Entering a Contest on Indaba by Matt P.

For all you new users out there, the contests here at Indaba are a pretty big deal!  Right now, there are FOUR contests available for you to enter on Indaba, and we thought it’d be nice to give you guys a little refresher on how to enter.  In the past we’ve offered the separated tracks from songs by Mariah Carey, Third Eye Blind, and K-OS to be remixed and re-imagined by you guys, and the winners received incredible prizes.  So not only do you get a chance to (virtually) work with incredible artists, but you could also get some cool swag, cash, or placements out of it!  Win win?  I’d say so.

But before you get hired as John Legend’s in-house remixer, you should probably figure out how to enter Indaba contests.  Click on the Contests link under the Community tab on the home page, then select the contest you’d like to enter (Note: the contests that give a number of days ‘Remaining for Entries’ to the right of them, are the ones you can still enter).  Near the middle of every contest you should see this button:

If you’re not a member of Indaba Music, not signed in, or you’ve already entered the contest, you should see some variation of this button but if you make sure you click on the blue, rectangular button on the contest page you should be fine.  NOTE: If you haven’t entered the contest by clicking this button, you will not be able to download the contest tracks.  You may only preview them at the top right of the contest page.

After you click the ‘Enter the Contest’ button, you should see two buttons:

You can always click the ‘Previous’ button at the bottom left of the page if you need to return to this page.

For those of you who clicked on the Use Indaba Session Console button, you can click the ‘Create a New Mix’ link to the top right of the mixdown player to begin your mix.

 If you’d like to add tracks to be mixed on the Indaba Session Console, click on the ‘Tracks’ tab and select the ‘Upload File’ link at the top right of the list of tracks available to be mixed.  The contest uploader only accepts MP3, 16-bit WAV and AIF formats, so make sure your tracks are all in those formats.  Once you’re done with your mix, create a Mixdown in the Indaba Session Console, and it will appear in the mixdown player on the Mix & Submit Entry page.  You can preview your mixdown on the player, and if you’re happy with the result, select the Submit Entry button to submit your entry to the contest.

If you selected It’s Cool, I’ll Use My Own, you’ll find the separated tracks to be downloaded.  Select the Download button to the right of the tracks or audio pack you want to download.

Remember, downloading files for Contests and/or Featured Sessions does not count towards your monthly bandwidth. Yay!

Once you’ve completed your mix, click the blue Next button at the bottom of the page to get to the Mix & Submit Entry page, and upload your mix.  Once you’ve completed your mix, click the blue Next button at the bottom of the page to get to the Mix & Submit Entry page, and upload your mix.  Again, the uploader only accepts MP3, 16-bit WAV and AIF formats, so make sure your mix is in one of those formats.  Once you upload your mix, you can preview it by clicking the blue play button to the left of your entry.  Make sure to press the Submit Entry button so your entry appears in the contest submissions page!

Well that’s basically it, so feel free to go crazy in the contests now that you know everything you need to know to enter!  

We were perusing YouTube last night when we came across this video made by Indaba user Jack Hemsworth.   Jack took the time to record his musical collaboration on Indaba through the creation of the song, “Lonely Soul”.  We’ve already made a set of “official” tutorial videos that you can access from the help page, but its nice to see an Indaba member helping others out by showing the way the he works. We encourage you to spread the knowledge and show the world how you use Indaba!

The Art of Mixing (Part 4 of 4) by Josh

This week, I’m going to finish up the series with the last  element of a good mix, interest (making the mix special). Check out Part 3 for pan and dimension and dynamics, Part 2 for balance and frequency range, and Part 1 for a general primer on mixing.

Interest is often the most elusive element of a good mix.  Oftentimes, mixers fully address the previous five elements (dynamics, frequency, balance, panorama), but the final mix still sounds flat, lifeless, and un-interesting.

A mix needs to have something special that captures the interest of the listener. How many times have you heard a song with relatively simple, straightforward parts, but somehow felt an emotional pull or connection that made you want to listen over and over again?  Especially in popular music, the mixer plays a crucial role in creating the emotion and excitement that makes the song a hit.

Creating excitement and interest in a mix is often a tough feat to accomplish.  One tip is to view the song as a movie or story.  There needs to be moments of tension, a build up that results in an emotional climax, and resolution.  Use compressors, volume change, pan, and other tools to create subtle or dramatic rise and falls throughout the song.

