The process of my multichannel track

recording
A guide on how to use Studio One Part Two: Microphones
Audix F6
When setting up the drum kit, I decided to use the Audix F6
for my kick drum. This mainly due to the microphone being
specifically designed for bass frequencies and being
purpose-built for kick drums. The Audix F6 is very
lightweight and compact, making it easy to position when
setting up the mic. Withholding a frequency response of 40
Hz 16 kHz, and the ability to handle sound pressure levels
of 140dB, the F6 instantly became my go to mic for
recording my kick drum. The frequency range for the
microphone was perfect, as kick drums usually have a
range between 100 Hz 15 kHz, giving me more than enough space to play with
when it came to mixing. When hearing the microphone for the first time it
sounded like it had already been mixed later when reading into the
microphones characteristics, I realised that this was because the F6 had boasted
a little more mid-range punch, making it suitable for more aggressive attacks
which I came to understand, is how Rich likes to play. As stated by Musicians
Friend, the microphone has a
hypercardioid pickup pattern for
isolation and feedback,
meaning that much of the sound
will be picked up from the front
of the microphone, but also a
little behind making a little less
directional the Audix F9
(described below). For more
attack, and less bass boom, I
moved the microphone closer to
the beater. This is the sound I
wanted to portray throughout
the mix, as I felt like the song I
was creating sounded almost like a pop alternative mix which usually has a
hard hitting kick drum but not too hard like a rock/punk song. As stated
previously in part one of how to use studio one the kick drum was signal
routed through channel two in the rack mount and the input of an audio channel
of Logic Pro X in order to be heard.
Shure SM57
For my snare top, I used a SM57. This is because before the studio session, I was
fully aware that the Shure SM57 was a dynamic microphone that performs

reliably. It can also withstand abuse and is designed to be durable.

Realising that this was the right mic for the snare top, as the snare has
an act for being quite a hard sound to replicate nicely and make
sound right within the kit I used this one. The SM57 boasts
wide
frequency response between 40 Hz to 15 kHz, making it
accurate
for a snare top, which normally has a frequency range
around 200
Hz 2.5 kHz. When positioning the microphone, I made
sure it was
facing the centre of the snare, as the microphone being
used had a
tight cardioids pattern, ideal for close-in miking.
Shure SM58
The
for the
my

SM58 was used

snare bottom in
project. This is
because it is a
cardioids
microphone
(unidirectional)
that is known for
being one of the
most legendary
mics due to its
uncanny ability
to
withstand abuse
that would destroy
any other
microphone. I believe
that this was
crucial for the recording of the snare bottom, due to the sharpness that the snare
wires produce. Here is a link showing the durability of the microphone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95U7wxPQZdE
Additionally, the microphone has an excellent rejection of off-axis sound,
meaning that the microphone will pick up the bottom snares sound and that only.
Not to mention that the pop-filter reduces any undesirable noises. The frequency
response has a range between 50 Hz to 15 kHz, which is great for snares, as they
usually have a range between 200 Hz 2.5 kHz.
Audix F2
The Audix F2 is the microphone I used for both the rack and floor tom. This is
mainly due to the microphones hypercardioid pickup pattern for isolation and
feedback control. I positioned the microphone in the middle of the toms in order
to pick up the exact frequencies and sounds that I wanted. When coming to mix
the toms, I found that the microphone had this sort of balanced output result,
resulting in me not having to use too much compression on them. It holds a
frequency response of 52 Hz 15 kHz, being right for toms, which hold
approximately a range between 120 Hz 1.6 kHz. When reading up about the
Audix F2 characteristics, I noticed that it had a natural accurate sound

reproduction. This was easily recognizable when editing the toms, as I

didnt have to use too many effects in order to enhance its
sound.
Audix F9
The Audix F9 is a small diaphragm condenser
microphone that is known for its clear,

accurate response particularly in the upper-frequency range. Ideally, it is suited

for a wide variety of acoustic instruments, making it an excellent choice for
overheads and cymbals. The microphone was chosen for the overheads purely
due to its very directional pickups making it extremely good for the recording
source. The Audix F9 has a frequency response of 40 Hz 20 kHz, making it
accurate to record the overheads, with the lowest source of frequency being 100
Hz from the kick drum and the highest being 15 kHz. The F9 is much more
sensitive than any dynamic microphone and will pick-up sound from a greater
distance. However, for my project recording I chose to use the 90 degree angle
technique for the overheads, as I wanted the overheads to have this ambience
towards it.
These images below show you the comparison of how I started with the drum kit,
to how I finish when setting up all the microphones.

