Lessons

Lesson Info

Editing & Mix Prep

We've been tracking and showed a little bit about layering guitars and what that can add to the feel of of apart and you know, there's a lot of people that will do you know, as a rule it's like we always do to guitars what we always do for guitars or, you know, there's a again I've stayed this a million times, but there's no set rules it's really just trying to serve the part you know, it's not about me it's about the artist it's about song it's about the what you're trying to get across so we just have tio always keep that in mind always just, you know, serve the song so let's, I guess we track those those few sections, but I guess we're goingto get into now a little bit of, I guess editing and again, I'm not a big editing guy uh, I grew up making records on tape you can't edit that, you know, you really can't enter the guitars on tape, so but I know that for a lot of people the reality of it is is that they want to add it, they want to clean up the guitars, they want to do whatever t...

hey want toe, you know, fix it um again and start to the source you you try and get it as close as you can but you know, here's where you have to look at the screen, you know, when I always say when you're recording, don't look at the screen don't look at the screen and I use yellow the musicians don't look at the screen, stop it here you have to look at this rate, so, um just doing in on things and then again, I show you when we were punching in using quick punch that's that's the way I prefer to do it. Some people like tio not have any cross face on their audio before as they're tracking in just because sometimes especially for doing a lot of puncheon's if there's punches on every track and tracks aren't consolidated uh, you know now it's not as much of an issue a few years ago, it used to be more of an issue used to really slow your computer down to a halt. Now computers are much faster, more powerful, even without hd, you know they can handle a lot of edits and not it wouldn't be an issue, but I still say, you know, I've gotten tracks where I'm mixing, we're talking about mixed prep a little bit, but the gun tracks where people send me I mean, I have a list of requirements when, you know, if I'm mixing a record that I didn't record, I didn't track and you know, the first thing is make sure your cross raids a good make sure there's no cliques and pops in the audio and then take everything once all your fades air are there and then consolidated and for those you don't know it's in pro tools it's called consolidation in cuba is it's called bounce track is that what it's called okay, but there they're all basically the same thing but it's so you have your section and you have all these little regions and all these little sections and it's a bunch of audio and it comes up in the bin or the pool, as it called it's called in some programs and there's a lot besides there's a lot of tracks in this song, but there's all these little regions and there's all this stuff and it's just all this unused audio you don't need that stuff, it clutters the session that makes a huge if you're going to try and send audio to somebody else for mixing, if you're not mixing it yourself, you know all the unused audio that's sitting there it's just bloating the size of your session, you want to clean that up, you want to get rid of it uh and again its terms of what it is thing I always talk about is committing so it's like, ok, if we know are or, like, tracks are it sounds good. All the punches. A good I don't want to clean up all the noises. I want to keep all that stuff. Highlight all the regions and is where is consolidate clip right there. Boom! Going on my my point while this is loading up, even though you're looking at the screen what's the plus the primary thing here, it's audio, you're listening years in your ears and that's what you have to dio because, uh, what doesn't work is editing completely by sight. It's a road map. What in the world is going on here? Okay, I don't know. I'm gonna find out in a second, really in the session, but you have to save your work. Well, that yeah. That's. That's what we're trying to demonstrate here. I'll tell you right now, very quick aside, going to preferences in pro tools. Uh, where is it operation right here. And enable our session audio file back up because just in case something like what just happened? What if we were working for a lot for an hour and then that crash and I didn't hit save once we're working on record once and somebody in the studio through a like ketchup packet. And it went across the room, bounced back and hit the little reset button on the mac. That was like this big with the corner of the ketchup packet and turn the computer off before we saved. So this is a three story this wasn't this wasn't on pro tools itself, it was actually the was when we're making calculate infinity, and it was there was a macintosh that was covering the automation on the console. In the neo tech consul, we were mixing through there's, moving failure, automation and, yeah, a sauce packet furch nuggets, chicken nuggets across the room flew across the desk and hey, ferries little button, one of the brazilian chance the hit, this little reset button and all my friends went to shoot the tires on like manual automatic isn't