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| Sound production may induce hair loss... |
Mixing, mixing, mixing. The curse with this having amazing musical sequencing software is that there's always an alternative way of doing something. Sometimes, endless ways. For example, to get a bass sound, I could use a synth, filter some frequencies, run it through a couple of compressors, a maximiser, and presto, a synth bass. But after doing all of this, I discover there is some 'woofing' that I can't seem to control. What I mean is, the original synth sound might have a phasing character that I wasn't aware of at the time, which is coming through in the bass sound. It sound like it gets gradually louder and softer, say, with a 1 second cycle. I discovered something like this today. So I spent about 4 hours replacing the synth bass with a sampled fingered bass. It sounds better, and I feel I have a greater level of control over the sound once again. Well... at least, I can tell it sounds better. But a non-pro might not be able to tell the difference.
I guess my point is that, I could be mixing this bloody song for the rest of my life. I need to stick to things that give me greatest benefit for least time invested. I'm finding this really hard because the perfectionist in me wants to take control all the time. Oh well...
I ordered my free upgrade to Record 1.5 and Reason 5 the other day. I'm particularly looking forward to the Neptune device. Its a pitch controller primarily I think. I've always wonder how sometimes some of the pro singers sound 'synthetically pitch perfect'. I think Neptune may be the key.
Not sure if a writing analogy would be appropritate here but I will share anyway. A wise editor once said to me that initial focus should be on getting the whole product onto paper with the polish done later, otherwise you become lost in trying to edit to perfection. I think it is a version of teh 80/20 rule. Upshot is create a first cut and 'sit on it for a while' (you would be surprised at what may work when your ears have had a little break and your sub-conscious mind has had time to digest and work its tangent magic).
ReplyDeleteA very good point. I'm coming to a real awareness of this point only now. I think part of the problem was that this is my first song. So I've been impatient to hear whether it can sound like a pro product, or whether I'm wasting my time entirely. So I've fallen into the trap of trying to polish to early, before all the content is there. I'm returning to the 'meat' as of today. I won't fall into this trap again for my other songs.
ReplyDeleteAt least I gained a few interesting skills out of the process..