Lessons

Lesson Info

Mixing - Automation

Welcome to Day 19 of my CreativeLive Metal Recording Bootcamp. I'm Eyal Levi. Today we're gonna talk about automation and mastering, and those are two huge topics, so not gonna be able to totally finish them in the scope of this class, but we're going to try. To actually automate this song that I'm working on, the Monuments track, I think that it would take maybe like a good solid day and a few revisions before it was really knocked out. But I'm gonna start going through the basics and show you guys what I would do. So this is where we're at. This is where we left off. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us, wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ Alright. It's sounding all right. But, there are a few things I need to do. You guys remember, I trimmed the whole mix down at the beginning to leave myself plenty of head room. But now is the point wher...

e, I kind of got a basic mix going. I need to start gaining things back up on the mix bus, and adding some compression, so that I really know what moves I'm making with the automation. The compressor is going to react a certain way to certain input level, and it's gonna especially affect things like guitar levels, drum levels, the whole mix, really. It would be kinda dumb to start really automating without that. Just so you guys know, in CreativeLive land, I'm about to turn this up, so be ready. I don't want to totally destroy you guys. First thing's first, is I've got this minus six on trim, so let's go to zero. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets, so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We are ♪ Yeah, have this on a fast release. And I play around with either fast attack or wide open, just depends. I'm going for three or four dB of gain reduction on this. And let's see what happens. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets, so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ Okay, and I've got the high-pass filter engaged to about 80-ish, 'cause I don't want the low end making the compressor go insane. So right now, I've got it on super-fast attack. I'm gonna check that, then bypass it. Then I'm gonna go to the super slow attack and we'll hear the difference. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) Particularly listen to the snare. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ I kind of like them both. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ You hear, either way I go, you notice that the mix immediately becomes a little beefier and glued together. That's what it's supposed to do. And I'm really not pushing it hard, it's just three or four dB of gain reduction, ratio of three, super-fast release and a fast attack right now. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to ♪ I think I like it better with the medium attack, actually. I feel like too slow and it gets wild, too fast and it cuts it off just a little too much. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ So I'm gonna smiley-face this just a little bit. I don't think it needs a crazy, crazy amount, but I'm gonna do it anyways. And this behaves a little bit differently than the waves one, by the way. It sounds different too. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ So you can tell this is all starting to get some life to it now. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ As you can tell, that changes the levels quite a bit. Let me bypass everything. And it's gonna give me a really good idea of where to go. It's important to do this, because even if you're not mastering it, the levels are gonna change drastically when it gets mastered, and you want to mix with that in mind, or you're gonna give the mastering engineer a mix where the minute he turns it up, the snare disappears or the guitars get too loud, or whatever. You wanna simulate it pretty closely. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than it seems now ♪ ♪ Trust can be had ♪ ♪ Between the bars ♪ ♪ When one's self ♪ ♪ Feeding weapons in direction ♪ ♪ Or is this all we ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Oh now we know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than it seems now ♪ ♪ Trust can be had ♪ ♪ Between the bars ♪ ♪ When one's self ♪ ♪ Feeding weapons in direction ♪ ♪ Or is this all we ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ Change the order real quick, put the EQ before the compressor. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) Makes a difference. You should always check that stuff out. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ Not sure if it needs that virtual tape machine. I'm gonna check one more thing out. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ Start some automation. By the way, you might be wondering why I waited 'till the end to put on the master bus, but what you need to realize is that in real live this wouldn't be the end. This would actually be the beginning of the mix. This is the first point in which all the elements are in, they're kind of balanced, not really but they're ready to start turning this into a song. So at this point, you engage the master bus and go. So all up to this point, I wouldn't really call it a song yet. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ I wanna make sure that that lead vocal is always popping up. Before I turn up the lead vocal, I'm gonna turn down the harmonies on this part, and see what happens. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so ♪ ♪ We're free ♪ Another thing that I usually like to do, rather than writing in automation mode, is when there's an overlap, is just put a fade at the end. Sometimes that solves it, sometimes not. Good to check. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious ♪ I will end up turning the lead line up a little bit here. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious ♪ It's important to also go further back from where you wrote the volume automation, so that you can really tell what difference you made. You gotta give it some context or you're kind of like EQ-ing on solo for too long. You can get the wrong idea of what moves you're making. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ It's a little better. In real life though, automate that a little bit more. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so ♪ Bring up the word free, just a little. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ I am going to write that fade into the harmony track, just a little bit. Again, I'm just trying to get the harmony out of the way of the lead line, rather than boosting the lead line too much. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ Pretty much the same thing there. So I'm gonna copy that automation that I just did, to right here. However, there'll be a few differences when the harmonies come back in. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ So what happens when you have bands that play in weird time signatures and stuff, you can't always just do direct copies of all your automation points. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ So actually, right here, I'm gonna do the opposite. I'm going to put the lead under the harmonies, 'cause you're just holding out the lead, and the harmonies actually are what you should be paying more attention to. The key to automating well is to pay attention to the music and really listen for what it is that you need to be hearing as the dominant line. That's really all it comes down to. