The Art Of Mixing (A Arte da Mixagem) - David Gibson

do the first video introduction to visual representations of imaging what makes a great mix introduces you to our framework for displaying sounds visually we'll map out how each piece of equipment in the control room affects imaging the apparent placement of sounds between the speakers we begin by mapping out the space between the speakers then we'll explain the mapping of sound to visuals once we have built a visual framework we can then use it to explore all of the different types of mixes in the world then you'll have a good perspective on which to base your own values the second video visual representations of studio equipment is an overview of the basic functions of each piece of equipment in the studio using the visuals we will explore some of the most basic functions of reverb delays flanging choruses compression and noise gates doing this serves a couple of purposes first you learn the basic functions of the equipment second you get to know the details of mapping of audio functions to visuals so that when we show mixes in real time you can see them in more detail also this will make it easier to explain subtle details and mixes now that we have visually mapped out all the equipment in the studio in the third video musical dynamics created in the control room we can now show how all of the equipment can be used together to create different styles of mixes we can show the common structures of mixes used for different styles of music and different types of songs once you see all that can be done in the studio to create different types of mixes it gives you a perspective on all the possibilities available hi my name is david gibson i know everything about recording i've been doing it since the beginning of time of course this isn't true no one knows everything about recording because every session every project is a completely new experience it's kind of like life you never know what you're going to get we can only do the best with each situation and who knows what the best is there's no god of recording out there grading us therefore i'm not here to tell you how to record a certain way each mix should be based on the song you're mixing i'm not here to tell you how to mix like me i'm here to help you to prepare yourself to handle the most unlikely type of situation possible i'm not going to tell you the one way to mix i want to show you different ways that people mix so you will have a choice i'm here to help you do the most difficult job of all to make art out of technology my main goal is to give you a perspective on how it all works together how you use technical equipment to create art then we will explore the different values that different people have for recording and mixing different styles of music and songs wow music club bye this video is designed to teach you how to mix each and every style of music now this is a grand test we're not here to teach you our own values for what makes a great mix we only want to give you a perspective on what is possible so you can be creative on your own each and every song is mixed differently based on the song and style of music therefore we won't simply mix a song and say this is the way it's done instead what we'll do is point out the common values that different people hold for mixing different styles of music each style of music has developed its own traditions for the way it has been mixed throughout the history of recording for example big band music heavy metal acoustic jazz even rap and hip-hop have developed certain traditions in the way they've been mixed this video has been designed to answer that elusive question what makes a great mix and how do you go about creating a great mix you see the big question is once you know what all the equipment in the studio does how do you use it to create a good mix after you know what the knobs do which way do you turn them we'll show you a framework for explaining what a good mix is then we will use this framework to see what professional engineers are doing in the songs we like you like with such a framework we can develop our own values for what makes a great mix this video is not meant to tell you how to mix a song a particular way because a mix is dependent on so many variables the song and all of its details the style of music and the people involved instead this video is designed to give you a structural framework which you can use to categorize all of the different structures of mixes the structure of a mix what a concept finally someone's mapped out the underlying structure of what you can do in a mix wow did you hear what he said yeah you know i know what i like but i never know how to get it when i'm in the studio i had a good mix once but i can never remember how i did it check it out man i think he's onto something the players know what's happening and we know what's tight why can't we ever get it right in the studio perspective wonderful finally a perspective on everything that goes into recording and mixing once you have this visual framework down you can then begin to build your own perspective on how different songs are mixed and once you start checking out the details of exactly what other engineers are doing then you develop your own values as to what you make for each style of music all values are valid the only possible evil is having no values at all we're not here to tell you you should mix things a certain way we're here to help you develop and remember your own values and we're here to do it visually because visuals can help us to remember what did he say i forget yeah bring on the visuals i like it when i can see what's happening many people are visually oriented the colors are great this is the way learning the picture is science in order to be able to explain and show different styles of mixes let's map out how each piece of equipment affects imaging the apparent placement of sounds between the speakers about everyone has experienced the perception of sounds in a stereo mix as coming out of one speaker or the other or somewhere in between the speakers now if we pan a sound all the way over to the right it's never going to come further right than the right speaker right but sometimes you know you hear it coming from other places in the room if you've got a really weird room or if the walls are strange but in a studio you would never hear it further right of the right speaker now if we pan it to the left no matter how far you panic to the left it will never sound further left to the left speaker some people think it's only going to sound this far left some people see it a couple of inches or even a foot further left to the left speaker so therefore we can draw boundaries just to the left of the left speaker and just to the right of the right speaker so panning as mapped out as left to right when i turn the pan pot here you can hear the sound panned from left to right and from right to left like that now we're not talking about reality here now we're not talking about reality here because you see there's actually no sound between the speakers the reality is the sound comes out of the speakers in waves travels through the molecules into the room hits the walls in the room and also hits your ears and your body this is one way we perceive sound another way we perceive sound is we imagine it to be between the speakers this is called imaging it's a figment of our imagination you see when we hear a sound between the speakers there's no sound really there the truth is the same sounds just coming out of both speakers and we imagine the sound to be between the speakers it's just a figment of your imagination like an audio optical illusion also you know when you hear a sound in the middle of your head when listening to headphones well there's no sound there your brain's there cool even if you are asleep sounds still hit your body and it affects you on the other hand if you aren't paying attention to a mix or if you're off to the side of the speakers you don't hear imaging when you're asleep imaging does not exist in fact they've done studies of people who don't hear imaging because of the shape of their ears or because of the shape of their minds imaging is a figment of our imagination in fact there is no imaging in the forest different people relate to sound in these two ways many people just feel the sound and perceive the music that way other people actually see the imaging between the speakers recording engineers are often obsessed by these dynamics that go on in this imaginary world of imaging i don't believe it again now let's continue with our mapping of mixing functions into the visual world what about faders or volume controls as you have probably noticed in some mixes some sounds are right out front normally vocals and lead instruments while other instruments like strings and background vocals are often in the background we'll map out volume as a function of front to back this makes sense because louder sounds are normally closer to us and softer sounds are commonly further away also if we want to sound like a vocal to be out front in a mix what do you do turn it up right if you want something out front turn it up if you want something in the background turn it down i guess that's why they call them background vocals although volume is the number one function of front to back placement there are other pieces of equipment or factors that make sounds seem more upfront such as compressor limiters boosting eq in the mid-range or high frequency range short delays of less than 30 milliseconds that's fattening and any effect that makes a sound sound unusual so that it sticks out on the other hand reverb and long delay timers tend to make sounds more distinct well distant thunder could be miles behind the speakers right however this illusion is created from our past experience of thunder normally we don't seem to hear sounds more than a short distance behind the speakers normally background vocals and strings are only a few inches behind the speakers right well check it out around your own speakers different people do disagree as to how far behind the speakers they hear the sounds who am i to say your imagination sucks now no matter how loud you make a sound in a mix sounds will never seem to come from more than a short distance from in front of the speakers no matter how loud you turn up the sounds the sounds will never come from here and sounds will never come from behind you unless you have a 3d sound processor yeah but that's a whole nother world and video this distance we imagine the sound to be in front of or behind the speakers is based on a couple of factors first the larger the speaker the further in front the sound appears to be small studio speakers about six inches a huge pa that's about 10 feet or a boombox is just two or three the second factor that determines the difference in the way people perceive the limits of imaging from front to back has to do with the fact that some people have a more active imagination than others than others now one day i noticed that high frequencies appear higher between the speakers and low frequencies appear lower bells symbols and strings seem to be right about here whereas bass guitars and kick drums seem to be right about here check it out on your own system play a song and listen to where high frequency sounds sounds seem to be and where no frequency sounds seem to be between the speakers most people agree highs are higher and lows are lower that's probably why they call highs high and lows low there are a number of reasons why this illusion exists first of all tweeters are often higher than woofers but also low frequencies come through the floor to your feet high frequencies never come through the four some studios are even calibrated as to exactly how many low frequencies come through to your feet another reason though is that we've got a low frequency resonator here boosting the low frequencies and we've got a high frequency resonator here boosting the high frequencies singers when they learn how to sing are often taught if they want to bring out the laws you know sing from down here okay so we have moe's here highs here on a more esoteric level there are energy centers that have been mapped out these energy centers are called chakras at the base of our spine they say it's 40 hertz around here is maybe around 800 hertz a thousand hertz whether this is real or not but at any rate it helps explain very likely low frequencies most regardless of why it happens the truth of the matter is that high frequencies do seem to appear higher between the speakers than low frequencies therefore we'll put the high frequencies up high and we'll put the low frequencies down