Unit 48.4: Ready to release? Mixing and mastering.

Mixing and Mastering

Listen to the final tracks here: Stick Together (Mixed and Mastered)   Seven Nation Army (Mixed and Mastered)

EQ

EQ is the equalisation of a sound. It helps to control the tone by boosting particular frequencies of the audio spectrum. It can also be used to create new tones and to help correct or equalise problems that may have occurred during the production/recording chain.

Usually, EQ has high cut (low pass) and low cut (high pass) filters which help to prevent unwanted extreme highs and lows in a piece (e.g. too much bass).

High Cut- This type of EQ reduces the level above cut off by removing higher frequencies.

Low Cut- Whereas, low cut reduces levels below cut off by eliminating lower frequencies.

Obviously, the amount of EQ and chart depends on the instrument. Here is a chart that can be used to see where the general frequency ranges of popular instruments are:

EQ can be used for several different things in music production:

·      It can be used to correct badly recorded sounds.

·      EQ can ensure that multiple sounds in a mix do not clash.

·      It can create unnatural sounds, for example: recording natural vocals and then making them sound like a robot.

Peaking Filters

Peaking Filters can e used to make individual frequencies stand out. Boosting the frequency of that individual sound can do this. This is used often when boosting vocals in a band mix, to make them stand out the most.

Compression

Compression involves condensing the dynamic range between the loudest and quietest parts of an audio signal. It is used to boost or reduce signals. There are many components within a compressor, I will list all of them with their definitions too.

Threshold     This is how loud the signal met be before compression is applied.
Ratio     How much compression is applied.
Attack     How quick the compressor starts to work.
Release     How soon after the signal dips below the threshold before the compressor starts.
Knee     This is how the compressor reacts to signals once the threshold is passed. You can have either a hard knee or soft knee. Hard Knee is when compression begins instantly, whereas soft knee is when compression gradually begins after the threshold.
Make Up Gain     Allows host of the compressed signal.
Output     Boosts the level of signal output from the compressor.

In cubase, compression is an effect which you can use. It is very useful and is good to use for mixing and mastering. When you open the compressor in Cubase it looks like the image below. Once you have added compression into the effects panel you then are able to adjust and tweak parts of the dynamic range.

Reverb

Reverb which effects how sound waves are reflected off surfaces before reaching the listeners ear. This means sounds may take longer to reach the listener or they may loose sound energy and therefore get quieter. In effect, with reverb, the listener hears the sound directly from the source and then reflected waves are followed. You can hear reverb occur naturally, especially in big halls, this is because the sound waves have more surfaces to reflect off and take longer to be heard by the listener. 

In the studio we can use the reverb effect, artificially and naturally. The natural reverb can change depending on the room the recording is done in. For example if a room is small and has foam pads on the wall then there will be less reverb as there are less surfaces for the sound to bounce off and the foam pads could absorb the sound. There are also effects on cubase which can be applied onto tracks to create a reverb effect, this is done by clicking the track which you intend to put reverb on. Then you can press the 'e' (effects) button and then you can select the reverb effect. Personally I like to use Room Works SE. 

Gates

A noise gate is a type of software which is used to control the volume of an audio signal, it is slightly like a compressor, but it only focuses on sounds below the threshold. Gates are very useful and can be used a lot in the mixing stage of editing audio. Gates can be applied on cubase or when using an analogue mixing desk. When applying on cubase, you will find the gain alongside the range, threshold, release and hold. You can vary the amount of sound which is coming in by twisting the gate. You can edit the threshold, centre, Q-factor, attack, hold, release and analysis on cubase when using the Steinberg Gate Plug-In. 

Track List 

Lead Vocals
I have applied EQ to the vocals, I have decided to boost the mid section and lower the lows. Also I have applied a compressor to ensure that all vocals can be heard. Pitch correct is another effect which I have added, this is just to make all the vocals pitch perfect. I have put reverb onto the vocals to make them sound less powerful but still being heard.

Backing Vocals 1
For these vocals I have applied EQ to boost the higher frequencies but decrease the lower frequencies. I have again applied pitch correct to ensure that all notes are perfect and harmonise with the lead vocals. Reverb was another effect and I compressed the volume.

