Transcripts
1. 1.1 - Mixer Overview: very so. Welcome to FL Studio Mixer Workflow. This is gonna be an overview video showing you what to expect out of our future videos. So as you can see, everything here is all color coded. It's all rooted to their own mixer inserts. And I'm just gonna play the track for you. You're going to see the levels. I'm gonna kind of click around. We're going to open a plug ins going to show you how have set things up, and then they're further videos. I'm going to show you how to set this all up so that you guys can start mixing your tracks . And, you know, hopefully, um, over your years, you'll be able to achieve tracks kind of like this. So here we go. Okay. So let me just kind of break down what I've done. How I've set things up to achieve such a kind of full track. Okay, So as you can see, this guitar chorus, which is number seven here, so this thing's guitar sound is ready to insert seven. And then what I've done is I've done some complex routing. As you can see down here, there's lots of different, um, cables and what I've done is I've just read it to like a parallel compression. Ah, this is a technique to get extra thickness. I've read it to a distortion. This is just again to get more fullness slash thickness as well as to add some brightness. I've wrote it to some stereo separation, which is ah, plugging you can use to increase wide. Nissen your track. It makes things this sound bigger. Um, and then I didn't actually add delay on on in this case. I actually have to re verbs in this track. And I do that just to kind of give a different sound just so that everything doesn't have that one reverb and these air what you call sends, and they allow multiple instruments to use them. So, for example, I have a verse guitar on, and then I have a chorus guitar, the sound, the sound pretty silver at the moment. I'm not done mixing this track, but it's going to see this instrument is also using the same reverb as this, uh, chorus guitar for their own. I cover sends with you as well as subgroups. So as you can see right here, this collapse this is that this is a subgroup. So what's happening is all four of these collapse. So 12 three, and four all of them are being routed to the collapse sub k. I should probably go collapse sub. Okay? And now what's happening is, since they're all being rooted to this clap sub Now I can apply reverb, distortion or even on the actual, uh, subgroup. I can put e que on which is what I did here. And it's affecting all four of those collapse as a whole. Okay, so if I were to put a nick you on the actual individual insert, then it just affects that one sound. But since they all be granted to the subgroup, it's affecting them as a whole again. We cover all this further on in the course. I'm just kind of showing you what more kind of complete track is in terms of color coding. And you don't that kind of stuff. So I just kind of cover the kick drum here. Uh, so I've applied some eq you onto the kick drum. I have applied some compression just, you know, kind of mold the sound because with a compressor you could be using it for ah kind of levelling out volume. Or you can actually using it to mold and shape a sound, depending on your attack and release settings. That's kind of what I did here. I just want a little bit more punch out of the the drums, so I increased the attack to make it longer. But as you can see, what I've done here is I've actually I wrote it to the base and this high hat sub and, um, the's rides, which is like a type of symbol. Um, but you can see that there's no volume in them. So what I've done is, if you right click, you can see that there's an option to side chain, and that's all I did there. Okay, so I went side chain and what that does is on the actual bass sound. Here, you can see a five, uh, opened up a plug in, and I just I labeled it side chain. But this is just proceed by Fab filter. Really, really awesome plug ins. What I did was I included the external input and then up here Ah, on this stereo side change. If I right click I went kick. So what that's doing is it's allowing the kick drum to be an audio trigger that whenever the kick drum plays, it will lower the volume of the base. And the reason why I did that is it allows for a cleaner mix as well as it allows for groove. Because in the low end of your music, um, frequencies can clash very, very easily. So if my so whenever my kick drum plays it will just lower the volume of the base. But soon the kick drums done playing the bass will come back in. So ah, that allows my kick drum to hit really hard. But it still allows my base to be playing loud, too. But they're not conflicting with each other. And the reason why I did it to the hat sub is strictly just for rhythm. So let's try that over case. Although hats here, this is just like what they sound like. And what I've done on here is they actually put like a fruity Pat O Matic. I'm just kind of giving you little overview. Okay, so this isn't, um, anything really specific to the course, just kind of giving a general overview of what I've done. So this is like a panel Matic it and that just kind of, ah, moves the volume left and bright of your mix. But now to continue with the course now, So this is side chaining. Okay, so it's to do with the mixer. And I have routed the kick drum to the hat sub to be an audio input. But it's not recognizing the audio, so you can't hear it because I it's not enabled. Right? So now when I turn on the kick drum, this is what the hat is going to sound like because I have a side chain compressor on here as well. So okay, without it, okay, just goes like a little bit of a different sound, A little more bounce. And we'll check these rides out to because, as you can see, I've read it here as well. So let's go to just the rides now. So the rises some like this, they're kind of like symbols K now with the kick drum without it. So it just just kind of lowering the volume whenever the kick drum hit and then it kind of swells back in just kind of. Gradually, I'll show you one more that I did here because I can see that the kick drums also routed to the percussion. And for that, I'm just gonna have to move over here now. So all this true on the percussion, and it sounds like this, Okay? And if I turn on the kick drum, that sounds like this health kick. And then if I turn off the scythe. So in this case, I strictly used that side chain compression just for bounce and kind of roof. But this is just kind of again a little overview video showing you how I voted things around. Um, but I'm gonna break all this down for you, especially when it comes to, like, sends an understanding a series and parallel roading cause on a send, for example, in the reverb, you want to make sure that the dries all the way zero. And you keep your wet at full. And that way on the guitar, you could just blend in what you want. OK, so let's just start with the basics. I'm gonna show you how to actually wrote your instruments to your mixer. How to color code them how toe, you know, label them and get yourself organized, because when you're organized, it makes the process of mixing a lot more enjoyable as well as faster, especially once your mixture skating complex. It's a lot easier to look around and fine tune things quicker rather than having, you know, trying to find things when nothing's organized. Okay, so let's proceed further.
2. 1.2 - What is a Mixer: Okay, So in this video, I want to compare, uh, analog mixer like a real mixer to your FL studio mixer. OK, so what you see here is one channel besides all these knobs and everything. What I'm trying to get across to you is this is one insert. Okay, The same way as you're looking here in FL Studio. This is one insert. Okay, so in here we have our effects thoughts. They were a volume. It doesn't look like I have a pan knob on here to turn left and right. Um, but here in fl Studio, you do you know, you could turn Ah, actually instrument to, like, just the left speaker or just the right speaker. Sometimes this is used to create space in your mix. Now, it's kind of funny because, you know, we look at this hardware mixer, and then we look at our fl studio mixer and in order to wrote things around inside of r fl studio mixer compared to our hardware, we need riel physical cables. Whereas here it's like, Well, let's say I want number one to go to three u 456 like that is so fast. Toe wrote versus here, you know, I would have to take on audio cable out here and plug it into somewhere else and then plug that audio cable back in to record it. And as you can see, it's like, Well, first of all, you know, this gear is more expensive. It takes more time. And here, like little fast, I wrote it all that stuff. So, for example, like I already showed you, like, let's say, had a reverb on here in a delay. And then I have a guitar. So let's see, Number three's guitar. Aiken wrote three to reverb and maybe to style and what I want and delay and is dialing what I want and I'm done. You know, you already got your effect. You're moving forward in your mix. Where is here? You know, when we're dealing with hardware. Okay, so I'm just gonna break this down. So back in the day, hardware was very, very expensive, and even today it is still quite expensive, but especially when it first came out like reverb was very, very expensive. Okay. And also, reverb was also prone to the noise around you because it would actually send the audio through, like a spring or something like that and that spring. So if noise was in that area, that noise would go into the spring in addition to your music. And that would, uh, you know, be in your audio, even she didn't want it. So sometimes you actually had to have a like your reverb very far away from where you're actually even Studio Waas in a very, very silent room. So, you know, nowadays we just have our computer. We just open up. However many rivers you want here, you know what is going to go like reverb. You know, in this case, I have this one this river. You know, back in the day, that was probably $10,000 easy, and then here got another different type of reverb. There's another $10,000 then, yeah, you're gonna have You have to think in terms of space in terms, off money, and with it, with your software, you could do it in seconds. And and that is amazing. Like our industry is changing very, very fast that way. So now you might be asking the question. It's like, Well, do you even need a hardware mixer nowadays, and the answer is like, No, you don't. But the reason why I have one is I have it to prevent audio Late Enciso. When you have an audio interface and you go to record, there's something called Audio Late Enciso What I do tow. Avoid that So I can get, um, you know, zero leyton See, when I'm recording, you know, for vocals is I can send the audio out of my computer into here. I can record, and the audio is, you know, nothing's nothing's delayed, and then I can send it back from here into my computer. But the answer is no, you do not need ah mixer. And in my opinion, you want to mix inside your computer, and the reason for that is you can easily recall the settings. So, for example, like let's say you dial this wet knob here and then you won't save. Now you know, you go do something. You come back a week later, this novice set in the same place, But back in the day, you know, like let's say they adjusted the knob here, and they just this knob here and they treat this and then they, you know, increase the volume a little bit. Once the mix was done and ready for release, they had someone go through and mark all the positions on a piece of paper so that, you know, let's say they wanted to do a remix at a later date. That person would have to go and recall all the knobs to They're all the little spots and kind of, you know, be close to what the mix waas you know, it's not gonna be the same would be really, really close. But nowadays, since you have your software, this is amazing. Like just the way how technology has made things a lot easier and, you know, just to kind of keep on this rant. You know, there's lots of people who are talking about, Well, you never get like that analog sound if you're only mixing in the box. And you know that's just an ongoing debate, in my opinion, the ease of your computer recalling your perfect settings. And they also have emulation plug ins nowadays. So, for example, like a lot of this, a lot of this hardware gear they're creating plug ins that emulate the actual sound. So, you know, it's I'm just breaking down to you How much easier a computer is for us. You know, this takes up space. I have to buy the audio cables. You know, audio cables, You know, they're not. They're super cheap, and you need to buy all of them for, like, your microphones. Your instruments. Where is here? If you want to wrote stuff around, you easily can. And you could do extremely complex roading within your mixture here, in just a matter of clicks. So your audio actually goes in through insert one. So Channel one and then it goes out of your main. Okay, which is here in this case, you know, you have your left speaker any of your rights speaker, and that's how you'd hear your audio. But in the case of this mixer and fo studio, how it works is you have all your individual mixer inserts. Okay? So once we add in instruments, we wrote them to their own individual mixer insert. And then how it happens is you just follow the cable. Okay, So in this case, insert four goes to the master, which is the same thing here. This is the main if the same thing here it comes down here. And this is what you call your to bus. In other words, your left and your right channels. So no matter what's going on on your mixer inserts, even if you wrote a bunch of these, you know wherever or if you create subgroups and sends whatever they all wrote to the master, okay, and then on the master is where you get into the master ring. You just do light e que and compression moves as well as he boosts the overall volume. And then when you export the song, it's just rendering after the very last plug in. So all the audio, wherever it's coming from, it all comes to the master, and it goes through each mixer insert one after another. For example, if you hadn't e que onslaught one and then a compressor onslaught to and then a limiter onslaught, three D audio would actually go through each one, and then it would render at the very, very end of that. And that would be your final product. And that's just a general overview of how the mixer works. Okay, so in her next video, we're going to actually get into, Ah, setting up some instruments, you know, labeling them, coloring them, putting them into the mixer, how to set it all up And how to prepare yourself for an awesome mix. Okay, so let's get into the next video.
