One of the things I’ve become interested in lately is creating realistic sounds from samples. This basically means creating organic sounds as if they were recorded from a live performance or a naturally occurring sound phenomena from static and rather lifeless sounds or samples. This quick tip I am about to show you regarding kick drums can be extended to any drum sound or any other sound type for that matter.
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We all know recordings that are out-of-phase wreck havoc on mixes. As such, these two tips I am about to share are a bit ironic in that they purposefully create phase issues for positive effect. So read on for two quick tips for the price of one.
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In this segment of our mix down tutorial, we are going to begin to look in depth into depth. Depth within any mix and listening situation is paramount to proper sonic understanding. Much like we see in 3D, we hear in 3D and taking out any one of these dimensions only serves to create a flat and unnatural sound. As such, the most common tools which give the illusion of depth (reverb and delay) become an important and necessary part of mixing.
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Ever found yourself wanting to add more presence and definition to the attack phase of your kicks and feeling you’ve run out of options when EQ and dynamic effects just won’t do? In this brief write up, we’ll look at a little known technique of using a generally unwanted artifact produced by noise gates to get your kick’s attack sounding punchy and clear.
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In one of my previous mixing tutorials I briefly touched on the subject of proper gain structure within Logic (and all DAWs for that matter) but did not go in depth as to some of the concept’s finer points. In this quick tip, we will take a look at a few reasons why it is necessary to maintain a proper gain structure even within the 32-bit floating point architecture which most DAWs employ.
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The argument of analogue vs. digital is one that is probably not new to anyone here and one which will probably never be definitively answered (especially with many of the great analogue emulations coming out these days). But what can you do if you want to achieve warm analogue sounds without putting up the cash for the analogue tracking equipment? In this quick tip, we will look at one way of giving your ‘in the box’ mixes a warm ‘out of the box’ feel by emulating an analogue tracking session.
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Sorry for the long delay in continuing this series. I just moved across the country which took a bit more time and effort than I had originally hoped. In getting back on track with this tutorial, we are going to begin to look at some interesting ways of setting up our mix routing to maximize our mix-down flexibility; allowing us to shape our sounds into something with a more personal and artistic feel. As with any artistic endeavor, many of the settings and choice of effects shown here are going to be largely subjective, but much of the routing and underlying principals will help give you a solid jumping off point in making your mixes and sounds more diverse, interesting and personal.
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Among the most underrated of mixing tools is the noise gate. It can do wonders for cleaning up loose sounds and emphasizing various aspects of a sound’s dynamics. A lesser known fact is that it can be used as a unique creative processing tool. In this tip we will look at one way of doing this by combining Logic’s noise gate with some creative routing techniques in order to create a dynamic auto panner.
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In this quick tip, we are going to look at a few ways of playing with the timing of drum patterns to give the illusion that a standard drum ostinato is speeding up or slowing down in time.
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Although compressors are probably the most important element in the mixing toolbox (after equalizers), a lot of ambiguity and confusion surround them as their parameters and how they effect incoming audio are more subtle.
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If you've been thinking about recording music or dabbling in audio engineering, then kick-start the process by grabbing a copy of Björgvin's book and start learning how you can record great music with whatever equipment you've got!
Just getting started? Start with our basix tutorials on the fundamentals. View All Basix Tutorials
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