Hello, and welcome to another episode of Inside the recording studio. I am Jody Whitesides. And with me as always is Mr. Chris Hellstrom. How are you today, Chris? I'm doing good Jody. How about yourself? Was I I'm doing pretty good. smacking my lips already? No, I'm just making a reference to what we might be talking about in today's episode. Ooh, I see. I see. Yes. We are talking about Yes, sir. preparing our tracks for mixing. So whether we're doing this ourselves or we're sending Yeah.
off to somebody else to mix, these are good things to do. And this is something that you've always been a big proponent of for a fair bit of kind of doing this Well, I've not always been a proponent of it. and mixing in a different template that kind of thing, right? So no, but yes, but I am a proponent of it now. I would say probably for at least five years maybe, you've been kind of doing Longer than. this? See, I mean, it's a lifetime of doing this. Yeah, I guess. So what are we talking
longer than that. Yeah, I guess once you get past the five year mark, it's a lifetime. about when we're doing this? Well, we're going to go through in detail here a little bit what we're doing. Both you and I are proponents of not necessarily mixing in the same project as we've done the writing or the recording. Hmm, I'm trying to think of an exception to same DAW file for those that don't know what he means because not every book not every DAW calls it a project. [LAUGHTER]
that but I can't but either way. Okay, so fair enough. But yeah, so let's say the same (laughs) (laughs) (breathing deeply) project file or the same DAW that you're tracking and you've done all your writing, you recorded [Silence] everything in one window. The things that we're about to talk about here, they will work even if you don't have the habit of starting up another song file or a flying cars.
project for the mixing duties. But these are good habits to have before you get going because I know I can speak from experience that early on when you find issues as you're doing a mixing and you're compressing your vocal or whatever and it's like what the hell is that? So we're gonna try yeah so we're (chuckles) gonna try to alleviate this. But the first thing I would say if you're opening By opening up a separate project file. up another song file, what are the benefits to you by doing that?
Mindset, mindset is the first thing that comes to mind. Yeah for the mixing, going from one to the next, why would you not just mix in the same project file? The second thing is temptation, Yeah? because having the song file that you've done all of your writing and tracking in Okay. as your mixing file as well leads to, as a biblical reference, Eve tempting Adam with the apple.
Just kind of holding it, shaking it in front of your face like, hey, I could change this sound at any given moment right now. And that just leads to problems down the road in my mind. Sure, I'm not there either, but I'm just trying to give an example. I'm going to bypass the whole religious angle because I'm not there with you. But yeah, no, yes, that is true.
It's very easy to like go, oh, you know what, maybe I should change the sound because I can't or maybe I should do this or yes, it can have the benefit. Uh-huh. I agree with defining your tasks. Now I'm doing this and get a little bit more of a different perspective of the song, I Uh-huh. See, you've simplified what I was attempting to say. suppose. So I think that's the first on the podcast. [Laughter] Yes. This is usually the other way around.
Another benefit of doing it like this, and even if you don't move to a different project file is it makes your archiving and backing up a lot easier. And that will make more sense Well, you're saying having a singular file makes it easy, right? when we get to talk into specifics here in the next half hour or so. No, not necessarily. Nope. Hmm. Nope. I mean, I can go both ways because I know that today The workflow isn't necessarily as defined.
So I know that there is a temptation of just, okay, everything is tracked, I'm good to go and start mixing here. And there's not necessarily anything super inherently wrong with that, [BLANK_AUDIO] but the tasks that we're about to perform and talk about would be valid even if you stay in the same project file or not.
But I'm with you on the mindset, that sounds really, really like I'm talking out It's quite possible, but some mixing engineers will say, hey, of both sides of my mouth here, but it's more the separation of the mindset, I think, but it's also obviously, if you're staying in the same project file, I'm assuming that you're gonna do the mixing yourself as you've done the tracking, you're not gonna outsource it.
Yeah. Yeah. send me the Pro Tools file or send me the logic file or send me insert DA file. Right. Mm hmm. But even if I'm gonna do that, You don't say. because I'm anal retentive, possibly, is that I will still, well, I know, Of course. but I would still do cleanups on that file before I send it over to them because it's the size of a file or anything, One would hope. but there might be erroneous audio tracks and stuff that are not gonna be used.
