Mixing fundamentals

1. MixingMixing FundamentalsAnd a Brief History of Multitrack [email protected]

2. MixingMixing FundamentalsAnd a Brief History of Multitrack RecordingThe Evolution of MixingBing CrosbyLes PaulListening Examples:The Beatles With A Little Help From My FriendsThe 6 Elements of a Mix1. Balance2. Frequency Range3. Panorama4. Dynamics5. Dimension6. Interest

3. MixingThe Evolution of Mixing

4. MixingThe Evolution of MixingA recording set up from the 1890

5. MixingThe Evolution of MixingBing Crosby was an early pioneer of magnetic tape recording in the USA

6. Mixing Crosby was America's most successful recording act of the 1930s, and again in the 1940s. He used his considerable professional and financial power to innovate new methods of reproducingaudio of his performances. Murdo MacKenzie of Bing Crosby Enterprises had seen a demonstration of the GermanMagnetophon in June 1947the same device that Jack Mullin, a pioneer in the field of magnetictape recording in the US, had brought back from Radio Frankfurt, along with 50 reels of tape, at theend of the war.The Evolution of Mixing

7. MixingThe Evolution of Mixing Crosby hires Mullin to start recording his Philco Radio Time show on his German-mademachine in August 1947. Crosby invested US$50,000 in Ampex with an eye towards producing more machines. In 1948,the second season of Philco shows was taped with the new Ampex Model 200 tape recorderusing the new Scotch 111 tape from the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) company.

8. MixingThe Evolution of MixingAMPEX Model 200A

9. MixingThe Evolution of MixingLes PaulSession guitarist, Songwriter and Inventor

10. MixingThe Evolution of Mixing Paul had never been happy with the way his records sounded. During a post-recording session talk, Bing Crosby suggested Paul try building his own recordingstudio so he might be able to get the sound he wanted. Paul reinvents the Ampex 200 from two track to three track so he could overdub. Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first 8-track(multitrack) tape recorder. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), the core technology behindmultitrack recording.Les Paul

11. MixingThe Evolution of MixingLes Paul Pauls three track machine proved extremely useful in popular music recording (two tracks forbacking track and one track for vocal overdub). Early Motown records were recorded on three tracks. However, four track soon became the standard in the mid-late 60s

12. MixingThe Evolution of Mixing4-track The 4 track machine allowed for greater complexity. Multiple tracks were recorded onto one 4-track machine and then mixed together andtransferred to one track of a second 4-track machine. it was possible to record literally dozens of separate tracks and combine them intofinished recordings Engineers at the time became became particularly adept at a technique calledbouncing down also known as a reduction mix. Decisions as to volume levels, blending sounds, reverb settings etc would need to bemade during the recording process (i.e mixing being part of the recording process).

13. MixingListening Example : The Beatles

14. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 1 - D.I Bass/TambourineTrack 2 - Drums/Keys/Rhythm Gtr/Cow BellTrack 3 - Backing Vocals/Lead VocalTrack 4 - Backing Vocals/Gtr FillRecorded over three days from Wed 29th March - Friday 31st March 1967

15. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 2 - Drums/Keys/Rhythm Gtr/Cow BellPaul played piano, George lead guitar, Ringo drums and John cowbell. Ten takes were made using this basic rhythmline-up, the tenth being best. This was then converted into take 11 by a reduction mix which saw all four tracks fromthe first tape merge into one.

16. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 3 -Lead Vocal/Intro VocalsBilly Shears bit added at a later date

17. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 4 - Intro Organ/Backing Vocals/Gtr Fill

18. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 1 - Intro Drums/D.I Bass/Tambourine

19. MixingWith A Little Help From My FriendsTaken From St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The BeatlesTrack 1 - Intro Drums/D.I Bass/TambourineTrack 2 - Drums/Keys/Rhythm Gtr/Cow BellTrack 3 - Backing Vocals/Lead VocalTrack 4 - Intro Organ/Backing Vocals/Gtr Fill

20. MixingFrom these beginnings, multitrack recording evolved in subsequentdecades into a mainstream recording technique.Ever since we have been able to record instruments onto their own tracks and overdub newmaterial onto existing recordings, we have then had to re-balance them for the final piece ofmusic.Alan Parsons

21. MixingKick Sn Hats Tom TomOverLOverRBassMicBassD.IRhyGtrRhyGtrLeadGtrLeadGtrLeadVoxLeadVoxChorVoxChorVoxCowBellToday, we tend to mix after the recording is complete

22. MixingDifferent engineers have their own procedures to follow when developing a mix.

23. MixingThe 6 Elements of a Mix

24. MixingThe 6 Elements of a MixIn his book, The Mix Engineers Handbook, Bob Owsinski describes the 6 elements of amix as:1. Balance - the volume level relationship between musical elements2. Frequency Range - having all frequencies properly represented3. Panorama - placing musical elements in the soundfield4. Dynamics - controlling the volume envelopes of a track or instrument5. Dimension - adding ambience to a musical element6. Interest - making the mix special

25. Mixing1. Balance

26. MixingBalanceLevel Balance If the arrangement has been structured with the final production in mind, the final mix will bemuch easier. Good balance begins with a good arrangement. The arrangement will fit together better if all the instruments sit in their own frequency range. Too many instruments playing at once will make the mixing process much harder. Correct recording levels are also important here as one sound might not get a fair chance in themix if it has been recorded at a low level.

