Protected: More Creative Mixing Techniques
Creative mixing is all about taking a unique and innovative approach to the mixing process. Here are some tips to help you mix creatively:
- Experiment with panning: Panning can be a powerful tool for creating a unique and immersive mix. Try panning elements hard left and right to create a wide stereo image, or experiment with unconventional panning to create a more dynamic mix.
- Use effects creatively: Effects such as reverb, delay, and distortion can be used creatively to add depth and character to your mix. Try using effects in unconventional ways to create unique and interesting sounds.
- Layer and blend sounds: Layering multiple sounds together can create a complex and interesting texture in your mix. Use EQ and volume to blend the different sounds together and create a cohesive mix.
- Emphasize dynamics: Dynamics can be used to create tension and interest in your mix. Try using automation to create dramatic changes in volume, or use compression and limiting to control the dynamics of your mix.
- Experiment with EQ: EQ can be used creatively to shape the sound of your mix. Try boosting or cutting unusual frequencies to create unique and interesting sounds.
- Use distortion and saturation: Distortion and saturation can be used to add warmth and character to your mix. Try using analog-style plugins or hardware to create a vintage or retro sound.
- Embrace imperfection: Sometimes, imperfections can add character and interest to your mix. Don’t be afraid to leave in a bit of noise or distortion if it adds to the overall vibe of your mix.
Remember, creative mixing is all about experimenting and taking risks. Try new techniques and approaches, and don’t be afraid to break the rules. With practice and experimentation, you can create mixes that are truly unique and innovative.
A further way of adding interest to effects is afforded to us by the recording process, which enables us to make use of negative time.
In Reverse
A further way of adding interest to effects is afforded to us by the recording process, which enables us to make use of negative time. By this, I mean effect sounds which are audible before the sound that they process even starts playing, something that the physical laws of real life don’t allow. Once something is recorded, temporal rules can be broken. Sounds can be reversed, they can be treated with reverb or delay that starts before the sound itself, or reverse reverb can be added to a ‘right- way-round’ sound. This latter trick used to be popular during the ’70s for music production, is still used extensively in film work to create demonic voices, and is still used typically on vocals (i.e. Tainted Love by Marilyn Manson).
When analogue tape was the standard recording medium, playing a tape backwards, feeding the desired track through a reverb unit, and then recording the reverb to a spare track produced reverse reverb. Once the tape was replaced on the machine the correct way around, the reverb track would start playing before the track it was derived from, with the reverb sound’s envelope building up slowly in a suitably eerie manner. The same trick can be achieved in a tapeless environment (such as within a MIDI+ audio sequencer) by reversing a section of audio, adding reverb or delay, bouncing the processed result to a new track, then reversing both tracks again.
Another method, if you have a reverb with a true reverse function (like the space designer in Logic pro7), is to apply a fairly short reverse reverb, bounce the effect alone, then bring the track onto the arrange page before bringing the reverse reverb forward so that it starts before the original dry signal. This works excellently with vocals and drums.
Of course the other thing that’s very easy to do in a tapeless environment is set up a conventional reverb, record this to a spare track, and then slide it a beat or two ahead of the track being processed. This produces reverb that’s the right way around, but which still comes before the sound that supposedly created it, you could almost think of it as negative pre-delay!
Distortion
Another effect that can be used in creative ways is distortion. Usually associated with electric guitars, distortion can be applied for other applications. Distortions and overdrives can be creative in many different ways and we shall look at some other applications now.
Distortion pedal effects or plug-ins can be very useful. You could, for example, use an aux to feed into it, and bring back the unit on another channel. Try sending a bit of the drums into it as this can add a nice crunch to the beat. You can use the same process for other parts. Used in subtle manner, distortion can add a nice edge and warmth to the sound.
For a more radical effect, you can simply insert it on the channel. Heavy distortion can work well on bass, keyboards and some vocal parts. Remember they are no rules – try it, for example, with an acoustic piano; you’ll get some really interesting harmonics.
