In this pro mixing tutorial I am going to share some advanced pro techniques on sound emulation. As many of you might know, I have repeatedly here on FP pointed out that the bulk of chart production quality is created prior to the first A/D process, meaning before mixing and mastering. In the 90's a lot of the hit productions were recorded straight to tape and then from there tracked down through a single A/D conversion process straight to a stereo track (with an extra D/A -> A/D route for the mastering). It was simple and it worked, in this way the digitalization process had minimal negative impact on the production and the energy present in the music was 100% derived from hardware. Today this is still the case, meaning that the bulk of the quality is still coming from hardware prior to mixing, the only difference is that today software is to some degree also introduced during mixing, but that's not where the bulk of the quality comes from, it comes from hardware before mixing.
During the recording process, in order to achieve really high quality productions, you need to have the right transient characteristics in the recorded content. In the hardware domain this comes from the combination of the mixing console, the hardware compressors/limiters and the tape recorder/saturation. Once you then have that type of content dialed in, it is essentially about capturing the signal to the fullest extent possible, which is done using a high headroom A/D converter, the Prism Dream AD-2 is an example of such a converter that is able to capture the signal at 19.5 volts (RMS), compared to say a Scarlett 8PreX that is able to capture the signal at 3.9 volts (RMS). The difference here is that with a high headroom converter you get all of the modulation and decay nuances from the sound source and the room, so in combination with a great sounding sound source and room the difference becomes huge.
Now, for many engineers today these kinds of conditions do not exist - the sound sources are less than great, the rooms are less than great, there is maybe very little hardware present in the production, the audio interface is weak, jittery and unbalanced in its frequency response, with high latencies when combined with the DAW sequencer and tons of software is used. This combination basically means you end up with a totally different much less pleasant energy signature of the mix - simply put the waveforms inside of the mix are not what you want them to be. The mix tightens up, the depth and warmth is reduced and so on. This issue is very challenging to resolve with software because it spans across the whole frequency spectrum in a non-linear fashion. For this reason this is not something you fix using a few manual techniques, you need specific software that goes very deeply into the content and does things to it that you cannot possibly do manually.
So, we need to apply a pro sound emulation strategy. This kind of strategy is aimed at shaping the sound of individual sound sources in the mix as well as the overall sound of the mix. Let's dig in.
To successfully emulate sound we need to work in these two dimensions: frequency, dynamics. This combination ensures that the transient characteristics and RMS levels across the frequency spectrum are shaped, as well as the overall frequency response, in other words the energy signature of the target material will shift towards the emulated sound not only in terms of the fundamental frequency but also in terms of the peak and RMS characteristics across the frequency spectrum that build up that fundamental frequency. Simply put it not only starts to sound similar, but also feel similar because much of what makes up the energy signature of a sound comes from what frequencies hit the listener by how much, how and when.
To effectively work in both the frequency and dynamics dimensions when we emulate, we deploy the following process:
Prepare -> Process -> Finalize
Prepare
During the prepare stage (frequency dimension) we apply zero phase frequency matching using the iZotope Ozone 7's EQ matching feature and match source to target, typically kick, snare, bass, overall mix sound. The aim here is to lessen the burden on the main stage, which is the Process stage. It is a way of making the input material as compatible to the process as possible and this makes us able to apply a more gentle process on the main Process stage.
Process
During the process stage (dynamics dimension) we apply zero phase dynamics matching using the Plugin Alliance ProAudioDSP DSM V2 dynamic mapping feature and match source to target (warmed up). This does the really complex but highly important energy signature matching for us.
Finalize
During the finalize stage (frequency dimension) we apply zero phase frequency matching using the iZotope Ozone 7's EQ matching feature and match source to target (processed content in the previous stage). The aim here is to make the above two stages milder as well as to fine tune the result.
That's basically it. Keep in mind that when you match the energy signature on the mix level, you want to do so on the center panned sound sources separately from the side panned sound sources, in order to preserve the separation lines of the sound sources within the stereo field. You can on top of this apply additional zero phase matching on the result of that because the bulk of the matching has already been applied on a more fine grained scope and hence you are able to stay much more gentle about the matching you do on the stereo track, but you need to be very gentle with that processing in order to preserve the quality of the stereo image.
