Better Mixes

The aim of this project was to create 3 static mixes, meaning no use of automation. I created two individual tracks and worked as a group on one mix of a live recording. Normally volume automation is used to increase or decrease the volume at certain points in the track when the waveform either increases or decreases because sometimes the dynamic range of a track is quite high, which means that there could be a big difference in the loudest and quietest point in the track therefore automation can be used to increase the volume of the quieter parts or decrease the volume of the louder parts. You can also use automation to increase or decrease the volume of a whole channel if it’s too loud or quiet.When recording live tracks, we need to be aware of signal to noise ratio, this is the ratio of noise we want to hear (signal) and noise we don’t want to hear, like background noise for example (noise). In any room there will always be background noise but there are ways of reducing it so that the sound we capture is mostly the signal and not the noise. A simple way is putting a microphone closer to the signal therefore capturing more signal than noise, and depending on what you are recording you could use different types of microphones such as directional microphones so they mostly only pick up sound from one direction, but they won’t suit all recording situations. Also, if you have recorded some audio and have a lot of noise as well as signal, you can’t just turn up the volume because when you are turning up the volume of the signal, the volume of the noise will be increased with it, so that makes it difficult to create a clear mix.When mixing a track, you should be aware of the DBFS (Decibels Relative to Full Scale), which is the maximum digital sound level with no clipping or distortion, these are measured in terms of how far below zero DBFS they are. In Logic you can see on the peak level indicators when the levels are too low or high or at a good level. The level is too low when it’s at around -48 DBFS and it’s too high when it’s at -3 to 0 DBFS, a good level should be at about -12 to -6 DBFS.You also need to manage your mix well in terms of headroom. Headroom is the difference between 0 DBFS and the peaking level on your output so as you add more channels to your mix the overall level of the output will increase, which will decrease the headroom. It’s important to leave enough headroom in the track to prevent your channels from clipping. Another thing to be aware of is digital distortion, which is when the DBFS levels peak so the sound becomes distorted so when mixing you have to manage the levels so they do not peak and distort.EQ (equalization) is used to cut or boost different frequencies of an audio any sound. It doesn’t change the frequencies but just enhances or decreases them relative to other frequencies. It’s good to use EQ especially for live recording so you can cut out unwanted high or low frequencies. Fully parametric EQ has 3 variables; frequency, bandwidth and DB boost or cut. Different instruments have different frequency ranges, by roughly knowing these you can cut inactive frequencies and keep only the relevant ones, this will also give you more headroom in your mix because as you reduce the DB level of a frequency you also reduce the overall volume of your mix.

Compression is also largely used when mixing. Compression is used to reduce the dynamic range of an audio file to then increase the volume overall, this evens out the levels so there are fewer spikes in the mix. When using a compressor you would lower the threshold of the audio file then gradually increase the gain until you get a good level.The compression ratio is how severely the file is compressed, for example with a low ratio like 2:1 any signal above the threshold is reduced gently whereas at higher ratios such as 10:1 the signal above the threshold is reduced quit violently. Therefore the greater the ratio, the greater the compression. At a compression ratio of ∞:1 is known as limiting, a limiter is an extreme form of compression.When compression is used and the signal overshoots the threshold, the compressor doesn’t instantly use the full compression, instead the compression ratio increases slowly from 1:1 to the maximum in a certain amount of time, which is the attack time. Also when the signal drops back below the threshold the compressor doesn’t instantly stop compressing, again it slowly reduces until it reaches 1:1 again and this is called the release time.

For one of my individual tracks for the project I decided to do an acoustic type song on the guitar, for this I used compression and eq on all the audio files. I used a low shelf eq to cut out the inactive and unwanted higher frequencies.

I also used compression on all the audio files, so I decreased the dynamic range to increase the overall volume of the whole track.

In my other track I used eq to enhance the lower frequencies on the drums to add a bit more bass.

As a group we also had to create a mix from a live recording. We used melodyne on some of the vocals just to even them out and make them a bit smoother by equalizing the pitch.We also took out the lower frequencies in the vocals to make the mix a bit clearer and took out the channels, which didn’t pick up any sounds; this also makes the mix clearer by removing the background sound picked up. We also added a noise gate on the overhead because there was quite a bit of bleed from multiple tracks, and reverb has been added as well as a compressor to reduce the dynamic range of the track.EQ has been put on the bass to cut out the unwanted higher frequencies; low cut EQ was put on everything apart from the bass, overhead and midi channel to cut out unwanted background noise. Echo was added on the midi channels just to add some effect.