The Importance Of Space In A Mix: Part #3 – Mixing The Space
Welcome to the third and final article about space in a mix. If you haven’t already read the first two, check out:
Part 1: The Concept of Space in a Mix
Part 2 : Tools for Mixing the Space
Mixing Space
So you’ve recorded all your instruments and room captures, you’ve got a basic mix going, and you’ve selected your delays and reverbs.
Now what?
As discussed in the prior articles we are either looking for a sense of coherence, or a surreal space that has some kind of orchestration to it. Our sonic elements for working toward our goal are the same as any other set of sounds: tone, texture, rhythm, and spatial cues.
I’m not normally a mix-by-numbers sort of person, and there’s certainly no one way of working ambiance into your mix. However, I am going to share some of my thoughts and techniques which you can lift or use to platform your own techniques.
First, find your real spaces and focus on those. Room captures in particular can serve two very useful functions in a mix. First–they add actual living breathing space–something no other reverb can really do.
Second–the room captures expose the sound of the space that the close captures possess at a much subtler level. In other words, the room captures put a magnifying glass on the sound of the space that is in the close miking on any given instrument. This makes the room captures a good place to start.
Also, if you tracked in multiple rooms–getting a sense of consistency here is of the utmost important. All the artificial reverbs can be tweaked to fit the sound of the real room(s)–but the real rooms can’t be tweaked to match the artificial reverbs except to a minimal degree.
Working The Real Room
Rhythm: If it’s late, use a gate. Expansive rooms yield long reverb tails–and those can throw off the rhythmic sense of the song. Fast songs and long tails are generally a rough combination. If it feels like the room decay is just hanging around too long, a gate can be just the thing to shorten it up.
Just remember that hard gating a reverb sounds unnatural–a gradual gain reduction will be much more transparent. Conversely, if the room sound is too short, a compressor can bring up the tail and give the impression that the reverb is decaying more slowly. This is also a good trick to use if you want to create the sonic image of a large room, when a large room is not at your disposal.
It helps a great deal to make this decision at the tracking stage, because the digital world is a cruel place for the ends of a reverb tail.
Tone: In some genres, room sound is very much desirable–often in Jazz, Indie Rock, and Classical styles you want a specific and flattering room sound. Other genres–Pop Rock, Hip Hop, and Dance–a natural room can be unwanted.
A room will have response up and down the hearing band, but there will be specific areas of tonal signatures. These are the areas of sonic build up that re-emphasize the content of what’s being played in the room. You’re going to find these in the mid-range–and depending on the style, you either want to really emphasize these areas, or completely cut them out.
Texture: Specifically how the room reacts to transients, and how diffuse the room is. Outside of some mild compression, there’s not much one can do about the texture of a room–basically the best thing to do is to acknowledge the textural cues of the room sound, and note them for later when building the rest of the mix.
Isolation Room Verb
Some mixes call for exceptionally dry sounds. Dry sounds can come off as stale, or dead in the water. Even for things that are recorded in super dead isolation rooms–there is still a sound to the space. It’s just super subtle.
Careful compression on the dry source can help the air around the source come up and create depth even where there is very little reverberation. Start with very long attack times and very short release times–and work your way to the point where the air develops, but the naturalness of the source is not overly compromised.
Click to read the rest of this article over at The Pro Audio Files.
You learn the following in the rest of this article:
- How To Work The Artificial Space
- Soloing Reverb
- Blending Delays
- Bringing In The Dry Sounds
- Bringing It All Together
Click to read the rest of this article written by Matthew Weiss over at The Pro Audio Files.
The Importance Of Space In A Mix: Part #2 – The Tools
Read part 1 of “The Importance of Space in a Mix”
Reverbs
As with all facets of mixing and recording, the source sounds are paramount.
Choosing the best reverb(s) for the job up front will ultimately determine the end result. So, even before we get into the mixing of the space, let’s talk about sound selection. In a musical piece, we can treat the reverb as any other sound source, with four basic components:
- Rhythm
- Volume
- Tone
- Texture
Rhythm
One of the key elements of any reverb is it’s decay. The length of the tail is often an indication of the expanse of the space. However, it also determines the time in which the reflections sustain in the mix – and that’s a rhythmic concern.
A long sustaining sound in a fast tempo piece, or rhythmically complex piece is going to mask elements of the mix and generally slur the overall rhythm. A quickly decaying tail in a slow piece on the other hand, will leave a lot of empty space with very little impact from the reverb. Find a tail length that compliments the speed of the piece.
Pre-Delay
Another rhythmic consideration is the speed of the pre-delay. Pre-delay is a key element in determining the front to back relationship of the dry sound and the space it exists in. In other words, pre-delay helps the ear recognize how close or far the dry sound is.
