0:28

You are listening

0:28

to the Inside The Mix podcast

0:30

with your host, Mark Matthews. Hello and welcome to the

0:33

Inside the Mix podcast.

0:35

I'm Mark Matthews, your

0:35

host, musician, producer, and

0:38

mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right

0:40

place if you wanna know more about your favorite

0:42

synth music artist, music,

0:45

engineering, and production,

0:45

songwriting, and the music.

0:49

I've been writing, producing,

0:49

mixing, and mastering music for

0:51

over 15 years, and I wanna share

0:51

what I've learned with you.

0:55

Hello folks, and welcome back

0:55

to The Inside the Mix podcast.

0:58

If you are a new listener,

0:58

thank you for joining

1:01

me and do hit subscribe.

1:03

If you are a returning

1:03

listener, welcome back.

1:05

So in this episode, it's a

1:05

continuation of the Produce

1:08

a Song from Scratch series,

1:08

and we are coming towards

1:10

the end of the series now. So I'm adding some subtle

1:11

nuances and bits and pieces

1:13

to the track, and here is an

1:13

example of what we're gonna be

1:16

doing in this week's episode. So there we go folks.

1:47

Well, it's a bit of a bit of a reverb tale there. So let's dive into

1:49

this week's episode. Okay folks.

1:52

So I've got this snare

1:52

in the build just before

1:54

it comes into the next

1:54

section, and it's doing this,

2:03

okay? So I'm just gonna solo it so

2:03

you can hear it on its own. And what I'm gonna do is

2:10

I'm just gonna automate the reverb mix on this, so

2:11

it just, Throughout this

2:17

sort of small progression. So I'm gonna, so

2:18

currently about 21%.

2:21

So let's see how this sounds. So I quite like that.

2:28

So I'm gonna put it in context of the mix. I'm just gonna boost

2:34

the original reverb. I'm gonna go up to about 28%.

2:39

Um, That's quite cool.

2:45

There you go. Really quick. Uh, tip you can use on your

2:46

build sections if you've got a

2:48

snare, is just, just to automate

2:48

the mix knob, the mix parameter

2:53

of your reverb, and so it

2:53

builds as you end a progression.

2:58

Give it a go. Okay, folks, I've come back to

2:59

the intro now and I've got this

3:01

vocal sample at the beginning,

3:01

and what I'm gonna do is I've

3:05

got an EQ because I want it to

3:05

sit a bit better in the mix.

3:08

I want it to sound more distant. So I've applied a high cut

3:09

and or rather a high pass

3:13

and a low pass filter. So high pass is,

3:15

uh, is set around.

3:19

I've got around 230. And then the, uh, the Lopez is

3:21

set around what we got about

3:26

1 1 1500 hertz, 1.5 kilohertz,

3:26

and it sounds like this.

3:34

So that's with. And this is without,

3:40

and I think it just sounds a bit more distant. So let's play it from

3:43

bar five. Now.

3:49

I think that sounds better. Now it just sits a bit better

3:50

and it makes it sounds more

3:53

distant, bit more ethereal. And then what I'm gonna do is

3:54

this, on this vocal sample here,

4:00

I'm going to use Snap heap on.

4:04

and so I'm gonna find

4:04

kilohertz and then, nah.

4:10

Heap. There it is. There always, it's always at the bottom. I always go alphabetically

4:12

and I always miss it. And I'm gonna add the

4:14

pitch shifter on this

4:18

and let's drop it by one octave and then I'm just

4:23

gonna bring the mixed star back.

4:32

So on its own, it's quite

4:32

subtle, but it sounds like this.

4:37

So the little Ulta boy does something similar. In fact, what I might do is just

4:44

have a listen to it in the mix.

4:49

With this one here, I might use an EQ on this as well, and roll off.

4:52

I might add a, uh, about a low

4:52

pass filter on this as well.

4:56

Um, I'm this gonna hurt this

4:56

time and filter, filter, filter.

5:00

There we are. Filter and

5:14

it's a bit too much. So I'm gonna bring it

5:15

back to about 1500. I think I'm gonna apply one

5:17

to the other vocal sample

5:20

as well, just to make it a

5:20

bit more ethereal in the.

