keep a soft knee and try not to make it pump by keeping the release a little slower.

In my opinion, a mistake that is often made in recent times is to over-perfect a vocal line. Whilst some singers can only claim to be so with the help of Melodyne, others that are not so musically challenged should be left to sing songs more freely. In classical recordings, the aim is to capture the performance in the most natural way. When you are listening back to the recording and shut your eyes it should be like you are there, experiencing the drama, excitement, or beauty first hand. I think this should be the same with a good vocalist. The voice after all is another instrument and I think sometimes we are all guilty of not treating it as such sometimes. The emotion of a vocal is really heard when a singer is left to freely express themselves, even if they are straining a little on a high note or singing some notes softer, the little imperfections make it sound real. Of course you can give your singer guidance, but when working with a talented vocalist there is nothing more beautiful than listening to them sing from their heart the way that they feel to express it.

To capture this, try taking a different approach to the recording. Instead of having them standing up with a pop shield and condenser mic, headphones on, lights blaring and shouting instructions down the talk back to them, try creating a more ambient feel. In your live room or recording space, light some scented candles, put some cushions out, turn the lights down and try setting up some room mics instead of just a close mic. Play around with positioning as it will vary dependent on the size and shape of the room. I quite like using a coincident pair towards the corner of the room, facing inwards, with cardiod pick up patterns, and not too close to the wall. Then, if the room allows I also like to use a tube condenser mic on omni pick up placed higher up above the performer, a few feet away and facing downwards slightly angled towards them. Do not be afraid to experiment with different microphones and their placement.

Another important element when doing a project is simplicity. Have a theme for the album that is used by the band / act / producer for inspiration and guidance, sometimes the simplest ideas can create a masterpiece. I also think it’s important to decide whether you are creating songs, or pieces of art. I say this, as a “song” should have a simplistic structure, repetition, and a familiarity to it. These aspects help a song to be “catchy” and memorable. On the other hand, a track that is a piece of “art” should be a statement, a mood, an object, a situation – whatever it is, it should embody that expression fully and be an emotive journey for the listener. To give an example, a timeless and fantastic album of “songs” was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller Album’; a timeless and great album of “art” was Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’.

Whatever you are trying to achieve with your project allow yourself to be creative and experimental, make music that means something to you and enjoy doing it! Don’t be afraid to try out new ideas, even if they don’t work, at least it is a lesson learnt.

There is no key to making great music, but so long as you are making something that you are proud of and that you enjoyed creating, you have already created something timeless in your eyes, regardless of how others view it.

Remember that with each 60 seconds you gain in life is also a minute lost. When you create an album for people to listen to, aim to make their seconds gained a joyful experience and their minutes lost only to fond memories.

BIG AND FAT

Well the festivities are over and we are thrown into another new year of big hopes and aspirations. Although the energy levels, bank balances and Alka Selza tablets feel particularly scarce at the moment, your torso certainly doesn’t against your waistband…

If you feel that it is your mixes and not your waistline that need a little fattening up, then this month it’s all about being big and fat in the mix.

Firstly I think its important to identify what accounts for something sounding ‘big’ or ‘fat’ and then also which instruments are key to achieving a ‘fat’ and ‘weighty’ impression.

When listening to a sound or a complete song, it will only sound ‘fat’ if there is a good representation across the frequency spectrum within the overall sound.

A lack of low frequency content and low mids will have the greatest negative effect, as this will make the song sound thin. Try adding in extra sounds, or give an EQ boost in these areas. For instance, on a vocal line, remember that the note A by middle C on a piano is 440Hz in the frequency spectrum, this means there are bound to be a number of fundamental frequencies around 400 – 500Hz usually varying depending on whether it’s a male or female vocalist, so try giving these a gentle boost. You should then look to boost the surrounding harmonics of this fundamental frequency. For instance, if you make a boost to the vocal line at 400Hz, try a small boost at 200Hz and 800Hz as starting points.

Some of the key frequencies across the spectrum of the mix, where there should be content are 150Hz, 400hz, 800hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz, 7kHz, and 10kHz.

