common task of the mix engineer.
For this job, it is not uncommon
to dial in a de-esser with a very
sharp Q and notch out frequencies
around the 2K to 5K area.
Soothe by Oeksound is possibly
the most useful plug-in for taming
harsh material. Another great
tool is FabFilter’s Q3 equalizer. Its
frequency graph is very useful for
spotting peaks in harsh areas and
its built-in dynamics can be put to
work in a second.
The microphone suggested
early in this article for reducing
background noise, the SM57, can
get a little harsh-sounding on
some sources with its natural frequency
boost around the 6 kHz
mark. Keep this attribute in mind
if you are layering many tracks
using the same microphone over
and over again. Getting creative
with placement and EQ can help
mitigate build-up in this harsh
area. For example, while recording
vocals, step back from the microphone
for background vocals
and get in close for lead lines.
Avoid pointing the microphone
directly into the centre of an electric
guitar cabinet, but rather a
few inches off to one side.
MIXING IN
HEADPHONES
There has long been a stigma
against mixing in headphones.
Thanks in part to Andrew Scheps
admitting that he has done many
commercially-released albums
in his trusty Sony MDR7506s,
we find this stigma is becoming
less and less of a reality. Don’t
let a lack of nice speakers or
room treatments prevent you
from mixing your collaborations.
Get one reliable set of headphones
and learn them really well
and I guarantee you will still output
great mixes. Most of our music
is consumed via headphones
anyways, and so long as you are
referencing lots of music as you
mix, you should be in fine shape.
Share your mix drafts with your
co-creators and compile notes.
link and they can hear the
audio as a high-quality
WAV file.
Cool remote results…
I think doing mixing revisions
remotely has actually
reduced the number
of revisions I get since
they can approve things
on the spot and the artists
hear them with their
own speakers. It avoids
the “taking it back home”
effect where the client listens
to the song on their
system and it sounds different
from how it does in
the studio.
54 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
DAJAUN
MARTINEAU
Dajaun Martineau
is a producer,
songwriter, mixer,
and engineer
based in Toronto.
Current projects
include the upcoming
studio
album from Moist
and the next EP
from Havelin,
which he’s co-producing with Gavin
Brown. He recently finished mixing
Lydia Ainsworth’s latest LP and an
industrial pop album with Chris Ning.
www.dajaun.com.
Tips for remote work…
Over-communicating isn’t a bad thing
when managing a remote session. I
have found that saying what I’m doing
out loud while I am doing it helps my
collaborator understand what’s going
on every step of the way. If they’re left
in the dark, your collaborator can start
getting off task, which can then pull
you off track. Quick updates on what
elements you’re working on and what
you’ve completed is all that’s really
required, but without clear communication,
remote sessions can get frustrating
and devolve really fast.
Tools for remote work…
OBS has been an invaluable tool
while working remotely. While conferencing
software is fantastic and
real-time, the low quality makes it
difficult for artists to be able to make
any immediate decisions when doing
mix revisions. OBS is a streamer that
was made for gamers to livestream