Mixing/Mastering Part 2.

Task 1

Setting up a project

This is how you set up a new project in Cubase, by clicking create at the bottom right, which will give you a blank new project where you can then add tracks and go from there.

Grouping

This is where you group your tracks so that you have all your different parts such as strings, drum tracks etc. I also grouped my tracks by colour coding them as well.

Limiting

I have limited mostly the bass line synth on my track as it was way overpowering the other tracks so I have limited them by reducing the volume of that track.

Equalisation

Equalisation is used in nearly every song around nowadays, often referred too as ‘EQ’. This is where you can raise the bass of a track or dampen it and raise treble, to whatever you prefer. I have used equalisation on my kick drum track and make the lower frequency higher which gives it more ‘bass’. I have used this also as the genre of this song is pop and one feature of pop songs is a heavy bass drum.

Compression

I have added compression so that the kick drum stands out more.

Pan/Balance track out

I have balanced my track out so that no tracks are overpowering others, and some parts for example the drum track stood out a lot more than others so I balanced that track so that there is a strong kick drum there but it wont distort or clip. I have also panned mostly all my tracks evenly except my drum track so that it gives more of a stereo feel from R and L. Panning is basically changing whether you want a track to be louder on the left or the right, and doing this to all my tracks evenly has given the entire song more of a stereo feel.

FX- Reverb, Distortion

I have added slight reverb to my piano track so that it does not sound un-natural and sounds more like it is being played. I have not used any distortion on my tracks as there is no need and it will sound horrible especially in a pop genre song.

Expansion

Expansion is basically the opposite of compression. This is the act of making notes louder in a track, and we are expanding the dynamic range of the track. I did not use this in my track.

Mastering a track

After I had finished mixing everything on the track, I then bounced down the track and made all the parts form together into one mastered track.

I then added a compressor and did some final editing to equalisation to the mastered track to ensure overall that the sound was its best, basically sweetening the sound. I also made sure the track was as close to 0dB as possible to avoid the whole track being distorted and clipping.