Most mixing engineers agree that the vocal is the most important part of the track but there are no hard fast rules when it comes to mixing. Some engineers will work on a mix and start blending everything from the start, others will take the vocal and work on it by itself for hours until it sounds perfect on its own. The way i approach a mix will often depend on the style of music I am mixing. With a style like dance music you might only have a few vocal tracks and if they are not just right there is no place for anything to hide. Hip Hop on the other hand the vocals are still important but the crowd will rock to a beat that is hitting hard weather the vocals are good or not. Hearing the vocal for the first time will also help you make that decision. The better the artists is the less will need to be done to it. No one spent hours editing Frank Sinatra’s vocals in Protools and then pitch correcting them with melodyne or autotune. The recording engineer put a a mic in front of him, he sang and it sounded good. If a vocalist doesn’t not have a lot of talent then your going to start with the vocal. Try both ways and see what works for you. Go slow. Stop and listen.

Peter Weis
Composer, Producer, Engineer

DrumsAndSounds.com – Questions

I would like to know some tips for mixing a beat in a small room 6×6. And which is better mixing before adding the vocals or after? Thanks
- Matthijp

Thanks for leaving a comment on the web site Matthijp.  To answer your first question about mixing in a small room this is they way i would approach it.

The first and most important thing to mixing in any room is to LEARN the room.  Learning to Mix music has a lot to do with learning what a “Good Mix” sounds like. Even Pro engineers will sit in room they have never used before and listen to Albums or Singles they know the sound of very well, or listen to other work they have mixed. In both situations your playing something you know and comparing how you know it and how it sounds at this point in the room your listening in. You’ll want to make notes to your self about the overall lows, mids and highs. Take a Good CD you know has a “Good” low end sound. Not necessary loud, but good. Play it in your small room. Can you hear it? Does it sounds to soft, to bassy? Now when you mix your music you know what bass should sound like in your room.   What your trying to do by listening to good records in your room weather it be 6×6 or 30×30 is to give your ear a reference point. Some place to refer back to and some place to compare.  As you start working on your mix you should also compare your mix to your reference mix directly. Switching back and forth. Recording engineers call this AB ing a mix.

Some other solutions to help your problem would be to add a small amount of acoustic treatment to the room.  Also you can check your mix in a pair of good headphones. You will also find that it will help to use small speakers and work at low levels in volume. None of these answers are exactly ideal how ever many  records have been made like this. If you have questions leave them in a comments section below.

Peter Weis
Composer, Producer, Engineer.

Akai EWI USB Review

I’ve been playing with the Akai EWI USB now for 4 days. Here is my complete review of it. If you don’t have time to read the whole review I can summarize it up real quick. I Love it.

The Akai EWI USB is basically a MIDI controller for any one with experience playing a valved instrument or a woodwind instrument. You can play synths in your computer and make music on a instrument that works similar to a horn like a trumpet or saxophone. Why would you want to do this? Well for a few reasons. First not all of us a blessed with good keyboard skills. Second because you can actually blow into the instrument there alot of room for expression in your playing. Your MIDI will sound a lot more realistic.

I purchased my EWI USB from BH Photo in New York. The price was $299 which is pretty standard. Before hand I had looked online at the usual places Sweetwater, Sam Ash, Guitar Center and Amazon. At $299 this is a deal. Prior to this product an EWI was at least an $800-1000 investment.

The Akai EWI USB is much cheaper then EWI 4000s because there are no onboard sounds. You must plug the instrument into a computer by USB to get sound from it. It comes packaged with a library of Garritan Sounds. The sounds range from clarinet and flute to different types of synths. There are also patches that try to emulate trumpets and saxophones. Most other reviews commented that the sounds sucked. There not that bad considering your only paying $299. Besides that the true strength of the EWI USB is that you can play just about any sound you want because its MIDI. Just about every MIDI trumpet and saxophone I have ever heard sounds like MIDI. If you do buy one I recommend using simple presets like clarinet or flute when you first start out.

It does take some practice and getting used to. I spent the earlier part of my life on the trumpet so I am using the EVI fingerings. I am still getting the hang of it and feel with some practice it is well with in reach. You can also you Saxophone and other woodwind fingering settings.

The actual instrument is made mostly all of plastic. The keys do not move. This also take a bit of getting used to. Once you start playing it though you will realize how much faster the response is. There is a plastic mouth piece which you breath into. As a trumpet player this was also a bit awkward at first. Brass players are used to blowing harder to play in the upper registers of an instrument. The EWI makes all this happen mechanically through use of the fingerings. The breath control focus more on timber and tone of the sound. If you a MIDI expert you could also use a program like Logic to reassign the breath controller to just bout any MIDI Message you want. I’ve already experimented using it to control filter cutoff with Logic’s EXS24 Sampler. Along with the Keys on top there is an Octave roller that you work with using your left thumb. This has been the biggest obstacle for me so far. This s where i think the most practice with your technique will need to happen.

