Final Thoughts

I am really pleased with how my individual track has turned out. I think that the final mastered mix has a big 80's style sound which is both strong and clear. The mastering process has given my song a professional sounding polish in my opinion. The final mastered track is shown below:

Final Mastering

I mastered 'Poker Life' by inserting the following plug-ins into the stereo output in the following sequence:

1. Multiband compressor.
2. Stereo Enhancer
3. Maximiser
4. Limiter
5. UV22HR

Multiband Compressor

I solo'ed each band in turn and moved the edge of each band left and right while listening to the track being played. The top band was set to mainly filter the very high hissy sounds (e.g. top end of cymbals). It is these sounds that add sparkle to the mix. The bottom band was set to mainly filter the kick and low bass synthesiser sounds. The low-mid band was set mainly to capture the snare as I wanted to be able the emphasise the snare hits to ensure that the strong rhythmic feel of the track came through in the mastered mix. The bottom end of the vocals also appeared in this band. The remaining high-mid band filtered the synthesiser sounds and the higher vocal frequencies. I used a compression ratio of 2:1 with a medium threshold for the 1st and 4th bands. I also increased the gain on the 1st and 4th bands to compensate for the medium compressor threshold. This had the overall effect of producing a strong bass without it becoming muddy. I used a ratio of 3: 1 and a higher threshold value for bands 2 and 3. This allowed the vocals and synthesiser sounds to sit well together in the mix without seeming to be over-powered by the strong bass synthesiser and kick. I slightly increased the gain on band 2 to further emphasise the snare hits.

Stereo Enhancer

The stereo enhancer adds width and delay effects to the mastered track. The overall width control allowed me to give the track a larger sound stage. The small delay also gives the track a big 'larger than life' 80's vibe which I wanted. 

Maximiser

For commercial reasons, it is important that the track be as loud as possible when mastered. I used the maximiser to increase the overall level of the stereo output. The maximiser can also be used to add some harmonic distortion via the Optimise control. I kept the optimise control turned down quite low to ensure that the clarity of the track was not lost.

Limiter

The limiter was used to prevent the stereo output from exceeding 0dB (which would introduce undesirable clipping distortion). I used the input control to drive it reasonably hard so that it was squashing the output signal by 2 dB. I found that this helped the guitar solo stand out in the mix.

UV22HR

This is used as the last plug-in in the mastering chain. It dithers (i.e. randomises) the least significant bit of the digitised waveform to reduce harmonic distortion due to rounding errors when the analogue waveform is re-created from the digital output data.

Multiband Compression

Multiband compression is often used in mastering to give a final polish to the overall mix. It turns out that using a full-band compressor to compress a complete mix is not ideal because the low-frequency sounds in the mix will determine the compression applied to everything else. The kick drum and bass line would probably dictate how the mix will be compressed if you used a full-band compressor.

A multi-band compressor comprises a set of filters that splits the audio signal into several frequency bands. After passing through the filters, each frequency band is fed into its own compressor, after which the signals are recombined. The main advantage of multi-band compression is that a loud event in one frequency band won't trigger gain reduction in the other bands. For example, a loud kick drum will not pull the whole mix down with it, only the low-frequency sounds (kick and bass instrument) will be compressed, leaving the mid-range and high frequencies untroubled. Similarly, a loud event in the mid-range won't affect the extreme high or low frequencies for the same reason.

The 4-band multi-band compressor in Cubase allows you to control the range of frequencies in each band to be compressed, the type of compression to be applied to each band (i.e. the threshold, ratio, attack and release) as well as the overall level of gain to be applied to each frequency band. A multi-band compressor is therefore a very powerful tool that can provide an improved finish to the final mastered track. Using a multi-band compressor's controls appropriately is absolutely critical. A multi-band compressor can ruin a mastered track if it is not used correctly.

Mixing and Tidying Up.

