Ready to release? Mixing And Mastering Unit 48

Mixing and Mastering

Original Material Mixed and Mastered: https://soundcloud.com/user-416631632/stick-together-mixmaster
Remix Material Mixed and Mastered: https://soundcloud.com/user-416631632/7na-mixed-and-mastered

Mixing

Organisation

First I organised the tracks into separate colours and an order, which is easy for me to understand. So All vocals are in red, all brass tracks are in yellow and all drum kit are in green.

The next thing I did was to delete any unwanted sections whether its silence on the track to headphone bleed. In order to do this I used the scissor tool, located on the toolbar at the top of Cubase, and I split each track into sections. Then deleting the sections that I didn’t want. As a rule when deleting sections, only delete a pause in the recording if it is more than a bar otherwise the recording doesn’t sound right. For example if you cut a pause only a beat long then the recording would clip and sound unprofessional.

After getting rid of any unwanted sections, we created three new FX channels; these channels group similar tracks and add the same effect to all tracks. To group tracks you create a new track called FX channel.

Effects

EQ

 EQ stands for equalizer and what this effect does is to balance the track and can be done by boosting or lowering frequencies in the track. 

In order to get the EQ up, click on your chosen track and on the left hand side of the screen press the e button. This button will open up the equalizer window where you are able to change the frequencies played. Each dot on the screen is what you use to change which frequencies you want to hear more.

Balancing

 Balancing is the process of changing the volume of every track so that the overall sound of the recording is to a professional standard. To make balancing easier, you can open the mixer that is in the screenshot. To open this mixer you want to go to devices on the top of the screen and click on Mixer (F3). It will open the mixer where you will be able to see the volume of each track and change them as you see fit. 

Compressor

 These screenshots show that compression was used on all the tracks. I decided to only add compression to the FX channels instead of each individual track due to the fact that the recordings were grouped together so that is was easier to add effects. This shows that it is easier to group tracks together.

Reverb

 These screenshots show the reverb that was added to the FX channels. Reverb is the effect, which makes the track sound like the recording is echoing in a room, this effect can be heard in large theatres which is known as natural reverb. 

Reverb is another kind of insert so is accessed like the compressor, but instead of going to dynamics you go to the reverb and click RoomWorks. This will open the reverb window where you will be able to see different dials from pre delay to diffusion. The pre delay delays the effect n the track and the reverb time is the duration of the effect. I decided not to add reverb to any of the drum kit because drum kits don’t normally have any reverb on.

Automation

 Automation is changing an effect when the recording is playing. To access you need to expand your chosen track on the left hand side until you see the R button. Press this button and it will allow you to edit an effect. As you can see I have used automation on FX channels to change the volume during the guitar solo but you could change the reverb or compression of the sends. All you would need to do is change where it says volume to whatever effect you want. To change the volume I clicked on the line where I wanted the volume change to begin, then clicked somewhere else on the line. The dots that appeared can now be moved to change to the volume.

Expansion

 Expansion is the opposite of compression so they can be used to boost the volume of a recording. I used the expander effect on the piano as most of the tracks also had compression as well. To access the expander effect, you do the same process as looking for the compressor but click expander instead. The window looks similar to a compressor but just in reverse, the lower the threshold the louder the frequency heard.

Fading

A fading effect was added to the end of the track to stop any clipping from being heard at the end of the project.

Gate

A gate is another type of insert which is used similar to a filter. In a recording you want the instrument you are recording if there is any background noise then you can use a gate to get rid of it. This works because the background noises are low level frequencies whereas the instrument you are recording has a high level frequency. The gate allows you to filter the sound you want without the background noise being heard.

To use the gate, you need to again open the EQ window add an insert and you can find gate under dynamics. From there you will be able to change the threshold, attack as well as the other things like the hold.

Distortion

This is insert can be used on tracks to change the characteristics of a sound from the waveform to the sound. This effect has been added on the guitar solo track to emphasise the guitar during the solo. To access distortion, you select your chosen track, open the effects window, add a new insert and look under distortion. From here, depending on the distortion VST you selected, will open the distortion window. This window will allow you to change the volume of distortion, the percentage of the sound which is affected as well as other settings which can be seen in the screenshot below.

