The Art Of Mixing (A Arte da Mixagem) - David Gibson

make the first introductory video to visual representations of images, what makes a great mix, introduce you to our framework for displaying sounds visually, we'll map out how each piece of equipment in the control room affects the image, the apparent location of sounds between the speakers, we begin. By mapping the space between the speakers, we will then explain the mapping of sound to images. Once we've built a visual framework, we can use it to explore all the different types of mixes in the world. Then you will have a good perspective on which to base your own values.

The second video, Visual Representations of Studio Equipment, is an overview of the basic functions of each piece of equipment in the studio. Using the images, we will explore some of the most basic functions. of reverb, delays, flanging, choruses, compression and noise gates. Doing this serves a couple of purposes: first, you learn the basic functions of the equipment, second, you know the details of mapping audio functions to images so that when Let's show mixes in real time so you can see them in more detail as well. It will be easier to explain subtle details and mixes now that we have visually mapped all the equipment in the studio.

In the third video of musical dynamics created in the control room, we can now show how all the equipment can be used together to create different ones. mix styles we can show the common mix structures used for different styles of music and different types of songs. Once you see everything that can be done in the studio to create different types of mixes, it will give you insight into all the possibilities available. My name is David Gibson, I know all about recording. I have been doing it since the beginning of time, of course this is not true.

Nobody knows everything about recording because every session, every project, is a completely new experience, it's like life. You never know what you will get, we can only do the best in each situation and who knows what is best. There is no god who records and grades us, so I'm not here to tell you how to record each one a certain way. The mix should be based on the song you are

mixing

. I'm not here to tell you how to mix like me. I'm here to help you prepare to handle the most unlikely type of situation possible.

I'm not going to tell you. you are the only way to mix I want to show you different ways people mix so you have a choice. I'm here to help you do the hardest job of all: making art from technology. My main goal is to give you a perspective of how everything works together, how technical equipment is used to create art, then we will explore the different values ​​that different people have for recording and

mixing

different styles of music and songs, wow, music club, bye, this video is designed to teach you how to mix. any and all styles of music, this is a great test, we're not here to teach you our own values ​​on what makes a great mix, we just want to give you insight into what's possible so you can be creative for yourself. your account in each of them. and each song is mixed differently depending on the song and the style of music, so we won't just mix a song and say that's how it's done, but what we'll do is point out the common values ​​that different people have when it comes to music. mixing different styles of music each style of music has developed its own traditions because of the way it has been mixed throughout the history of recording, for example, big band music, heavy metal, acoustic, jazz, even rap and hip-hop have developed certain traditions in the way they have mixed together. mixed, this video has been designed to answer that elusive question: what makes a great mix and how to go about creating a great mix.

You see, the big question is, once you know what all the studio equipment is for, how do you use it to create? A Good Mix After you know what the knobs do, which direction you turn them, we'll show you a framework to explain what a good mix is, and then we'll use this framework to see what professional engineers are doing on the songs you like. With such a framework we can develop our own values ​​about what makes a great blend. This video is not intended to tell you how to mix a song in a particular way because a mix depends on many variables, the song and all its details, the style. of the music and the people involved, instead this video is designed to give you a structural framework that you can use to categorize all the different structures of mixes, the structure of a mix, what concept, finally, someone has mapped out the underlying structure of what you can do. in a mix, wow, did you hear what he said?

Yeah, you know, I know what I like, but I never know how to get it when I'm in the studio. I made a good mix once, but I never remember how I made it. Check it. Well I think you're onto something, the players know what's happening and we know what's right, why can't we ever get it right from a studio perspective? Wonderful, finally, insight into everything that goes into recording and mixing once you have this visual framework. You can then start to build your own perspective on how different songs are mixed and once you start checking the details of what exactly other engineers are doing, then you develop your own values ​​as to what you do for each style of music.

All values ​​are valid. The only possible evil is to have no value. We're not here to tell you that you should mix things up a certain way. We are here to help you develop and remember your own values. We're here to do it visually because images can help. us to remember what he said I forgot, yes, bring the images. I like it when I can see what's happening. Many people are visually oriented. The colors are great. This is the way learning the image is science to be able to explain and show. different mixing styles, let's map how each piece of equipment affects the picture of the apparent location of sounds between the speakers.

Approximately everyone has experienced perceiving sounds in a stereo mix as coming from one speaker or the other or somewhere in between the speakers. If we shift a sound all the way to the right it will never reach past the right speaker, but sometimes you know you hear it coming from other places in the room if you have a really strange room or if the walls are strange, but in a studio you never you would hear it further to the right of the right speaker. Now, if we shift it to the left, no matter how far you panic to the left, it will never sound further to the left of the left speaker.

Some people think it's just going to sound so far to the left, some people see it a couple of inches or even a foot further to the left of the left speaker, so we can draw boundaries just to the left of the left speaker and just to the right of the right speaker, so that panning can be done like mapping from left to right when I turn the potentiometer here you can hear the sound panned from left to right and from right to left like this now we are not talking about reality here now no We are talking about reality here because Look, there is actually no sound between the speakers, the reality is that the sound comes out of the speakers in waves, it travels through the molecules into the room, hits the walls of the room and also reaches to your ears and your body.

This is a way we perceive sound differently. we perceive the sound if we imagine it between the speakers, this is called images, it is a product of our imagination, you see when we hear a sound between the speakers, there is really no sound there, the truth is that the same sounds come out of both speakers and we imagine that the sound is between the speakers, it is just a figment of your imagination, like an audio optical illusion. You also know when you hear a sound in the middle of your head when you listen with headphones, well there is no sound there, your brain is cool even if you are asleep, the sounds still hit your body and affect you, on the other hand if you don't you're paying attention to a mix or if you're next to the speakers, you don't hear images when you're asleep doesn't exist, in fact, they've done studies of people who don't hear images because of the shape of their ears or the shape of their minds.

The images are a product of our imagination, in fact, there are no different images in the forest. People relate to sound in both of these ways. Many people simply feel the sound and perceive the music that way. Other people actually see the images between the speakers. Recording engineers are often obsessed with these dynamics that occur in this imaginary world. of images, I don't Create it again now, let's continue with our mapping of blend functions in the visual world. What about faders or volume controls? As you've probably noticed in some mixes, some sounds are right in the front, usually vocals and lead instruments, while other instruments, like strings and background vocals, are in the foreground.

Often deep down we assign volume as a front to back function, this makes sense because louder sounds are typically closer to us and softer sounds are typically further away, also if we want to sound like a voice to be around. up front in a Mixture, what are you doing? Turn up the volume properly if you want something in front. Turn up the volume if you want some background. Down it. I guess that's why they call them background voices, even though volume is the number one feature of front-to-back placement. There are other pieces of equipment or factors that make sounds seem more direct, such as compressor limiters that increase the EQ in the mid or high frequency range, short delays of less than 30 milliseconds that make it fat, and any effects that make a sound sounds unusual and stays fixed.

On the other hand, long delay and reverb timers tend to make sounds more distinct. Distant thunder can be miles behind your speakers. However, this illusion is created from our past experience with thunder. Normally we don't seem to hear sounds for more than a short time. The distance behind the speakers normally the background vocals and strings are only a few centimeters behind the speakers. Well, check it out around your own speakers. Different people disagree about how far behind the speakers they hear sounds. Who am I to say your imagination sucks now? No matter how loud you make a sound in a mix, the sounds will never seem to come from more than a short distance in front of the speakers, no matter how loud you turn the sounds up, the sounds will never come from here and the sounds will never come from here. from behind unless you have a 3D sound processor, yes, but that's another world and video at this distance we imagine the sound to be in front of or behind the speakers is based on a couple of factors: first, the larger the the speaker, later the sound seems to be that of small studio speakers of about six inches, a huge pa of about 10 feet or a boombox are only two or three.

The second factor that determines the difference in the way people perceive the boundaries of images from front to back has to do with the fact that some people have a more active imagination than others now, one day I realized that high frequencies appear higher between the speakers and low frequencies appear lower. The bell symbols and strings seem to be right here, while the bass and kick drums seem to be right here. Check it out on your own system, play a song and listen to where the high frequency sounds seem to be and where there don't seem to be any high frequency sounds. between the speakers.

Most people agree that the treble is higher and the bass is lower, which is probably why Call the treble high and low, there are several reasons why this illusion exists. First of all, tweeters are usually taller than woofers, but low frequencies also reach through the floor to your feet. The high frequencies never come through all four. Some studios are even calibrated for exactly how many low frequencies reach your feet. Another reason is that we have a low frequency resonator here that boosts the low frequencies and we have a high frequency resonator here that boosts the high frequencies.

Singers when they learn to sing. It is often taught if they want to bring up the laws, you know, sing from down here, okay, so we have the Moe Highs here on a more esoteric level, there are energy centers that have been mapped, these energy centers are called chakras at the base of our spine. They say it's 40 hertz around here, maybe around 800 thousand hertz, whether this is real or not, but in any case it helps explain the very likely low frequencies, regardless of why they happen, the truth of theThe issue is that the high frequencies seem to appear higher between the speakers than the low frequencies, so we'll set the high frequencies high and set the low frequencies low in all of our images now, no matter how high the frequency is in a sound they will never come from. higher than the speakers, I mean, they never come from the ceiling, right?