low in all of our visuals now no matter how high the frequency is in a sound they'll never come from higher than the speakers themselves i mean they never come from the ceiling right you see imaging is limited to the top of the speakers now since base frequencies come through the floor the mower limit is down here the floor where the floor is so check it out no matter how far we pan the sound to the left it's only going to go about this far it's going to be a little bit in front of the speakers a little bit behind the speakers and to the top of the speakers then all the way across to the top a little bit front a little bit behind down to the floor all the way to the right speaker about right here so you can imagine this three-dimensional space right there now this is a limited space between the speakers where a mix occurs it only happens in this space right here therefore if you have a whole lot of instruments it's going to be crowded say you've got a hundred piece piece orchestra you put 100 instruments between these speakers and there's hardly any room so it's hard to to differentiate between every single sound whereas you put three violins between the speakers and you can hear every one completely separate from each other because there's only so much space between the speakers here where you can create a mix therefore the whole issue becomes that of crowd control the ranges of control that an engineer has are the same as those of the sculptor both are working in three dimensions we have now mapped out the space between the speakers where imaging occurs this is a stage or palette where we can create different structures of mixes now let's discuss the elements that we can place between the speakers years ago i started out with a dot on my macintosh in the program mech paint i figured if i moved the dot left and right it was like panning however after a while i realized that you can commonly have two sounds in the same spot between the speakers and still hear both of the sounds therefore i got a 3d program so that i could make the images be see-through or transparent now using the equipment in the studio we can place any sound anywhere in the 3d stereo field with volume faders pan pots and eq with panning we can move a sphere left and right with volume we can move the sphere front to back with equalization we can move the sound up and down at least a little bit of course no matter how much bass we add to a piccolo we'll never be able to get it to rumble the floor and we won't be able to put a bass guitar in the sky but if we are mapping out pitch as a function of up and down with eq we can raise the sound up or down at least a little bit so as you see we can place the sound anywhere between the speakers in 3d with volume panning and eq now the whole goal here is to show how much space each sound takes up between the speakers so we can deal with the big problem of masking just how big is each sound in this world of imaging this is important because sometimes one sound will hide another sound when they are in the same place therefore if this is a limited space between the speakers we need to know how big each member of the crowd is right first base instruments seem to take up more space between the speakers so we make them big think about it put three bass guitars in a mix and what do you have hip hop yeah but in any other style of music you end up with mud city i mean you put three bass guitars in a mix and it fills up the space between the speakers completely on the other hand put 10 bells in a mix and even if they're all playing at the same time you can hear every single one individually because bass instruments are bigger in the world of image and they mask other sounds more they hide other sounds in a mix especially when turned up loud also louder sounds will appear larger because of perspective this also rings true because louder sounds do mask other sounds more a guitar that is extremely loud in a mix will tend to mask the other sounds more than if it were soft in the mix besides round spheres we also have oblong spheres this is an unusual effect that happens when we put a delay on a sound less than 30 milliseconds one thousand milliseconds equals one one second when you have a delay longer than 30 milliseconds you hear an echo like this however when you have a delay less than 30 milliseconds our ear is not quick enough to hear the difference between the two sounds so we only hear one sound one fat sound when you place the original signal in the left speaker then put the delayed signal in the right speaker it's as if it stretches the sound between the speakers it doesn't put the sound in a room like reverb it just makes it omnipresent between the speakers just as volume panning and eq can be used to place and move spheres we also have control over the placement of this line of sound created by fattening we can place the line anywhere from left to right using pan pots up front or in the back using volume or even move it up or down a little bit with eq when we place reverb in a mix we are placing the sound of a room in the space between the speakers a room being three-dimensional is shown as a three-dimensional see-through cube between the speakers speaker again with reverb we can place it anywhere in the 3d stereo field using panning volume and eq we now have defined and visualized the basic tools that an engineer uses to sculpt this three-dimensional space between the speakers spheres lines and rooms with them the engineer can design a wide range of structures ranging from sparse mixes to full mixes to asymmetrical mixes to symmetrical mixes to a mix with a mod of movement as previously mentioned the art of mixing is the creative placement and movement of these sound images just as a musician needs to explore and become thoroughly familiar with all of the possibilities of his or her instrument so must an engineer be aware of all possible musical dynamics that the equipment can create and he or she must be adept at coming up with any structure of mix that can be conceived mixes can be transparent or invisible some styles of music have traditionally been made to be invisible so you don't hear the mix like acoustic jazz bluegrass or folk music on the other hand the mix could be quite visible in some styles of music engineers often use the equipment in the studio to create musical dynamics the mix is utilized almost like another instrument in the song regardless of the style of music the one thing we can all agree on is that the mix should be appropriate for the song the mix should fit the song like clothing suits your personality the mix can be used as a tool to enhance the song and highlight certain aspects or it can be used to create tension or chaos when appropriate regardless of how it fits the mix should fit the style of music in song in some way the creative engineer pushes the limits of what has already been done now that we have defined the space between the speakers where imaging occurs and that now that we have outlined some of the basic parameters of sound visually the big question is what makes a great mix and how do you obtain it paint it paint it well in order to answer this question we need to figure out what can be done in a mix in the first place the first question is what tools do we have to make different types of mixes what are the tools we have to create the dynamics an engineer creates well as previously shown we have volume panning eq and effects these are the tools you use to create a mix now there are many other things that contribute to a great recording that can be refined during the recording session these dynamics of the song include concept melody harmony rhythm the lyrics the song structure the arrangement and instrumentation the band's performance and the quality of the recording and the equipment the mix is only one aspect of a recorded piece of music all of these other aspects must be at least okay at a basic level of good quality the mix can be used to hide some of the weaker aspects but there's only so much you can do tools are their best when they're invisible focus on the hammer hit your finger look at the steering wheel crush the car stare at the knobs screw up the mix get lost in the equipment so much for the art you know what i mean you can't see the forest through the trees it is the music that counts not the equipment learn your tools well so you can get past them into the beauty of the music at hand so what makes a great mix you know the bad mix it's just happening you feel it it's there yeah well i like to mix when things are overlapping and like once in a while some things just seem to bubble up and peek their heads through i like a full perspective i want to see small next to big clarity next to a fullness emotion next to platform i want to see a full perspective so uh what makes a great mix when you play it anywhere it sounds good so when it's booming it's all bad a great mix is full of cool effects something happening every month it's true one person's heavenly mix is another one's help and vice versa it takes all types for the world to go around you know what i mean yet throughout all mixes there are certain values that are commonly held we don't like muddiness at least not for too long and we don't like too many irritating frequencies even punk rockers have their limits and we like our highs high frequencies that is there are similar values that have come to be commonly accepted for each style of music for example in big band music if you turn up the kick drum too loud they'll kill you likewise if you don't turn up the kick drum really loud and heavy metal and rap they'll kill you too but still within each style of music there are people that have differing opinions as to how the mix should be some people do it the opposite of what is normal just to be different about the only thing that anyone can agree on in this business is that the mix is appropriate for the style of music and appropriate for the song and all of its details just as the song dictates the mix it is the personality of the entity that dictates the way it is clothed it is the way that the equipment relates to the song that makes a great mix the function of all this technical equipment is to enhance the music in some way songs have many dynamics in them spanning the entire range of perception from feelings and emotions to thought forms physical reactions visual imagery spiritual connotations and cultural connotations there's a wide range of possible dynamics that music evokes in different people the mixing board and all of the equipment in the studio can also create musical dynamics that also affect us in similar musical ways the art of mixing is the way in which the dynamics we create with the equipment in the studio interface with the dynamics apparent in songs making the relationship of these dynamics work is the art of the recording engineer so it's all about relationships ships the first video in the series was designed as an introduction to our visual framework for representing sounds in a mix in this video we have covered and you've learned that we perceive sounds in a mix two ways one we feel the sound waves hitting our ears and our body second we imagine the sounds between the speakers this is imaging the apparent placement of sounds between the speakers we also learned about the limits of imaging first you normally don't hear sounds further left or right of the speakers themselves second you don't hear sounds more than a couple of feet in front of or behind the speakers and you don't hear sounds much higher than the speakers themselves but we do hear sounds come through the floor we also learned that this is a limited space between the speakers when you have a lot of sounds in the mix they fill up the space causing masking with only a few sounds in the mix there is plenty of room and they sound clear therefore it all becomes a function of crowd control we also learn that you can move sounds around in this three-dimensional space between the speakers with panning volume and eq then we discussed delays and how you can stretch the sound between the speakers making it fatter although it does take up more space in the mix we discussed reverb and how it takes up a ton of space between the speakers and how it can be moved around in the mix then we gave you an introduction of what is to come in future videos as we briefly discussed different structures of mixes we discussed how the mix should fit the style of music and the details of the song and we ended by showing how the dynamics that we can create with the technical equipment relate to the dynamics found in the music itself hi there it's important to understand the basic functions of each piece of