Here are several tips that Bobby Owsinski offers in his great book on mixing and the main source for this blog series, The Mixing Engineers Handbook:

• Find the Direction of the Song:  This is the first thing that a mixer needs to decide. If the song is going in a folk direction the mixing decisions will be different than a rock, pop, hip-hop, or country song.
• Develop the groove: Every piece of music has some sort of groove or pulse.  Find what instruments define the groove (Hint: It’s not always the drums) and develop the song around that element.
• Emphasize the Most Important Element:  In many songs, there is one element that is just as, if not more important than the groove.  For instance, in a Mariah Carey song, the vocals are clearly the focal point and need to be treaded as such.  The vocals are not always the most important element, however.  An example would be a guitar driven garage band that puts more emphasis on loud electric guitars than the vocals.

I hope this information on mixing helps you guys with your mixes here on Indaba.  Like any art, the most important skill is to find your inspiration and trust your instincts.  If something makes you excited, don’t worry about whether or not it is the “technically correct” way – your ears and instincts are much more valuable than meters and rules.  Happy mixing!

The Art of Mixing (Part 3 of 4) by Josh

This week, I’m going to talk about three more elements of a good mix, pan and dimension and dynamics. Check out Part 2 for balance and frequency range, and Part 1 for a general primer on mixing. 

Pan – Mixers use pan to position musical elements across the stereo field, from left to right on a two dimensional perspective.  This is achieved by placing more or less of a sound signal in either the left or right channel of a two-channel mix.  Pan is often overlooked as a major element in mixing, but good panning techniques are crucial for a clear, balanced, and interesting mix. 

As with volume balance, the first step when working with pan is to identify the main musical elements of a mix.  The common practice nowadays is to place the lead vocals of a track near the center of the spectrum, and to build backing tracks around the lead vocals on the sides.  Mixers usually place bass-heavy sounds like the kick drum and bass guitar near the center too, as these sounds anchor the mix and will not interfere frequency-wise with the vocals or lead instrument. Some instruments that are recorded in stereo, such as piano and percussion, sound better to me when they exist across a broad spectrum of the stereo field, but if it is a complicated mix I usually try to confine them a bit more.

A common mistake among mixers is to pan a lot to the hard left or hard right (all the way to one side or another).  This creates a build-up of sound on each channel and results in a muddy, unclear mix.  For this reason, I like to place each element in a unique position across the stereo field, from just left of center to almost hard left or right. I like to save the far ends of the spectrum for effects such as reverbs and delays. This will create a clearer mix with more depth and interest. Pan can be used to prevent conflict between two instruments of similar frequencies. For example, panning an electric guitar towards the left and a synthesizer towards the right will eliminate a lot of the frequency clash between the two instruments.

Dimension – Dimension refers to the ambience or effects of a mix. This is done through the use of effects processors such as reverbs and delay. 

Reverbs and delays are used to create a perception of three-dimensional space in a mix.  Delays repeat the original sound at a specified time interval and volume level to create an “echo” effect. Reverbs do basically the same thing, but the repetitions are much shorter and more complex.  Applying reverb and delays generally makes sounds appear further away, so they are a great way to create a sense of three-dimensional space in a mix.  Here are some tips:

• Time your delays to the tempo of the song. Most software delays will do this for you, but here’s a quick formula for those working without an advanced DAW. ¼ note delay in milliseconds = 60,000/Song Temp (BPM) Use this number to find other length delays by dividing or multiplying the quarter note value.
  
• When layering reverbs and delays on top of each other, start with shorter length reverbs and delays, placing longer ones on top. This will create a better sense of space.
• One cool trick is to use several of time, short delays to create space rather than a big reverb – this will help maintain the clarity of the mix.

• EQ the reverb and delays to get the precise sound you want.
  

Dynamics – The volume change/envelope of a track

The manipulation of dynamics is done through the use of compressors, limiters, and gates.  Pretty much universally applied in all major genres, with the exception of some classical and jazz music, compression is key to adding energy and life to a song.

Usually placed right before or after the EQ process of a track,
compression controls the dynamics of a sound.  Compression is commonly
used to make an instrument or voice stand out and appear closer to the
listener.  It is also often used as a last step to make a mix sound
louder and more exciting.  Compression is very complicated, check out this Indablog post by PJ for more in-depth conversation on this topic.

Let me know your specific tricks for pan and dimension. Next week we’ll finish up with interest .

The Art of Mixing (Part 2 of 4) by Josh

This week, I’m going to go into more depth on two of the five elements of a mix that I talked about last week in Part 1 .

Hopefully this information will make your collaborations here on Indaba sound even more professional!

