Primary Research
As my brother was an ex colchester institute student and is now finishing at university in music technology I decided to ask him about what techniques and plugins he uses for mixing and mastering, as this is one of the areas I struggle with I thought that this would be good to ask it would be better for me to be familiar with this for creating tracks in the future.
When I spoke to him I asked:”Tell me what plugins and techniques you use for mixing and mastering”
He replied:” Ozone 8 and Neutron 2 because they have limiter EQs and compressors built in with loads of settings to change and manipulate and they all have the tools you need in side one plugin.”
Secondary Research
How to record a band in the studio
in the link to the video it shows many different types of recording techniques
I learnt different types of recording techniques when watching the video I have different options which sound better in the mix like doubling up. Vocals guitar and drums will all have to be in separate rooms or they could potentially interfere with other mics during recording.
Screaming Walls songs are influenced by We were just kids – Emmure, Sick and Disgusting – Beartooth, Trauma Model – King810
When looking into those songs i realised that all of the songs had similarities to what they wanted there own tracks to sound like for different parts of there songs like We were just kids – Emmure sounded like there melodic sections Sick and Disgusting – bear tooth wanted to have there vocals similar, and Trauma Model – King810 that is how brutal that they wanted to have there track sounding
When looking into mixing and mastering It wasn’t something that I was particularly good at so I decided to research into compression to help me when mixing my finished band track As you can see in the compression there is 3 dials you can turn up compression ratios are expressed in decibels, so that a ratio of 2:1 indicates that a signal exceeding the threshold by 2 dB will be attenuated down to 1 dB above the threshold, or a signal exceeding the threshold by 8 dB will be reduced to 4 dB above it.The Threshold dial is how loud the signal has to be before compression is applied. The makeup gain refers to a gain control at the output of a compressor. Compressors reduce the level of the loudest signals, so after using compression usually the signal is quieter than the
In this video it showed me how to effectively make my vocals and drums sound much better in the mix by adding 2 reverb plugins when using reverb I have the option to do 2 things I can either decide to use a preset or I can decide to customise it for my own personal liking, but also in the video it shows a different where you add 2 reverbs but rather than making it sound like your on the other side of the room the technique makes it sound as if the sound is being played in front of you but it is still in a medium space to give a more upfront sound which assures that it is upfront during the mix.
This a track from the beginning of the year it showed how much progression I have made and it secures what type of direction that I would like to progress in the near future I feel like it was good at the time but as of now I feel that this isn’t the genre and style of music that I would like produce but it shows how much progress I can make.
This video taught me how to properly mix the guitars to assure a much heavier and a sound that will fit better in the mix, it showed me how to make my guitars fit in the mix better by adding a delay plug into the guitar which makes the guitars fix perfectly in the mix,Finally was the EQ it made the guitars have more bass really fitted nicely, when I added EQ I made sure that it was similar to the video but the guitars would be more heavy due to the fact that my band are Heavy Metal and not Rock I made sure that that my low end was cut a little and my mid range boosted around 3dB to still give the heavier sound on my guitars.
5 examples of your concept that you love/admire.
One: In the track ‘pray for the day’ I like the attack of the drum recordings as it makes it fit into the genre effectively whilst standing out from other elements of the track.
Two:In the track ‘pray for the day’ I like the crunchy guitar tones throughout track, which I achieved using logic’s amp designer plugging, using the crunch tone preset to achieve this.
Three: in the track ‘council of the gods’ I like the arrangement of the track, how the guitars transit from a slower tempo into a faster tempo has the track progresses.
Four: In the track ‘pray for the day’ I think the quality the overall mix sounds clear & punchy, which helps fit into the genre the band are aiming their sound towards.
Five: In the track ‘pray for the day’ the kick sound punches through by the use of logic’s drum replacement protocol, which allows myself as the mixing engineer to manipulate the kick sound accordingly using the software instrument ‘EX24’ which is packed full of pre-recorded kick sounds.
5 examples of your concept that you dislike/wish to avoid.
One:In the track ‘pray for the day’ I dislike the sound of the vocal takes, this is due to the fact of the vocalist sounds like he’s struggling with his ‘scream’ technique and this is apparent throughout the track.
Two: This particular genre of music is not something from a consumer basis that I would normally listen to, this project has brought me out of my comfort zone and I’m not sure that I would take on another project within this genre of music.
Three: In the track ‘pray for the day’ I feel like there could’ve been variation in the drum & guitar tracks, however the material recorded matches that of the genre so it was not changed in nor the recording or arrangement process.
Four: In the track ‘Council of the gods’ I don’t feel like the parts of the track were the vocalist is screaming suits the arrangement (32 seconds in) as the instrumentation is quiet and screaming drowns out the rest of the instrumentation, I feel like he should’ve tried some light singing to match the instrumentation and then scream in heavier parts of the track.
Five: In the track ‘Council of the gods’ I feel like the lyrics in the track are repetitive and have no immediate indication of a chorus or verse as they repeat themselves so much, to improve the track I would recommend that the vocalist changes some of the lyrics and then we should re-record this to improve the track in my opinion.
Make a conclusion about this research in relation to you.
In my conclusion, I have discovered genre specific plugin chains in order to help me with the mixing and mastering processes in the project, as I have never completed a recording or mixing & mastering session in this particular genre. If I were to complete the task a second time round a would have a more in-depth knowledge of communicating, processing & recording skills in order to complete the task to even higher skill level.
Harry Cook 