Other things in the box include a neck strap. A USB Cable that is about 8 feet long and a cap for the mouthpiece. The neck strap could be better. If you are a saxophone player you more than likely have something better already. It did not come with a case or a stand. From what i have read on forums though most people are using cases made for soprano saxophones.

Overall this is one of the best and most fun gear purchases I have made in a long time. Honestly for $299 its a must for any horn player want to take their chops into the world of MIDI. As I play the Akai EWI USB more I will post more.

Tech Notes: I am using my Akai EWI USB on a Apple ghz 2.4 Intel Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. The standalone application will work fine, but if you want to use the Garritan sounds as an Audio Unit plugin with a program like Logic Studio you must download the free update from the Akai website. I also have been using the EWI with a Dual 2.0 G5 running OSX Tiger and Logic. On this system I installed no programs or drivers. I took the USB cable plugged it in to the computer and it worked perfectly as a MIDI controller. Its important to note that the EWI USB will work as a MIDI controller on OSX Tiger but you must have one of the new Intel systems running OSX Leopard to install the Garritan sound library and configuration application. The application is where you set the preferences for the device including the fingerings.

Got beat making questions? Leave them in a comment below.

Watch the video for a quick way to mute and solo tracks in the arrange window when you are making beats or working on a mix.

Leave beat making questions and comments below.

Here is a screen shot of the arrange page.

The actual wav samples can be any place on your hard drive and Logic will find them. The EXS sampler instruments files must be placed in your Sampler Instruments Folder.

1. You can find this folder by going to your Macintosh Hard Drive.

2. Next  open up the folder that say Library.

3. Next open the file that says Application Support.

4. Next the folder that says Logic

5. And finally the folder that says Sampler Instruments.

6. Drag the EXS files you downloaded to this folder.

7. When you open up the EXS instrument and browse your sounds you will now see these new EXS Sampler Instruments in there.

By the way if you haven’t already signed up for our email list make sure you do it now. You get free sounds and updates on new tutorials and tips.

Distortion on recorded tracks is one of the biggest problems I find when mixing music by people learning to record. Unfortunately the only real way to fix distorted tracks is to record them over. While you are recording vocals you want to make sure you are not capturing any distortion. In the following video I’m going to explain where distortion problem usually occur and some basic ways  you can prevent them. In the tutorial I’am using Logic Studio. If you are recording with another program like Protools, Cubase or Sonar the same principles will apply. What will be different are how your the levels will look.

Please leave comments and questions below. Your feedback is important.

An Example of what a distorted vocal track looks like compared to one  that is not distorted.

The top track has distorted parts. You can see the top of a few parts have a square shape to them. The bottom track in comparison is not distorted. Each part has a rounded triangular shape to it. Using this technique is a very easy way to spot distortion if you are having trouble hearing the difference.

Find The BPM Of A Beat Using Logic Studio from drumsandsounds on Vimeo.

There are many situations when using Logic Studio where you will need to find the tempo of a beat, instrumental or sample. Using Logic’s built in tools you can find the exact bpm of a track  so that it can be locked into the grid for easy editing. With an instrumental locked to the BPM tasks like copying and pasting parts become much easier. If you are doing production this also makes it easier to add additional parts and instruments on top of a sample.  You can follow the steps below while watching the video.

Find The BPM Of A Beat In Logic Studio
 

Import the track into Logic from Itunes or another location such as your hard drives, desktop or audio CD.

Next listen to the track and follow along while you count 2 bars.  When the beat starts you will count 1  2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.

With the scissor tools make a rough cut at the beginning of beat 1 of the first bar. Make another cut roughly where the 2 bar ends.

Switch back to the Arrow tool. Double click on the the section of the beat you just cut out. This will open that section or region in the Logic’s wav editor.

This is where you will fine tune your cuts so that the to bars loop perfectly. To do this drag the anchor point on the left lower corner to the start of beat 1. Usually there will be a kick drum sound here.

Move over to the right now and adjust the where the 2nd measure ends.

Preview the loop, and listen. Adjust the start and end points as needed so the loop sounds perfect.

When the loop is a perfect 2 bars go click back in the arrange window and select a loop area of 2 bars in the timeline.

Double click on the region one more to open it up in the wav editor.

From the FUNCTIONS menu select ADJUST TEMPO BY SELECTION and LOCATORS. Once you do this Logic’s tempo will change to the tempo of the loop.

Go back to the arrange window and drag the loop to the start of a measure.

Like everything in Logic Studio there a few other ways similar results can be achieved.

Please leave all questions and comments below.

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