Generally speaking, the longer the pre-delay, the closer the dry sound. A zero millisecond pre-delay means that the reflections and the dry sound are reaching the ear simultaneously – which puts the dry sound far away. This acoustic phenomenon could be an article all to itself, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
Pre-delay is also a rhythmic element – it determines a space of time from the initial dry sound before the early reflections show up. Anything within the Haas Zone (10ms or less), isn’t going to have much effect on the rhythmic sense of the sound. Once you start getting up to 20ms and greater, the slap back effect becomes distinct and there is a clear rhythmic effect. Find a pre-delay that compliments the speed or rhythm of the piece.
Lastly, some reverbs (particularly room and hall style reverbs) have a rhythmic space between the early reflections and late reflections. This is not always controllable, but listening for that “bulky” moment in the reverb sound is very important when selecting a reverb. Often times, plates are a good choice for drums partially because there are no “early” or “late” reflections – eliminating that particular rhythmic concern.
Volume
Generally, when I’m mixing, I prefer just enough reverb to add a little life to the elements in the mix. Often, I’m setting my reverbs 15 or 20dbFS lower than my dry elements. However, this isn’t to say reverbs can’t come to the foreground. It’s a very important aesthetic decision.
Just remember that whether the reverbs are subtle or prominent, they still need to sound right. Tone and Texture – this is where we get into the gritty stuff. There are many factors in determining the tone and texture of a reverb. First comes the style of the algorithm or convolution, then the three “D”s: diffusion, density, and damping.
Algorithms and Processors:
- Springs and Plates – A transducer sends vibrations across a metal coil, which are then picked up by another transducer. Springs have a “rigged” texture, and a hollow tone. Certain frequencies will jump more than others. Plates use a similar system, but work around vibrating metal plates. The result is a more natural sound – but one which is often “denser” than a real space.
Plates will also highlight certain frequencies. The exact tonal qualities will vary to some degree in spring reverbs, and to a greater degree in plates. One major tonal difference is that plates tend to be “shinier” than springs, which feel more “empty” or “lonely” if those words can even apply to sound. Vibrations appear immediately and decay linearly – there are no early or late reflections.
Because of these things, plates and springs are often very distinct and forward sounding reverbs, and useful for adding firmness or punch to the elements that feed them.
- Chambers, Halls and Rooms – Hall and room reverbs simulate the way a sound would actually acting in a given space. The characteristic sounds will change distinctly from unit to unit.
Rooms are often based on rectangular or semi-rectangular, level spaces. Halls are often modeled off of minute amphitheater designs with curvature to the walls and incline from the sound source. Halls will usually have less separation between the early and late reflections.
Otherwise, the algorithms are generally based around a size approximation. Halls are designed to be vast and deep. Rooms are designed to be natural. Halls will have a more even tone, whereas rooms may have resonant peaks and dips – but this is entirely dependent on the particular reverb unit. Chambers are unique room designs, and will vary as often as actual reverb chambers will vary.
Many reverbs, especially the “natural” space algorithms also may have settings for diffusion, density, and damping…
The Importance Of Space In A Mix: Part #1
We spend a great deal of time considering individual sounds in a space. We prescribe attributes to the instruments and the players in order to organize our thoughts about the sounds and how they blend.
We may often say a singer is “mid-rangy,” a snare is “ringy,” or perhaps the acoustic guitar is “warm.” We do the same for microphones, pre-amps, compressors, and what have you.
It’s surprising how little time is spent considering the sound of rooms, reverbs, delays, and whatever other spaces are coexisting within our mix. Considering that sound is defined by air vibrations within a space one would think the room would be held in equal importance to that which is resonating in it.
But, when entering a new space, how often do we consider it’s sonic characteristics. And more frequently, when building a mix, how often do we think of space(s) as its own sonic element?
Perhaps more often than we realize. After all, why do we spend so much time rolling through reverb presets trying to find the perfect one – when we seldom know what the right one will be? And why does a plate sound good one time, but a hall sounds better next?
Something instinctive is motivating these decisions. Like all sound sources, we are on some fundamental level listening for – and striving for – tone, rhythm, and coherence.
Reverb
The purpose of having customizable reverb is to find that which perfectly compliments the sound source – or the surrounding sound sources. We can pick and choose a reverb with a certain sound that highlights the tones or rhythms in our mix. And frequently, we’ll send multiple sound sources to the same reverb for the sake of coherence.
The complication comes in when there are multiple spaces present in the mix. After all, how can one element exist in two spaces at once? Or three? Or, why is it that the choir sounds like it’s in a church while the lead vocalist sounds like she/he is in a concert hall?
Sonic Cues For The Listener
Of course, the end listener is not listening on such a discerning level. The end listener is only picking up on subtle sonic cues that either indicate the sound is coherent or disjointed. So our task is to lead the listener’s ear where we want it to go. Do we want a unified sense of space, or something surreal?
That’s our job as the artist, producer, or engineer; to orchestrate all the sounds and consider what feelings and emotions they evoke.
They key word here being “orchestrate.” A random piling of sounds will certainly sound “unmixed” or perhaps more importantly, “ineffective.” Reverb and space are no exception.
Next, let’s talk about tonal cues and how to mix the ambience…
To read the rest of this article written by Matthew Weiss, click here to zip over to The Pro Audio Files site.
