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tips...30.
A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.).
NOW TO MIXING !!
ok....youve added your sprinkles to a song.
and we have plenty of spare traks still.
cos we left blank traks tween the various recording phases as well.

if u recorded some sprinkles up to trak 40.
this still leaves traks spare after trak 40 also.
plus.....once we have all our tracking
finished....if pushed, we can also wipe punch in
traks we used to get final traks that i discussed in previous
posts. but generally i try to keep to 40 traks total max in a song.

now lets get into mixing this song.
heres what i do.
firstly mute all traks.
and put all faders down.
then i start unmuteing each track and bringing up the fader
on each trak....but not to its MAX.
i start about a third of the way up.
starting with the bed traks followed by the intermediary traks and then
finally the lead traks and sprinkles.
all the time ENSURING PTW OUTPUT METER GOES NO HIGHER THAN -3db.
i watch the ptw output meter like a hawk.
the ptw output meter reflects the level of the mix in stereo.
(u can also use it to monitor a track useing SOLO.).
now..heres a tip.
if u find yourself always pushing up faders on traks for more volume,
its likely your monitoring system isnt calibrated properly .
for example.the applet in the sound card isnt set up properly to send
level to the power amp driving your speakers. if the speakers have a level
control, mebe its not up enough, OR mebe the power amp input level control
isnt hi enough. in summary....i cant explain in more detail,
cos there are so many varieties of monitoring gear and situations.
but heres a likkle TRICK to help u calibrate your monitoring
in your spare time.
fill a track with any audio so that the ptw output meter shows -3db.
and play it while adjusting your sound cards output level control,
(usually a user dialogue in windows.)
and your power amp/speaker combo level controls. for a decent listening level.
if u find your not getting a decent level in your speakers
(assuming they are working properly....check levels on each component.)
in summary if your not hearing well the test track u sent out of ptw at -3db its
likely your monitoring isnt calibrated properly.
one last point to firmly understand. as your bringing up tracks.
NEVER put all tracks at max....never ever. lol.

now i want to cover some difficult mixing problems youll come across.
first one is...youve achieved a decent mix balance..but at one point the bass
guitar track pops out. say tween 1m20secs n 1min30secs.
you dont want to move the fader of course DOWN for the bass trak cos in
the rest of the song it sits well in the mix.
thus what to do ??
this is where ptw's audio edit window is your friend.
just hilte the 10 secs where the bass pops too high, and use ptw gain change to lower it.
conversely....mebe the bass trak might be too LOW in that 10 secs time frame.
once again dont change the fader and affect the rest of the trak.
audio edit window again and try the trik i outlined earlier copying the section
over itself useing merge in the paste...then if too high...lowering it with ptw gain change.
(u could also use gain change itself for the boost...but do it in likkle increments.)
as you can see this is very detailed work that has to be done.
now to a "VERY NASTY ISSUE". lol.
to do with boosting a section of a trak.
you go to the audio edit window and find u cant boost the bass anymore cos its already
a bit high in level.
not a good thing.
at this point u have two options.
either remix the other traks around the bass lowering their faders,
...a lot of work of course !!. also there are other implications for the areas of the
bass trak that dont need boosting....THINK ABOUT IT !!.
is there a solution without doing lots of fader alterations n rebalancing the mix ??
YES THERE IS. AND ITS ONE REASON WHY IF U NOTICE....in earlier posts i suggested
leaveing blank tracks btween major phases of recording a song.
ie..instead of re-arrangeing all the faders ..we copy that section of
bass trak tween 1m20secs n 1min30secs, to a blank trak , so we can control
it with its own fader !! thus negateing the need to rebalance the whole mix,
and the work involved to do that. ie...a simple copy n paste jobbie.
this new trak i would typically name sumpin like ...
bass fix up...1m20secs n 1min30secs.
(remember all through your recording n mixing i hope u were makeing notes
on your own custom prepared trak sheet ?? ..as i mentioned before ??
so this little bass "fix up" would be noted on the trak sheet.

from the foregoing one can see that mixing is a lot of work balancing the various
traks and their audio clips etc etc in conjunction with working out
fader and pan levels as well as fx useage.
as ive said...i'm not an ace mixmeister. my first love is songwriting.
i just want u to be aware of some "triks" ive picked up
from my own experience.

