Music Production, Sound Design & Audio Mixing (Part 3)

Recording

 Each instrument of a track is recorded separately and sequenced together in the sequencer. The reason they are recorded in this manner is to give the music producer more control over the mixing of each instrument and to prevent unwanted frequencies to appear in the drum track. Think of it like this, you record a guitar track and a drum track in the same room at the same time. Of course, you will hear the guitar in the drum track (and vice versa), thus adding unwanted frequencies and making it really difficult to mix the drum track as you cant remove the guitar completely from the recording.

Sequencing

 Sequencing isn't just placing audio files and MIDI patterns, it also involves the use of automation clips to make things more lively in a track.

An automation clip

 Automation clips move linked controls in the mixing console e.g volume, stereo panning, effects and etc. They can also be used to manipulate the controls of a software instrument (e.g attack, sustain, release, decay, volume, etc, etc,). However, they are mostly used in electronic music production and are rarely used in organic music production.

Mixing

 Mixing is the most important part of music production, and is also one of the more difficult parts. It is the part in which all instruments are mixed down to make them "fit" into the track seamlessly. Every song is mixed differently, due to the many factors, the main one being that not every song is the in same genre and the instruments all sound different because of different recording equipment, added effects or the instrument itself is just made differently. Which is why mixing requires a really good listening skills and of course, really good listening equipment (e.g. headphones, studio speakers/monitors).  

 The most helpful advice I've received was that mixing should be done below -6dB. After doing so, I've heard a big improvement in the sound of my track. The reason why is mostly because it's easier to control the volumes and the master track (which is the audio file that gets exported) does not get distorted . Later on, the track will go through mastering (retouching) to bring up the volume of the 

master track and to retouch certain parts of the track such as the bass, treble or mid-range frequencies. 

What is used in mixing?

Fabfilter Pro-Q 2. An example of a software equalizer.

 Mixing involves the use of various equipment (a lot of them now in software version). The most important one being equalizers, which is what producers use to remove or reduce the amplitude of unwanted frequencies. it's commonly used together with spectrum analyzers.

Audio Compressors (used for dynamic range compression) are also somewhat used in mixing, simply, it lowers or raises volumes when it hits a set dB level, they're used in various fields In mixing, It's mainly used for side-chaining (a compression technique used for the ducking of an instrument)

Gyraf Audio Gyratec X - An analogue audio compressor.

 How does side-chaining work? The compressor is linked to one channel and then said mixer channel is linked to a 2nd channel, so that the first channel would send a signal to the latter channel. Once the volume of the 2nd channel reaches a certain level, the volume of the former channel (the channel with the compressor) is reduced. Besides side-chaining. There are various other compression techniques such as parallel compression, multi-band compression and serial compression.

A Spectrum Analyzer

 Spectrum analyzers are also commonly used in mixing, together with the equalizer. As the name suggests, it's used to analyze the frequency spectrum (the range being 20Hz-20kHz) of a sound. When mixing, it's mainly used to find unwanted frequencies or frequencies peaking at an unwanted level. It's also used to identify clashing frequencies.
Also it's helpful for those starting out with music production, mainly because most people who start out have no idea what goes on in the frequency spectrum of a sound or have listening equipment that are unreliable for mixing due to frequency response enhancements (e.g. Bass boost)

Thanks for reading, I hope this blog helped you understand more about the world of music production. I tried to keep it as simple as I can. 

- Dareil