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LISTENING

Once you obtain a result that you think is good, your work is not over yet. You must also take the time to listen to your song on all types of listening devices in order to check that it sounds well everywhere.

Why? Because all devices do not reproduce sound the same way, et the more devices you can lay a hand on, the more you can come to a compromise, a sort of "average rendering" to adjust your mix. If the cymbals in your song are too loud and make your ears bleed, it means that something definitely needs to be done. But if they sound a bit too loud on a system, and a bit too low on another system, but sound well on your monitoring speakers, then it is wise to leave them as they are and hope your listeners will be using a neutral-sounding device.

Here are a few listening devices you could use:
        - Monitoring speakers
        - Headset (open, semi-open, closed, basic headphones, in-ear headphones, etc.)
        - Stereo system speakers
        - Computer multimedia speakers
        - Television set
        - Car speakers (many people listen to music in their car)

It could also be interesting to listen:
        - From another room: you can spot things from a distance that you wouldn't necessarily notice when standing in front of your speakers, right in the middle of the stereo field. This can lead to making adjustments or improvements.
        - At different volumes: it is proven that lower frequencies are perceived differently depending on the listening volume. In order to avoid listening fatigue (and protect your ears), you should mix at a reasonable, comfortable volume. Not too loud! But at lower volumes, low frequencies don't stand out as much and you may tend to add too much of them to compensate. Thus, when listening to the final result at higher volumes (because music sounds so good when you crank it up!), you will find out there's way too much low frequencies. Check it out.

Each time you use a different kind of audio device, various aspects will stand out. On a good stereo, everything should be harmonious and balanced, in a car, bass sounds are usually tiny and if you listen from the next room, it will also sound different. All this will help you to find the right balance between instruments and that would be a mistake to listen to your song from only one audio device, no matter how good it can be.

Listen, but also take breaks, it's indispensable. Ears tend to get tired quickly and get used to what they hear. If you listen to a section of your song that is faulty for three hours in a row, you will end up not being able to hear the flaws anymore and thus... not correcting them. Also, your appreciation of an issue will change over time and you will modify things that you should not have (or did not wish to) modify in the first place, or at least not that way.

When you have spent a few hours mixing a song, don't hesitate to leave it aside for a couple of days. Listen to other stuff, forget about your song completely. And then, listen to it again with fresh ears... its flaws and qualities will jump right to your face! After two days, you will be objective again, and that's what you need to achieve a good mix. But as you may know, the ear will get used to what it listens very rapidly, so what strikes you at first as a problem will soon again sound normal to you. In order to avoid that, write down what you thought as negative in clear terms: the left guitar is too loud, the guitar on the right is too dull, the kick sounds too dry, there is too much reverb in the vocals, etc.

Write down and fix, then start this process again... Give it some time, listen again with fresh ears until you are satisfied with the result. This is of course time-consuming, but it's worth it. We all want to make it final, to listen to the finished song, to have people listen to it. But it's even more satisfying if you are really and thoroughly proud of your song, rather than letting your friends listen to a song that you know has some problems you were too lazy to fix, don't you think?

Your ears are not always the best judges out there! How can you be sure that what you hear is really good? How to remain objective with a personal creation? Even though you are your first audience (obviously!), even if your song must please you first, you still have one ordeal to overcome: have someone else listen to your work...

But don't take any chances, because you may not like the opinion you are going to get. So don't have anyone listen to your work before you have made enough progress. You will waste your time and your listener's if you insist on having him/her listen to some unfinished, half-intelligible stuff. If you are aware that the time has not yet come, then why rush things?

When you ask for someone's opinion, tell them exactly what you expect. As long as you don't see your work as complete, ask for an objective, technical opinion. Is the sound ok, not too bright, not too dull, are the lyrics understandable, do the drums sound fine, does this part provoke the expected feeling (strength, peace...)? Later, when you consider your song as finished, you can ask the ultimate question: "Do you like it?"

