Update
A friend asked me today how things are going with my project... Now, if you mix and produce like I do and you are in the learning stages as I am, then you know the problem of answering that simple question. My friends, family and community as a whole don't really want to know the details of compression, gain staging etc. It's like rocket science to them. What they do want to know is why this project is taking so darn long without me using and technical terminology.
They're not mean or abusive, just impatient, that's all. They are used to flicking on Spotify and listening to millions of songs without the least effort. They are simply not aware of the expanse of the music making process. I'm learning how to answer their questions in a diplomatic way. "Rome wasn't built in a day", works. Or, "I get what you're feeling...When you want to buy a new house someone has to build it right?" Or I can say "Anything worth listening to has to be fine-tuned more than you might realize."
The hardest thing is not letting their impatience get me depressed. I have had bouts of getting down on myself for not being done yet. But I have had to let that go. Before I would promise myself and others that I would be done at a certain date. But not any longer. No, it will get done when every song is not perfect but loveable. The'll have to wait and I'm going as fast as I can. Now I am done with my banter. Here is some new info:
Social Media
Email subscriptions: In a world that is bursting with information, people meet, share ideas and can get totally tired of the whole crazy thing.I am getting so many emails now that I can't keep up with them all. So I am beginning to unsubscribe, structure maps and schedule time to read my emails. I have been throwing out my nets to get information but now I am in need of cutting down the shear amount of emails and in order to keep afloat.
Avoiding "Indie musician fuzz brain mode": It is very trying to find a good level of constant learning while exploring new information, networking, growing, sharing and encouraging others on social media. It seems new methods and apps are popping up daily. The main thing as an indie artist is to keep your focus. What are your goals? Who do you want to meet and what more do you need to know right this minute? I have found that I have to constantly adjust my information flow like pruning a bush. There are seasons where the informations bud and fruit comes and there are those dormant months where you can cut back those dead branches. It's an ebb and flow. If I don't cut them I experience indie musician learning fuzz brain mode.
I have made up my mind to continue to add one new thing to my each of my music FB pages daily and to my Twitter feed. Gab, Minds, Maker Support etc are on hold for a while as I wrap up this first album. It just got to be too much.
If you haven't subscribed to my artist's facebook page here it is: https://www.facebook.com/elisabethkitzing/
And if you want tips and tricks in music making: https://www.facebook.com/Featherheadmedia/
Or just subscribe to Featherhead Media: www.featherheadmedia.com There you can find a blog, tips on beating stress, lyrics and more.
Change My Mind Album Update
Improved guitar flow: This week I have been doing a lot of updates in the song The Vine, making it much better than the demo version I did a year ago. Between Nashville and now I have learned how to get the GTR plugin (electric guitar station) to sound great with my Ibanez electric guitar. So now I replaced an untuned metal screeching old recording with a flowing and tuned one. What an improvement! I have finally learned my lesson when it comes to guitars. Get them right from the start. You can't retune polyphonic instruments and trying to fix timing issues with a comp guitar is a massive headache. Now I understand why studio musicians get paid so much for what they do. Happily, I could replace this one all by myself for free.
Adjustments: Besides the guitar, I have fixed many issues on various tracks, fixing pitch timing problems enhancing tone, adding reverb (see below) and new hip hop loops. I love the fact that the live drums and all the loops and percussions are driving this ballad with a hip hop undertone. I even went through all the midi piano I had created, removing unnecessary clutter, checking its harmony throughout the song and adjusting the sustain pedal manually. It would be so much easier if I had found a pianist to do this. I don't play piano but I know how I want this to sound. It took me many many days to get this where I want it to be. I even re-did the alto background vocals. Nice!
Then I let my husband listen while he was laying down on our massive couch. (He always get the first listen before I send it to my reference group). He was head bopping all the time so I know I am close. Just a few more small tweaks and some automation and I should be o.k.- it's March 9th.
One of the things left to do is to fix the vocals through automation so the input levels before compression are consistent before they hit the compressor. So I went through some awesome videos on making vocals sound great:
Videos
Vocal Mix Mistakes A good video to help both me and you with this is from Jason Moss. (O.K. his thumbnails are a bit obnoxious but he is professional and humble and a very good teacher of the basic. Check this one out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF2_rvBh-rQ
Mistake #1: instead of "riding the faders" you add hard compression
In it he talks about a two step process to even out the volume of your vocal tracks - before and after compression
First, use clip gain to even out vocal volume before compression
1. Apply compression
2. Mark each area and adjust the gain: Listen through the vocal (with the compressor on). In every place where the vocal is not being heard well or is being crushed too much, adjust the gain on that syllable up or down to get a more even volume level. Listen as you go. You want to turn down breaths (that compression might make sound unnaturally loud)and turn up the parts that are too quiet. Just to even things out and reduce noise.
3. Unite the areas: When you are done, hit command J to unite the track and then
4. Adjust the compressor's threshold level to address the new average volume level of the track.
This is a method of "riding the faders". A really attentive audio engineer will never be satisfied with just slapping on hard compression!