You see, the imaging is limited to the top of the speakers now, as the base frequencies come through the floor, the boundary of the mower is down here on the floor where the floor is, so check it out, no. No matter how far we move the sound to the left, it will only go so far, it will be a little bit in front of the speakers, a little bit behind the speakers and to the top of the speakers, then all the way to the end. up a little bit in front a little bit back all the way to the floor to the right speaker right here so you can imagine this three dimensional space right there now this is a limited space between the speakers where a mix happens, it only happens In this space here, so So, if you have a lot of instruments, it will be full, let's say you have an orchestra of a hundred musicians, you put 100 instruments between these speakers and there is almost no space, so it is difficult to differentiate between each one. sound, whereas you put three violins between the speakers and you can hear each one completely separate from each other because here there is a lot of space between the speakers where you can create a mix, therefore the whole topic becomes crowd control, the ranges of control that an engineer has are the same as those of the sculptor both are working in three dimensions now we have traced the space between the speakers where the image occurs this is a stage or palette where we can create different mix structures now let's analyze the elements that we can place between the speakers years A while ago I st

arte

d with a dot on my Macintosh in the Mech Paint program.

I thought that if I moved the point left and right it was like panning, however after a while I realized that you can commonly have two sounds in the same place between the speakers and I still hear both sounds, therefore, I got a 3D program so I could make the images transparent. Now, using the equipment in the studio, we can place any sound anywhere in the 3D stereo field with volume controls and pan controls. with panning we can move a sphere left and right with volume we can move the sphere back and forth with equalization we can move the sound up and down at least a little of course it doesn't matter how much bass we add to a piccolo , we will never be able to get it to rumble the floor and we won't be able to put a bass in the ceiling, but if we are mapping the tone as an up and down function with eq, we can raise the sound up or down by at least a bit, as you can see we can place the sound anywhere between the speakers in 3D with volume panning and equalization.

Now the goal here is to show how much space each sound takes up between the speakers so we can deal with the big problem. To mask how big each sound is in this image world, this is important because sometimes one sound will mask another sound when they are in the same place, so if this is a limited space between the speakers, we need to know how big great is each member of The crowd is right. The first base instruments seem to take up more space between the speakers, so we make them large. Think about it. Put three basses in a mix.

And what about hip hop? Yes, but in any other style of music you end up. mud city, I mean, you put three basses in a mix and it completely fills the space between the speakers, on the other hand, you put 10 bells in a mix and even if they all play at the same time, you can hear them all. individually because bass instruments are larger in the picture world and they mask other sounds more, they hide other sounds in a mix, especially when turned up to a high volume, plus louder sounds will appear larger due to perspective, This also rings true because louder sounds mask other sounds more. a guitar that is extremely loud in a mix will tend to mask the other sounds more than if it were soft in the mix, in addition to round spheres, we also have oblong spheres.

This is an unusual effect that occurs when we put a delay on a sound less than 30 milliseconds. One thousand milliseconds are equivalent to one second. When you have a delay greater than 30 milliseconds, you hear an echo like this. However, when you have a delay less than 30 milliseconds, our ear does not it's fast enough to hear the difference between the two sounds so you only hear one sound, a thick sound, when you put the original signal into the left speaker and then put the delayed signal into the right speaker, it's like it stretches the sound between speakers, it doesn't put the sound into a room as if it were reverberating, it just makes it omnipresent between the speakers, just as the volume control and equalizer can be used to position and move spheres.

We also have control over the location of this sound line created by fattening. We can place the line anywhere from left to right using the pan controls in front. or in the back using volume or even raise or lower it a little with eq when we place reverb in a mix we are placing the sound of a room in the space between the speakers, a room being three-dimensional is shown as a three-dimensional transparent cube between the speakers speaker again with reverb, we can place it anywhere in the 3D stereo field using volume pan and eq. We have now defined and visualized the basic tools that an engineer uses to sculpt this three-dimensional space between Speakers, spheres, lines and rooms with them, the engineer can design a wide range of structures ranging from sparse mixes to complete mixes, asymmetric mixes, symmetrical mixes and a mix with a motion mod, as mentioned above, the art of mixing is creative placement and movement. of these sound images, just as a musician needs to explore and become thoroughly familiar with all the possibilities of his instrument, an engineer must be aware of all the possible musical dynamics that the equipment can create and must be adept at arriving at them. create any conceivable mix structure mixes can be transparent or invisible some styles of music have traditionally been made invisible so that the mix cannot be heard such as acoustic jazz, bluegrass or folk music, on the other hand, the mix could be quite visible in some styles of music, engineers often use equipment in the studio to create musical dynamics, the mix is ​​used almost as another instrument in the song, regardless of the style of music, the only thing in which everyone we can agree is that the mix should be appropriate for the song, the mix should fit the song as the clothing suits your personality, the mix can be used as a tool to enhance the song and highlight certain aspects or it can used to create tension or chaos when appropriate, regardless of how it fits into the mix. must somehow fit the style of the music in the song, the creative engineer pushes the limits of what has already been done now that we have defined the space between the speakers where the images are produced and now that we have outlined some of the basic parameters of sound visually the big question is what makes a good mix and how do you get it paint it paint it well to answer this question we need to find out what can be done in a mix first the first question is what tools do we have to do different types of mixtures.

What are the tools we have to create the dynamics that an engineer creates? As shown above, we have volume pan equalizer and effects. These are the tools you use to create a mix. Now there are many other things that contribute. For a great recording that can be refined during the recording session, these song dynamics include concept, melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics, song structure, arrangement and instrumentation, performance of the band and the quality of the recording and the equipment, mixing is only one aspect of a recorded piece of music, all of these other aspects must be at least good at a basic level of good quality, mixing can be used to hide some of the weaker aspects, but there is a lot you can do, tools are better when they are invisible, focus on the hammer, tap your finger, look at the steering wheel, smash the car, stare at the knobs, ruin the mixture, get lost in the equipment , so much for art, you know what I mean, you can't see the forest through the trees.

It's the music that counts, not the equipment, learn your tools well so you can pass them on to the beauty of the music you have at hand, so what makes a great mix, you know, the bad mix is ​​just happening, you feel that It's there, yeah, well I like to mix it up when things overlap and from time to time some things just seem to bubble and poke their heads through I like a big picture I want to see the small next to the big clarity next to it to an emotion of fullness next to the deck I want to see a complete perspective so what makes a mix great when you play it anywhere it sounds good?

So when it's booming, everything is bad. A great mix is ​​full of interesting effects. Something happens every month. It's true. One person's heavenly blend is another's help and vice versa. It takes all types to make the world work, you know what I mean, but in all mixes there are certain values ​​that are commonly held. We don't like confusion, at least not for long, and we don't like too many irritating frequencies, not even punk. Rockers have their limits and we like our high frequencies, i.e. there are similar values ​​that have become commonly accepted for every style of music, for example in big band music, if you turn the kick drum up too high it will kill you. in the same way.

If you don't turn up the kick drum very loud and heavy metal and rap will also kill you, but still within each style of music there are people who have different opinions on how the mix should be, some people do the opposite. than it's normal to simply be different about the only thing anyone can agree on in this business is that the mix is ​​appropriate for the style of music and appropriate for the song and all its details just as the song dictates the mix what is it. the personality of the entity that dictates the way it is dressed is the way the equipment relates to the song what makes a great mix the function of all this technical equipment is to enhance the music in some way the songs have many dynamics Spanning the entire range of perception, from feelings and emotions to thought forms, physical reactions, visual images, spiritual connotations and cultural connotations, there is a wide range of possible dynamics that music evokes in different people, the mixer and all studio equipment can also create musical dynamics. which also affect us in similar musical ways, the art of mixing is the way the dynamics we create with the equipment in the studio interact with the dynamics apparent in the songs, making the relationship of these dynamics work is the art of the engineer recording, so it's all about relationships send the first video in the series was designed as an introduction to our visual framework for representing sounds in a mix in this video we've covered and you've learned that we perceive sounds in a mix of two ways, one in which we feel the sound. waves that hit our ears and our body.

Second, we imagine the sounds between the speakers. This is an image of the apparent location of sounds between the speakers. We also learned about the limits of images. First, you typically don't hear sounds further to the left or right of the speakers. Second, you don't hear sounds more than a couple of feet in front of or behind the speakers, and you don't hear sounds much louder than the speakers themselves, but we do hear sounds coming through the floor. We also learned that this is a limit. space between the speakers when you have a lot of sounds in the mix they fill the space causing masking with just a few sounds in the mix there is a lot of space and they sound clear therefore it all becomes a crowd control function we also learn that you can move sounds in this three-dimensional space between the speakers with volume panning and EQ, then we discuss delays and how you can stretch the sound between the speakers making it thicker, even though it takes up more space in the mix, we discuss reverb. and how it takes up a lot of space between the speakers and how it can be moved around in the mix.

