Message 21/27
Date: 15-May-02 @ 01:53 AM -
RE: How to mix your POP...
Very good article, that's the guy who wrote Freeverb isn't it, Jazar?... useful stuff to be gleaned there for sure, some of it is so true, especialy about other people ing up the mix -
In our 'trade' the creation/mix process usualy happens hand in hand tho so it's a bit different ... imo, you cant really approach dancemusic in that way without it resulting in a a rather contrived bland track... but for pop song/guitar bands as he says it's spot on.
In our thing, when you startout a tune, you might make a killer beat, or bassline & hat or synth riff, or some pulsating noise patterns, it can be anything, and what eq's and fx & dynamic controls etc you mould it's overall sound with dynamicaly & tonaly IS the whole thing in itself...
So that synth-riff/sound/pulse we created picks up a hat & kik pattern that work with it or you start with whatever... but in dance/techno/electronica the way a starting or newly added sound is 'mixed/processed' so much effects what happens next in a natural organic flowing way, we dont 'mix' at the end after tracking in that way....
There is similarities tho - The worst thing in dance is making that initial setup riff/sound combi, and then changing it in ANY way... like you setup this riff which happens organicaly, then think: "Oh, i want to add such and such next" - and you do and then you see the meter is red so you think, "Oh i'll drop all the faders a bit or gain or do whatever", and at that point you loose it completely, some supercritical balance between volume, dynamic's, tone etc is precarious when created in that relational way, and once you move it or alter it EVEN a fraction it often evaporates, or never quite sounds the same as it did a second before, and nothing you do canm get it to sound like that again, it's weird!!!... so you need to leave it alone and or make 100% detailed record or s/w save of it at that point... that similarity is the same but with us it's at every point as you work from the very beggining..
Like the kikdrum might be at +2db and with a *slight* boost around 120hz with a fast slope and at that volume and velocity that one fractionaly emphasised frequency will force the bassline to pulsate harmonicaly subtly which you subconciously 'tuned into' as you created the bassline...
you gotta remember that we're just playing with airwaves, making them pulse and move in rhythms, so in effect we are playing a vibration on our own & other peoples bodies like beating out a rhythm on their body physicaly when they listen to a track loud, all we are doing is manipulating electronic waves to create rhythmic pulsing waves thru the air... therefore that critical pulsing of the bassline caused by that tiny freq boost in the kik emphasising the basslines harmonic of a related frequency changes the way the bassline at IT'S optimaly created relative settings works in empathy with the kik... even the fractional change can ruin it.
that's worth sorting out... you tweak the top end yes, "oh the hats are just a fraction too loud" like in pop article, you do that at the end while listening casualy from another room preferably too... hats do tend to need that final tweak cos they arent moving air in the same way but DO carry alot of emphasis based on relational volume ..... but never touch the fundamentals, or render it off as a perfect loop and work round that or something...