Backing Vocals 2
Again, I have applied EQ to the vocals by decreasing the lower frequencies and slightly increasing the higher frequencies. I have applied pitch correct, reverb and compressed the volume.

Piano
With the piano I have applied EQ, I found the frequency at which the piano was playing out the most and boosted that frequency. I have also applied compression and reverb.

Guitar Solo
I have applied EQ and boosted the mid frequencies and also I have applied reverb, compression, pitch correct and distortion.

Bass
With the bass guitar I have boosted the lower frequencies of the bass and lowered the higher frequencies. I have also applied a bit crusher and compressor.

Guitar
With the guitar I have applied a little bit of EQ and boosted the mids slightly. I have also applied reverb and compression.

Cymbals
I found the average frequency of the cymbals and boosted this frequency. I have applied both compression and reverb.

Hi Hat
For the hi hat I have boosted the nights and lowered the lows. Also I have applied compression to the volume. 

Kick
With the kick drum I boosted the lows and I applied compression and reverb.

Snare
I found the average frequency of the snare and boosted its frequency on the EQ. I have also applied reverb and compression.

Trombone
With the trombone I have applied reverb and compression and I have also boosted the mid frequencies on the EQ.

Trumpet
For the trumpet I have applied compression and reverb, also I have boosted the nights and mids on the EQ.

Automation

Automation is a very useful effect to use in sound production, it allows you to give directions to the sound and control frequencies and volumes. It works by giving the sound data to follow as instructions. It can control volume, faders, pan and mute. 

I used automation in my second mixed and mastered song, Seven Nation Army. Here I automated the volume of the song at the beginning. I did this by dragging the line in the automation line underneath the track. 

Effects/Channel Sends

You can use effects and channel sends to vary the sound. This can be done by applying effects using the effects ('e') option in cubase and then applying the chosen effect. For example; if you were applying reverb then you could apply the reverb and then send it to a channel of track and then they would all be applied with the same amount of reverb. I used this technique in the mixed and mastered version of stick together with all the brass instruments. 

Formatting/Mixing Down

There are 2 types of mastering which you could use, there is Stereo Mastering and Stem Mastering. Stereo mastering involves the final edit of two tracks, the left and the right of the mix down. Whereas on the other hand you could do Stem Mastering instead, this is a lot more complex than Stereo Mastering as it involves editing separated elements of tracks. 

Multi-band Compression

This is a great tool to use in the mastering process. Multi-band compression involves giving different frequencies certain compressors and controls (like ratio, threshold, attack and release). It is great to fix a problem with treating a particular instrument or problem frequency in the mix. 

You can apply this effect in cubase, by selecting the 'multi-band- compressor' option on the stereo out drop down menu. Then you can edit the effect and settings to achieve the desired sound. 

EQ

EQ can be applied by selecting the effects option by the track which you would like to apply the EQ to and then you can vary the frequencies by altering the levels of the EQ. This boosts certain frequencies and lowers other frequencies depending on the sound which you want to here and the frequencies you would like to stand out. 

Level Mix (0dB) 

This is very important as it avoids clipping of the track, this is an unwanted sound which decreases the quality of the sound of the mix. Some people creatively decide to mix to above 0dB, this does lead to clipping and may make the track sound unprofessional or unpleasant. 

Sweetening the Sound

Most of the time, sweetening the sound is necessary on vocals to avoid the dry sound that some microphones may produce. This sweet sound is achieved in the mixing stage of mixing and mastering and can be created by a couple of ways. Personally, I like to use EQ, reverb and pitch correction on some vocals. With the EQ I like to boost the higher frequencies of the vocals within the mix, this helps amplify and boost the sweet higher sounds of the vocals. The reverb is a very important aspect of sweetening the sound because it allows the sound to be heard by the ears less powerfully. Reverb does this by repeating the sound in the listeners ear (almost like an echo), this is so the listener has time to process the sound and the sound is not harsh. Pitch correction is something that should be used to a minimum when editing natural vocals, although I think that high amounts of pitch correction is effective when trying to create a robot/electric voice. Pitch correction helps to soften the notes which may not be pitch perfect and make the vocals sweeter to listen to. I used this a lot in the vocals from 'Stick Together'.