When setting up the microphones, I made sure that first of all, the correct cables
were used this being the long cables for the kick, snare top and snare bottom,
and the shorter ones for the rack tom, floor tom, and the left and right
overheads. Secondly, I assured myself that the right cables were plugged into
the correct channels the kick for channel two, snare top for channel three,
snare bottom for channel four, rack tom for channel nine, floor tom for channel
ten, left overheads for channel eleven, and the right overheads for channel
twelve. Lastly, I checked that none of the cables or microphones was in the way
of Rich playing, as this would cause interference in my recording. This was
achieved by wrapping the cables around the mic stands, and placing the
microphone at a distance from the centre of the each drum part where itll be
hit.

The process of creating, recording and

mixing my multichannel track
Throughout my project, I used a variety of DAWS with these being Maschine,
Logic Pro X, and Pro Tools 12.
Maschine is known for being the best drum
programming software and machine within
todays current market. I purchased
Maschine MK2 last year July, and have been
hooked since. This is where I usually go to
create all of my samples and drum
patterns.

Logic Pro X on the other hand is usually what I use at

home, to mix my beats. However, throughout this
project I decided to use Logic Pro X only to recording
my multichannel tracks and use a few other MIDI
instruments. Hardly any mixing had gone on within Logic Pro X for this project.
Pro Tools 12 is

an industry standard for when it comes

to audio production. I believe that it is
the most advanced DAW of them all,
and is extremely powerful and easy to
use. This is why throughout the
majority of my project; Pro Tools was
my go to DAW. Usually I only use Pro
Tools to record my audio and master
my mixes. However, this time it was
used to mix the entire project, near enough from scratch.

When thinking about my project I knew I wanted to do execute something that I

hadnt done before, this gave me the idea of getting at sample and going into
Studio one to record drums and bass just to that sample in my head it sounded
great, but little did I know, that later I would be flourished with problems I hadnt
even thought of.

The sample I chose to use was obtained from a recent song called Say It, by
the artist Tory Lanez. By plugging in two jacks into the USB audio interfaces
input, I plugged my phone in and recorded the sample onto my Maschine MK2. I
then chopped the samples I wanted to use and changed the sample to a lower
key. After that, I went onto my phone to find the BPM of the sample through an
app called BPM Finder. Lastly, I recorded the sample, quantized it to a 1/16 note
and then made the sample approximately two minutes by changing its pattern
over time. This then made me ready for my session on Thursday 4 th February
2016. This is how the sample sounded when I had my multichannel recording in
Studio one.

Sample With LowEnd.wav

When in Studio One on Thursday, I set everything up, as explained in How to

use Studio one - Parts One and Two. I then changed the default metronome
settings of Logic from 120bpm to 100bpm.
This put me in the position of my project being time
with the sample. Once the sample was loaded onto
Logic Pro X, I got Rich to play the bass melody that I
wanted through the Focusrite ISA One FF interface. Rich
then got the bass in tune with the sample, by using the
plugin Tuner.
After the first take, I realised that the bass wasnt sitting
with the sample as well as I had imagined. Through bits of troubleshooting, I
noticed that the sample had the decays of an 808 that had been left in the
original source of the track. In order to solve this problem I added an EQ to the
sample channel track, and took away all of that low-end resonance, up to around
200 Hz. This is what the sample sounded like after the EQ adjustment.