Then we gave them an introduction of what's coming in future videos as we briefly discussed different mix structures, we discussed how the mix should. fit the style of the music and the details of the song andWe end up showing how the dynamics we can create with the technical equipment relate to the dynamics found in the music itself. There it is important to understand the basic functions of each piece of equipment. in the studio, but what is really important is how all the teams work together to create different styles of mixes, that is how all the teams work together to create good mixes, rather great mixes, then we will have a framework for the discussion of different values ​​for different types of mixes, then we can have some really good arguments.

In fact, we'll have something to discuss in this video. We will explain the basic functions of all studio equipment using sound images. We will explain the most common ones. parameters found in each piece of equipment. This video is an introduction to the basic functions of the equipment. The idea is to visually explain each piece of equipment so that in the next video we can use these visuals to show different types of mixtures in which we will go into more detail about each piece of equipment. equipment in future videos to make the wide variety of studio equipment understandable.

Let's classify all the equipment according to their role in the recording process. Sound creators create sound. These include acoustic and electric instruments, from vocals to synthesizers. routing the sound from one place to another the mixing desks routing the signal to four places the multitrack the speakers the headphones for the band in the studio and the effects so we can have a good time the patch bays are just the back of everything in the studio side by side is the back of the mixing panels the back of the multi-track ins and outs behind the console ins and outs and the back of the effects ins and outs is the back of everything which is next to each other so we can use short cables to connect everything in the studio sound stores store sound tape players store digital or analog sound sequencers store midi information sound transducers are equipment that take a form of energy and They transform it into another form of energy.

Microphones take mechanical energy or sound waves and change it. Speakers take electrical energy and transform it into mechanical energy or sound waves, but we are here for sound manipulators. This includes effects and processing that are used to change or add to a sound after it has been created. just three components to sound volume or amplitude, frequency and time, that's all she wrote. Every sound in the world can be fully and completely described by these three components, therefore every piece of equipment in the studio controls one or more of these three parameters. Here is a table. showing all sound keyers in the studio the volume of the faders is displayed as a function of frequency from front to back is displayed as a function of rise and fall time is displayed in real time i.e. when a sound is produced , the image representing that sound will appear In flash, in the first video of the series, we showed how we assign volume based on front to back, as mentioned above, we can use volume faders to place a sound in front in the background .or anywhere in between, in the next video we'll cover how volume relationships can be used to create different musical dynamics.

When we set volume ratios in a mix we use apparent volumes to decide the relative balance not just the voltage of the signals going through the fader if we were just using where the faders are set to each other then we could mix without even listening , we could look at the faders and place them based on their relative location, so when we raise the faders on the board, we are changing the voltage of the signal that is sent to the amplifier, which increases the power and then sends more power to the speakers, which creates a higher sound pressure level in the air than our ears hear;

However, there is more to it than that, the other main thing that affects apparent loudness is the waveform of the sound itself, for example a chainsaw will sound louder than a flute when both have exactly the same volume on the VU meters, a Screaming electric guitar sounds louder than a clean guitar sound, even if they both have exactly the same volume. volume, so when you see sounds represented by spheres between speakers, you are looking at the apparent volume of a sound. This is what we use to mix. This is what we use to establish volume ratios.

You don't look at the faders you hear. The relative volumes too, as mentioned earlier in the first video, the pan is naturally drawn from left to right. If we think of the space between the speakers as a palette on which to place instruments from left to right, we are free to pan however we want, no matter what. Styles of music seem to have developed a tradition for the placement of particular instruments from left to right in the stereo field. Obviously, moving a pan module during a mix creates especially effective dynamics. We will discuss common ways panning is used to create musical dynamics. the following video, compressor limiters are volume functions, their main purpose is to lower the volume.

Compressor limiters lower the volume when the volume goes above a certain threshold when the volume is below a certain threshold the compressor limiter doesn't do anything unless it's broken or cheap. Two main functions of a compressor limiter are one to get less noise on the tape, a better signal to noise ratio, this is achieved by compressing the signal on the way to the multitrack and two to stabilize the sound between the speakers, the first function to get less tape hiss is the original reason compressor limiters were first introduced in the studio. Let me explain it this way.

Let's say I'm humming at a low volume and it suddenly becomes very loud. Well, the problem is that unless we turn the volume down. the attenuator we're going to get distortion and you can't have distortion, get distortion, go to jail, so you turn the volume down, but then the low volume hum barely moves the needles on the tape player and, as you know, if the needles barely move They move. you hear both tape noise and signal, it's called a bad signal to noise ratio and it sounds like this, you lower the peaks and then raise the overall volume above the noise on the tape, getting less hiss, the second function of a compressor limiter It serves to stabilize the sound image between the speakers.

Check it out when a bunch of sounds bounce up and down like VU meters, it can get extremely chaotic, but if we stabilize one of the sounds it's easier to focus on it. therefore, it seems more present only because our mind can focus on it. It's more stable now, if you stabilize all the sounds in the mix, the whole mix will seem more present or clearer. There are two main things that determine how much you compress between more instruments. and the more notes you have in the mix, the more you can push because the mix becomes too chaotic or busy.

The second thing that determines the amount of compression is the style of music. Certain types of music, such as pop, are commonly compressed more now than you. Stabilizes the sound between the speakers. If you then turn up the overall volume, you can put all the sound in your face. This is commonly done in radio and television commercials, making it sound louder, making it jump out and grab your attention. This can be annoying. on radio and television commercials, but it's great for a lead guitar or other lead instrument, if you want the lead sound to come right in your face, compress it and turn up the volume.

It also works when background sounds are played. The problem is that it is so low. Volume sounds can easily get lost in the mix, they can become masked by other sounds in the mix, especially if the volume of the sound fluctuates. Let me show you if you have background noise, sometimes you can't hear it as well, especially for what it's worth because then you come back sometimes you know they're saying that other times, but if you compress it you can hear every word they say, even if you're whispering. , it never fades, you don't compress it. I don't really know what they're talking about other times, you really know what they're talking about, so you see if you have a low volume sound and you put it in the background, if you compress it to the maximum, you can turn it down low and never lose it in the mix It is always there because it is stable.

There are two main knobs on compressor limiters commonly called threshold and ratio. The images are especially effective in explaining what the threshold and relationship do if the volume is shown as a function of From front to back, the sphere bounces back and forth like a vu meter, then will exit, crash into the threshold and will stop if it is a limiter, the difference between a compressor and a limiter is that a limiter prevents the volume from going higher than the threshold itself, a compressor on the other hand allows the volume to go up a little based on a ratio or percentage.

Check it out if we set the ratio to 2 to 1, it will go as far if we set the ratio to 10 to 1. just go beyond the threshold, a good starting point is to set the ratio to four to one, this is so that it turns down the volume without smash a smash sound that sounds like this, the truth of the matter is that you can set the ratio wherever you want. What I like, but is also true, is the fact that most people who are just starting out can't hear the difference between ratio settings very well until they realize that four to one is a good place. to start.

This is how the threshold is set. you don't look closely at the threshold knob, you have to look at it for a second to be able to touch it, then you look at the gain reduction meters which show how much the compressor is turning down the volume, you turn up the threshold knob until you get a maximum of 6 db of reduction of gain, regardless of the ratio setting for some instruments such as league guitar or screamer type vocals, you can set the maximum level to 10 db of gain reduction, these are the levels you can set it to go down a little the volume without crushing it once you hear the compression really good, set it any way you want until then try setting the ratio to four to one and set the threshold for six db of gain reduction.

Strange compressor limiters like the function of a noise. The gate is for lowering the volume, therefore compressor limiters and noise gates are often packaged together in a single box. The difference is that noise gates lower the volume when the volume drops below the threshold. Noise gates have three main functions to eliminate noise and get rid of bleed and shorten the duration of a sound, one function of a noise gate is to place it on a guitar amplifier to eliminate noise from the amplifier when the guitar is not playing, you know if you set a guitar amp with serious distortion and turn it up to 11 the amp is very loud when it's not playing if a song ended with a guitar solo it might sound like this now if we set the threshold correctly it will sound like this It's especially useful in the middle of the song so you don't hear the amp noise, the noise gate threshold is set so that as soon as the volume drops enough to hear the amp noise, it cuts off;

Of course, be careful not to cut anything off the guitar. Sound Another common use of a noise gate is to eliminate bleed from other instruments in the room. Gates can be especially effective on drums to isolate each drum and is especially important on a snare when you have a lot of reverb on the snare. Please check it when the volume is displayed from front to back and the volume drops below the threshold, the sound will disappear. Noise gates can also be used to shorten the duration of a sound, this can shorten the sound and can be used as a rather strange effect.

The threshold of a noise gate should be set so that it cuts noise or purges but does not cut the main signal. All my tubes and cables. Before we continue, I must remind you that we are only giving an overview of the functions of each. equipment in the studio at this point the idea is to explain each equipment visually so that in the next video we can use these images to show different types of mixes, then we will go into more detail on each equipment in future videos, as you can imagine we could do a full video just about equalizer and we will start our discussion on equalizer by covering the differences between types of equalizers.

Next, we will explore all the different frequency ranges between 20 and 20,000 hertz. What about the others? The highest ones. Equalizer is a change in the volume of specific frequency ranges of a sound. It's the same as the tone controls on a regular stereo. Bass and treble. Now there are three main types ofequalizers found in the studio. parametric graphics and fades high pass and low pass filters everyone knows what a graphic equalizer looks like it has a volume control for each frequency you can raise or lower a frequency using the volume sliders we will visually display the frequency as an up and down function , so we have low to high frequencies.