13 Tips To Improve Your Mixing
Sometimes a reduction in parameters actually generates more creativity. Being aware of a set of limitations, or guidelines, can actually allow you much more creative control over your final mix.
This could mean limiting the amount of effects that you allow yourself to use, or a more obvious one is to only use a particular set of effects that suits the genre or style. If you have the permission to do it, perhaps editing tracks or even muting/removing “surplus” instrumentation or vocal is the first step.
Approach-wise, ideally you want all aspects of a song to reinforce together and create a stronger impact, and if you aren’t aware of what you’re doing, it’s very possible (in fact more common than you think) to get a generally nice balance of instruments that somehow doesn’t “gel”. You can hear everything, but it lacks emotional impact.
So here are some ideas to think about next time you’re mixing a song. There are certainly many more ideas and concepts to experiment with than just this list, but it’s a great start.
1- Know What the Song’s About
Clues are in the lyrics. Knowing what it’s about gives you the opportunity to amplify the concept rather than inadvertently fighting it. That doesn’t mean you have to “follow” the lyrics with the mix in a literal sense – you might do nothing at all in that regard, but at least you won’t be fighting the meaning of the song without even realizing it, and when it comes to trying to think of creative mix directions, it’s yet another clue to help you.
2- Know the Context of the Music
What’s the genre or style of the artist? How does it relate to the artist’s identity? Being aware of this really makes it much more likely that you’ll promote that artist’s identity and overall concept, plus the artist will be more likely to appreciate what you do with the mix. For example does the artist exemplify “authenticity” where a raw, “character” sound with any intonation problems remaining unfixed is most desirable? Or is it about slick and smooth production?
3- Be Adventurous
A mix is not just a simple balance of the levels of the instruments in the mix, it’s about featuring various aspects that you think the listener would like to hear, or more accurately needs to hear at any given section of the song. Pretend it’s a movie – how do you present each section of the song?
Don’t be scared to go “over the top” with effects, fader moves and featuring of mix aspects – you can always tone it back if need be. Don’t be scared to turn the vocal up – trying to hide weak vocals makes it even worse. Even ugly actors have to have close-ups in a movie to make it effective.
4- Think About Texture And Tone
It’s partly tone, partly level, partly how dominant something is in the mix. If you compress something – its texture changes. Listen out for it’s tonally as a sound, rather than just checking its variation in level. How pervasive is it compared to everything else, despite its volume in the mix. How does it link into the overall texture of the song?
Textures are like a tonal color palette – you probably don’t want to mix a neon green element in with some nice earth tones (remember there are no rules!), but then again you don’t want everything the same shade of beige.
5- It’s About Melody
Even in the most distortion-fest mixes, our human nature will use our built-in pattern-detecting algorithms to extract a melody out of it somewhere, whether it be in the movement of the harmonics in the wall of guitar noise or in the groovy bass line. Make sure there’s one dominant melody at any given instant, or if there’s more than one, that they aren’t fighting and clashing with each other.
6- The Pocket
It’s more than something to put your wallet in. It’s that magic interaction of instruments when it all suddenly locks into a groove. Spend some time adjusting relative timing of instruments to see if you can help the groove “gel”. You’ll know when it happens because it’s magic and you’ll start moving with the music whether you want to or not.
Note that Beat Detective and other forms of quantization can fight this effect – it’s “felt” rather than being on an exact grid. With that being said, if the playing is too loose than a timing grid can be a step up. Compression, particularly rhythmic release times can help achieve some degree of further “groove gel.”
7- Keep it Simple Stupid
Less is more. These things are fundamental truths despite our over-familiarity with them, often leaving them as meaningless statements in our minds. Think about the mix as a photo – the more people you want to appear in the photo, the smaller they’ll have to be.
Don’t be scared to bring the main things to the foreground, and push other things back to the point of blurriness or being hidden behind the main elements. A good mix is not about individual band members’ egos, it’s about the overall blend.
When you think about it, the individual band members have the least idea about what the mix should sound like – they all hear completely different versions of a mix depending on where they stand/sit when they perform.
Read the rest of this article over on http://TheProAudioFiles.com
Here’s a preview of the remaing 6 tips…
8- Three “Tracks”
9- One Thing at a Time
10- Getting the Bass to Sit Right
11- Don’t Over-Compress Everything
12- Easier than Automation
13- Use Sub-mix Busses for Elements of the mix
Read the rest of this article over on http://TheProAudioFiles.com
Microphone Shootout: Neumann Vintage U87i Vs. U87Ai
Does the new Neumann U87Ai sound as good as a vintage U87i?
Hear both mics on vocals, male voiceover, and acoustic guitar on Episode #2 of Matt McGlynn’s (http://RecordingHacks.com) “The Microphone Show”.
This shootout features Mark Keller on voiceover and acoustic guitar, and George Merrill of “Boy Meets Girl” singing an acappella chorus of his 1998 hit, “Waiting for a Star To Fall.”
Details and raw audio files can be found at http://MicrophoneShow.com/2
Using a screen reader? Click here for the video