As you notice from the frequencies listed, a lack of high mid and high content can also prevent you from achieving a ‘fat’ sounding mix. This is because aurally, the song will sound smaller and less wide without that high-end sparkle.

Reverb trails and percussion are a nice way of achieving a good sounding sparkly top end that will add space and dimension to your mix.

So once you are aware of which frequencies are important to you, now you need to think about which instruments define your big, weighty sound you are trying to achieve.

Your rhythm contained within your drum track is the backbone of your song, this determines a lot of the feel of the track and its tempo and pattern is usually the key in defining genre of the piece. Within this drum track, making your kick and snare stand out is essential for achieving a ‘fat’ sounding track.

A mistake a lot of people make with kick drums to make them more prominent, is to just turn them up and up until it is actually distorting. Volume is not the answer; neither is limiting the kick to 0dB.

The best way to make a kick sound fatter is to actually layer the sound. If you are recording live drums you can do this by using at least 2 mics on the kick. Try something up close to the skin inside the drum to get the slap or crack of each hit, and then have another placed further back towards the opening of the drum to get the ‘boom’ sound. You will find that using this combination firstly helps you achieve a bigger, weightier sound, but secondly, it also means you have much more control over the sound of the kick by balancing up the ‘slap / crack’ sound with the ‘boom / oomph’ sound.

If you program your drums using either a pattern editor or samples or playing it in as a finger drummer, you can actually use completely different kicks at the same time to layer up your kick sound. When doing this however please be cautious not to choose additional kicks with a long delay on fast tempo music as this could blur the rhythm and make your mix sound muddy.

When you are recording a snare drum live, try using one mic facing down at the top of the snare and then a second mic facing upright towards the bottom of the snare. This will help you capture the ‘crack’ and the ‘crunch’ of the snare hits. Do not forget that due to the polarity of the two mics, you should always reverse the phase of the second microphone when recording. This can usually be done from your console channel or preamp unit. Again if you are programming your drums yourself, you can start layering the snare sound either with other snare hits or maybe a rimshot to really give it a sharp edge and a nice crisp finish.

The other important element is your bassline. A mistake that often occurs is that people go for a very low sub bass as their main bassline. This means that on some playback systems it cannot be heard properly and causes the mix too actually sound thinner on these playback systems. To compensate people end up turning the bass up, which actually causes it to overload on larger playback systems and sound unbalanced. Although sub is important, you should also have some bassline content around 200Hz, so that the melody can clearly be heard and sits on top of your kick drum nicely (kick will probably be around 80-120 Hz). Having space for your kick is essential and the bassline should sit just above it and just underneath it, do not try and turn your kick into your sub content.

If the bassline is a key element of the song then the bigger the frequency content the better, you should even try mirroring the bassline an octave up, but slightly lower in the mix to give it more depth and melody.

Once you have your bottom end nicely fattened, repeat the concept of layering sounds throughout the piece. Pack up vocals with harmonies and backing vocals, Fatten up guitar lines by adding the same hook but with a bit of distortion and add to string parts by adding pad sounds and individual string parts to make it all appear to sound bigger.

Once you have finished, use some multiband compression or mix bus compression to glue everything together into a nice solid finish and try adding a smile curve EQ boost – a gentle lift in the lows, a cut in the mids and a lift in the highs. This technique is commonly used on HiFi stereos to produce a more sonically exciting finish to a piece of music.

Combining these techniques means your mix will soon be saturated with ‘fat’. Enjoy.

FLOW OF LIFE

It always seems to be an unsettled time of year around now. Everyone is reflecting on the year that has nearly passed and wondering how it went so quickly, then they are anticipating what is to come in the following year and how it can be an improved one for all.

For me personally, it always seems to be a time of many births, many deaths and many relationship breakdowns, a real rollercoaster of emotions.

Sometimes it is good to take a step back and ponder the cycle of nature, that every ending is just another beginning, a continuous flow of change within a lifespan that inevitably ends and signals the start of something new.

For me, a good album has its own lifespan too. Each track tells a story and the album is carefully compiled to allow the next track to be the transition to the new beginning.

This is why I think it is important to try and get a body of work done around the same time when working on an album; also you’re approach to mixing an album should differ to that of when you are just mixing a single.