Here we show the loudness of a particular frequency as the brightness in that band, for example if you turn up the treble around 5000 hertz you will see that it becomes brighter in that frequency range. so in a graphic equalizer you choose which frequency you will raise or lower by putting your finger on the correct slider in a parametric equalizer you turn the frequency sweep knob to select the frequency you want to raise or lower in addition to a sweep A parametric knob also has a knob bandwidth that controls the range of frequencies that will be raised or lowered in a graphic equalizer.

When you choose a particular frequency to raise or lower, you are actually raising or lowering a range of preset frequencies. The manufacturer's engineers are control freaks and want to be able to control the range of frequencies they are turning up or down with a parametric parameter. The Bandwidth knob gives you this control over how wide the frequency range is. The knob is usually called q because I couldn't find the word bandwidth on the knob. A thin bandwidth is typically labeled with a peak, while a wide bandwidth is often labeled with a hump. Sometimes musical octave ranges are also used, for example from three tenths of an octave to three octaves, the obvious advantage. of a parametric is the control you have over the bandwidth.

If a parametric doesn't have a bandwidth knob, it's not a full parametric unless you're a salesperson at a music store. Today many manufacturers use the term parametric to refer to a paragraphic or semi-parametric that has no bandwidth control those bandwidth controls are expensive eliminations eliminate low or high frequencies commonly found in main consoles as pass filters high and low pass and in smaller consoles like switches a high pass filter turns off the low frequencies and does nothing with the high ones, it passes them, it just stays away from the low ones. This is especially useful for getting rid of low-frequency sounds, such as trains, airplanes, trucks, air conditioners, earthquakes, or bass drum bleed and low stomps.

Filters remove high frequencies like this, they are especially useful for getting rid of hiss. Cut-offs can often be found on microphones and smaller mixing consoles such as Mackie and Soundcraft as switches that simply remove the bass when the switch is activated. It is important to take this into account. to know all the frequencies of sound by name, you see, the truth of the matter is that we know by heart all the frequencies from twenty to twenty thousand hertz. Our entire system, our entire psyche was designed to perceive sound, not just with our ears, but with everyone.

The cell in our body is designed to perceive frequencies. Here is an image of a water molecule inside a cell in our skin reacting to certain frequencies. In reality, when we hear a sound, every molecule in our body is creating a pattern based on the sound that arrives in this way. that our entire body perceives sound, not just our ears, you see, we were born to hum sound, that is, our entire body and our being was created to perceive sound, therefore, we all know each frequency by memory and the We've been checking since then. In the womb we know all the frequencies and tones intimately, the trick is to learn their names, we will go into more detail about all the frequency ranges and how to remember them in future videos, then you can remember what boosts or cuts each one.

Frequency affects every instrument in the world. Specialists don't seem to agree on how different frequencies affect us emotionally. It is quite understandable due to the subjective nature of frequency perception. From psychologists to philosophers, books have been written about how sounds affect us emotionally and how people have organized their lives. Ways of Perceiving the Difference in Frequency Different frequencies affect us differently both physiologically and psychologically not to mention spiritually, however, even more powerful than the way specific frequencies make us feel is the way combinations of frequencies make us feel, so the truth of the matter is that each and every sound, except a pure tone, is made up of a combination of tones of different frequencies and different volumes.

These overtones or overtones explain the differences in why one sound sounds different from another. The timbre of a sound. Different sounds have different harmonics in them and more or less harmonics too. The interesting thing about harmonics is that they are all mathematical multiples of each other and each individual harmonic is a pure tone, therefore, when we raise or lower the volume of one frequency or another, we are actually raising or lowering the volume of one or more harmonics in the sound, this explains why each sound responds to the eq differently once in the mix, sounds must be equalized to work well with each other, sounds can be made to sound more similar to each other or more different from one instrument soloist can be made sharper and more abrasive to really draw attention. an instrument can be given additional bass to make the song more danceable or simply to excite anger.

Listen, there is an important technique you can use. You may find it useful to check the relative EQ of each sound in a mix. Scan the high frequencies first and check the relative brightness of all the sounds in the entire song. Make sure they are all as bright as you want. They often should have. a similar amount of brightness, but sometimes you want some sounds to be even brighter than others, sometimes you might want them to be duller than another second. Scan the midrange frequencies and check the relative loudness of the midrange frequencies on all instruments. midrange frequencies stick out when turned up a lot, make sure all instruments have the amount of midrange frequencies you want, just like trebles should often have a similar amount of midrange frequencies, however, Sometimes you want some sounds to stand out more and grab your attention.

Third, scan the bass frequencies and check the relative loudness of the bass in each sound that is in the bass range, for example, check the relative amount of bass frequencies present in the kick drum compared to the amount of low on the bass check it out and make sure it's the way you want it to be this frequency range is the most commonly overlooked when mixing an album or project this has been an introduction to equalizers and checking equalizers Check out future videos for more details. Wow oh, a delay stores a sound on a chip and then plays it whenever you want.

The delayed signal can also be fed back to the input to get the well-known feedback or regeneration sound where the signal repeats itself. Just as you need to know the details of the frequency spectrum, you also need to know what each delay time feels like, i.e. the type of sensation or movement that different ranges of delay time evoke, which we use to remember the differences in delay times, we can also use the relationship between delay time and distance in the study to help us know the different delay times, sound travels about one foot per millisecond, one thousand thousand milliseconds equals one, which means for every foot in the studio you're adding one millisecond. of delay time, therefore it is very easy to hear a delay between two microphones set at different distances.

We can show what the different delay times look like quite clearly. There are 500 milliseconds here. There is 100 milliseconds of delay time here. There are 40 milliseconds here. Now that we have a shorter delay time. More than 30 milliseconds something unusual happens. Our ears and brain are not fast enough to hear two sounds. Our ear perceives a delay time as fast as a thick sound. This effect is one of the most important and useful effects that a recording engineer can create for any instrument. in stereo fattening can be used to fill out a mix and make it sound fuller can be used to make an otherwise weak sound sound thicker and bigger can also make a sound more present so it can be lowered in the mix, but it can still be discerned now, if we shift the original dry signal to one side and the delay to the other side, the sound seems to stretch between the speakers in this way.

Now, if we add feedback to a sound, the sound repeats like this. this this this what is happening is the output of the delay the echo is being fed back to the input of the delay to repeat itself again yes, adding a delay to a sound is the same as adding another sound or instrument to the mix, therefore, You always tend to make the mix seem fuller because there are more sounds occupying the limited space between the speakers. You normally add delays to a mix only if you have room for them, so you wouldn't add delays to a busy mix with a lot of instruments and a lot of notes, the exception would be heavy metal, alternative rock and some new age music.

These styles of music are commonly mixed together to create a wall of sound, so adding another sound to fill this space can be just amazing, yes, Phil Spector, yes. He created that Wallace sound type mix when the delay time is long enough to hear two sounds, then the delayed signal can be treated as another track, another sound, therefore the volume and pan can be configure however you see fit if you set the delay. time for less than 30 milliseconds and increase the feedback, you get an effect called tube, if you then change the delay time you get an effect that sounds like this, if we set a clock to change the delay time on its own we get the effect commonly .

It's called flanging. Notice that as the delay time gets shorter, the pitch seems to rise as the delay time gets longer, the pitch now seems to fall. If we set the width or depth so that the delay time sweep is not as wide as this, then it has the effect commonly called chorus is poetry in motion she gave me tender eyes as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but you blinded me with science and failed me in biology yes, if we set the delay time so that we are only sweeping between zero and one millisecond, we have the effect commonly called phasing, its poetry in motion should turn me into tender eyes, so deep like any ocean, as sweet as any harmony, but she blinded me with science, all these effects, choruses and phases, they're just changing short delay times with a lot of feedback or regeneration in 1957, Tony Fisher was making an album when someone accidentally leaned on the reels of the tape player like this, the tape slowed down and then when I came back up, it sped back up to normal speed, like This, the band got cool, let's put it on the record, the song The Big Hurt reached number three on the charts in 1957.

Now you can also change the speed or rhythm of the flanger so you can set the rhythm of the sweep to the tempo of the song or you can set it to go up on one chord and down on another chord or you can even set it to go up in the first half of the verse and down in the second half of the verse. It is commonly used to create a more spatial type of atmosphere in the mix. Sometimes used to create an otherworldly effect. It's excellent for the underwater type of effect. Chorus is commonly used to simulate the effect you get when you have a choir of people or a choir of people.

The instrument phase is a very subtle effect, so subtle that it's the kind of effect that, when used at Thank Dead Dead concerts, the crowd often wonders if the effect is really coming from inside their head. I thought it was inside my head. Each of these effects can be panned. In various ways like this, each can also be highlighted with volume and turned up or down a bit with eq. We'll explore more details about these effects in future videos, including how they are commonly used in mixes for different styles of music. Don't believe it again, reverb is made up of thousands and thousands of delay times.