Please notice that this emulation technique works on the concept that you need to emulate in zero phase mode, work with both frequency and dynamics and segment the emulation application in smaller pieces in order to get a more precise emulation and a milder processing footprint on the audio. That's something entirely different than slamming the Ozone EQ hard on the stereo track.
During the recording process, in order to achieve really high quality productions, you need to have the right transient characteristics in the recorded content. In the hardware domain this comes from the combination of the mixing console, the hardware compressors/limiters and the tape recorder/saturation. Once you then have that type of content dialed in, it is essentially about capturing the signal to the fullest extent possible, which is done using a high headroom A/D converter, the Prism Dream AD-2 is an example of such a converter that is able to capture the signal at 19.5 volts (RMS), compared to say a Scarlett 8PreX that is able to capture the signal at 3.9 volts (RMS). The difference here is that with a high headroom converter you get all of the modulation and decay nuances from the sound source and the room, so in combination with a great sounding sound source and room the difference becomes huge.
Now, for many engineers today these kinds of conditions do not exist - the sound sources are less than great, the rooms are less than great, there is maybe very little hardware present in the production, the audio interface is weak, jittery and unbalanced in its frequency response, with high latencies when combined with the DAW sequencer and tons of software is used. This combination basically means you end up with a totally different much less pleasant energy signature of the mix - simply put the waveforms inside of the mix are not what you want them to be. The mix tightens up, the depth and warmth is reduced and so on. This issue is very challenging to resolve with software because it spans across the whole frequency spectrum in a non-linear fashion. For this reason this is not something you fix using a few manual techniques, you need specific software that goes very deeply into the content and does things to it that you cannot possibly do manually.
So, we need to apply a pro sound emulation strategy. This kind of strategy is aimed at shaping the sound of individual sound sources in the mix as well as the overall sound of the mix. Let's dig in.
To successfully emulate sound we need to work in these two dimensions: frequency, dynamics. This combination ensures that the transient characteristics and RMS levels across the frequency spectrum are shaped, as well as the overall frequency response, in other words the energy signature of the target material will shift towards the emulated sound not only in terms of the fundamental frequency but also in terms of the peak and RMS characteristics across the frequency spectrum that build up that fundamental frequency. Simply put it not only starts to sound similar, but also feel similar because much of what makes up the energy signature of a sound comes from what frequencies hit the listener by how much, how and when.
To effectively work in both the frequency and dynamics dimensions when we emulate, we deploy the following process:
Prepare -> Process -> Finalize
Prepare
During the prepare stage (frequency dimension) we apply zero phase frequency matching using the iZotope Ozone 7's EQ matching feature and match source to target, typically kick, snare, bass, overall mix sound. The aim here is to lessen the burden on the main stage, which is the Process stage. It is a way of making the input material as compatible to the process as possible and this makes us able to apply a more gentle process on the main Process stage.
Process
During the process stage (dynamics dimension) we apply zero phase dynamics matching using the Plugin Alliance ProAudioDSP DSM V2 dynamic mapping feature and match source to target (warmed up). This does the really complex but highly important energy signature matching for us.
Finalize
During the finalize stage (frequency dimension) we apply zero phase frequency matching using the iZotope Ozone 7's EQ matching feature and match source to target (processed content in the previous stage). The aim here is to make the above two stages milder as well as to fine tune the result.
That's basically it. Keep in mind that when you match the energy signature on the mix level, you want to do so on the center panned sound sources separately from the side panned sound sources, in order to preserve the separation lines of the sound sources within the stereo field. You can on top of this apply additional zero phase matching on the result of that because the bulk of the matching has already been applied on a more fine grained scope and hence you are able to stay much more gentle about the matching you do on the stereo track, but you need to be very gentle with that processing in order to preserve the quality of the stereo image.
Please notice that this emulation technique works on the concept that you need to emulate in zero phase mode, work with both frequency and dynamics and segment the emulation application in smaller pieces in order to get a more precise emulation and a milder processing footprint on the audio. That's something entirely different than slamming the Ozone EQ hard on the stereo track.
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