What basic soud and audio processing techniques are availabe to current digital mixing engineers and how do they work? (Must discuss EQ, compressor, reverb, autotune and one other form of audio manipulation)
EQ
Frequency-
Can also be described as the cycles of soundwaves. Humans can generally hear in the range of 20hz to 20khz.
Gain-
Is best described as the input level of that track, the output level is adjusted using volume.
High/Low Pass Filter-
Is used to cut out frequencies below or above a certain point, a filter will roll of to -∞ compared to a shelf which will roll off to a set point
Peak- used to boost or cut a specific frequency or a specific range of frequencies
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Shelf-
Same as High/Low pass filter except can cut and boost frequencies. A shelf will roll of a a certain point (eg, -15db) compared to a High/Low pass filter which will roll off to -∞
EQ are audio processing tools that allow you to change elements of the track to best suit its purpose. Some of these tools include frequency, gain, High or Low pass filter, peak and shelf.
Reverb
Compressor
Autotune
Reverb is a series of tightly spaced echoes that occur when sound bounces around a room. A reverb plug in for example the one pictured in logic simulates these echoes which can change how the room sounds in a recording.
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Pre delay - Is the amount of time it takes for the first soundwave to create its first reflection.
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Reflectivity - Changes how the sound based on how it would resonate off a wall if it were in a room
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Room Size - Changes the reverb time to manipulate the sound of the recording space
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Density/Time - is the distance between the first reflection and the following reflections. A higher density means they are closer together.
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Mix - is the balance of the of the source signal and the reverberated signal.
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A compressor is used to reduce the distance between the loudest and softest sounds (also known as the dynamic range). It does this by reducing the volume of an input when it exceeds a certain point known as a threshold.
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Attack - Changes the compressors reaction time when the signal exceeded the threshold
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Release - Changes the time it takes for the compressor to stop compressing once the signal drops below the threshold
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Ratio -
"the relation between two similar magnitudes with respect to the
number of times the first contains the second:
the ratio of 5 to 2, written 5:2 or 5/2." -Dictionary,com
The ratio on a compressor changes the output volume of the compressor based on the input volume.
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Knee - Changes the compression characteristics once the threshold is reached, a soft knee will gradually compress whereas a hard knee will instantly compress
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Threshold - Sets the value at which the compressor will begin to go through its parameters
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Gain - Changes the volume of the output signal
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Limiter Threshold - Will let sound up to a certain level pass through
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Autotune measures pitch in vocals and instruments and makes changes based on the settings.
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Normal/Low button - changes the pitch range that is scanned for
Keyboard - Excludes a selected note from the scale forcing corrections to defualt to the nearets available pitch
Bypass - Excludes a selected note from being corrected
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Response - Changes how quickly the sound reaches the pitch its been adjusted to
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Detune - Changes the downtuning of the output signal
I had no use for pitch correction in my mix as it made the vocalist sound robotic and unnatural.
As you can hear I used compression on the vocal, Guitar and Keyboard tracks. The vocal had a soft knee whereas the other two had hard knees. The compression on the vocal track helped reduce the vast dynamic range that occurred during the recording.
I used reverb to replace the natural sound that was lost when I deleted the room mic track. It makes the vocal track sound less dry.
I used EQ to remove electrical noise that occurred during the recording. I also used it to boost nice sounding frequencies on each track. On the vocal and guitar track I cut certain frequencies that corresponded to the other track to increase clarity