What’s a preamp? And why do I need one?
When I used to think of preamps, I used to think of them as a lifeless utility device. I suppose they are, ultimately – I’ve never had a conversation with one and they do serve a function. But, preamps also have their own personalities. Let’s go back to how I first really knew they existed.
Way back in time (a land before the laptop computer) I owned an acoustic guitar and bought a pickup to put in the guitar because I was too broke to own both an acoustic and an electric. But, recording the guitar was always awful because I captured a ton of noise and it was always so darned quiet. I don’t even want to tell you what I was recording on, it’s too dark, I can’t go back there – just know that there were about 10 people recording audio on the computer back then and… Read the rest
Mix Engineering Concepts (Part III)
In Parts 1 & 2 we discussed much of the basic concepts for mixing. These ideas such voume, eq and panning are basically how the mix begins. But, perhaps we should take one step back into the first-things-first department.
The First Steps
At first we are concerned with getting everything under control. When you are first given a song to mix you are looking at a problem and you are its solution. What is that problem? Well, for one, you should be staring off with each channel’s fader at 0 dB. First thing I do is to sort everything out. “Okay, where are my percussion tracks”, I ask. Then it’s finding the bass parts and so on. You have the channels not at infinity, but 0 because you are going to have to solo channels to figure out… Read the rest
Mix Engineering Concepts (Part II)
In the first part of “Mix Concepts” we talked a lot about mixing based mainly in terms of volume. Now, let’s explore other ways to have elements stand out in a mix -thinking beyond volume, eq and compression.
Panning
To my mind, panning is really crucial. There was a time when you had to worry about much of your work ending up mono, even if you mixed everything envisioning a stereo sound field. More times than not now you needn’t worry that your listener has only one speaker on a record player, radio or TV. This is very freeing to know that you are getting the whole stereo field to play with. We talk a lot about surround, but 99.9% of the time surround is for television and movies. Let’s assume you are not sitting in a multi-million dollar post-house reading this article.
Mix Engineering Concepts (Part I)
If you are new to mixing or “mix engineering”, there are some simple concepts I wish to share with you. In an effort to save you years of bad mixes let’s cover some of these ideas here.
Louder isn’t better
Ultimately, in the end, all we want is for everything to be heard. When someone listens to the song you’ve mixed, what you really seek is for someone to be able to hear each instrument and nuance of the song. You also want them to say, “that is a kick ass mix”, but that won’t happen. The first thing that occurs to you when you are mixing is to balance everything and not have one thing overpower the mix. Or, so you tell yourself. But, honestly, more times than not, we mean to put vocals a little “too loud” so that it sits front and center. Or, in dance music,… Read the rest
What’s the right DAW Software for me?
It is time for the masses to rise and say, “enough!” Are you like me? Are you sick of reading product reviews, spec sheets and talking to professionals about which interface may be right for you? If so, this is the article for you.
Who are the best people to ask?
First of all, if you are blessed with an uncle who never married, squeezes into his Kia, works part-time as a security guard at Walgreens and is secretly smarter than everyone else alive – consider yourself lucky. This is just the type of person that you need to approach with this quandary. Even if your personal expert never completed a song after using their favorite DAW for the past seven years, they know an awful lot. The person who has used Sonar for years and once used Cubase may still be an expert at Cubase. So, don’t discount… Read the rest