5:26

About 1500. Let's see it as a starting.

5:46

That's quite cool. Quite like that. Just get rid of some

5:48

of that, that high end. Um, I wonder if I put snap

5:50

people on that one as well.

5:54

See what we can do. Snap pee. So this is gonna be on

5:56

the second vocal sample.

5:58

So this one here, it needs something.

6:04

Let's try, what have we got? Um, um, maybe a phaser.

6:11

Let's try that. That's quite cool.

6:15

Sorry folks. We've got the loop region on that. So this is it on its own.

6:19

A solo that. And this is without

6:29

the Fraser and with,

6:36

that's quite cool. I like that. So I'm gonna leave that

6:37

on there for time, bill. Nice.

6:57

What I did then was with the clap, I just added a bit more Reva, but it's, um,

6:59

it sounded quite abrasive,

7:02

so I dialed it back. There we go.

7:06

That makes that a bit, a bit more interesting. So all I've done there is

7:08

I've taken one, um, vocal

7:11

chop or vocal sample, and I've

7:11

used snap heat with a pitch

7:14

shifter and pitched it down by

7:14

one octave and then used the

7:17

mix style to bring that in. And then I've just used high

7:19

cuts and low cut filters

7:22

on those vocal samples

7:22

just to help them sit

7:24

better in the mix as well. Cause I want 'em to

7:26

sound quite distant. And then I've added a phaser

7:28

to one of them as well.

7:31

So give it. Okay folks, so now what

7:32

I'm gonna do is this. I've got, um, the build chords,

7:34

which currently sound like this.

7:38

I'm just gonna isolate them. What I'm gonna do is in the

7:45

second half, some sort of like

7:48

bar 49, where there it goes,

7:48

sort of the last eight bars, or

7:52

it might be four bars actually. Yeah, it's. Into the next section.

7:57

Sounds like this sounds quite harsh actually.

8:02

I might actually stick a

8:02

low pass filter on that.

8:19

Let's just dial that back a bit. Um, I'm gonna duplicate

8:21

this pad cuz I'm gonna

8:23

add another one in. Um, and I want all the, so

8:25

I'm gonna drag that down and

8:30

copy, I wanna copy all the

8:30

automation on this so I've got

8:36

the tape stop effect as well. And I'm gonna find a different

8:37

pad to go with this here.

8:41

So let's go to pad. It's not even a pad that's

8:43

on there, which we got. What about this band Pass Rise?

9:14

Band Pass full? It's quite cool.

9:18

Let's give that a try. Just gonna dial it back in the mix maybe.

9:32

So what I haven't done here folks, is because I've got a new, uh, a new Mac here,

9:34

I haven't gone through

9:37

and saved on my presets. I could import them, but I

9:38

haven't got round to it yet. I quite like strap that one

9:44

there, strapping young pad.

9:46

Let's give that again. So let's play it into that.

10:01

Mm. It's, it's not different

10:01

enough for my liking

10:13

quite like that. Let's give that a go. Yeah, that's really nice.

10:26

The only thing I might

10:26

di do is though dial

10:28

back the plate reverb on.

10:32

So let's go from bar 37.

10:36

So this is just the normal

10:36

pads, rather the first pads.

11:14

That's quite cool. You got that sort of swell

11:14

effect there in the last four

11:17

bars of this particular part. I think that's really cool.

11:20

Um, so layering synths

11:20

can add just a bit more

11:22

interest when it comes to

11:22

transition, so give it a.

11:25

Okay folks, so now what

11:25

I'm gonna do is this.

11:27

I've got the build going

11:27

into what is considered

11:30

maybe a chorus section. I haven't quite

11:31

defined these yet. It's a bit bit loose at the

11:32

moment in terms of arrangement

11:35

and structure on what,

11:35

what is what, but it sounds

11:38

like this at the moment, and I'm thinking maybe

11:44

that could be some sort of fill in there.

11:48

So what I'm gonna do is I've

11:48

got my, uh, my samples here

11:51

and I've got some kick samples.

