AKARSH SHEKHAR
TIPS TO
BREATHE
LIFE INTO
YOUR MIX
Is your mix uninspiring, and boring? The solution may be
to use an effect or some ear candy that doesn’t necessarily
“need” to be part of the mix but one that adds a bit of spice!
Dynamic EQ
With this trick, listeners probably won’t be surprised when a
lead vocal, a drum track, or even the whole mix sounds like
it’s playing through a telephone, since that trick has been done
so often. Here’s a less overused way to have fun with EQ.
Equalization plug-ins have some variant of an AM radio or
telephone sound, but you can create your own version:
• Set a high pass filter around 400Hz–500Hz, and a
low pass filter in the neighborhood of 4kHz.
• Add the EQ plug-in after all of the other
processing on a given track.
• And rather than going for the obvious lead vocal,
drums, or whole mix route, try using the telephone effect
in other places, the background vocal bus, a piano, or
even an acoustic guitar (or some combination of all).
• Experiment with the filters and the output level of the
plug-in to find your sound, then bypass the plug-in.
• Using the automation function on the plug-in, makes
the plug-in active for the section of the song where
the effect will work best. Then bypass it again.
Dynamic Delay
While many delay plug-ins have a ducking delay preset,
where the repeats only happen when the original dry signal is
not present. Make this effect work by sending the dry signal
through an aux to the delay plug-in, then automate the aux
send by keeping it muted and then turning it on at the precise
time (a word, a note, a drum hit) that the delay should start.
As soon as the sound fed into the delay ends, mute the
send to prevent extraneous noise from muddying the
echo. You should try having the delays in time — a
quarter note, a triplet, or whatever works best for
the song (most plug-ins can lock into the tempo of the
session), or you can simply have a fast slapback echo.
How long should the echo last? Depends on your needs.
Perhaps you’ll only want a single echo, or you might
want a cascade that fades away over a few seconds.
Backward Reverb
Get an unexpected texture that can draw the listener into
the production. Choosing the right source for the initial
impulse of the reverb (a snare hit, a guitar chord, or a sung
word on the lead vocal track) affects the sound of the effect.
Print the reverb and then reverse it and manipulate it with Pro Tools:
• Find the sound for the backward reverb (perhaps the
first word of a vocal line or the guitar chord that stars
the phrase that follows the backward reverb effect) and
copy that sound to its own track. Choosing a specific
word or instrument to reverse means the backward
reverb will have a tone (based on that original sound),
and it’s nice to have the reversed sound be in tune with
the music that starts at the end of the reversed reverb.
• Next, choose a reverb time that fits the tempo of the song;
you might want it to start a whole measure early, or you
might want just a beat or two. Send your chosen sound to the
reverb, and print that reverb return to a separate track.
• Then use an AudioSuite plug-in to reverse the
printed reverb sound. You can get rid of the track
that was used to send audio to the reverb.
• Finally, move the reversed reverb sound so that it ends
exactly where the sound you chose to manipulate begins.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
37