At last! The recording session is finished…
So now you’ll be ready to listen to your new CD?
Wrong! Be patient – more work needed before the CD is ready for prime time.
Before your disc is ready for release, the raw tracks are still to be mixed to produce the right balance across vocals, lead, and rhythm instruments.
Molding The Tracks
In a small music studio, the recording engineer is probably also going to do the mix. So he’ll already understand the raw levels for each instrument.
The scope for creativity is in getting the instruments positioned for space and depth, so that each one can be heard cleanly, but without it dominating the mix. To do this, the engineer will use panning to place performers across the sound field; then add reverb, dynamics, and other effects; adjust EQ; and set the sound levels.
One very common challenge for the sound engineer is dealing with the new talent who wants to hear themselves higher in the mix. “My guitar solo is slick”… “that kick makes the song”… “aren’t those lyrics magnificent!” Any of these statements might be true, but the key to a good mix is balance.
Remember that “balance” doesn’t mean static, unchanging. Mixing is a dynamic art. So a good mixing engineer will ride the faders and adjust for varying sound levels from different performers, to showcase a particular instrument during solo breaks, and to produce a livelier resulting mix.
The Mix down
When a song is complete, the recording engineer transfers the mix to the master recorder. In the good old days, this would typically be a two-track open-reel deck. But today, the mix down deck can be a Hard Disk, DAT, CD recorder (the Alesis Masterlink is a popular choice here), 1/4″ or 1/2″ open-reel decks, or even a good cassette deck for some folks.
So song by song they are mixed and transferred onto the two-track master. And at last your project is done? Wrong again!!
What’s next?
The last step in a CD project is mastering and duplication. And that’s what we’ll cover in the next post in this series.
In the meantime, have fun!