work hours of like, yeah, yeah, so save your work used, save, save, save, save or if you don't want to get into the habit of hitting safe, constantly enable auto save like I showed you and make sure the area does have every dog has auto safe. So that's a quick aside to give you a good rule of thumb, so you have a guitars and you've got all these little chops in them all these cuts, no, sorry about this, folks. We have a lot of cuts of it for example, if these were all say these were all punches you know and again you select them all uh you had consolidate clip or the shortcut the keyboard shortcut, his option shift three and great um now getting into punch now really, which behind clips back because our other tracks because we don't have all the cross fades that we're trying to show. So okay interesting enough show an example though now going into getting into editing instead of using the stuff that we already tracked um and I showed this before but some people and some schools of thought they would take these two guitars right here and they would slide them over to this. So go oh, yeah we want to line it up with the kick drum great. Fantastic. Listen to that right that's on according to this visually it's totally on not even close so point is that's very simple your eyes will deceive you your eyes will always deceive your years you have to use your years and it's a road map and that's what I mean by it like it's like ok, well, what if say, if this guitar was early like it was actually like it felt early, you know, even that honestly feels cool a little bit earlier feels little now it although it still sounds like it's on but it changes the whole feel on the whole push push of the of that of that hit with drugs thief it's still cool it's a little on top if that's how you want it to feel great but did I look at it and find go oh I needed to go that many milliseconds before no I didn't so what if it's like that and you go ok it's it's on but okay I don't want it to be I want to be more on but I don't want to be like perfect so to me I feel like use your ears completely and you could you could say ok, I need to go towards that way so you can use the nudge in pro tools say like by I mean one millisecond you know really really you know tiny or you know further maybe like two or three okay, so you got two milliseconds now what I do is I know I have to go this way I have to there's your road map I know I want to go it's a little early feels little early so I won't look and I'll just go around there, you know, and then but you're nudging it using the plus and minus you could set up here the nudge unit on a grid we're going like say forget grid forget used time completely just twenty four seconds and cares, you know? So let's put that and let's feel that better do it again. But don't assume, you know as long as you know you're on your regions. Don't look at the screen at the pre roll and maybe do your pre roll for two seconds. Do a couple more people know I just changed the rule. Yeah, so two seconds before and after and then you go, ok, it feels right. Try a little further and that's it it's literally a simple is that like, you know, sometimes you really need to look and say ok, we didn't like that him but for the most part it's it's on ly a road map it's on ly a guide and you should always trust your years it's like what is not what it looks like what does it sound like? Because, again the things that we look at and go oh my god, that's early but it's completely not. And that in their psychology too, because your ears and what sounds right to you has a lot there's a lot of factors. You know what you're used, how the distance here used to hearing music from where you sit you know how if you're a musician how far you are from a drummer so when we don't know all those factors but you know how it feels so and yet what feels right to me is not going to feel right to him is not gonna feel right to you certainly not going to look right on the screen. Yeah that's the absolute that's an absolute must um my goodness, I really wanted to open up that other session and I wonder how I can get back to that one. Yeah, maybe the session back down to see if that like most recent let's see really quick guys to spare with me? Um yes. All right. Yeah thanks guys. Fantastic. So again showing the old section cleaning up maybe again going to the thing of like saying like, okay, maybe we want that one that one spot keeping everything really dirty but we want that one spot because it's almost like a scene change and we want to just we just take it highlight it hit delete and then maybe a quick little fade on there yeah hit save oh yeah now we need the when I lost my bet say seal track just again it's creating that one little spot like everything else is dirty and leaving all that just for that start just for that one little spot just so we know that brings in the next change, okay? And going back through same thing, making sure just going through honestly, a lot of times what I'll do, because if you're doing, if you're punching in a lot, what happens is sometimes pro tools. Well, ten if you punch in on a punch in, sometimes what happens that you won't have a regular clean cross fade, it'll give you a fade in if you wind up punching in on the same section. I don't know if you've ever any of you have