Before you sit down in your slightly deflated black leather engineering chair to embark on your latest mixing venture, it is good to make some notes about the overall “feel” and “direction” that you require in the mix. Continuity is important in an album, although a musically eclectic album is nice, it should sound like the same artist in the same studio.

First of all, I would start by mixing what you feel or have been told is the leading track, the first single for the project. Not only will this get you in the ‘vibe’ of the project with a good strong single, but you can also use it as a benchmark for the sound of the album. If it proves to be a popular song or release, listeners will not then be disappointed or unpleasantly surprised with the rest of the tracks when listening to the album.

Your lead track should be your sonic template for the album so if it has a sense of ‘space’ and ‘air’ to it, this should be what you strive for with the other tracks too.

Adding a gentle boost in the highs and high mids of your key instruments will help with this ‘air’. Take for instance your main guitar hook and try doing some sweeps around the top frequencies using a peak filter to find the airy sweet spots, this is something you can then easily recreate in other tracks to get the same feel.

Another thing you should do is create some of your own presets on your plug ins and make notes of favourite settings on your outboard too. If you are mixing a band that uses the same bass sound in every song, or has the same vocalist, try loading your preset EQ and Compressor settings from the first song onto every other track. Although they may not work on each track, there is a good chance you will only need to make small adjustments to get the right sound and some continuity.

The same should be done with reverbs too. Play around with your outboard or your plug ins and find a reverb that suits the lead vocalist of the album. You can then use this as your base reverb for every track. Try choosing a reverb trail that is not too long or too defused, maybe a plate style reverb or small hall that sounds quite warm. This will then be your starting point for your vocal. If any tracks need a longer trail or a different style of effect, you can then layer this on top of your base reverb so that you still have the same base sound to your vocal.

Something I like to do and that can be quite fun, is too have a theme sound for the album. This may be a particular sample, a synth sound or a bass drum that you use throughout the album. This is something which producers like Timberland tend to do and was seen on his last “Shock Value” album.

You should not over use it and in some tracks it may be that it is hardly noticeable. What it creates though is a comfort to the listener by giving a regular and familiar sound that even if they are not conscious of it, the ear will pick it up and become accustomed and receptive to what it is hearing. For you as a mixer / producer it also helps give you a brand identity that others can recognize you for.

When mixing an album, also don’t be scared to do some editing. If you think that track 4 really does not need the epic 2-minute guitar solo, cut it down to the best 16 bars if that sounds better and fits the track more suitably. Also understand the significance of the first and last 10 seconds of each track. The first 10 seconds need to excite and interest the listener enough to keep listening and the last 10 seconds need to leave the listener wanting more and ready for the next track. If you are just being asked to mix the project and were not involved in the production or the actual song writing, then try to at least make the first and last 10 seconds sonically interesting if you cannot make any actual changes to the structure or instrumentation.

As you approach the end of your album mix, do enlist a professional mastering engineer to finish the job. Do not spend all that time making a near perfect mix, for it to then be poorly mastered. Although the mastering engineer will work their magic in ensuring the album flows and is properly balanced; it is a good idea to treat each track with the same final brush of sonic gold to give it a unified and tidy finish. This can be done either with a little mix bus compression over the master stereo tracks, or by summing each track through an analogue board or summing mixer.

Make sure you always try and enjoy the life of the album, and although there are bound to be stressful times in the mix, look back on the happy memories and be proud of what you’ve achieved. As this project ends, so with it sees the start of your next venture on the horizon, and so it continues…

QUICK FIX TRICKS

So the world is watching and the countdown to the US elections is on. By the time this is published a decision will have been reached. In the mean time, Obama and McCain are battling over how they should help ‘main street’ and either bail out or crack down on ‘wall street’, Gordon Brown is trying to hold on to ‘downing street’ long enough to meet the new president and Sarah Palin is well… who knows.

Politics in some ways is a little like the magician David Blaine, high risks, a little trickery, some mind games and a lot of media attention and money over some unconvincingly important stunts. A little magic may indeed be needed to step up to the role of the new US president, the selected candidate has a lot to prove and people will expect quick fixes.

