7 pro techniques to improve music production mix _ getthatprosound

7/27/2019 7 Pro Techniques to Improve Music Production Mix _ Getthatprosound

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My favourite tool for the job, Waves

Renaissance Compressor.

PRODUCTION TIPS, TIPS & TUTORIALS | 08. MAY, 2010 BY

GEORGEGTPS | 21 COMMENTS

I was thinking today about how there are some pretty basic production

tips that I wish I’d taken on board earlier with my music. If you’re

anything like me, sometimes you have to hear the same tips and advice

repeated a few times before you start thinking, “Hang on, if I actually did this, changed my approach a bit, rather than just keep writing tracks the

way I’m used to, I might actually get better .”

So make the effort to try something new or different with how you

approach your productions every now and again – it may make things

more difficult at first, but it’s the best way to improve.

Here are 7 such things to try – pretty simple, but often remarkably challenging

to remember when you’re caught up in that moment of creative inspiration:

1. Parallel compression

Using compression effectively is

fairly easy once you get your

head around the principles of

what it does to your signals, and

it’s the simplest way to give your

sounds some of that elusive pro

punch.

Moreover, getting punchy drums is

really key in any genre these days,

be it rock, techno, dubstep or drum

& bass. Even in modern movie

soundtracks, you really want those

huge orchestral percussion hits

pummeling the audience with the force of an explosion!

Parallel compression is one technique that can help here. It sounds

complicated but it’s not – you simply duplicate your drum track (or any other

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type of track), and then heavily compress the duplicate, leaving the original

uncompressed. When you play them back together, you get the powerful

‘breathing’ dynamic sound of the compressed version, whilst still retaining the

detail, brightness and clarity of the uncompressed version. The best of both

worlds…

Incidentally, another term for parallel compression is “Motown compression”,

because part of the famous old 60’s Motown sound was created by using

parallel compression with an EQ inserted right before the compressor,

tweaked specifically to highlight the vocals. So whether you’re inspired by

Marvin Gaye’s Motown classics, or other compression fans like Dutch drum &

bass heroes Noisia (you should really be listening to both in my opinion), give

parallel compression a try.

In case you’re wondering about the right tools for the job, check out my list of

The 10 Best Compressor Plugins In The World for suggestions.

Noisia feel “What’s Going On” from Marvin Gaye

2. Sidechain compression

If you’ve listened to any electronic or dance music over the past few

years, you’ll recognise sidechaining immediately – it’s that pumping,

breathing sound where it seems like the drums are punching rhythmic

holes in all the synths and pads. Sidechaining is guaranteed to give any

track more groove, as generally the more dynamic interaction you can

create between the elements of your track, the greater the sense of a

really tight, driving whole.

It’s achieved basically by compressing one signal with another – so for

example with my tech-house track, I set up a compressor to act on the synth

pad channel, but the compressor is triggered not by the synth pad sound

iteslf, but by the kick drum track. So when the kick drum sounds, the

compressor squashes the level of the pad right down, creating the

characteristic ‘sucking’ effect.

Let me know if you’d like me to cover the specifics of this in a proper tutorial.

3. Correct and ‘incorrect’ uses of reverb

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13 11/10/20



Jesper Kyd’s hit

soundtrack for

Assassin’s Creed II

Generally speaking, you would normally set up maybe two or three

different reverbs as send effects (FX Channels in Cubase, Aux Channels

everywhere else) when you start a project, and as you create and mix,

route some of your individual tracks to one or another of these. I believe

it’s important to always leave at least one sound completely free of

reverb though, to give a sense of where the ‘front’ of the mix is.

However, things can get much more interesting when

you use reverb plugins as inserts on your channels.

My favourite trick for creating really haunting

ambience pads and hit effects is to insert a reverb on

a channel, bring up a huge ‘cathedral’ or ‘church’

preset and set the wet/dry balance within the reverb

plugin to 100% wet. You’ll be surprised how you can turn really uninteresting

source samples into cinematic gems.