3. 1.3 - Basic Drum Loop: Okay, So I thought before actually adding things into the mixer and moving ahead, I thought it would be kind of nice if I kind of create a little drum loop with you. And it would kind of give you a perspective of where you're at, you know, like so once you create your little drum loop once you kind of create some instruments you might add them into, you know, your playlist or whatever and then where you go from there, Okay. So I'm just gonna add, you know, maybe one drum in here, maybe two. You know, it's usually high work, usually use multiple drums. So on we'll get a clap couple collapse, a one to and my hat's. He's a kind of different kind of sounding hotheads. So I'm just gonna lower the temple member, go like 93 an ankle boom, boom, boom, boom. So this is just like a little basic drum pattern so far. And then what I do is I usually add my other kind of sounds in as I go. Some of you doesn't like this will layer there, and we'll do that. Koto lair Their collapse. That's usually good common practice um it is as for fullness and you know, more texture into your actual clap hit castle case of without the layer with the layer so you can hear just a little bit more impactful hit. And then for this to the hats, I just kind of click and wherever they kind of sound cool. So this was more of kind of the hat, so I was played on every single beat. Can we get out of this? A little bit of swing in there. It kind of has a little bit of roof to your drum loop. And I'm just gonna put this on the off beat and we were just lowered down a little bit. May 1 more and we'll add that on every single earn every two steps like this case that's a little drum loop will move on to the next video where I'll show you how to color code label and wrote them into your mixer. OK,
4. 1.4 - Routing and Shortcuts: Okay, So how I usually like to work as I usually like to have my instruments up top and then ah, hell, like my drums and my collapse. Ah, hi. Hats, percussion, and usually work in that order. So, for example, I'll just get it's like a little guitar, uh, instrument here. And if you hold on Ault and the up arrow key, it allows you to move your individual sound when it's highlighted. And if you highlight multiple, all three will move at the same time. Okay, So, like I say, I like to have my instrument usually at, like, the top now, before rounding things to the mixer. And it all depends on how I am building the track. So, for example, if I'm building the track and I'm actually used trying to do a little bit of sound design as I'm building the track, then I will actually wrote that individual sound to the mixer. So, for example, that same working on this guitar sound So a lot of times when I'm using a guitar sound like this, So I'm just gonna press control and l okay, it just rotated it to the mixer insert. Um, a lot of times I will put like a reverb and I'm just gonna give it a color here. Let's put a river bond there. And the most important thing we doing ascend is you put the wet 100% and the drive to zero . I cover this with you further on. I'm just going to give you a little overview of how you know, like my mindset when I am structuring my mixer. So right now I have my guitar, you know, and before actually start building a melody. Um, again, if I'm going to start doing some sound design to add some fullness to this guitar because when you have, um, the effects on it makes creating the melody a lot easier. In my opinion, because of havoc my guitar like this. So it sounds nice, But now watch this So I can wrote this guitar to the river and now sign this and without the river one more time. So way more enjoyable to listen to as well as play. Okay, so I'm just going to right click a file going to save Mixture state. And now you can drag this and the reason why I'm doing this is because number three at the moment is the default, and it will override what I've done. Okay, so now it puts it back to normal. The only thing that doesn't get over written is the audio routing. So, for example, if I were to take number two here, right click will file save mixture, stay as and replace. Ah, this guitar appear so right here. You see that the mixer routing is still there. So you have to do is just click the arrow and it removes it. Okay, So I just wanted to tell you that before we actually start adding our sounds into the mixer because for me, it's all about the mind set. So am I doing sound design before putting into the mixer? Um or do I just build the beat? Because for myself, I typically build might be before I even really put stuff into the mixer. And the reason why I do that is because I like to color code everything and for my instruments, I use the label them for the individual sounds. I usually leave them as they are, because I don't know, they're kind of a lot of times like they're labeled kind of weird or like they're just, like, already labeled, like kick one or kick to. So you already know it's a drum or a clap. But when you're working with something like, let's say open up serum here so instruments will go like serum case. So what happens with serum is your? You're just stuck with serum. So even if you have a pad or a lead sound or a pluck sound, it will keep saying serum. You know, it would be like serum to see him three, and that's annoying. So what I'm gonna do here is I'll show you. So, for example, imagine this was piano, and I typically write this in capital so ago piano and I give it a color. So right here you can click this and just choose a color. Or, if you don't really care, you can hit F two. And as you can see, it's just changing it randomly and after school lets take purple. Let's say our next one is guitar. Okay, so guitar and let's just give it like an orange. And as you saw there, if you go to the right of the sound, you condone pushing your middle scroll wheel and you know you can actually select an icon if you want to get that organized. I typically don't. I just feel that's kind of e I don't know. It just takes up a lot more time and then let's just there last one is a base, okay? And we'll give it a green and this guitar, I will just delete it. Okay, So as you can see, I've given them colors and I have labeled them now for my drums. What I'll do is I will click and ah, hold on shift and I'll click the the other drum to this. I'm just gonna make him the same color. So you can you click the arrow appear you go color selected, you ingredient. Let's just give the drum. You know, this blue here now with FL Studio it will also give you that same color that you just selected at the top. So instead of trying to guess what use just selected you just like the top one. And now I've just covered both of them. Now, another way to select your sounds instead of clicking and holding on shift and click is you can actually just click and hold, and that's it. And if I did it over a range So industry that so, for example, again we go yellow and then, like this kind of purple here, you'll see that it kind of works this way to the to the two different colors. So that's a Grady in, right? But for me, I'm just gonna select my collapse go arrow color selected ingredient. And I was gonna yellow, and I select that same yellow here, okay? And then these three high hats I'm going to go. Ah, slept color and ingredient. And let's just give it like, um, maybe a green and then that same green. Okay, so that is how I would structure my sound in terms off color. And if I was building this in the actual playlist with you, I would break them out into their own patterns so that, as your song is going on the color of your patterns air matching your sounds and they're also matching your mixer and it just allows you to flow a lot faster. So now what I would do is I'm just going to double click on the piano up here. and all highly everything. So you could just single click and then click again Now that everything's highlighted, we can write it to the mixer so I can right click go channel roading Ingo wrote selected channels starting from this track now a big thing is the shortcuts that you want to learn eventually Devil Studio. So shift control and l So before I do that, I just want explain the difference between these So the 1st 1 means that all of these sounds will goto one insert, which is what you don't want because right now they're all going to the master. So they're all going to this master channel, and they're all going to that one master. So that's pretty much what it is right now. You don't want all these sounds going to the same insert you want them to be starting from this track, so piano will be one Qatar will be to basically three. Um, you know the drum before and you know it all just work its way. So, like, it was just showing you shift control. L That's the shortcut. OK, It's just important to start learning those shortcuts. Okay, so we've set up our mixer. Now we have our colors. In the next video, I am going to break out the pattern just to show you how I would set it up just to get a nice organized flow for yourself as you're mixing.
5. 1.5 - Break Apart Patterns: Okay, So for myself, I many times do build my drum loops and instrument a little times and left the same pattern Just because once I start actually building the track is that's just kind of how it goes for me. And then once I'm done building the track, then I kind of break it apart and, uh, you know, work my way. So, for example, again, the shortcut there really, really handy in FL Studio. So if you click the arrow appear, you can see that this is clone and its shift control and see. So in this case, I have piano, guitar, bass, uh, drums. So that's four already. Clap five and hi Hats is six. So I'm gonna hit this five times, okay? And that will give me six patterns and you'll see them here. So 12345 And I just press down control shift and see which is what? This clone waas. Now I'm just gonna go appear and I'm gonna highly all these and I'm gonna press control and X. And what that does is it just cuts all these notes, Okay, And then this track going f two and I'm going to go piano, okay? And I'm just going to give it that purple that we had. Now, when I color this, I typically do my patterns at the same time. And the reason why I do this because remember, like I was showing how FL Studio stores that same color right there. It's just a really convenient way. So I know I'm getting the same color, whereas right now it's kind of like, you know, this purple in this purple, they are hurt us a little bit different and just to kind of keep everything. You know, even I like to use it the same colors, which is why I break apart the patterns. I color them, label them, you know, all at the same time as I'm doing my mixer on your number pad. If you press the minus and the plus, you can see that you can go through the patterns a lot quicker. So I'm on +65432 and then back to piano. And that just on your number pad, you can also hit like +12351 you know, just to kind of move around. But I like I like the number pad in terms of the minus and the plus to get around the steps you concern and your patterns really fast. Case we're gonna hit the plus is gonna put me the pattern, too, and it's gonna have to undergo guitar, and we're going to give it that orange. Okay, so now that is organized. And I'm just gonna cut all these because, you know, maybe we will We will actually add some instruments in here just a little later, so I can show you the effects and how to do sends in subgroups. Once we start routing further in the mixer, you know how to apply effects on it, Stuff like that. Okay, something hit the plus pattern three. So this will be the base. So I'm just gonna cut that, and I'm gonna go base, and that's that green. I think it's this darker kind of green. Um, and then we're gonna go here. So now this is gonna be the drums. So we're gonna do is just from the clap. I'm just gonna highlight press control and X hit f two and go drums. Okay. And I'm gonna give it this blue. And as I'm doing this. You know, you can add them in like this and it get under specially 123 going to 4 25 going to six. Okay, So as you can see, you know, it's kind of looking a little bit better. Um, number five. Right now, that is gonna be our collapse. So as you can see, I'm on pattern five up here, and I was going to take the high hats and it is held on shifting clicked there. And I was gonna press control in X and removes that elsewhere. Ah, click and hold. And just how did the drums control and X case? You know, I'm left with just my collapse, so have to taping collapse, and we give it this kind of yellow ish. Actually, I think it was a puree selected. Yeah. Okay, so that's claps. And now we have high hat. So we're going to pattern six hit the plus and we're gonna do is from the claps upwards Hit control and ex nowadays have high hat so f too high hats and give it that green that break green. And there we go Now we are organized Here we are organized down here and we're also organized in our step sequencer. Now, this makes it really, really easy. You know, if you want to actually start building the track. So right now I held down control and I clicked and I highlighted You can go control B b is , um, Bob. And you know, you could duplicate all that or you can just go control and see that's gonna that's gonna copy it. You know, just like when you're using your computer for copying pasting control, See, then you can go control V. But you see how it didn't put it into the next spot. That's why I like control and B B is in Bob. Boom, boom boom puts into the next spot. However, sometimes if you're working on your your song and you know So let's say this is a kind of ah sound effects riser up somewhere. So I'd go control, see? And let's say I want to paste it over here that's going to use control, see, and then control V, and then I can bring that wherever I want. Another thing to keep in mind is so since I'm so far zoomed out, I really don't know if among the rights snap right. It's kind of like, Well, am I on it? Cause I look like I'm off. So if I zoom in Yeah, I am off. Right. So that's no on beat. So you can press shift in Q And that Kwan ties is the playlist, or what I like to do is up here in the magnet. I make sure I'm either on B or bar What? I'm actually arranging my song. Okay, so in the next video, I'm gonna show you how to set up subgroups and what they are and how they allow you to be super organized in your mixing.