Balance

To recap, balance refers to the volume relationship between different musical elements in a mix.  Balance is probably the most clearly evident part of mixing –  when you see an engineer adjusting the faders on a mixer, they are working on achieving a volume balance.  You want to make certain musical instruments, such as lead vocals and a guitar solo, stand out over the backing elements of the song.

The key to achieving good balance starts with identifying what level of importance each musical element should have in the mix, in accordance to the song that you are mixing.  For instance, in a Mariah Carey song, you should recognize that her renowned voice is going to be the key element, and adjust the levels/faders accordingly.  However, if you are working on a techno song, often times the drum and bass elements are right up there with the vocals, if not at a higher volume level. 

Don’t adjust balance purely on the dB readings or the light meters on your mixer, which can be deceiving.  Due to the complexity of sound wave frequencies, sometimes a sound with a lower dB meter rating can appear to sound louder than one with a higher ‘reading.’  Use the meters as a guide, especially to prevent ‘clipping,’   but rely on your ears as the final

Frequency

A quick primer: frequency refers to the “pitch” of a sound, from deep sub-sonic bass to shrill highs. Every instrument or is made up of a bunch of different frequencies, but each one has a prominent frequency centered somewhere along the spectrum.  For instance, a bass guitar is heavy in the lower frequencies.  The tool for adjusting frequencies is EQ, or equalization, which lets you raise and lower the volume (dBs) of each frequency. 

The real complexity with frequency balance comes in when you combine several different instruments together.  When you layer sounds that are heavy in the same frequencies, they tend to clash and create an unbalanced mix.  For instance, a piano, bass guitar, kick drum, toms, guitar, often have a lot of overlapping frequencies in the low-mid range.  When placed in the same mix, you’ll probably get a muddy sound. The trick to frequency balance is to make sure that all frequencies are properly and evenly represented.  This can be done in several ways:

• Carve out a frequency spectrum for each individual offending instrument using EQ – Ex. lower the high-mids on a piano, raise the high-mids on a guitar
• Change the volume level of an offending instrument – Ex. lowering a bass drum signal will help fix the conflict with the bass guitar
  
• Remove offending instruments that are not crucial to the mix – Ex. take out an extra layered kick drum sample

I hope these tips help you out with your mixes.  The most important tool is your ears, so if something doesn’t sound right to you, experiment with volume, pan, and EQ.

Next week I’ll continue with:

• Pan
• Dimension
• Dynamics
• Interest

Let me know your thoughts!

The Art of Mixing (Part 1 of 4) 

Part 1: The Basics – by Josh

With three contests going on at once here at Indaba – Minitek, /Passenger, and of course Mariah Carey – we’ve had an opportunity to listen to thousands of mixes.  I’ve heard everything across the gamut – from quick, simple volume and pan mixes to sliced, chopped up, effects-loaded “re-imaginations.”  In this three part mixing tutorial on the weekly Indaba Production Tips blog, I’m going to describe the elements of a good mix, and let everyone in on a few simple techniques that pro mixing engineers use in the studio.

Mixing is defined as the act of taking multiple tracks or elements of recorded and combining them together on the stereo field.  While this sounds simple, mixing can get quite complicated when you think about all the different ways that you can alter and shape the sound of each track.  My favorite book on mixing – the legendary The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook by Bobby Owsinski – demystifies the art by describing the six elements of a mix:
   

• Balance – Volume or loudness comparison of each track or musical element
• Frequency Range – Making sure that bass, mid-range, and treble frequencies are well balanced – usually through judicious use of EQ
• Pan – The placement of the various instruments across the stereo sound field
• Dimension – Adding effects and ambience to recorded tracks
• Dynamics – Adjusting the changes in loudness of each track or element
• Interest – Making your overall mix have that special quality

Professional mixers take these elements into account every time they make a mix, and you should too.  There are countless methods and techniques for achieving good balance in each of the six elements; every mixer has their own way of doing things. Some aspects of mixing, such as volume and pan, are pretty straightforward. Others, like dimension and interest, are less clearly defined and require experimentation to create a “feel.” Generally, mixers start with balance, frequency range, and pan before moving on to effects and dynamics. Effects such as reverb, delays, and compression are usually applied in these later stages, and this where a mixing engineer really has the power to shape the sound. Next week I’ll talk specifically about the techniques used to create mix, but in the meantime here are a couple tips to get started:

1. Listen critically to well-mixed songs: Pick out several songs that you think sound especially good, and try to identify the six elements above during the course of the song. Listen to the overall balance between the vocal and various instrument elements and how that balance was created. The more you do this, the better your ear for mixing and music in general will become. If you need a place to start, some standards for high mix quality are later Beatles albums (especially Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper’s) and anything by Steely Dan.  Does the song have that “special” sound that makes it unique?  Can you put your finger on what creates that “interest?”




