BOOKS:
- Noise-The Political Economy of Music by Jaques Attali
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
MIXING KEY POINTS:
- MACRO and MICRO—-what is the most important part of the track? What is most important part at a particular time? Think vocal, melody, chorus, sample etc
- REFERENCE TRACK—-Use another track to compare with current project—-genre norms. I have never considered this technique before but I can see the benefit, it enables you to adjust metres accordingly and match up the wavelength depending on the genre—empasis of genre norms. MUST REFERENCE WITH A WAV!
- FREQUENCY MASKING—–Removing any unwanted High or Low frequency’s using a High or Low Pass filter. For speech remove most of the low as it is not needed and can mask the low end of sources. DO THIS FOR ALL TRACKS, assessing the high and low end step by step. DO NOT LISTEN TO AN ISOLATED TRACK FOR TOO LONG, as you will lose perspective and whole context of the song.
- USE EQ TO REMOVE RATHER THAN ADD—-Subtraction for balance, Addition for tonal enhancement. Use multiple EQs on one track, one for Low, Mid and High if necessary.
- GROUP RELEVANT TRACKS TOGETHER—-So you can adjust the grouped tracks metres after mixing them individually. Also enables BUS sends to be applied to the grouped tracks creating a smooth work flow.
- FREQUENCY POSITION—-LOW are better positioned in the centre of the field or in mono/double mono, HIGHS are better panned L and R.
- LIMITERS: Essentially a frequency brick wall, good for leaving headroom on tracks giving yourself more space for mixing and clarity.
Very summarised but will discuss outcomes upon mixing specific songs in future post.