Games composer Jesper Kyd is a master at combining traditional orchestral

techniques with unconventional/modern sounds – have a listen to his recent

score for Assassin’s Creed 2 for an idea of what a difference effective reverbcan make, for free at his Myspace page here.

Check out this post on The 10 Best Reverb Plugins In The World: guaranteed

to get the creative juices flowing.

4. Set up your speakers correctly

You can spend all the money you have on great sounding gear, but if it

isn’t set up correctly in a half-decently prepared room you may as well

not have bothered. This is because you can only operate your gear

effectively based on what you can hear in your particular listeningspace – so if your speakers are bunched up in a corner of the room,

you’ll probably find the bass is boosted quite significantly. This is great,

until you come to mix your music based on this bass-enhanced sound –

when you play your mix back somewhere else, you’ll probably find that

there’s no bass at all because you compensated for the ‘colouration’ of

your room sound/speaker setup.

I’ll be covering how best to set up your

home studio in more detail in a future

article very soon – but in the meantime,

get your speakers as far away from the

corners and walls as you can (within

reason, even a few inches can make a big

difference), and try to position them so that

there is an exactly equal distance between

the left speaker, right speaker, and

where-ever your head is when you’re

listening/mixing (making an equilateral

triangle). You’ll find you can make more


13 11/10/20



Make an equilateral triangle

between you and the speakers

Minimal techno superstar Richie

Hawtin knows how to keep things, er,

minimal

accurate decisions about panning and

respective levels across the stereo field.

5. Get minimal – Less Is More

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re inspired, and it’s great to

explore every idea you get for a particular track. However, the flip side

of this is you then have to know how to edit your ideas and only

incorporate the best ones into the final mix.

In the end this comes down partly to

experience – knowing what will

sound good because its worked for

you before. But more fundamentally

it comes down to having a clear idea

of what you want the track to do,

why you’re making it in the first

place. Once you work this out, and it

can be tough sometimes to realisewhat the real reason is, you’ll find it

becomes obvious what should stay

and what should be left on the

virtual cutting room floor.

A good rule to work by if you’re not sure then, is “if in doubt, leave it out”.

Always work towards creating more space in your mix, and make the few

elements that are already there even better rather than piling on more stuff.

Clutter and a lack of focus is a sure-fire sign of an amateur mix. If you don’t

agree, listen to your favourite music and count how many different elements

there are going on at any one time. See?

Since first writing this post, I developed this idea into my 10 Producing

Principles: see that post here.

6. Variation and dynamics

Incorporate builds and drops,

quiet and loud sections, even

changes in tempo from slow to

fast (most live bands naturally

speed up very slightly in thechorus, for example, and this

definitely has an effect on the

soaring feel of some choruses).

Maintain the listeners interest by

making the track a living thing,

constantly developing and

morphing.


13 11/10/20



Amadeus knew how to build to a

crescendo, then bring the crowd to its

knees with a massive euphoric

breakdown

Study and reference your

musical heroes… but don’t

turn out like the guy in this

movie.

Also, the best way to make

something seem really huge and

loud is by contrasting it with

something very quiet and intimate-

sounding. This is the trick behind

the best breakdowns in all forms of

dance music: anticipation created by

switching from hard and loud to quiet and sparse, and back again. Orchestral

music and movie soundtracks are great sources of inspiration here. I mean,

look how ahead of his time Mozart was.

7. Compare & contrast

If you’re like me, you’re constantly

comparing how your music sounds in

relation to your favourite artists.