6. 1.6 - Subgroups: subgroups are just an awesome way to get organized and how the work is. You just wrote mixer inserts into them and you can kind of group sets of inserts together. So, for example, I would create a subgroup just for the hi hats that would create a subgroup for the collapse, and that would also create a subgroup for the drums. Now, why this is really useful is because you can control one mixer insert for all three of these. Okay, So, for example, let's start with the hi hats here. So I'm just gonna push in the middle scroll wheel and go, Hi, Hat sub. That's that's how I wrote it. And then I'm gonna click here and go green and then with it highlighted, I'm gonna hold on Ault. And then I'm gonna press the left arrow key. Okay? I just I like to put it in front and then with FL studio, you can right click and go a separator. And you know, this is if you want. I don't always the separator, but as you could see, it kind of creates a little separation and gives it, like its own group. You can even right click here and go our separate or two and I just that high hat sub. But I I typically don't really use the separators. I just want to show you that. But now that you've just created this insert while these high hats aren't going through it because if you follow the arrow down here, it's going straight to the master. Same with this high hat and same with this high hat. They're just going straight to the master and as well as the subgroup that we want to be. This subgroup is just going straight to the master. So with FL Studio 12 which is really awesome, this is one of the new features. Just click on one of the inserts that hold on control and shift. And now you can You can click like multiple, okay. And you can, like, click and hold and stuff too, which is really, really cool. So now that I have was highlighted, I'm gonna come here to the high hat sub. I'm gonna right click and go wrote to this track on Lee. So what that does is even if it was routed here and here, it's gonna remove all this roading and it's gonna go rate to where I wanted to go. So in this case, the high hat sub So wrote this track on Lee. OK, so now if I go here and play the high hat Okay, you can see that it's playing on nine, but it's also playing on eight. Okay, so it played on 10 8 11 and eight. But there's one thing also, it also played on the master. And why is that? Because let's follow nine. So nine is being routed to eight. Eight is being routed to master and that's just how the audio goes. So just like I was showing you in our first video there when I was comparing the rial analog mixer when you have the main and it gets summed down to your two bus master So that's what's happening. All your audio eventually gets summed into your master. Okay, so we'll play that again. So nine, see it playing eight and the master insert 10 here again is playing 10 8 and the master 11 eight and the master. Okay, so now I will also set up the clap and the drum sub here with you. But I just want to show you something here. So now on this subgroup, I can lower the volume and it lowers the volume of all of those hats. Okay, so that's really awesome. But now this is jumping a little ahead. But if I were to add in an e que Okay, now, if I boost up the brightness, well, that's boosting up the brightness on all three tracks. So you know, this is just a really easy way to mix as well as group and stay organized. And then, if there's just that one sound that's being kind of offending towards your track, for example, let's say one of these high hats it was just too high an frequency I can actually go to. In this case, that's track 11. Open up in e que on it, and let's just say I want to cut a little bit. So this e Q is for insert 11 this week. You, as you can see, appear it's for the high hat sub. So let's say I want to get some overall brightness out of the hole. Hi hat pattern. I can do that. And then let's just say there just like that one sound. That's just kind of a little offensive towards the track in terms of, you know, other, the brightness or, you know, even down here or even if it's just too loud, you could just simply turn down the individual. But this is is controlling all three of these as a whole. So I want to get into e que compression. Or even if you start getting into later on sends and he starts sending the audio, this audio is being sent to here, which is all three of these tracks. Okay, so again, getting a little head. But that's just kind of a breakdown of how it works. So just quickly I will hab create a clap subgroup as well as a drum subgroup. So I'm just gonna hold down Ault and the left arrow key and put it there. Grab another one. Hold on, hold on the left arrow key case I'm gonna have to drums sub and gonna hit the color And I just left that same blue integrating a click on six and got to go control and shift and click So I have a both of them I'm gonna right click on the drum sub and go wrote to his track on Lee the same thing here f to clap sub Ah ingo yellow and click nine. Control shift and click and right Click and go claps up. And now if we actually check oh, are different instruments. So we go five you can see it's playing five and they go into four because again, just follow the cables and then again, like I'm talking about before with the hardware mixer verse is the software. This is how quick we create all these subgroups and if you want to remove it or rewrote it really quickly, it's all there. And you could easily recall it be a licious confirmed that the drums are correct. Okay, so we saw five and six going to four and then four going to the master, which is good. So for eight here it should be going to the clap subs was the master and see what the next one And then the hi hats are already good. And then again, if you want to, right, click and go separator and right click and go separator. You know you have the option to do that
7. 1.7 - Effects: and to complete our basic overview of how to set up our colors are organization and all that kind of stuff. I'll destroy you how to apply effects and how to get started with effects. Okay, so again, if we're working with the individual tracks, the effect will only apply to the individual insert. But if we apply the effect, too the subgroup, it will apply to all the instruments which are within that subgroup. In this case, for the high hat, there's three hats. So again, if you put one Q one here, it's going to affect all three high hats. So let's just play that. So it boost ups and highs. Case was, it's affecting as a whole. Whereas if I come here and open up a e que on just insert 13 for example, which is just this sound, this one. Okay, so just 13. And if we open up the e que. And let's just play around with that in case that's only affecting insert 13. Okay, so and to remove an insert, you just go replacing good None. So, for example, let's say on these high hats, let's say we do want to, uh, boosts some some highs, you know, just to kind of, you know, make militant brighter. So it was not like this so far. Okay, So as you can hear, that's pretty aggressive. So what I like to do as I like to do something called A and B comparison. And so what that means is that when you turn the effect on and off that the volume should be very, very close to the same. Otherwise, we perceive that the louder one is better, even if it isn't better. It's just because it's louder, it seems more impactful, and you can look online. That's a very, very common thing that people talk about. So to get, um, a comparable result, you want to adjust your volume. So in this case, I've boosted this by saying that so now, with pro que they have different um, scales. So if I go 12 you know, that looks a little bit more realistic. Excellent. Let's boosted about eight. OK, so and without it. Okay, so it is quite brighter. So I'm just going to maybe reduce it by a boatman before decibels. Okay, So I boosted by about eight, reducing it by about four because I'm only boosting the high end. I'm not boosting the overall volume. You know, you don't feel like I'm not boosting like the whole sound. I am on Lee boosting the highs. So that's why I'm lowering it by a vote for kicking me will love it more. So that's just like a general idea of how toe add an effect on and how to kind of compare it now, another important thing which I will cover a little bit. Um, we're gonna be moving into, like, the mind of mixing just to kind of get your little or view how to get started up. Mixing is you don't really want to be comparing your tracks soloed. You want to be comparing them in context of your whole track because you could be sitting here and e queuing that high hat for forever and then almost didn't you go and add it back into your track and you're like, Whoa, that sounds horrible. It's like that doesn't even suit the song. So that's why it's very, very important when you're doing your e que moves that you're listening to it in context of the actual track. So, for example, If I was gonna eat que it like that, I would listen to it with the drum loop, just like this or big. Okay, so before, after that means it's a little loud style, you know. And then let's say you wanted to be a little bit creative, so you know, there's e que, which is actually fixing imbalances within the track. But then there's also creative e. Q. Where's your actually trying to boost stuff to make the drum loop or the actual song some cool? So in this case, this high hat sub, which has these three high hats, you know, there's probably a cool sound I can get by, kind of just, um, messing around in here. So, you know, again, um, adjusting for volume, you know? So it's kind of like a totally different sound. Now, in this case thirties, pretty drastic. Let's just like 15. And we have put this back to, like seven, and you just kind of kind of compare back and forth so one more time, you know? So that's just kind of an idea of how I would go about kind of mixing and using an e que to kind of be creative. BSO just add on. In effect, you could just go this in this case for war drums. Let's just add some compression onto these drums. Um, let's, you know, make a little bit punchier because, you know, just to help that drum stand out a little bit, Um, Well, check it out. Okay, so in this case again, you want to compare. So with compression, it's actually lowering the volume of the sound. So you use makeup gan to bring the volume back up so that you can compare a and B or in this case, on and off to make sure that you know what you're doing is actually making the drum some better, not just louder or you know so well. Listen. Okay, so I boosted a little bit loud, So let's just go about three. And you don't want to spend tons of time here doing this, but, you know, you just want a really quick reference. You know, you don't want to be, like, way louder, But you also don't want to be spending tons of time here because otherwise you're just going to be focusing on this am be back and forth and you're never gonna move forward. So you just want to be really, really close. But you want it so that when you're comparing both, are you making a difference to your track? Okay, so, you know, I wasn't trying to do anything kind of special there with compression. I was just trying to give you an idea. First of all, how to add on the effect Second, that A and B comparison stuff. Okay, now, one thing I will tell you is when you're adding effects on to an individual insert. So for example, let's say open up, e que here and let's say I open up, you know, maybe some distortion on their missile camel crusher. The audio goes through each effect here. Okay? And this is getting a little bit ahead of ourselves because I want to cover Siri's and parallel processing. Once I discuss sends with you, um, sends will be a huge eye opener for you. That is what takes average mixing to advance mixing and opens up the doors to being super creative. But right now, this is what you call Siri's processing. Okay, so the audio goes through the compressor, it gets compressed. It goes to the EQ. You, whatever you do on the EQ you now that audio it gets affected more and more and more, and then it goes to the master. But later, once we get into parallel processing, once I send it here, this audio get sent here and now you can affect this drum however you want, but it's not affecting the original signal. Very, very powerful stuff. But that's just kind of a tease for our future videos. That's gonna be the eye opener. Our next little set of videos just gonna be kind of like the basic bind set of mixing in terms of what you should be thinking about before you actually perceived mixing and just some kind of tricks and tips I've learned over the years just to kind of get you guys up and running and, you know, help you guys get the best results for you know, other year mixes