Track list

Track	Effects added	Additional Notes
Lead vocals	Sent to vocals FX
Back Vocals 1	Sent to vocals FX
Back Vocals 2	Sent to vocals FX
Guitar	Sent to guitar FX, panning	Panning to the left to balance with bass in right
Guitar Solo	Sent to guitar FX, distortion	Distortion to emphasise the solo
Bass	EQ, compression, reverb, panning	EQ boosted higher frequencies
Cymbals	EQ, compression,	Higher frequencies boosted and fading at end of project to sweeten the sound
Hi Hat	EQ, compression,	No reverb as I didn’t like the sound it created
Kick Drum	EQ, compression,	Lower frequencies boosted
Snare Drum	EQ, compression,	No reverb as it is uncommon to put reverb on drum kits
Piano	EQ, expansion	Expansion to increase overall volume due to the original being quieter than I preferred
Trumpet	Sent to brass FX
Trombone	Sent to brass FX
Guitar FX	EQ, compression, reverb, automation	Automation in the solo, effects used on all tracks sent to channel
Brass FX	EQ, compression, reverb, automation	Automation decreases volume during solo so brass doesn’t overpower the guitar
Vocals FX	EQ, compression, reverb	Reverb added to all tracks sent to this channel, common effects used on vocal recordings

Mastering

Formatting

Format means the settings for the project when you mix down. For both tracks the format will be of CD quality due to the fact it is a common format for high quality audio. The settings will be in WAV format, use 16 bit and 44.1kHZ sample rate. To mix down a track you click file on the toolbar at the top of the screen, go to export and press audio mix down. Here you will have a settings page pop up and this is where you change the format to CD quality. Then add this WAV file into a new cubase project to master. This is one way to format a track. The other way to format is by opening the mixer window, opening the effects window on the mixer and add inserts. This way of formatting allows you to master your overall track as well as mix individual tracks at the same time. 

Multiband compressors

This is a type of insert which can be added to help balance the project further. To open multiband compressor you go to the effects window as stated earlier, click inserts on the left, go to dynamics and press the multiband compressor. When the window opens, you will notice 4 compressor graphs and these represent different ranges of frequencies. This insert allows you to compress different frequencies.

EQ

EQ the stereo output is the same as EQ on individual tracks. The only difference is how to access the window. To access the EQ window for the stereo output you open the mixer window and press the e button on the stereo output slider. Then adjust the EQ levels to something that suits your preferences. 

Level of Mix

Levelling the mix is to ensure the volume of the overall track is at a high quality. To do this open the mixer window and position the stereo output slider, the slider on the right of the window, close to 0 db. Then adjust the output on your computer to change the volume of the project. the reason we do this is to make the balancing of the project more accurate and to keep it from being too quiet when you mix down. Another thing to consider when working with the level of mixing is sweetening the sound. This means to make the track richer sounding. To do this I took regular breaks to ensure I do not become deaf to improvements. 

Remixing Material

Track List

Track	Effects	Additional Notes
Bass Left	Panning	Panning to left balances with Bass right
Bass Right	Panning	Same as above but vice versa
Intro/Outro Beat	Expansion	Increase the snare and hi hat
Verse Beat	Expansion	Increase snare and hi hat frequencies
Breakdown arpeggiator	Sent to arpeggiator FX
Verse arpeggiator	Sent to arpeggiator FX
Intro/Outro arpeggiator	Sent to arpeggiator FX
Lead Intro	Sent to lead FX
Lead Breakdown	Sent to lead FX
Lead Breakdown 2	Sent to lead FX
Chords	EQ	EQ and used to lower bass frequencies
Lyrics	EQ, Compression, Reverb	Vocals have these effects normally so the lyrics track uses the same effects as they represent the vocals
Reverse Cymbals		Effect track so no added effects needed
Scream		Effect track so no added effects needed
Lead FX	EQ, Compression	EQ balances out the different volumes of the lead tracks
Arpeggiator FX	EQ, Compression	Compresses the frequency range of all arpeggiator tracks

Mastering Screenshots

Formatting

This project was formatted by mixing down the remixed material to CD quality and then placed in a new empty Cubase project.

 EQ

Multiband Compressors

This project i wanted the bass to be more noticeable so I compressed the higher frequencies and left the lower frequencies alone.

Balancing

The final balance was easier than the other project as i was only balancing one track. I still had to make sure I was sweetening the sound by taking regular breaks and making the overall recording sound richer.