F A N D A N G O R E C O R D I N G
About mixing
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F A N D A N G O R E C O R D I N G
About mixing |
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Once the tracks are recorded, mixing is the next step. Here, at Fandango Recording, if we handle both recording and mixing, we do not do the mixing right away; we allow a couple of days in between the recording and the mixing, and we have good reasons to do so (unless otherwise requested by customer). Doing the mixing right the next day won’t help when it comes to objectivity; also, the artists may want some last minute changes, or maybe something added to the recording. Mixing is the process of putting everything together and get great balance, frequency range, panorama, dimension, dynamics and interest. All the instruments have to be heard properly, and there has to be a fit in between them. The song gets to be round, polished, with a good sense of space. In theory, this sounds simple; in reality this is much more complicated. The first step is the vocal editing, breathing reduction and noise removal from the tracks. The voice editing (pitch correction and intonation) requires experience and great tools, like Melodyne, who sounds absolutely natural. The drums may need also editing and enhancing, sometimes drum sounds have to be replaced or reinforced because the tracking was not accurate enough. Every instrument carries different amount of energy in the frequency bands and they have to be worked out so they don’t cancel each other and sound naturally. They have to be placed in space – both stereo and depth. The voices or leads have to stand out. For every type of music there is a certain idea of sound that the mixing engineer has to achieve. The engineer has to understand the arrangement and identify the starting point (like in disco the kick is everything, or in jazz the melody and the musical dialog between musicians), and then, using panorama, EQ, dimension (effects), dynamics (compression, gating, limiting) he starts to build from the bottom up, he has to figure out the direction of the song, making sure it has the groove and captures the interest. Aside of the engineer experience, there are a couple of elements you have to pay attention when you're looking for somebody to mix your songs: the monitoring system, the room acoustics and the quality of the effects-equipment-software (plugins) used. The engineer comes with a rough mix which will be presented to the artist/producer, so they can decide which way to go. A good mix has strong and controlled lows, the mids evenly distributed across among instruments and strong but smooth highs. The mids are extremely important: a great mix still has to sound good if you filter everything bellow 100 and over 6K. While the engineer has a certain view and tries to do his best, what really counts is the customer opinion and the mixing tries to get as close as possible to the image the artist/producer has in mind. Typically there are five versions of the mix: 1. the master mix, the one everybody likes; 2. vocal up 1-2 dB; 3. vocal down 1-2 dB; 4. the TV mix, with no lead vocal, often called trax, used for TV or karaoke, and 5. the instrumental mix. It is also a regular practice to prepare multiple versions of certain songs. First is the album cut which usually stands out for artistic integrity, then the AM version which is the radio mix, with a length of 3 minutes or close, and the dance mix for use in dance clubs, generally longer, around 5-6 min. When you're budgeting for a project, always consider the time for mixing; this is very important. It is common to spend between 6 to 10 hours in the 16+ tracks world and 2-3 hours for a voice over for a top mix. The good news is that, once each instrument was defined (EQ, dynamics, effects), in the digital world, each channel configuration can be saved, reducing the mixing time, even tough adjustments are required for each song. You may ask for compromises if your project is a demo for clubs, but it would be a mistake to do so for large and important projects. |
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Questions, info, contact: florinb@fandangorecording.com or call 416 579 5569. Copyright©2001 Fandango Recording Toronto, at Leslie and Lawrence |