ever experienced that if you'd done that where you notice where it's it's not across favorite it, right? Right and fix it, and that in terms of if you like I said, what you punching over an actual cross fade? If you actually punching on the happened to land on the exact same time, it'll put a fade in instead of a cross fade so and in in a track like if you're punching through and it's in the middle of a cord that will create a pop, not so much here and stop, but that will definitely create a pop they can just show if I could just, uh, no doing across fate, I won't do it for me and that's, a really long one that if you hear it it's pretty smooth anyway, but point is it will it will most of time create a pop and you want to make sure so what? One of the quick ways that I'll do it just to prepping prepping tracks in terms of mixing is if there's if there say there was a lot of punches and I'll just zoom in take off tap the transient which is this little knob right little button right here and that way when you tab you're tapping it's just having at the start and end of every region that's there so I'm literally tapping through and checking my work you know? So this one here was missing across fade okay, this one missing across they do it just having through every you know going through on track by track basis you know, tryingto do you want to explain what when you do cross fades what thegame structure and the crossfit is and when you use different versions different I know that you have your preferences yeah, I mean, I you know, in general well, you know a sfar the type of prospects you cross fade well in general I just use a basic this's what's known as a equal gain cross fade sometimes there's that those nuns equal power which is a gentle or slope um and when you're transitioning between different sounds, sometimes it will sound too abrupt and this will actually uh give you it's just it's just a matter of different sounds and I'm trying to see if I can get like a section with puncheon's and we could actually here the difference let me see how we could do this okay take for example that section that we did and we punched in that really weird striving guitar okay, so let's take these two phase and eliminate them you could go if you want to eliminate fades on a broad stroke you could take this and go fade delete I'll take those two fades out obviously you could hear there's no cross fade and there's a pop in the second inning here it's very simple it's very loud you know it's whoa if you zoom in and scrub it you can hear that cross made world so in the pop and I've had plenty of things where people prep files for me for mixing and there's either no cross phase or they consolidated the regions like I showed you before and without cross fades and there's pops all over the place and you know, calling mango you have to fix it and then sometimes they go I threw out all the files sorry they committed and that is the case we're committing was not such a good thing, you know, I believe in committing even on this kind of thing and but you can also what you could do is save session as or safe copy and you could say that and do a version and go seal track you know zero point one or if you want to be specific you can write fades you know c l track fades feds on that way the other version you have without the cross fades is already there now you have the new version and you haven't you always had you do have a safety to go back to backwards if you needed to go back and revise something you have that but then in the new section take that throw everything else out come into it so I will show you zooming in I mean in the perfect world you're looking at you know when they tell you in school or whatever and I'll tell you ok we'll look for a spot where there's it's crossing the zero see the line in the middle of the region heroes in these out little further ideally you want you know get it so where it's it's crossing the zero threshold and that's where you're not going to hear a pop you know if you could if you could make the region is line right there anything over above it you're going to get a pop but I mean honestly especially and get in guitar I mean it's all distorted guitar it's all over the place is not you're not going to really ever get it to where you are lining them up so it's going to hit right so that's where you cross fades and you do this highlight this like a little section apple if you could just hit f without if you're on quickies and with a hotel key focus commander thing and pro tools you could just hit the button the f letter f that's it and it's going to go to the default cross fate which is the equal power one that I first showed but if you wanted to adjust it hit command f and then you have the option of equal gain equal power and then you can slide it tow where and you know you can eyeball that and go ok what looks more it's even on both sides now looks skewed to the to the left side the top is what's to the left of the cross fade one on the bottom is what's the right and you could show where it's evening out but so I mean you know you eyeball it wherever but you could also audition it there's a way to audition it but we don't have a iot said the way you have it set up we won't be able to audition but normally you can audition in here so that way it's not just