I'd like to get rid of them just so that they can see exactly what's going on. But the tasks that we're talking about here are on the surface, I think they're kind of obvious, right? But one would hope, and if not, they should be obvious Hope. [Laughter] after you listen to this episode, I think. And hopefully they'll help out the workflow. [Silence] And I know it certainly did for me. The big thing that I'm thinking about first is obviously things like comping tracks.
If you have like multiple choices, whether it's whatever the instrument is, if it's vocals or guitars or whatever, Mm-hmm. do all the comping and have one track [BLANK_AUDIO] instead of all these little tracks. In the verse, I'm going to take number eight and then I'm gonna have take number two [LAUGH] I can stand by that. on the other one, right? Well, do all that comping so that you just have one continuous track or multiples, but comp the tracks.
And that's an obvious one that I don't think that needs to be said, but I just said it, damn it. So, yeah, exactly. Comp those takes, yeah. Unless you don't trust yourself to cop your own takes. And the other thing would, Yeah, but I think then that's a different issue. Then you need to outsource that. Because I think if you're sending it to somebody to mix, let's say, and you're asking that person to comp the tracks for you, you can be harsh and say, "Well, that's not really that person's job."
So what kind of emotion are you going across? It's one thing to ask for opinions, right? Was that well, what do you think when I went up with the vocal here when I stayed flat whatever but make those decisions before Sure. That's a big thing just straight off the bat. You even decide on mixing if you can't decide on the tracks. How are you gonna start mixing other thing is track organization? Right, so do you have an order how you like to have them laid out what's that? I do.
Mm-hmm, right In terms of a DAW that's set up in its arrangement window, Vertically speaking, the very top will be the drum tracks. Yeah. The next tracks after that will be the bass tracks Hmm. or track, depending on how you track it. Following the bass tracks, going down the screen, Ah. so to speak, guitar tracks, Mm-hmm. and then pass the guitar tracks or any kind of stringed tracks, Mm-hmm. whether it's mandolin or ukulele or some other stringed instrument.
From there, it goes to synth tracks or any kind of electronic track or soft synth track. [BLANK_AUDIO] Below that would be if there's any orchestral stuff, then I would start grouping the orchestral section after that. We've been working together for far too long because that's the exact same order And at the very bottom, and not to say that it's the very least, it is the vocal tracks. And I will do lead on top backing tracks all the way down to the bottom.
(laughs) (laughing) that I do stuff in as well. Yes, and then to top it off, [BLANK_AUDIO] it's not just the organizational of doing that. It's also the coloration of the tracks. I will group sections of instruments (silence) to the same color of color. Mm-hmm. That just sounded really silly, but that's what I mean. In that all the drums will be some sort of yellow. All the bass is some sort of browns. Yeah, that's an easy, overlooked thing. All the guitars are some sort of blue.
All the synths and stuff like that or some sort of green orchestral tracks will be some sort of purple. And my vocal tracks will be red. Or more. I think it just helps your workflow because once you get a bunch of tracks lined up, It's not unusual to deal with up to 100 tracks on a session these days, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, or more. That gives you that overview. So when you're scrolling, you know, okay, here's my red tracks. That's my vocal. That's where I'm at in the arrangement.
Yes, especially if you're sending it from the same DAW, like if you're sending it from That's a big one. I know I've played around with this in the past and tried to group things. I'm very similar to where you are as well with the color coding. Sometimes I get bored and look at stuff, but then I get thrown off if I change it.
the basic organization and now of course if you're doing that and you're sending it to somebody else never mind you doing the work yourself it gives them the overview as well where it's not like oh yeah the same DAW, like if you're track everything in Pro Tools [ Pause ] and you're mixing engineer, or you are the mixing engineer, getting everything in Pro Tools, or say it's Logic Pro, or some other DAW, like Cubase, or Digital Performer, or Ableton's Live, or Studio One,
or even Luna for that matter, having everything grouped visually speaking when you get it just makes it so obvious as to, here's my group of this, so that the mixing engineer can rearrange it. And if you are the mixing engineer getting this, Absolutely. it makes it easier for you to rearrange it if you need to rearrange it according to your whims. And you know what else that we're kind of And that's the first thing that I tend to do a little bit off topic.