11:54

And I've got some snare

11:54

samples and I'm just gonna

11:57

create another software

11:57

instrument with these.

12:00

So I'm gonna drag them in and

12:00

I'm gonna put them on a sampler

12:05

chromatic, and that's gonna

12:05

load, and I'm just gonna call

12:09

that kit two for the time beam.

12:12

So I have this, okay, so

12:12

then map to the keyboard.

12:18

And I'm just gonna play

12:18

around and see if I can

12:20

figure out some sort of fill. I dunno if this is gonna work,

12:22

but I'm gonna give it a go. Something like that.

12:39

Maybe that, let's give that a go. I'm just gonna tidy that up.

12:52

Let's tied it up too. Map. Ah, I've got it. Quantized to eight notes.

12:54

Let's try 16th. Let's try adding a, I'm

13:01

just gonna turn down the,

13:04

the volume on that there. Cause it's quite loud. That's better.

13:13

Um, I might leave it like that

13:13

and then I want to, I'm gonna

13:15

add some kicks to it as well. Let's record that.

13:37

Just gonna quantize that. So this is it on its own.

13:40

There's a lot going on as a fill.

13:45

Maybe you've moved those

13:45

forward a bit right there.

13:47

I'm just gonna bring that. Bum.

13:52

It's good. It's quite a cool, Phil.

14:02

And then I am going to just

14:02

play around with these a bit.

14:06

I'm gonna roll off some of the highs. Cause I don't need it.

14:10

There's a lot because I've

14:10

got the high A frequency

14:12

energy from the other snare. I don't really need

14:14

it for this one. And then I'm gonna go into

14:20

kind of multipass and I'm gonna

14:25

go to browse like digital and

14:25

see there's drum sweetness.

14:29

Let's give that again. Start it back a bit.

14:34

That's quite aggressive. Let's send it out to a verb.

14:41

Let's go with this short verb. I don't want it so

14:48

high in the mix. I'm gonna go back

14:49

into the sampler. I'm just gonna drop

14:51

the volume again. Okay.

14:59

Maybe it works. It's an idea. We'll check it in. Leave it there for now.

15:03

There we go. So you can just create a

15:03

sampling arrangement using

15:06

kicks and snares and creating

15:06

some sort of fill going

15:09

from one section to another. Give it a go. Okay.

15:11

Next, what I wanna do is in this

15:11

build section, I've got this

15:13

lead here, uh, which is using.

15:17

A, where are we? It is using pigments

15:19

and it sounds like this.

15:21

I'm just gonna solo

15:21

on its own with an up,

15:29

which is quite cool. And I think I've

15:30

got an EQ on it. I have, yeah, so this

15:31

is it without the eq and I've gonna duplicate

15:36

that and I am going to

15:39

call that lead three and

15:39

I've gotta find another.

15:44

Just gonna drag. I've got the wrong

15:46

instrument here. Uh, wrong shortcut.

15:48

I'm gonna drag those down and

15:48

get rid of the eq I'm gonna keep

15:51

the up on, but I'm gonna see if

15:51

I can find a different patch.

15:56

That's Anna Bell. Um, I'm gonna go to,

15:58

so that's pigment. So I'm gonna go to Anna two.

16:04

So I think there's a bell in

16:04

here, if I remember right.

16:28

I'm gonna go to all, there's

16:28

a DX sign of, uh, DX sign of.

16:43

Let's try that. That's quite nice.

16:50

That's very nice. I am going to move

16:51

in up in Octave.

16:58

The reason I've done that is

16:58

otherwise I've got so much

17:00

going on in the same frequency

17:00

spectrum with the pads and

17:03

with this other lead as well. So the two of them, two,

17:04

this is, uh, the pigments

17:07

on its own, and this is with

17:07

the DX bow and Anna two.

17:15

And now I'm gonna play in context of the mix and it's quite loud, so

17:22

I'm gonna dial it back. Let's take it, what I might

17:31

do is I might just do a

17:33

bit of, um, night and day. So I might have it

17:34

in the section here.

17:36

So it goes from sort of light

17:36

bar, I dunno what bar that is.