SampleWithoutLowEnd.wav

Rich then
done another take, but seemed to find
it quite hard to record the bass in time
with the sample, even with the
metronome being on. So, instead, I
decided to record a MIDI kick and
snare using the pencil tool and then
loop it, in order for Rich to record
approximately 16 bars of the bass.
This still didnt completely solve the
problem, but made it a lot better, as
the bass was now more in time with the sample.
In order to get the bass exactly on beat, I used
the Flex time, and sliced the bass to a 1/16 note
getting in time with the sample.
When Rich was practicing with the drums, I
adjusted the headphone amps by turning them

up, as they were a little too low

for Rich. After Rich recorded
two takes of the drums, he was
finished, as he had given me
more than enough to work with.
The session was finished in an
hour, which gave us
approximately 45 minutes to
unmic everything and then
bounce all of the files into WAV
formats and import them into
my USB hard drive. Once this
was done, that then completed my Studio one session.
Later that day, I used my Maschine to chop up the bass and drums recorded in
Studio one with Rich. This enabled me to get it exactly in time with the sample,
as Maschine allowed me to accurately quantize the beat how I wanted. I then
arrange the bass and drums in order of how I wanted them to progress
throughout the song. I then made sure all the velocities on the song were
correct.

I could
hear that even when playing with the velocities of the bass, it still somehow
seem to have parts that really jumped out at me. In order to roughly get it to the
same level, I used a Maschine compressor. This reduced the dynamic range
between the loudest and quietest parts of an audio signal, as the loudest parts
were attenuated, and the quieter parts were boosted. I chose the mode classic
for my bass, as the others seem to boost frequencies that I didnt want within my
bass. I then boosted the threshold at -10.0db, in order for the compressor to grab
hold of the louder parts, and left my knee standing at 50%, where I like it. I
then tuned the attack to 0.25ms, as I wanted it to act pretty fast on the bass
and left the release at 100.0ms, which is half way for this compressor, being not
too fast or too slow. Once this was all done I listened back to the bass, and
played about with how much I wanted the compressor to work - 75.0% being my
last decision. The output was then turned to -3.0db, getting it back to the level it
was before.
After all this, I listened back to the song and felt like I should put different
sounding drums in just to give it a bit more energy throughout the track as it
builds.
Following
my usual

procedures, I quantized everything and made sure it was sitting within the mix.

The next day I went into college with a bounced WAV file of my song format and
inserted it into an audio track on Logic Pro X. I then went round, searched for
nice synth sounds and strings that I could put at the end of the song. When
finding them, I played them on the MIDI keyboard and recorded. After this was all
done, I inserted the new Logic sounds into my Maschine session by setting up a
new group. Again, I quantized everything and made sure it sounded great. Once

this was done I realised that I was ready to start mixing my song in Pro Tools.

When setting up my Pro Tools session, it looked like this

Twenty-four channel tracks were all defaulted at the fader level of 0.0 with no
effects on them at all. When looking at this, I knew the first step I wanted to take
was working my way from top to bottom so the first thing I looked at was the
sample.
Hearing the sample play through for approximately two minutes, I realised that it
needed some sort of change in its sound every now and then in order to not be
too repetitive and boring. I wanted to take my listeners on journey, rather than
feel like it was just two minutes of sounds coming in and out of the track. With
this in mind, the first thing I touched was the delay on the sample. When it came
to the second time the audience heard the sample, I wanted it to change slightly,
straight away at the beginning. I felt like delay could achieve this so I automated
its Bypass button, repeatedly turning it on and off throughout the track from the
second loop.

As you can see from the image above, I used the Air Dynamic Delay to provide
this presence to the sample. Below the tracks region, you can see where I have
automated the delay plugin. I set the delay to eight, meaning that the effect
would repeat eight times before fading out. I then set the feedback to 50%, as I
didnt want the effect to overpower the actual sample. The delay also had a
stereo width of 100%, making it have a very wide effect. However, I did set the
left and right ratio to 95:100, giving it a slight Haas Effect. The delay also had an
EQ on it, cutting anything below 41.2 Hz, and anything above 7.12 kHz. Lastly,
the mix was set to 50%, with it again not overpowering the actual sample.

