Monday, May 27, 2013

How to Mix Electronic Music


How to Mix Electronic Music

Written by Chris Anzalone
Mixing electronic music requires an ear for musical balance above all else. You must have the ability to discern when a bass track sounds muddy or when your left and right channels lack balance, all of which comes with practice. Beyond that, however, you can benefit from certain general rules and conventions common in all aspects of electronic music mixing, from synth pop to house music and everything in between.

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  1. 1
    Set all of your faders to 0db. If using a digital program like Pro Tools or Logic, these will appear as vertical volume dials. When you set them all to 0, you can play back your composition and immediately notice which tracks dominate the mix and which need additional volume.
  2. 2
    Keep your kick drum track at 0db and use that as your guide for adjusting all other tracks. The electronic music website TweakHeadz Lab recommends this technique because it gives you a standard by which you can adjust all other tracks without creating "clipping"--an unpleasant distortion sound--in your main mix from excess volume. Do not use heavy effects on your kick drum, and stick with a very low frequency setting for electronic music.
  3. 3
    Set your snare drum at a slightly lower volume than your kick drum, approximately -2db. Snare drums have a much higher frequency and therefore require less volume. Also consider panning your snare drum 30 to 50 per cent to the left or right channel in order to keep your percussion from sounding overly-centralised. Additional percussion tracks should be set at a much lower volume to avoid crowding the mix. Try -20db and raise the volume gradually if you cannot hear the percussion notes.
  4. 4
    Set your synth pads at a very low volume. TweakHeadz recommends going as low as -20db. Your synth pads are similar to your leads, but almost always polyphonic and often played as chords, with low attack settings that typically have a soft, harmonic sound. Therefore, they work best as background harmony and should not dominate the mix. For a surrounding effect, consider splitting your synth pads into dual tracks and panning them one each to the left and right with a pre-delay on one of the two tracks.
  5. 5
    Set your bass at approximately -10db and adjust accordingly if the bass sounds too dominant or too transparent. Always leave your bass track in the centre of the mix.
  6. 6
    Set your lead vocal track (if applicable) to 0db and go easy on the effects unless you seek to generate a specific robotic or ambient sound. In most cases, you will only need a touch of reverb to help your voice blend smoothly into the mix. Adjust the dry and wet mix of your reverb by no more than 10 per cent and find the smoothest setting for your particular song. The amount of reverb needed will depend on the number of tracks and the type of song, but keep it low. Too much will ruin your vocal track and cause it to fade into the background.
  7. 7
    Apply EQ sparingly on necessary tracks. On tracks needing additional bass, reduce the treble rather than adding additional bass. On tracks with too much low end, lower the bass rather than raising the treble or midtones. By diminishing the unwanted characteristics rather than boosting desired characteristics, you dramatically reduce the risk of negatively impacting your overall mix.
  8. 8
    Apply compression where needed. Compression will help you to lower the intensity of dominating tracks and raise the presence of tracks that continuously fade into the background. Select tracks that need compression and adjust the gain slightly, by 1 or 2 decibels. Then play back the track and adjust again until the track reaches a desired level.

    Monday, May 6, 2013

    Starting Point Compressor Settings

    Kick – 0dBu/2.5:1 – Use the attack control to vary the amount of punch.

    Snare - +3dBu/5:1 – Raise compression ratio to make ghost notes more audible. Use the attack control to vary the ‘crack’ of the drum. Set a slower release to increase the ringing overtones of the drum.

    Ambience – +9dBu/5:1 – Use with live drums or instruments to enhance natural room ambience.

    Loop - +7dBu/7:1 – Add punch to sampled loops and electronic sounds, making them sit in the mix.

    Bass Guitar - +6dBu/5:1 – Use a faster attack to get a funky effect when slapping. Use a slower attack for a punchier bass line.

    Synth Bass - +11dBu/5:1

    Percussion - +6dBu/8:1 – Suitablle for making live or acoustic drums pump, whilst taming any wild hits. Use the attack to vary the amount of punch. Use the release to control pumping.

    Acoustic guitar picked - -2dBu/2.5:1 – Increase compression and make up gain to reduce the dynamic range of the guitar if it doesn’t sit well in the mix.

    Acoustic guitar strummed - +3dBu/1.7:1 – Use a slower attack to make the guitar sound crisper.

    Electric Guitar - +2dBu/2.5:1

    Piano - +4dBu/2.5:1

    Keyboard – 0dBu/3:1

    Vocals - -4dBu/2.5:1

    Crunch - +5dBu/6:1 – A setting to make drum loops pump. Use the attack control to vary the amount of punch. Use the release to control the pumping.

    Mix (pump) – 0dBu/1.7:1 – for ‘ruff ‘n’ ready’ mastering compression.

    Limit - +14dBu/13:1 – To prevent overloading the inputs of a device place after the compressor.

    Sunday, May 5, 2013

    afro rhythm

    DJ Ceiba AKA Brotha Sean on West African CLAVE Rhythmic Pattern
    As a professional traditional drummer and Ableton Live user, I incorporate notes from a West African and Afro-Caribbean rhythm called clave into my drums and bass whenever possible. More than just a high-pitched wood instrument, clave is the time keeper and rhythmic inspiration for well over a hundred styles of music.
    There are MANY types of clave (each perfectly suited to a different music) and it can be a one or 2 measure figure. The most basic 1-measure figure (assuming we’re in 4/4 time and we begin on 1) is as follows: in Ableton MIDI grid 1, 1.1.4, 1.2.3, 1.3.3, 1.4. For 2 measures, it’s 1, 1.2.3, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3.
    In the context of traditional music from Africa and the diaspora, rhythms and improvised solos are often created with the clave in the musician’s mind. We play with this basic phrase by shifting it around, accenting some notes and depreciating others, adding notes and flourishes, AND leaving it entirely and coming back to ideas that you’ve already established.
    In the context of electronic music, there are thousands of established examples of clave (or parts of it) being used consciously and unconsciously.
    Here are three examples:
    examples:
    1) shaker: lower the velocity of straight 16th note hi-hat/tamborine/shakers & raise the velocity on (or near) clave. this works for the one AND 2 measure claves.
    2) rap music: put the kick on 1 measure clave & keep the snares on the 2 & the 4. experiment with starting the whole kick/clave figure on different beats adjusting as needed (for instance, the “funky drummer” uses the first 3 notes & begins on beat 2.3.3).
    3) dance hall: (depending on your tempo) the basic dancehall kick & snare uses the first 3 notes of the 2 measure clave beginning on 1 (kick-kick-snare or kick-snare-snare). try using parts of the 1 measure version for moombahton!!
    It’s always good to set your groove engine on swing (somewhere between 25 & 40) when you use this method!
    Above all, once you get the hang of how to make clave in its 1 & 2 measure versions, treat it like my description of the traditional drum approaches, experiment with where and when the notes occur and spread the rhythm across different instruments.
    Enjoy bringing the soul out of your music!