No, this is not a tutorial on remixing the latest Lady Gaga song. I’ve been asked by a friend to remix his album entitled “101”. I’m going to attempt to document the journey and my findings out during this process. After all, that’s what this Blog is about.
So first up, the weapon of choice,Steinberg’s Nuendo 5. I really enjoy mixing in Nuendo. It makes me happy and a happy mixer is a productive mixer. I’ve taken the tracks that have been recorded in Pro Tools LE and have started to load them into Nuendo sessions. There are 10 songs in all.
The first song I have opened in Nuendo is “Amazing Grace”. A simple acoustic guitar and single lead vocal. Pretty easy, added a little EQ and compression on the vocal, and a little EQ and stereo imaging on the guitar.
I’m adding a little ambience using Lexicon’s pcm native reverbs. Let me share this with you, never use demo plugs on a session! I love these Lexicon reverbs, but it’s only the demo version so now, I’m either going to have to finish this song really quick or pony up the money to make these a permanent part of my arsenal…which, wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t over $1,000. Well worth it in my opinion, but not within my operating budget at the moment.
So far, I have a nice scratch mix of this song. Vocals are sitting nice, guitar has a little spread on it. The compression on the vocal gives it an up close and personal feel on this song. I didn’t want to make it feel too big because it’s a very intimate song.
More to come….
Today I started Mixing the single from "101" it's called "Love". It has a Matthew West kind of feel. A very fun song to mix, hooky, vibey, fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm using Sonalksis EQ's and Compressors as well as Steinberg's Reverence convolution reverb.
I'm having fun mixing this song and there's lots of room in it to be creative in the mix.
I've been mixing a radio single off of the album called, "Get Up". It's another great song with lots of energy. I'm using different types of reverbs on the drums to give them a huge sound. I'm getting a little frustrated trying to find the perfect delay for the vocal. Perfect in the sense of function. Right now I'm usings Wave's H delay, it's doing ok. I'm reminded of the U2 song "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". I have used many delays...I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
ReplyDeleteI am also apply some compression techniques to the drums to keep them big without getting out of control.
I am trying something new with this song, that I'm probably going to do from now on. Once I have all my settings, effects and groups in order, I turn the computer monitor off. Thank goodness I have a controller. Believe it or not, it doe make a difference. At least for me. Because I am not visually stimulated I can concentrate more on how the mix sounds....not how it looks. So far I like what I'm hearing.
Just finished a beautiful song called "My Soul Loves". Piano and vocal. Some of Steinberg's REVerence convolution reverb to place the piano in a wooden room. I'm using 112db's Redline Reverb on vocals. I really like this reverb, strange thing is...if you solo it, it sounds weird but in the mix it's really lush and sits just beautifully. I'm using the combination of REVerence and Redline a lot. I'm finding on this project that I'm gravitating to a few favorite plugs and while using them getting to know them really well.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for AAF! I've been importing all these songs into Nuendo from Pro Tools. Thank goodness there is a way to get sessions out of Pro Tools. Not only do I just enjoy mixing in Nuendo, but to me it sounds better too, and when a tool helps me do a better job, I'm really happy about it!
ReplyDeleteAfter a few projects that were absolute drags to work on, this one has restored my faith in the independent artist. It's a pleasure to work on well recorded, and well written songs. What that does is frees my mind from fix it mode to mix it mode. It allows me to be more creative and experiment more with different sounds instead of spending all my time trying to figure out how to make a vocal dry that sounds like it's been recorded in the mens room with an omni microphone.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of tools available to me and because I had time, was able to try whatever i felt like and actually narrow down a wide selection to a few favorites which has made me a more efficient mixer, because now I know what I like instead of trying to search for the perfect plugin. The name of the game is quality and efficiency, and eachiving both on this project, I feel it's my best work yet!
I'm working on a song called "Selfish Plea". So far, this has been the hardest song on the project to mix. Why? It's not that there is a huge amount of tracks to mix, it's only 12. It's not that it has been recording poorly, it's been recorded very well.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why it's so difficult is that most of the instruments used on this song all live in the same frequency spectrum. When presented with this situation, just bringing up a mix is going to result in an unbalanced, sometimes muddy, sometimes thin mix. When there are a lot of instruments all fighting to be heard in the same limited frequency range, nobody wins. It's what we refer to as "Masking" because a lot of musical parts sum and seem to get lost in the mix and it's all do to an abundance of too much of a certain frequency.
The cure? EQ of course. We have use the EQ to shape out unwanted frequencies from the tracks. For example if you have a keyboard and bass guitar playing in the same range, then you can use your EQ to take some low end out of the keyboard (because you already have an instrument covering the low end frequencies) and let the bass cover the low end.
If you have several guitar parts playing at the same time, you may need to cut a few up to open up frequency holes for the others to be heard. Now, when you do this, don't be alarmed if the tracks sound horrible on their own, that's ok. What's important is how they sound in the context of the mix.
To be most effective at this, don't try to EQ with the track solo'ed. Always EQ in the context of the mix, that way you are not fighting your brain telling you that it just doesn't sound right.
So, use your EQ to take out stuff in your tracks that are covered by other instruments, and use it to boost certain ranges in tracks to help things stick out on their own a little better.
That was the challenge for me. A lot of stuff competing for the vocal range. I had to make some cuts in keyboards and guitars to make room for kick in bass. I had to then cut a little mid range from four guitar tracks and boost some mid range in the vocal to help the vocal stand out better. By using this technique everything sat in context with each other very well and the mix was clean and clear.
Well, today I finished the mixes. It's been a joy not only because the songs were good, but because I actually enjoyed the process again.
ReplyDeleteI found that keeping the sessions simple by limiting my plugin choices to a few great plugins,not over thinking due to a complicated workflow, a great DAW with fantastic automation and learning to mix with the video monitor off all contributed to a pleasurable mixing experience.
I want to thank my friend Matt Swaringim for letting me mess with his tracks.
Now...off to mastering!
Oh no....we're not done yet. Mastering has revealed some flaws in my monitor set up, so it's back to the multi's to touch up a few mixes, then back to mastering. That is, after I fix the flaw in my room.
ReplyDelete