STUDIO METHOD
1St Home Studio Digidesign MixCore Pre 2013.
1St Home Studio Custome Made Rack + Gear. Pre 2013.
Upgraded Studio - Digidesign HD3 System
1St Home Studio Digidesign MixCore Pre 2013.
Grant's Composing Methods:
Grant basically doodles on the keyboard with chords and riffs until something feels inspiring. Synth/Sampler presets are used to assist with inspiration via the sound prompting the mind. Sometimes Grant just starts with a composed drum kit rhythm or pattern and a composed bass guitar riff, then Grant adds a chord progression and goes through hundreds of presets of synth modules and software apps until something starts the inspiration.
Much time with cups of tea on the back porch are spent waiting to hear something creative develop in the mind, then Grant attempts to find the melody or chords on the keyboard and find matching presets or compose presets to suit.
Voice/Vocal/Fx and guitars are added as the inspiration comes.
Grant's Recording Methods:
Synth/Sampler melody/chords are recorded to midi tracks and edited to construct the full music piece. Grant often keeps the played in feel with some timing corrections to keep feel natural but as tight as musically needed.
Grant records the midi instruments to Digidesign HD8 Audio tracks via PreSonus MP20 2Ch Preamp then hides the midi track.
If any tracks need audio treated on the way in such as limiting and compression the audio is recorded via an auxiliary track then bussed to the audio track to use the plug-ins available in Protools.
Once all audio tracks are recorded including vocals, voice work, guitars and midi instruments the session is structured as a Mix/Master session and saved (Name_MxMstr).
Track editing will occur as the need is discovered while mixing. Such as waveform time correction, pitch correction and glitch correction.
Grant's Mixing Methods:
Grant adds a 1 band HiPass EQ to each Audio Track and rolls off the unwanted low end of each instrument as desired and checks the effect in the full mix. Ensures the needed body of the instrument is not lost and the resulting mix is not muddy or too thin.
Grant then listens to the full mix and determines which instrument to work on. This may be drums, bass or pads to set the mix foundation. The Solo or lead instruments are worked on last in desired order depending on the purpose in the mix.
Instruments will be panned roughly at first to get a stereo spread like hearing a band on the stage in front. Pads will be stereo or mono to stereo with chorus added for width or Waves PS22 set for width and spread effect. Sometimes Waves S1 is used for width.
Compressors are added to instruments as needed to sit in the mix as desired. Sit back, come forward or flatten dynamic. EQs are added after the compression in most cases so as to not need to adjust the compressors after each EQ tweak. Some instruments may get eq before compression to enable desired compression effect.
For instruments that need more body Grant adds Digidesign LoFi distortion and saturation subtly, tape saturation or compression. This may be done in parallel or inline depending on desired result.
Tracks are automated in Protools as desired to control instruments dynamics if a compressor is not doing the job as desired. Suck as volume control and panning.
When the mix is close to the desired result the reverbs and delays are added to the instruments as desired. Panning may then be tweaked as desired for instruments.
Some instruments need special treatment.
Common methods are de-essing an annoying frequency in an instrument and transmod plugins for guitar and piano attach control.
Please download the attached spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) to see the full Mix/Master set up for the ‘Relaxation’ Albums.
Grant's Mastering Methods:
Grant adds stereo aux tracks to the mix session for mastering. Named Stem1, Stem 2 etc, MBass, MFAT and MSTR. The mix aux. group tracks output are changed to suit the desired Stem aux.
MBass is small speaker enhancement added into the mix. Waves MaxxBass 120Hz at 2:1 Ratio with Aux Volume set at 0.0dB. Instrument tracks with low end are sent to the MBass buss to add harmonics that will allow those instruments bottom end to emulate through small speakers giving the master a fuller feel through speakers that roll off bellow 400Hz. Tested on EQ Small Speaker simulation presets inserted on the Master fader.
Each Stem has Wave Q1 30Hz HiPass, Waves Q10 Master, Digidesign Trim and a send to MFAT with volume around -4dB.
MFAT has Digidesign ‘Reel Tape Saturation’ with Aux Volume set to around -19.5db.
MSTR has Digidesign Trim, Waves C1 Comp-sc, Waves L2, Waves L3-LL Ultra.
Please download the attached spreadsheet above (Microsoft Excel) to see the full Mix/Master set up for the ‘Relaxation’ Albums.
Grant has gained most of his current mixing and mastering tips from ‘Produce Like A Pro™’
You Tube Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpyUGZeMUtOvt57UACw3H2g
And 'Pensado’s Place'
YouTube Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCno8mYpnGhTA9COSW9sP8gQ
The past 20 year mix and mastering knowledge was gained from various music magazines and website tips on eq, compression, reverb and delays.
Grant has tried many methods exposed to him and uses the methods and plugins that work best for his music. There are many ways of doing things and no way is the only way. Experiment and come up with what will work best for your own trade.
Grant's Publishig Methods:
Music is published on CDBaby.com (Digital aggregator).
Music is published on Bandcamp.com (Digital downloads with Artwork in most known formats).
CD-ROM Music disc and Data Disc are posted to Legal Deposit for Digital Publications.