8. 2.1 - Basic Mindset of Mixing: Okay, So in this video, I'm just gonna talk about the mind set You should have as a mixer. OK, so you know, once you start mixing if you're like me when you first started, ah, you export the track that wasn't mixed. And then you export the track that is mixed and you compare them. And a lot of times you like the one that wasn't mixed better. And, you know, you may be like, Well, why? Because, you know, I sat there and I tweaked for so long. And then you go to compare to the unmixed version. And a lot of times, and I used to like the unmixed version better. I found that it had more energy. I found that it wasn't as affected and processed, you know, um, and over your years, you just kind of start to learn that when you're mixing your just trying to enhance the song, OK, it's kind of like mastering to mastering is a different subject. But you just wanted to enhance the song. So, in other words, that you're not having to do like drastic changes unless it's super necessary. But when it's necessary, that's what they call surgical, and a lot of times you're doing like tighter queues under e que. Which air you know, focusing on certain frequencies again. That's more surgical work. But for the most part Ah, lot of times, if you're working with a vocal and it just sounds muddy, you nose. In other words, it's not really clear. You might just be reducing two or three decibels in those muddy frequencies. So one thing I did, especially in my beginnings, was ice always saved a new copy before I proceeded, mixing because I knew I wasn't getting the results out of my mixing. I knew I had to keep practicing. So let's say I named a song called Beat One. I would go beat one mixed, and that would be my new saved copy. And then I would just give her you know what I mean? Like, I would just ever just mix it would export it. I'd compare, and I just feel like yeah, okay, I kind of like the original. So then, you know, I make try again or, you know, on my next track, I would try again. And, you know, I kind of think in the back of my mind and be like OK, well, instead of being so aggressive and remixing, I started to more listen to Well, what do I want to enhance or what needs to be removed, you know, for in terms of clarity or kind of like you start just kind of think What is the focus of this song like, what is the lede? Where's the piano? Is the piano gonna be front of centers of piano kind of further back and then to get more advanced? Are you going to be adding wide nous on there? You know, and your effects like reverb and delay, because if you have too much of those effects, it can make your track not sound super clear, because those effects typically clog up a mix in terms like reverb. If you have too much. So saving a saved copy has been an awesome a little trick for me to keep my original beat. But just keep practicing. The mixing the next one I want to talk about is when you listen to your track, the most important thing to do is actually just to set your levels in terms of your actual mixer. Insert feeders And once you have a good balance, that's going to give you an accurate picture of what you need to adjust. So, for example, you know, if you compare your track toe a commercial track and that commercial truck is just brighter , you might just need to start adding, you know, a little bit of brightness in terms of frequencies and at the high frequencies, you know, he just might need to add some some brightness or, as like, you're listening to like your mix. You know, there might be, um, a pad that comes in and just way too much like the mids. You know, it's kind of clogging up the rest of the track. So, you know, you open up the EQ, you and your pad, and you can reduce some of the mids. And then again, you just do the A and B comparison to make sure that the volume is the same in comparison to your cue adjustments. And then you just kind of keep going back to that balance. You know, you keep listening. Your cable, what needs to be adjusted are all your instruments, kind of, you know, sitting where you want them to be because, you know, sometimes you focus so much on clarity rather than the track as a whole, because it's more important for the track to sound like a song versus hearing every instrument super clear. Because if you're trying to make everything super clear, you're going to be, you know, doing a little bit more aggressive e que cuts and boosts. And you know you might not get the result you want versus if you're focusing on listening to this song as it actual song like you know. So if you hit play, if you walk away and if you're listening to it, do you enjoy what you're listening to? That's a very important thing, because when you're mixing your focused on these little things that the average person isn't focused on, okay, because once your song is balanced in terms of volume, then you can kind of start listening in terms of the e que balance. That might just make that one instrument. And that's also Ah, really handy trick to is you can actually mute individual instruments to find a which is Thean instrument that is causing you the problems. Okay, so, for example, if I'm listening to the like this drum loop, for example. And then there's that there's like that one sound that's just filling it up. I can't get anything else to stand up because it's that that one instrument again, you kind of you to the instrument and you kind of find the problem instrument, and then you can go in and maybe do a little bit more surgical. Eq you on that one instrument to help your other instruments stand out. Now I'll talk just a little bit of in terms of e que What you're wanting to achieve out of e que. So there's two main ways you could be using the e que. So the first of all is again the EQ you imbalance. So, for example, let's say you're working with a vocal, and it's just not kind of through the mix. You can add some some brightness into that vocal to help it standoff over the mix. You know in that, but that might just be it might just be an easy fix and you're on your way. And then there's also the creative aspect of EQ you like. I showed you here on this on this high hat. You know, when we boosted up here really, really drastically and we actually changed how the sound actually sounded. You know, that's being more aggressive with your cue, because you're kind of dream or sound design now to go back to the e que balance. Now, when you're starting out, people say cutting will help you make more space in your mix versus boosting and it right beginnings. This was a good way to mix. I actually, you know, learned a lot because you kind of think in terms of wool. If I remove these frequencies, um, say out of these drums, for example, like, Let's just say around here now. I'm not saying to do this to your drums, but I'm just talking to stick in general. But, for example, if I were to remove some of these kind of low mids that's actually boosting your low end and your high end okay, versus if you were to boost your low mids, it's actually making your lows and your highs quieter in comparison to your low mids now, Okay, so a lot of people say cutting is a better way to get a cleaner mix. However, for myself I do both. I do boosts and cuts, but I'm just kind of breaking it down for you in terms of what people kind of talk about out there in the industry versus kind of what I like to do to. So when I'm mixing, I typically cut quite a bit. But that's not to say that I don't boost, you know, For example, if I want some some brightness, I'll easily come here and add some brightness. You know, maybe, Ah, have a wider Q or whatever. So when it comes to e que, that's generally what people suggest. Okay, so you know you want to cut more than you boost. However, I typically adjust where I find the sound I'm going for now. When it comes to compression, I'll just talk about compression just a little bit with you here. I do have videos on YouTube and stuff about compression if you want to check those out. But this will really help you to understand compression. Okay, so there's two main ways to use a compressor, and this confused me in my beginnings. So the first way is simply to use a compressor for volume balancing. Okay, so for example, let's say I'm talking into the microphone right now and let's say some words air really, really loud. And then some words were really, really quiet. You can put a compressor on there, and it will keep all of the volume more consistent throughout your song. So, for example, that vocal, if somewhere loud and quiet, while the loud words are obviously you're hearing those. But the quiet words might get buried in the mix so you can slap a compressor on there and will make the vocal more consistent and hopefully more audible in your mix. Now you can also get away with doing volume automation. So instead of using a compressor, you could just be using volume automation. So, for example, in this case, you just right. Click this fader and go create automation clip, and you can boost the vocal on Lee at those certain times when it goes quiet. And this way you're not getting the negative artifacts of compression. But if you adjust the compressor right, um, you know it's kind of a way to automatically do it for you, and it's awesome. Now, the second way to use a compressor and this is what confused me because a lot of times people would say, Oh, well, I'm gonna slap this compress Iran to give my drums a little extra punch. And it's just like, Well, what do you mean, extra punch? Because I thought we used a compressor for balancing. Now, when you're dealing with a compressor of the attack and the release knob that allows you to mold your sound, Okay, So in this case of a drum, when I have a fast attack, what's happening is the compressors actually clamping down very fast on my drums. So as soon as the drum plays, it clamps down. And so what that does is it makes the drum longer. OK, so you're not getting that hard punch out of the drum, but you're making the drum have a longer tail to it. But if I were to make the attack longer, what's happening as it takes longer to clamp down on your sound? So, in other words, the original sound kind of slips through the compressor, and then it clamps down. So in other words, you're getting three beginning of the drum, hitting a little bit harder through the mix, and then it's clamping down. So again, that's just all to do with molding your sound with a compressor. And I just want to break that down for you because if you're taking this course, you're new to mixing and with the compressor. It takes a long time to learn and hear what you're trying to achieve on of it. But by me telling you that it was kind of break, break that down and then one other way with the compressor is side chain compression. So that's to use another sound to lower the volume of another sound that's really popular in E g M music's to kind of get that that pumping sound. Okay, so that's just a little overview on kind of the basic mindset of mixing to help prevent you guys for making kind of silly mistakes. You know, you guys just want to be a little bit more gentle in your in your decisions. Think of the song born context of a song and not in context of the individual instrument. You don't want to be soloing out instruments, you know, from time to time is something that really, really problem sound. Then you can solo and work on it, but keep going back to reference it in the song because if you're mixing in solo, it's you're gonna waste your time, you're gonna tweak that sound that you're gonna add it back into the mix and you're gonna be like, Well, this isn't suit it. So that's why it's important to mix your instruments within the context of the song actually playing.
