'Help! My mix sounds like crap.'
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Kanye West Paranoid Mario D Remix.mp3. Wyatt Trash The One Man Band Black Sabbath 39 S Paranoid GarageBand Cover.mp3. Audio demos: by Mark Wilcox and Tracy Wadley. Prophet-5 soundtrack by Drew Neumann.The.
A singer/songwriter friend emailed me that message and attached an mp3 of his mix. I gave it a listen.
Sure enough, the vocals were harsh and thin, squashed, noisy, and swamped in reverb. The overall mix was mostly mono and distant, rather than present. I asked the singer to bring his laptop over to my studio where we could work on the mix.
You might consider doing the same thing: find a good local studio and ask them to help with your mixes. Or send the tracks on CD-Rs to an experienced engineer who is willing to work on them.
One benefit of bringing your tracks to a commercial recording studio is that the studio engineers are likely to have better monitors and acoustics, making it easier to hear flaws in a mix. Plus, seasoned engineers usually can figure out what’s going on when there’s a sonic problem, and suggest some improvements. It always helps to run your mixes past another set of ears to take advantage of a new perspective.
What we heard…
My friend brought in a Mac laptop that was bundled with Apple’s GarageBand recording software. I had not used it before, but was impressed with how it made operations easy for novices. For example, it lets you adjust equalization by choosing presets like 'Bass boost', 'Clear vocals', or 'Reduce S'. A good website on using EQ in Garageband is at www.thegaragedoor.com/edit/equal.html.
Using a mini-phone to RCA-plug cable, I plugged into the sound card’s line output, and connected it to my monitor inputs. I hit Play and listened closely.
Most obvious was the unnatural sound of the vocal and guitar. I asked the singer how he recorded them. He said that he played an acoustic guitar and sang at the same time, at about 1 foot from the laptop’s built-in omnidirectional microphone. He complained of hearing noise in the recording, which was mostly from appliances in his apartment.
The mix included two identical tracks of vocal/guitar. Why? My friend thought that by copying the track, he could make it stereo and make it louder. Well, since both tracks were panned to center, they sounded mono. Even if you pan two identical tracks hard left and right, you still hear a mono signal in the center of your monitor speakers. That’s because an identical signal in both monitors creates a phantom center image, not stereo. The two channels need to contain different information to produce a stereo effect.
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How about making the vocal/guitar louder by copying the track? That does increase the signal level 6 dB (almost twice as loud). But you get the same result by turning up the track’s fader by 6 dB (assuming that you’re not clipping the audio). With two identical tracks, you have to set up twice as many effects and set them the same. It’s more work and also more of a load on your computer’s CPU. I deleted the redundant track.
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Next time: How we fixed the sonic problems.
Originally posted 2009-01-15 02:37:26.
To find out more about how each synth differs, view our Synth Comparison (pdf)
A Modern Classic Reinvented
The Prophet Rev2 is Dave Smith’s reimagining of his Prophet ’08 poly synth — a modern classic that has appeared on countless recordings and stages since its debut in 2007. As Dave puts it, “The Prophet Rev2 is the realization of our effort to enhance and improve everything we could about the original design — all at a more accessible price.” The Prophet Rev2 retains all of the key features of the Prophet ’08 and expands on them. It has twice the polyphony, twice the mod matrix, waveshape modulation on all waveforms, digital effects per layer in stacked or split voice mode, a polyphonic step sequencer per layer, and more. The result is a true analog powerhouse. Best of all, you can download any of the many existing libraries of Prophet ’08 sounds and they will not only sound identical, but can be enhanced with the new features.
16-Voice Polyphony
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With 16 voices to play with, you have the freedom to allocate them as you wish. Play two-fisted chords, stack two 8-voice sounds for massive, complex textures, or split the keyboard into two completely separate 8-voice instruments. An 8-voice version is also available, which can later be expanded to 16-voices with the Expander Kitif desired.
Bold Sound
The Prophet Rev2 gets its bold, punchy sound from its 2/4 pole, low-pass, resonant Curtis filters per voice. These are the same filters used not only in the Prophet ’08, but in many classic instruments of the 70’s and 80’s. A separate Audio Mod control adds additional harmonic complexity and movement.
Waveshape Modulation
A powerful new feature unique to the Prophet Rev2 is waveshape modulation. You can now vary the “pulse width” of any of the four waveforms (sawtooth, saw+tri, triangle, square). Using the Shape Mod control, you can manually dial in a desired waveshape width or use an LFO or other mod source for continuously shifting timbre. Even single-oscillator sounds take on new depth and dimension. The tonal possibilities are vast.
Effects Per Layer
The effects section provides reverb, delays (standard and BBD), chorus, phase shifter, ring modulation, and distortion. In stacked or split voice mode, you can apply a different effect to each layer. Effects parameters can be modulated through the Mod Matrix.
Extended Mod Matrix
Also present from its predecessor is an easy-to-assign Mod Matrix, now twice as big, with 8 individual slots and many more sources/destinations. It’s a veritable sound designer’s playground.
Poly Step Sequencing
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The polyphonic step sequencer allows up to 64 steps and up to 6 notes per step. You can create a different sequence for each layer when you are working in stacked or split voice mode, making it a powerful tool for composition or performance. The sequencer also functions as a modulation source in gated mode, allowing you to create up to 4 different 16-step sequences for complex modulation. Sequences allow ties and rests, and can sync to an external MIDI clock. The arpeggiator features note repeats, re-latching, and can be synced to external MIDI clock, as well.
Per-Knob Programmability
The knob-per-function front panel offers instant access to Prophet Rev2 functions. Included are 512 permanent factory programs and 512 rewritable user programs.
Eminently Playable
All of this polyphonic power is packed into a five-octave, premium-quality, semi-weighted keyboard with velocity and channel aftertouch. Other road-worthy features include an integrated power supply, USB support, and a crisp OLED display, making the Prophet Rev2 an ideal instrument for gigging or recording, and an analog powerhouse like no other.