SPREADING OUT THE SOUND"
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Oct 21, 2010 11:17 am Greetings,
I've got metal song and I'm looking at how to spread the sound out some. It's a good mix with lead andrhythm guitar, bass, and drums.
I know there's a lot of possibilities using effects.
I'm looking for suggestions effects and settings.
Please Help..
HippieRockstar Vatican AssassinMember
Since: Mar 20, 2009
Oct 21, 2010 11:37 am I guess the first quesiton I have is.. what do you think is wrong with what you have? Are you looking for "panning" tips, or just effects/plugins to boost the sound? Also, what software are you using? As an overall, probably limiters, compressors, EQ, and Reverb are the most impt effects to start with. But first, I need to understand what you're working with. A single, mixed down track? Multi-tracks? If mutitracks, what instruments have their own track?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Oct 21, 2010 11:37 am Well, there's a few ways to add space to a mix. You could look at using reverb creatively to create a better sense of space. You could look at how you have the tracks panned. Further left and right will spread the sound out more. Or you could look at using a stereo expander/spreader. If you need suggestions on VST, you can always look around KVR Audio. www.kvraudio.com
You could also try cloning some of the tracks, and set them farther apart in panning, but I think that would end up thickening the sound more than spreading it out.
As for settings, I can't really say. I just set things where my ears tell me to set them. Though sometimes I'll cycle through presets until I find something close, and then tweak the settings further.
If you post a snippet of the work, we can probably better gauge what it needs, and where it needs it.
Oct 21, 2010 07:10 pm create space. Clone tracks and pan them hard to each side. then try to scooting one clone 5 milliseconds slower or faster than the original for a super stereo effect. Also where guitars are masking each other, try using less compression on a lead part so the transients will shoot out from the body of the mix.
try a little bit of reverb on your kick drum.
automate reverb levels of the guitars to they clutter up the ceiling.
also look into mid side if you can't edit it the way you want. but it doesn't sound like you want effects. you want to widen your stereo image and add depth. So i would reconsider any compression settings your currently using. get that depth back by using smaller ratios and lower thresholds rather than high ratios and high thresholds. then do as much as you can with layering and multi tracking. Then at the very end start adding touches with effects.
Oct 22, 2010 05:25 pm I see what you're saying, cool guy. Another question: For thickening things up, would reverb or delay be better if I DON'T want it to be all "echo heavy"?
Thanks
Oct 22, 2010 06:05 pm reverb or delay. Its hard to say with out hearing and by no means am i an expert. But it sounds like we work on the same type of music and are striving for similar results.
I wouldn't use delay on a kick drum. In fact, even the predaelay of the reverb i usually have set at 0 for a kick drum. Just a half second of ambience to give the listener the sense of the room. Sometimes i have so little reverb that in the mix you can't even tell but when the kick is by itself you'll hear a little of that room sound.
Now for guitars. Yes, when layers of guitars start piling up I may opt to use a small delay instead of a reverb. On vocals, I do this even more often. But you still have to decide. Sometimes delay sounds muddyier than reverb and sometimes its the otherway around.
And yes, i agree. Specially with chunky metal distortion guitars, you don't want an big ambeint "echo heavy" set of plug ins. So sometimes i'll layer 3 or 4 of the same guitar on top of each other and only add reverb to one of them.
Also automate the reverb level. Sometimes the reverb sounds fine but when the bassline comes in all of a sudden the guitar seems to far away in ambeince compared. It's not uncommon for me to automate every single reverb in a track.
But anyways. Like a said. you'll get most your depth and stereo image from layering guitars parts, panning, delaying layers a few milliseconds and so on. Plug ins will bring an unwelcome shiny-ness to a track that you want to be raw, hard, and punchy.
Also pay attention for instrements that share frequency bands. EQ them away from each other. If the speaker is trying to revoice a bassline a 200hertz and a guitar part at 200 hertz, then both parts are gonna sound half-***. Decide which instrement absolutely needs this band of freq's to retain its tone and try robbing it from the other instrement. Chizel out sections in the EQ fro each instrement and if they share to much then pan them just a few clicks from each other. (of course you don't wanna pan your bassline). After chizeling out a freq band for your instrements they may sound a little thinner by themselves but they aren't sposta sound good bythemselves, they are sposta sound good in the mix. So sometimes less is more.
And try to scoot the low shelf on the master bus up as far as possible without totally losing your bassline. A bunch of sub-sonics can really tear your mix to shreds.
I hope somewhere in my blabbering i answered your question.
Oct 22, 2010 07:02 pm just a little info: I've heard of rick rubin layering over 100 guitar parts. And system of a down claims to layer 12 guitars on every song from toxicity.
PLay with your audio files. expeiriment.