You should know one thing: everybody feels differently, they listen to the same song and hear different things. If you ask 10 persons their opinion, you are going to get 10 different answers, very often conflicting. Kevin loves the sound of the guitar, but Jane hates it because she thinks it's too aggressive. On the other hand, they both agree that the vocals are great, while John thinks they lack energy, and they should calm down more before the guitar solo...

In the end, you will take the decisions, but other people's opinions will necessarily have some influence on you. The purpose of music is of course about enjoying it, but also about sharing it. So if you are the only one to like what you do, that's fine, but it's a bit frustrating. And you will undoubtfully appreciate that your friends, relatives or colleagues tell you how great they think your song is.

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MESSAGES

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Beber
le 21/12/2010 à 14h57

Salut,
J'ai vu que tu possèdes une I/O2. Je voudrais pouvoir utiliser la mienne sans PC en la branchant sur secteur via un transfo USB (objectif : jouer au casque avec mon RP 500 DIGITECH).
Mon multi-effet possède déjà une sortie casque mais le signal est trop faible, j'ai donc besoin de sortir sur l'I/O2 avec mes XLR puis d'utiliser la prise casque de l'I/O2.
PS : joli site et beau matos !!!

bibize
le 15/12/2010 à 15h59

Bonjour,

Concernant le mixage, je ne comprends pas l'intéret de créer un bus "Brut" qui joue la guitare sans effets.

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Pour une guitare électrique, ça n'a effectivement pas vraiment d'intérêt et je n'utilise plus ce bus. Je l'ai récemment supprimé de mon modèle de projet.
En revanche, pour une guitare acoustique, c'est beaucoup plus intéressant bien entendu.

Grebz

Jukap
le 28/11/2010 à 00h00

Pour la fréquence d'échantillonnage, c'est relativement inaudible entre 44 et 88 pour un enregistrement (sauf peut-être conditions de chaîne audio parfaite), par contre cela devient TRÈS intéressant dès qu'il existe un TRAITEMENT DU SON DANS LE DAW : EQ, comp, simus, réverbes, etc... On gagne très rapidement en définition et profondeur lorsqu'on augmente la fréquence d'échantillonnage et là pour le coup, le 96 prend son sens (par contre, ça met vite à genoux le processeur...).

Jack
le 27/11/2010 à 23h32

C'est quoi que tu appelles Bus ?

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Un bus se présente visuellement comme une piste, mais au contraire d'une piste, le bus ne contient aucune donnée (pas d'audio, ni de données MIDI). En revanche, tu peux y appliquer des effets et agir sur de nombreux paramètres (volume, panoramique, données d'automation...). Ils servent souvent à regrouper les données venant d'autres bus ou de plusieurs pistes en un seul endroit afin de pouvoir contrôler d'un bloc plusieurs pistes par exemple (passer en Muet toutes guitares d'un coup, ou ne mettre en Solo que les synthés, etc.)

Exemple d'utilisation d'un bus : tu crées 3 pistes de guitares, et tu souhaites leur appliquer un traitement commun, comme par exemple la même réverb.
Au lieu de mettre 3 fois la même réverb sur les 3 pistes de guitares, tu crées un bus, tu indiques à tes 3 pistes de pointer vers ce bus et tu appliques l'effet réverb sur le bus.
Résultat : tes 3 guitares auront la même réverb, mais tu n'auras utilisé qu'un seul plugin. Avantages : moins d'utilisation processeur avec une seule réverb qu'avec trois, et si tu souhaites modifier la réverb, tu n'as pas besoin de le faire 3 fois.

Autre exemple : tu souhaites appliquer des effets différents à une guitare présente sur une piste. Au lieu de créer plusieurs pistes, tu crées plusieurs bus, tu fais pointer ta piste vers chacun de ces bus, et sur chacun d'entre eux, tu places des effets différents (des simulateurs d'ampli différents, des panoramiques différents, des pédales d'effets différentes, des EQ différents, des volumes différents, etc...)
Au final, en n'ayant enregistré qu'une seule piste de guitare, tu pourras donner une grande richesse sonore à cette unique piste, tu pourras donner l'impression qu'il y a plusieurs guitares...

Grebz

Tekk
le 22/11/2010 à 09h51

Super boulot ! . . . Félicitations