Remixing another Track

Remixing another track:

EQ – Stands for equalisation. It is an effect, which boosts or lowers frequencies within a sound wave. There are 4 main filters, a high pass/shelf filter that is normally used on higher pitched instruments to boost these frequencies and make them stand out. Another type of filter is a low pass/shelf filter, which boosts lower frequencies; this is used for instruments such as bass guitar and a kick drum. The third filter is a notch pass filters lower a very narrow number of frequencies and can be used to reduce background noise or a particularly harsh frequency in a recording. The final filter is the band pass filter that does the opposite of notch pass filters and boost particular frequencies, these can be used on kick drums and other percussion instruments. Parametric processors are commonly found on software-based technology and alter multiple frequencies quickly and easily. They also make it much easier to add filters such as high/low shelf, which can alter lots of frequencies creating a smoother sound. However, due to this it can make it difficult to alter one specific frequency.

Compression: This alters the dynamic range of a sound, this allows the dynamic range to be controlled and either lowered or boosted to sit well in the mix. The Range is altered by ratios after a threshold is passed. For example, if the ratio was 2:1, when the sound reaches the velocity of 2 (for example 200dBs) it is dropped down to 1 (100dBs).

Gain boosts the overall sound, but without going over the set ratio so the sound is louder but does not clip. Threshold is how loud the sound has to be before the compression kicks in, if it  is low then it will begin to compress the sound at a lower dBs. If it is high then it will not begin compression until it reaches a higher dBs. A knee determines how soft/hard the threshold point is. If the knee is hard it will suddenly kick in, however if it is soft then it will take a longer time to kick in and will be more of a fade in which it makes for a smoother compression.

The opposite of this is Expansion which boost the lower frequency sounds if the recording was too low.

Reverb: is an effect, which reverberates a sound to create atmosphere and simulate a room. Pre delay is a setting, which determines how long it takes for early reflections of the original sound to happen. If the pre delay is short, the sound will be repeated quickly, however if it is longer there may be a gap between the dry sound and the reverb. Reverb is how long it takes for the sound to reach -60dB from the original velocity, the longer it is, the longer it will take for the sound to fade. Longer reverb time is better on longer notes so the note sustains for longer. Early reflections is the term given to the first few reverberations. These are normally of a similar velocity to the dry sound and equally spaced apart and occur straight after the pre delay kicks in.

Limiting: This is the process of cutting the track in order to cut out background noise in between segments of the instrument being played. The digital version of this would be using a Gate which automatically prevents a sound below a threshold of dBs from appearing in the recording.

I used FX channels to group together sets of instrument track in order to control the overall EQ/Compression of the groups such as Vocals, Brass and drums.

Examples of how i mixed individual tracks:

         Lead vocals- EQ

         For the vocals i have increased majority of the sound as i thought that the vocals needed to stand out the most, i have increased the lows and the highs. The parametric processors are commonly found on software-based technology and alter multiple frequencies quickly and easily. They also make it much easier to add filters such as high/low shelf, which can alter lots of frequencies creating a smoother sound. 

         Backing Vocals 1 & 2- Compression

         For the backing vocals i used compression, i altered the sound so that the sound that was produced sounds live rather than from a studio and that the monitor is auto also the dynamic sound has been brought down, as i wanted the lead vocals to stand out more and have the backing vocals more subtle and just in a way fill out the gaps.

      

         Guitar- AMP Rack

         Brass- Reverb

         I have included reverb on the brass this is because i wanted it to sound more lively, to begin with i tried loads of different effects and i thought that when strolling through i liked the sound of one of them.

Balance/Pan- Panning the output gives more depth to the track as it sends different tracks between L and R so that they are heard in different ears. Balancing is setting the track as close to 0 dBs (the industry standard) without the track clipping on the output.

All Tracks- MultiBand Compressor: Has 4 Compressors and 4 Frequency changers so is essentially an EQ and Compressor mixed into 1. It allows you to reduce the dynamic range of each set of frequency from the Bass to High Frequencies individually.

Audio Mixdown: To Export your track as an audio Mixdown  go to 'File', then 'Export' then 'Audio Mixdown' (As shown below)

 when you have done that this options page will pop up. On this page you can set the name for your track as well as where it will be saved. You can also change the format of the Output, for this i set my sample rate to 44.100 kHz and the Bit Depth to 16 Bit which is the industry standard.