As the track progressed, I wanted the sample to have more of an airy ambient
sound towards it, resulting in me using the Studio Reverb in Pro Tools. As you can
see, the pre delay and mix parameters were automated, and gradually turned up
throughout the track. However, originally, the reverb started off with the
parameters being at: type small room, decay 8.0, pre-delay 0 ms, tone
10.0, mix 1.0. Throughout the track, the sample adds little boosts to the pre
delay and mix, with its highest point being 200 ms for the pre-delay and 5.9 for
the mix.
Around 1 minute 30 seconds into the song there was a drop just before the
synths and strings come in. At this point I knew that there had to be some sort of
dramatic effect to the sample, so I decided to add an EQ. When playing with the
frequencies I actually noticed that naturally the sample sounded a lot clearer
when around 1 kHz, approximately -5.0 db was deducted, and around 2 kHz, 5.0
db was boosted making me leave those frequencies consistent throughout the
song.

14 - Sample EQ Boosts.mov

This video does not contain audio; it is present for

visual use only.

As seen in the video above, when the song drops, the samples EQ boosts 12.0
db at 200 Hz and 10 kHz. I wanted this boost, as I knew just boosting the lows

would cause an effect to the highs, coming to the conclusion that both
frequencies had to be boosted to the same level. Once the drop has finished, the
EQ returns to normal, with -5.0 db reduced at 1 kHz and 5.0 db boosted at 2 kHz.
As well as boosted the EQ, I made sure that the sample contained a little delay to
it in order to further enhance this effect.

During the break down section, I felt like the sample needed to have a dramatic
change again before the change of the drop. I felt like it needed this telephone
effect, reasoning behind why I used the Fuzz-Wah plugin. With both the post wah
and wah on, I played about with their parameters, leaving the post wah at 65%
and the wah at 50%. This meant that there was more of the post wah left on
after the wah have finished its job, causing the wah to have this gradual build.
When playing about with the Fuzz drive, I noticed that the effect didnt need any
boosts, as it actually needed to be turned down in the mix. After setting the
effects mix to 100%, I changed the harmonics of the fuzz leaving them at a
tone of 3.16 kHz. The pedal minimum had a frequency of 428 Hz, whereas the
maximum had 2.07 kHz.
After approving of this
sound, I changed the
modulation of the effect,
causing the sample to
have this wobbling
sound every now and
then.
Just before the drums
and bass come in, I
wanted to add this coolness to the sample, so I decided to chop the sample I was
using and slow parts of it down using the audio suite render effects.

This is how it sounded before

Sample1.wav

Sample2.wav

After finalising the sound of all these effects, I felt the need to move onto another
sound this being the bass. So to finish off, I put the volume level into read and
made sure that it was all at the appropriate level.

Hearing the sound of the bass, I knew straight away that it needed more grit to
it. This gives reasoning for why I put a harmonic Sans Amp on it. I believe I used
this effect extensively well, as it didnt take away from the original sound of the
bass, but at the same time enhanced with this being my main objective. All the
things I turned up were the pre-amp, punch, lows and level. Everything else got
slightly turned down giving its gritty sound. I turned up the level, as I wanted to
hear more of the Sans Amp over the original sound of the bass, but not totally
obscure it. I also turned up the lows and down the highs, in order to get lower
end distortion out of the bass.
After this, I decided that I needed to create two aux channels in order to get a
reverb and delay that could be used continuingly throughout the song in order
to get some instruments textured sound to blend in with one another, as well as
not to use much CPU on my projects folder. Once the aux channels were created
I changed their names to Reverb Return and Delay Return. Then, I put the
reverb channel on bus 1 and the delay on bus 2. Once all of this was set up I
chose the reverb and delay that I wanted to use, and solo commanded both
auxs.

I chose to
use the
Studio
Reverb plugin
effect for my
aux sends, as
it has a load
of
parameters
that I can
play with. I
put an arena
reverb on my
type, as I
wanted
elements of
the song to
sound quite
spacious.
Everything
else was left
the same. With the delay return I chose the Mod Delay 3, and left all of the
parameters the same.
For effect sends, they say you should have all of the effect working, meaning
that its output is set at 100%. However, for the reverb mix, I left it at 5.0
rather than 10.0. This is because I just wanted there to be a tad of reverb
throughout the whole experience of the song.
For the bass, I set the reverb fader to -26.0 db giving it a slight space added to
the sound.
Also, the
delay fader
was set at
-33.5 db. After this, I made sure that the volumes were correct by putting
automated read on it.