If using an analogue mixer, try to overdrive the channel gain until it distorts in a way that you like; different desks will give you different types of distortion, some more pleasant than others. They can sound very good on a lead vocal. I’ve had interesting results by overloading the inputs of various devices. Among my favourites are: my old trusted friend the Roland tape echo, the sampler EMU SP1200, and a Dictaphone.
Again, remember that the main rule in being creative with audio is that there are no rules. Quite often devices used in applications other than the one they were intended, can give pleasing, unpredictable results.
Natural vs. Artificial Environments
As we have mentioned several times by now, all naturally occurring sounds are coloured by their environment, and we associate certain types of sound with specific acoustic spaces. In the studio, we usually use effects to simulate a plausible environment for DI’d sounds, the most obvious choice of effect being reverberation. Even so, the result often turns out to be more impressive as a spectacle in its own right than an accurate emulation of nature. Perhaps it’s this lack of a breathing, organic environment that has sent people chasing old technology, such as tape echo units or valve processors, to try to put some of the character back. The key to the ‘organic-ness’ (or lack thereof) of electronic instruments is largely down to the amplifier and loudspeaker system used to reproduce them, and to the acoustic environment in which that amplifier is placed.
If the instrument is DI’d – like all virtual synths are – then the performance loudspeaker is the studio monitor or end-user’s hi-fi system, and the acoustic environment can be anything from a studio control room to a bed-sit in Putney. In other words, by DI’ing the instrument, you completely bypass the organic quality that comes from live performance in a specific acoustic environment.
DI’d keyboards work on an artistic level. We are used to hearing music made in that way, so our frame of reference is already based on artificial values (after all synths in electronic music aren’t supposed to recreate real instruments). Having made that point, all but the most ardent electronic music protagonists seem to agree that a piece of music sounds far more human or organic if at least some of the instruments are real rather than being all synthesized.
Miced Amps
The wonderful thing about instrument amplifiers is that they do so much more than simply make a sound louder. All the best-loved instrument amps, whether for guitar or keyboard, introduce their own subtle, or otherwise, distortions and colorations.
Before modern full-range keyboard amps were developed, keyboard amps were more like guitar amps, often fitted with 12-inch speakers and no tweeters. This limited the high frequency response of the systems quite severely, and had the effect of rounding off harmonically rich tones. At the same time, the open-backed speaker cabinets, so popular at the time, behaved most irrationally at low frequencies, and created a deep, pleasing, and totally inaccurate bass end. For example, if you have a digital keyboard pad sound that seems a bit too thin and is a little too gritty around the edges, simply plugging it into a guitar combo will filter all the edge out of the sound without actually making it seem dull, and the uncontrolled speaker response at the lower-mid and bass end will fatten the sound up quite nicely. You could of course do a similar thing using a guitar preamp and a speaker simulator, but then you’d lose the opportunity to mic it up and add a little real-world ambience.
Small practice amps often sound wonderful when miced up, and because they’re not as loud as a performance amplifier, you don’t have as many problems with isolation. Stories abound of famous musicians using the Tandy Microamp (which is little more than half an intercom in a plastic box) to record everything from guitar to harmonica. Other practice amps heavily used are the small Marshall and Fender, great on guitars (and vocals). And while we’re on the subject of guitars, if you need to create an overdriven guitar effect from a synth, how better to do it than plug it through a guitar amp and turn up the overdrive? This invariably sounds better than the digital distortion effects built into synths.
If you have a small combo or practice amp, you can also experiment by connecting it to different speakers; even the most unlikely combinations can work extremely well. For example, an old TV or car radio speaker might distort in a particularly vigorous and interesting way when driven hard. Similarly, if you’re after a boxy sound, don’t resort to EQ straight away, stick a small speaker inside a tea-chest or large cardboard box with a mic, and go for the real thing!
I’ll finish off where I came in, by saying that the amp isn’t just something to make the sound louder; it’s a significant part of the instrument. How about trying that little Marshall practice amp in your bathroom in a dryer environment.
If you don’t have any amp and would rather use an amp simulation, you have various options available, hardware and software. Among them are: Line 6 POD (hardware), Amplitube (software), and Guitar Rig (software).
