IndianFluteGuy, post: 453279, member: 50868 wrote: What are the dynamics we usually using for bamboo flute recording (like delay reverb etc.)

We get a lot of those (what is usually...) lately.
Thing is, most audio engineers don't do things because they are usually done that way.
A good engineer will analyse how the instrument/musician sounds, will consider the room and the context of the song before choosing any equipement or mixing technics.

What you are asking is to blindly throw a ball to a goal 50 yards away...

Before any mix can be done, the recording phase is the most crucial.
Get this, if your recording has too much of high frequencies because you used a cheap condenser and if I'm recording with a ribbon mic that has a lot less high frequencies, every thing I'll tell you will be wrong..

Why don't you post exemples, raw recording of the flute, song it will be mixed in and a mixed version that sounds good to you.. ;)

pcrecord, post: 453282, member: 46460 wrote: Why don't you post exemples, raw recording of the flute, song it will be mixed in and a mixed version that sounds good to you.. ;)

I am uploading a sample track first portion. The file is big in size if i upload full track.. so just uploading few portion only.
If you listen this, the flute portion is very much pointing distorting my ears. I know there is pitch correction required as well that need to be corrected later.
What i expect is soothing the flute portion. Can you suggest me a better mix dynamics on this track ?

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

Attached files TestTrack.mp3 (329.8 KB) 

IndianFluteGuy, post: 453284, member: 50868 wrote: I am uploading a sample track first portion. The file is big in size if i upload full track.. so just uploading few portion only.
If you listen this, the flute portion is very much pointing distorting my ears. I know there is pitch correction required as well that need to be corrected later.
What i expect is soothing the flute portion. Can you suggest me a better mix dynamics on this track ?

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

Interface used : MIC SM57, Focusrite Safffire Pro 14, Cubase

It sounds like it’s distorting. When your recording are you setting your levels so they avaerge around the middle of the meter (-18dbfs)? You’ll want to leave plenty of headroom in your level for a nice smooth sound.

Ditto for mixing, make sure your faders aren’t really high, most should be around or below unity gain in general, and that the track meter isn’t near the red.

As far as compression, a good place to start is with really slow attack, really fast release, a 2:1 or 4:1 ratio, and the threshold set to achieve 3-6db of gain reduction on the meter. This is a great place to start and be for most instruments in general. If there’s momentary things that jump out you can make the attack a little faster, or automate the volume or adjust the clip gain. Automation or clip gain adjustment is usually preferable rather than more compression.

As far as effects go, typical delay busses will be 8th note, dotted 8th, and quarter note delays. You may want to setup a stereo delay with 8th on one side, dotted on the other so the delay has some movement left to right.

You may also want a subtle medium hall reverb with a bit of pre delay on it, and a 300-800ms trail.

With spatial effects (reverb/delay) its easy to get carried away. Usually less is more. A good rule of thumb is to turn them up so you hear them, then turn them down a couple notches.

You’d probably get some great mileage out of the recording and mixing engineers handbooks, written by Bobby Owinski.

Here’s a link to one of them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988839180/?tag=r06fa-20

kmetal, post: 453292, member: 37533 wrote: It sounds like it’s distorting. When your recording are you setting your levels so they avaerge around the middle of the meter (-18dbfs)? You’ll want to leave plenty of headroom in your level for a nice smooth sound.

Ditto for mixing, make sure your faders aren’t really high, most should be around or below unity gain in general, and that the track meter isn’t near the red.

kmetal, post: 453292, member: 37533 wrote: It sounds like it’s distorting. When your recording are you setting your levels so they avaerge around the middle of the meter (-18dbfs)? You’ll want to leave plenty of headroom in your level for a nice smooth sound.

Ditto for mixing, make sure your faders aren’t really high, most should be around or below unity gain in general, and that the track meter isn’t near the red.

Thanks Kyle for the valuable information. I think I need to re-record the stuff with ensuring proper level and with leaving enough headroom (As you mentioned let me go through -18dbfs first).

kmetal, post: 453292, member: 37533 wrote: Automation or clip gain adjustment is usually preferable rather than more compression.

Good information. It was my bad habit to use over compressors to adjust the gain . Will try this going forward.

kmetal, post: 453292, member: 37533 wrote: As far as effects go, typical delay busses will be 8th note, dotted 8th, and quarter note delays. You may want to setup a stereo delay with 8th on one side, dotted on the other so the delay has some movement left to right.