As the song progressed, I wanted to add this other texture to the bass. This is
when I decided to duplicate the channel and pick certain elements that I was

going to use, almost as if it was delayed 100% and had an added layer of
distortion on it. In order to do this I placed the picked regions a note behind its
original placement in the song. After this, I took the aux sends off of the song
and lowered the overall output volume of that channel to -4.1 db.
This is the Sans Amp settings that were used. As you can see, everything was
turned up from the original bass settings, except for the lows and highs which we
turned down. I made sure that the highs were at a higher level than the lows
were in order to give the bass almost an arpeggiator sound with a higher octave.
This is how it sounded in the end.

Bass.Distort.wav

As this went so well, I thought to add that same effect within the build up. So,
following the same procedures of the duplication of the bass.distort channel I
made another channel. I didnt touch any of the parameters other than the level
knob in which I turned up on the bass.distort2. I then added the reverb and
delay sends back onto the channel, adjusting the reverb to a level of -11.0 db,
and leaving the delay to -33.5 db. Setting the reverb at this level, gave the bass
a very airy spacious feel, fitting perfect with the sound of the bridge. After
turning the fader volume up to -3.0 db on the channel, I still felt as if the bass
was missing something it needed to be more impressive. In order to achieve
this, I decided to pan the bass drastically. This changed its stereo image, as it

moved within the stereo field.

This is how the pan sounded once complete:

Bass.Distort2.wav

After I was done with the effects for the bass, I decided to group them. This
meant that when need be I could select the group and all together change how
they sounded. For example, if they are too loud in the mix, I could altogether turn
them down when taking them off of read mode. I could also solo the group if
need be. This is how the all the basses sound solo together.

Bass.wav

The only
effect I used
for my kick
was an EQ,
which
boosted 0.9
db at 20 Hz
100 Hz.
Even
though, kick
drums dont
have
frequencies
that reach
this low in
the
spectrum, I
decided to
boost this
frequency
purely
because I
wanted to
hear some
dirt from the
kick, as it
sounded too
clean to my ears for this track. As stated before, the F6 had boasted a little
more mid-range punch, making it suitable for more aggressive attacks, showing
why I didnt need to use too much EQ or any other harmonic effect on the kick,
as the microphone had already handled that. When using EQ, I have come to
terms with the fact that I shouldnt EQ anything whilst in solo mode obviously if
the EQ needs a little touch an up then that is fine, but never to EQ fully in solo
mode. I say this because, your audience is never going to solo that kick and say
that it sounds nice soloed, they are going to listen to that EQd kick in context
with your whole mix. This gives reason for why you should always EQ in context
towards how your overall song is going to sound, rather than making that one
kick sound great with EQ which brings me onto another point. I have learnt that
not everything sounds good when EQd at their appropriate frequencies.
Sometimes sounds have to be compromised in order to get the overall desired
sound for your mix. Your EQ may sound wrong or may sound like it could be

adjusted when soloed,

but if it sounds perfect
when within your mix,
then that is what you
are looking for. This is
the angle I came at
when mixing this kick.

After EQing
of the kick
was
finished, I
decided
that the
kick didnt
sound
aggressive
enough
when the synths came into play. In order to fix this problem, I duplicated the kick
track and cut the kicks that I wanted to use. I then added some distortion onto
those kicks and turned the fader volume down to -21.0 db, as I wanted to add
this element into the song but not make it obvious to the audience what that
extra element was that enhanced the drums.
Once this was done, I decided to do this again but this time using reverb as the
change to the kick. So, I made another duplicate to the kick channel, but this
time added reverb and delay to its send channel. I added -2.0 db to the reverb
aux send, which created this extremely spacious and roomy sound to the kick. I
then automated the delay to where I wanted it to come into play (shown below).
After, I turned the channel down to -16.9 db, and then cut the kick.reverbs that
I didnt want at certain places.