equipment in the studio but the thing that is really important is how all of the equipment works together to create different styles of mixes that is how all the equipment works together to create good mixes rather great mixes we will then have a framework for the discussion of different values for different types of mixes then we can have some really good arguments we'll actually have something to argue about in this video we will explain the basic functions of all of the equipment in the studio using visuals of sounds we will explain the most common parameters found in each piece of equipment this video is an introduction to the basic functions of equipment the idea is to explain each piece of equipment visually so that in the next video we can use these visuals to show different types of mixes we will go into more detail on each piece of equipment in future videos in order to make the huge variety of studio equipment fathomable let's categorize all of the equipment based on its function in the recording process sound creators create sound these include acoustic to electric instruments from vocals to synthesizer sound routers route sound from one place to another mixing boards route the signal to four places the multi-track the speakers the headphones for the band out in the studio and the effects so we can have a good time patch bays are just the back of everything in the studio next to each other it's the back of the mix panels the back of the multi-track ins and outs back of the console ins and outs and back of the effects ins and outs it's the back of everything next to each other so we can use short cables to connect everything in the studio sound stores store sound tape players store digital or analog sound sequencers store midi information sound transducers are equipment that take one form of energy and change it into another form of energy microphones take mechanical energy or sound waves and change them into electrical energy speakers take electrical energy and change them into mechanical energy or sound waves but it is sound manipulators that we are here for this includes effects and processing that are used to change or add to a sound after it has been created now there are only three components to sound volume or amplitude frequency and time that's all she wrote every single sound in the world can be described fully and completely by these three components therefore every piece of equipment in the studio controls one or more of these three parameters here's a chart showing all the sound manipulators in the studio volume of the faders is shown as a function of front to back frequency is shown as a function of up and down time is shown in real time that is when a sound occurs the visual representing that sound will appear in flash in the first video of the series we showed how we mapped out volume as a function of front to back as previously mentioned we can use volume faders to place a sound out front in the background or anywhere in between in the next video we will cover how volume relationships can be used to create different musical dynamics when we set volume relationships in a mix we use apparent volumes to decide on the relative balance not just the voltage of the signals going through the fader if we were just using where the faders are set relative to each other then we could mix without even listening we could look at the faders and place them based on their relative placement like this when we raise the faders in the board we are changing the voltage of the signal being sent to the amp which boosts the wattage which then sends more power to the speakers which create more sound pressure level in the air that our ears hear however there's more to it than that the other main thing that affects apparent volume is the waveform of the sound itself for example a chainsaw will sound louder than a flute when they're both exactly the same volume on the vu meters a screaming electric guitar sounds louder than a clean guitar sound even if they're both at exactly the same volume so when you see sounds represented by spheres between the speakers you're seeing the apparent volume of a sound this is what we use to mix with this is what we use to set volume relationships you don't look at the faders you listen for the relative volumes also as previously mentioned in the first video panning is naturally mapped out as left to right if we think of the space between the speakers as a palette on which to place instruments left to right we are free to pan as we please however particular styles of music seem to have developed a tradition for placement of particular instruments left to right in the stereo field obviously movement of a pan pod during a mix creates an especially effective dynamic we will discuss the common ways that panning is used to create musical dynamics in the next video do compressor limiters are volume functions their main purpose is to turn the volume down compressor limiters turn the volume down when the volume goes above a certain threshold when the volume is below a certain threshold the compressor limiter does nothing unless broken or cheap the two main functions of a compressor limiter are one to get less noise on tape a better signal to noise ratio this is accomplished by compressing the signal on the way to the multi-track and two to stabilize the sound between the speakers the first function to get less hiss from tape is the original reason that compressor limiters were first introduced into the studio let me explain it this way say i'm humming along at a low volume then all of a sudden it gets really loud well the problem is unless we turn down the fader we're going to get distortion and you can't have distortion get distortion go to jail so you turn the volume down but then the low volume humming barely moves the needles on the tape player and as you know if the needles barely move you hear as much tape noise as you do signal it's called a bad signal to noise ratio and it kind of sounds like so you turn down the peaks and then raise the overall volume above the noise on the tape getting less hiss the second function of a compressor limiter is to stabilize the image of the sound between the speakers check it out when a bunch of sounds are bouncing up and down like vu meters it can get to be extremely chaotic but if we stabilize one of the sounds it's easier to focus on it therefore it seems more present just because our mind can focus on it it's more stable now if you stabilize all of the sounds in the mix the whole mix will seem more present or clearer there are two main things that determine how much you compress the more instruments and the more notes you have in the mix the more you can press because the mix gets too chaotic or busy the second thing that determines the amount of compression is the style of music certain types of music such as pop are commonly more compressed now after you stabilize the sound between the speakers if you then turn up the overall volume you can put the whole sound right in your face this is commonly done in radio and tv commercials which makes it sound louder making it jump out and grab your attention this might be annoying in radio and tv commercials but it's great for a lead guitar or other lead instrument if you want to lead sound right in your face compress the hell out of it and turn it up it also works when putting sounds in the background the problem is that low volume sounds can easily be lost in the mix they can be masked by other sounds in the mix especially if the volume of the sound fluctuates let me demonstrate if you have a sound in the background sometimes you can't quite hear it that well especially if it pays out because then you come back in sometimes you know they're saying that other times but if you compress it you can hear every word they're saying even if you're whispering it never fades out you don't compress it you really don't know what they're talking about other times you really do know what they're talking about so you see if you have a low volume sound and you put it in the background if you compress the hell out of it you can set it down low and still never lose it in the mix it's always there because it's stable there are two main knobs on compressor limiters commonly called threshold and ratio visuals are especially effective in explaining what threshold and ratio do if volume is shown as a function of front to back the sphere is bouncing back and forth like a vu meter it will then come out and smash into the threshold and stop if it's a limiter the difference between a compressor and a limiter is that a limiter stops the volume from getting any louder than the threshold itself a compressor on the other hand allows the volume to get a bit louder based on a ratio or percentage check it out if we set the ratio to 2 1 it will go this far if we set the ratio to 10 to 1 it will only go this far past the threshold a good starting point is to set the ratio to four to one this is so that it turns the volume down without squashing a squash sound sounds like this the truth of the matter is you can set the ratio wherever you like but also true is the fact that most people who are just starting out can't hear the difference between ratio settings very well until you can tell four to one is a good place to start now this is how you set the threshold the thing is you don't look at the threshold knob well you have to look at it for a second in order to get your hand on it then you look at the gain reduction meters which show how much the compressor is turning the volume down you turn the threshold knob until you get a maximum of 6 db of gain reduction regardless of the ratio setting for some instruments like league guitar or screamer type vocals you can set the maximum level at 10 db of gain reduction these are the levels you can set it at so that you turn the volume down some without squashing it once you hear compression really well set it the way you want until then try setting the ratio at four to one and setting the threshold for six db of gain reduction foreign like compressor limiters the function of a noise gate is to turn the volume down therefore compressor limiters and noise gates are often packaged together in one box the difference is that noise gates turn the volume down when the volume falls below the threshold noise gates have three main functions to get rid of noise to get rid of bleed and to shorten the duration of a sound one function of a noise gate is to put it on a guitar amp to get rid of amp noise when the guitar is not playing you know if you set a guitar amp up with major distortion and turn it up to 11 the amp makes a really loud when it's not being played if a song were to end with a guitar solo it might sound like this now if we set the threshold correctly it will sound like this this is especially helpful in the middle of the song so you don't hear the amp noise the threshold of the noise gate is set so that as soon as the volume fades enough to hear the amp noise it gets cut off be careful of course not to cut off any of the guitar sound another common use of a noise gate is to get rid of bleed from other instruments in the room gates can be especially effective on drums to isolate each drum and it's especially important on a snare when you've got a lot of reverb on the snare check it out when volume is shown as front to back and the volume falls below the threshold the sound will disappear noise gates can also be used to shorten the duration of a sound this can make a sound shorter which can be used as a quite bizarre effect the threshold on a noise gate should be set so that it cuts the noise or bleed but doesn't cut the main signal all my tubes and wires before we continue i should remind you that we're just giving an overview of the functions of each piece of equipment in the studio at this point the idea is to explain each piece of equipment visually so that in the next video we can use these visuals to show different types of mixes we'll then go into more detail in each piece of equipment in future videos as you can well guess we could do a whole video on eq alone and we will we'll begin our discussion of eq by covering the differences between types of equalizers next we'll explore all of the different frequency ranges between 20 and 20 000 hertz what about the other ones the higher ones eq is a change in the volume of specific frequency ranges of a sound it's the same as the tone controls on a normal stereo bass and treble now there are three main types of eq found in the studio graphics parametrics and roll-offs high pass and low-pass filters you all know what a graphic eq looks like it has a volume control for each frequency you can turn a frequency up or