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) See if turning it down a dB makes a difference. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) Gonna have to make that a little smoother. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ Turn up the harmonies a hair, right here. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) Half a dB makes a difference. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ That probably needs a little more, but in the interest of moving forward, I'm going to move forward. So here's a good one to check out. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Let it all go ♪ What did I just hear? ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Let it all go ♪ Okay, so when you have leads, if you really wanna hear them, it's not so much about turning up the lead but more about turning down the rhythm just a little bit. But I also don't wanna lose energy, so I'm gonna try to just turn down the rhythm by a half dB, when that lead comes in, and see what happens. I'll do that right here. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost ♪ You see when the lead is over, the rhythm guitars kind of pop back up and the vocals pop back up. That keeps the energy going. Check it out again from the soft part into the lead, into the vocals, and notice how the energy maintains a good intensity. Nothing drops off weird. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ Okay, right here on this clean-ish part, I'm gonna turn down, not the bass, I don't wanna turn down the low end, but the high end of the bass could be turned down a little, and that's actually this amp I made. So I don't even need to automate it. I'm just gonna literally turn it down right here. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ And I'm noticing that this guitar over here on the left is just poking out. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ In the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ I'll try a different EQ. Not sure I like the way that that one's sounding. I'll try the fan filter one. Just 'cause. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ The fire ♪ ♪ Concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ Whoa! ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than it seems now ♪ ♪ Trust can be had ♪ ♪ Between the bars ♪ ♪ When one's self ♪ ♪ Feeding weapons in direction ♪ ♪ Or is this all we ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Oh now we know ♪ ♪ You're free to go ♪ ♪ You're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Who could deny ♪ ♪ That I can see him next to me ♪ ♪ Such a creation that achieves ♪ ♪ A vile abnormality ♪ ♪ Holding on time ♪ Okay, so keep on automating ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ So my philosophy is that if you don't have to automate, don't do it. Move things to tracks that are already set-up for a certain sound. I'm gonna move this over to that really affected vocal, and see what happens. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ Framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ Okay. As you see, I kind of jump around a lot. That's just how I do it. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Falling through shadow of life's ground ♪ ♪ Beneath us ♪ ♪ Wander without a lead ♪ ♪ Burning descent ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would ♪ I am going to automate the effect sound on, ♪ Framed ♪ on that word, so you can get a little bit more delay on it. Weird that it won't just switch them all over. Anyways. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Framed to think ♪ Ooh, a bit much. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Framed to think ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious ♪ ♪ Framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Think ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think what would be ♪ ♪ Think ♪ ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confir-- ♪ Okay. Something's annoying me right here. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) In the drums. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than ♪ Already working pretty well. I would actually probably spend a while on this clean section, automating EQs on these drums to probably make them a little bit darker when this part comes in. I'm gonna just try that. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ Something I'll have to do when my screen can actually fit this entire plugin. I thought that it sounded better with a slight low-pass on the drums in the quieter part. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We're free to go ♪ ♪ We're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Until the revelry ♪ ♪ Let it all go ♪ So the reason that I can't see my whole plugin is because of the size I have to have the screen at, for this Bootcamp. But, yeah, right there, on all of the soft parts, what I would do is bypass that EQ and then bring on that low-pass onto all of the drums, so that they all just get just a little bit darker when it goes clean. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ What would be wise to lay ♪ Another thing to listen for, one thing that a lot of people tend to forget about doing when they're automating, is, don't forget that there's certain cymbals that need to be leading at times. For instance, this China part right here. I just realized I could even really hear the Chinas too well. So I'll bump it up a little, see what happens. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ Framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ That's a little extreme. So turn it down a dB. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ We are framed to think ♪ ♪ What would be wise to lay in ♪ ♪ Parents of planets so blind ♪ ♪ Lost in the fire concealing the doors ♪ ♪ Lost on my descent ♪ ♪ We ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ♪ Save this confirmation ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ This is the same thing right here. So we'll copy-paste that China automation. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than it seems now ♪ ♪ Trust can be had ♪ ♪ Between the bars ♪ ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer ♪ ♪ Oh, now we know ♪ ♪ You're free to go ♪ ♪ You're so damn anxious to be ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ This time ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer ♪ So at this point in the day, what I would actually do is stop mixing, 'cause I'm feeling ear fatigue. And I would probably come back and automate it the next day. So basically, depends on if I'm prepping the mix or not. This one was half-way prepped but not entirely, so I break it up. So day one for prepping, if it was on me, day two to basically just setup a rough mix, and day three to automate it like crazy. I wouldn't do it all on the same day, especially after setting up the rough mix, I wouldn't just get to automating, 'cause you're gonna have a hard time hearing. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on ♪ Right there, I might automate in a filter on the kick, 'cause it gets kind of busy and it's getting lost. This actually is something that I do whenever I set this one up, the bypass, with everything below 45, on the kick, and especially with faster bands. I basically just kick this on as soon as it goes to double-bass. ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the ♪ ("Quasimodo" by Monuments) ♪ I've ♪ ♪ Fallen, lost in the desert on flame ♪ ♪ Safer than it seems now ♪ ♪ Trust can be had ♪ ♪ Behind the bars ♪ Cool.