Bradley Immel's Music Production Tips, Best Practices, & More
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Bradley Immel’s Music Production Tips, Best Practices, & More Most Applicable in Logic Pro X Last Updated: 11 // 18 // 2020 This document is intended to be a collection of tips and tricks that I have picked up over the years. These suggestions are in no way rules or restrictions - always trust your ear, and always explore! Anything stated here may be a bad habit/idea - it’s what I’ve landed upon, but I’m sure it will change. Please share this with anyone who may get some use out of it (: Please offer your own tips, feedback, etc. and I will try it out and hopefully include it here! General Vocab Reverb : the difference between singing in your closet vs. singing in a church or a stairwell. That shimmery-ringing-but-not-quite-an-echo is reverb - the sound of sound bouncing off the walls and making it back to your ear. A reverb is the mark of a space. Bounce : to take a track, audio file, section of a project, or entire project and compile it into a single audio file. It will include the sound of all plugins, panning, automation, etc. (unless you specifically bypass them). Used for exporting audio, turning MIDI into audio (good for sharing a Logic project in which you used non-Logic MIDI samples with someone else), and general project utility. Gain : confusing - lots of semantics around it. A measure of loudness/volume. Generally refers to the input level. For example, if you are recording a track, you set your gain as the amount of signal to let in (to your computer/interface/compressor unit/whatever) and set your volume as the amount of signal to send out (through your speakers/headphones). Also a plugin that lets you control volume (explained later). MIDI : a system of triggering notes in a digital instrument. The MIDI keyboard is not an instrument (it doesn’t produce/generate sound); it’s a controller. It sends something like “MIDI/note62/14/16/98” which tells the computer to play a D3 at 98 velocity from time 14 to time 16. (I made that up and it’s super inaccurate, but it gets the idea across). Velocity : a MIDI term referring to loudness of a note, but more specifically how hard the note was pressed (or ‘pressed’ if you draw the MIDI in by hand). Good digital instruments will have different samples for different velocity ranges (because a snare hit gently doesn’t sound like a snare hit hard but then made quieter). I think of it as the velocity your finger is moving when it hits the key. Sample Rate : digital music is different from analog music in that it is discrete instead of continuous. Specifically, it is discrete with a precise resolution of the number of “samples” per second. Google “digital vs. analog” and you’ll find plenty of helpful drawings of this. Typical sample rates are 44100 Hz and 48000Hz - there’s some math explaining why the highest frequency you can communicate is half of the sample rate - human hearing only goes up to ~20kHz, so anything over 40kHz is fine enough that we can’t really hear the difference. The important takeaway here is that if you record something at one sample rate but play it at another, it will sound sped up/slowed down in a destructive way. Don’t let that happen unless you’re Justin Vernon. Check your sample rates before recording! ADSR : attack, decay, sustain, release - you will find this on every digital synth, often as a little graph. Attack - amount of time it takes for it to ramp from 0 - max volume/intensity. Longer attack = swell. Decay - amount of time it takes to ramp from max to your sustain level. Sustain - level at which the note should stay while the key is held down, after attack/decay times are completed. Release - amount of time it takes to ramp from sustain level - 0 after letting go of the key. Release is the “tail” that hangs off after you let go. Automation : a way of controlling any parameter throughout a song based on linear control points - e.g. for a fade out, you would automate the Stereo Out gain to ramp from 0 -> -∞ over time. Plugins Plugin Purpose Add To Values Space Reverb. The Golden Anything and almost Only worry about the wet/dry Designer Child of everything (usually not sliders. production. Can be kicks, not always bass) used for typical If directly on a track: reverb (‘wetness’, For normal reverb, // Dry: 100 shimmer, etc.) or choose from // Wet: start at 0 and slowly slide for general effects small/medium/large up to taste. Don’t overdo it! to spice up drums, spaces instruments, etc. If on a bus to which you’re For effects/filtering, sending a track: choose from warped // Dry: 0 spaces, small spaces, etc. // Wet: 