Mixing Techiniques

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Johnson

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I need some advise for mixing.
I am doing rap/hip-hop/r&b. The progs that
I use are Cubase, Vegas pro, FruityLoops, Cool Edit. I have a few questions.

1. When I mix, should I split the sounds
in to separate tracks, meaning, should
I put the kick on one track, the snare on
another, the hihat on another and so on?
Or should I just mix the instrumental as one
track and continue on with the vocals?

2.How do I make certain parts of a track
or instrumental track echo. I want the last
word of the vocals to echo. What is the best way to do that.

3. What do I to a track first, add compression or do the eq?

I know this doesn't have anything to do with
mixing but I need to know is how much better is Akai MPC 2000 compared to fruity loops?
My Freind is a big time r&b producer and offered to sell me one of his for $400.

I know that I am asking alot but this Msg board has help me with my problems.
Thanks
 
hello sir.

1. yes, put all the different drum sounds on different trax. they are just as different from each other as is a piano from a baritone sax. especially with HH,R&B and the like, folks LUUUUUVV some bass. putting the sounds on separate trax will GREATLY facilitate getting big fat phuckin kicks and killer snares.

2. you got Cool Edit -- i use Macs, mostly Pro Tools and Digital Performer to do my stuff, but the similarity is that your program should have a screen where you see your sound as a wave. what you do is copy that entire trac onto a new trac and drag it so that it starts after the original. i think it's 10-15 to fill a vocal, 15-30 ms for reverb, 30-50 starts to echo, and 50+ just sounds like you don't know what you are doing. but don't Cool Edit just have an echo effect where you just hilite the portion you want to echo and then hit echo? i thought it did.

3. the forms of music you are doing are a form of pop, read popular music, meaning that the purpose is to make it popular. what does the populus like? LOUD!! compress kicks and vocals on the way into your mix, then add EQ. (really, when you get into it, you'll find that taking away unwanted frequencies is a mad better method than adding 9.0 dbs @ 80 Hz to your kick drum) I used to do it and it impressed the neighbors, but it sounded like shit soon as i took it into the Jeep believe it or not) listen to some recordings you like. you'll find that the first trax you do will more than likely have WAY more bass than the pros use just bcuz the first-timer thinx that's what the pros do. it's not. MPC's tight if you're a sample-based producer. 400 is a durn good price. i'd jump on that kitten. (actually, i'd be hounding my friend for some studio time.)

goodnight, and Godspeed, dawg.
 
Yo dawgie...

If you are working in MIDI, definitely split up the drums as separate tracks (most good sequencers can do this automatically in about 45 seconds). That makes it a lot easier to play with the settings separately, EQ or panning or velocity or whatever.

Be warned, though...on many sound modules and soundcards, it's not possible to change the individual drum settings separately...if you raise the volume on the hi-hat, the bass drum goes up too. So try it yourself. But you can get around this by "printing" the drums inidividually to audio tracks, if your equipment can handle that many audio tracks at once.
 
Thanks for replying to my post.

I Have another question.
I plan on going to a professional recording
studio to record some music with some friends. My question is how should I go about
getting my music to the studio?
Would I have to put them on an adat tape?
Do I have to bring my whole computer or can I
use a ZIP disk?

I took your advise on separating the tracks and was very impressed with the results.
Now, should I do the same if I were to use an ADAT?

Once again thank you both for replying to my post.
 
Yo Johnson,

Seperating tracks is always the best way to go. Combining tracks gives you less flexibility while mixing them. With every instrument on a seperate track, you can apply different dynamics processing, different eq's, different effects. If you combine any two things together, you lose a bit of flexibility. So with you ADAT, use the tracks up as much as possible. If you have to combine, combine things that are opposit in the sound spectrum, cymbal and bass guitar, etc.......Both still, you will be losing out on getting just the right sound.

About going to a studio and bringing your music. I have a couple of questions.

1-Who is going to produce?
2-How experienced is this producer?
3- If you are the producer, have you considered hiring someone else? I ask this because you are asking a question on a home recording BBS that would be better directed to a producer, so I question your ability to do an effective job of producing at a professional studio.
4-What formats can the studio handle as far as transferring digital files? ADAT's, .wav, AIFF, etc....This will dictate how you need to bring your music in for them to use.
5-Are you getting depressed yet? :) I can be such a pain in the ass!!!

I am warning you about all of this because I own a studio for hire. Often, artist's come in not having very much experience with recording. They want to do the damnest things!!! Often, they really don't really know what sounds good. So they figure I am going to tell them what sounds good, and make a bunch of decisions for them, like a producer would. Sorry Charlie. I don't produce without a fee. I engineer. You rent the studio and the engineer. The engineer's job is to get the kind of sound on tape that the client seeks. I am no mind reader. If you say it sounds good to you, we go with it.

The problem starts with whether you really know what sounds good on tape or not. The next problem starts with communication. If you don't have any real idea how to achieve the sound you hear in your head, I really can't help you much. A competant producer will know how to achieve the sounds that are needed, or at least give the engineer some good starting places. Also, the producer will make sure that what ever is needed to get that sound is available when it is needed. Studios don't own EVERY piece of equipment under the sun. Often, the client is looking for a particular sound for something and the studio and/or the client does not posses the piece of gear that can produce that sound. It is the producers job to get that piece of gear, not the studios. Often clients will think that with a little eq tweek or something that you can fix it in the mix. This doesn't fly.

Anyway, just be prepared for the studio. I wrote an essay about this that you can view on my website. www.echostarstudio.com/Info.html The essay is entitled "Recordings That Rock".

Good luck.
Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
 
I totally understand what you are saying.
My friend knows the producer that agreed to
work with us.
I am also enrolled in the music electronic technology program at my college that teaches
all that good stuff.
 
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