But if I'm receiving tracks from somebody, I want to make sure that I know what I have and then I organize it in the way that I like to have it so that I can see it. glossing over right now? What's that? naming each track appropriately. Oh, yes. So within my drum group, Hmm. I have two kick tracks usually, the kick inside, the kick outside, and possibly a kick sub. Hmm. I will have snare top and snare bottom. Maybe there's multiple mics on the top and bottom. [silence]
So there's gonna be additional snares. And they're all gonna be labeled appropriately. Same thing with hi-hat. Hi-hat's gonna get labeled as hi-hat track. Then I've got overheads and whether or not it's mono or stereo. And then there might possibly be multiple Tom tracks as well for the individual Tom hits. They will all get labeled appropriately. So I know what piece of kit in the drum kit it is. Label that shit so that you don't get lost.
Yeah, that's a giant thing, right? Because, you know, we All the way up to audio 150 take 45. all joke about that, but you get a session from somebody and they're all called audio one audio to audio three and now you have to listen to right. Yeah, exactly. So be kind, not just to yourself, but And you're like, what the hell am I looking at? I won't work with you anymore. if you're sending it to somebody else, please make sure that you label your track or they will not want to work with you
anymore. Yeah. So that's what the basic general organization that I will do. So the naming, I'm going to interject again before you go anywhere. the organization, the color coding and all that type of stuff. Let's get into a little bit more specifics. Yeah, sure. Mm hmm. Oh, sure. I'm going to interject another thing and that is if you're not staying in the same file and you go to export all your tracks, the naming convention becomes highly important when you export your multi-tracks.
It makes it so much easier for your mix engineer to pull it into whatever DAW they're working [ Pause ] on and automatically everything's labeled. Now saying that, I will actually label by group. So I won't just say kick drum in, kick drum out, kick drum sub. I will actually insert a custom tag in front of it that says drum, drum, kick drum in, drum, kick drum out kind of thing. Drum, snare, drum, hi-hat, drum, so that all of them are grouped under drums. Hmm. And that makes it easy.
Same thing with guitars. Every guitar track will have the tag guitar in front of the name so that they all group Hmm. Yeah, I don't do that, but I see that because then it's the files are organized together when it gets imported into the mix engineers, DAW. Yes. Very much so. in their finder or their explorer if you're on a PC, right? So right. That's a good point. And with, yeah. Well, let's start with vocals. And now a word from our sponsors. And we're back.
We're going to get into some bigger specifics other than just general organization and what are some of our specifics? Start us off, Chris. Oh yeah. I've already dealt with the comping obviously, but this is also before we start mixing, I (sighs) (sighs) will do any kind of tuning if necessary to make sure that I have a vocal that is as pristine (sighs) (sighs)
and as good of a performance as it can be. That's a big one. Another thing that I do at this stage as well, because this is something that can kind of sneak up on you, I kind of like a hint at the beginning of the podcast, removing any kind of noise in between lines of the vocal. So let's say Yep. What?
that there's the vocalist has done the verses separately in the choruses on another track, for example, make sure that there's no throat clearing any extraneous room noise exactly just [LAUGHTER] like that in between the takes because you might not hear them when you're just listening to the [ Pause ] raw file but when you are adding a little bit of compression and stuff you're sitting there and you're trying to find out what the is that noise in the mix right where is that and it's the singer
you're going like in between the takes like something so get rid of all of that kind of stuff and pay special attention to right before and right after where the vocal line is or any Mm hmm. kind of room noise that could be leakage from headphones that kind of stuff get rid of all that Where you thank yourself for that matter. stuff in between and yeah you'll thank me later indeed yeah and because that's just a frustrating
matter. Well, it also depends on the kind of nodes. Some types of noise can just be thing where you find yourself you're in this creative mode and you're mixing and you're hyper focused on what's going on on the soundscape of your mix and then you start noticing noises and things. Now you have to go into like scientific corrective mode and it's just yeah it just breaks the workflow. general mouth clicks, like your tongue is just moving through the mouth kind of thing. Sure, yeah.
