KVR Mix Workshop - Week 7: Backgrounds

[Kim Lajoie]

Week 7: Backgrounds

This week we're looking at background textures.

Original Full Mix
A7's version
Cordelia's version
Ngarjuna's version
Yonyz' version
Raw tracks (warning: 111MB zip of uncompressed WAV files)
Produced tracks

General Approach
Like the acoustic guitars, the general approach here is to focus on the bringing out the character of these sounds. For most of the sounds, I didn't do much more than apply heavy doses of highpassing and saturation. Some compression too.

Piano
The piano is a little higher in the mix than most of the other backgrounds. This piano is interesting because there's a subtle tremolo modulating the amplitude. Try to apply enough saturation that it brings out the tremolo - so that the loud pulses don't actually become louder, just brighter and thicker.

Miscellaneous textures - NoisyPad, Intersnap, Exerminate, TerminalHeadNoises, DistSynth
These tracks all work in the same way - they add texture, colour and density to the overall mix. These tracks should be all about the same level, and blend as much as possible. They should also be as quiet as possible - to set the level, start with the fade at the bottom and slowing bring it up until you can *just* hear the effect the track is having on the mix.

Background vocals - DistantLoud, DistantSoft, Bax, Whispers
Like most of the backgrounds, the processing is pretty heavy - mainly saturation, highpassing and compression. The two "Distant" tracks are fairly representative of the overall creative direction of the mix - harsh and scratchy. The "Bax", on the other hand is thicker - it's actually a bounced stack of my own voice singing harmonies. The Whispers track was actually two tracks in my sequencer - the first part on one track, and the 2nd part (starting about halfway through the song) on another. Both were processed similarly, but the 2nd part was processed to "break up" a bit more. To do this, I exploited a strange behaviour of one of my saturation plugins - setting the drive to maximum causes it to break up in an interesting way, almost like a gating effect.

Articulation - IveBeenReversed, ReverseHits
I refer to these tracks as "articulation" because they emphasise the transitions between sections. Because they're intermittent (they don't sound very often) they can afford to be quite a bit louder than the rest of the backgrounds parts. Depending on the rest of your mix, you might even bring them almost to the level of the lead vocal - just make sure they're not shrill or overpowering. With regard to the reverse hits, you'll find that some heavy compression will bring out the lead-in of the sound (the part that was the sustain before it was reversed). This will help to make them more audible without having the transient (at the end of the sound) becoming overpowering. Because of the reversed nature of the sound, the character of the sound will remain intact under even the heaviest compression. In other words, you can afford to be heavier than you usually might be. Remember to regularly bypass the compressor to compare the original to the compressed.

<- Week 6 Week 8 ->

-Kim.

[forw]

...just wanted to say thank you!
this is a highly useful workshop series !

[Cordelia]

Just wanted to say thank you, too, Kim. I needed lots of feedback this week.
Good work everybody.
Hey, is the ride too loud in my mix? Just wondering...
Yonyz- In your mix I'm hearing a big leap in the volume of the lead vocal after the intro, starting (if I remember correctly) at "such expanse". Could be these speakers...
Anyway, I'd love to get some feedback from y'all.

[asnor]

Hey, is the ride too loud in my mix? Just wondering...

Yeah, the ride might be a touch loud. I've been trying to keep it around the same level, or lower than the hihats. But, that's just me. If you like the ride where it's at, I wouldn't be one to tell you to change it.

In my mix right now I've got the heavy guitars set bit too hot, but I like how they burst onto the stage at that level. In the end they may get lowered, but we'll see.

Anyway, I like your mix. I can't say that I hear anything wrong with it that would be anything more than my own personal preference.

Of course, this is all coming from very little experience, so take it for what it's worth.

[Cordelia]

Thanks, a7. Listening again to my mix on these different speakers, I'm thinking the ride is too loud, especially when it first appears.
I appreciate your input. I really like your mix so I'd like any suggestions- different pair of ears/speakers...
I agree that the heavy guitars sound very cool when they "burst" (good word) into your mix. I also agree that it might be a good idea to wait to listen to their relative levels when we start panning and adding reverb. Right now it sounds good.

[asnor]

Thanks, a7. Listening again to my mix on these different speakers, I'm thinking the ride is too loud, especially when it first appears.
I appreciate your input. I really like your mix so I'd like any suggestions- different pair of ears/speakers...
I agree that the heavy guitars sound very cool when they "burst" (good word) into your mix. I also agree that it might be a good idea to wait to listen to their relative levels when we start panning and adding reverb. Right now it sounds good.

Yeah, things changed alot, when I started panning them around. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I like using reverb. When I shut it off, everything sounds a lot more defined, with more room between the instruments. The reverb just kind'a muddies the stereo space up.

Maybe I'll try using a different reverb, one that has good early reflections.

Anyway, I went ahead and did all that last week, because I wasn't sure how much time I would have this week. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it more, when Kim gets the notes out.

[Cordelia]

I thought I heard a little bit of reverb in your mix!
I haven't tried adding the reverb yet- this is a topic I know I could use help with. I've gotten my head around using reverb on percussion tracks because I use a lot of live percussion in my songs, but I never end up using reverb on anything else, especially not on my vocals. It just never sounds good to me and I'm sure it's user error.
I haven't panned yet, either. I don't have any panning law applied in Reaper, and I'm wondering if that will come into play.
I'm looking foward to the notes for week 8.

[asnor]

I'm no different there. Reverb has always been tough for me to get a handle on.

[Kim Lajoie]

We'll be dealing with panning and reverb this week.

-Kim.

[Cordelia]

I have to admit that my girlfriend will be quite happy when we've finished this mix. Happy to have more of my time of course, but also, she's a bit tired of the song. Lately every time she leaves the house she says, "Bon voyage, sweetheart, the sea whispers to me."

[asnor]

As many times as I've heard this song, I still don't know the lyrics.

[Cordelia]

Oh man, that's funny.

I had to edit my post above because I wrote "such expense". And then I thought about it and realized that an "expense" could hardly be thought to "mirror the empty plains".

Expanse! Aha! She's lonely! Or something!

Oh well. I have friends that hear the lyrics first. It's always the last thing I notice.



But I have noticed them in this song, finally, after the 100th listen. I'm just sayin' .

[yonyz]

You are right, Cordelia.
I actually see that it's the exact opposite in your mix - it becomes more quiet, when in my version it becomes louder.

[Cordelia]

Hey yonyz,
Back home now listening through my monitor speakers, the vocal volume change in your mix doesn't sound as prominent. I'll check my mix to make sure the vocals aren't getting swallowed up when the music gets louder. On your system, are the vocals in my mix getting lost at that point ("such expanse")?

[yonyz]

On your system, are the vocals in my mix getting lost at that point ("such expanse")?

Yes, they are. Even at the start of the song, they sound swallowed.
They sound like that with my headphones, too.

You should make the vocal louder. Other than that, your mix sounds pretty good.