9. 3.1 - Sends Intro: so in this video we're gonna be covering sends sends are extremely powerful. It's kind of like that next stepping stone in your mixing and producing career. Um, it just allows you to wrote your audio very, very flexibly within your mixer, you know, So you so from one insert, you could be sending it to multiple areas. And if you want to add reverb on or you know delay, it sends it in a parallel way so you can manipulate it in very creative ways. And the reason why I'm on full screen is because I want to show you about a mixer and stuff like that. So, as you can see on here, I have to ox ends. Okay, so auxiliary sends so ascendant an auxiliary sends like the same thing. So with an auxiliary sends so back in the day, analog gear was extremely expensive. Especially like, you know, let's take a river when it first came out last. Nowadays we can load up like 10 reverb. No problem, right? You know, it's just a matter of a couple clicks, and you have 10 re verbs. But back in the day, that would have been extremely expensive as well as it takes up space in your studio. So the benefit of an ox would be so you could be roading, multiple instruments to that reverb, and you could blend them into however much you want of that reverb. And therefore you could be taking advantage of that one reverb from multiple instruments. And that's still the same idea behind a send nowadays. But I believe it was kind of a beam or important back in the day in terms of, you know, taking advantage of your gear and kind of creating like a unified mix. Also another way you could be using an ox. So again, I'll bring this up here again so you could see that this mixer gives me, ah, monitor ox. So a monitor send and on FX end. So when you hear the word auxiliary sand or send their used interchangeably, I personally just use the word send anyway. So right here there is a monitor send okay, and the effects so a monitor mix would be, Let's say you're in the studio with someone and they want to have their headphones kind of adjusted differently in terms of volume. So, for example, Let's say, you know, they're kind of being a bit of knowing and there's like, Man, I want that stare to crack and you're just like Okay, so as a producer to make it easier on yourself, you can set them up a monitor mix just on their headphones, and you can turn up that snare just to make them happy so you can kind of get on with the recording session. So that's kind of two. Popular uses of sends is as an effect chain for multiple instruments to use it or to send different mixes. Two different instrumentalists. You know, this is really, really popular, and people are on stage. Um, you know, and they really actually good example of this is like a background singer, because law times their background vocals are very, very quiet in the mix. But in order to sing a lot of times you want to hear yourself, so you know the producer or, you know, the recording engineer can send them a monitor mix so that there voice could be heard more , even though that's not how it's actually gonna be mixed or, you know, stuff like that
10. 3.2 - Sends Slideshow: So for the first point, I want to let you know when you hear the word dry that's people are talking about. The original signal. Wet is like the affected signal. So, you know, think about reverb, DeLay, chorus distortion, something like that. Okay, so that's your effect, and you can blend in the amount of the wet effect that you want from here on out in your audio career, that is common practice of what you'll actually hear being said about this stuff. Okay, so again, how sends work is you could be routing multiple tracks to that send. So in this case, I have two options. Here are the effects, and the monitor mix will cover the FX first. So let's say on our send we put a reverb and that's a offer. Instruments. We had a piano guitar in a snare, so let's say we want lots of reverb on the piano. Weaken wrote lots of that piano into the send on the guitar. Let's say we just wanted a little bit of reverb. You know, you can dial in just a little bit, and then let's snare just a little bit too, so you just dial in a little bit. So it just gives you that flexibility and then on the monitor mix again, Like I was saying, without artists, you know, if he wants more crack in his snare, you can set that up and send it to him. So on your audio interface, a lot of times you have, like, one and two or you have three and four. So, for example, you could be standing him on three and four. That's near that cracks. OK, so just to kind of let you be aware of how these ascends can be useful and then a really, really cool one here is you can manipulate the effect so the wet signal without touching the dry signal and this is is to do with Siri's and parallel processing again, We're gonna be covering series and parallel on paper and pen. I'll show you that after the slideshow and to continue on So with subgroups versus sends. So this can kind of be confusing if you know when you're kind of new. But I think of subgroups as kind of like in Siris. So, for example, you create ah subgroup. So you create an insert and you have all these instruments, and what you do is you actually wrote the instruments into the subgroup. Now, whatever you do on that subgroup will affect all of those individual inserts. So, for example, that subgroup let's you have a piano guitar and that snare. And let's say in that subgroup you put in E Q and you put, um, you know, high cut filter so it cuts out the highs on everything. Okay, so it's kind of like in Siris, even though it kind of isn't. But once it gets to the subgroup, it becomes in Siris. And Ascend is kind of like in parallel, so you can be sending that audio to multiple sends. Andi. It won't affect your original dry signal in case it was kind of like parallelism saying there. Once we cover series and parallel, it will, it will have a better understanding. Okay, which is the next point? I of of the slide show. So, um, Siri's versus parallel. So when you hear the word Siri's think about one path for audio to flow. So, for example, in our subgroup, once we wrote it, all those individual inserts, the subgroup, they all had to go to that one path of the subgroup. Now, no matter what we do in that subgroup, it's going to effect all of those you know, instruments that we've wrote it in tow. Even if that's lower the volume putting e que on it, compress it, whatever. So that Siri's OK And when you hear the word parallel Ah, you can think of multiple past for your audio to flow and one kind of cool thing about an ascend is it supposedly creates a unified sound. So this is something I've read online a lot. I've never really put it to the test, you know, uh, comparing it. But this is the idea behind it. So if you only have one reverb and you wrote multiple instruments to that reverb, people say it kind of creates that that unified sounds since you're using like one river. But you know, kind of keeps your song in sync. You know, for myself, I have been using sends a lot more. So I guess it's credence that unified sound. But for myself, I'm doing it more for easier mixing easier to maintain like one or two river herbs instead of multiple re verbs However, if I'm working with, like, an actual lead, that is different than all the other sounds. Sometimes I might put a river directly onto that lead, or I will create a special send just for that lead. Um, you know, just to kind of make it stand, Oh, in a different way. But I just want to throw that one out for you. It's kind of like a fun fact just for you to be aware off in terms like the unified sound. Now this is a really, really interesting one with sends. It's very, very important to know and understand, Um is to do with pre fader and post fader, So fl studio there mixer eyes actually post fader. So all like, the inserts are actually post fader. I am. But a way around this is you can be using the fruity scent plug. And if you want pre fader, So post fader is when the audio is sent after all the effects and even if you've adjusted the volume and then you send that insert to ascend that that audio gets rooted to the send . So, for example, that say, you put a compressor on it just to kind of balance all the sound and you put some eq you on there just to kind of fine tune it a little bit and you've lowered the volume that audio how you've adjusted it is getting sent to the send. So that's post fader. Pre fader would be that the audio gets sent even before you did all that affect stuff. So just get sent trade away. So I just typed in mixture fl studio into Google, so I'll just read this quickly. So the send switches NFL studios of mixer take the audio after the mix. Fader so is known as post fader. Okay, So to create a pre fader, um, you could just use the fruity scent plug in just to kind of summarize that quickly. And here is the actual fruity send plug in. Okay, so if you just in case you're interested in checking that Oh, and now I'm just gonna kind of cover some benefits of sends, you know why you'd want to use them. So, like I was saying, it's easier to mix using one plug in instead of many. So, for example, using one reverb a set of 10 reverb because If you have 10 re verbs, that means you have to adjust them and find too in them and tweak them. And that's really, really tedious. And as a mixer, typically, you kind of want to be working generally kind of fast, you know, so that you actually complete the project and you can move on. So if using one plug in it will allow you to do this a lot faster and you know, for example, here you can actually set up to sends. You can have two different reverb sounds you know, just for variety in your mix, but yes, so that's one benefit of it. You can use one plug in instead of many, making a lot simpler for your mixing. Another really, really big one is it's actually less resource hungry. So, for example, if you use one reverb instead of 10 River because reverb is known to be very, very CPU hungry. So if you use one river visited, 10 re verbs might be a little bit easier on your computer and for our next point, so ah, it can add extra fullness. So, for example, let's say, with parallel compression, it is thickens up to mix or with distortion. It adds extra frequencies to your sound or cheer mix. And yeah, it creates fullness. And this is actually really, really cool when our next point, so you can add extra wide nous without losing the middle. So when you're working with stereo separation, plug ins, stereo widening plug ins, some of them can create what is called comb filtering, and it can create cancellation. Want you track owes tamano. So, for example, if you're listening and it's, you know, like your piano sounds really, really wide, and then all of a sudden it goes tamano, you might be like Where did my piano go? And that's why it's very, very important to be testing your mix in mono, especially if you're working with these types of plug ins but the benefit of using ascend. So, for example, let's say you have your piano. You can route your piano to ascend. You can put the stereo separation wide. You know the widening plug in on their Therefore you have your original piano. You also have the wide piano M. But what happens is if it goes to mono, that wide nous should collapse. If you've adjusted it. You know, there is, like, a setting, you know you can you want to be testing, but you can be testing to know when it collapses. And when it doesn't, that's the whole point of testing and mono. Um, but with this by doing a send, you know, you can keep your piano and have the wide nous on both mono. And then when it goes to stereo, you'll have your wide nous, So that's a really, really cool one.
11. 3.3 - Sends Series Parallel Paper Pencil: Okay, So when you're dealing with sends, you have to be thinking in terms of Siri's and parallel to fully understand what you're actually doing. And so, like I said in the slide show, Siri's is when audio can Onley flow through one path. Okay, so it's kind of like whatever you do to the audio, it compounds, it goes, it gets affected more and more and more, and it doesn't give you the most amount of flexibility when it comes to audio roading. So, for example, if we do this, let's just say this is in OK, so this is the audio end Now, we're just gonna put in e que here. Okay, so when we put in e que you know? So let's just say we have our audio here and let's just say we have a high shelf, okay? So kind of kind of a high shelf. So we boost the high frequencies just a little bit in that e que So now the audio will continue, and I'll that's to say we we end up putting a compressor in there. Okay, Come. Sorry if the camera shaking. So we have our audio in. We ah put a high shelf e que. And now what's happening is that audio is continuing through into a compressor. And now, let's say on that compressor. So we have our audio and ogles over the threshold. But let's just say, you know, it's kind of chopped off some of our peaks. So now the audio continues, and you know, it would actually continue So that audio from here instead of it being the point there, you know, it might be kind of rounded now because it's been compressed. And now let's say we put, um, you know, another e que on there. Okay, you know, And then let's just say we take that audio again and delicious say instead of the high shelf so we still use the high shelf. But we actually may be lower. You know, reducing those high frequencies because this is actually a common trick people do is they will, ah, boost the frequencies they want compressed to trigger the compressor more, and then they'll actually reduce those frequencies afterwards. But as you can see here, the mawr effects you put on this chain before it goes to your master capsule M for master. So by the time it goes from your audio in to your master, your effects have compounded. So by the end here you've had to eke use and a compressor on, and your audio is now the result of all of them added up. Okay, so this is Siri's care. Oops, So that's Siri's. So now if we go to parallel So now this is kind of interesting, and it can get kind of tricky to understand. So, like I said, Siri's, there's only one path for your audio to flow. The further it goes through, the more it gets affected. Okay, so this would be on your one mixer insert where you have 10 effects. The efforts did you allows you to have, and the more effects you put on the board, it's affected and it goes to your master. So now, on the actual parallel track. So how this works is let's just say we have are in again K. And let's just call it a guitar. I'll put G Okay, so this is the end care. So from here, let's just do the same thing again, OK, so we have And e que we have accomp compressor, uh, another e que serve is getting small for you to see. And then we have the master. So this is this is the exact same things you're seeing here. So downwards, this is Siri's again. OK, but now what we can do is we can actually come off of here, and we can go to, let's say, a reverb. This congee rooted to the master and the thing is, on your actual reverb, you can let's just reset spot here. And this is put in a and e que in so you can put in e que And with that audio so you know your audio is flowing through here after your e que you could be putting a low cut. So if you have your audio, you know, and you could be putting a low cut filter and a high cut filter just to kind of trim some of your actual audio. So it's not fighting with your original dry case of the dry in this medical wet. Okay, and so now let's come here to another one. So come here and we're square. Bounce over that. Come over and let's just go a delay. Okay, the same thing we can put an e Q and you know it reflect the audio in the same way. And these would be separate paths coming to the master, and you can blend in the amount you want. So right here they're like a mixed knob, and you could put it to 100% or 0%. And you can dial in the amount of the effect that you want. Same here, going to the the delay. So you have 0% or 100% and you can dial it anywhere in between if you want more or less of that effect. And if you want to be really, really crazy off of the actual reverb, you could like, go to another one so you can distort the reverb. So, like double D for distortion, and that would have its own path. The master, you know, that's kind of getting complex. But just to show you could be having all these multiple pasts. Now, we'll try and show you subgroups quickly. Okay, because this will be an interesting one to understand. So, like I was saying in the slide show, so parallel is like your sentence. So you send your dry to a reverb and then that goes to the master. But the dry is also going to the master and this is actually kind of wrong. So because this would actually be from here since since its post fader in fo studio. But if it was pre fader, it would be coming off of here before the effects. But since fo studio is post fader, it is coming off of here. So are, you know, not to confuse you, But if you understand what I'm talking about, then that would make sense. So this would be like post and up here would be like pre fader. Okay, so now with subgroups, how this works is so let's just say we have ah, you know P for piano. We have G for guitar. We have We'll go see for clap. OK, so piano guitar clap We're gonna go here and ago s G for subgroup. Now what happens here is so these get routed to the subgroup, okay? And then from here it goes to the master. And so this is what I'm saying is as it comes into Siri's, because now your audio only has one path to flow to hit to the master. So, for example, if we were to put and e que into here, So we have a piano or guitar and a clap going into our subgroup, and if we want to e q. And let's just say we want to put, um, you know, high cut filter. So we're filtering out, uh, you know, some high frequencies. It would affect that to all of this. Okay, because it's now in Siris. And then if we wanted to with FL Studio, you know, we can send this to ascend. So although send and let's just say river Okay, so all of these so piano, guitar and clap are going to the subgroup, which we've acute a little bit. And since its post fader, it goes to ascend, which we have reverb on. Now what happens is the river was actually applied to this audio because this is the some You know, of all of these, the reverb gets applied evenly to these. So the only difference how you can control the amount of reverb each individual instrument is by actually lowering the volume. So again, like I did here with here, So you have 0% or like 100%. This would be the actual volume slider, but at the same time. But then that's where moving your dry signal. And then this would come to master. Okay, so this could be kind of confusing, but I just wanted to break down. I guess in a block diagram, I think, is what we call this. So in Siris, it's only one path, three audio to flow. As your audio goes through, it gets affected more and more and more before hits the master and then in parallel. You know, you have your dry signal, it goes to the master. And if you added on effects, it takes it from the post and fo studio. And then you can affect it with reverb on ascend. And you can put in e que onto that river which would go to the master. And this parallel pretty much allows you for the most flexibility. Okay. And then on the subgroup, this allows you four the easiest type of mixing. Okay. So, you know, since you only have one subgroup, you only have to turn one volume slider instead of three volume sliders. However, it doesn't allow for as much flexibility when it comes to, let's say, routing piano to more river. Okay, so that's a little pen and paper overview of syriza parallel and just a kind of, ah, little overview of subgroups. I'm gonna were gonna go into FL Studio, and I'm gonna show you how to set this up and how to be really, really creative in terms of your routing and kind of different ideas of how you can do do this.
