Lessons
Class Intro & Importance of Mix Prep
25:11 2Unmixable Tracks
33:55 3Josh Newell Interview & Prep Checklist
43:53 4Mix Templates
25:09 5Prepping a Track
16:41 6Labeling Tracks
11:13 7Consolidating Tracks and Markers
21:05 8Coloring Coding
13:43Lesson Info
Coloring Coding
Real quick. First glance. How many threes you see? First place. Okay, very good. Okay. Do any of you guys remember how many threes you saw on first glance? Four and you saw three. I saw three first class. I miss the one on the top. Right. That's when I missed this. Well, right now, six, six that's. Cool. You taken my share? Yeah, so point point of this is ah, right here. You do have to look and you could miss it. Uh, boom. You know exactly where the threes are. Uh, the brain will process color faster than text, just like you guys saw it's a perfect example. Um, color coding things. Uh, the reason to do that isn't just to make pro tools look like a pretty rainbow or whatever. It's ah, so that you can find what you're looking for is quickly as possible. You know, it's funny, though, is I do know a mixer have worked for who likes to go out all colors and have zero color coding. B he's, this planet, only one I know like that. Um, color coding is the way to get around fast and kind of like ...
I showed you guys in that first template example s o I'm gonna skip forward. A couple of slides and then go back but just so that you guys can see this um yes sir using specific colors for a specific instruments like regularly I mean, for one thing you get used to the one instrument looking a certain color you know? So you kind of embedded in your head but there's certain colors like I don't want to associate with certain types of tracks sometimes like it just seems off to me I don't know like bass guitar actual always make yellow and I don't know why but anything other than the other one like I don't want to see a yellow basically tokyo it's weird pink bass guitar haven't tried it maybe it'll work I don't know maybe it's just right I find that the low and sounds better what I mean not just because of like now I know what you mean that like it's sometimes it's weird to think of certain associate certain colors like you know you did all screaming vocals and pink which we actually kind of do because it's fine the reason to keep a consistent is just so that uh if you're doing lots of mixes over time and the idea here is to be able to navigate these things quickly so even one mix you have your base yellow another one is green another one it's blue okay at least it is better that your color coding stuff but the goal is consistency here consistency and efficiency so we try to keep things as, uh consistent is possible with the color coding and also we'll be noticed if even within a certain a little uh type of track will shade it differently like if you look at the base audio track it's a darker yellow and then the bus that it goes to is a brighter yellow if you look at the guitar audio it's a darker red and then the parallel tracks are a slightly brighter red and then the the bus that they all go to is a brighter red and ah and up above you see the drum verb which is a a bus is pretty, you know it's not like baby blue or anything but it's brighter blue than the actual audio and uh I guess you could call that purple or blue uh it looks purple in the edit window but it looks blue on the side sharing their kind of color schemes and it's just funny there's there's no rhyme or reason whatsoever. So I think it's just whatever seems right to you well they're there is a rhyme or reason there's not a rhyme or reason to why we picked yellow but there's a rhyme or reason for why our audio tracks are shaded and our buses are brighter and well you and why parallel tracks air in between is that way when we're looking at this and we're scanning through we always know what a buses we always know what audio tracks are and will always know what parallel tracks are um the actual colors you pick well you know that's up to you if you wantto although there is a consistent basis blue so I think you guys are wrong I always try to avoid leaving the default colors to you like if you create an ox track it'll be green you know and if you create an audio track will be blue like I can all change it's like a different shade of that or something but I feel like if I don't change it from the default ones my mind like if I look at something I think that I think I forgot toe label it properly or something like it almost confuses me if I don't change it to something different than a default well as you just saw from the twos and threes experiment uh it's not getting the color right might even be worse than labeling it and properly like for instance if you know like if you know the base is yellow always and that audio tracks are darker yellow and that the bus is bright yellow I could almost call those four based tracks audio one two three and four and you would still knows base just for yourself within your own session yeah obviously within your own session I mean I'm not I'm not advocating naming things incorrectly but if you understand the color scheme you could almost get away with naming things incorrectly if you've got the colors right yes I don't send your mix engineer much of files that just her color names says a tip to keep different buses from tracks is making buses all capital on ben tracks not but then the precipice tl says do you organize your bus is next to the group of tracks or organize all the buses together? Um okay these air two different things and I'm going to answer them both and then I'll get back