Features

The other technique to achieve separation of sounds is to place them at different points on a virtual stage. Stereo speakers make it easy to position sounds from left to right, and by using reverb and EQ it's also possible to simulate the effect of sounds being nearer or further away from the listener. See the 'Mixing Music' feature for details. You don't have to leave instruments in the same position for the entire mix. The 'Mix and match' box on page 146 explains how to use automation to vary mix settings over the course of the track.

Bringing the noise

A common criticism of digital audio is that it sounds too clean and sterile compared to analogue. After decades of manufacturers producing increasingly accurate equipment, many people now yearn for vintage analogue gear with all its quirks and imperfections. There's no denying that distortion sounds exciting when applied in large quantities to electric guitars, and subtler distortion can be welcome on all sorts of other instruments.

This isn't true of all kinds of distortion, though. Overloading a digital input or output causes the tops and bottoms of the waveform to be sheared off. Even a small amount of digital distortion sounds harsh and, to most ears, unpleasant. However, when overloading a valve or a magnetic tape, the onset of distortion isn't as sudden, with the tops and bottoms of the waveform being squashed and reshaped rather than lopped off entirely.

One side effect of distortion is that extra frequencies are generated above existing ones. This is why a distorted guitar

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sounds brighter than a clean one. Subtle distortion can give the impression of added detail and clarity, even though the process is technically the opposite.

Most distortion plug-ins are designed for guitars, and are better equipped for blues crunches and screaming guitar solos than the effect of a subtly overdriven valve or saturated tape. Voxengo Boogex, a free VST plug-in from www.voxengo.com, handles subtler distortion well. If certain instruments in your recording sound lifeless, insert this effect and use a Drive value of 5-10dB to give it more sparkle. Switch off Speaker Cabinet Impulse Response, which emulates the sound of an instrument playing through a guitar cabinet speaker.

Don't use distortion as a quick fix without paying attention to EQ and compression effects, too. Adding a touch of distortion can make an instrument sound more exciting, but go too far and the mix will sound wearying, or as though you have distorted sounds by accident.

Mixing Down

As you add more and more sounds to the mix and shape them with effects, it's easy to overload the output of your recording software. This causes digital distortion, as described above, which should definitely be avoided. Most recording software makes it clear when this is happening - usually with red overload lights on the output meter that stay illuminated until they are clicked to be reset. If this happens, simply turn down the master (main output) volume fader until the problem disappears. You should also keep an eye out for overloaded input and outputs to plug-ins, such as when a heavy EQ boost overloads the EQ plug-in's output. This is more of a pain to remedy, as you might need to turn down various other channels to preserve your overall balance.

When your mix is complete, define the start and end points of your track using the In and Out markers, leaving enough time at the end for any reverb or delay to fade out. Double-check that the output isn't overloading, find your software's export command and export as a 24-bit Wav file at whatever sample rate you've been working at, probably 44.1kHz.