I’ve found the best way to set this up

usefully is to have a couple of my favouriteartist reference tracks actually running on

their own ‘Reference’ track within my

sequencer, that I can solo on and off with

one click – that way, I can make super-quick

A/B comparisons between my mix and the

ball-park sound that I’m trying to stear it

towards. Remember, always start with the

goal in mind…

Just make sure when you do this that you don’t

inadvertently or otherwise produce a really

good rip-off / cover version of your reference

track instead of your own original idea… we

don’t need more doppelgangers… :)

There’s more on choosing and analysing reference tracks in this 3-part

series:

Improve Your Mixes Now: How To Select & Use Reference Tracks Like A

Pro>>

And many more production tips and tricks here:

50 Pro Tips For Breathing Life Into Your Electronic Music

TAGS: ASSASSINS CREED, COMPRESSION, CUBASE, DRUM & BASS,

FEATURED, JESPER KYD, MINIMAL, NOISIA, PARALLEL

COMPRESSION, REVERB, RICHIE HAWTIN, SIDECHAIN, SIDECHAIN

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21 Responses to “7 Ways To Improve Your Music”

08. May, 2010 at 3:51 pm # alex

hey, mr robinson, i think this site is awesome! well done! but how

did you learn all this stuff?

what is yr advise for somebody like me that loves music but doesnt

know how to start? i dont even know how to play a keyboard!

REPLYREPLY

10. May, 2010 at 2:14 pm # george

Hey alex, thanks for your comments!

I guess I learned first from reading everything I could on the subject

of music production, then actually doing it a bit, then talking to people

more experienced than me. Then a bit more doing it myself, a bit

more experimenting, a lot more reading, especially interviews with

other musicians and recording artists, and all the while a lot of time

spent listening critically to as many different kinds of music as

possible.

Then while I was doing my Filmmaking Masters I also had the

chance to study with tutors from the Royal College of Music, as well

as professional sound designers and film composers. But the

fundamentals I taught myself, and I believe anyone can do the same.

You don’t even need to be able to play instruments, you just need

some imagination and your computer mouse to click in notes and

samples.

I’ll be writing a post shortly on how to get started in making music on

your computer, stay tuned! All the best, G.

26. Jun, 2010 at 12:40 am # St Mark

Nice post.

Regarding parallel compression, it’s also commonly called “New York

compression”.

Another way to achieve the same result is to use a send to an aux or

bus, and insert the compressor on that aux or bus. This approach


13 11/10/20



therefore does not require duplicating the tracks.

REPLYREPLY

15. Jan, 2013 at 5:29 am # j. isaac

+1

26. Jun, 2010 at 1:55 pm # george

Hey St Mark, that’s a good tip, especially for keeping things

uncluttered on the arrange page of your DAW. Certainly a better solution

if you’re using this technique on lots of individual tracks (likely for

dance/electronic music).

REPLYREPLY

05. Nov, 2010 at 2:58 pm # Emiel

sidechain, please cover in detail. im usgin very old (1998) db pro

comp with send receive for it, interested in your method(s)

REPLYREPLY

05. Dec, 2010 at 5:58 am # Kyle

Hey there. I really appreciate what you do here. I’ve been

searching for a site like this for quite a while now and I’ve finally found

this! I’m an amateur engineer and I’ve been trying to ‘get that pro sound’

on my mixes for a few years since I went to school for engineering.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to do this.

- Kyle

REPLYREPLY

20. Dec, 2010 at 10:25 pm # george

Thanks Kyle, if you have any further requests or anything

drop me a message and maybe I can incorporate it into a relevant

post ;)

20. Dec, 2010 at 4:29 pm # Nick108


13 11/10/20



The word ‘clutter’ comes to mind when asking people who hear

my music repeat often. Too much happening all at once, and

please, shorten tracks, but its hard when there’s so many tastes to try to

merge, a million ideas all going at once, that key word, light and shade

and ‘if in doubt’ leave it out.

I open a file and try to grab into it, the sounds I like. Then later when

writing, only use what is in that file, it starts to sound like me, not

someone else. And practise rearranging commercial CD tracks to suitmyself. Like my tortoise, one foot in front of the other slowly and surely,

he gets right from his night box to the pond, thats the same way I try to

progress. I like sites like this because it explains what I need to know or

already suspected, and teaches me to follow it.

I tried Tafe course earlier this year, but left after five weeks. When I

asked specific questions like ‘how do I change an Xpand sound using

midi in a piece of music. I was told ‘that is not in our curriculum’. At that I

left. I find I learn more from sites exactly like this. Its relevant to what I

need to know, not someone elses curriculum designed to help pay the

mortgage on their house.