Although thankfully on a much smaller and less catastrophic scale a bit of magic and a quick fix is something that is often asked of the mix engineer. A number of friends of mine say they are often handed low quality recordings and poorly arranged and mixed projects that they are then expected to turn into a top ten hit by 4pm the next day for a fraction of what was once the going rate.

So are quick fix mixes possible? The truth appears to be that they are becoming a frequent reality as deadlines tighten, budgets are cut and the general quality control barriers of music creators seem to open. Maybe this is in part inspired by our MP3 generation listeners, maybe by lack of experience from artists and producers or maybe as people just rally around in search of the next project, next hit, and next pay cheque.

This month I will give a few simple quick fix suggestions to automatically enhance your recordings.

The simplest way to quickly improve a sound recording is by giving the stereo mix a little treatment. The best way to do this in my mind is too add a little compression to help ‘glue’ the mix together and a little EQ to ‘sweeten’.

I also think it is good to do this using analogue gear; it seems to add some depth and warmth to the mix. As I have mentioned before, I believe that using analogue gear compared to digital is like the difference in cooking in an oven or in a microwave. Sometimes the microwave can be quicker, cheaper and easier but it just doesn’t ‘taste’ the same as when cooked in an oven. I guess this kind of afterthought analogue or rear-end treatment for you DAW mixes, is like cooking a jacket potato in the microwave and then finishing it in the oven to get some flavour and texture.

So, try using a stereo compressor / EQ on the outputs from your DAW. If you don’t have a dedicated EQ, try using your desk EQ’s if you have some and see if they have a nice sound to them. Obviously it depends on the material for exact settings, but an easy lift can be created via a ‘smile curve’ EQ boost. This entails a boost in the low, a cut in the mids and a boost in the highs. Usually this will quickly add some depth and sparkle to the mix.

As for compressor settings, this depends what condition the material you have is in. If you are pre – mastering, try not to over-compress and squeeze all dynamic range from the song, but you can afford to whack up the ratio a bit if your material allows it without sounding too condensed.

I find that if you do use a lot of compression it sounds nicer on the ear to keep a soft knee, with short attack and slow release. Always A/B what you are doing frequently and be careful not to just use a compressor as a fancy volume knob.

If you have access to all the files, but no time to mix it over again, then the are other ways that you can give the mix a little TLC. Often, poorly mixed tracks can sound very thin, boxy and muddy. The first thing I would check is reverb. Is there enough? A lack of reverb can make a track sound unnatural and boring with no space definition. Try making quick groups of your drums, guitars, strings and vocals. Then set up a separate reverb aux for each group. This way you can very quickly add some suitable reverb trails to the different instrument components, be careful not to loose intelligibility though so keep reverb times shorter, less pre delay and less diffusion if you need to.

If you have a console or summing mixer, you could also bring the track out through there to sum in analogue. This will tend to give an impression of greater width, depth and separation in the mix. Combining summing with compression and EQ will produce good results so look out for summing mixers that have insert points to make this easier.

A quick fix is expected from everyone when the pressure is on, and although quick fixes don’t always address the problem (in this case a poor recording or mix), they aim to make it better in the interim and then earn the trust to fix the problem in the future.

AUDIO EQUITY

Well one could be forgiven for feeling a little cautious within the current climate of credit crunches, stock market crashes and fluctuating exchange rates. Although we are yet to see the overall effect of these times on our individual lives and our industry, you could say that we have been here before and that the economy is just continually moving in phases.

Everything around us is constantly in movement, whether its share prices, emigration of people, electrons, or planet earth herself. Therefore movement is a natural phenomenon and energy that needs to be respected and utilised. The use of movement and energy in a mix can breathe life, excitement or just space into your creations.

Subtle and clever use of level automation, pan automation and ducking can create a sense of excitement and creative flow in a track. Too much movement however could leave you listener feeling like they’ve just spent a day intoxicated at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, so this month I am focusing on some subtle tips that could be of help.

Once you have recorded all your parts and have got the basic mix together (level matching, EQ and compression, reverbs etc) then you can start paying attention to the energy and movement in the track.

I always like to start with drums, percussion and bass. Once you have your drums and bass gelling together nicely it sets a whole framework for your track, a bit like the foundations of a building.