17:39

Bar 37. I dunno if I like those vocal

17:54

chops, you know, I might mute

17:56

those for the time being. And if I mute those and I might

17:58

just use the one I've got here.

18:04

Let's give that again. And it just needs to be louder.

18:11

Let's bring that up in a mix. Dunno if I like that now.

18:21

Um, I'm just gonna transpose it down again and bring it, bring it back to

18:23

where it's, where it was. It's a very nice bell sound.

18:51

What I'm gonna do, it's not gonna pan them. I'm gonna use the

18:59

EQ on it as well. Uh, but I'm gonna roll off

19:02

some of the low on it actually.

19:05

So I'm gonna use the high pass filter and I might do on

19:11

the other side as. Otherwise, I've just got so

19:17

much low energy and low mid-con

19:25

at the moment. It sounds a bit lopsided. In fact, what I might

19:46

do is I'm just gonna go

19:48

in to the medi region

19:56

and it's. Zooming in, it says,

19:58

I'm gonna move that. I'm gonna go up to E

20:00

one, E three rather.

20:05

E one will be going down. Now I'm gonna bring it

20:18

back in the mix and I

20:21

think it needs more reve. Sorry, I'm just gonna get

20:22

into added to boost that.

20:41

There we go. That's quite cool. Just added a bit more interest

20:42

by adding another bell and

20:44

then pitching it up on Octa

20:44

cuz I don't want all of my

20:47

synths to be in the same

20:47

frequency band cuz then

20:49

it just gets super muddy. But give it a go. Okay folks, so I'm listening

20:52

through this now and um, I'm

20:55

listening to the beginning

20:55

and by about bar nine

20:57

I'm getting a bit bored. So I'm just gonna play

20:58

from bar one to bar nine.

21:18

Yeah, so what I'm thinking is, uh, I was playing around with massive and some

21:20

of the effects in there. So I'm gonna create an

21:22

instance of massive. So I'm gonna press Command

21:24

Alt and s and I'm gonna create

21:28

another software instrument

21:28

track and I'm just gonna open

21:31

up massive cuz it's got some

21:31

really cool effects in there.

21:34

And I love using like, Aton

21:34

effects in tracks just to

21:37

make them more interesting. Um, so I'm just gonna play

21:39

around with some of these.

21:43

Let's see what we have just to

21:43

add a bit of interest to the.

21:46

So I'm gonna start, I'm just gonna loop from bar, like bar one to bar 17.

22:00

I mean immediately if I play it in key. I think that sounds quite cool.

22:07

and we're an E

22:07

minor, so we want e.

22:20

I might slab that in. That sounds quite cool. Um, just to save a bit of time,

22:22

cause I can't remember all the

22:25

notes, I'm just gonna go to

22:25

scaler and open scaler and I'm

22:29

just gonna put it into e minor

22:29

and I'm gonna lock the keys cuz

22:35

I cannot remember all the notes. So scale notes only for E.

22:59

I think I just need E,

22:59

I'm just gonna play E.

23:01

Let's give that a. So on the fifth bar,

23:09

I'm gonna come in, he says, but I played

23:16

it incredibly low.

23:19

I didn't really hit the

23:19

key on the keyboard.

23:22

You can see there if you're watching this on YouTube, the velocity's at 12.

23:25

So I'm just gonna boost that and let's see what this sounds like actually.

23:38

I did it by accident, then I

23:38

triggered it at the wrong time,

23:40

but I quite liked it coming

23:40

in on that sort of offbeat

23:57

and it's a bit too long. And also, I'm gonna stick

23:58

some, I'm gonna roll.

24:01

I'm gonna use a low pass filter on. Too long again, let's try it.

24:23

And I think also it doesn't

24:23

need to come in there.

24:27

Where have I got it set? Uh, I'll want it to

24:28

come in at round. I want to come in there.

24:32

Let's try that. Not even there.

24:39

I think maybe there, and again there, maybe

24:58

I'm just gonna rename this. What is it? Body. Body spin,

25:13

kind of ominous in a way, and then

25:27

maybe again around bar. Not bar just before bar 17

25:36

now too soon, maybe

25:36

just before bar 18.