I wanted more control over the drum sound from Cubase's Groove Agent One plug-in. I discovered that if the Groove Agent One plug-in is created via VST Instruments option on the Devices menu, then up to 16 stereo output channels can be assigned to it. I assigned and configured 5 outputs as follows:

1. Kick
2. Snare
3. Toms
4. Other Percussion (e.g. hand claps)
5. Cymbals

 I could then apply techniques such as using parallel compression and eq shaping to each individual drum track to get a big drum sound. The 5 channels also meant I could adjust and get a good balance between the kick, snare and cymbals. I routed these 5 stereo outputs from Groove Agent to a 'Drum' group channel. This meant I could easily adjust the overall drum level within my mix using a single group channel slider in the mixer.

I applied compression to the vocals and bass synthesiser. I eq'ed the string/pad synthesiser sounds to boost the high frequencies to help make these synthesiser sounds stand out in the mix.

I mixed the track by moving all of the faders to the bottom of the screen. I set the drum group faders to a reference level (approx -6dB). I then gradually brought up all of the other faders in sequence (bass, synthesisrs, rhythm guitars, vocals and solo guitar) while ensuring I maintained a balanced sound.

Finally I mixed the whole song down to a 24bit 44.1Khz wav file ready for mastering.

This un-mastered mixdown is shown below:

Adding Vocals and More Rhythm Guitar

I decided to add vocals based around the concept of a game of poker imitating life. I am no singer so I used the Cubase pitch correction plugin to help ensure that I did not sound too off tune as shown below:

I also decided to duplicate the audio track and use the pitch correction plug in to pich my voice up by an octave. This allowed a simple harmony to be added when both vocal tracks were played together. The transpose value was therefore set to 12 to raise the pitch of my voice by one octave as shown below:

I added a 'wail' type vocal sound and saved it as a sample. The start of this sample was actually sightly off-key and so I used the audio editor to top and tail it with a fade in to just the 'in-tune part. I then time-stretched the vocal wail to be slightly different lengths on the normal and pitch shifted tracks. This gave me an interesting overlapping sound as though two people were singing. Finally I used automation of the panning control for the vocal wail sample to move it left and right.

I added delay and reverberation effects to my main vocal to get a better and fuller vocal sound.

On listening back I realised that some of my vocal phrases sounded a bit slow and ponderous in the mix. I did not want to re-record them as it had taken along time to get them right. I therefore the snip tool to cut up each vocal phrase and then used the time-stretch mode to slightly shorten the length of each phrase.

I felt that the bridge section needed a clean rhythm guitar sound to emphasise the descent into chaos. I therefore recorded a set of chords using the VST Amp Rack plug-in. I then added a virtual wah-wah peddle and used automation to move the wah-wah pedal to create the characteristic wah-wah sound.

  

 

Adding a Guitar Solo

I wanted an electric guitar solo with a big sound to complement the appeggiated  chords I  had created. I first tried to record the  guitar solo myself but it sounded very amateurish due to my lack  of skill in playing the guitar. I  therefore asked Mike Ohman, a fellow student and an accomplished guitarist, if he would mind recording a guitar solo for me.

Mike plugged his guitar directly into my Focusrite IO interface and spent the best part of 90 minutes working out and playing a guitar solo to fit in with my backing chords, bass and drum beat. We used the new VST Amp Rack plugin introduced into Cubase 5 to create a big epic guitar sound.

We also added a ping pong delay to further create a big 80's style guitar solo sound. I was really pleased with Mike's contribution to my project.

Adding Ambient Strings

I needed the track to move forward and develop. I decided to add some floating ambient string sounds. To create a really full sound I decided to use the Cubase Arpache SX arpeggiator MIDI plug-in to automatically create string arpeggios. I experimented with different virtual synthesiser sounds and arpeggio patterns until I found what I wanted.

I found I could play a sequence of chords and broken chords on the keyboard and get a very full sound texture which I was very pleased with.

