trust, you are the f*cking man :)
-josh
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independent u.s. drum'n'bass -- http://vitriolix.com
Trust wrote:
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
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