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My latest mixing experiment: "Let's get naked"


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No, no, no, that's not the name of a lascivious song.  It's the name of my latest musical experiment.

 

I recently built what I consider to be a pretty good arrangement of a song, using (of course) [only] Logic Presets and a few added mixer doodads.  And, it sounded as good as anything built from presets, without any real knowledge of what those presets were or what they did, could be.  But lately I've decided to embark on a different experiment.

 

After making a backup copy of the original project, just in case, I made a copy of the project and began to strip it naked.  Turn off the sends and remove the "rooms."  Disable or remove effects.  In short, take the whole thing back to the "stems" (if the project had used live recording).  Then, start to build it back up again, from the bass up, one small section at a time, listening to just a few instruments at a time.

 

I was surprised to find a great many performance mistakes(!) that I had not noticed before.  When I was, for example, listening only to the string section, I found a great many dissonant soundings that I had not noticed when I was laying down each part, lured by the sweet filtering and enhancement that each patch brings.  I wound up spending several days (in my spare time) cleaning-up just the performance of a four minute song.

 

I then used channel-strip presets as a guide for making each instrument sound better, and picked pan positions according to the conventional arrangement of players in a symphony.  I grouped the accompaniment into one summing stack, vocals in another, percussion in a third, and sound-effects in a fourth, and created bus-sends to facilitate "ducking" between them.  As I write, I'm sorting out the volume levels (and some automation) within the accompaniment stack.  Next will be effects judiciously (and consciously) applied to the stacks and then to the final mix.

 

I'm really surprised at how much I am learning from this little exercise, given that I am an unabashed newbie.  Although it's terrific what Logic does for you, it's not-so-good when you really don't understand what it's doing or why.  If you "strip it naked" and then start building it up, sometimes adding a factory patch temporarily just to compare "their" version with "yours," you learn a lot.

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That's good Mike.. It's great you are exploring more..   I work on a piece, often overdubbing too much.. Then I step back and put on my analytical hat.

 

I will solo each instrument, and yes, find mistakes, find some 'passing' notes' which are too far out of current mode or scale.. (but surprisingly you can use a fair amount of 'passing' notes (not in correct key) if you shorten their duration and velocity and it really does add something to the piece.. parts are too busy.. I sometimes will go listen to reference other pieces to get a sense of different phrasing..  Often when we play all the parts, we get stuck playing the same kind of riffs but with different instruments.. It's important to try to 'think' like a flute player, a string player.. 

 

When I solo a track.. I also often note, although the part sounds ok in the mix, when solo'd it is just not 'coherent'  

I re-edit some of the notes.  find a motif and repeat it a few times, often having to change individual notes to fit current chords.  

 

Keep us informed of your discoveries.. This is an aspect of  music I have recently been paying more attention too.

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