Other things can be breaths. Mm-hmm, yeah. And depending on how you're doing that or dealing with breaths, it could be something you're going to accentuate or something you're going to desensuate. [BLANK_AUDIO] Some people will probably remove them all together and that not necessarily something I like to do unless it's really, really distracting. It has pretty much the opposite effect. Right, the spinal tap paint.
It's almost like what is that black paint that NASA came up with that's so black that it can't get none more black, Vanna black or Vanna something. Yes, the blackest color ever, right? Yeah. It's almost like looking at a shadow that has no dimension. [BLANK_AUDIO] So removing every breath can be the exact same functionality on a vocal. Hmm. Hmm. It can remove all the life out of the actual vocal.
And some vocalists, such as, say, Steve Perry, they actually made an effort to accentuate where he was breathing. So it would come way up. [Silence] And some vocalists that are inspired by Steve also do the same sort of thing. So when they compress and they bring that up, they're really bringing the breath out because it becomes part of the actual performance.
That becomes a conversation that you have between mix engineer and vocalist to make sure that you're getting what you want or what they want in your mix. Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. To me, this is very dependent on style as well. A human. But let's say that you if you're working on a ballad, for example, I think it would be very detrimental to remove all the breaths because it is that emotional aspect of the vocal take. And you want to hear that it's actually it's not a machine doing.
(laughing) Yeah, exactly. It's not a machine doing it. Yeah. This is a human being singing. In cases if it's they're too prominent the breaths. One thing I will do is I will change the gain of those. Yeah. I'll just pull them down a little bit and I will do this destructively as opposed to removing them all together. Hmm. But that is a very very good point. Fl I think we have to be a bit selective when we remove them.
If it's a busier vocal and it's the singer has to take a quick breath in between two lines that might be a case where I remove them, but that would also be dependent on the type of mix.
If it's a more dense mix, I'm probably going to be more aggressive with the breaths of the removal, but the more naked it is and more natural, so to speak, I would leave a lot of breaths alone, And now you know why when you're driving in your car and you're trying to sing along and and then if they pop out too much, just do an automation ride on them or something.
( ( ( the sound of vocal you can't keep up with the same amount of breath, it's because Chris has removed the ) ( sound of the vocal) breaths. ( sound of the vocal) Exactly. ( sound of the vocal) ( possibly even time corrected. sound of the vocal) ( sound of the vocal) ( sound of the vocal) ( sound of the vocal) ( sound of and probably... Yes, that's a big one too. And if you're, especially if you're going for, you know, some pure pop bliss.
yeah, but you got like multi stacked like BVs and things. I'll make sure that they're nice and tight 'cause nothing can get more frustrating in a mix but you're losing that impact. But now we're going into a little bit more vocal tracking and things. but I'm thinking now in groups of like bass and or guitar. What's coming next? Let's just boot it right over. What's the next instrument? The biggest thing here for me is if I am using amp sims, Mmhmm. Mm hmm.
if I want to print the amp sim at this time, [ Pause ] that's usually a yes, but I always keep the DI there if something is not working in the mix. If somebody is sending me tracks to mix, I would ask them to do the same.
Print a track with the sound that you have in mind and that you're kind of working with, but please give me the DI so that if something really isn't working I think what you're also intending to say is that you're not actually using the DI track and the guitar is too fuzzed out or whatever, I can make adjustments there. No, no. in the actual mix. You just want it for the option to change tonality.
Correct, but I actually have done both but yeah, yeah a little bit of clarity in there, but yes generally Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. 999 times out of a thousand. I'm not using the DI blended in there But but you could obviously do it if you need to hear again just as with vocals removing Mm hmm. You know noise in between lines or parts and this is usually the string noise where the fingers are flickering on top of the strings
or whatever. I would get rid of those. We've talked about before if there's excessive like string noise this might be a case for like RX or something to to fix that kind of thing. Oh yeah there's a lot of that you can do that either with RX or make sure your gate is set for amp hum. Right. properly if you need to use that. Very much the same just kind of like a cleanup type of thing but a good thing to have there is to have that DI to be able to go back to if something needs to be fixed. Uh-huh.