down using the volume sliders visually we'll show frequency as a function of up and down so we have low to high frequencies here we're showing the volume of a particular frequency as the brightness in that band for example if you turned up the highs around 5000 hertz you would see it get brighter in that frequency range like this on a graphic eq you choose which frequency you will turn up or down by putting your finger on the correct slider on a parametric eq you turn the frequency sweep knob in order to select the frequency you want to turn up or down besides a sweep knob a parametric also has a bandwidth knob which controls the range of frequencies that are to be turned up or down on a graphic eq when you choose a particular frequency to turn up or down you're actually turning up or down a range of frequencies preset by the manufacturer engineers being the control freaks they are want to be able to control the range of frequencies they are turning up or down with a parametric the bandwidth knob gives you this control over how wide the frequency range is the knob's usually called q because they couldn't get the word bandwidth on the nub a thin bandwidth is normally labeled with a peak whereas a wide bandwidth is often labeled with a hump sometimes ranges of musical octaves are also used for example three tenths of an octave to three octaves the obvious advantage of a parametric is the control you have over the bandwidth if a parametric doesn't have a bandwidth knob it isn't a full parametric unless you're a salesperson in a music store these days many manufacturers are using the term parametric to refer to a paragraphic or semi-parametric which has no bandwidth control those bandwidth controls are expensive roll offs roll off low or high frequencies they are commonly found on major consoles as high pass and low pass filters and on smaller consoles as switches a high pass filter rolls off the low frequencies and does nothing to the highs it passes them it only rolls off the lows this is especially helpful to get rid of low frequency sounds such as trains planes trucks air conditioners earthquakes or bleed from bass guitar kick drum and serious foot stomping low pass filters roll off high frequencies like this these are especially helpful for getting rid of hiss roll-offs can often be found on microphones and smaller mixing consoles like mackie and soundcraft as switches that simply roll off lows when the switch is engaged it is important to get to know all of the frequencies of sound by name you see the truth of the matter is that we know all of the frequencies from twenty to twenty thousand hertz by heart our entire system our entire psyche was designed to perceive sound not only our ears but every cell in our body is designed to perceive frequencies here's a picture of a water molecule inside a cell of our skin reacting to certain frequencies actually when we hear sound every single molecule in our entire body is creating a pattern based on the sound coming in this means that our entire body is perceiving sound not just our ears you see we were born to hum to sound that is our entire body and being was created to perceive sound therefore we all know every single frequency by heart we've been checking them all out since the womb we know all frequencies and pitches intimately the trick is to learn their names we'll get into more detail on all of the frequency ranges and how to remember them in future videos then you'll be able to remember what boosting or cutting each frequency does to each instrument in the world specialists don't seem to agree on how different frequencies affect us emotionally quite understandable because of the subjective nature of frequency perception psychologists to philosophers have written books about how sounds affect us emotionally and how people have organized their ways of perceiving difference in frequency different frequencies do affect us differently both physiologically and psychologically not to mention spiritually however even more powerful than the way specific frequencies make us feel is the way that combinations of frequencies make us feel so the truth of the matter is that each and every sound except a pure tone is made up of a combination of tones of different frequencies and different volumes these harmonics or overtones account for the differences in why one sound sounds different from another a sound's timbre different sounds have different harmonics in them and more or less harmonics as well the interesting thing about harmonics is that they are all mathematical multiples of each other and each individual harmonic is a pure tone therefore when we raise or lower the volume of one frequency or another we're actually raising or lowering the volume of one or more of the harmonics in the sound this accounts for why each sound responds to eq differently once in the mix sounds should be eq'd so that they work well with each other sounds can be made to sound more similar to each other or more dissimilar a lead instrument might be made to be more cutting and abrasive so it really grabs attention an instrument might be given extra bass to make the song more danceable or just to excite the wrath listen there's an important technique that you might find helpful for checking the relative equalization of each sound in a mix first scan the high frequencies and check the relative brightness of all of the sounds in the entire song make sure that all of them are as bright as you want them often they should have a similar amount of brightness but sometimes you want some sounds to be even brighter than others sometimes you might want them to be duller than another second scan the mid-range frequencies and check for the relative volume of mid-range frequencies across all of the instruments mid-range frequencies kind of stick out when boosted a lot make sure that all of the instruments have the amount of mid-range frequencies in them that you want just like highs often they should have a similar amount of mid-range frequencies however sometimes you want some sounds to stick out more and grab your attention third scan the bass frequencies and check for the relative volume of bass in each sound that hangs out in the bass range for example check the relative amount of bass frequencies present in the kick drum compared to the amount of bass in the bass guitar check it out and make sure that it's the way you want it to be this frequency range is the one that is most commonly missed when mixing an album or project this has been an introduction to eqs and equalizations check out future videos for more detail wow oh a delay stores a sound on a chip and then plays it back at whatever time you like the delayed signal can also be fed back into the input to get the well-known sound of feedback or regeneration where the signal repeats just as you need to learn the details of the frequency spectrum you must also get to know how each delay time feels it's the type of feeling or motion that different delay time ranges evoke that you use to remember differences in delay times we can also use the relationship between delay time and distance in the studio to help us to get to know different delay times sound travels close to one foot per millisecond one thousand thousand milliseconds equals one that means for every one foot in the studio you're adding one millisecond of delay time therefore it's very easy to hear a delay between two mics set at different distances we can show how different delay times look quite clearly here is 500 milliseconds here is 100 milliseconds of delay time here's 40 milliseconds now when we have a delay time less than 30 milliseconds an unusual thing happens our ear and brain are not quick enough to hear two sounds our ear perceives this quick of a delay time as one fat sound this effect is one of the most important and useful for recording engineer any instrument can be made into stereo with fattening it can be used to fill out a mix so as to make it sound fuller it can be used to make an otherwise wimpy sound sound fatter fuller and bigger it can also make a sound more present so that it can be turned down in the mix but still be discernible now if we pan the original dry signal to one side and the delay to the other side the sound seems to be stretched between the speakers like this now if we add feedback to a sound the sound repeats itself like this this this this what's happening is the output of the delay the echo is being fed back into the input of the delay to be repeated again yes this adding a delay to a sound is the same as adding another sound or instrument to the mix therefore it will always tend to make the mix seem fuller because there are more sounds to occupy the limited space between the speakers you normally add delays to a mix only if you have room for them therefore you wouldn't add delays to a very busy mix with a lot of instruments and a lot of notes the exception would be heavy metal alternative rock and some new age music these styles of music are commonly mixed to create a wall of sound therefore to add another sound to fill this space can be just awesome yeah phil spector yeah he created that wallace sound type mix when the delay time is long enough to hear two sounds then the delayed signal can be treated just like another track another sound therefore the volume and panning can be set any way that you see fit if you set the delay time for less than 30 milliseconds and crank up the feedback you get an effect called tubing if you then change the delay time you get an effect that sounds like this if we set a clock to change the delay time on its own we get the effect commonly called flanging notice that as the delay time gets shorter the pitch seems to rise as the delay time gets longer the pitch seems to fall now if we set the width or depth so that the sweep of the delay time is not so wide like this then we have the effect commonly called chorusing it's poetry in motion she turned a tender eyes to me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but you blinded me with science and failed me in biology yeah if we set the delay time so that we are only sweeping between zero and one milliseconds we have the effect commonly called phasing it's poetry in motion should turn a tender eyes to me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but she blinded me with science all of these effects flanging chorusing and phasing are just changing short delay times with lots of feedback or regeneration in 1957 tony fisher was doing an album when someone accidentally leaned on the reels of the tape player like this the tape slowed down and then when i got back up it sped back up to normal speed like this the band went cool let's put it on the record the song the big hurt went to number three on the charts in 1957. now you can also change the speed or rate of the flange like so you could set the rate of the sweep to the tempo of the song or you could set it so that it is rising on one chord and going down on another chord or you could even set it so that it rises on the first half of the verse and falls on the second half of the verse flanging is commonly used to create a more spacey type of mood in the mix sometimes used to create an otherworldly effect it's great for the underwater type of effect chorusing is commonly used to simulate the effect that you get when you have a chorus of people or chorus of instruments phasing is a very subtle effect so subtle that is the kind of effect that when used at grateful dead concerts the crowd often wonders if the effect is actually coming from inside their head i thought it was inside my head each of these effects can be panned in various ways like this each can also be brought out front with volume and raised or lowered a little bit with eq we'll explore more details about these effects in future videos including how they are commonly used in mixes for different styles of music hey i don't believe again reverb is made up of thousands and thousands of delay times when you first hear a sound in a room the sound continues traveling out at around 700 miles per hour and hits the walls bounces back from the walls all at different distances and comes back to us as hundreds of delay times all of these delay times wash together to make the sound we know as reverb when we place reverb in a mix it's just like we are placing the sound of a room between the speakers therefore we'll show reverb visually as a room or cube between the speakers there are certain parameters of control that are commonly found in reverb units first you can change the type of room you can think of it as different types of rooms between the speakers like this halls rooms chambers and plate reverbs you can also