Noise! As a side note, they are demolishing the cement - laden, abandoned lot outside my kitchen window. I woke up to a crash and an bed-rocking earthquake and this has been going on all day long. It makes my banjo, hanging on the wall of my studio rattle uncontrollably , too. I guess I'll have to wait with recording that additional alto harmony track I wanted to add to the CMM track. Oh, well!...
Q.T.✔️
Planning✔️
Exercise: did a little but not feeling up to it today...lazy bum!
Finishing a mix: This is my big problem. I need to finish my mixes but feel overwhelmed by all the things I need to understand in order to get the sound I want. In this video I got some bullet points on how a professional audio technician approached finishing a mix.
It's easy to fill every passing day with videos and stuff my blonde head with endless information on how to mix and master. At the end of the day, I just need to wrap it up and do as well as I can now with the stuff I know and the programs I have. I had so much to do today so I will say more about the above video tomorrow.
Prosoundformula Course: ✔️ I wasn't done with the 2nd video on compression so I continued with it today and noted the difference between using compression and limiting in a mastering situation as opposed to mixing. I can't post that video here, though. I am not allowed to.
Today I applied what I've learned about the attack and release settings on the renaissance plugin on the bass track of Change My Mind (within the context of the mixing phase). Sounds better. I also adjusted the snare settings.
Here are his tips on how to listen your way to correct attack and release times.
Attack and release settings for the Renaissance plugin:
Start adjusting the threshold: Start with a high ratio and move the threshold up and down to see what the compressor is doing. Then, back it off when you've heard what it sounds like.
- let the compressor "breathe". You don't want to compress the whole track just the peaks a bit
- set the threshold accordingly
- Start with an attack time of about 50 ms and roll back and forth from there listening to how that affects the track. Basically, it's about how much punch you want in the mix as opposed to how smooth you want the track to sound.
- start w a release rate of about 150 to 200 ms or even 300 or so and swipe to get the sound you want. You want the gain reduction to move around with the track or "breathe with it".
Buttons:
Electro vs. Upto: Upto is a more classic - a warmer smoother and slower setting than the quick electro setting.
Warning: If you set the release rate too fast it starts to become very noticeable. Watch that you don't set a release time that is too fast - that can introduce distortion into the track, because the compressor will start to compress individual waves instead of the overall track (we are talking about mastering now).
If you set the release rate too low, it is going to take the gain reduction too long to come back down again. And then, it is effectively doing nothing at all. (Not effective)
You want to get the gain reduction to move in time with (or "breathe with") the track.
- Note that the arc button is putting the renaissance plugin on an automatic compression setting and you can change this by clicking on the button and changing it to manual.
Other compressors/Expanders
C1: In the course, he goes through the Waves C1 Compressor as well. It's more graphical and has a slightly different way of attacking things but it is approximately the same in its applications. I have both but I haven't used them so much so that I can give any conclusive argument when to use the one over the other. Go to the waves.com homepage to learn more.
Expanders: Are essentially the opposite of compressors. They accentuate sound above the threshold according to the ratio, if I understand him.
A limiter is like a shelf where you set an upper level. Don't really get that yet....
Other things
Practice: guitar in a set for 1 hr. Today, a "worship" set. ✔️
Piano: 15 minutes. ✔️
Music theory course from Udemy: did one more video and applied what I learned by going into Muse Score and writing notation for the song Just Like a Sparrow. (It's in C so it's easy to write.) No so easy to learn how to use the program, but I found some new stuff and it is going easier now than the last time. The goal is to write the vocal and guitar parts to all my songs and then get help from someone else to write the piano parts later. Then I can load them up to CCLI and everyone can enjoy them.
Mixing:
I did a check to see about the gain staging problem in my mix and wrote my own bullet list to finish my mixes.
Spotify: Oh, btw, I just saw that my song, Don't Worry, that is going to be on the up coming album and that is performed by Rebecka Wendesten was loaded up to Spotify as a local file with my album art on her profile. I am glad that she did it in a way, but I wish I had known first. You can go to her Spotify profile and listen for free (or go to the lyrics video on my channel). Before I release the album I will have to ask her to take it down and replace it with a full version. That one is only a mp3.
Here is the youtube version:
YOU ARE READING
An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1
Non-FictionThis is how I go forward with my music - the real story from November 2017 and towards the album release but it took Volume 2 to get the whole way there. Creating, editing and mixing music is a complicated effort but loads of fun. For all you who wa...