Now drums, let's say that we're dealing with an acoustic kit that is mic'd up for recorded drums. Uh-huh. What do you tend to do there? Yeah. First thing I'm going to listen for is any phasing between the individual recorded tracks. Yes, phasing can be a real issue, especially between the stereo overheads. Mm-hmm. And you want to make sure that hopefully you don't have any of that stuff. (silence) I am the face reversal if it would be needed to, right?
And if you do, if there's hopefully a way to correct that stuff by moving it by whatever or sample forward or back on the particular track that you're trying to move and get the phasing removed from the situation. Yes, also, that would be interesting to have As well, yeah. On that note though, the left and right mics be out of phase. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. when you're going through this process, 'cause I know what I tend to do, but I wanna hear what you do.
Where do you have your reference, if you will? (silence) I would reference to the overheads Do you start with like the overheads and then go by that, or do you start from like, when it comes to phase here, I'm talking. Do you reference like your kick and your snare to the overheads, or do you do it the other way around? Yeah, me too. 'cause that's where you're gonna get a lot See if it minus or notice like that soft?
of your spatial reality outside of your room mic, mild, or do you kinda see it Wi-Fi-icated? if you've got room mic or mics going on. a lot of your room soundy sound would probably be coming from your overheads and setting that to the phasing. Now that makes it also slightly difficult, Why it Open up more really? especially if you're comping takes of drums. You have to be very, very careful about how you go That I can't respond for this though.
about that because multiple takes could have different types You recognize? of phasing going on. Right. And then that becomes a real nightmare to fix in the mixing process. So you hope that your tracking engineer Yeah. is an absolute drum recording stud or stud at. Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah, but it can happen. The biggest thing I would see that when it comes to phasing would be like if something is changed in between takes, which is a big no no. Right. It can happen.
Anal, yes, anal, anal. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, you knock the mic a little bit on the snare or whatever. And so that's something that you want to avoid, obviously. I'm with you there when you correct for phasing and time alignment and all that kind of stuff that I know both you and I tend to do, even if it's just 150 milliseconds or whatever. To me, again, it appeals to my anal retentive nature, but at least I'm eliminating one issue with that, hopefully.
What's your go-to move when it comes to TomTrax? It's changed over the years. Yeah. Mm-hmm. - Yeah. Originally, I would literally cut them individually and remove any section that had no tom hidden - Mm-hmm. - Yes. to silence. I don't do that anymore. - Okay, what changed that for you? - Right. Spatial value of drums. It just changes the quality of when the tom actually hits. [ Pause ]
It becomes a little bit too obvious that the tom has actually just made a hit because suddenly the spatial relationship inside the whole kit changes. I don't do that anymore. I leave the track going.
I might do like a light gating that's not 100% pulling it to silence, but it might pull the individual room sound that you're getting off of the rest of the kit from a tom mic, maybe down 10 DB or something just so it's there, So you wouldn't gate it out completely, you would just sort of attenuate it by like 10 but it's not gone. Not unless it was an absolute sloppy mess. dB. If it was an absolute sloppy mess, I might consider it. Right? Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah.
I will generally take out all the information. Basically what I'm trying to say is I tend to cut out tom hits. Mm-hmm. But this is a little bit dependent on the style of the track that you're doing. Mm hmm. I find that works best if you have more of a dance track and if I'm doing more of a rock track it tends to be a little bit more of a hyped sound anyway.
So I find that that works best for me and I can treat them and I don't mind them actually popping out a little bit because all of that kind of stuff is going to be present in the overheads as well. You hope. So that's the way, yeah, well, actually I would prefer if I didn't have any of that in the overheads. I would love that because, no, in Superior you can, yeah, when you're miking an actual You hear that superior drummer? No, I know. I'm aware.