REPLYREPLY

20. Dec, 2010 at 10:24 pm # george

Thanks for your comments, it’s great to know you’re getting

practical benefit from these posts. You’re right, I’m not running a

curriculum with a grand overarching scheme – rather just chattering

about some of the things I *haven’t seen highlighted very much in

courses, but which I’ve found to be useful and applicable in my ownway through personal experience.

I guess part of the difficulty of learning about any subject, particularly

early on, is knowing what’s actually relevant to you and your personal

approach, out of the much larger mass of information available. So

I’m glad you found something relevant to you here! :) I hope your

tracks are becoming more de-cluttered – feel free to mail me some if

you like. George.

27. Feb, 2011 at 6:24 pm # Gavin

Hey, about the parallel compression… How should you set up

the compressor… would you just use the same settings you would

normally use on a drum track…. i looked at the image you had by your

explanation and noticed that you had a small ratio (1.25), the threshold

was turned down to -19.6 which is more than I usually use on my drum

tracks. Also the attack time was very late and the release was really

long…. is this just a random picture or actually an informative image


13 11/10/20



based on settings you would implement? I also noticed that is says

Mastering Opto for the settings….

For a drum track, say with my TR-808, I usually set the threshold

between -10 and -13, I set the ratio to about 6:50, the attack to

anywhere between 16 and 33, the release to between 125-130, and

then I adjust the gain on the compressor. Let me know what you think

about these settings.

BTW I am using the R Compressor as well.

Thanks and great site!

-Gavin

REPLYREPLY

17. May, 2011 at 5:06 pm # stephen

good work, I’ve been looking for a place like this to help help out

newbies like myself! thank you!

REPLYREPLY

06. Aug, 2011 at 10:59 am # Ralf

Hello

thanks for your webpage.

Information stripped down to really important stuff.

I’m wondering whether it makes sense to have an send channel only for

drum reverb and then route the whole drum kit through it.

I want to archieve that the drum kit can be placed in the mix as one

REPLYREPLY

06. Aug, 2011 at 1:39 pm # george

Hey Ralf, thanks for your comment.

If I understand you correctly, I think the simple solution is to first route

all of your individual drum kit channels to a group channel / buss –

that way they can all be controlled as one, with a single channel fader

when you’re mixing.

Then you can send all or individual kit sounds to your reverb send.

Then, if you want to control the dry kit sounds and the reverb send as

one in your mix, route your kit group channel and the reverb fx

channel to another group/buss.

There a couple of other routing options to achieve your final aim of

controlling everything as one, but this is the structure with the most


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built-in flexibility, where if you want to go back at any point and adjust

any individual level, the amount of reverb on individual instruments,

or any aspect of the overall balance, you can.

I will soon write a post on gain structure and routing options when

mixing, I hope this helps in the meantime! G.

25. Aug, 2011 at 11:39 am # Gabriel

very nice sir!! thanx for the input.

REPLYREPLY

29. Aug, 2011 at 6:03 am # Adam

Great website, very glad I found it. Im just starting out with

ableton and im trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.

Thanks

REPLYREPLY

04. Aug, 2012 at 2:08 am # houmam

Thanks

REPLYREPLY

15. Jan, 2013 at 5:35 am # j. isaac

you are like… a genius . I love that u are posting stuff like this..

however I am afraid that someone will steal my style and I will be

deemed as the one who stole THIER style… I feel like my music is

good. I mix it well (days) and I make cool sounds (some samples ..dont

know about copyright infringement) and then how do I make it big??

what about the politics… the people I havnt met…and the style or song

that someone made that sounds like mine but better :(

REPLYREPLY

16. Feb, 2013 at 12:52 pm # Kelvyn

I just discovered this site and think its fabulous!