12. 3.4 - Sends Setup: Okay, So in this video, we're gonna be covering sends again. This is going to be the eye opening video, which will really reveal to you how powerful you can wrote your audio around in your mixer . You know, when you're just working with basic inserts and advancing two subgroups, there's still a lot of restriction in terms of not taking advantage of parallel processing . So parallel processing you'll hear a lot about it, like terms such as like parallel compression, which is also called New York compression. And it's just a technique that is used to help thicken your mix. Um, especially like the drums, Um, and what you do is you had just said one version of your drums to another insert, and you would compress it super hard, and you would just bring the volume up just a little bit. And what that does is it helps the drums to stay nice and consistent, and it just helps their beef to stay just thicker throughout the track. And that's achieved with with parallel processing. Okay, So, like I was saying before their Siri's processing, which is when the audio goes to each insert and it gets affected more and more through each insert. But what happens is if I send this to another insert and let's just go, uh, drums par okay for parallel. Okay? And I give it that blue. And sometimes what I do is I'll click the color and ago, the plus and all other go brighter or darker just to kind of offset it just a little bit. Okay, so we'll hit. Enter and I'll bring that over. And now, as you can see, it's like that's the parallel track for drums. So at the moment, all that's happening is it's actually just doubling the audio. So if I just put the drum right here, I can't if I mute this, you hear is just kind of, ah, amplifying the volume just a little bit. So what's happening is six is playing. It's going into the drum sub, and but the drum subs also just going to the master. However, we've kind of tapped into it with a parallel path, and it's now going to the drums parallel track and on here. We can affect it however we want, and it's not going to affect the original drums bus. Now, this is the whole advantage and power behind the parallel track. Because once we're getting into instruments, which I'll show you in a second, we will create like a reverb send and a delay send and you'll see that we can e que the river been delayed differently And it's not going to affect our original signal. So, for example, if we ever drums here, as you can see, what I've done is I've applied compression on here on the e que I did absolutely nothing. Um, but is you can see here I put distortion directly onto the drum, and this is fine if you want to approach it this way. However, what you can do is I'm just gonna go save preset and just drag it onto the drums. Parallel track. Just I don't have to reopen the plug in. I'm just going to remove it from here. Now, instead of me applying the distortion directly onto the drums, I can apply it onto a parallel track, and I can apply however much I want. So in this case, what you want to do is you want to put the mixed a full and when I come here to the drums bus and see how it's eroded. Right now. It's like 100% and you can actually go more. You go 125% but I will dial it back and I will find Tune it toe where I want it in the mix . So if we listen to the drum loop again, okay without it with it, Okay, it's just a little bit thicker. But again, you have to take into account that in this case it's actually making the drum louder, so it feels that it's making the drum sound better. So what you can do in here is you could just a just like the volume just to kind of make it so that when you turn the effect on and off, um, you're actually hearing a difference. So we'll just listen to overtime. Okay, so let's just apply a little bit more and re listenable, warmer time. Now, this is like a really common thing to do, to add distortion on sure drums, and it's suddenly kind of bump it up. It allows for kind, like that parallel compression thing we're talking about already, and it also adds some extra frequencies to the drum to help it kind of cut through as it's a little bit more crunch to your hit. So that's just ah, you know how to set up your parallel processing with your drums, for example. Um, and now I'm going to get into creating a reverb sent. Now. The reason why sends are so powerful is first of all, yeah, that you can be rooting your audio to another track, and you can manipulate it however you want without affecting the original. And then you can blend in just what you want. So that is super super awesome in terms of flexibility. Now, in terms of a performance standpoint with your computer, that is also a huge benefit. So, for example, instead of labelling this drums parallel track, what if I labeled it? Let's let's just go distortion will get like a different color like this, and I'll put it here now, in case. So now this would be like ascend, so now this drums can use it and watch. The clap can use it as well as the high hat. So what's happening here is I'm actually just using one plug in 41234567 sounds. Okay, so as you can see, we're using one plug in. Vs is seven plug ins, which saves processing power and especially once we get into using plug ins like reverb, reverb are typically known to be very, very CPU hungry. So if we only create one or two reverb Sen's that will allow your computer to only use one or two river herbs for multiple tracks and then if you are working on with, like that one sound like that one sound effect that does need a special reverb, you can throw it on there. But now you're not having to open up tons of re verbs, you know, having to tweak each plug in. You have only two main re verbs that you can work off of and tweak to your liking. And again, you just use like the blend knob for how much or little you want. So how I will do that is it is gonna push my middle scroll wheel in, and they just go reverb one okay, and just give it a color. And we're also gonna go reverb two, and we'll give that a color just to kind of show you this is like what I do, And I typically also create a stereo separation send as well, and that adds wide nous. So, for example, if you want some sounds to stand out just a little bit more than others, you can get like the extra wide nous. And it's just good for mixing. Um, when you're dealing with witness, you do have to be careful in terms of phase cancellation. So, for example, in your master track here Ah, you have a stereo separation of if you look up here. So when I hover, it's a steer separation. So when you go merged, So when the track goes toe mono, um, you have to be careful of phase cancellation. So whatever you're mixing, it's really important to always just once in a while kind of check to see where mono is. Some people actually mix in mono, and then and then they come and actually check it in stereo. So they actually were the other way around. But from he I'd like to hear, like, the wide nous and stuff as a mixing, so I just always kind of reference the mono it. Okay, So onto the reverb one and revert to So here we're just going to go reverb and on a school Freddie Reverb again. The most important thing with this end is to put the dry to zero and the wet 200% We confined to these knobs after Let's go reverb two. I'm just gonna pull up a different river that I have here. Uh, let's just use it the fruit of involve er okay. And again the dry elevated zero and we just leave the wet as it is now. For example, if I have this guitar here, as you can see right now, it's it's on track five, OK? And all they have to do is just wrote it to here and now I get some beautiful river And if I wrote it to reverb two waken go in and we confined to knees OK, so we open this up and we just this is just apply more wetness. So it's a little bit louder and maybe tweak these just to kind of hear how it sounds. So Okay, so that's a little bit of aggressive. So I'm just gonna take this and resent the dial it back a bit. That's it So now you have to listen there. And from a mixing standpoint, I can hear It's very muddy now. This is where it's really awesome So I can come here to the river to open up in e que. And this is to remove some of that low end helper. Mixing out, you know, make are mixing sound a lot clearer. So in this case, let's just cut out 80 hertz or something like that. So and then again, we could just come here in this dial back or add what we what we need and we'll come here. So how this is set up is you have a pre DeLay and also in the beta version, I believe in the reverb two. They've added in another knob just to help more randomized settings, which is awesome. Fl studios always coming up with updates, which is just such a awesome bonus to using FL Studio I. And if so, what they have here is they also have, like a loca and a high cut. So it's the same thing is adding are antique you like I did here, so it's gonna open this up so it just doesn't clamp it down as fast. Okay, So as you're hearing, if I remove those you know now I could hard like this. And this is back in so way. More enjoyable to listen to. So another another one I'll show you is Ah, stereo Sepp. Honestly, that and we'll give it just kind of that color. Bring it in here. And I like this plug in for wide nous. It's the stereo and enhancer. Okay, now, one thing the FL studio is amazing with Is there help menu? Okay, so you just hit F one and down here, it will tell you that the phase offset, which is the left and right. So what happens is you either delay the right channel or the left channel longer than the other channel. So, for example, if both the channels are playing the same ah sound, what's gonna happen is it will delay the right side by like, 20 milliseconds, and that creates a wide nous sound. So when a saying dead center, you know, it's just in the normal. Turning it right will offset the right channel. Internet left will offset the Left Channel. Now, this plug in allows you to do 500 milliseconds. All that you hear, it just sounds like delayed. But it here it's saying, settings of 20 to 40 milliseconds usually produce a realistic, realistic stereo effect right here on the guitar. All have the Jewish just go stereo separation and right now, but 500. So it's creating a delay sound. So that does something very, very cool. But you could just be using a delay Plug in for that. The whole point of this is we want whiteness. So let's put it to a boat, maybe 35. Now without it, though, que turned back on now, the biggest thing I want to tell you about thes sends is you don't want to be using them as a crutch. Okay, so what I mean by that is instead of actually mixing and trying to balance out your track in terms of the levels tryingto get a nice e que balance using compression for a balanced sound or to mold shape your sound If you're using to these for your mixing, that's not what I want for you. And that's not really what you're supposed to be doing. Under the sends. He sends safe CPU power. They speed up mixing times, but you don't want to be relying on them in terms off. That's your mix. Okay, you want to be adjusting your levels, get your song sitting where you want and then use Thies to create, like, a unified sound to increase clarity to help with white nous toe ad reverb on. And then, if I were to create a delay one. I'll show you that just for the sake of since we're doing it. Okay, so I bring this over. Now again, the most important thing is to turn the dry knob zero and that's it. Now, if we play this guitar, I just click it over. You're going to hear It's just way too intense eso from just a general standpoint. I typically lower the feedback level, and I also lower this cut off knob because it helps the delay not interfere with the original signal cause it's kind of a little bit more muffled. So, for example, on in this case, I just feel that that delay just a little bit too loud, so we just dial it back a bit. Even the stairs separation weakened out that back a little bit and then with this distortion since the drums air using the distortion on the guitar, It can also help create, you know, some extra fullness to this guitar. So oops didn't want piano distortion. So with it full, it'll sound like this. OK, so you can hear the distortion. Okay, so too much delicious added for this for a little bit of fullness in the in the sound and that's it. Now, another thing I'll say here is right now this guitar sound has no effects on it, right? So what that means is that the original signal is going into all of these sends just plain vanilla. But if I were to add an E Q one here and this just boost up some high end, okay, because I kind of feel a little bit dull sounding. So let's just boost it up like this. Okay, Now, what's happening is this audio signal that has been boosted with high frequencies that is now going into the river and the river to in the delay and the stereo separation and the distortion. Okay, if I remove this, that audio is going plain vanilla again. But now if I turn on the affected signal is going to each send. And this means that this effect is in Siris with these parallel tracks. Okay, Now, if we add effects onto reverb, any effect we adding here, that isn't Siri's. And then these are just going to the master to the master Kay to the master guitar is going to the master and this audio just by itself. You know, the dry signal is going to the master. So that's one more thing I'll tell you about, um, sends is there's the dry and there is the wet signal, OK? And so the dry signal is just your guitar here. Okay, there's nothing on it now. Even if we put the e que on it's still the dry signal And now we're sending it to the effects that we want the effect on and that is called the wet Signal. So now that I have the e que on, let's just kind of maybe cut some lows on that and as well as the kind of like low mids a little bit muddy castle, well played again on then with you with the kyo ahn. So it's just a cleaner signal and is going into all your effects with this signal again, if we were to add distortion onto the actual guitar, the distortion is going into all of these tracks as well.