(exhales) kit I like the idea of having things separate because it just solves so many issues with Mm-hmm. bleed and stuff. It makes it potentially a nightmare for the drummer to have to perform two takes, that kind of thing. That's a drum recording that we talked about that with Chris Alice and stuff in the past. Yes, I like to do that, but that's a judgment call. (silence) If you have some track that is going to breathe a little bit more, I would probably leave them in.
This is part of the process for me when I'm cleaning up drum takes. I might also do some slight corrective EQ at this point. If for example, my overheads have a little bit too much low end in them. - Mm-hmm. - Yes. I might roll off a little bit, but you have to be careful here I found because if I start getting too aggressive with you know a low cut they just start sounding unnatural But if there's stuff going on in the subs little things like that. I will do before I do this as well - Right.
Yeah That makes good sense, especially if you're going to export it to another mix. If you're keeping it within the same one, maybe it's advantageous to use a gate.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it can be I think depending on how the kit is Recorded and of course, this is all workflow based All right But it can be tricky to have a gate that is that accurate where it just doesn't sound like something [BLANK_AUDIO] It's just popping in and out and depending on how dynamic the drummer has been with their performance Yeah. Let's say that all the mic bleed is at a certain level and there are some softer tom hits that are not reaching above where the gate would be type of thing.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So there is that, but that's probably a gating episode that we might do. Last thing when it comes to editing drums here, because I think this is a big one Yeah, sure. Sure. (silence) and I want to make sure we address it a little bit. When you talked about comping, if you are comping drum takes and they say, Oh yeah, take two was awesome. except that kick was a little bit late going into the downbeat of verse two, whatever.
Don't just comp the kick from another take. You have to do all the shells and all the room mics Mm-hmm. (silence) Yep. and everything because if not, that kick is still going to be present in the other mics. So that's something that can be very frustrating when somebody go, "Well, why don't you just take That's where, yeah, I get it. a kick from the other take?" It doesn't quite work that way because the kick is already in
the other shells, that kind of thing. Does that make sense when I'm trying to get across that? Yeah. Phase locked. Yeah. Certain DAWs will deal with it differently. Like Logic has the ability to use phase locked audio And that makes it a lot easier, especially when you have everything grouped into an actual folder, the actual instrument. So with drums, you have like your eight or 12 or 16 tracks of drums all in a single folder. And then you have that folder being a comp. That makes it easy.
Yeah, and also other last thing here before we move on to the last point here. So. Mm-hmm. When you're doing that, you also have to pay attention to cymbals and things. Because that crash and something and all of a sudden that crash is cut off. Oh yeah. We have to pay special attention when we're comping drums. But again, that's a process that needs to be done before I start thinking about mixing. Last setup is virtual instruments. What's our last set up here? This is of special importance.
Even if you don't do any of the other stuff, do this one. (laughs) Because how many times has it happened to you? 10 years plus. It's happened to me a couple of times and I know it's happened to you as well. You decide to go back and remix a song from Eon's path. Yeah. Or has been modified so that it's not the same. Now that virtual instrument that you had in that track is no longer available. Right.
Yeah, or whatever upgrade it's been, right? It might not be there. If you don't have that (sighs) Or you're in need of keeping an old computer around track printed, guess what? Your SOL. Right. And either case, yeah, and it's just, it's just to open shit like this up. And that gets expensive. (laughs) [silence] just a pain, right? Even if you keep the MIDI file, which I would actually encourage when you go into mixing should you have to go back and tweak something. You might have
to change a register where something is played. You might have to change velocities of whatever the performance is. So that's a good thing to keep a backup just as a DI when we're talking about bass or guitar, right? But we're Uh-huh, yeah. But you're talking about virtual instruments, so stick with it. talking about very, I will. So I would definitely print them before I get to
Yep. It mixing because then you have it and you know if you need to open it up later you you have what you intended it to be as you started to mix. Now one question, when we're dealing with that though, is let's say that you have the straight up synth part that has delay on it or reverb or anything kind of like time-based effect in the patch, would you print it with that or would you leave those out? Yeah.
on the feel. Yep. More often than not I might actually remove it so that I can do it from And... Yeah, I'm with you there. It's one of those things that we want to be aware of. If it's an integral part of the patch, the mix standpoint, make it cleaner. However, if the feel goes completely awry by doing it precisely in a mix, then you will want to keep the original intent of the performance. (silence) Yeah, it becomes difficult with your volumic value. then you keep it in.