When you first hear a sound in a room, the sound continues to travel at about 700 miles per hour and hits the walls, bounces off the walls, all at different distances, and comes back to us as hundreds of delay times, all of these times. of delay combine to produce the sound we know as reverb. When we placereverb in a mix, it is as if we are placing the sound of a room between the speakers, therefore we will display reverb visually as a room or cube between the speakers, there are certain control parameters that are commonly found in reverb units.

First, you can change the room type, you can think of it as different types of rooms between the speakers, like these halls, halls, chambers and plate reverbs you can also change the reverb time the reverb duration a long reverb time would look so a short reverb time would look like this when a sound occurs, it takes a while for the sound to travel and hit the walls before you do. hearing the reverb return this silent time before the reverb starts is called pre-delay time a really long pre-delay time would look like this it's poetry in the ocean she softened me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony It's poetry, but a natural room like an auditorium has a short pre-delay time that would look like this, but another reverb setting is the envelope, this is how the reverb changes its volume over time.

Normal reverb has an envelope that looks like this. Engineers are boring people, they are thought to put a noise gate on this natural reverb which then cuts it off, so the volume stays stable and then stops abruptly like this, it's poetry in motion, she turned her eyes to me, as deep as any ocean, as sweet as any harmony, but she blinded me with science hmm hmm now, if we took the envelope of the normal reverb and turned it back, the volume of the reverb would increase and then stop abruptly like this, It's poetry in motion, she would look tenderly at me as deep as any ocean as sweet as any harmony but she blinded me with her poetry in motion but you blinded me now if we took the tape and played it backwards it would sound like this now if we put reverb on it voice and record it on some open tracks, then turn the tape forward and we'll get an effect like this, so cool, this effect is called preverb, it's the most evil effect you can create in the studio because only the devil could put an effect on something.

Before it even happens, therefore, it has been used in every horror movie ever made, including The Exorcist and The Poltergeist, and of course, it's Ozzy Osbourne's favorite effect. It can also be a lot of fun. One of the main functions of reverb is to connect sounds in a mix and fill out. the space between the speakers like this is my kidney sound reverb can be panned in various ways like this reverb can also be highlighted with volume or placed in the background by lowering the volume and can be turned up or down a bit with eq i can smell my chemicals country we have covered volume changes panorama eq compressor limiters noise gates domain phases course and reverb now that we have covered every piece of equipment in the studio now we can use these images to show different classic styles of mixes in the next video hello on In this video tape we are going to get to the point, we will use the visual framework that we have described in the first two videos to explain how to create different styles of mixes, this is mix theory, Plato and all those.

Greek types wrote countless books on a wide range of art forms, including mixing music theory. On the other hand, it is a new art form. You could say he's still in his teenage form. You see, we've only had stereo for about 30 years. We have a There are plenty of books that explain what the entire studio team does, but there are virtually no books that attempt to explain the aesthetic side of what makes a mix great. Hardly anyone has even tried to approach the whole world of artistic values, perhaps because it is so complicated. With different people's values, the normal process to learn how to make a great mix is ​​through the experience of recording each style of music, first you learn the tools and how they are used in each style of music, but you may have gotten there to the point where you start. wonder why your mixes don't sound like CDs and you know that professional engineers get great mixes every time certain professional engineers charge extremely high fees because they are able to create something that most people perceive as great every time, so what is?

They are doing it, it's not magic, they are doing some very specific things now that we have a framework to explain what is done in a mix, now we can explore these things that engineers are doing to make such great mixes, this video is designed to help you discover these high-level values ​​that top engineers have because you see that once you understand what these other guys are doing, you get a good perspective of what can be done and then you can do whatever you want based on your own values ​​for To determine what makes a great mix, we must first determine what you can do in a mix compared to what you can do during the recording session.

There are a wide range of aspects that contribute to a good recording, besides mixing, mixing is just one. From a number of aspects, if any of these components are not happening, you will stick out like a sore thumb and say that the mixture sucks. The professional engineer will often help the band refine all of these aspects during the session, we will cover how he refines each of these components later in aspects of a recorded piece of music mixing is just one of all of these components there are four types of tools that you can use in a mix to create all the different styles of mixes in the world the tools are volume faders pan pots equalization and effects the question is what can we do with these tools as mentioned in the previous video the equipment in the studio the The art of mixing is the way we create dynamics with the equipment in the studio interface with the dynamics apparent in the music and songs, so what are the dynamics in music?

When we talk about dynamics, we are not talking about common terminology used for volume dynamics, we are not talking about changes in volume, we are talking about changes in musical intensity. dynamic any type of change in music that causes a change in a person well the dynamics in music are as different as people what comes from music is as varied as life itself some people feel very strong emotions when they listen to some types In music probably the most common dynamic that people see in music is simply up or down whatever the content is up or down this is a common perception around music some people see structures in music and sometimes , relate these structures to common structures found in the world, such as buildings, bridges and pyramids, some people actually see how the brain works.

In a song they see that the way our mind works is the same as the flow of the song. Some people even think of songs as thought forms. In fact, some bands write their music this way to represent the way our brain works. This explains the common theory that music is just an extension of our personalities you have it backwards grasshopper music came first you are an extension of music some people relate to music through music theory they see notes on a scale they see intervals they see chords they see the structure of the song in musical terminology some people have physical reactions like dancing not only does music move us physically but there is also a whole world of music therapy based on the healing vibrations of sound some people see visual images walt disney He saw all kinds of things including flying elephants, just watch MTV to see a whole different world of visual images.

You could say I see bubbles. Some people see spiritual connotations. The entire world of religious music is a good example. Some people see some music as a direct connection to God. There is a wide range of possible dynamics that music evokes in different people. Different people get different things from music. It is true that all the things that people get from music are as varied as people and life itself. The trick is that the recording engineer creates them. musical dynamics with the equipment that matches the dynamics that people see in the music, whatever that dynamic is, everything you can imagine about how the music affects you or anyone else is valid, everything that someone gets from the music is real, the art of the engineer is to enhance or highlight even more those musical dynamics with the equipment in the studio now what are the dynamics that we can create with the equipment in the studio with volume faders pan pots equalization and effects let's start with the volume faders for those of you who If you have a mind that would like to follow the general structure of the presentation, let us show you a graphic of how everything is organized.

We'll go over each of the tools in the studio, volume, EQ, panning, and effects as we go through each one. It will explain the dynamics that can be created with each based first on the difference between individual levels or settings for that piece of gear, second on the general patterns that can be created between the relationships of all the sounds in the mix, and third, on what happens when Move the knobs during mixing and get especially effective dynamics. As I said, let's start with the volume. The question is what kind of dynamics we can create with the relative volumes set by the console faders.

Most people first think about the dynamics you can create. When moving the faders during the mix, in fact, this is an extremely powerful dynamic. When you change the volume of the sound during a mix, you can create a dynamic that is so powerful that it can overwhelm the song. The fader movement can be so strong. dynamics that become the main focus of the entire mix at that moment, but even more importantly, there are somewhat more subtle dynamics that are created by simply setting the volume of the faders at specific levels and leaving them there, most people think of balance the volume. of sounds means making them all, even the process is actually much more complex, we often don't want all instruments to be the same volume, we usually want one instrument to be a little louder than another, in fact the exact volume ratios between each one.

The sound in a mix is ​​configured very specifically by a recording engineer, for example a lead vocal will look completely different if it is extremely high in the mix, that is, if it is too far in front of the rest of the elements in the mix. mix in harmony both the singing and the message conveyed by the lyrics will be perceived completely differently depending on how strong the voice is in the mix. You see, this is a dynamic that the engineer controls by where he places the fader in the mix. In reality, the musical dynamics that can affect volume relationships are much more complex than you would have ever imagined.

In fact, traditions have evolved for specific volumes of particular instruments for different types of music and songs, let's explore this way. Now remember that we are discussing relative apparent volumes. You see, the apparent volume of a sound also depends on the waveform of a center, for example, a chainsaw sounds louder to our ear than a flute, even if they are both exactly the same volume, so the apparent volume is the level at which sounds appear to be. our hearing, if we think about the volume and the decibels according to the sound pressure level, then there are about 140 different levels of volume, but to make this wide range of levels more accessible, let's divide them into six different levels like this if we take a look to a mix and divide it into six volume ranges these are the instruments we commonly find at each level level one sounds at this volume in the mixes are unusually loud in fact, it is quite rare for sounds to ever be at this level the alarm clocks in The timing of Pink Floyd's Dark of the Moon is a good example: explosions and primal screams can also normally be this loud, although if an inexperienced engineer places a sound at this volume, it is considered a level of error.

Two sounds at this volume are typically lead instruments and vocals. However, certain songs and types of music will put the vocals here, for example, big band music and Barry Manilow type of music in the middle of the road, also if the vocals or lyrics or lyrics are the main focus of attention, like in bob dylan, they could put in the voices. Likewise, if a song has a great singer, his voice is often placed at this level in the middle of other instruments that are at this volume, such as the boom of rap music or the bass drums or timpani of trumpets. heavy metal from a big band.