13. 3.5 - Mixing Revealed With Sends: Okay, So I went ahead and recorded just a little
guitar piece here. And what I'll do is I'll just do a little quick mix
with you just to give you an idea of how I
would approach mixing this. So when I was listening, I could hear that the guitar is just a little bit
muddy sounding. So I'm just going to take
out some lower mids on that. We don't have any other
instruments to work with, so we don't have to be
thinking in terms of spacing to make those fit. But just in general
of the drums, the clap and the high hats
and this guitar here. I'm just gonna kinda tweak
it with you just to get a better result and I'll show you how I
will achieve that. Okay, so let's listen to
it. Sounds like this. Okay, So right off
the bat with the EQ, I am just going to take
off some more lows. You'll kinda like this and really awesome thing
with most plug-ins, they do have an a and b. So in this case, watched, sorry, I'll go back. And I'm just going to copy
this and we will remove that. And we can go in-between to hear the
difference. So it'd be like this. One thing we can do is
because when you have all of your notes in one piano
roll, the base line. Can cannulate clash
with your upper, and it would be
nicer to mix this differently than
your upper notes. So what I'll do is I will
take it over from here, okay? And I'm just going
to go Control and x. I'm going to right-click on
the guitar and go clone. And it's going to
paste that in there. Okay, so now I'm just going
to put this as base, okay? So base, and we will
make it like that green. And I will delete this one. And we will put this to eight. And this is what it
would sound like right now, just the instrument. Okay, so since it's the base, now, on smaller speakers, lot of times base
doesn't stand out. So a nice little trick is to apply just a little bit
of distortion and it will help your base to stand out better on smaller
speakers is e.g. if we just listened
to that here. So we'll add more distortion
under their care. So cares too much distortion. Just bring it back. And acute differently. That is a little bit of a high cut filter on their
back it up just a little bit. Maybe just cut this
a little bit on the lows just because that's
kinda like the rumble. And maybe around here maybe I'll just kinda
dark just a little bit. And I'll boost in the midst just to help that
stand out a little bit more. Without it can all just boost up the volume just because I hear a
difference in that. So it was a 1.25. Now what I'll do on the base is I will compress it
a little bit more. Just saw it very, very even. Just a little bit of
a lower threshold. Let's just go a little
bit of a lighter ratio and just go with a little bit of a faster
attack as well as faster lease because I don't
want it to be audible. I just want the volume to be very consistent so we'll
listen to it again. You should just go on
the eight so I can see backup a little bit. Okay, so I'll play it with the effects and then without the effects, that's
what this is here. Again, it's important just to level match, to hear
the difference. Right now I am mixing and
solo, which isn't good. Remember, we should be mixing in context of the drum loop two. But I'll listen with the base, without the effects and with the mono case. So here we go. So just with the
compressor on it, just a little bit more
consistent in volume. So with the drum loop, let's boost them are
highest into this. I'll come back to devote
to both thousand. And let's just crank at
the school late 12th. And again, we can always eNB
and hear the difference. So k turned out a little bit. Since this is a recording, you can hear that
there's noise in it. So sometimes a way
around that is you can use a bell here. And this time I'm not
going to go as drastic, but you can kind of go like this and not really get the super, super highest, which is
a lot like the noise. But I will just
leave it as it is. Also on here. I'm also
going to put a compressor. So just go. Dynamics proceed. And let's see, maybe we'll go a bit of
a longer attack and I'll get a lot of like the
plucks kinda more noticeable and a fast release, little bit more
aggressive ratio. And I'm just guessing right now, once we actually get into
it, I'll be able to hear it in case a little bit
higher threshold. And again, as you can see, I'm just turning off and
on the effect just to hear the difference of
what we're doing. So let's go maybe 75 and little higher and just dial it back
just a little bit. I'm just looking
for a little bit more consistency in the higher
end of the guitar here, because this is a low base, the base notes, and this
is more like the melody. And by having a little
bit of a longer attack, it will allow the transients to be a little bit more plucky. And yeah, I'm just making sure that
everything is balanced and the EQ is kind of helping it be a
little bit brighter. So on kate, your data center
just a little bit. Okay, so let's focus on
these drums here now. So what can we do to them? Kiss all this is turn
these down just a little bit. On her drum. What we've done so
far is I think I compressed it quite
hard and are okay, So we have a bit of
a longer attack. And again, this is just kinda just going through it
quickly with you guys. The process has a bunch of different styles of compressors. So let's just kinda mix it up. Let's just try this one. A little bit of higher threshold and a little bit
faster attack gaze, what a switch in between them. And we'll hear the difference. Okay? I'm going to higher threshold and a little bit
faster attack just, I want a little bit more
balanced, but it loses drums. And then we'll just kinda fine tune them with some EQ here too. So and with drums don't be afraid to
boost the highest. This is a little technique I've found over the years
that just helps the drums just to
cut through because a lot of times your
base is there. You're just not
hearing the click of the drum to help
him cut through. Okay, so we'll listen again. So what I'll do actually is I'm just going
to boost this up, maybe go to eight. And this is a
little bit drastic. A polytomy like five, 5,000 hz. And I'm going to
copy that and I'm going to remove the 5,000 hz K and we will compare
before and after. Okay, So it sounds
like this with allies. So it's pretty crazy.
The difference that makes, in this case, it's kinda making it sound almost like the drums are
a bit weaker sounding, however, they're more audible. So let's just maybe put
it to, let's say three. And maybe this, I can
boost this went up just to give the
jumps a little bit of a harder hit to the chest hit. Ok without effects. So in this case we got to
dial it back a little bit. So let's just collect two. And just so when I turn off
and on the effects that, you know, it's, it's,
it's a fair comparison. So with the effects
off with them on K, so on RNR compressor,
Mrs. Douglas, back of bits being a bit
aggressive, like 2.5. And here we'll just kinda
dial this back a little bit. And it boost this up
just a little bit. Okay, So again, it's just all about kinda
comparing back and forth and fine tuning it to where you want
the drums to sit. Now, at this point, the distortion you'll
hear is actually very, very amazing how much more
powerful the drums become. So I'll feel a little bit
drastic all my settings here. So and actually I forgot all of those are going
to the distortions that, which I didn't mean to do that. I showed you that earlier.
So the club was going in the high hat was going. So
we've got this right now. Turned down a little bit. So on these high hats, maybe this has some delay. So going on here. Okay, Let's just add a little bit distortion onto them too. Reverb. Let's add some whiteness
onto these hats. See how that sounds. Okay, and for the finale,
will do the class. So let's put some EQ on here. And I'll just kinda cut out some of these kind of mids here. And we're just going to
lower this a little bit. A lot of times people do try to thin out their
clubs quite a bit, but however, your clapped
does start to sound thin. And a lot of times, depending on who you're
working with a snare, you can boost up in the
snare area a little bit just to kinda help it punch through
just a little bit. So e.g. if I boost this up, how the Cloud might have
extra beef to it. Okay, so right around there.