change reverb time the duration of how long the reverb lasts long reverb time would look like this a short reverb time would look like this when a sound occurs it takes a while for the sound to travel out and hit walls before you hear the reverb come back this time of silence before the reverb begins is called pre-delay time a really long pre-delay time would look like this it's poetry in the ocean she turned a tenderize to me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony it's poetry but a natural room like an auditorium has a short pre-delay time that would look like this but you another setting of reverb is the envelope that is how the reverb changes its volume over time normal reverb has an envelope that looks like this engineers being the bored people they are thought to put a noise gate on this natural reverb which then chops it off therefore the volume stays even then stops abruptly like this it's poetry in motion she turned her eyes to me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but she blinded me with science hmm hmm now if we were to take the envelope of normal reverb and turn it around backwards the volume of the reverb would rise then stop abruptly like this it's poetry in motion she'd turn a tender eyes to me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but she blinded it's poetry in motion but you blinded me now if we were to take the tape and play it backwards it would sound like this now if we put reverb on the vocal and record it on some open tracks then turn the tape around to run forward we'll get an effect like this that so cool this effect is called preverb it's the most evil effect that can be created in the studio because only the devil could put an effect on something before it even happens therefore it has been used in every scary movie made including the exorcist and poltergeist and of course it's ozzy osbourne's favorite effect it can also be fun as hell too one of reverb's main functions is to connect sounds in a mix and fill in the space between the speakers like this is my kidney sound reverb can be panned in various ways like this reverb can also be brought out front with volume or placed in the background by turning down the volume and it can be raised or lowered a little bit with eq i can smell my chemicals country we have covered volume changes panning eq compressor limiters noise gates domain phasing coursing and reverb now that we have covered each piece of equipment in the studio we can now use these visuals to show different classic styles of mixes in the next video hi in this video tape we're going to get down to business we'll use the visual framework that we've outlined in the first two videos to explain how to create different styles of mixes this is mixing theory plato and all those greek dudes wrote myriads of books on a wide range of art forms including music theory mixing on the other hand is a new art form you could say it's still in its adolescent form you see we've only had stereo for about 30 years we have a lot of books that explain what all the equipment in the studio does but there are virtually no books that try to explain the aesthetic side of what makes a great mix hardly anybody has tried to even approach the whole world of artistic values perhaps because it's so fraught with different people's values the normal process for learning to make a great mix is through experience with recording each style of music first you learn the tools and how they're used in each style of music but you might have gotten to the point where you begin to wonder why your mixes don't sound like cds and you know professional engineers are getting great mixes every time certain professional engineers command extremely large fees because they are capable of coming up with something that most people perceive as great every time so what is it they're doing it isn't magic they're doing some very specific things now that we have a framework for explaining what is done in a mix we can now explore these things that engineers are doing to make such great mixes this video is designed to help you discover these high level values that major engineers have because you see once you understand what these other guys are doing you get a good perspective on what can be done then you can do whatever the hell you want based on your own values in order to determine what makes a great mix we must first determine what you can do in a mix as opposed to what you can do during the recording session there are a wide range of aspects that contribute to a good recording besides the mix the mix is only one of a number of aspects if any one of these components isn't happening then it will stick out like a sore thumb and say mix sucks the professional engineer will often help the band refine all of these aspects during the session we'll cover how to refine each of these components later on in aspects of a recorded piece of music the mix is only one of all of these components there are four types of tools that you can use in a mix to create all the different styles of mixes in the world the tools are volume faders pan pots equalization and effects the question is what can we do with these tools as mentioned in the previous video the equipment in the studio the art of mixing is the way in which the dynamics we create with the equipment in the studio interface with the dynamics apparent in music and songs so what are the dynamics in the music when we speak about dynamics we're not talking about common terminology used for volume dynamics we're not talking about changes in loudness we are talking about changes in intensity musical dynamics any type of change in the music that causes a change in a person well the dynamics in the music are as different as people are what which comes from music is as varied as life itself some people feel very strong emotions when they hear some types of music probably the most common dynamic that people see in music is simply up or down whatever the content of the up or down is this is a common perception around music some people see structure in music and sometimes they relate these structures to common structures found in the world such as buildings bridges and pyramids some people actually see the workings of the brain in a song they see the way in which our minds work as being the same as the flow of the song some people even think of songs as thought forms in fact some bands write their music in this way to represent the way our brains work this explains the common theory that music is just an extension of our personalities you've got it backwards grasshopper the music came first you are an extension of the music some people relate to music through music theory they see notes on a scale they see intervals they see chords they see the structure of the song in musical terminology some people have physical reactions like dancing not only does music move us physically but there's also a whole world of music therapy based on the healing vibrations of sound some people see visual imagery walt disney saw all kinds of things including flying elephants just check out mtv to see a whole nother world of visual imagery you might say i see bubbles some people see spiritual connotations the whole world of religious music is a good example some people see some music as a direct connection to god there's a wide range of possible dynamics that music evokes in different people different people get different things out of music it's true all of the things that people get out of music are as varied as people and life itself the trick is for the recording engineer to create musical dynamics with the equipment that match dynamics that people see in music whatever those dynamics might be everything that you could possibly think of as to how music affects you or anyone else is valid anything anybody gets out of music is real the art of the engineer is to enhance or bring out those musical dynamics even more with the equipment in the studio now what are the dynamics that we can create with the equipment in the studio with volume faders pan pots equalization and effects let's start with volume faders for those of you who are of a mind that would like to follow the overall structure of the presentation let us show you a graphic of how it is all organized we will be going through each of the tools in the studio volume eq panning and effects as we go through each one we will explain the dynamics that can be created with each one based on first the difference between individual levels or settings for that piece of equipment second the overall patterns that can be created between the relationships of all the sounds in the mix and third what happens when you move the knobs during the mix and especially effective dynamic as i was saying let's start with volume the question is what kind of dynamics can we create with the relative volumes set by the faders on the console most people first think of the dynamics that you can create by moving the faders during the mix in fact this is an extremely powerful dynamic when you change the volume of sound during a mix you can create a dynamic that is so powerful that it can overwhelm the song the movement of the fader can be such a strong dynamic that it becomes the primary focus of the entire mix at that moment but even more importantly there are somewhat more subtle dynamics that are created just by simply placing the volume of the faders at specific levels and leaving them there most people think of balancing the volume of sounds to mean to make them all even the process is actually much more complex often we don't want all the instruments to be the same volume we normally want one instrument to be a bit louder than another in fact the exact volume relationships between each sound in a mix are very specifically set by a recording engineer for example a lead vocal will come across completely different if it is extremely loud in the mix that is if it is way out in front of the rest of the mix elements in harmony both the singing and the message being transmitted by the lyrics will be perceived completely differently depending on how loud the vocal is in the mix and you see this is a dynamic that the engineer controls by where he places the fader in the mix actually the musical dynamics that can be created with volume relationships are much more complex than you might have ever imagined in fact traditions have evolved for specific volumes of particular instruments for different types of music and songs let's explore them this way now remember we're discussing relative apparent volumes you see the you see the apparent volume of a sound is also dependent upon the waveform of a center for example a chainsaw sounds louder to our ear than a flute even if they are both exact same volume so the apparent volume is the level that sounds seem to be to our ear if we think of volume and decibels based on sound pressure level then there are around 140 different levels of volume but in order to make this wide range of levels more accessible let's divide them into six different levels like this if we take a look at a mix and divide it into six ranges of volume these are the instruments that we commonly find at each level level one sounds at this volume in mixes are unusually loud in fact it's quite rare that sounds are ever at this level the alarm clocks in time from dark side of the moon by pink floyd's a good example explosions and primal screams can also be this loud normally though if an inexperienced engineer places a sound at this volume it's thought of as an error level two sounds at this volume are normally lead instruments and vocals however certain songs and types of music will put the vocals here for example big band music and middle of the road barry manilow type of music also if the vocals or lyrics or lyrics are the main focus of attention like in bob dylan they might put the vocals this loud likewise if a song has a great singer his or her vocals are often placed at this level in the midst other instruments found at this volume might include the boom in rap music or the kick drums or toms in heavy metal horn blasts in big band music and symphony blasting classical music often reach level two 3 sounds at this volume normally consist of primary rhythm parts such as guitar or some type of keyboard lead vocals in a lot of rock and roll are also set at this level other examples include kick drums in most heavy metal snare drums and most dance music most toms in most styles of music and symbols with high hat only occasionally at this level although jazz and dance music often place it here phil collins is probably about the first person to place reverb on the drums at this level level three level four sounds at this