33 - Kick Reverb Auto.mov

I chose to use the same effects and fader volumes for my

kick2 channel and the same distorted effects for my kick2.distrort channel as
well. The only difference the kick.distort channel and kick2.distort channel is
its fader levels, as the kick2.distort is at the volume of -11.0 db.

For both the snare top and bottom, I put a reverb send on, at the volume level of
-31.0 db. However, for the snare top I boosted its higher frequencies with an EQ
by 6.7 db at around 3 kHz. With the snare bottom, I boosted 1.0 db at around 3
kHz. As snares approximately stop at the frequency 2.5 kHz, I thought itd be
nice to boost just above this frequency in order to give the snare this nice
sharpness sound to it showing why I boosted at exactly 2.59 kHz. This is how it
sounded in the end.

Snare.wav

For this song, I wanted the rack tom to sound weaker than your usual rack tom
would. In order to get this effect, I used a modulator this being a Chorus. I left
its rate at 1.00 Hz and depth at 1.50 ms; this gave a real wobble to the beginning
hit of the tom. I then adjusted its pre delay to 6.00 ms just to give the sound its
hint of perceived coolness. After that, I made sure that the Chorus phase was
leaning towards the right stereo field more, in order for it to clearly be heard
throughout that end of the monitor. I then left the mix at 50%, as I didnt want
the Chorus having full effect upon how my rack tom sounded.

I added
an EQ and
deducted
-12.0 db at
around
119.4 Hz
in order to
get rid out
any

background noise that was interfering with the cleanness of the rack toms
sound. The toms frequency starting at 120 Hz gives reason for why I done this. I
then added some reverb send to the channel at the level -31.0 db, and delay at
-26.0 db. After this I turned the rack tom channel down to -11.0 db.
When listening to the floor tom, I realised it didnt need much doing to it, so
instead I decided to add just a slice on reverb onto the channel at the volume
fader level of -14.0 db. The same happened when listening to the left and right
overheads, all that needed was for the right overheads to be reduce to -3.0 db.

Toms .wav

When listening to the ending of the song, I didnt want it to just finish with the
repeated and usual generic drum loop that was taken, so instead I decided to use
the first take from Richs recording that was more progressive. As I didnt play
about with the velocities in Maschine with this take, I decided to use a
compressor in Pro Tools 12 instead. This involved turning the input and output
gains up in order to get more volume out of the compressor after this; I turned
the attack to a faster rate and release to a slower in order for the compressor to
grab the peaks quicker, but at the same time, release them slower. I also, left the
ratio of the compressor at 4:1, meaning that every 4 db that the peaks went over
the threshold, it would be reduced to 1 db. This compressor was put on both the
left and right overheads, which I changed the sound of by simply cutting the
ending of the overheads and then put a lot of reverb on (-11.0 db) and delay (0.0
db). This gave the overheads an extremely echoed fast forward effect.

L-R Overs.wav

With the ending snare, I had the same effects as the other snares explained
before.

With the ending floor toms, I

put a compressor on all of
them but used it only to act
as another volume level
control, by turning up its input
and outputs. Only after
finishing the song and putting
it up on Soundcloud, did I
realise that instead of a
compressor, ideally I should
have used the maxim effect.
This effect controls the
compression by acting almost
as a brick-wall limiter, due to
it enforcing the channels fader
by allowing it to not peak no
matter what when setting the
ceiling to -0.1 db or -0.2 db. I
then could turn the channel
up by turning up the threshold
level but not too far as it cause the sound to lose its essence and texture, as
well as dynamics. This is the same effect I used on the master volume channel,
by
setting
the
ceiling
to -0.1
db and
the

threshold to

-5.0 db.

I turned up all of the high frequencies within the toms using EQ, as I wanted
them to add more texture and light into their sound.