So in this case is drastic. Let's just put like
ten K without it. Okay. Brake put down a
little bit 1.5 k. So in this case it's
a little bit thin. And that's mostly
probably because they boost the highs there. So. The really nice thing with
pro Q is you can just highlight this and just
dial it back a little bit. And everything will
not be as drastic. So do some like this. Okay, without it. And then now on the compressor, we can affect this
quite differently. So if I bring the threshold quite hard and be quite
aggressive on the ratio, you're going to see how
I can mold the clap. Okay, so and then again, I'll just copy this,
the score like classic, change up the knee. Hear how it sounds before. Okay, So on and off
with the effect. So in this case
what's happening is the tail is becoming
quite a bit longer. So even if I just come from
the threshold a little bit and increase the release, might not hear the tale as loud. So and then when it comes to your mix, usually it is best
practice to leave headroom so that once it
comes to the mastering stage, but if you're doing
all the mastering yourself within the
actual project itself, then you don't really
have to take into account all this 6 db headroom
thing because that's mostly when
you're sending it off to a mastering engineer. But here, you can just apply this a little bit of compression
onto the master bus. A really nice thing with
Pro-C is you can put this to, you can filter out what
audio signal it sees. So in this case, what happens on a compressor, especially on the
mastering stage, is the drums and your snares are typically
you're allowed us. So they're always
going to be triggering your compressor and
it's going to make it feel as if it's always pumping
because it is pumping. But if you go around listed
like three-fifths years, I'm like that your compression
isn't gonna be as audible and you'll get a way
better glue of your mix. So here's just a little
light master was like 24 and put it to school 1.5. And just a longer attack. Let's go like let's say 90. And we'll leave
the release there. One without it. Okay. So without effects. Okay. This is what it would
sound like right now? Yes. The sensor on, but what I've
done with you is not on. Okay. So I'll turn them on. So as you can hear, it just sounds a
lot more balanced. So that's just kinda little
general overview of how I would approach mixing
a track like this. In this case, it's a
little bit more simple because we just have
one instrument. But if we had
multiple instruments, it would just come into the
guitar to start making space. And even, even like your
actual percussion and claps and all that
kinda stuff that can also interfere with
your instruments too. So it gets trickier wins, more instruments are added in. But that's just a
general overview of how I would approach that. So hopefully, you know, it kinda breaks it down for you.
14. 3.6 - Sidechain Compression: Okay, And one final technique I want to show you in regards to the mixer here is
the side chain, okay? So when you click on an insert, you are able to route it to any other insert that you want, just like I've been
showing you all along. But what's happening
is you're actually sending the audio signal. But what you can be doing
is you can be sending the audio as a trigger without sending the
audio signal. So e.g. if I right-click
on the piano here, you can see that I have the option to wrote
to this track, wrote to this track
only side-chains to this track or side
chain to this track only. If I go wrote to this track. It's no different than
me just clicking there, left clicking and
I can remove it. But if I were to right-click
and go wrote to shuck only, it's going to remove all of
the routing that I've done. So which means that I'll have to click all of these back in. Same thing with the side chain. So if I go side
chain to this track, it'll just be if I click here and just dial
it all the way down. So in other words,
there's no signal going. That's the same thing
so much into this track versus if I go wrote
to this track. Okay. So this is just
the audible audio. Okay, so that's, that's
how that this menu works. Now, I'm going to
show you how to use side chain compression
because this is a really, really common trick
that producers use, especially for dance music. However, you can be
very creative with it, not just for dance music. So e.g. we can be side
chaining the base here. If we feel that the base is getting in the way of the drums, we can just lower the volume of the base whenever the
drums play just a little, just drums hit Mason hard
and there's no clashing. Or on these high hats, we can use the drum to lower the volume of the high hats and it creates a rhythm sound. So that's what I'm gonna show
you in this video is how to set up the side
chain compression. Use the drum as a
trigger to lower the volume of the high hats
whenever the drum plays. And in this case, I'm not going to be
using the drum sub, I'm gonna be using one
of the individual drums. And the reason for that
is because if I use the drums sub this
drums kinda offbeat. So the one in insert 11. So I might just use
the insert ten because that's a little bit
more, more simple. And it might be
more, more, I guess, rhythmic versus the other one, that it was gonna be a little
bit sounding a bit weird, but we can try it. We can hear how they both sound. So in this case, I
want this To lower the volume of all of the high hats whenever
this drum plays. Okay, so I click on this insert, I come over here to
the high hat sub, I'm going to right-click
on there and go side chain to this track. Again, there's no difference. I can easily just click on here and turn on the volume to,
that is the same thing. Now on the high hat sub, I'm going to open
up a compressor. Then you have to make
sure that your compressor has the option to enable an external
side chain input. Because actually all
compressors have a side chain. It's just some of them only
allow an external input. So when we are clicking here
and extending the audio, but sending it as a trigger. That is an external source for your compressor to follow
of when to compress. So since I have clicked on ten, I have set up the
side chain here so there's no audible
volume being heard. You're going to click
up here on the gear. You're gonna go processing. And in stereo side chain, Here's going to right-click
and go drum design. So it gets kinda more simple
if I were to go like drum, drum one, and like drum too. And if I right-click here, and so it should say drum one. But I think what I have
to do is I'm just going to hit Backspace and hit Enter. I'm going to hit
Backspace and then Enter. And I'm just going to
highlight both of these. Start from ten, hit
Control Shift and L. Then we have drum
one and drum too. And so now when I
right-click here, you're going to see drum one. And that's just a
little bit easier to read instead of how I have it. The reason why that is
other sound designing some sounds and I just
have the dates on them. They're not ready for
release kinda thing. So I have drum one
as the trigger, the side chains, so that's
the external source. You're going to
click the expert tab here in Pro see anyways. And so as you can
see, it has external. And in this case, I will also open up the fruity limiter just so
you can see that as well. So in this case, you're gonna go compressor. And on the side chain
you right-click and you can have drum
one there as well. So it's the same thing
with the fruity limiter. You have to be careful
because you can see down here how it has a yellow for latency. So on the limiter section, you just put the attack to zero and the latency goes away. I believe FL Studio, the new version will be better with Plug-in
Delay Compensation, which is if you
click this arrow, Plug-in Delay Compensation
is automatic. That's just because
different plugins have different latency times and your DAW has to calculate all these numbers so that everything is in sync. Little off topic, but it is something to
take into account. So I'm going to mute
the fruity limiter. And right here. I'm just pushing
middle scroll wheel. And this case, I'm gonna go side chain and I'm going
to give it a color. So let's just give it an orange. And this allows me to see that. Because if I click on the
drums here, I see Pro-C. Well, yes, that's a compressor, but is it a compressor or
my using a side chain. So if I would open it, I see I don't have
it the expert tabs, so I know it's not being used
for side-chain compression. But if I were to
actually label it, I just find that that's
easier come mixed time. I know which is
my compressor and which is my side-chain
compression. Okay, so our drum is
being side chain to her hat sub we have our side
chain compressor on it. We hit the external appear in the gear and the processing. I have used the drum
as the trigger. And so now all I have to do
is just lower the threshold, increase the ratio,
and you're going to hear how the hi-hat
sounds different. I'll play without it and then I'll play with
it. So here we go. Without it. So in this case, maybe it's a little bit drastic
or maybe I can increase the attack so that it doesn't clamp down as fast. So this is just all just
kind of playing around. I just want to show
you how to set up the side chain
compression since it is all about routing in the
mixer and stuff like that. So maybe we won't go as, as intense on the ratio and we will go like
30 or something. So without it a little bit longer. And we looked for it just adds a little bit of
a different groove to it. Let's try drum to here. So I'm just going
to right-click and go side chain to this track. Now, this now a
compressor can only have one external trigger at a time. Okay, so I'll just choose
drum to now instead. So what's going to happen is whenever this drum plays, you're going
to see this go down. Okay, but if I play drum one, we're not gonna go down. Okay? Okay, so when I hit play here, it's the rhythm of
sound different now. So let's be really, really
drastic with our settings. Again, that's the reason
why I selected drum one, because it was a bit
more consistent with the beat versus drunk too, which is a little
bit the offbeat and may make the hat
sound a little weird. One more time we will select the drum one, come back here. I think I had it
about 90 or something and four and this is called
Bolt, maybe, maybe 24. So on the hi-hat here
I kinda like how this sounds when I think it's
right around here, it goes. So right around there with the side chain compression,
it kinda sounds cool. I kinda like how it kind of
amplifies it a little bit. And without with it. And also just show you it
here with the base as well. So go drum one, right-click, go side
chain to this track. Come here to the side chain, click the Save Preset as it is, drag it onto the base, and now it's all set up already. So up here in the gear, um, you know, we already have
drum one, which is awesome. That's the trick of using
the Save Preset as drag. I just showed you there.
But yes, if you do this, you're going to hear that
the base is going to drop out really, really quick. So K, but you can hear
it's almost just like we kinda sounds weird. So again, we can go with less, a little bit longer attack, keep the released around there. And we just, we just
don't have to go as drastic under settings, but it will allow
our drum to hit just a little bit harder and a
little bit more clarity, especially when the base hits increase it. So as you can here is
just way too drastic, but that is how you set up side-chain compression
and work with it, manipulate it, and make
it suit your track. Not all instruments are
going to sound good when you side chain to the drum. But in this case you
don't always have to be using the drum as your trigger. E.g. you could be using your high hats to trigger your percussion or
something like that. That's being really creative. And then you can add delay on. So it will delay with all the pumps or
something like that. So that's just having fun and understanding how
you can route your audio around on this mixer and that the doors just opened up
for you from that point on, from understanding mostly about sends and the audio path flow. So when it comes to the
series and parallel.
15. 4.1 - Outro: All right, So that's our course on the FL studio mixer Workflow. This is my own personal preference of how I work again. It's just all about finding the balance first in your volumes, then actually taking a step back and really listening in terms of Well, what does your song need to have the clarity as well as the energy for a complete song. Okay, remember, always to think in terms of Does this sound like a song versus being so focused on mixing and individual insert? You know what I'm saying? So you wanna be focusing on your whole song? Always thinking about that. You know, again, things to avoid is always soloing trying to mix soloed. I was even doing that bit in this course with you, which is bad practice, you know, always try to mix as much inside of the mix as possible, like inside of the whole song. That's really gonna help you out when it comes to your settings. You know, you really don't have to be doing drastic settings. It's this very, very important toe. Have your levels from before and after very, very similar That way. You know you're not tricking yourself because again there's that thing about if something is louder, you feel it's better. So you have to be careful with that. And in my opinion, the mixed does matter a lot, but not as much as the actual composition and the arrangement of your song. Those, in my opinion, provide more energy and structure to your song, and the mixing enhances that is kind of like provides more clarity into that vision. But if your song structure an arrangement are very poor, um, you know, there's only so much you can do, So I would feel that your your actual song in terms of the notes that is your number one for in terms of catching nous and A and an awesome song. Number two is how you have actually arranged that song. So have you used proper transitions? Have you broken it down? Like to let your listener know that things are changing in terms of adding instruments? Stand coming into your core is breaking down from your core is going into your second verse are all your versus just the same instruments, or do you mix it up throughout the track again? That's all just a personal preference. Some people always have, like that same verse especially, you know, kind of hip hop, whatever. But so if you guys have any questions in regards to the mixer that I haven't covered, I can always create another video and add it to this course. So I'm gratuitous, and I hope you guys really enjoyed this course. If you guys could leave a review, I'd really appreciate that. It will help the course grow and get in front of the eyes of people who would also like to learn this material again. If you have any questions, just feel free to contact me and thanks for taking the course.
Riley Weller, FL Studio Trainer