The following two sound files give examples of two string sections I created using Cubase's Arpache MIDI insert plug-in:

Adding Rhythm Guitar

I now wanted to record some electric guitar chords over the top of the bass line. I connected my electric guitar to my audio interface and used the new VST Amp Rack in Cubase 6.5 to add virtual amplifier and effects pedals to produce a full rhythm guitar sound. I used the Diamond virtual amplifier and used a virtual Tape Delay unit to produce a repeating rhythmic guitar sound which is in step with the drum rhythm to enhance the groove. I recorded 4 bars of guitar audio which formed a loop which I then copied to make a total of 12 bars of rhythm guitar.

I had recorded everything so far at a tempo of 80 bpm. I decided that this tempo was slightly too slow which gave the track a slightly ponderous feel, and so changed the tempo to 90bpm. The drum and bass MIDI tracks automatically adjusted to the increase in tempo but the analogue guitar part did not. To correct this I used the audio editor to slice the guitar wave form into small sections.

Once sliced, Cubase could then automatically adjust the analogue guitar part to fit the new faster tempo. I also had to manually adjust the Tape Delay unit's delay time to fit in with the new tempo.

The final sound of the rhythm guitar track can be listened to below:

Creating a Drum Track and a Bass Track

I created a instrument track in Cubase and chose Groove Agent as the instrument. Groove agent allows you to load pre-set drum samples and assign them to a set of pads on the user interface. I loaded the 'Vinyl Kit' pre-set as it gave the drums a big punchy sound.

I then needed to create a groove for  these drums. As I am not a natural drummer I used the Beat Designer MIDI insert plug-in to help get a basic groove. I found that the 'Denial' Beat Designer pre-set gave me a good groove to work from.

I copied this groove to the Groove Agent MIDI track to create a single bar of rhythm. I then used copy and paste to create further bars. I then used the MIDI editor to add and delete drum hits to vary the rhythm and stop it becoming repetitive and boring.

I then experimented with different virtual synthesiser sounds in Cubase until I found a patch which gave me a heavy bass sound which complimented the drums. I improvised on the keyboard until I found a bass riff which I  thought worked well. I recorded this riff using MIDI. I then edited the MIDI data to correct some  timing and duff note errors in my playing style. I then used copy and paste to create a few more bars of this bass line riff as shown below.

The final sound of the above drum and bass parts can be listened to below:

Preparation

Marker Track

I created a new project in Cubase and added a marker track using the Project>Add Track>Marker menu option. A marker track will allow me to annotate the major sections of your song. Although the final structure of the song is not yet known I add a few basic markers such as "Intro", "Verse 1", "Chorus", "Verse 2" and "Outro". I will position these and add more markers later as the song develops. The markers will allow me to plan and navigate easily around my song's arrangement.

Reason ReWire

Reason ReWire allows you to slave the Reason software to Cubase. This would allow me to use the MIDI facilities and virtual instruments in Reason and ensure that they are completely synchronised to the Cubase tempo track. To use Reason ReWire you simply start both Cubase and Reason, select the Devices>Reason ReWire menu option and switch on the Mix L and Mix R reason channels.

Tempo Track (i.e. Click Track)

If I need to vary the tempo and / or time signature within different sections of my song then I will need to use the Cubase tempo track editor. The tempo track editor is accessed via the Project>Tempo Track menu option. The pencil tool can then be used to change the tempo at a specific point and / or the time signature (e.g. from 4/4 to 5/4).

When the click sound is enabled the tempo track becomes the click track, The click track is essentially a metronome, which allows the performer to keep strictly in time with the songs tempo. Playing accurately to a click track allows much easier editing of audio and MIDI data after it has been recorded. Audio and MIDI data can be copied in bar units when it is synchronised with a click track. Delay effects can also be synchronised with the tempo track.

Introduction

This blog describes how I have approached the development of creating a music track as part of a final term project at Confetti.

To help get us all started, the first few lessons at college have covered some audio and MIDI editing techniques and music theory. I do not consider myself an accomplished musician and so this project will be an interesting challenge.

I have bought my own copy of Cubase version 6.5 which is loaded on to my laptop computer. I intend to use this software to create my track. This will allow me to work at home. I will bring my laptop in to college to work on this track in my lessons.