{"id":1330,"date":"2010-09-01T12:36:59","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2010-09-01T12:36:59","modified_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:36:59","slug":"gear-mix-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/gear-mix-emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"GEAR – MIX EMOTIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n


\nGetting the right mix involves technology,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

practice and careful listening<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

Everything\u2019s in place\u2014the songs have been written, the studio has been booked, the musicians are playing perfectly. You\u2019re well on your way to making a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

But even if you lay down the greatest tracks ever recorded, it\u2019s entirely possible to screw it up at the last minute. The right mix can make or break even the most brilliantly recorded projects.<\/p>\n

Many musicians, songwriters and even producers are about as prepared to tweak EQ and compression controls as they are to perform complex brain surgery. But crafting the perfect mix doesn\u2019t require a medical school diploma\u2014just dedication, practice and guidance from folks who know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Two of those are recording engineers Larry Crane and Jason Powers. Crane has worked with acts including Death Cab For Cutie and Elliott Smith, while Powers has hit the studio with artists like the Decemberists and Estranged. They spoke to us about a few of the techniques, tips and approaches involved in constructing a masterful mix.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the biggest mixing mistake musicians make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

POWERS: Not being able to hear what\u2019s really going on when they\u2019re mixing. The most important thing is having a monitoring situation that works. It doesn\u2019t have to be amazing, but it does have to be something you\u2019re familiar with so you know how things should sound. Having nice gear is important, but not as important as hearing what you\u2019re working on in a way you\u2019re comfortable with. It\u2019s the connection among your equipment, your ears, the song and world.<\/p>\n

CRANE: The biggest mistake people make is mixing it themselves! When people bring stuff in that they\u2019ve tracked themselves and they\u2019ve done rough mixes, the quality that I can instill in the first 10 minutes usually has their jaws on the floor. Most people haven\u2019t researched phase relationships with multi-mic instruments. Everyone outputs way too many plug-ins on every channel. Gain structuring, use of plug-ins where you\u2019re not destroying the actual sound\u2014there are quite a few important topics that many people just aren\u2019t aware of.<\/p>\n

POWERS: There is a whole wealth of knowledge that engineers have that\u2019s really valuable\u2014but I\u2019ve also heard a lot of recordings that people do themselves that are great. And even if they\u2019re not great, they work for what they are. Some of my favorite recordings are not recorded well<\/em>, but they work. There\u2019s a band from Portland called the Slaves, for example. They\u2019re a dark, atmospheric band. They just gave me their album that they recorded themselves on a four-track cassette. Those are some pretty limited tools, but it sounds great and it totally works for what they do.<\/p>\n

How can you mix virtual instruments to sound more real?<\/strong><\/p>\n

POWERS: You are using canned sounds, but one suggestion is re-amping them. You can run them out through speakers in a room and use the tone of the amp going through a mic to give them some flavor other than just the sampled sound. Or, you can mic the room itself and use those acoustics to give it some space. That\u2019s a lot of what\u2019s missing in those sorts of sounds. They\u2019re just very dry and direct. It also depends on the type of music. Some call for a lot of dry, synthetic sounds like that. But for an authentic guitar sound, go into a guitar amp, even if you\u2019re using a sample for the original sound.<\/p>\n

CRANE: I would look at ways of adding really short delays or reverbs to put the sounds into a small room setting, so you\u2019re trying to give things a sense of depth. If something isn\u2019t the most important element, try moving it back in the depth of field. When I use drum machines, I\u2019ll pipe them out into a live room and record it with mics\u2014and sometimes just use the ambience track. In general, put digital sounds through the analog world and run them through stompboxes or, like Jason said, amps. Techniques like that really separate cookie-cutter work from inspired work.<\/p>\n

What about making really dense mixes work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CRANE: One of the biggest things is arrangement. If you listen to a record like AC\/DC\u2019s Back In Black<\/em>, there\u2019s really not a whole lot going on. There\u2019s lots of space for drums and bass guitar. It\u2019s a powerful sounding record, but it\u2019s not full-on, all the time. That\u2019s the arrangement. Take a song, strip it down, keep the most important parts\u2014and you\u2019ve got the stronger track. People have a hard time with this. They think a mix is a democracy among instruments. It isn\u2019t. Listen to a Ramones record. Most of the guitars are really quiet, just a buzz in the back. And it works.<\/p>\n

POWERS: Less really is more. One mistake I see people make is that if they want to do an overdub of an instrument, they\u2019ll lay down that instrument over the entire song. They\u2019ll put, say, piano over the whole tune and suddenly, the song doesn\u2019t have any ebb and flow or dynamic build. Try being strategic about how you want to build the feeling of the song. Obviously layering stuff if you want a big, thick sound is good, but make sure that\u2019s actually what you want.<\/p>\n

How do you make vocals pop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CRANE: It\u2019s all about picking the right mic for the singer. Find a mic that\u2019s a great starting point and do the full album with it. For most of the records, I don\u2019t EQ vocals at all along the signal chain, because the mic does it for me. Regardless of the studio, sing through every mic they have\u2014good condensers, or even oddball dynamics\u2014and see what works. That\u2019s where you should start.<\/p>\n

POWERS: One thing you could do is duck out competing frequencies in competing instruments. Not so much that they sound flaccid, but enough so they don\u2019t compete. The midrange of the piano and midrange of the vocals can compete, for example, so futz with the EQ a little bit and see what works. I almost always compress vocals at least a little bit, since the human vocal dynamic range is pretty vast compared to other instruments. You need to have it be audible, but not jump out at you too much.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most important advice you\u2019d offer a prospective mixer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CRANE: My number one thing is to try working with someone who\u2019s mixed more records than you have. Even if you had a pro mix just one song and paid him or her to answer your questions, you\u2019d learn more than if you sat struggling at your house for years.<\/p>\n

POWERS: I\u2019d say really listen to records that you like. Don\u2019t just put them on and hear them passively, but really listen to how things are placed in the mix. Sometimes, when I\u2019ve done that, I\u2019ve been really surprised. When you\u2019re listening casually it all just comes together in your brain unless something is really off. Buy if you\u2019re thinking, \u201cHow do the drums sit? How\u2019s the panning?\u201d it really helps you get in the mind of the mixer, how they did what they did and why it works. Even old Johnny Cash records and old soul records are great to listen to. They sometimes have extreme panning\u2014the drums hard panned to one side in mono. It\u2019s extremely different from the way people do things now, but it\u2019s fascinating and gives you unique ideas of what to do on your own mixes.<\/p>\n

\u2013Michael Gallant<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting the right mix involves technology, practice and careful listening Everything\u2019s in place\u2014the songs have been written, the studio has been booked, the musicians are playing perfectly. You\u2019re well on your way to making a masterpiece. But even if you lay down the greatest tracks ever recorded, it\u2019s entirely possible to screw it up at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[816,815,810,812,811,813,10157,809,80,808,780,807,819,818,817,814],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1332,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions\/1332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}