But if it's something where it just becomes a swirly mess possibly in a mix, right? You might want to remove those just so that you have that control When it comes to mixing because it would be very unfortunate you have something there and you go Oh, that's the delay is just way too loud in here. It's not working in the mix There you go the volumic value of your sonic juiciness, damn it. Ooh, he gets them both in here. I like it. I like it.
(laughs) Well, it falls under virtual instruments as well. Yeah, so those are things just to keep or be aware of when you're doing virtual instruments. And I don't think we need to go into if you're dealing with orchestral samples and stuff, because that's a different thing as well. Yeah. The other thing too, Absolutely. in terms of printing your MIDI tracks out with the sounds that you've actually used is it just helps with your archival purposes as it does with amp-syms and bass-syms
Absolutely. Right, absolutely. So one last point before we put a bow on this. When you're and any other effects that are integral to what you're putting into the mix. Print that shit. Poke my eye out, man. doing this, when you are printing the guitar tracks, when you're printing your virtual instrument tracks, when you're done comping your vocals, all this kind of stuff, bounce everything from the beginning of the track. So you're going from, yeah, go that until the end.
wherever your zero start is. Uh-huh. Well first of all, if you're sending it to somebody else, they're going to have a nightmare of a time aligning things if you don't. Again, if you're opening this up again for archiving or something down the line, you want to make sure that there's no issues with that. I have been given tracks before where I got somebody that had been using a different DAW during tracking and Right.
I asked for it was one of those communication things they said do you want the stems I said no I want the multi-tracks okay you want me to stem it Right. Crap. out no I want the multi-tracks and they ended up sending me the session file with no multi-tracks nothing bounced out I just had the little regions and stuff and I just ended up having to rerecord a whole bunch of it because Yeah, that was unfortunate. So that's just good habit to do even if you're mixing it yourself
You'll be happier probably mix faster because you're not fixing as many issues. So get that done before you start mixing Now that we're happy with the way we're actually exporting and dealing with our mixes, let's move on to our Friday finds. Chris, what have you got today? Very ethereal. Woo-hoo! I discovered an artist and sound designer that goes by the name Venus Theory. Yes, and this guy's got called Cameron. He has, well he's got music out, great sort of ambient Mm. [ Pause ]
type of electronic stuff that I love. And he also has a really really good YouTube channel where he talks about different forms of synthesis and sound design kind of thing. And It was one of those guys that yeah it was just really inspiring to see them work because that's a little bit outside of what I do on the daily so to speak. So do yourself a favor if you're into that kind of stuff go check him out Venus Theory. I like it what do you got? That's a mouthful.
I'm going with the caveman audio AP1 compact acoustic preamp Now yes, it is. It is a giant mouthful S the idea here is that the caveman comes from a guy out of Denmark and he has built custom gear for some of the biggest names in our music history past in in terms of modern recorded music. Steen Skrädströp. I'm probably butchering that name, Cool. but I believe that's his name. So, but well, he's decided to shrink this shit. So it's much like his original thing, Cool.
but now it's much smaller and much more compact and weighs a lot less, like half as much less. Cool. So it's the AP1 acoustic preamp that I'm going with for this week. Cool! [ Pause ] While we've got your attention, we ask that you go to insidetherecordingstudio.com and sign up for our mailing list. Doing so will get you weekly reminders about the Tuesday tips when they come out, and we'll make sure you don't miss any future episodes of the podcast.
Send us an email at goldstar@insidetherecordingstudio.com with the phrase, "mix prep," and you'll get something cool back in your inbox. If you have a topic of suggestion for Chris and I to explain in a future episode, Thanks for listening, people. contact us at the contact page and we'll put it into consideration for a future episode. And with that, I'll say, see you next week. (no audio) I'll talk to you later, Jody.