The music and thesymphony at full volume, classical music often reaches level two. 3 sounds at this volume usually consist of primary rhythm parts such as guitar or some type of keyboard. The lead vocal in much rock and roll is also set at this level. Other examples include bass drums in most heavy metal and most dance music, most toms in most styles of music, and top hat symbols only occasionally at this level, although jazz and dance music often places it here phil collins is probably the first person to put reverb on drums at this level level three level four sounds at this level include rhythm bases and chord pads like background piano keys or guitar drums In a lot of intermediate jazz and easy rock it is also at this level when the reverb is noted as a sound on its own, it is usually here, the vocals and strings are also usually at this level, but of course they can vary.

Level five sounds at this level include things like kick drum, jazz, and big band music. Often a lot of effects and reverbs are placed here so you can only hear them if you listen closely the background vocals are sometimes also relegated to this level some producers also use this level to make their mark level six the sounds at this level are so soft that They are hard to detect Pink Floyd is famous for adding little whispers or almost subliminal sounds to draw you into the mix. Sounds at this level can be very effective, but it is important that they serve to add to the overall mix in some way.

If these sounds don't fit together well, they may sound like noise in this chart of six. The different levels have only been presented to give us a framework, so now we can explore all the different levels for each instrument in different styles of music, as you will see that different instruments are commonly placed at different levels, let's take a look now at the different styles mentioned above. Musicians have developed their own traditions regarding the volume at which certain instruments are placed within a mix. Let's look at each type of sound individually. What's up with the voices?

Let's take a look at several examples of vocals placed at different levels in the mix. Think about it. Voices are commonly mixed at different levels for different types of music and for different types of songs, for example probably the loudest voice we hear is a cappella. Just kidding, the voices are usually pretty loud in the middle of the road music. I took it back. I took it back. of course in opera the voices are also quite loud, the voices are commonly mixed loudly also in folk music and in big band music you hear thunder, don't run under a tree, there will be pennies from heaven to you and me, don Don't you know there are bound to be pennies from heaven for you and me and in country music, in addition to the style of music that dictates the level of voice, the song can also make a big difference.

Songs where the lyrics are the focus of the entire song often have the vocals mixed in from the beginning Bob Dylan is a perfect example, on the other hand, think of examples where the vocals are mixed quite low, down to level 4, Even an example of solo voices are those of Enya's songs, commonly the voices are mixed quite low in There are many types of rock and roll, the perfect example is Pink Floyd or any alternative rock, in addition to the style of music, there are several reasons why you can raise or lower vocals in a mix.

If they stink, you usually shouldn't put them on. in front, while if they're cool, show them now, what about the box? Same as with vocals, the volume at which a snare is placed in a mix depends on the style of music in the song. Big band music and jazz often have a pretty mixed bag. as low as level 4. As soon as you can, it is also interesting to note that many ballads and easy rock commonly mix the snare quite low and I know, however, that some ballads have a huge snare sound with a fairly loud rock volume and Roll is probably mainly responsible for the progression of snare on the loudness scale, but in the '60s dance music and then disco helped raise the level of snare even another notch.

Nowadays, some rock and roll guys have the snare drum as loud as level two now. take a look at the kick drums again, the style of music makes the biggest difference. Big band music and jazz commonly have the kick drum level around level four or even level five. It's also interesting that even much of Jimi Hendrix's music was mixed in with the kick drum. Turn the drum down to around level four so it can barely be heard. Another interesting thing is that over the last 20 years or so the kick drum has moved up the scale becoming louder and louder in mixes.

Heavy metal was probably responsible for raising the hype. Up to a full level heavy metal commonly places the kick drum around level two, rap and now hip-hop has almost taken it off the top of the scale. Now let's take a look at the bass volume levels. The bass st

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d out barely in mixes at all it could be that someone in big band was around level three or four in a lot of jazz, it's actually quite high now, close to level two, even in a lot of rock and roll the bass is not as strong as many people usually think, although it varies a lot, uh, but now I'm showing you what it takes to succeed in this world of music, so now I have to use it.

Back to the jumps, I have to stop collapsing because you know we have to do something to make this party. look at it even peter gabriel has a rap boom on his last album not only did rap help raise the level of bass in the mixes also the hardware has changed when you go to a stereo store you see things like megabase and of course the stereo equipment Sound and stereo are now capable of handling much more bass than in the old days. It is also interesting that reggae and blues often have a fairly high bass level and higher than in other styles of music, sometimes up to level two.

Typically, the fewer instruments there are in a mix, this is probably because you need something to fill the space between the speakers. If you have a lot of instruments in a mix, there is simply not enough room for the bass and also a bass will mask the other sounds if they are too loud, so they are often mixed at a low volume to leave more room for the other sounds in mix. What about the timpani? Toms are commonly mixed lower than most people think. In most types of music, timpani are probably mixed. low because often the bleed of symbols on tom mics is annoying, the effects also vary a lot in different mixes, reverb has progressed up the scale over the years, in fact it was probably phil collins and genesis who were responsible for raising the level of reverb and All Level Pink Floyd has almost taken over the title for having the strongest effects in their mixes.

Other sounds such as top hats, symbols, rhythm guitars, trumpet sections and background vocals are also mixed in at various levels depending on the song and style of music. You can start checking the relative level of each sound in each song for the rest of your life, as you can see, you can create an incredible variety of musical dynamics based on the level you set for each sound in the mix and each style of music. developed its own traditions for the specific level at which each instrument should be set, of course for some styles of music the traditions are stricter than others, big band music and jazz are quite strict, while the rules for rap and hip-hop are also extremely flexible, of course. the song and all its details can make a big difference in the levels at which each sound is placed, and finally, the people you're working with can make a big difference.

You can only argue for a long time with someone who tells you to show up. your instrument or else, but argue, give them hell, in addition to all the individual volume levels of each instrument, there are dynamics that can be created with the general relationships of all the volume levels in a mix. We call these volume patterns for those of you following along. along now we are here on the chart in some styles of music the range of volumes can vary only from here to here new age music alternative rock in the middle of the road music, country music and easy rock are often mixed like this way, so there is very little difference between the softest and loudest sound in the mix.

You could say that muzak is the extreme example. All sounds are fairly even in volume, so none of them jump. and it surprises us, this could be totally appropriate for a love song, on the other hand, some styles of music are mixed with extreme variations between softer and louder sounds, like this, a lot of rock and roll is commonly mixed this way , also big band music is perfect. In an example of this type of mix, you might have extremely soft sounds followed by a big horn sound. Pink Floyd is well known for trying to surprise you with alarm clocks and explosions.

It can be quite fun and stimulating, apart from the style of music. The type of song can also make a big difference to the overall range of volume levels, for example a love song may be mixed quite evenly, a song about explosive behavior may be quite uneven, here we are again, the volumes Not only can they vary in dynamics from softest to softest. the loudest sound in the mix, but an individual sound can be raised and lowered within the song each time the faders are moved while the sound is playing, the dynamics created tend to be very intense if the level of the sound is changed by A good transition point, like the beginning of a chorus or a lead break creates a dynamic, but it's not as intense as when you change a sound while it's playing, let me show you a magic trick if you bring a sound to the front by turning up the volume at the beginning of the song, then you can turn that sound down, and because we heard it so well, it will be clear in our brain what that sound is doing, even if it is then turned down again in the mix and then another sound appears in the mix so that we can verify. bring it out and then lower it in the mix and once we hear a loud and clear sound, it doesn't have to be loud anymore to recognize it.

If you continue to do this, you can create the illusion that all the sounds in the mixes are loud and clear, sometimes of course the volume of the entire mix can be raised or lowered, the overall volume can be cut, boosted or fade gradually, such dynamics can be very effective if appropriate for the song, in addition to moving a fader to create volume dynamics you commonly need to adjust the levels just to keep the volumes more even. An engineer must often constantly adjust levels up and down just to keep things up. Even compressor limiters can only do so much before a sound sounds unnatural, so another dynamic that can be created with the faders is to actually even out the volumes more by moving them throughout the mix.

Oh, we are right, now how can you create musical dynamics with EQ? As with volume faders, there is a large and complex world of EQ relationships between instruments. In mixing there are two main types of considerations that professional recording engineers use when equalizing sounds for a mix. The first is based on how the sound sounds on its own in solo. The main consideration when equalizing the sound for the first time at the beginning of recording. session, this consideration is usually based on whether you are looking for a sound that is natural or interesting. The second consideration is how the sound sounds in the mix in relation to the other instruments and is of utmost importance to the two who used to be the engineers.

They would go out to the room where the instrument is and listen, then they would return to the control room and compare the sound of the speakers with what they heard in the room; However, these days natural is defined by what's currently on CDs and the radio, you see, natural, not natural, by no means have we become addicted to the sharpest, brightest, cleanest, as well as to thicker, fuller and bigger, therefore making sounds sound natural can be boring and abnormally boring by today's standards, what we hear on the radio and on these CDs. The days are much brighter and sharper than the real ones.

Now what we consider natural is an average of what we hear daily in the market. If it is not bright enough, it will not be considered correct, on the other hand, these days. Often the goal is to create a sound that sounds unique or interesting, not necessarily one that sounds natural. I mean, who knows what a natural piece of sheet metal sounds like. Anyway, the question is what makesa sound sounds interesting or unique. One thing that does it. an interesting sound is the complexity of the sound the more complex the sound the more it can withstand repeated listening the more you listen to it the more you hear oh, we are moving forward, we are here now, structuring the relationship between the tonalities present in each of the instruments is an important aspect that a recording engineer deals with when mixing, since with the balance of volume ratios it is commonly thought that the most desirable thing is to have the equalizer of all the instruments as uniform as possible so that they mix well.

