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Advanced Level

Evolve Your Skills | iZotope:

A true soundmage is never finished learning. The advanced-level series contains in-depth articles on EQ, stereo bus and submixing, compression and dynamic range, and more!

Tips for Mix Bus Processing

3 Techniques for Handling Your Stereo Bus

5 Approaches to Submixes

11 Tips to Fix Cheap Sounding Audio in the Mix:

I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of material made in home recording studios. And while a lot of the raw sounds coming my way are great, many recordings sport flaws that impart a palpably “cheap” sound to the material. These flaws have many root causes, such as interfaces that don’t do well for dynamic range or harmonic content; rooms that impart comb filtering to vocals; basses recorded without definition; and badly mic’d drums.

It’s my task, among others, to make these “cheap” sounds feel more “expensive”—that is, to help these mixes play nicely against their better-recorded references. They need to work in a Spotify playlist. They cannot be trounced by the competition. This is my fundamental meaning when I use terms like “cheap” and “expensive.”

The audio in my room doesn’t sound “cheap”, but sometimes I mix it that way by accident.

I want to check this one out…

3. Your snare sounds like someone flicking a piece of paper
Try a cut around 6 kHz, and a boost between 100–200 Hz to see if that adds some body. If you’re lacking impact on snare hits—if it feels a bit flat—try some compression next, emphasizing the transient with a medium attack and a medium-fast release.

You may still hear that dreaded papery noise. If so, solo the snare and see if it goes away. You may be surprised: one of the first things I look for in dealing with a papery snare is whether that sound is actually coming from the kick; often it is. In this case, attenuate that frequency in the kick track with a dynamic equalizer that’s sidechained to the snare. You can easily set this up in Neutron 2, as shown below.

Production Expert | Back To Basics. We Show You What To Have In A Remote Recording Engineer’s Gig Bag:

Seasoned engineers never leave home without their trusty gig bag, but if you’re new to remote recording, it can be hard to know what’s handy to have on the road. As a result, you either end up taking absolutely everything, just in case, or you end up on the job without a key cable of adaptor. In this article I am going to give you a sneak peek into my personal gig bag and explain why these items are so vital to having a successful gig.

I would add at least two dynamic mics and two attenuators. I carry an ART Dual-RDB and a pair of PylePro 58s.

Logic Pro X keyboard command of the day. #LogicProX @StudioIntern1

  Nudge Region/Event Position Right by 1 ms

Little timing changes are so handy to have under your fingertips. We’ve been near this command before.

Nudge Region/Event Length Left by 10 ms

Serious editing makes me keep the toolbar visible.

Move regions in the Tracks area — Logic Pro X:

Use one of the following key commands:

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by SMPTE Frame

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by SMPTE Frame

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by 1/2 SMPTE Frame

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by 1/2 SMPTE Frame

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by 5 SMPTE Frames

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by 5 SMPTE Frames

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by SMPTE Bit

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by SMPTE Bit

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Tick

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Tick

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Division

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Division

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Beat

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Beat

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Bar

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Bar

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Nudge Value

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Nudge Value

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by Sample

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by Sample

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by 1 ms

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by 1 ms

Nudge Region/Event Position Right by 10 ms

Nudge Region/Event Position Left by 10 ms

⇧ SHIFT – ⌃ CONTROL – ⌥ OPTION – ⌘ COMMAND