Make a map of your song, which gives a story board structure of what is happening in terms of verse / chorus pattern and any lyrical or musical signposts that you would like to highlight.

Try pushing levels of the main percussive elements up in the chorus and back down in the verse to give the chorus a ‘lift’, or automate a percussive element to mute during the verse and then introduce it for the chorus and/or middle 8.

I would aim to keep your bass level and constant throughout and panned centre. If you find the bass to mask your kick drum, instead of turning down, try using the EQ methods of ‘cutting a space’ that I spoke of last month.

If your kick is still competing for attention with other instruments, try using some sidechaining. Insert a compressor over the Low Synth track (for example) and connect a copy of the kick drum track to the compressors sidechain.

The kick drum will now act as the trigger for the compressor, so that every time the kick sounds the low synth track will be compressed. This effect works particularly well in dance music, but the method can also be used effectively in other genres and with different instruments.

You can also create the effect using a gate in ‘ducking’ mode. Simply connect the gate in the same way as you would the compressor with the kick drum track again connected to the sidechain input. The gate will then close each time the kick drum sounds, momentarily lowering the volume of (in this case) the low synth part.

Playing around with parts like pads, rhythm guitars, strings and synths that may not be the main elements of your track can be great fun. Try treating parts as ‘themes’. Use your storyboard map of your track and plan when each theme should be introduced or taken away and how long it should be apparent for, then automate the theme into your track’s storyboard using level, mute and pan automation to achieve it as you feel necessary.

Try using a synth sweep part as a signpost. By this I mean create a track with a swirling sweep sound on it that lasts maybe a couple of bars, then place this part before each chorus. Have it relatively low in the mix, automating it to ascend in level as the chorus approaches, maybe panning from left to right and back to centre. This informs the listener that something is happening or about to happen, and helps create a dynamic energy flow within your track.

Automating reverb time and delays to sound or increase on end phrases also helps create motion in your mix, also try using a reverse reverb at the beginning of a phrase to introduce a vocal.

If your main vocal is getting a little washed out with reverb then try another little trick, insert a compressor over your reverb return channel(s) and insert a copy of the dry main vocal into the sidechain of the compressor so that as the vocal sounds the reverb wet signal is compressed and controlled a little to make space for the dry vocal, helping it to be less washed-out sounding with better intelligibility.

Creating movement in your mix can give it the professional sounding edge, which could help earn some extra pounds even in the current financial climate. After all, isn’t money what makes the world go round?

AUDIO AQUATICS

British summertime… doesn’t it make you proud? August 2008 and I am battling down the street with my winter jacket zipped up and my umbrella struggling to stay intact - rather than sporting a summery little outfit, I more resemble an Eskimo trying to launch into the first ever umbrella-aided flight.

However, all the rain has meant more time indoors to play around in my studio, and inspired me to pay some special attention to the washed out and watery sound of reverbs. After some long listening sessions, I was actually surprised to learn how many of my favourite tracks had quite a large reverb on the main vocals. This then lead me to think about vocal processing in general.

These days it is rare to hear a vocal that hasn’t been heavily processed and our modern ears have become accustomed to almost synthesised sounding main vocals, especially in modern pop, dance and R&B records.

This month, I am going to talk about some of the tricks producers and engineers use to get this very processed vocal sound.

One essential piece of kit if you are working with vocals, is what I call the ‘talent editor’ also known as pitch correction. My favourite piece of software to do this with is Melodyne. This tool basically allows you to draw or play in the melody that you want, it can automatically correct any notes that are a few tones out and it is very easy to drag notes around to create variations and harmonies. You can use this to snap your lead vocal into the correct pitch and also create some nicely layered thick backing vocals for the chorus.

The correct harmonies for a song will always vary but as a starting point try using thirds and fifths above or below from the root note.

Once you have your perfectly pitched lead and newly created BV’s, it is time for some compression.

When Madonna’s pop-dance ‘Ray of Light’ album came out, many were surprised at how heavily compressed her vocals were on the album, to the point where the vocal was so upfront she almost had her head on your lap (a figure of speech gentlemen). It is little wonder then that since this, nearly every dance and pop record released features a vocal sitting on top of the mix - with its dynamics squeezed as tight as Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s favorite PVC pants.