Floor Toms.wav

As I had
editing of the
wanted to put
their own
edit their
them, as well
activities that
altogether
individually.

finished with the

drums, I also
them within
group in order to
volumes, solo
as complete other
may occur, to them
rather than

Drums.wav

Now moving onto the Maschine drums, I decided just to add send reverb and
delay on the rim easy channel. This is because I liked the mechanical feel that
the rim easy sound brought to the song, as it took the song somewhere else.
This gives reasoning for why I didnt want to mess about with too much of the
sound that I already had. The reverb send was at a level of -26.0 db, and the
delay was at an exceptionally low level, -61.0 db. I then turned down the fader
channels level to -7.0 db.

When hearing the heavy

kick, I
knew it
had to be a
lot dirtier and in your face. In order to portray this, I used the Distortion effect. By
turning the output level and mix up to 100%, I made sure that the distortion
effect completely took over the sound of the heavy kick. I then turned the drive
up by 4 db, and added reverb and delay sends to the channel, with the reverb
levelling at -26.0 db and delay at -61.0 db.
Again, instead of using a maxim plugin on the hi-hats, I used a compressor to
turn up the volume. It had the same effect, but just would have been technically
correct using the maxim plugin. I then added reverb at the level -10.5 db and
delay at -31.0 db. After this, I turned the overall volume of the channel down to
-5.2 db.

When it came down to mixing the vinyl snare, I wanted to hear quite a bit of
reverb added to the sound in order to make it seem real open. This is why I had
its fader level set at a high -9.9 db. I also decided to set the delay at a high level
having it at 0.0 db. I then put the volume fader level at -34.7 db. After all this
was done, I still felt as if the sound could fit better within the mix, this gave me
the idea of panning the sound hard left, causing no sound to come through the
right stereo field of that
channel. This seemed to solve
the problem.
When it came to mixing the
kick 909s, I felt like it needed
more tonality in order to make
the sound more endorsing
towards the audience. This
clearly shows why I decided to
boost 6.5 db at 3.70 kHz. After
this was whole, I added a little
bit of reverb averaging its
level at -38.5 db. I then turned
the fader on the channel to
-17.2 db. This allowed the
listeners to not so much hear
the 909s come in, but more so
feel them.
In order to change the feel of the last 909, I decided to reverse it using the
reverse audio suite plugin. This caused an extremely unusual effect that I
actually seemed to enjoy so I kept it in.
Now, hearing the last kick 909 play

back to
back with the new and improved vinyl snare, I decided that I wanted the last
vinyl snare to provide a statement as most of the instruments do in their last
strikes throughout this song. In order to do so, I automated the delay send to
turn off on the last vinyl snare. This left a nice reverb tail, as the reverb was set
quite high, causing the snare to ring out. After this, I group all of the maschine
instruments together. This is how they sounded altogether.

LD Vinyl Snare.wav

Maschine.wav

I found that the

synths group was
the easiest to mix. I
later understood
that this was
because Logic had
naturally put a lot of
default effects upon
the instruments that
I had chose to use
as they do with most
of their MIDI
instruments. Due to
all of this, the
changes I made to
the synths group
were the output
levels and reverb and delay send levels. Their output levels
were controlled by a compressor, simply by turning up the
output on the compressor used. All of the synths except the
arpeggiator had a compressor on them. After that, I made sure
that reverb levels were set quite high, with all of them being at
-10.5 db, except for the arpeggiator, which was at -19.0 db. I
chose to use a lot of reverb, as naturally I like to hear strings
and synths in quite a soft atmospheric place, rather than be too
sharp. Thirdly, I set all of the delay sends at the default level,
this being 0.0 db, as I wanted them all to sound as if they never
stopped playing out. Lastly, I set the fader levels for the
channels - as shown in the image to the right. I then grouped all
of the synths to make sure that they were together. This is how
they sounded when finalised.

Synths.wav

After all this was complete, I decided to take a final listen back to how my song
sounded, and it was exactly how I had pictured it from the beginning in my head.
Ive decided to attach the track of how it started before I made my edits on pro
tools, just so you can see the edits and changes I made. Whereas for the final
mastered track, you can hear on Soundcloud its called More.

Before PT Mix.wav

Akai Milan...

This is the song before I had mixed it on

Pro Tools 12