In case you missed the Berklee Online Webinar with Craig Anderton (March 31st, 2014) – here is the video in it’s entirety! Craig outlines some of his favorite topics including:
The MIDI advantage for songwriting
Using loops for both songwriting and EDM
Speeding up workflow to prevent “inspiration atrophy” (effects chains, track templates, browser techniques, etc.)
Creating your own mixer architecture
Using “spot” timing correction to tighten timing without destroying feel
How to make amp sims sound great (e.g. effects chains)
In the midst of recording a whole record it’s always a good idea to take some samples of the drum set so that you can replace and reinforce the drums later on in mixing. Here is an 11-part video series that shows you how to apply some basic EQ, Compression, and Editing techniques to get your drum samples to sound pro within SONAR X3.
Innovative Music Production Techniques with Cakewalk SONAR X3
When: Monday, March 31 at 4:00pm ET
Length: 30 minutes
Next Monday, join Berklee Online for an in-depth online clinic with Craig Anderton, a renowned music technologist and producer, and Chief Magic Officer for Gibson Brands.
Learn how to create, edit, master, and more using SONAR X3 Producer.
Topics for this Open House will include:
The MIDI advantage for songwriting
Using loops for both songwriting and EDM
Speeding up workflow to prevent “inspiration atrophy” (effects chains, track templates, browser techniques, etc.)
Creating your own mixer architecture
Using “spot” timing correction to tighten timing without destroying feel
How to make amp sims sound great (e.g. effects chains)
When should I boost?
Some of you may read this and field this very question. Boosting is something that you can do any time you want with any given instrument. Obviously it is your own choice in the matter but if you find yourself constantly pulling your faders up and down because your master level is clipping then you may want to apply these EQ techniques to your workflow. In my world it is always a matter of reducing first and then boosting later.
Bass
The bass in this track caters to fans of the early Metallica era. Bassist Cliff Burton popularized this distorted sound on such tracks as (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth. It’s important to blend this type of bass tone into the bottom of the guitars. In this mix the guitars and the bass become a single unit ebbing and flowing with one another at certain points through the song.
Understandably one can assume that there was much processing done to this track before it’s transfer into SONAR. It’s important to capture the sound before you start mixing so that your mixing process is not a patch-job.
This tone is aggressive and piercing to the ear. A significant way to know that this instrument needs attention is by the aural fatigue that you may experience while soloing this track and listening to it rather loudly for more than 10 seconds. I aimed to adjust the bass track to fit like a glove under the mix by applying a HPF at 78Hz with a steep bandwidth setting. The amount of bass here needs control. Using a compressor to control the sound would be redundant because of how much overdrive was applied to this track. The overdrive has ultimately eliminated any trace of strong transients.
Lastly, there is another dip in the EQ around 2.2kHz. This adjustment reduces some of the aforementioned piercing sound. Any harsh tones in this register will be too overbearing in the mix.
The Kick Drum
If the snare was the primary listening point for Rock music then the kick drum is the second most important. By working in the guitars in over the snare I was then met with the challenge of working in a solid kick drum sound. This kick drum was tracked using two different kick drum microphones, one deeper into the drum than the other. For reference, the first kick signal is called the “Kick-In” microphone and the second is the “Kick-Out” signal. (This is one example of the nomenclature used by many engineers to differentiate between the different microphones placed on a drum set)
Guitars
Your guitar tone can change significantly by carving out the correct frequencies and reducing those that introduce unwanted noise. Distorted electric guitars tend to occupy most of the mid-range based on their nature of their sound. This mix was tricky because the band is instrumental and their music relies heavily on the layering of multiple guitar tones.
Rhythm Guitar 1
Here I have chosen to attenuate the unwanted rumbling of the of the low end of the rhythm guitars using the supplied HPF. The bass guitar is rather guitar-like in this song therefore it is important to make room for that. The HPF for Guitar 1 was applied at 50Hz and similarly to Guitar 2 at 47Hz. Why not the exact same frequency you ask? Having the slightest Continue reading “Subtractive EQ Part 2: Heavy Rhythm and Lead Guitars”
Introduction
Equalization is one of the most powerful tools that an audio engineer can get their hands on. Live engineers, post-production engineers, and recording engineers all have their specific uses for it. It’s so powerful that some beginner engineers habitually reach for it without understanding what it can ultimately do to a mix.
Overview
Let’s resonate on the concept of volume momentarily. It is in our human nature to enjoy music at high volume levels. Concerts are a great examples of this. Outdoor festivals and the like tend to blast our eardrums with massive amounts of volume that we cannot experience in any other format. To most, increasing volume directly correlates to better sound. In a mix setting, dramatically boosting various frequencies can be a crutch for inexperienced mix engineers. By increasing the gain of a specified frequency band on an EQ one can subsequently add unwanted gain to the overall mix. Typically the problem that follows is a battle to keep your master fader from clipping and you all of sudden feel stuck in a gain-staging paradox. This can happen to best of us.
In Use
Apply subtractive EQ techniques to your instruments. Instead of boosting your favourite signals try limiting yourself to cutting. We can call this concept “carving”. Let’s take a look at a musical example. This series of articles will demonstrate some key elements of a typical Rock Mix.
Snare
Generally the snare is the focal point of a typical rock oriented mix. I’ve started with all my faders down and raised the snare to a suitable level: 0dBu. This recording was tracked with two snare microphones. The bottom snare microphone captured the sizzle of the snare and the top microphone captured much of the attack.
I sat down with some of my best session players to collaborate on 50 presets for TH2 Producer that are sure to add some grit to your low-end instruments. It’s no secret that my passion is mostly in the Rock and Metal world of music and I’ve felt that Bass doesn’t get enough love in those genres. Below are 5 examples from the Free Download that outline some great Rock and Metal lead, rhythm, clean, and ambient effects and I would definitely pull out of my bag of tricks for a record.
Z3TA+ 2’s synth engine can generate sounds that stretch across multiple genres. By utilizing Z3TA+ 2’s advanced modulation matrix we can shape just about everything, even drums sounds.
Sine Wave Kick Drum
Start by initializing your patch. This will return the synth to all of it’s defaults so that you can start from scratch with the sound.
Kick Drums requires a lot of low end. Within Z3TA+ 2 you can produce this kind of controlled low end by using the Sine Waves that are available in the OSC section. We are going for a saturated low end, so make sure to add 3 Sine Waves.
Let’s split up the 3 Sine Waves into Middle, Right, and Left. In order to do this we must first activate the Filter Section, select the “Link” button and turn the Pan knobs on either filter. They will pan in opposite directions.
Afterwards, we can use the Filter Bus on each OSC section to pan the oscillators. Panning two opposing oscillators and then using the “Fine Tune” to slightly detune them will produce a nice wide stereo effect. Do this to both OSC 1 and OSC 2 and keep OSC 3 centered and not de-tuned.
