My Tunes

Tech talk about audio recording and live stage production.
---Hosted by Andrew MacRae & Malcolm Boyce

Re: My Tunes

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:51 am

So Dylan came over for a few minutes last night so that we can work on Sway. We brought the raw tracks into Pro Tools because Logic gives me a full-on headache.

First thing we addressed was the acoustic and classical guitars. They both had something really annoying everytime he'd go to the A minor. It didn't take long to figure out that 110Hz needed to be notched out. It was a pretty specific problem so we could use a narrow Q and not really affect the overall sound of the instruments. Otherwise for EQing we added about 3dB to a high shelf starting around 7-8K to both guitars and to the vocals too. With the vocals though we created a bit of a notch around 6K to keep the sibilance in control although it wasn't really that bad to begin with.

The next thing we did was set up the stereo field. I basically have 3 positions for this L, C and R. I haven't panned something in between those 3 positions in a long time. Some people might but it's not my thing. I panned the classical and acoustic guitars opposite each other, left the cello and the lead vocals in the center and panned the BG vox to the right (that was arbitrary, it could've easily been on the left or in the center.)

With that taken care of the next step was to go over a few compression basics. I took a second to go over the basics of a fixed threshold style compressor (a la 1176.) I showed him that the input basically drove the signal above the threshold and the ratio determined how much gain reduction we'd hear once we get over that threshold. The output is just make-up gain basically... and so forth. He got all that pretty quickly, so we spent to really exploring attack and release. He gets it now. He knows the difference between fast attack and slow attack. Release was a little more subtle but he heard that too. The only thing we added compression to was vocals. We went with the opto mode in Smack! which I particularily like on vocals if I'm staying in the box.

Next step was setting up a plate verb and a delay on aux busses. Up until this point Dylan had been using time based effects like reverb and delay as inserts. I explained to him the numerous reasons why most folks don't. He gets it now and from now on will do them as an aux send. I showed him the value of setting the pre-delay on the plate properly to get amount of separation desired and I showed him how to set up inserts on the aux channel after the plate (like EQ) to affect the sound of the effect getting back to the 2 Bus. We also used a very gentle delay to thicken up the vocals a bit and that was that for time based effects.

Interesting thing to note is that I didn't move any of the faders from zero. It was basically a broom handle mix, and that wasn't intentional necessarily. I will say though that the finishing touch on this will depend on a ride of the lead vocals and the cello. They sometimes fight each other for real estate in the center and a bit of automation would go a long way in that respect.

The end result of the mix is that it's clearer in the low end and the vocals are much more clear and present and the guitars are much more distinct.

Last thing he wanted was to make his mix "louder" so I did slapped Maxim on the 2 Bus. Nothing too crazy though... The Mixing Limiter preset is fairly effective in most cases.

I gave him a reference mix to see if he can duplicate the results in Logic. Once he has then we'll look into some automation for the lead vocals and cello.

This whole process probably took less than 10 minutes once I had all the tracks in Pro Tools. After seeing me work in Pro Tools I think Dylan wanted to give up on Logic. :roll:
"Volume automation takes time. You don't got that kinda time. You could be getting naked with somebody somewhere." -Slipperman

Mathieu Benoit - Fluid Productions
www.fluidaudiogroup.com
www.facebook.com/FluidAudioGroup
User avatar
Mathieu Benoit
Drumwaiter
 
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:55 pm
Location: Saint John, New Brunswick

Re: My Tunes

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:56 am

So, I took an hour yesterday and finished the mix. Haven't had that much fun in a while.

Lots of automation, so much that I almost wanted to have multiple faders set up so that I could do two rides in one pass. The automation was pretty heavy between the lead vocals and the cello especially. The best way to have done that would have ben both of them in one pass, since one affects the other but I chose to tackle the cello first, get the cello out of the way of of the vocals, and then do the vocals to make sure every nuance poked through just enough. Then I spent some time fine tuning the balance between the two. One thing I noticed was that the cello played more notes while there was vocals then it did in between the words, so the cello automation was a big part of getting the mix to sit right since certain notes live in the same range as the vocals.

Andrew veto'd my arbitrary BG vocal panning, so I brought that back to center. He basically told me to stop being an idiot and put them in the center where they belonged. Telling me to stop being an idiot is a strong argument so I let him win.

Best advice Andrew gave me on this one though was to explore the stereo field with my time based effects on the guitars since they are hard-panned left and right. It's actually something that he had shown me months ago on a project we were co-producing but I totally forgot about it. Basically, if you have an acoustic guitar panned hard right, then compliment it with time based effects like verbs and delays that are hard-panned to the opposite side. I'm nowhere near mastering this delicate art but I did spend a few minutes exploring that concept with the classical and acoustic guitars. As with any new concept, it's easy to overdo it when it's new and fresh, and I'm hoping I didn't take it too far, but it's definitely helped make the guitars sit a lot better in the mix (but I'll let Andrew be the judge I guess.)

Bottom line, BG Vox belong in the center (unless it's a Bon Jovi record and you're Ritchie Sambora) and I still need Andrew's $1000 reverb and delay course.
"Volume automation takes time. You don't got that kinda time. You could be getting naked with somebody somewhere." -Slipperman

Mathieu Benoit - Fluid Productions
www.fluidaudiogroup.com
www.facebook.com/FluidAudioGroup
User avatar
Mathieu Benoit
Drumwaiter
 
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:55 pm
Location: Saint John, New Brunswick

Re: My Tunes

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:59 pm

After careful consideration I've decided that I think "Never Stopped Loving You" might pass my patented "Would this song sound right on an episode of Grey's Anatomy" test. It's a good sign!
"Volume automation takes time. You don't got that kinda time. You could be getting naked with somebody somewhere." -Slipperman

Mathieu Benoit - Fluid Productions
www.fluidaudiogroup.com
www.facebook.com/FluidAudioGroup
User avatar
Mathieu Benoit
Drumwaiter
 
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:55 pm
Location: Saint John, New Brunswick

Previous

Return to Sounds Good...

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests

cron