![]() ![]() If you wish to add some form of global processing to the drums (I often use Noveltech's Character enhancer plug-in and maybe some overall compression), the subgroup option may be best, but keep in mind that if you have a reverb unit or plug-in being fed from sends on the individual drum tracks, this will need to be returned to the same group, otherwise the reverb level won't change when you change the overall drum part level. If you do this in a DAW, remember to ensure that there is plug-in delay compensation for the groups as well as the individual tracks. The other way is to create an audio subgroup and route all your drums via that group, just as you would on a typical analogue studio console. There are two ways to do this in a typical DAW, one of which is to group the faders so that when you move one, the others move proportionally. The obvious example is the drum kit, which may have as many as a dozen mics around it or multiple tracks of supplementary samples, and you clearly don't want to have to move a dozen faders every time you wish to adjust the overall drum kit level. Now that modern DAWs are capable of recording huge numbers of tracks, modern productions seem to want to use them all. You might find your mix initially seems unmanageable, but you can make life much easier by separating key elements of the mix into logical subgroups that can be controlled from a single fader. Any gated drum track tends to sound very unnatural in isolation as the spill comes and goes, but once the overheads and other close mics are added in, you'll find you can't hear the gates or edits at all. Toms tend to resonate all the time, so this stage is important. It's usually easy to identify the 'real' hits in the waveform display even when there is a lot of spill, and if you're unsure, you can always audition the section just to confirm you're not cutting something you should be keeping. Where a real drum kit is part of the mix, either gate the tom mics or use your waveform editor to physically cut out all the space between tom hits. My next step is to mute or delete any unwanted sections, such as the chair squeaking before the acoustic guitar starts or the finger noise on the electric guitar before the first note is played. Most voices have little below 100Hz so use low cut to remove unwanted bass frequencies.Ĭut below 80Hz to reduce unnecessary bassy cabinet boom. If the track uses software instruments, it makes sense to freeze them, or bounce them to audio, once you've verified the sound is OK, as that frees up CPU power for the plug-ins you may need while mixing. If you did the original recording, you may have done this already, though in the case of a DAW, the arrange window usually serves well enough as a virtual track sheet if you remember to label the tracks. While doing this, you'll need to create a track sheet if one doesn't already exist, listing what parts are on what tracks. ![]() If you still use analogue tape (we know where you live!), you may also want to check for dropouts. Whether you're using a hardware recorder or a computer-based DAW, your first job is to play through the recorded material, soloing individual tracks to check there are no problems such as clicks, pops, buzzes or overload distortion. In this month's Mix Rescue, meanwhile (see pages 44-53), Mike Senior introduces some of the more advanced techniques that are used in modern rock music. In this article, I'll be looking at the basic skills you need to know in order to get a mix together, and drawing on advice from some of the biggest names in the business. Mixing is a huge subject, and in this issue of Sound On Sound, we're hoping to have something to say about it both to beginners and more experienced engineers. ![]() A well played, well arranged piece of music is always going to be a lot easier to mix than a session where nobody has thought very much about the arrangements and the sounds being used. The bit in between is often mostly about staying focused, watching levels and making tea! Of course, mixing never takes place without a recording stage, and what you record will have a huge influence on how smoothly, or otherwise, the mixing session is going to proceed. The key is never to lose sight of the basic principles.įor me, the two most enjoyable parts of the entire recording process are the 'getting the sounds right' stage, where I'm choosing and setting up microphones, and the final mixing stage. For the newcomer, mixing a multitrack recording can seem overwhelmingly complicated. ![]()
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