now lets talk about automation a bit.
some people use automation in some daw software useing the mouse to draw in
automation etc etc. (ptw will let u record mixer moves for example.
notice the red icon in the ptw mixer ??).
mebe some will disagree...but i find by the time i draw in the automation
or have the software record my "moves"....often i find i get
a more accurate mix result through the type of hand editing i described,
above with the bass. ive used some packages with lots of automation drawing with the mouse,
and i dont weant to anger anyone...BUT..lol....i find with such automation facilities
i sometimes dont get the lines drawn properly with the mouse,
and i spend some time futzing around with the mouse.
i much prefer just going into the ptw audio edit window and achieveing
sorta a poor mans automation via editing in the track itself and working with the trak.
now ..obviously some will say...but your hard changeing the track !!
particularly if u consolidate after.
my answer is...if this is a concern to you..just copy the bass track to a spare trak and name it spare bass track .
(and mute it of course..) in case you change your mind on what youve done to that bass trak.
OR....just save the bass trak before hand editing it to an external wave file from
ptw and name it in the seq song project folder something like..
naked bass back up...lol.
there is another aspect of fancy automation also i want u to be aware of.
the power of ones pc might come into play.
in theory watching all the little faders and pans and settings etc flying everywhere...
sounds nice n it looks real "purty" to watch.
all those settings are kept as a file by the daw software.
ie..another file to be read and checked and what about the security aspect in case it gets mucked up somehow ??
as always there are both plusses and minuses to each tek advance or feature.
thus mebe the ptw devs have thought about these issues , which is why ptw has limited
automation features for audio traks.
i'm fine with that personally. cos..as i said.i hand edit the trak anyway when
difficult issues like the bass trak rear their heads.

now also let me add..if u need to set a pan or fade in ptw mixer...
and i'm sure most are aware of this , u can right clik...
and enter a value. or...of course set a pan or fader with the mouse.

in SUMMARY.
there are two basic phases to creating the mix.
1. basic balanceing of various track components of the
mix useing pans/fades/fx etc etc.
and
2. the hand editing phase to "finesse the mix".

the idea being to achieve the best mix balance and sound picture over
the monitors that one can.
all the while keeping your eyes skinned on the ptw output meter that it doesnt go over -3db.

(mastering is a topic i'll cover in later posts.)
let me cover one final point firmly.
if u find u have to push up a fader on a trak continually...
dont do it. your fooling yourself.
bring other faders traks down. cos u could go over the -3db
mix level in ptw's output vu.

now on this particular CEFE band song weve created seperate fx traks.
why did i do that ?? answer is i feel that i get better control this way in mixing exactly the level of fx i want.
instead of takeing this approach some people...(no bricks please...lol.)
chain oodles of fx on each track.
my attitude to this is you dont bake a pie just by slapping lots of ingredients together..
do you ?? no...u do it in measured thoughtfull amounts to make
a nice tasteing pie.
therefore if u find yourself useing lots of real time plug ins....
once again...mebe the source traks werent right ??
are you trying to tart something up that wasnt recorded with the right sound
in the first place ??
some people might think i'm anti plug in.
i'm not. all i'm arguing for is a measured approach to fx and plugin useage.
old saying "everything in moderation."

ok...so youve got the mix well balanced, it sounds good over the speakers etc.
mebe at this point you want to create a stereo mix wave file.
then mebe convert to an mp3 to hear on an mp3 player and/or mebe an audio cd
to play on a cd system whatever.
typically what i do is mix to stereo wave firstly then play the mix in win,
and i have a little speaker selector switch i can switch tween
various speakers. now we get into testing the mix.
thisis an exercise in frustration in itself...lol.for example a mix done
useing a fine pair of monitors might not translate to computer speakers or
one of those speakers u attach to a ipod for example.
or u might play the mix back in the car, and get a different perspective.
in summary its a BIG CHALLENGE , and it drives me nuts all the time ...
trying to create a mix that sounds good on headphones, baby mp3 player speakers,
big quality studio monitors, car speakers and any other type of speaker system u can think of.
mebe for example the mix breaks down on ear buds.
or on a certain type of playback system.
this is not trivial. as i think i mentioned earlier once i did a mix in a big facility
that sounded great over the expensive studio monitors.
but didnt as much over smaller speakers.

one thing you MIGHT CONSIDER is if youre hell bent on issuing a serious album
of songs and selling it... maybe is takeing your song mixes to a mstering pro.
these guys are quite amazeing. but it depends if u have the budget.
once , as a test i took a stereo mix of a song to such a person that i knew
was a problem mix, and i was rather surprised at the quality of the result.
it depends on the person hired of course.
another time...i wasnt as lucky, some friends felt they liked my mix better.
but mebe they were being kind....lol.
in summary its really really tough.
no daw software will rescue u in this regard.
cos it all depends how you go about achieving the final stereo mix.
the daw software like ptw is just a tool.
its how one uses it....thats where the rubber hits the road.
at one point years ago i was much more serious than today now that i'm getting so old...lol.
i used to slave for hours n hours over a mix.
my own problem is i just think up too many new songs...
but i often dont have the time i would like to devote to properly producing each one.
i think my main point is .even if your not the greatest mixer.
just have fun with it, and do the best u can... like i do.

