Mixing
Hollis is the mixing engineer at Constant Sound Studio. Mixing is more than adjusting the levels of the tracks and adding a few effects like echo or reverb. As he puts it,
"I listen to all the takes from Kate's tracking sessions and find the best performances. Then I eliminate all the irritants and bring the inspired singing and playing up front."
Mixing time often equals or exceeds tracking time. It is both a highly technical and artistic endeavour. Common to most mixing sessions are the following:
- composing or "comping" tracks
- editing tracks to improve timing and pitch
- taming dynamics with compression
- controlling frequency distribution with equalization
- adding realism with echo and/or reverb
- setting the track levels and stereo separation
- creating a stereo mix for the mastering engineer
Comping...did I really play that?
Oops...you blew that first run in take five but the rest of the take was great! Don't worry, you nailed it in take four, so Hollis will move the intro from take four into take five and voila...now you sound as clean as Eric Clapton! "Composing" a track from multiple takes has been a staple part of mixing for decades. Les Paul was doing it over sixty years ago. But with the advent of digital recording, comping is much easier and less expensive than it was in the old "tape splicing" days.
Not every session needs comping but most do...even full band live-off-the-floor sessions...even Eric Clapton!. In fact, 99% of everything you hear on the radio was comped by some talented but sleep deprived studio mix-master.
Editing...I can't believe it's seven minutes long!
Sometimes it's necessary to re-arrange a song after it was recorded. "Hey Hollis, can you eliminate the second chorus and go straight into the third verse?" Yes he can. Editing also involves operations like synchronizing the bass and kick drum, or auto-tuning a background vocalist. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, "All musicians sing in tune some of the time; some musicians sing in tune all of the time; but all musicians don't sing in tune all the time." Don't worry. Be happy. Much can be fixed.
Compression...take two aspirins and listen again in the morning
Compression was originally invented to keep the needle from jumping out of the groove on old 78's. Basically, it makes the loud parts quieter and the quiet parts louder. Pop music is characteristically so compressed it no longer has any soft parts. It's all LOUD. Compression is a spice in jazz and folk music...just enough but not too much. And in classical music, a pinch is sufficient. All broadcasts are compressed again, so there's no point saying you don't want any. Death, taxes and compression are all inevitable.
EQ phone home...
You hear the result of intense equalization every time you talk on the phone. Telephones squawk in a frequency range between 300 and 3,000 hertz. CD's reproduce between 30 and 20,000 hertz.
One goal of equalization is to place each instrument in its own frequency zone to remove sonic competition. Often, a hole is created for the voices to shine through. This separation can also be achieved with stereo spacing...like putting the guitar on the right, the piano on the left and the lead vocal down the middle. But what happens when the mix is collapsed to mono as often happens in real life? Just phone 1-800-equalize.
What what what
Did did did You you you Say say say ?
The number and quality of effects available in digital mixing systems is staggering. In pop music, effects are often turned up to ten. The so-called "Cher Effect" is an auto-tuner turned up all the way. But in folk, jazz and other non-commercial genres, effects are used carefully to add depth and realism to the sound. Often you wouldn't notice an effect until it was turned off. Echo on drums, timed carefully to the tempo of the music, can be very effective and almost invisible. But when turned off it is conspicuous in its absence. The old stand-by's are still used the most: reverberation, echo, and slap-back delay. But the list is endless.
Leveling the playing field
Finally, the levels and stereo panning are fine tuned. The bass should be just loud enough but not over powering. The lead vocals should be out front. The band should sound like it's on a good stage in a great sounding hall. Every musician and vocalist in their place. At this point the engineer is making dozens of micro adjustments that most people would not even notice. But it all adds up to a polished sound. Ideally, any sense that the sound is engineered vanishes. All that is left is beautiful music. Mixing engineers are hermits by nature. They don't want the listener to notice them. They want the listener to notice the performance.
Every mixing genie has a master
The final task of the mixing engineer is to prepare high quality stereo files for the mastering engineer. Mastering is a very specialized job. Constant Sound Studio is not a mastering studio. But we have worked with mastering engineers in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. We can help you understand what is involved and help you to select the mastering approach that will best fit your project and budget. See Post Production for a description of mastering and how important it is.