This way you affect a change in the volume before you slap on the compressor.
I did this to an alto harmony track just to test it and all I can say is wow!
Here is another one about how to use clip gain in Logic Pro X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7z9f5Y1wxw In it you learn how to use the marquee tool to mark areas that need gain reduction to bring all the areas to a more even level and then join them to create a new even track.
When you have a dynamic vocal, you can even out the volume and make the compressor work less - saves CPU and get the vocal to sound more powerful overall. It takes time to adjust but it really helps. Let's say you reduce the louder parts and now the track has a lower average gain. Now you'll have to reduce the threshold of the compressor in order to even it out more but the advantage is that you don't have to bring the "tops" down from as high as they were before.
Here's another video I saw today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5NahxvkhLM
Secondly, you use volume automation which comes in after the compressor plugin crunches the signal. This happens when you automate the volume
Then, you can apply automation to the vocal subgroup before it goes to the stereo out.
Mistake #2: Your attack time is too fast on your compressor
Jason thinks of the attack knob as a "consonant control knob". Fast attack > the compressor is going to clamp down on the consonants and tone down the beginning of each word. The words will sound flat and one dimensional as compared to a slower attack time.
A slower attack time will let the punch at the beginning of each word through. "In most circumstances, slowing down the attack will give you a better vocal sound."
Mistake #3: You use the solo button when fixing vocal track quality
The video at the top
Above, is a video from MusicTechHelpGuy (MTHG) called "Logic Pro X - #70 - Mixing (Part 12): Aux Sends for Reverb:. The technique you learn here is how to use sends in aux tracks and using time-based effects such as flanger, chorus, reverb and phaser to add character to your mixes.
Learn the techniques he is sharing in this video to save CPU power and to have more control over your time-based effects.
I'm going to spend some days focusing on reverb. I am going to soak myself with how it works before i dig in and apply it to my final mixes. Here goes.
Reverb
The blessings and curses of reverb
Reverb on vocals: Reverb is the echoing sound that you hear that can make a vocal vibrant and give you the feeling that the lead singer is singing in an auditorium or a hall of a certain size. It can make the singer's performance sound bigger, fuller and epic.
But, because more reverb can make the singer sound farther away, and too much echo with long tails can cause muddiness, you have to be careful not to add too much of it.. There's a sweet spot for each song and tweaking the controls is necessary. Pre-delay can help but even side chaining the delay through compression. I am going to go deeper into reverb so I can get a hold of it and apply it to the final stages of the Change My Mind album. wish me luck!
Reverb adds to muddiness when the echoes fold over each other and cause disharmony and chaos. I'll have to focus on the length of the echos and when they start. Do I want them to bounce off of every syllable or to resound only in the quiet spaces between words? This is very important. Learning how to do reverb right seems complicated but not rocket science.
All the instruments and vocals should work together so that reverb gives a nice total effect. It would be strange if you had really "wet" lead vocals and completely dry everything else. Its really subjective though how much is too much and what is a good relative amount.
The structure of a song and reverb
When I started out with mixing and I wanted to have different levels of reverb in the verses and the chorus, I simply slapped a reverb plugin on the lead vocal channel and automated it. I increased it during the chorus and outro sections, creating a bigger sound during the choruses and used no or less during the verses. The problem is CPU use. It takes a lot of computer power to have a reverb on every vocal track and automate every single one.
Another drawback is automation takes time. Although taking time to secure that volume levels are even and hearable throughout is great, I wouldn't advise doing the same thing with reverb.
A better way is to divide your tracks, like MTHG does in this video something like this
Lead verse (a little less reverb than the choruses but more in verse one than in verse two)
Lead chorus (more reverb than in the verses)
Background vocals (less than the lead - you don't want them to stick out. (These he keeps constant throughout.)
How to think about using sends, busses and auxiliary tracks when adding reverb
A "send " is a way to split the audio signal off of a channel strip over to another area (in this case he's sending all the vocals to a "Voxverb" track. In effect, you have the dry signal from the vocal being sent to two places one of which is the stereo out or common aux track (see busses below) and you are sending the same info to another track where reverb is added.
Busses are different. All they do is route a group of tracks to a common aux track. (The whole signal flows to it on its way to the stereo output.)
How to set the sends
You are adding an effect and that means you are adding additional volume. Don't forget that. So, you only want to add enough reverb to get the sound you want when and where you need it.
In Logic you can dial how much of that split signal you want to send to the Voxverb channel before it hits the stereo output. It is a matter of taste how much reverb you might want. MTHG recommends putting more reverb on the lead vocals than on the background vocals. It is a matter of taste how much an in why way.
Check your reverb levels
Create a loop on the pre-chorus and chorus sections of your mix.
Mark the vocal track with solo
Press play and listen. You will be hearing both the dry and wet signals.
Well that is enough for this time...