25:44

So I might just use it once. Start becoming once.

25:54

Yeah, something like that. And then in the verse section,

25:55

when it comes after the drop,

26:05

like there maybe like a

26:05

BA bar 25, it could come

26:08

in with something cool. So I'm just gonna duplicate that

26:08

again, get a massive turn off

26:13

the eq and, and I've starred

26:13

my favorite ones in there.

26:16

So let's see what I've got. No, not quite.

26:24

Uh, might if I turn the. I have no idea if any

26:44

of these are gonna work. Let's give it a go anyway.

26:59

That's quite cool. I need to stick that in. I've got an idea of what

27:00

I'm gonna do with that. And once again, I'm just

27:11

gonna use you on it. Uh, let's do that

27:21

and maybe again there. So let's play it, it's gonna change

27:28

the name of it. Uh, it's not called Body

27:29

Spin, it is called Mech

27:32

Attack Change that name.

27:37

And I think I've

27:37

rolled off too much.

27:43

Wait. There we go. Let's screw that again.

27:53

Ah, probably too, too

27:53

much going on there.

27:55

And then I also wanna slap

27:55

some reverb on it as well.

27:58

I've put a long reverb on

27:58

it, and maybe I'll send

28:01

out to the delay as well. See how this.

28:06

All right. Uh, I'm just gonna bring it down

28:14

in terms of volume in massive.

28:26

I'll transpose it, see how that sounds. I'm not sure it works or

28:35

not, but you get the idea.

28:37

What you can use are a eternal

28:37

sounds just to add a bit of

28:40

interest in certain sections. Um, I'm not entirely sure

28:41

it works there, but you get

28:44

the idea if you're ever in

28:44

a position whereby you're

28:46

songwriting or producing

28:46

and you kind of get bored

28:49

of a particular section,

28:49

try some, a eternal sounds.

28:51

There are loads, like Massive's got some great ones, Anna two as well.

28:54

Any synth you have, just

28:54

see what sound effects are

28:56

in there and just make it a bit more interesting. So give that a.

28:59

Okay folks, so we've come

28:59

to the end of this episode.

29:01

So what have we done in this episode? We have used some sound

29:03

effects on Aton sounds, just

29:06

to add a bit of interest and variety, where we've got bored in our arrangement.

29:09

It's one way that you can

29:09

sort of, um, counteract

29:12

boredom in the composition

29:12

and arrangement section.

29:15

Uh, I'm not sure if it works

29:15

in this one here, the what

29:18

sounds I've put in, but. I just wanted to demonstrate

29:19

what you could do.

29:21

Uh, we've also dragged some

29:21

samples in some, so some, some

29:24

kicks and some snare samples,

29:24

and create a sampler instrument

29:27

just to, so we could create

29:27

a fill going from the build

29:30

section to the next section. And we've also augmented

29:31

the synth lead and synth

29:35

pads in the build section as

29:35

well, just to add a bit more

29:38

interest and some texture. But be mindful when you do.

29:42

That you are filling up

29:42

that frequency space.

29:44

So that's why I pitched the bell

29:44

sound and octave up, because I

29:48

didn't want everything sitting

29:48

in that particular frequency

29:51

spectrum or that band because

29:51

it's gonna sound very muddy.

29:54

But during mix time, we can solve that and we can also use panning and leveling

29:56

as well and automation. So folks, if you want to

29:58

progress as a producer and

30:00

a songwriter, head over to

30:00

www.insidethemixpodcast.podium.com/free

30:07

and take on my free. Day Producer Growth

30:08

Scorecard Challenge.

30:11

Okay. The idea is that you can

30:12

gamify your songwriting

30:14

in production and kick on

30:14

and release more music.

30:17

So head over to the podcast website, give it a go, and happy mixing.

30:21

This is Tim Benson,

30:21

a K A R nine.

30:24

My favorite episode of

30:24

Inside The Mix Podcast is

30:27

episode 40 with Zach Vortex.

30:30

I really love this one as

30:30

it gives a real insight into

30:33

Zack's own work ethic, his

30:33

music, how he markets himself

30:37

and manages to balance all

30:37

of this with his family life.