100 Mess around! // Change send amount to control effect intensity Tube Driver Spice up Drums (all), vocals, // Low drive (for subtle effect) (Pedalboard) ANYTHING, adds guitar, bass, ANYTHING // Squash : 0 grit, some lowpass, // Bias : use your ear! (clips can make bad sounds, like a noise gate - makes recordings sound drums staccato) artful // Low/mid/hi : use your ear Chorus Make it feel wider, Anything! Drums // Rate : 0.5-1.5 Hz space it out, help it (snare), guitars, synths, // Intensity : 5-25% sit in the mix, etc. etc. Bass/kick/vocals // Mix: use your ear! (10-30% for may have more subtle effect) noticeable ~fx~ sound Delay (Tape Echo effect. Make Drums (hi hats, all), // Dry: 100 or Stereo) drum loops more vocals, any instrument // Wet: 0 then bring up to taste organic, space out (usually < 15) vocals (Antwuan Stanley in WFTM), For drum pulse/groove: whatever // Delay Time : 1/2 , 1/16, etc. - depends what you want For vocal spacing: // Use Stereo Delay; turn Wet on one side off, Pan vocal gently (<10) opposite delay // Delay Time : 1/16 or less Plugins (continued) Plugin Purpose Add To Values Vocal Vocal fx - monster, Vocals Pitch will change pitch; use Transformer chipmunk, accordingly everything in between Formant: ***Don’t adjust values // -15 to -5 => deep/monster voice during playback, it can fx create extremely loud // -4 to 4 => moderate to subtle pops*** change // -1 or -2 can make vocals sound sadder (Juno by Choker) // 1 to 4 is like JEWELZ by .Paak // 5 to 24 => chipmunk effect ( Still Don’t Think You’re Mine by Phony Ppl) Phat FX Saturation - warms Vocals (and anything, I Turn everything off except the up vocals suppose?) Distortion section Drive - ‘old mic’ Bit Crush : 0 Leon Bridges/The // Saturation : 10-50% (start low; Dip effect turn up until it sounds warm but not distorted/fuzzy) // Vari Drive : 0 for subtle vocal sat; 5-35% for ‘old mic’ distortion Compressor Making kicks hit Any chordal instrument // Sidechain (top right) - select (Sidechain) harder, cool lo-fi your kick or your vocal track fx, EDM // Threshold - lower until you’re pulse, making getting 3-10 dB reduction vocals stand out // Ratio : around 3-6, usually // Turn auto-gain off Phaze 2 Groovy purply fx Guitar, anything except // Just adjust mix to control how (pedalboard) main vocal/drums much of the effect you want // idk mess around Mixing (General) EQ // 1 Unless you’re mixing a bass or kick drum, cut frequencies below ~200 Hz (esp. for acoustic recordings). That’s where the mic stand bumps, plosives, and general rumbles are. // 2 For acoustic recordings: Take any peak, raise its Q value until it’s a relatively sharp peak. Slowly scan from low to high. When you hear a frequency consistently ringing (as long as it’s not just the fundamental of a sustained note/chord - you’ll notice it’ll sound annoying), dip that frequency with a high-Q peak intensely (-15 dB). That ringing is likely the resonance of the room in which it was recorded. You don’t want the sound of the corners of your bedroom in your mix. Rinse & Repeat. // 3 Other than the above steps, try to only make changes of up to 3 dB at a time. It takes time to develop an ear for it, but any more than that can lead to a pretty bad mix. Compression Compression takes an input signal and reduces the output loudness when the input loudness passes a certain loudness threshold. This means it makes the loud parts less loud, thus making everything less dynamic. Great for polishing tracks; can also make things stale if overdone. Typically applied to most tracks (except MIDI). Can be used as an effect if you utilize sidechaining (See Plugins section). Threshold : the level at which compression will be triggered. Lower threshold means more sensitive compression; generally lower it until it is triggering for loud parts of the recording but not for quiet ones. Ratio : How much it compresses the parts which are triggered. I usually put it between 2 and 5 for mixing. Auto-Gain : I always turn it off. Attack : how quickly compression kicks in after being triggered by a loud sound. 0 ms will cause distortion. 5-20 ms is a good range. Mixing (by instrument) Vocals EQ : Cut below ~100Hz. Sibilance (ssss, chhh) is often around 6kHz (4-8 kHz), but dropping that too much can lose clarity. Sometimes you can make up for it by boosting frequencies around it. Boominess is around 200-500 Hz. Cut ringing frequencies (high-Q --> sharp peak)! * I will often automate the gain reduction of a given peak if I have a recurring strong “sss” or “g” or “t” or whatever sound that I want to soften around 4 kHz or something without reducing it for the whole track, which would sacrifice clarity.