Well, sometimes this is the case, however, it is often desirable for certain instruments in a mix to be unusually bright, dark or mid-range, commonly sounds are mixed so that they work well with each other, sounds can be made sound more similar to each other or more different, a lead instrument can be made sharper and more abrasive to really grab attention. An instrument can be given additional bass to make the song more danceable or simply to excite the rap listener, as explained above in the second video about the equipment in To keep things simple, we can compare the relative EQ of each sound in each frequency range.

We can create various equalization ratios in each frequency range, treble, midrange and bass. Although there is a wide range of possibilities for creating EQ dynamics, there is only so much. what you can do to be creative with eq commonly, the goal, especially for the beginning engineer, is not to be creative with eq, but to get things to sound normal and to sound good. Most people are happy if they can get a mix to sound good. The limits of how creative you can be with eq before it sounds weird are quite limited, if you go beyond these limits you are usually no longer creative, you just have a bad mix, the trick is to learn the limits so you can be creative within you. the limits of sanity the goal is to get to the point where you know the limits of creativity so well that you can eq something a little off center you can make something sound a little weird as an effect this is when you're really being creative with eq es funny, the problem arises when you create an eq that's a bit off from being exactly natural as an effect and someone in the band complains that the instrument doesn't sound right, not only should any unusual eq be appropriate for the style. of music in the song, but you can only do it if the band lets you or if you can convince them how it works and how cool it is.

We are here now because we are very limited in how creative we can be. with eq making equalization changes to a sound as it plays creates a dynamic that is extremely noticeable if it is not appropriate for the song this could be quite distracting a good example of where it has been done well this is on aqualung by jethro tull where the vocals go to a phone like Pink Floyd's voice did too and I wish you were here where the acoustic guitar goes into a small box type sound it is currently considered very unusual to change the EQ settings during a mix however it could be the next frontier creative, especially for those who mix hip-hop on the microphone as we continue our overview of the way studio equipment can be used to create different musical dynamics that we have evolved to here, as discussed above, panning It is visually plotted as a function of the left.

To correct the big question is what kind of musical dynamics can be created by placing pan pots on the mixer. If we think of the space between the speakers as a palette and the sounds are the colors we place on the palette, then the panning can be based on crowd control, you may want some sounds to move as far away from each other as possible to create clarity. Such dynamics might be appropriate for certain types of music such as acoustic jazz, folk music, and bluegrass; on the other hand, sounds can be Panned so that they overlap to create a wall of sound that makes the mix seem more cohesive. .

This is commonly done in heavy metal, alternative rock, and new age music. However, panning is often done based on certain traditions that have developed over the years and which define the norm. For the panning of particular instruments, also particular styles of music have developed their own traditions for the placement of particular instruments from left to right in the stereo field. In fact, it's almost as if by following these traditions you create a dynamic that is transparent and lets the music through. Furthermore, if you don't follow these traditions, you create a dynamic that could attract attention. This is not to say that it is wrong to analyze things differently than normal, but you should be aware of the fact that you are doing so.

In fact, it could be totally cool and appropriate and could change the world, since with fader volumes some styles of music have stricter rules than others, for example you can pretty much do whatever you want in hip-hop, while that in big band music it is important to configure your pan. the way a big band would normally be positioned on stage, acoustic jazz is also sometimes analyzed the same way the band would be on stage, an engineer sometimes even positions the musicians in the studio as if they were in stage. I've mixed some folk bands. Exactly the way they stood out in the studio, this helps you create the illusion that you are there with the band, which can be a good solution to get the most natural feel of a drum kit.

Try this first panorama. aerial mics on the drums all the way to the left and all the way to the right like this, then listen to the left right placement of each drum in this stereo aerial mix, move the mic of each individual drum exactly where you hear it in the aerial mix, for example , listen to where the alto sounds. -hat appears to be in the top mix and placed the hi-hat mic right there, as well as the toms. Listen to where each appears to be in the overhead mix and position each tom accordingly, this will give you the clearest image you can get. see if the toms are here in the top mix and then you put the tom mic here.

It's like you've panned the toms in stereo if you place the tom mic right where they are in the top mix. Voila, accurate images of the toms in However, in a venue nowadays it is considerably more common not to pan the instruments while they are on stage. More and more people are moving them to where they sound better. It's interesting to note the way drums have been panned throughout the history of recording. The Beatles placed the vocals on one speaker and the rest of the band on another, although this was a mistake. They wanted to mix two tracks in mono when the record was made, but the mastering engineer decided to get creative.

Many jazz groups have placed all the drums on one speaker. The advantage of doing this is that it leaves a lot of space between the speakers for the rest of the band. The big disadvantage is that the separation between the individual pieces of drums becomes obscured. Now let's take a look at the traditions in the landscape of particular instruments. Individual instruments have commonly been placed in specific positions from mix to mix. For example, it is rare for the bass drum to be placed anywhere except in the middle. It is not necessarily wrong to place it somewhere else. but it has been commonly accepted to place it in the middle, this could be because a kick drum appears as a very large sound in the world of images.

The kick drum has so much energy that it completely captures our attention even when the sound is in the middle. Between the speakers you have two speakers transmitting the sound instead of one, so especially with big sounds like a kick drum or bass, the speakers don't have to work as hard, so it will sound better. The snare is most commonly placed in the middle, some engineers place it a little to the side, especially in jazz, because the snare is on one side in a real drum kit, the hi-hat is often placed on the side and also it seems like most engineers will put the hi-hat on. -hat halfway between the middle side and the left side this way, however, if you are creating a mix that is intended to be more spatial, it might be appropriate to move the hi-hat completely to the side now in house and hip-hop music.

Not only can the hi-hat be panned anywhere, it is also commonly moved throughout the mix and is sometimes recorded with a delay for maximum fun. The toms are usually laid out completely from left to right; However, for natural panning, rack toms are sometimes placed in the middle, as in a real drum kit, a floor tom is normally placed on the far right, however, occasionally the floor tom is placed on the center for the same reason that we normally place kick drums and bass in the middle because they are so powerful and attract so much attention and because it will sound better when both speakers are carrying out the discussion about the placement of the toms, a question arises interesting if the toms are panned from left to right as if from the drummer's perspective or from right to From the audience's perspective, it seems that those who make live sound commonly pan from right to left as in a live show. live, however, many engineers pan from left to right as we read.

The other interesting thing is that a lot of people have a very loud sound. Feelings on this topic The bass is most commonly placed in the middle as it draws a lot of attention. Jazz and similar types of music often place the bass to the side. This is normally only done when the bass sound itself is thinner or the bass EQ has been disabled, making the sound sound thinner. It is poetry in motion. Lead vocals are overwhelmingly placed right in the middle whether they are recorded in stereo, sung twice, or done in stereo with an effect that is usually the stereo effect.

Spread evenly from left to right, a solo piano is almost always panned completely left to right in stereo just because it sounds so good that way, magic if the mix is ​​already too busy i.e. if there are a lot of instruments in the mix sometimes it's still panned to stereo sometimes it's panned to mono when the mix is ​​very busy the left right placement depends entirely on the placement of the rest of the sounds in the mix when in mono again you can do whatever you want with individual instrument sounds depending on the style of music, this is just to let you know what is happening This is commonly done because many people want their mixes to sound like what's on the radio.

Any placement of individual instruments other than the above standards may be considered unusual, but may also be unusual. considered inappropriate In addition to the individual placement of sounds between speakers, even more important are the overall patterns you can create by panning the overall mix with panning you can create a symmetrical mix or an asymmetric type mix. Symmetrical mixes can commonly be created for a love song or ballet, it could be created for a song about my balanced ecology, while an asymmetrical mix could be created for a song about unbalanced psychotic behavior. Commonly, symmetrical mixes are used to create a type of balanced dynamics, while an asymmetrical mix creates a bit of tension to get even more detailed, a balanced mix is ​​often made to be symmetrical in each frequency range, e.g. , if there is a hi-hat on the left, a shaker or acoustic guitar can be placed on the other side to balance the high frequency range, a guitar on the left. could balance a midrange keyboard to the right again, this is if you're looking for a symmetrical mix, creating balanced or unbalanced mixes can be an especially effective dynamic when appropriate to the song's movement of a sound from left to right during a The mixing will also create very intense dynamics, which is why most engineers typically reserve such drastic creativity for special occasions.

There are several ways a sound can move in this way, creating countless patterns of movement. The possibilities range from short, tiny movements to a full range, wide sweep. movements that do a full sweep from speaker to speaker, from slowly moving pans to pans that zoom in and out between speakers, obviously when appropriate to the song this can be a great effect. Hendrix did it a lot, especially in cross-town traffic. Led Zeppelin was Bananas and a lot of love so far we've covered three of the four tools you can use to create dynamics in a mix, volume EQ and panning.