I belonged again using your ears you can click audition ideally and hear what that cross state sounds like um and then go forward lips tab through it same thing and we do the same thing looks and even an out right about there no that's almost a little smooth because the parts so jarring that you don't want it to be that smooth so again a new create fairy that worked well in theory that work well but two in a in a bubble that's right that's great but that's not what we're going for so I usually go with that equal power one regal gain it's still smooth is no pop but it's a little more of a jarring because that's again you're trying to make a hit with that with that drum and you wanted to again what's the focus you want to be jarring you want so you know sometimes you have to adjust your edits to make sure that it's still you're not just getting all techy with it and going ok let's make everything smooth and lets you know let's make it perfect same thing is just the tracking like perfect perfect sucks I don't like perfect perfect is boring it's not you know so it's again it's about using your ears and sliding region around if you need teo you know again I try not to do that ever but sometimes you know I mean there's plenty of times even on dillinger stuff there's there's things where it's like um and when you're you know it sounds awesome everything all of a sudden, you know, when you're listening with a bunch of tracks and you go, you know, something might slipped something my slip through the cracks, and I'm mixing and be able to go man, you know, ben flew across the country, I'm mixing the record now this parks like this is weird, so yes, in it, you know, it's it's in a pinch, it's great, you know, like the talents gonna be ours has gone home and man, I really this part just really wish we could have it could have hit a little earlier, not perfect, but just I feel like it's just too on top and maybe it needs to slide back a little bit and stuff like for that it's fantastic, but don't rely on it and, you know, once you go down the rabbit hole it's so easy with any kind of editing and, you know, people even, you know, talk about like the vocals and auto tune and everything like that, and I don't I hate auto tune, but it's, not like I haven't ever tuned a note in a sort of vocalist. Of course, I have almost everybody has, you know, even the most ardent, like, no, you know, like you know natural guys like I know like my friend ross like you know he's even two vocals before you know but you're turning a note you're fixing one little spot and you're never tuning it to the note you're never fixing it just like you're never fixing it you know taking the region and moving it on the kick trump you're moving it towards the kick trump you're just massaging the field just the slightest bit but the problem is once you start you know it's very easy to never stop and then to go oh I could fix that oh I could fix that I can fix that and then you know twenty fixes down the road the intent and the thing that I talked about the original intent of what's there is gone so be very very careful when it comes to anything don't overdo it and don't do it because just because you have because you can doesn't mean you should and that's the big thing that's the big trap that a lot of modern engineers and producers fall into they go oh I can do this so they feel like they have to because it's there and so I'm not using this what do you do? You need to use it like ask yourself really really beyond yourself and ask yourself do you need to use this so what about you with the on the living things I find it hard tio say no just say no sometimes like I overthink everything I over at it like work to like longer than they should on things so uh but again I'm typically not going I'm not making a real record unlike kind of doing things for demo purposes or creative purposes and then these tools become really, uh this guy's limit you know, for cutting and pasting movie things around coming up with creative ideas so it's really great for that but yeah, you can definitely go down the rabbit hole and get lost really you guys and your phone to the over editing trap yeah it's gotten to the point sometimes when I'm working on music that during the compositional state is ill deliberately leave the computer off and just play the instruments because it's too easy to start manipulating and it takes away from what it's really about exactly the going back again committed to the original intent of the song you know, like I said this all this technology I'm not anti technology, but I am anti abuse of technology you know all these things that there are tools that they're they're great, they're great, but you know, you're making all the ultimate what are you doing? You're making music, you're not looking and you're not, you know I could be in a photo shop just after that's case I mean what's the what's the point and every producers. And I'm not going to mention any names who would actually have the guitar player come in and basically play every note in the song just and then recorded and then be like, ok, leave. And he would literally cut and paste the riff assembled, disassemble the riff and cut in place in programming. Basically guitar player completely man that's not, that is not. What I want is caylee sentences that z.