level include rhythm beds and chordal pads such as background piano keys or guitar drums in a lot of jazz middle of the road and easy rock are also at this level when reverb is noticeable as a sound on its own it's normally here vocals and strings are also often at this level but of course they can vary level five sounds at this level include things like the kick drum and jazz and big band music lots of effects and reverb often get placed here so that you can only hear them if you listen closely background vocals sometimes also get relegated to this level some producers also use this level to make their mark level six sounds at this level are so soft that they are hard to detect pink floyd is famous for adding little whispers or almost subliminal sounds to draw you into the mix sounds at this level can be very effective but it's important they serve to add to the overall mix in some way if these sounds do not fit just right they can sound just like noise this chart of the six different levels has only been presented to give us a framework so we can now explore all the different levels for each instrument in different styles of music as you will see different instruments are commonly placed at different levels let's take a look now as previously mentioned different styles of music have developed their own traditions as to the volume that particular instruments are placed within a mix let's look at each type of sound individually what about vocals let's take a look at various examples of vocals being placed at different levels in the mix think about it vocals are commonly mixed at different levels for different types of music and for different types of songs for example probably the loudest we hear vocals is a cappella just kidding vocals are commonly quite loud in middle of the road music i got it back i got it back of course in opera the vocals are also quite loud the vocals are commonly mixed loudly in folk music as well and in big band music you hear it thunder don't you run under a tree there'll be pennies from heaven for you and me don't you know there's bound to be pennies from heaven for you and me and in country music besides the style of music dictating the level of vocals the song can also make a big difference songs where the lyrics are the focus of the entire song often have the vocals mixed right out front bob dylan's a perfect example on the other hand think of examples where the vocals are mixed quite low as low as level 4 even an example of vocals being solo are those in songs by enya commonly vocals are mixed quite low in a lot of types of rock and roll perfect example is pink floyd or any alternative rock besides the style of music there are a number of reasons that you might turn the vocals up or down in a mix if they suck you normally shouldn't put them out front whereas if they're great show them off now what about snare same as with vocals the volume that a snare is placed in a mix is dependent on the style of music in the song big band music and jazz often have the snare mixed quite low as low as level 4. as soon as i can it is also interesting to note that a lot of easy rock and ballads commonly mix the snare quite low and i know however some ballads do have a massive snare sound turned up quite loud rock and roll is probably most responsible for the snare's progression up the volume scale but in the 60s dance music and then disco helped to raise the level of the snare even another level these days some types of rock and roll have the snare as loud as level two now check out kick drums again the style of music makes the biggest difference big band music and jazz commonly have the level of the kick drum down around level four or even level five it's also interesting that even a lot of jimi hendrix's music was mixed with the kick drum down around level four so that you could hardly hear it another interesting thing is that over the last 20 or so years the kick drum has made its way up the scale becoming louder and louder in mixes heavy metal was probably responsible for raising the kick drum up a whole level heavy metal commonly places the kick drum up around level two rap and now hip-hop have almost taken it off the top of the scale now let's take a look at volume levels of bass guitar bass guitar started out barely in mixes at all could that someone in big band it was down around level three or four in a lot of jazz it's actually now quite high close to level two even in a lot of rock and roll the bass guitar is not as loud as many people often think although it does vary a lot uh but now i'm showing show them what it takes to make it in this world of music so now i got to use it now back to the jumping gotta stop slumping cause you know we gotta do something make this party check it out even peter gabriel has a rap boom on his last album not only did rap help to raise the level of bass guitars in mixes it has also even changed the hardware when you go to a stereo store you see things like megabase and of course boom boxes and stereos are now capable of handling a lot more bass than in the old days it's also interesting that reggae and the blues often have the level of the bass quite a bit and louder than in other styles of music sometimes as high as level two commonly the fewer instruments in a mix them out of the base this is probably because you need something to fill out the space between the speakers if you have a lot of instruments in a mix there just isn't enough room for the bass guitar also a bass will mask the other sounds if too loud so it is often mixed at a low volume to leave more space for the other sounds in the mix what about toms toms are commonly mixed lower than most people think in most types of music toms are probably mixed low because often the bleed of the symbols in the tom mics are annoying effects also vary a lot in different mixes reverb has progressed up the scale over the years in fact it was probably phil collins and genesis who were responsible for raising the level of reverb an entire level pink floyd has just about taken over the title for having the effects the loudest in their mixes other sounds like high hats symbols rhythm guitars horn sections and background vocals are also mixed at various levels depending on the song and the style of music in fact you might start checking out the relative level of every sound in every song the rest of your life as you can see you can create an incredible variety of musical dynamics based on the level that you set each sound in the mix and each style of music has developed its own traditions for the specific level that each instrument should be set of course for some styles of music the traditions are stricter than others big band music and jazz are pretty strict whereas the rules for rap and hip-hop are extremely loose also of course the song and all of its details can make a big difference as to the levels at which each sound is placed and finally the people you're working with can make a big difference you can only argue so long with someone who's telling you to turn up their instrument or else but do argue give them hell besides all of the individual volume levels of each instrument there are dynamics that can be created with the overall relationships of all of the volume levels in a mix we call these volume patterns for those of you following along we are now here on the graphic in some styles of music the range of volumes might vary only from here to here new age music alternative rock middle of the road music country music and easy rock are often mixed this way such that there is very little difference between the softest and loudest sound in the mix muzak might be said to be the extreme example all sounds are pretty even in volume such that none ever jumps out and shocks us this might be totally appropriate for a love song on the other hand some styles of music are mixed with extreme variations between the softest and loudest sounds like this commonly lots of rock and roll is mixed this way also big band music is a perfect example of this type of mix you might have extremely soft sounds followed by a huge horn blast pink floyd's well known for trying to shock the hell out of you with alarm clocks and explosions it can be quite fun and exhilarating besides the style of music the type of song can also make a big difference as to the overall range of volume levels for example a love song might be mixed quite evenly a song about explosive behavior might be quite uneven here we are again volumes can not only range in dynamics from the softest to the loudest sound in the mix but an individual sound can be raised and lowered within the song anytime faders are moved while the sound is playing the dynamic created tends to be very intense if the level of the sound is changed at a good transition point such as the beginning of a chorus or a lead break a dynamics created but it's not nearly as intense as when changing a sound while it's playing let me show you a magic trick if you bring a sound out front by turning the volume up at the beginning of the song you can then turn that sound down and since we heard it so well it will be clear in our brain what that sound is doing even if it is then set back low in the mix then bring up another sound in the mix so we can check it out and then bring it down in the mix and once we hear a sound loud and clear it doesn't have to continue to be loud in order to recognize it if you keep doing this you can create the illusion that all the sounds in the mix are loud and clear sometimes of course the volume of the entire mix can be raised or lowered the overall volume can be cut or boosted or gradually faded such dynamics can be very effective if appropriate for the song besides moving a fader to create volume dynamics commonly you need to adjust levels just to keep the volumes more even an engineer often must constantly adjust levels up and down just to keep things even compressor limiters can only do so much before they make a sound sound unnatural therefore another dynamic that can be created with the faders is to actually even out the volumes more by moving the faders throughout the mix oh we're right about here now now how can you create musical dynamics with equalization well just as with volume faders there's a large and complex world of eq relationships between instruments in the mix there are two main types of considerations that professional recording engineers use when equalizing sounds for a mix the first is based on how the sound sounds by itself in solo the primary consideration when first eq'ing the sound at the beginning of the recording session this consideration is usually based on whether you are going for a sound that is natural or interesting the second consideration is how the sound sounds in the mix relative to the other instruments and is of the utmost importance of the two it used to be that engineers would go out into the room where the instrument is and listen then they would go back into the control room and compare the sound in the speakers to what they heard out in the room however these days natural is defined by what is currently on cds and the radio you see natural ain't natural no mo we have become addicted to crisper brighter cleaner as well as fatter fuller and bigger therefore to make sounds sound natural can be boring and unnaturally dull by today's standards what we hear on the radio and on cds these days are much brighter and crisper than the real thing now what we consider to be natural is an average of what we hear on the market daily if it isn't bright enough it won't be considered to be right on the other hand these days often the goal is to come up with a sound that sounds unique or interesting not necessarily one that sounds natural i mean who knows what a natural piece of sheet metal sounds like anyway the question is what makes a sound sound interesting or unique one thing that makes a sound interesting is the complexity of the sound the more complex the sound the more it can stand repeated listening the more you listen to it the more you hear oh we're moving right along we're right about here now structuring the relationship between the tonalities present in each of the instruments is an important aspect that a recording engineer deals with in mixing as with balancing volume relationships it's commonly thought that it is most desirable to have the eq of all of the instruments as even as possible so that they blend well well sometimes this is the case however it is often desirable for certain instruments in a mix to be unusually bright dark or mid-rangey commonly sounds are mixed so they do work well with each other sounds can be made to sound more similar to each other or more dissimilar a lead instrument