Now, what kind of dynamics can you create with effects? Well, there is an incredibly wide range of effects and the dynamics they create range from very subtleeven very shocking, fascinating and world-changing. It's simply not within the scope of this video to be able to analyze all the dynamics of each effect, including the wide range of variables that can be achieved by changing the parameters within each effect, but most of them are pretty obvious, we all know what a reverb can do in a mix, we know what delays sound like and if you don't know what flanging sounds like, try it, it can be used to create other effects.

Mundane type effects, such as being underwater, more details of specific effects will be covered in future videos. Now, when you look at the big picture of how effects contribute to creating different styles of mixes, one of the most important dynamics is how they complete a mix. It sounds fuller and bigger, more like a wall of sound because of the way we just moved to the next level with delays, you are adding additional sounds to the mix so there are simply more sounds between the speakers with short delays of less. of 30 milliseconds. it fattens, which seems to stretch a sound between the speakers again, filling out the mix, making it bigger. flanging, chorus and phasing all rely on short delay times, so they will also tend to make the mix sound bigger and fuller, and of course it actually creates reverb. made up of hundreds of delays, so it takes up quite a bit of space in a mix and really fills out the mix enormously.

All of these effects will make the mix fuller and with a larger mass, however, they also make the mix busier, so if the mix is ​​already busy with a with many instruments and many notes, it could become cloudy. Commonly, these effects are only used when you have room for them, i.e. when there aren't too many sounds in the mix in the first place, however, there are times when you may want to make an even larger mix even though it's already quite large. full, this is quite common with heavy metal, heavy metal and a lot of hard rock, the bigger the better, the more powerful, the more amazing, therefore you might consider adding effects to said mix, even if things are already full 48 guitars They may not look clean and clear, but if it's that big it can be really cool.

Now certain types of music are commonly mixed with very few effects to create a sparse mix where each sound is completely separated from the others. sound in the mix and where each sound is easily distinguished from all other sounds in the mix bluegrass acoustic jazz and some folk music are commonly mixed in this way steely dan is a good example of this style of mixing, very few effects are used In order to create as clean and clear a mix as possible, these types of mixes are normally done with very little or no effects; On the other hand, many styles of music are commonly mixed with a good amount of effects to create a massive wall of sound type mix or create a spacious or spatial type of mix like Pink Floyd, it was Phil Spector who was known for first creating these types of mixes for a long time, everyone was addicted to clarity, then Phil came along and started adding more and more instruments to the mix. and he started using reverb to really fill the space between the speakers.

His mixes were dubbed the wall of sound these days. We have taken this concept to the extreme. How many sounds can we fit in this space between the speakers? Lots of space rock. heavy metal hard rock alternative music grunge and even new age are commonly mixed with many effects now if we use the analogy of a mix which is like the thoughts in your brain a clean and clear mix would be like this some people might think of this as a very ordered, like that of someone who now has all his thoughts in order. On the other hand, some of you might think this is brain boring.

I'm sure they would prefer the exciting activity of a brain that looks like this, with neurons firing all over the place. When there are large amounts of interactivity between brain areas, a full or sparse mix may be appropriate depending on the type of person, the nature of the song, and, of course, the style of music. Well, we've finally reached the last one. As part of this section on effects, there are several ways you can create movement with effects. First, you can simply increase or decrease the number of effects in the mix, but you can also change the type of effect or change the parameters within each one. effect it goes without saying that when you change the amount of effects or the type of effects in a song this dynamic becomes the only focus of attention for the moment some groups like frank zappa mr bungle and even pink floyd have gone to the extreme of create songs that rely on changing effects and the capabilities of doing this are becoming much simpler now with midi effects control you can create more subtle differences between sections of a song, but again only if appropriate for the song and style of music and if the people we are working with, we have now covered the four tools that can be used to create dynamics in a mix by using the tools together to create combinations of dynamics, we can create all the different styles of mixes in the world , let's see how we can work together to create really important dynamics, we can use all four tools to create incredibly powerful dynamics, for example, let's say we are mixing a love song, we could set relative volumes even so that nothing jumps out and surprises us, so so that the mood of the emotion is not disturbed so that love can grow without distractions.

We could set the EQ so that nothing is too irritating in the midranges so that everything is nice and bright but not too bright and so that there is not too much bass to exploit. We could configure the mood so that it is balanced as a loving relationship should be. We could use very few effects so that the mix is ​​clean and clear as all our minds should be when we are in love and we could refrain from creating any unnecessary movement with the pan pops eq faders or effects so as not to spoil the atmosphere using all these tools together we can create an intensely beautiful dynamic totally appropriate for the song it's like being another musician in the band it's like the studio equipment is your instrument On the other hand, if we're mixing some rock and roll or even hip hop, we can establish volume relationships so that they are very smooth and quite uneven sounds that then jump out and capture your attention, creating very exciting dynamic fun, not at all boring. set the EQ so that we get a lot of highs and a lot of load and we can EQ some sound so that they cut and build in the midrange making the whole mix jump and grab your attention, making you dance and making you smile.

We could set the pan to be unbalanced, creating tension and making the mix unusual. Let's have some rock and roll fun. We could add all kinds of different effects to make the mix interesting at all times. Let's not fool around, let's change the world enough to change the state. quo, we could also make things zoom left and right with pan volumes going up and down, the EQ changing throughout the mix and the effects not only going up and down, but also the effect parameters changing constantly throughout the entire mixture when you put them all together. we can create a tremendously exciting and stimulating mix.

These are two extreme types of mixes that we could create with all the tools, all the equipment in the studio. There are a million possibilities of dynamics between these two extremes and all the mixtures in the world. We fall somewhere between these two extremes. Now, one of the most powerful dynamics a recording engineer can create is to first create a context, that is, a mix in which all the tools work together to create a cohesive mixing style and then, without warning, completely . Change all the mix parameters with the four tools to create a completely different mix style.

Yes, I did with Owner of a Lonely Heart. They took a screaming electric guitar sound and in one moment it breaks down into a 50's style recording of a drum set with an EQ off and a microphone 20 feet away and suddenly it goes back to a screaming guitar synth type sound that It's extremely nervous. the sudden change in the mixed parameters is quite effective. Steam also did it with the song Englishman in New York, the song goes from a jazz rhythm with a jazz style mix, very few effects, a very clean sound, to, suddenly, a huge drum sound with tons of reverb and suddenly we are back to the simple, clear, amazing, stimulating and quite interesting jazz mix, of course, you can only create such a dramatic mixed dynamic if it is appropriate for the song.

In fact, I'm always looking for bands that have written songs where such a cool dynamic is appropriate. This was obvious, obviously one of Frank Zappa's favorite techniques, Mr. Bungle has taken the concept to the extreme every 30 seconds the song in the mix changes completely to do this it can be shocking it can even leave people speechless shows them to people that their reality is just an illusion that everything could change at any moment but best of all, it shows perspective, it shows people that they don't need to stay stuck in their current reality, they just need to put a different mix into the situation.

All mixes in the world are created with just these four tools, volume control, EQ and effects in each mix. Because every style of music in the world is made up of these four tools and the wide range of dynamics they can create, the art of mixing is the way the dynamics we create with the equipment in the studio interact with the dynamics apparent in the music and songs Now that we've covered all the dynamics you can create with equipment, we can now start to explore all the different relationships between mixing dynamics and the dynamics that people perceive in music;

However, we'll let you start this lifelong exploration in yours, I don't think so again Oh, the last video in the series used the visual framework explained in the previous videos to show and explain all the different types of mixes that a recording can create, in particular it shows the traditions that have developed over We have covered the years to mix different styles of music in this latest video and you have learned about the wide range of emotional dynamics found in music, structures of emotions, physical reactions, visual images and spiritual aspects, we then cover the dynamics that can be created with each of the four tools is based on individual configurations, configuration and movement patterns, we show how the different individual volumes create dynamics, we present you the six volume levels and then we cover how the sound of each instrument is placed at different volumes for different styles of music and songs.

We show the dynamics that can be created through different volume patterns, such as uneven volumes versus even volumes, and we show the dynamics created by moving the volume faders in a mix. We then go through different EQ dynamics created by EQing individual sounds and then cover the more intense dynamics created by the overall EQ or EQ patterns, then we discuss the intense dynamics of changing the EQ during a mix, then we look at the different traditions in panning different styles of music and the traditions for panning sounds of particular instruments, then we cover the dynamics created Through general pan patterns, such as symmetrical and asymmetric mixes, we move on to the dynamics created by moving the pan pots during panning. mix and show different types of panning motion that we then review the dynamics created with individual effects like fattening flanging and reverb.

We've looked at the dynamics that can be engineered through various effect patterns, i.e. a wall full of sound mixes versus clean, clear sparse mixes. We then go over the dynamics of How to Change Effects in a Mix, show various ways effects are changed during a mix, then explain how you can create different styles of mixes using the four tools, such as what might be appropriate for a song by love or for a really cool chaotic mix using the four tools we show the wide range of mixes that an engineer can create, then we point out and show the most intense dynamics of all to completely change the mixing style in a single moment, finally we start you on the journey of learning to create all these dynamics with the equipment that best suits the dynamics of the music and songs, this is the true art of mixing