Tidying Up:
After studio recording, you will have a load of tracks and tidying up to do. You want to start by cutting everything down to the actual starting points. Start by soloing each track and then cutting it to each the exact start and end of each track. Then, highlight everything, and move it forward. In between some of the takes, there’ll be some talking so just listen out for it and cut it with the scissors tool. You can leave the drum clicks in, at the start, if you want them in but if not, you can just cut them out too. For a softer end, you’re going to want to fade the track in and out. Do this by right clicking to fade and then drag the end/start how far in you’re wanting to start the fade. Lastly, to make it easier visually, colour the tracks, you do this by clicking “alt” and “c” together. You need to also do this on the mix, bring the mix up using “x”.
Starting Point:
You’re going to want to start with the levels of each track, then pan them, pitch and then add reverb so you can add depth, how far away they are etc. You’re going to want the main vocals the loudest, at the front, and then have keys and guitar follow, then the drums and bass and backing vocals at the back. All of this can be done in the mix, bring the mix up using “x”.
Equaliser:
Equaliser’s cut out the frequencies, or can make them louder, on certain frequencies that you do and don’t want. Corrective EQ can make the instrument sound how it did before the recording, so this takes away the unwanted frequencies. Creative EQ creates a new sound from the recording, steering away from the instruments original sound.
Start by thinking about what frequencies are important to each sound, for example, the kick drum and snare won’t need high frequencies, so you can just roll them straight off. You can move the humps left and right, to adjust frequencies, up and down, to adjust the gain, and the Q point changes how wide they are, which you tend to want them smaller so they don’t over bump onto another bump/frequency.
Balance:
Using the mix, turn all the levels down. Then, 1 by 1, starting with the drums, adjust how loud you think they need to be in the track, don’t forget that the vocals need to be at the front etc, explained under subheading: starting point. Then, you’re going to want to group them into buses, for easier control. Select all the drum tracks and change them from stereo into bus 1. Do they same for guitar, keys and vocals. Then, you can just control the master level of these on the bus track. I didn’t mute any of the tracks, as I moved the sound, because I wanted to hear how they all sounded together and then I’d change the master volumes, if need be.
Reverb:
Drums and guitar tend to have a room kind of reverb/plate reverb. Be careful not to make tracks too wet, too much reverb, because it can sound really hollow. However, the track sounds unfinished if they’re too dry, not enough reverb.
Compressor:
This was probably the hardest to add, because you can’t really hear any difference. However, compressors reduce dynamic waves, so the whole track will sound the same level. This balances out the tracks and makes it more consistent, it’s especially important for vocalists as they tend to vary a lot is levels. Usually use FET and VCA on the drums, and Octo for the vocals. The ratio basically is what frequencies are allowed over the threshold, so if you set it to 2, everything will be halved, or if you set it to 8, everything over the threshold will be 8th. When setting the gain, you’re looking to keep the little line moving at around -6. The attack and release will slightly different for each instrument. For example, on vocals, you’re going to want the attack and release to be slowed, so you can accurately set it, however, for the kick drum, you’ll want the attack faster so you actually hear the hitting of the pedal on the drum. Lastly, what ever DB you lose, you need to add back at the end.
Bounce down the track:
The last thing to do, is to bounce the track down! You’ll need to set your place markers, using the loop line, so you know how long the track is. Then, you click “cmd” and “b” together, making sure the start and end time are right, then bunce it down and save it to a place you can find.
Final Track:
Evaluation:
Knowing how to mix and studio record is really helpful because this means that I can look into recording and self producing, kind of like Billie Eilish and Finesse O’connor. I know how to set up my own equipment, and others, so I can record them all, and I know how to get the cleanest quality on each track. Meaning, I can self produce a professional track and I could be playing everything that’s on the track, as long as I knew how to play the instrument, of course. Also, knowing how to set everything up helped me understand sound and the instruments as a whole, like I know all the parts of a drum now, which I didn’t before.
To start with, remembering which mics went where, was a little challenging, especially for the drums because there’s so much going on. However, as I kept having to set them up, I eventually learnt how to set them up, and it was helpful when I realised I only needed 3 different types of mics, because the overheads are the same and the snare and toms are all the same so it’s just the kick that has a separate one.
I’d say setting the levels was quite easy, once I got my head around all the different buttons on the mixing desk. I was good at remembering that the bass and keys needed DI’ing. I enjoyed mixing the track and cleaning them up. I learnt a lot about this process because I didn’t realise how big of a role the EQ and reverbs played in making the track, and how the compressor made the track sound smooth. It was really interesting learning how many layers go in to perfecting a song.