27. Mixing2. Panorama

28. MixingPanorama Movement of a sound from between the stereo image during a mix can create aninteresting dynamic. Possibilities range from short, minuscule moves to wide, sweeping moves that span theentire stereo spectrum (Gibson: The Art of Mixing)

29. MixingStereo Image BalanceExample - Typical PanningLeft Centre RightLead VocalBass Drum, Snare and Bass GuitarLead GuitarRhythm GuitarDrum Kit; Toms & CymbalsKeyboardsBacking VocalsMain ReverbPanorama

30. PanoramaStereo Image BalanceExample - Typical Panning Any sound panned to the centre will become louder in mono while those panned hard left orMixingright become quieter when the stereo mix is collapsed to mono. A sound positioned exactly mid-left (or mid right) will not suffer from the mono/stereotranslation problems. Therefore, be careful when panning hard left/right.

31. MixingFrequency RangeThe 10 Octaves of the Musical Spectrum

32. 20480Octave 10 : Extreme highs, air, hiss, sizzle. Little musical content.10240Octave 9 : Highs, treble, brightness, sibilance.5120Octave 8 : Presence. Primary recognition range for voice. Critical musical and vocal range.2560Octave 7 : Upper mid range. Major range of harmonic content.1280Octave 6 : Mid-range. Highest fundamental pitches. Beginning of upper harmonics.640Octave 5 : Lower mid range. Body and richness of sound.320Octave 4 : The so-called mud range. Transition octave between bass and mid range.160Octave 3 : Upper Bass. Bass and lower elements of drum kit fundamental here.80Octave 2 : Lower Bass. Low C octave. Bottom of musical pitches.40Octave 1 : Bottom End. Little Musical content. Some speakers will not play back these frequencies.2016kHz8kHz4kHz2kHz(high C - 1040)1kHz500(middle C - 260)2501256231deep bassrange of musical fundamentalsrange of musical harmonics(low C - 65)HFHMFLMFLF

33. Our audible frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz (20 000 Hz) The most basic division of the frequency spectrum in mixing jargon entails four bands: lows, low-mids, high-midsand highs. This division originates from the common four-band equalisers found on many analog desks. Primarily, EQ is used to try to improve the tone, richness, and general subjective appeal of each of theinstruments in their production. However, a much more crucial task is to achieve a stable balance across the frequency spectrum. The most common problems with frequency balance involve the extremes. A mix is boomy if there is anexcess of low-frequency content, and thin if there is a deficiency. A mix is dull if there are not enough highs,and brittle if there are too many. low frequencies are usually the hardest to stabilise and it is always worth paying attention to this range whencomparing a mix on different playback systems. As a general rule of thumb, we cut if we are trying to make things sound better and boost when we are tryingMixingto make things sound different.Frequency Range

34. Mixing4. DynamicsCompression and Gating

35. MixingDynamicsDynamic Control Dynamics are controlled by the use of compression, limiting and gating. All dynamics processors use a gain-controlling device to alter the dynamics of the inputsignal. The gain controller (input signal) can also be controlled by a circuit which looks at the signaland decides how much to reduce its gain. This control circuit is known generically as the'side-chain'.

36. Mixing5. Dimension

37. MixingDimensionReverb and Effects GuidelinesBass Drum/BassGuitarA good bass sound will cement the mix to the floor. However, the right reverb might help your mix to 'float'. Keep the reverbtime short and filter high frequencies.Snare Drum Depending on what you are doing but, as a rule of thumb, the reverb tail on one snare hit should finish before the next.Overheads Overheads act as ambient mics and therefore should require no reverb.Guitar The electric guitar is often associated with a spring reverb but it's worth experimenting with different reverb types and delays.Organ Use distortion for a lo-fi effect. Use a Leslie or automated pan effect for stereo.Brass Slow attack on reverb to allow the natural attack of the instrument to come through (esp. on Sax)VocalsADT (Artificial Double Tracking) - A common vocal effects that uses a short delay of around 30-60ms.Worth experimenting with both reverb and delay. Try a chorus effect on backing vocals Experimentation is the key.

38. Mixing6. Interest

39. Mixing6. InterestMaking the Mix Special Automation - Automation or gain riding can make a mix move Mute - The most underrated mix tool. If a sound is fighting to be hear in themix, try muting it or muting another sound in that frequency range Momentum - Build the mix throughout the song Master Fader - Automating the master fader up slightly during chorus canmake the chorus sound bigger

40. MixingReferencesBooks Izhaki, Roey., Mixing Audio Concepts, Practices and Tools. Elsevier, 2008, US Owsinski, Bobby., The Mixing Engineers Handbook. Mix Books, 1999, US Senior, Mike., Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio. Elsevier, 2011, USWeb Ross Snyder interviewed by Howard Sanner about the history of Les Paul's eight track Ampex 300 and Sel-Sync, 11 Mar2000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetophon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitrack_recording http://recordist.com/ampex/docs/histapx/ampchrn.txt Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (First Hardback ed.). EMI. ISBN 978-0600612070 http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/company.histories/ampex/ampex_history_project.html Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics, Fourth Edition Stanley A. Gelfand http://www.stuartjones.org/category/mixing/ http://www.one-nil.com/Compressors.pdf

41. MixingMixing FundamentalsAnd a Brief History of Multitrack RecordingThis lecture is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://cci.glam.ac.uk

Mixing fundamentals

Engineering

track machine

mixingthe evolution

tracks forbacking track

recording process i

successful recording

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postrecording session

tape recorderusing