I've had a number of requests for a behind-the-scenes look at the process of making my tracks with 80s keyboards, so I figured this video on the Yamaha PSS-380 would be a good opportunity to take a look at the mix session and show you what goes on. When I first started doing these videos I was doing a lot more shaping of sounds with EQs, compressors and various other effects, but these days i tend to keep the mixes fairly simple. The effect I’m using most is reverb. I also look at getting more stereo width from mono sounds, fitting the mix together using EQ, and how I used effects creatively for the final section of the track. 0:00 Intro 0:37 Using reverb 2:03 Compression 2:30 EQ for clarity 3:21 Stereo width 4:53 Layering the drums 5:49 Creative effects on drums 6:33 Mixing the bass 7:15 Distorting the bass… 8:05 Using delay 8:43 Robots! The dry signal from the keyboard will usually sound too raw on its own, so reverb adds a little depth and atmosphere into the mix. I like to use a couple of different reverbs on their own buses and use effects sends to feed a bit of the signal from various different tracks into that reverb space. I always have one with a short decay to give a bit of 3D depth, especially to short sounds; you can use it subtly to the point where you don’t consciously hear the reverb at all, but you’d miss it if you turned it off suddenly. On a different effects send I’ll have another reverb plugin with a longer decay, creating more of a wash; this can really muddy things up if overused, as I have to remind myself regularly (!), but again it adds some polish to these vintage sounds and also some stereo width. I always want the kick drum and the bassline to be the main low frequency elements of my mix, so on most other channels I tend to use some kind of high pass filter to cut out low frequency information that could get in the way; that might mean low frequencies generated as part of the voice itself, or just electrical hum or other noise that can often be an occupational hazard of using 30 or 40 year old electronics. By doing this, you can clean up the low end of the overall mix, making more space for the kick and bass, which should give them more clarity and punch, as well as improving the headroom of the overall mix. It will depend on the nature of the sound (and where the fundamental frequencies of the notes that you are playing lie) as to how far you can take the filter before it starts to detrimentally affect the sound. For the synth bass at the end of the track, I'm sending the signal to a bus with two distortion plugins on it (why stop at one?). I’m also using side-chain compression, which is handy when you have the bass and kick drum competing for space in the low end of your mix; by putting a compressor onto the bass channel and side-chaining it to the channel with the kick drum on it, each time the kick drum plays the bass sound gets dipped a little just for a fraction of a second, which allows the kick drum to punch through the mix a little better. In some mixes that can really make a huge difference in being able to hear those different low end elements clearly and it also gives that classic pumping sound to dance and EDM tracks. Overall, there’s nothing too heavy going on in these mixes; I’m mainly just using reverb and then applying some other effects creatively to play with the sounds and explore other possibilities. Mastering is a whole different story. If you want to get into that, there are plenty of videos out there, but personally I always think that if it’s a track that’s important to you, it’s well worth getting an experienced mastering engineer to work on it if you possibly can (e.g. the main single versions of Generator and Reflector were both mastered by someone with loads of mastering experience and the right space and monitors to hear what adjustments need to be made - find those tracks on https://ift.tt/2XBA4iQ). It makes a huge difference to have a second pair of ears to listen objectively and just do what’s best for the overall sound of the track. But as I say, that’s a story for someone else’s channel - as for me, I just want to make robots dance… You can support the creating of these videos by buying the music: https://ift.tt/2PEjkXb Music: "Eagle Hover" (C) Copyright 2021 Alfonse ALFONSE Store: https://ift.tt/2yaUGFn Website: https://ift.tt/3ffiWaG Twitter: http://twitter.com/alfonsemusic Instagram: https://ift.tt/35lJkue Soundcloud: https://ift.tt/3f7zK2u by Alfonse
