Whew... Ok, not sure where to start on this one. You've been getting a fair bit of misinformation along way, but at least you're asking the right questions.
1. Mono vs. Stereo => Beginners get hung up on this one a lot, but it's really fairly simple. The best advice is use your eyes and ears. Take a look at the waveforms and listen carefully. If the sound source (drums, pads, whatever) is exactly the same right and left then you might as well convert the file to mono and save space. IF, however the right side has different content then the left side, AND this is something you want to keep...then keep the file stereo. Once you bring the file into Logic you have to consider the same question again for each track. For every audio track in logic you have to designate it as a Stereo track or a mono track. If you put a stereo wav file onto a mono audio track then the output is still going to be mono. If you put a stereo wav onto a stereo track then, the output will replicate the L/R balance of the original wav. If you put a mono file onto a stereo track then the output will be stero, but there is really no point (since the left side and right side are the same) UNLESS you are going to add stereo effects on top (such as stereo delays, phasers, etc). In such case, the final output of the track will indeed have stereo qualities. Rule of thumb-wise, drums are almost always mono. Vocals, pads are often stereo -> there is usually some L/R differences in vocal recordings that will add some spaciousness and depth to the sound. For anything that is going to end up on vinyl, all bass parts should be mono. This includes basslines, kick drums, subs, etc. This is because of the well documented fact that any panning of the bass will often cause cutting needles and record needles to skip. This shouldnt bother you too much because i doubt you really want your kick drums galloping back and forth across the stereo field. >Question 2: How can I lower the volume of these peaks without losing >dynamics? By definition, you cant. The definition of "dynamics" is the difference between the loudest parts and the quietest parts. If you lower the volume of the peaks, then you have reduced the dynamics. Period. That said, you probably *do* need to lower the volume of those peaks and compression is usually a good tool for this. Quite often however i will go in and lower peaks by hand in my audio editor (soundforge, etc.) Re: Dithering You dont need to manually dither any of you working files. At all. All dithering does is reduce to file to a specified bit rate. In fact, Reason dithers each of your files when you export to wav. That's why it gives you a choice of 16bit output, 24 bit, etc. What it is doing is *dithering* your file to 16bits, or 24bits, etc. Some limiting tools, such as Waves L1 Ultramaxizer applying dithering. If you are using the L1 as the final step in mastering then this However, the effects for dithering are generally unnoticeable. You dont really need to worry much about this for now. >Question 3: Once I have all my master .wav files laid out and ready to mix, >would I need to apply any Equalization *during* the mix? The only parts of >the track I've applied any EQing to are drums and vocals. I've heard that >for soft synths you don't need to apply any EQing per se, but I am >skeptical. I'd just like to make sure that I don't do something unnecessary >if it can be avoided. Oh boy...feel free to shoot your friends. EQ is a completely subjective thing. This is where you decide how you want everything to sound. Applying EQ is like adding (or subtracting) flavor. To say that soft synths dont need EQ is like someone telling you that potatoes dont need any salt. How the hell do they know??? EQ is what you use to shape each sound. It definately more art then science and depends a lot of subjective decision of how you want everything to sound. However, your goals should definately be to create a fairly balanced mix of high/mid/lo frequencies so you have to pay careful attention to how each sound effects that balance. >Question 4 (possibly a subset of question 3): Do I need to separate the >different components into discrete frequency ranges using EQing / filtering? Expanding on the above, this is sort of the general idea. Pick out a freq. range of where each sound is doing it's bizness then accentuate those frequencies and strip away the rest. Go too far however and you quickly lose the naturalness and depth to your sounds. It's always a balancing act. Like i said: more art then science, but that's the general idea. The best thing you can do is jump in with both feet. You'll learn the most by doing and each mix is likely to be better than the last. Grab some professional tracks that you feel are good comparison material and see how close you can get your mix to sound, soncially. If any of your friends are fluent in Logic then see if you can get them to take a stab a mixdown as well as doing your own. You can learn alot just by seeing what someone else's take on your mix. hope this helps, trust --- Drum&Bass Arena Producers Discussion List http://www.breakbeat.co.uk You are currently subscribed to dnb-prod as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