now let me touch on some little ideas after u have created your mix.
mebe you had a drum clik lead in for two bars for example.
before the song starts ??
or u want a fade in or fade out of the song ??
just bring the song back into ptw or your editor of choice.
silence the two bar lead in.
(or u could have done that in ptw before creating the final mix.)
and/or do your fade in or out by hiliting and useing the fade in or out feature
either in ptw or your chosen editor.
for example if u analyse certain hot songs of the past...
youll find sometimes they fade in at a certain level then gradually get louder,
or fade out to a certain level or to no level.
its all a matter of what u want in a song.

now i want to cover a mixing trik.
that i touched on in an earlier post and explain it.
youve seen those movies and heard the effect where the UFO..lol....
or spaceship zooms across the stereo image ?? from left to right or right to
left ?? lets say we want it in this CEFE song or for example a rock lead violin,
panning around the stereo image. or say a psychedelic lead guitar
moving all over the place in ones headphones !
how do we do that ??
the proper technical name is DYNAMIC PANNING.
heres what i would like u to do as a test.
to show u how its done.
start up a new session of ptw.
set two traks to audio.
lets say trak 1 and 2.
in ptw mixer i want u to set tr 1 pan all left and tr 2 pan all right.
(ie 7 o'clok and 5 o'clok.)
then i want u to record any old synth sound on tr 1,
for 24 seconds.
if there is a blank space before the 24 secs start i would like u to
cut it out on tr 1 by hiliting..
then edit>>>CUT...close gap.
after this..duplicate tr1 on tr 2. (TRACK>>>>duplicate.)
then i want u to use the audio edit window for both tr 1 and 2.
in conjunction with gain change(GC) fade in and gain change fade out.

now hilite 3 secs of tr 1 and GC fade in. for the next 3 secs, GC fade out,
for the next 3 secs (now we are up to 9 secs.) GC fade in...
continue this process for the whole 24 secs.
once youve done this on tr1...
i want u to reverse the idea on tr 2.
first 3 secs...GC fade OUT, next 3 secs fade in, next 3 secs....fade out..
and continue alternating like this for the 24 seconds.
(god i hope i got this all correct..lol...cos my daw pc is in
a different area..lol. yes i believe i did !!
now i want u to hit play and make sure initially your head phones are at a low level.
just in case u set the synth level recorded very high..
on playback u should hear the synth moving around in the stereo image.
if u want it to ping pong fast.
instead of useing 3 sec intervals try 1 sec intervals.
if u want it to ping pong slower use longer intervals than 3 secs.
if u want an effect for the whole 24 secs where the spaceship gradually moves in the
24 sec time frame from one ear to the other.then heres how to do it.
hilite the whole of tr 1 and GC fade in , plus hilite whole of tr2
and GC fade OUT....then PLAY. kinda neat huh ??
hear it move slowly from one ear to the other instead of ping ponging ??
now lets try something else.
hilite the first 12 secs of tr1 and GC fade in, then the last 12 secs..
GC fade out..and on tr 2....first 12 secs..fade out , and last 12 secs fade in !.
see what that does ! listening over phones.
now repeat these steps changeing the pan subtly in ptw mixer.
and see what different pan settings on tr1 and tr2 do.
now lets get fancier. find some industrial sample...
or some sound..record it to tr 3, dupe on tr4...and in the audio edit window for tr3 and tr 4..
do some of the same ideas at various time spans.
once again setting pans initially like we did for tr 1 and 2...
ie....tr 3 all left and tr4 all right.
if you do it right u will find if u put your phones on...
the industrial sound or sample will move around the stereo image while the
synth sound does TOO. kinda neat huh ??
this is called dynamic panning.
therefore see how you might use the idea on your own songs.
and experiment.
for example for a really whacky approach you could then create a fx trak also for
both the synth sound and industrial sound...with a bit of echo.
lets say fx traks 5 and 6. 5 panned all left and 6 panned all right.
and really go to town on 5 and 6 also doing GC fade in and out triks.
if u experiment enough and build your own tecxhniques ,
youll discover lots of production ideas for songs.
NOTE...ALSO EXPERIMENT WITH FADER LEVELS OF THE DIFFERENT TRAKS...
in ptw mixer...
as well as the audio level of the different sections of the traks
in the audio edit window for each trak.
(eg break each trak up into likkle audio clips with spaces tween each clip n see
what that does !!. LOTS OF FUN FUN FUN !!!!)
(more to come.)