might be made to be more cutting and abrasive so as to really grab attention an instrument might be given extra bass to make the song more danceable or just to excite the rap listener as previously covered in the second video on equipment in order to simplify things we can compare the relative eq of each sound at each frequency range we can create various eq relationships at each frequency range highs mid-range and lows although there are a wide range of possibilities for creating eq dynamics there's only so much you can do to be creative with eq commonly the goal especially for the beginning engineer is not to be creative with eq but to get things just to sound normal to sound right most people are glad if they can just get a mix to sound right in fact the boundaries of how creative you can be with eq before it sounds weird is quite limited if you go beyond these limits you're normally no longer being creative you just have a bad mix the trick is to learn the limits so that you can be creative within the limits of sanity the goal is to get to the point where you know the limits of creativity so well that you can eq something a little off-center you can make something sound a little strange as an effect this is when you're truly being creative with eq it's funny the problem comes when you create eq that is a bit off center from being exactly natural as an effect and someone in the band complains that the instrument doesn't sound right not only should any unusual eq be appropriate for the style of music in the song but you can only do it if the band will let you or if you can convince them how it works and how cool it is we're right about here now because we are so limited as to how creative we can be with eq to make eq changes in a sound while it is playing creates a dynamic that is extremely noticeable if not appropriate for the song this could be quite distracting a good example of where this has been done well is in aqualung by jethro tull where the voice goes to a telephone like voice pink floyd also did it and wish you were here where the acoustic guitar goes into a little box type of sound currently it is considered to be very unusual to actually change eq settings during a mix however it just might be the next creative frontier especially for those mixing hip-hop in the mic as we continue our overview of the way that you can use studio equipment to create different musical dynamics we have evolved to here as previously discussed panning is mapped out visually as a function of left to right the big question is what kind of musical dynamics can you create with the placement of pan pots on the mixer if we think of the space between the speakers as a palette and the sounds are the colors that we place on the palette then panning can be based on crowd control you might want some sounds to be panned as far from each other as possible in order to create clarity such a dynamic might be appropriate for certain types of music like acoustic jazz folk music and bluegrass on the other hand sounds may be panned such that they overlap in order to create a wall of sound making the mix seem more cohesive this is commonly done in heavy metal alternative rock and new age music however panning is often done based on certain traditions that have developed over the years defining the norm for panning particular instruments also particular styles of music have developed their own traditions for the placement of particular instruments left to right in the stereo field in fact it is almost like if you follow these traditions you create a dynamic that is transparent and lets the music through more whereas if you don't follow these traditions you create a dynamic that might call attention to itself this is not to say that it's wrong to pan things differently than normal but you should just be aware of the fact that you're doing it it could actually be totally cool and appropriate and could change the world as with fader volumes some styles of music have stricter rules than others for example you can practically do whatever you want in hip-hop whereas in big band music it's important to set up your panning the way a big band would normally set up on stage acoustic jazz is also sometimes panned just the way the band would be on stage an engineer will sometimes even place the musicians in the studio as if they were on stage i've mixed some folk bands just exactly the way that they were standing out in the studio doing this helps you to create the illusion that you are there with the band which can be a nice solution in order to obtain the most natural panning of a drum set try this first pan the overhead mics on the drums completely left and right like this then listen for the left right placement of each drum in this stereo overhead mix pan the mic of each individual drum to exactly where you hear it in the overhead mix for example listen to where the hi-hat seems to be in the overhead mix and place the hi-hat mic right there same with the toms listen to where each one seems to be in the overhead mix and place each tom accordingly this will give you the clearest imaging you can obtain you see if the toms are here in the overhead mix and then you place the tom mic themselves over here it's like you have panned the toms in stereo if you place the tom mic right where they are in the overhead mix voila precise imaging of the toms in one place however these days it's quite a bit more common to not pan the instruments as they are on stage more and more people will pan them to wherever they sound the coolest it's interesting to note the way that drums have been panned throughout the history of recording the beatles placed the vocals in one speaker and the rest of the band in another although this was a mistake they meant for two tracks to be mixed down to mono when the record was made but the mastering engineer decided to be creative many jazz groups have placed the entire drum set in one speaker the advantage of doing this is that it leaves a huge amount of space between the speakers for the rest of the band the big disadvantage is that the separation between individual pieces of the drum set becomes obscured now let's take a look at traditions in panning of particular instruments individual instruments have come to be commonly placed in specific positions from mix to mix for example it's rare that the kick drum is ever placed anywhere except in the middle it isn't necessarily wrong to place it somewhere else but it has become commonly accepted to be placed in the middle this could be because a kick drum appears as a very large sound in the world of imaging the kick drum has so much energy it completely commands our attention also when the sound is in the middle between the speakers you have two speakers carrying the sound instead of one therefore especially with big sounds like a kick drum or bass guitar the speakers don't have to work as hard so it'll sound better the snare drum is most commonly placed in the middle some engineers do place it a bit off to the side especially in jazz because the snare drum is off to one side in a real drum set the hi-hat is often placed off to one side also it seems that most engineers will place the hi-hat halfway between the middle and the left side like this however if you are creating a mix that is meant to be more spatial it might be appropriate to pan the hi-hat all the way to one side now in house music and hip-hop not only can the hi-hat be panned anywhere it is commonly moving during the entire mix and is sometimes recorded with a delay on it in order to provide maximum fun tom toms are commonly spread completely left to right however for natural panning the rack toms are sometimes placed in the middle just like on a real drum set a floor tom is normally placed on the far right however occasionally the floor tom will get placed in the center for the same reason we normally put kick drums and bass guitars in the middle because they are so powerful and command so much attention and because it will sound better when both speakers are carrying the out the discussion of tom placement brings up an interesting question should the toms be panned from left to right as if from the drummer's perspective or from right to left from the audience's perspective it seems that those who do live sound commonly pan from right to left just like in a live show however many engineers pan from left to right just like we read the other interesting thing is that a lot of people have very strong feelings about this issue bass guitar is most commonly placed in the middle as it commands so much attention jazz and similar types of music often times place the bass off to one side this is normally only done when the sound of the bass itself is thinner or the bass eq has been rolled off making the sound sound thinner it's poetry in motion lead vocals are overwhelmingly placed smack dab in the middle if they are recorded in stereo doubled sung twice or made into stereo with an effect the stereo effect is normally spread evenly left to right a solo piano is almost always panned completely left and right in stereo just because it sounds so nice that way magical if the mix is too busy already that is if there are a whole lot of instruments in the mix sometimes it's still panned in stereo sometimes it is panned in mono when the mix is really busy the left right placement is completely dependent on the placement of the rest of the sounds in the mix when in mono again you can do whatever you want with individual instrument sounds depending on the style of music this is just to let you know what is commonly done because a lot of people want their mixes to sound like what is on the radio any placement of individual instruments other than the above norms might be considered unusual but it also just might be considered inappropriate besides individual placement of sounds between the speakers even more important are the overall patterns you can create by panning in the overall mix with panning you can create a symmetrical mix or asymmetrical type mix symmetrical mixes might commonly be created for a love song or ballet it might be created for a song about balanced ecology of mine whereas an asymmetrical mix might be created for a song about psychotic unbalanced behavior commonly symmetrical mixes are used to create a balanced type of dynamic whereas an asymmetrical mix creates a bit of tension to get even more detailed a balanced mix is often made to be symmetrical at each frequency range for example if a hi-hat is on the left a shaker or acoustic guitar might be placed on the other side to balance the high frequency range a guitar on the left might balance a mid-range keyboard on the right again this is if you're going for a symmetrical mix creating balanced or lopsided mixes can be an especially effective dynamic when it is appropriate for the song movement of a sound from left to right during a mix also will create a very intense dynamic so most engineers normally save such drastic creativity for special occasions there are a number of ways that a sound can be moved this way creating innumerable patterns of movement possibilities range from short minuscule moves to full range and wide sweeping moves that go the full sweep from speaker to speaker from pans that move slowly to pans that zoom back and forth between the speakers obviously when it's appropriate for the song this can be a great effect hendrix did it a lot especially in crosstown traffic led zeppelin went bananas and whole lot of love so far we have covered three of the four tools that you can use to create dynamics in a mix volume eq and panning now what type of dynamics can be created with effects well there's an incredibly wide range of effects and the dynamics that they create range from very subtle to very shocking mesmerizing and world changing it's just not within the perspective of this video to be able to go into all of the dynamics of each effect including the wide range of variables that can be achieved by changing the parameters within each effect but most of them are quite obvious we all know what a reverb can do to a mix we know what delays sound like and if you don't know what flanging sounds like try it out it can be used to create very other worldly type effects like being underwater more details of specific effects will be covered in future videos now when you look at the overall perspective of how effects contribute to making different styles of mixes one of the most important dynamics is how they fill out a mix making it sound fuller and bigger more like a wall of sound by the way we've just advanced to the next level with delays you're adding extra sounds to the mix so there are simply more sounds between the