Each week for the next few months, we’ll be writing about London music college Point Blank’s ‘Introduction To Logic Pro’ course, giving a complete rundown of the course.
By this point in the course, we know how to make music. We’ve got the skills to make tracks now. That’s all fine – but it’s only half the battle. The other half is making the content of your track sound as good as possible, and it’s a surprisingly complex, painstaking and often headache-inducing task.
To introduce us to the world of mixing, we’re first reminded how far technology has come and how lucky we are to be able to do everything “in the box” these days – that is to say, everything you need to make a professional sounding track can be run within the computer. Hearing about professional mixing studios and processes can be a little dry, but the idea is to give us some background information for if we ever “graduate” to a professional studio. It’s the world that our tutor comes from after all, and even if it’s at odds in a lot of senses with what us students will be doing, it’s useful to hear about his production and studio habits. He’s always keen to stress that we’re free to choose how we do things though, and that we have to find out what works best for us.
It’s quite an overwhelming topic – in one sense because there’s a lot to take in, but also because it’s what gives a potentially great tune its sheen. It could be the difference between make or break. If you are good with making melodies and beats and so forth but lousy at mixing your track, then all your hard work and talent might not amount to much.
We look in-depth at the use of Logic’s seemingly simple Channel EQ plugin, and find out how to use it in all manner of subtle and intense ways to bring out different qualities in sounds. We’re constantly reminded to use our ears and to remember there are few hard and fast rules to stick to. The importance of a good set of monitor speakers is also drilled into us – a costly expense but a huge investment. We’re given a rough guide to the frequency range, and told which frequencies are responsible for certain sound characteristics (e.g. muddiness, clarity, warmth, sheen, sparkle, honkiness (!) ). It’s fascinating to learn about psycho-acoustic phenomena as well, such as the fact that our ears will always prefer a louder mix to a quieter one. Curious tricks are demonstrated, such as how to make sounds pan all around your head – from above and below as well as left and right – using binaural panning and headphones.
The bottom line with mixing is that it’s all about balance and relativity. Balance in terms of having a good range of frequencies in your track, but never too many sounds in the same frequency range at the same time, while the relative volumes and frequencies of sounds compared to each other are what gives a track its sonic character. It’s a subtle, detailed process that can’t be rushed and must be given full attention and concentration. We’re also shown a useful way to analyse the frequency range and response of productions that we like – and how to compare them to that of our own works (using the Match EQ plugin). It’s a bit crude, but can be a good learning tool, as we’re told.
It’s a relief to finally be getting taught how to make the most of our work and make it sound as professional as possible, but it’s also a daunting undertaking. But as with all of this, practise makes perfect…
www.pointblankonline.net/142.html
to check out their courses.
www.apple.com/uk for info on Logic.