If you like the ‘pumping’ sound of the compressor on some dance tracks you can re-create this by setting your compressor to a relatively high ratio with a fast attack and a fast release. Move the threshold down until you are getting a significant amount of signal being compressed and then use your make up gain to level match your compressed vocal with the original. The process of the compressor being activated to such an extreme level will create the pumping effect as it kicks in and out quickly and to an extreme setting. For a smoother compressed vocal, change your release to be a bit slower and try using a soft knee.

Now you have your perfectly pitched, dynamically monophonic vocal, it is time for some frequency manipulation!

An exciter is a great tool for this. Although I am not a fan of using them on entire mixes, running individual instruments through one can be advantageous, especially with vocals. The best place to use them in my mind is on the backing vocals, go for a really ‘airy’ sound to give BV’s a spacey sound and help separate them from the lead vocal. If you use an exciter on the main vocal too, have something a little less obvious or use less of the processed sound in the mix.

As an exciter is basically an EQ that boosts several frequencies, so if you have already used a channel EQ it may be worth going back and checking if anything needs adjusting, alternatively, you may need to insert an EQ after the exciter in the chain to allow you to cut any problematic frequencies that the exciter has boosted.

Another popular tool in dance and R&B is a vocoder. Whether you use a software or hardware based vocoder, you need to play in the melody that you want to use to activate the effect. A lot of records have the vocal track doubled with one of them being manipulated in this way to create an artificial chorus effect and tuneful / rhythmic drone.

To finish off your vocal it is time to choose a reverb. This is very important and you should play around with a few settings until you are happy with what you hear. Always listen with the vocal soloed and in the mix, as what works on its own might sound awful when everything is playing at the same time.

Something I like to do is use 2 reverbs on my lead vocal. Firstly I will use a warm plate reverb with a relatively short reverberation time, just to add some depth; then for my second reverb I will use a larger hall style reverb with a little pre delay and a longer trail. The combination of these two tends to add depth and space and it is easy to control the mix using the effects / aux returns. If your vocal sounds too washy or you are loosing intelligibility, try decreasing the reverb time, or send less signal to the unit or keep the return lower in the mix.

If you combine all these methods together you will soon have a polished to perfection vocal that would make even Rodney Jerkins proud.

So when the weather is washing out your BBQ plans, stay in and be awash with effects processors instead, and satisfy your audio appetite.

EQUALITY AND EQUALISATION

This month I am writing this article whilst stranded in a small airport in Indiana; it’s a definite anticlimax to an inspiring trip to visit a pro audio retailer out here who is on the forefront of integrated modern technology.
This trip has elevated to me the significance of organisation. A seamless operation can only be so if all the cogs are turning the right way, at the right time. Although my current cog (the airport) is definitely not turning anywhere right now, the operation I witnessed today at the retailers premises was worthy of an award for innovation.
Each department runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible, but its success relies entirely on the other departments also playing their part and working effectively.

I feel this concept of every part playing an integral role is something that can also be reflected in audio production and mixing. I think we all can sometimes be guilty of over estimating a single part or instruments importance, but severely under estimate each individual parts significance.

A great sounding mix is like ‘Amnesty International’ for audio, making sure each part is heard and has a fair share of the frequency spectrum. Poor sounding mixes end up being like the first 3 rows at the Glastonbury main stage where everyone is fighting for space and you end up quite literally with a big muddy mess.

Using this principal you should endeavour to sculpt a place for each instrument within the sound canvas of your work.

To do this, firstly you need to understand the frequency range and the significance of each frequency band.

The general frequency range that you are used to having access to on equipment runs from around 20Hz – 20kHz, the ear however is most sensitive to frequencies between 40Hz and around 12-14kHz, although with age your ability to hear high frequencies will diminish - try playing some pure tones at 7kHz, 10kHz, 12kHz, 14kHz and 15kHz and see how sensitive your ears are, if you discover that you do not hear anything over 12kHz for example, you should be careful that your mixes are not too ‘toppy’ where you have been trying to overcompensate.