speakers with short delays less than 30 milliseconds you get fattening that appears to stretch a sound between the speakers again filling out the mix making it bigger flanging chorusing and phasing are all based on short delay times so they too will tend to make the mix sound bigger and fuller and of course reverb is actually made up of hundreds of delays so it takes up a mod of space in a mix and really fills out the mix tremendously all of these effects will make a mix fuller bigger batter however they also make a mix busier therefore if the mix is already busy with a lot of instruments and a lot of notes it could become muddy commonly these effects are only used when you have room for them that is when there aren't too many sounds in the mix in the first place however there are times when you might want to make a mix even bigger even though it's already quite full this is quite common with heavy metal with heavy metal and a lot of hard rock the bigger the better the more powerful the more awesome therefore you might consider adding effects to such a mix even if things are already crowded 48 guitars might not seem clean and clear but if it's so big it can be really cool now certain types of music are commonly mixed with very few effects in order to create a sparse mix where every single sound is completely separate from every other sound in the mix and where each sound is easily distinguishable from all the other sounds in the mix bluegrass acoustic jazz and some folk music are commonly mixed this way steely dan is a good example of this style of mixing very few effects are used to create as clean and clear of a mix as possible these types of mixes are normally done with very few or no effects at all on the other hand many styles of music are commonly mixed with a good amount of effects to create either a massive wall of sound type of mix or to create a spacious or spacey type of mix like pink floyd it was phil spector who was known for first creating these types of mixes for the longest time everybody was addicted to clarity then phil came along started adding more and more instruments to the mix and started using reverb to really fill out the space between the speakers his mixes were dubbed the wall of sound these days we've taken this concept to the extreme just how many sounds can we fit in this space between the speakers a lot of space rock heavy metal hard rock alternative music grunge and even new age are commonly mixed with a lot of effects now if we use the analogy of a mix being like the thoughts in your brain a clean clear mix would be like this some people might think of this as a very orderly brain like someone who has all their thoughts in place now on the other hand some of you might think of this as a boring brain i'm sure you would prefer the exciting activity of a brain that looks like this neurons firing all over the place large amounts of interactivity going on between the areas of the brain a full or sparse mix might be appropriate depending on the type of person the nature of the song and of course the style of music well finally we've now arrived at the last part of this section on effects there are a number of ways that you can create movement with effects first you can simply turn up or down the amount of the effects in the mix but you can also change the type of effect or change the parameters within each effect needless to say when you go changing the amount of effects or the type of effects in a song this dynamic becomes the sole focus of attention for the moment some groups like frank zappa mr bungle and even pink floyd have gone to the extreme of creating songs that are based around changing effects also the capabilities of doing this are becoming much simpler now with midi control of effects you can create subtler differences between sections of a song but again only if it's appropriate for the song and style of music and if the people you're working with we have now covered all of the four tools that can be used to create dynamics in a mix by using the tools together to create combinations of dynamics we can create all the different styles of mixes in the world let's look at how they can work together to create really major dynamics we can use all four tools to create an incredibly powerful dynamic for example say we're mixing a love song we could set relative volumes even so that nothing jumps out and shocks us so that the mood of the emotion is not disturbed so that love can grow without distraction we could set the eq so that nothing is too irritating in the mid-ranges so that everything is nice and bright but not too bright and so that there isn't too much bass to blow the mood we could set the panning so that it's balanced like a love relationship should be we could use very few effects such that the mix is clean and clear like all our minds should be when in love and we could refrain from creating any unnecessary movement with the faders pan pops eq or effects so as to not spoil the mood using all of these tools together we can create one intensely beautiful dynamic totally appropriate for the song it's like being another musician in the band it's like the equipment in the studio is your instrument on the other hand if we're mixing some rock and roll or even hip hop we might set volume relationships to be quite uneven really soft sounds and then it jumps out and grabs your attention creating a very exciting dynamic fun not boring at all we could set eq so that we get lots of highs and lots of load and we could eq some sound so they cut through and are engineering in the mid-range making the whole mix jump out and grab your attention forcing you to dance and forcing you to smile we could set the panning to be unbalanced creating tension and making the mix unusual let's have some fun rock and roll we could add all kinds of different effects making the mix interesting at every single moment let's not fool around let's change the world enough of the status quo we could also have things zooming left and right with panning volumes going up and down eq changing throughout the mix and effects not only going up and down but also the parameters of the effect changing constantly throughout the entire mix when you pull them all together we can create one hell of an exciting and exhilarating mix these are two extreme types of mixes that we could create with all of the tools all of the equipment in the studio there are a million possibilities of dynamics between these two extremes and all mixes in the world fall somewhere in between these two extremes now one of the most powerful dynamics that a recording engineer can create is to first create a context that is create a mix where all of the tools are working together to create a cohesive style of mix then without warning completely change all of the parameters of the mix with all four of the tools to create a completely different style of mix yes did it with owner of a lonely heart they took a screaming electric guitar sound and in a single moment it breaks down into a 50 style recording of a drum set with dull eq and mic 20 feet away then all of a sudden it's back to a screaming guitar synthesizer type sound that is extremely edgy the sudden change in mixed parameters is quite effective steam also did it with the song englishman in new york the song goes from a jazzy groove with a jazz style mix very few effects very clean sounding to all of a sudden a huge drum sound with tons of reverb then all of a sudden we're back to the simple clear jazz mix awesome exhilarating and quite interesting of course you can only create such dramatic mixed dynamics if it's appropriate for the song in fact i'm always on the lookout for bands that have written songs where such cool dynamics are appropriate this was obvious obviously one of frank zappa's favorite techniques mr bungle has taken the concept to the extreme every 30 seconds the song in the mix changes completely to do this can be shocking it can even blow people's minds it shows people that their reality is just an illusion that it could all change at any moment but best of all it shows perspective it shows people that they need not stay stuck in their current reality they only need to put a different mix on the situation all of the mixes in the world are created with just these four tools volume eq panning and effects every mix for every style of music in the world is made up with these four tools and the wide range of dynamics that they can create the art of mixing is the way the dynamics we create with the equipment in the studio interface with the dynamics apparent in music and songs now that we have covered all of the dynamics that you can create with the equipment we can now begin to explore all of the different relationships between mixing dynamics and the dynamics that people perceive in music however we'll let you begin this lifelong exploration on your own i don't believe it again oh the last video in the series used the visual framework explained in the earlier videos to show and explain all the different types of mixes that a recording engineer can create particularly it shows the traditions that have developed over the years for mixing different styles of music in this last video we have covered and you have learned about the wide range of emotional dynamics that are found in music emotions structures physical reactions visual imagery and spiritual aspects we then covered the dynamics that can be created with each of the four tools based on individual settings patterns of settings and movement we showed how different individual volumes create dynamics we introduced you to the six levels of volume and then covered how each instrument sound is placed at different volumes for different styles of music and songs we showed the dynamics that can be created through different volume patterns such as uneven volumes versus even volumes and we showed the dynamics created by moving volume faders in a mix we then went through different eq dynamics created by eq'ing individual sounds we then covered the more intense dynamic created by the overall eq or eq patterns we then discussed the intense dynamic of changing eq during a mix next we looked at the different traditions in panning different styles of music and the traditions for panning particular instrument sounds we then covered the dynamics created by overall panning patterns such as symmetrical mixes and asymmetrical mixes we advanced to the dynamic created by moving pan pots during the mix and showed different types of panning movement we then checked out the dynamics created with individual effects such as fattening flanging and reverb we've looked at the dynamics you can design through various patterns of effects that is full wall of sound mixes versus clean and clear sparse mixes we then went through the dynamics of changing effects in a mix we showed various ways that effects are changed during a mix we then explained how you can create different styles of mixes using the four tools such as what might be appropriate for a love song or for a really cool chaotic mix using the four tools we showed the wide range of mixes an engineer can create we then pointed out and showed the most intense dynamic of all to completely change the style of mix in a single moment finally we set you off on the journey of learning how to create all these dynamics with the equipment to best fit the dynamics in music and songs this is the true art of mixing you

Channel: TVHomeStudio

Views: 2,240,654

Keywords: Mixagem, Home Studio

Id: TEjOdqZFvhY

Length: 159min 21sec (9561 seconds)

Published: Sat May 26 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/sksloops]

I have this book in PDF, if anyone wants it i put a link here: https://we.tl/t-TUREujxOfJ

[u/FLockheart_LA]

this video is great, Ive seen it twice now and I continue to learn things from it. The poetry in motion part gets stuck in my head.

[u/lasertagnate]

Wow! I haven’t seen this in a looong time. That guy ran CRI (California Recording Institute) in San Francisco way back when. He had plans to build a VR mixing setup where you grab instrument bubbles in mid air and move them around in space to adjust their position in the mix. There’s a book to go with all that info btw. I worked there for a bit. Those were good times. That made my day. Thanks!

[u/Ampli5]

Going by one of my former professor’s quotes here: “This video is like a rite of initiation into becoming a mixing engineer.”

[u/SnideBarman]

This video is poetry in motion.

[u/thebadbarnacles]

Hey, mustaches are people too.

[u/zhenok]

Is this destiny ?

[u/TombProject]

I love that video. So many great one liners too LOL

[u/CookingZombie]

this is underbelly's dad. atleast thats my headcannon