Using Your Equipment Robots

by Ed Rei <mailto:echostarstudio@hotmail.com>
Automation is great!!! I like it. It really goes a long way towards improving the mix when you have the
ability to do what would normally take many sets of hands working perfectly together to do.
I just hate setting up the automation.... :) But out of the pursuit of achieving greater amounts of
headroom and a clearer mix, I put up with it.
At the very least, you should be using some kind of mute automation for your tracks. In the hard drive
recording realm, this would entail silencing parts of the track that do not contain music or noise that
you don't want to hear. On a tape based system, this entails some kind of mute automation, or erasing
the areas of the tape that don't contain wanted material. We all know how horn players can't help but to
talk between their line parts!!! :)
Come On Feel the Noise
But there are other considerations here too. For example: Each channel on a mixer is creating noise
even when no signal is going through that channel. Multiply that noise by how many channels you
have idle at any one time and you can have a lot of noise. Effect processors are notoriously noisy.
Headphone bleed on drum overheads, lead vocals, and acoustic guitars can really mess up the dynamic
range of your mix. All of the above together makes for a lot of noise.
Although you may not hear any of them during the louder passages, you probably will on the quieter
ones, and this noise is eating up valuable headroom. Ultimately, the depth of your mix will be affected.
So, it is a good idea to mute these tracks when no material is present that you want in your finale mix.
By muting the channel, it is not routing to the master fader on your mixing console. The noise the
channel strip is creating will not be present at the master fader; thus, lower noise floor from your
mixer; thus, more headroom available to the mix; thus, a better recording.
Reducing noise should be the number one pursuit of the tracking engineer, but also a big consideration
for the mixing engineer. The noise needs to be rid of one way or another to create the lowest noise
floor possible.
Volume automation is really nice if you have it. Often, it will negate the use of a compressor. If the
track for the most part is even dynamically, but in a few spots the either drops or rises beyond an
acceptable level, a fader move can be executed and saved in the automation and you will not need to
insert a compressor to even out the part. A fader move will preserve the fidelity of the part while a
compressor will add phase distortion to it. Which would you want?
EQ automation can also be a lot of fun too. Here and there you may have a snare hit that sounds a bit
different, and a little EQ tweak on it makes the offending hit sound more like the other hits. In the hard
drive realm, the offending hit may just be replaced with a better sounding hit, but this can be time
consuming, and requires an excellent DAW. Also, EQ automation can be used for really cool artistic
applications such as changing the EQ on a vocal line in a certain part to give it the "telephone" sound.
Use whatever automation you have to the fullest extent that you can. Volume automation, MIDI
commands for your effects (this can even mean a MIDI floor pedal), mute automation all do the same
thing...let you listen to the music without having to fly around and worry about doing those functions.
Automation lets you think more about improving the mix instead of working the mix. Also, there are
things you can do with automation, creatively speaking, that are just not possible without using it.
Take 1, Take 2, Take 3...
Tape is cheap these days. Don’t be cheap when it comes to buying tape to mix to. Buy lots of it and
start rolling. Record multiple versions of your mix. What can it hurt?
I will usually come up with a mix, burn it to tape, then do another version with the vocals about 2 dB
louder. Then another one with the vocals regular but with the bass up 2 or 3 dB. Then another with the
bass and vocal up 2 dB, etc. Try to foresee variables that you may regret later. After a lot of practice,
you will find that you have a tendency to mix some things kind of wrong every time you mix. If you
remember that, and mix another version with the "guessed" correction, you are covering all your bases.
It doesn’t hurt to have several mixes available to listen to later. You may be surprised that the mix you
thought was so hot the day you burned it doesn’t sound so cool a week later. But, you notice that the
first version of the mix was much better, and the third was the best of them all. You never know.
Another good reason to burn different versions is that you may find (at mastering time) that two
different mixes have different parts in each of them that sound really good, but they are different parts
in each mix. One time I had a mix that sounded great, except for the guitar solo section. The lead
guitar effect was making it sound muddy. But on a mix that was two versions before it, the lead guitar
sounded great, it was just the rest of the song was kind of lame. While mastering, we flew in both
mixes on the computer and did a little cut and paste editing to use the good sounding guitar solo mix
only for the guitar solo section, and voila’, we had a great sounding mix. You could not even tell
where the cut took place.
So run a lot of different versions of your mix. Sit on them for a week before making the decision on
which to use.
Monitoring Techniques
Here are a few things that should help keep your ears fresh for several hours of mixing, and help keep
your mixes clear.
Monitor at very low levels until you think you have the mix about where you want it. Then turn it up
to hear how it sounds loud, but not for very long. It is easy to blow your ears out for mixing when you
monitor loud for more than, say, one time through the song.
Monitor in MONO as much as possible. If your mix sounds mushy and out of balance in MONO, it is
not going to translate well at all. Really, if it don't sound good in MONO, it is not a good mix. Forget
that big wide stereo field translating on a boom box or a cheap car stereo where the listening
environment is more MONO than STEREO. Change over to STEREO when you need to hear where to
place something, or when you think the mix is about done.
Try not to focus on any one thing in your mix for too long. A less than ideal sound is like a pimple: it
seems to get bigger the more you focus in on it. Work on a troublesome track for no more than one
pass through the song, then leave it alone for a few passes. Also, if you soloed the track to work on it,
don’t just pop right back to the full mix right away! Give yourself a few seconds of silence before
returning to the full mix. When you pop right back the full mix after a solo, the track you worked on
will sound lost in the mix. You ears are kind of like your eyes in this respect, if you focus on
something for a period of time, try to back off and see how it fits the bigger picture; you need time to
refocus.
Well, I think this should certainly give you plenty to think about while mixing. Remember that mixing
is an art. There are engineers out there that specialize in it. The only way to improve is to educate
yourself with techniques used, and a thorough knowledge of your equipment. After that, it is practice,
practice, and more practice.
Good luck.