This post focuses on an experiment with my new Focusrite Liquid Mix, with which I mixed and mastered a song of mine that was in need of polishing.
First of all, I will be out of town until the 19th… meaning that I won’t be making any posts here at TSB until then. But, I thought I’d offer you something to make up for it: free music!
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This post focuses on the use of analog tape’s warm, unique compression as an effect.
When engineers and producers started to make the switch from analog to digital, they found that digital was not only cleaner sound, but it was also somewhat unforgiving. Most producers were quite fond of ‘driving’ the tape a bit by sending it slightly higher levels than the tape was normalized for. Turns out that the sound produced by this overdriving was a subtle compression resulting from the saturation of the magnetic medium. If you try to throw signal at digital above and beyond what it is normalized for, you’ll end up with brick-wall distortion. This is one of the reasons why tape is considered by many to be warmer and ‘fatter’ sounding. Drums, in particular, work extremely well with tape because the compression allows for a rounding of the transients and a certain punch not typically found in the digital domain. I know some engineers who still track drums to 2 inch tape.
Digital captures exactly what it’s given, whether good or bad. As a result, piping in warm, punchy signal from an analog tape machine will be captured warm and punchy. So, if you have access to a high quality tape machine, why not take advantage of it?
This post focuses on the use of predelay to allow reverb to be added to a sound without muddying it up too much.
A lot of producers are really reverb shy these days. It’s true that reverb can really date material… it was used so much in the 80s and 90s that a lot of what gives modern music its edge is its dryness. You’ll find that simply plopping a reverb effect on a track with often decrease its clarity or, in the case of vocals, its intelligibility. One way to account for this is to reduce the mix or length of the reverb. But sometimes you really want a long reverb tail and a really wet sound. What to do?
This post focuses on the classic challenge of how to record a band in a single room and not have it sound completely awful.
Lots of us have small production studios and tons of bands have single room practice spaces. Inevitably the question arises: “How can I record the band live in a single room and not have it all turn to mush!?” There are some strategies for accomplishing decent results from this situation and, although it won’t sound like a record that was recorded in a multi-room facility or overdubbed, for some music that’s for the best. It’s an incredible challenge that can be really rewarding.
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This post. focuses on the secret rock mixing practice of using a DeEsser on overheads.
Rock overhead tracks are downright scary. Many rock drummers constantly wash out their cymbals and play in the studio with ‘live’ cymbals that have too much presence, designed to cut through stage noise. EQing the cymbals leaves you with mush and a loss of clarity and sheen. What is an engineer to do? A little known secret of the pros is to use a de-esser (essentially a special purpose multiband compressor) to cut down on the sybillance.
This post focuses on using delays to subtly add or change the energy of a sound.
I’m a big fan of delays. They add a lot of the depth and texture that people usually grab reverbs to achieve without taking up as much of the space. This distinction helps avoid sandboxing your mixes in the 80s and 90s sound (unless you’re going for that, of course). Delays also can dramatically change the feel of a sound, particularly with drums, in very subtle ways. Often a delay can be used to add energy in a way such that the addition isn’t obvious, but when you remove the effect it’s apparent that something was changed. The original vocal effect was a 15 or 30 ips tape delay, after all (heard all over John Lennon recordings, for instance).
This post focuses on the use of piezo sensors and pickups in pro audio applications.
Most people don’t think of piezo technology very often. Basically, piezoelectric sensors involve using mechanical vibrations against the sensor to create a signal. It’s a unique way to generate sound and signal, meaning that it can be used in applications where traditional sound capturing devices don’t work well. In fact, sometimes piezo sensors are called contact microphones. Some common applications include acoustic guitar pickups and drum triggers, but there really is no reason why you couldn’t use piezo sensors anywhere that produces vibration (and therefore, sound).
This post is going to focus on using compression on sends vs. compression on inserts in order to retain fidelity while adding punch.
Throwing up an insert on a track is an obvious way to control the dynamics of the track or to add punch. Unfortunately, sometimes adding compression to the sound itself dulls the high-end or introduces undesirable distortions, such as in the case of overhead cymbals or piano. One way to achieve the effect of punch or sustain without compromising the fidelity is send a copy of the signal to stereo send/aux with the desired compression effect on its insert and blend to taste.
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