Just one thing though. There seems to be a general consensus that

‘Less is more” which I find somewhat confusing and potentially


13 11/10/20



dogmatic. I agree that as a rule of thumb if one doesn’t know or isn’t

sure how best to implement technology or music into a production that

it’s better to stay on the safe side by keeping things simple. But there is

something to be said about a raucous cluttered approach to arranging

and mixing obviously depending on the creators vision. I love Phil

Spector’s ‘Wall of sound’ approach and personally try to avoid keeping

things clear all the time as it’s nice to mix it up sometimes as well.

Thanks for all the information:)

REPLYREPLY

17. Feb, 2013 at 3:49 pm # GeorgeGTPS

Thanks for raising the point Kelvyn, really interesting and

thought-provoking.

Firstly, I definitely wouldn’t want to advocate any idea to the point

where it seemed ‘dogmatic’ – as you say, I’m thinking of ‘Less Is

More’ as a helpful rule of thumb rather than a fixed rule that must be

adhered to at all times. It’s not something you have to keep in the

forefront of your mind at all t imes, necessarily: Think of it as

something to remember when you get stuck with something, as a

possible approach to overcoming a problem. ‘What happens if I take

this element out of the mix? Does that solve my problem?’ or ‘If I tried

limiting myself to only one software synth, one compressor plugin…

would that enable me to make more tracks faster and speed up my

learning curve?’

Perhaps ‘Less Is More’ has been mentioned in quite a few articles

throughout the site by now, because I find it can be applied in so

many contexts, but maybe the accumulated effect of this is the

impression that I’m ‘banging on’ about it :)

I think I first discussed the idea properly in the 10 Principles Every

Producer Must Know To Achieve The Pro Sound – please check that

out if you haven’t already, as I talk there about how there can be ‘No

Rules… but Principles Are Useful’.

You’ll also notice in that article that No.1 is ‘Less Is More’; No. 3 is

‘Challenge All Assumptions and Question All Accepted Wisdom’ – so

I believe you’re absolutely right to be wary :)

Yeah, when is Less not More? In terms of throwing a whole bunch ofsounds and parts around and getting properly ‘messy’ with our music

– I agree, creativity isn’t clean and tidy, and if we try and keep things

too precise at every stage of the process we’re likely to end up with

quite rigid and unexciting music. And it’s not very fun to be too

methodical all the time . (It can also take longer to learn things if we’re

too careful and methodical: in my experience, happy accidents are

often a major part of the learning process and the styles that different

people develop.)


13 11/10/20



Leave a Reply

I love your example of Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ :) In one sense

he is kind of ‘the exception that proves the rule’: one of the reasons

his style is so famous and has it’s own catchy name is that it is/was

so unusual and does fly in the face of many of the preconceived

notions of how pop music could be constructed and what it could

sound like.

On the other hand, you could also say that while a ‘wall of sound’

approach is designed to create a very dense, ‘more is more’soundscape, the way it’s constructed is by layering together many

parts playing quite simple things in unison , with lashings of reverb

contributing to the sense of complexity; this kind of production

necessitates that the number of different musical parts/phrases being

played at any one time needs to be pretty carefully worked out, and

this led to a certain stripped-down, ‘formula’ approach:

“[It's] basically a formula. You’re going to have four or five guitars line

up, gut-string guitars, and they’re going to follow the chords…two

basses in fifths, with the same type of line, and strings…six or seven

horns, adding the little punches…formula percussion instruments — the little bells, the shakers, the tambourines. Phil used his own

formula for echo, and some overtone arrangements with the strings.

But by and large, there was a formula arrangement.”

- quote from Jeff Barry, Spector collaborator.

Does this mean you could apply Less Is More to Spectors very clear

mindset of what he wanted to achieve and how he was going to do it,

if not his production style? I’m not sure, but I enjoyed thinking it

through :)

Oh, one last thing: Spector also resisted stereo in favour of purely

mono mixes (arguing that stereo recordings took the control of howthe record sounded away from the producer and put it in the hands of

the listener and their particular playback setup) – definitely a case of

Less is More!

Anyone else have any thoughts or examples on this?

13. Apr, 2013 at 8:01 pm # Denta

Thanks for this great article! I’m very satisfied because i’ve found

this site!

REPLYREPLY


13 11/10/20



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