to color coding um I mean jump back a few slides because it's appropriate way we're just talking about um so all right good labeling and naming um yes I agree sometime I definitely do sometimes we'll do that thing where a bus will be capital or audio track will be lower case um or you do something like like you see down there uh put in a in front of audio tracks like a gtr rhythm one audio gtr for them too and, you know, feeds the bus but be before it like I mean really it's it doesn't matter what you do with the point is that you're differentiating it like so for instance uh if you have certain tracks that you're using for ah printing samples and then the audio track like say you have say you slight triggered a print of bell brass and that's yeah you have the bell brass preset and that's what you're using and is printing too another tracking us in a rebel breasts audio so you know we'll put s snare bell breast s so that we know that's the sampler track and there's no rebel breast so we know it's the audio track you know you whatever it is you gotta put something there to differentiate it and then that goes back to what I was saying before about I guess how learning how your how your software deals with names and that's what you need to experiment you do you need to underscore things do you need to write them? You need to add spaces do you need to put capital letters in different spots like you just need to you need to try different things and the naming the way that it abbreviate ce changes sometimes from uh from version two version of the same software so this is something is figure out for yourself um all right. And there was a question about color coding uh I forgot it already. Oh, it was just the precipice eighty l do you organize your bus is next to the group of tracks okay all the buses together all right, that depends on um let me go back tio back to that okay depends who I'm doing this for if tomorrow you guys will see different mixes that I've done over the span of a few years where uh you know, when I was working for one person I would start to do it one way and it's a you know, develop more in my own style start to do it another way so now the way I do it is I put the bus at the top uh and then it's particulate audio tracks underneath it kind of like in and out like you get your headline and then the points underneath it you know, uh or like an article judges that's how I see it but I do know guys who will you know, put all the buses at the very bottom so that they can just ah mix mix the buses like do no automation on the actual audio tracks and oh, you know, and just kind of basically mixed the buses and I know some guys who mix you know is a very similar concept who will mix the stems so instead of being ox tracks, those buses will be armed to record much like how I have at the top of the thing and that's what they'll mix like you all go down to like eight tracks and uh and that's where they'll do the mixing so it really depends on how you like to see things I personally like to see things like this bus and then audio underneath it and again because I think of it kind of like an outline or but article I'm reading uh you get the headline for the title and then the information beneath it um and then also to tell just a step further to go bus parallels and then ah audio because you know, like headline and then the uh I guess so I don't even know biggest title or what is the second part of a title called like you know the subtitle like uh you know, expose uh a modern guide to mixing bad music like so yeah, I think about it like that like the main title would be the main a bus the subtitle would be the peril like for instance, right there you see the guitar rhythm uh, guitar rhythm bus and then you have the perils that guitar with them scoop and could tarver them smash and then underneath that you have the actual audio so that's how I do it um now one more thing I'd find that not doing it that way gets confusing and the reason it gets confusing because you end up jumping around a lot like uh if you put all your buses together in one spot and all your audio in another spot it's almost like you will have to jump around the audio and like fix something and then like go up there and hope that you're drawing the automation and the exact right spot and your visual reference for where everything is gone, and it just gets kind of confusing. So, thiss way, just talk about a little bit more about color coding. Um, basically, uh, you guys get the idea. I just kind of want to show you guys where it is. Um, basically, you have, ah, to weigh two to two areas and pro tools where you're going to deal with this one is in the window menu, and one is in the preferences menu and the window menu that's, where you get your, ah, your color palette down here, boom, and then your preferences. Uh, here, your color coding options.
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Boring subject but Eyal delivers the material in an entertaining way. He really does a great job of showing why the prep and organization are crucial to a solid end product. This is much more important to get than the latest and greatest plugin, and is easy to implement and will ultimately save you time and money down the road. Its a no brainer to listen to what Eyal is saying and to apply it. This has been a great confirmation on some of my workflow and has revealed some new methods I had not thought of. Thanks for the great class! cant wait for the next two days. Always impressed with you and the creative live team.
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