What is dotted 8 mean ? can you provide little more information on delay. Earlier i used to apply stereo delay blindly on left and right channels equally.

kmetal, post: 453292, member: 37533 wrote: You’d probably get some great mileage out of the recording and mixing engineers handbooks, written by Bobby Owinski.

Here’s a link to one of them.

https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Fourth/dp/0988839180

Thanks for the link.

IndianFluteGuy, post: 453298, member: 50868 wrote: What is dotted 8 mean ? can you provide little more information on delay. Earlier i used to apply stereo delay blindly on left and right channels equally.

A dotted 8th note is (from wiki):

“In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. In modern practice the first dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value.”

I’m still not super confortable with music theory despite 4 years of guitar lessons, and a few courses of it at school.

So I’ll try to explain the counting of it.

An eighth note is counted “1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and..” (the and is pronounced)

When you dot it, it’s counted “1 and-a, 2 and-a, 3 and-a, 4 and-a...”

So it’s 3 notes in played within the time of 2. So if your tapping your foot, you’d play three notes within the time you tap twice.

On more a musical level, it’s the feel of “swing” often used in jazz. Or ‘triplet’ often used in jazz and metal.

As far as a delay goes, if you’ve synced the delay to the tempo session, a lot of delays just have the little dotted note as a selection. Otherwise you just have to use a quick online calculator or app to tell you what a dotted 8th equals in milliseconds. If you don’t know the tempo of the tune, there’s a plenty of apps that allow you to tap along to the song and it will tell you the tempo. Most likely Cubase has this funtion built in as well, known generally as ‘tap tempo’.

This explanation sounds far more complicated than it actually is, which is to simply click the dotted 8th note, in the delay pluggin window.

The point of using a different delay time on one side is to create a delay that bounces (ping pongs) between the left and right speakers. It can be used to add interest and movement to the sound. Especially on things generally panned center, like instrument solos, and vocals.

It’s something that when done tastefully in a mix that it sounds good with, can add a sense of depth and dimension. Usually subtly is best in this case. If it’s too obvious it will distract the listener.

Here’s a couple links about delay.

Around 10:45 in the first vid Pensado does a ping pong delay.

A single-dotted note produces a 3:1 time ratio, not 2:1. Double-dotting produces 7:1, etc.

As an example, a 2/4 bar starting with a dotted crotchet has the equivalent time of a quaver left for the remainder of the bar. These two bars play the same:

kmetal, post: 453303, member: 37533 wrote: A dotted 8th note is (from wiki):

“In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. In modern practice the first dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value.”

I’m still not super confortable with music theory despite 4 years of guitar lessons, and a few courses of it at school.

So I’ll try to explain the counting of it.

An eighth note is counted “1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and..” (the and is pronounced)

When you dot it, it’s counted “1 and-a, 2 and-a, 3 and-a, 4 and-a...”

So it’s 3 notes in played within the time of 2. So if your tapping your foot, you’d play three notes within the time you tap twice.

On more a musical level, it’s the feel of “swing” often used in jazz. Or ‘triplet’ often used in jazz and metal."

Thanks Kyle for this wonderful information. :-)

kmetal, post: 453303, member: 37533 wrote: The point of using a different delay time on one side is to create a delay that bounces (ping pongs) between the left and right speakers. It can be used to add interest and movement to the sound. Especially on things generally panned center, like instrument solos, and vocals.

Great.

kmetal, post: 453303, member: 37533 wrote: It’s something that when done tastefully in a mix that it sounds good with, can add a sense of depth and dimension. Usually subtly is best in this case. If it’s too obvious it will distract the listener.

Yes. This makes sense

kmetal, post: 453305, member: 37533 wrote: Here’s a couple links about delay.

Around 10:45 in the first vid Pensado does a ping pong delay.

Thank for these videos, Let me go through these in coming days.

In addition to the great comments my colleagues have mentioned, the first rule of a great mix are well-recorded tracks. It all starts there.
As opposed to reaching for a processor to "fix"
things you don't like, strip all the processing away and listen to the tracks as they were originally recorded. No EQ, no compression, no reverb or delay. See how it sounds to you. If you don't like it -for whatever reason, then track it again. Those tools are meant to enhance a recording that already sounds good.
IMHO :)
-d.