A well-balanced mix will contain a presence from across the frequency spectrum, however too much energy from a particular band can have a major effect on the overall perception of the mix.

For instance, if there is too much low frequency content (below around 300Hz), the mix can sound ‘boomy’ or ‘muddy’. Too little of these frequencies however and the mix can sound ‘thin’ and lack ‘power’ or ‘energy’.

Too much energy in the low mids (around 300Hz – 2kHz) can cause a really ‘middy’ sound which lacks drive and excitement. When there is a lack of low mids, the mix will sound ‘thin’ and a little ‘empty’.

Finally the high mids and high frequencies are generally adding sparkle and a sense of space to your mix. A lack of content from as low as 2kHz can cause a mix to sound dull, whereas too much tops and your mix can sound overly ‘bright’ and ‘scratchy’.

One of the most important frequencies is 1kHz, if there is no 1kHz content, your mix will sound unnervingly empty or ‘missing something’. However this frequency can also cause a number of problems, as in most mixes all lead components like vocal, guitar, piano and strings will normally have high 1kHz content.

A little trick is to cut a space for each instrument – let them all be heard. Firstly, decide which element is the most significant (perhaps you want to draw attention to the very talented vocalist, or you want to transfix people onto the melodic guitar hook), once you have decided, boost that part by around 6dB at 1kHz using a relatively high Q setting (maybe around 6 or 7) and then cut the 1kHz frequency from the other instruments using a tighter Q of maybe 8 or 9 at around less 3dB.

To get the best from the other lead instruments boost the mid frequency to +12dB and sweep round the frequencies until you find the most desirable point / sweet spot. You will then use this frequency in the same way you used the 1kHz frequency for your lead (boost it and then cut same frequency on the other instruments).

Whilst you are doing this exercise equally feel free to cut any unwanted frequencies that you hear whilst doing the sweeps. I find that cutting frequencies can often be much more beneficial than boosting them.

By using this principal of equality in audio your mixes will soon be embracing their newfound freedom! Although you’re unlikely to receive a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, there’s always the Grammy’s…

So my saying for the week is “too many over estimate importance, yet underestimate significance”.

Think about it and happy mixing! Peace!

UP TOP

This month its all about what you have up top… not in terms of your new seventies fling back hair do (or not new in some cases), but your front end.

It is common sense that in order to get the best sounding mix, you need to have the best sounding recordings to begin with. If you can get a quality signal onto “tape” in the first place, it prevents the need for this endless quest that some people undergo to ‘save’ the mix.

One of the first things I was taught, was the age old industry slogan that “you cant polish a terd” and this is very true (although some vocalists we’ve all come across really try to push the boundaries on that making you salvage more than you want to and they themselves hoping ‘autotune’ or ‘melodyne’ will turn them into the next Aretha… hmmm…).

EQing a poorly recorded signal can only get rid of some of the unwanted frequencies, and can only cut and boost what is already there so if your signal lacks low end and warmth, an EQ plug in will not be a quick fix solution.

If you are recording a vocal in a home studio you have further considerations. The first one being the actual recording space you are using. If your studio room does not have a nice sound and is not acoustically treated, using a very sensitive condenser microphone with a hypercardiod, figure 8 or omni pick up pattern may pick up unwanted and undesirable room noise. Instead opt for a cardiod pattern and try and position the vocalist in a suitable area of the room where the reflections are likely to be less. If you have a problem with a condenser mic picking up too much background noise, especially when you boost the gain to try and get a better signal to “tape”, perhaps try using a dynamic microphone instead.

When using a close mic technique with a cardiod pattern Dynamic mic, it tends to be very directional and should pick up more of the direct sound source (in this case a vocal) and less of the room noise. You can also benefit from the proximity effect taking place on weaker vocals, which is where bass tones sound more prominent as the mic is closer to the sound source. This effect is good for female vocals and also male vocalists that have a sweet spot in the lower fundamental frequencies.

If you find that even with your favourite condenser mic, you do not have much sensitivity, or the quality / tone of your recorded signal is lacking an apparent ‘space’ or ‘depth’, it is probably the preamp that needs looking at.

