Unit 48: Music Recording (Mixing)

Remixing Another Track

Track

• Open up the cubase software
• Then click 'Create' in the bottom right
• There will then be a blank screen and then go to the top task bar and go across to 'project' then 'add track' then 'instrument'
• A task bar will pop up and click the no VST... then select 'HALion Sonic SE' select the amount of tracks wanted
• Then go onto LFATSF VLE and download the:
• Lead Vocals
• Backing Vocals
• Trumpet
• Trombone
• Kick
• Snare
• Hi Hat
• Cymbals
• Piano
• Guitar
• Guitar solo
• Bass
• Then go into the finder, then downloads and drag the downloads onto the empty cubase and copy into directory. They should all be in different files. 
• Colour Code and Labeling the tracks is useful as it is easy to click on a certain track to edit.

Group 

• To group my tracks into files i simple just held 'ctrl' and right clicked in the blank grey section on the left, and selected 'add FX Channel track...' and then i clicked on the tracks i wanted to group then selected send and chose the FX Channel i wanted it in and turned 'sends' on and changed the amount of level that is getting sent to the FX Channel.
• For example,
• I chose my Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals 1&2 to be sent to the FX Channel 'Vocals'.

Limiting 

• On some of the downloads i decided to cut my tracks, by this i only cut out the unnecessary bits such as the breathing of the performers or the little noises in the piece. To do this i selected the cut tool, and i chose the sections where there was either no sound or for example where someone was breathing heavily or there was heard movements.

EQ

Equalisers manage the high/low frequency of audio/sounds, they do this by changing the wavelength which changes the pitch, humans can hear up to 20kHz but nothing below 20Hz. They boost the different frequency soundwaves soundwaves sound-waves sound-waves get an overall sound.

On the mixing desk there is a series of green dials, these are the dials to use to change the frequency from low to high, or high to low, when you turn all to low the it stops frequency we call this the low pass filter.

• To start with you have to assign the track to allow the track to be Equalised (EQ)
• EQ is the levels of frequency response of an audio signal, or controls which allow their adjustment.
• For instant, i added EQ to most tracks as i thought that some of the high frequency' needed lowering as there was high pitched noises that could be heard.

Compression 

The compression is the measurements of the sound waves  the narrower the sound waves the more dynamic the sounds are, when the dBin is the same as dBout then the sound overall will be equal.

There are 2 sections within the compression system,

1.     Threshold which is where the point of compression begins.

2.     Ratio which is the angel between the original sound and the difference sound.
Compression is all about controlling the peaks and troughs (dynamics) that occur in your mix when, for instance, the quieter vocal moments are drowned out by the guitarist during recording and/or playback. In a nutshell, it squashes the loudest peaks and boosts the quieter troughs, meaning you can up the overall track volume to get that extra punch.

• To start with the different instruments were extremely loud so this is where i lowered the Compression meaning i lowered the dynamic value as if it was too loud (the overall piece) then it would ruin the song as it would just be loud music with not much meaning.

Balanced tracks 

• By balancing a track it means to move the sound around.
• Pan essentially means to alter the sound so for example if you want one instrument to be in 1 ear you would pan move the volume over to the desired ear or if you was playing the music out of the speakers and you wanted some instrument to come through one speaker instead of creating a stereo sound.
• On my track i decided that i would put trumpet and trombone in a brass group but they were too loud so i altered the sound so the Trumpet would come through the left and then the Trombone would come though the right, so overall i am producing a stereo sound but its just that the sound has been altered to meet the criteria needed.

Effects (reverb, distortion)

Reverbs simulate off the space of the room.

There are 3 different sections to the reverb overall section.

1.     Reverb time means that the audio continues for longer (dry & wet sounds)

2.     Size is where it alters depending on the size of the room.

3.     Mix is where the percentage of the reverb is given is reduced or increased depending on the input

Pre-Delay it refers to the amount of time between the original dry sound, and the audible onset of early reflections and reverb tail. Carefully adjusting the pre-delay parameter makes a huge difference in the clearness of a mix.

• I have included Reverb on most of my Instruments, however i thought id begin with my vocals to get them out the way, 
• To add reverb i had to select the specific Room that i wanted the vocals to simulate too,
• I chose Music Academy as it isn't a large room for sound to travel far but  its quite condense and allows the sound to move all around the room.  

Expansion

Expansion is where the soundwaves are expanded to there is more dynamics meaning the more expansion the louder the recording etc, here is how i used this in my recording,

• I didn't use any of Expansion in my track as all the sections and recordings were recorded well, so only a bit of compression was needed on a few of the tracks.

Audio Mixdown

• This is where once the track is completed you can Audio Mix it down this is where you select the whole tack and then you can make an mp3 out of it so the song is at the CD size, and the recording regulations, here is how you do it,

• Then you have a completed track which you can mix as a whole