2. Start simple: Identify the main musical elements of your song – ie. Lead vocals, elec guitar, drums, etc. – and think about which ones you want to bring out in the mix.  Place the main element near the center of the stereo field using panning, and supporting elements more towards the sides.  Make sure that the perceived loudness of the main elements that you want the listener to focus on is higher than the other elements.

Mixing is one of the most challenging and enigmatic aspects of music production, but it is also rewarding, creative, and fun.  The more you think about the balance and clarity of your mix in terms of the overall sound and feel you are trying to create, the better it will sound.  Stay tuned for Part Two on specific techniques and methods next week!

From JoLynn Seaman’s Blog 

I am in such a FUN mood, tonight! I finally had some time to "play" with my friends here at Indaba. I’m feeling so good I thought I’d post a little something, but first an update:

Thanks to Indaba’s recent contest, I’m enjoying my generous prize at Berklee. I’m taking "Advanced Mixing & Mastering with ProTools" (what the heck?!)… So far, so good. ;-) Anyway, with engineering fresh on my mind, I recalled an article in EQ Magazine a while ago that just made me giggle my socks off! I’m betting some of you can relate to this poor guy:

Spence Peppard (no realation to George), engineer at Encore Studios in the Nacogdoches (Willie Nelson fame), mostly records country and hard rock. He’s had his share of fits and was kind enough to compile a little "tip" list for us. So here is Spence’s five cents worth from "a hell of an angry guy":

1.  One of us is not talented, and it’s not me.

2.  Pro Tools will allow me to build a decent-sounding guitar solo for you, even though you can only play three notes of it at a time. Your "Frankenstein" solo will sound good on the CD, but you will still suck live. One of us is supposed to have lightning-fast fingers, and it’s not me.

3.  If you want to use the studio as a $125-an-hour rehearsal space, fine. Bands used to come to the studio ready to record, but whatever. I can fix all sorts of mistakes with Pro Tools. One of us is totally unprepared, and it’s not me.

4.  You planned to do the entire rhythm section of your recording with loops. Now you don’t like that it sounds canned? One of us is an idiot. That would be the part of US that doesn’t include me.

5.   A little compression makes music sound better. A lot of compression can make a CD sound better when played in a loud environment. I would like to produce just one recording where the client doesn’t insist on every meter being a solid bar, where there are some dynamics, and where everything isn’t compressed into a big, fat crap-cake. One of us will do that every time they’re given the chance. Can you guess which one of us that would be?

….Whew! I just made my own day! :)  [insert hysterical laughter link here] I hope it made yours too. -Stay beautiful! :)

**Cudos to my girl, Lauren, at Music Player Network for publishing clearance. :)

From: PJ (http://www.indabamusic.com/people/pjb) 

Compression is commonly used to lessen the difference between loud and quiet parts of a recording and is often meant to be something that you don’t hear as an effect, but that helps to even out the sound and avoid drastic volume changes. With some creativity, however, it  can also be a great effect that is meant to be heard. This tip will explain how to add a subtle "glow" to your recordings using compression. Check out the audio and visual "before and after" below. 

This is a particularly good trick for things like acoustic and electric guitar as well as piano – especially when recorded from afar. The specific levels will obviously differ depending on the instrument, playing style, and recording but the general principles will apply to any piece of audio. After recording a clean track add a compression plug-in and do the following to achieve that subtle but special glow: 

1) Raise the Ratio (you can even do it more than in the example below) 

2) Crank up the Knee

3) Lower the Threshold

4) Raise the Gain 

Essentially, raising the ratio you are telling the compressor to squash higher volume sounds into the same dynamic range as lower volume sounds. By lowering the threshold you are creating more room for really quiet sounds to come through… And, you are increasing the gain so that those lower input sounds output louder. The result is that sounds recorded from far away, or subtle details like guitar picking or breathing, will pop out and sound much more close, which creates a general glow around the recording.  

A con of this effect is that quiet noises in negative space (like amp buzz between guitar notes) will be greatly amplified, so it sometimes helps to gate the track before compression to remove sounds below a certain volume.

Before

After 

Remember guys, if you have a recording tip send it to me at Streeter@Indabamusic.com