With most soundcards, the preamps built in are not of a very high standard in most people’s opinions. If you consider that on a £300RRP soundcard how much is spent on the A/D and D/A converters for one, then the casing, the manufacturing, etc, then per mic pre, it is probably around 50p!

It is definitely worth investing in a good quality mic pre to add to your set up, whether you have a budget soundcard or a more high end interface, a dedicated preamp can offer a good alternative and allows you to have greater flexibility over the quality, tone and depth of your recordings. For people on a tighter budget, channel strips tend to be the best value purchase as you get several functions included on one unit, making it good value for money and more flexible in use.

Going back to my cooking analogy last week, I feel recording and mixing in analogue as opposed to in digital is the difference between cooking in the oven and in the microwave. The microwave might have some fancy touch screen controls and be quicker and easier, but it just doesn’t ‘taste’ the same as when cooked in the oven.

These days, as with cooking, a combination of microwave oven and conventional oven recording and mixing seems to be the answer. Time efficient without sacrificing ‘taste’.

You need to know when to take advantage of different technologies, something that I intend to help with over the months.

Having a nice analogue front end can make a huge difference to your finished sound.

So put some thought into what you have up top and turn your studio heat up to ‘number 11’ (gas mark that is).

COOKING IT UP

Welcome one and all! Each week I will be giving you some insight into the world of sound recording and mixing with some hot tips for you to try out and some general rambles regarding my thoughts on the wonderful world of sound.
So what should you know about me? I’m a big analogue freak, but also a techno-geek so each week I’ll be giving some nerdy advice on using outboard gear and ‘real’ consoles, but also integrating software and hardware set ups to the best effect and some interesting ideas for you to try out.

To really understand me, you should know that for me, mixing is like cooking. Maybe because my two loves in life are food and music (although I would like to stress I do not have a belly reminiscent of a 2nd trimester pregnancy, or wear white socks under my sandals!).

In terms of my concept, the different ingredients in you ‘audio dish’ are of course the instruments, but more importantly the tones and timbres of your sounds which make up your track. You can have all the main ingredients, but it can ‘taste’ bland unless you add the seasoning and maybe a little spice to really bring the dish to life. Also your method of cooking up your audio treat can affect its texture and overall quality. These methods and spices are your effects, panning, and automation. Over the coming months I will also give some advice on the importance of EQ, including practical tips.

By using your panning to add a sense of space to your mix you create a base that slots and molds the sounds into the stereo image. Although basslines and lead vocals should be kept central as general rule, you can play around with the other instruments – don’t be afraid of using some sounds purely to use for panning affects or to add ‘flavor’ to your left or right side soundscape. ‘Autopan’ effects can be fun, but be warned – getting carried away with such could leave your listener feeling a little queasy!

The use of reverb is also very important in your mixing recipe, think of it as the ‘salt’ of the audio world (it makes any bland excuse for a vocalist sound better).

Reverb enables you to blend instruments together and make them sound more life like. Although the ear can adjust to sounds quickly, you will find it infinitely more pleasant to listen to a sound with a little reverb as the ear perceives it as being more natural and is therefore in some way easier to process. Do not over swamp a song with reverb though – especially if it is very polyphonic or at a fast tempo as it can slur the beat structure or main hook.
If you experience difficulty fitting a vocal onto a previously recorded backing track, the use of reverb can really help slot it together, especially if your vocal is heavily compressed.

So just as Great Aunty Mabel had her own special recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding, you too should develop your own special recipe for mixing.

Get in your studio kitchen and play around with your sound flavors, find the best order for you to unleash your creativity in and have a clear goal and end result in mind. Save sounds that you create or favorite and cool effects, also make notes on the best EQ sound for your favorite kick sample or a regular vocalist you work with.

This in time actually gives you a great structure and starting point for all your mixes, as well as your own ‘brand’ sound.

A brand image these days is very important and may just be the defining element that gets you the work and not Bob ‘Audio Knob’ Smith (even though he has a long track record and beard to match).

Try looking at your sounds as flavors. Combining senses like sound and taste can be really useful if you get the hang of it… if that sounds a little too leftfield, then maybe try imaging the sounds as colors on a canvass instead?

So get your aprons on and cook up a feast!