Mixing Tests: The Inconsistency of The Various Audio Players

(Ye, old Trippingonacable Studios circa: 2001 - 2004, Calgary, AB, Canada)

Ye, so once again we are doing mixing tests, and the one thing we are noticing is the inconsistency of the various audio players. I mean that shit is fairly obvious, but ultimately quite annoying when you are trying to get somewhat of an idea of what your track sounds like when they are mixed down and rendered. I guess it's just annoying, when mixing a track down to a WAV and then playing it, in an audio player, like iTunes or the Windows Media Player, there are soo many goddamn inconsistencies in the audio (between the various audio players)... you begin to wonder, or at least for me, I wonder what exactly needs to be fixed in the track... even in iTunes... the EQ feature they have, fucks up the audio too... so you're not getting a very accurate picture of what needs to be fixed in the mixes.

The solution for me, for this issue..? First, turn off any EQing that the audio player inserts while playing the track (once again I know this is obvious, but some people may not be aware). Second, most music that is distributed online is via streaming platforms, like iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc... When mixing and mastering, I keep those platforms in mind. I will also say, as a tip: at least I've found, get the WAV file or whatever lossless audio format you are rendering to, to sound the best that it can, I've found once the WAV file sounds good, then rendering down to a MP3 things generally sound good!

There's also the tip of: listening to the rendered mix on various audio systems, like computer speakers, earbuds (on your iOS device), and maybe even in a vehicle sound system, much like they would in the past... to get somewhat of an idea of what your mix will sound like... you want to make sure that the audio is fairly consistent on all those systems!

I realize some of these tips are obvious, but in the past I wouldn't really think about this kind of stuff, and just kind of get an idea with just my monitors... it wasn't until recently, in the last few years that I've actually really started to listen to the mixes on various systems... to get a better idea of how everything sounds, and to make sure everything is fairly consistent across all those systems!

The overall feeling of these mixing sessions: things are going well with these mixing tests! I'm very happy with the way things are coming out, and progressing... and I'm learning a lot! I can't wait to utilize these new found skills in upcoming audio productions and endeavors!! As I already stated in a previous blog, things are really starting to make sense... and rather thinking of this as a science, ultimately it really is subjective, and you kinda got to keep in mind what you are going for in the mixing process, and make sure that all the tracks on whatever album or EP or whatever you're working on have a consistent mix between all the tracks on said album or EP!

P.S.: The image included in this blog is of Trippingonacable Studios, circa: 2001 - 2004, in Calgary, AB, Canada. We have come a long way since then. This was the first iteration of Trippingonacable Studios. We were using a custom PC with a Soundblaster sound card, Impulse Tracker (sequencing software), and eventually Jeskola Buzz Tracker (another sequencing software, but with inbuilt synths and all that kind of shit), combined with a Tascam Portastudio 414 (used as a mixer with audio connected into the sound card, so we could capture guitar samples. As well, we would bounce the audio down from Impulse Tracker to the Portastudio, do vocals on the Portastudio, then send them back into the computer as completed songs, and render them as WAV files or MP3s), as well as a shitty guitar, and a Samson Q mic. My monitoring was done on computer speakers with no sub-woofer. Lot's of fun in the old days, had no idea what the fuck I was doing, but as time has passed, obviously have gained a lot more experience, and I think better mixes of tracks and better songs!

The Joy that is "Life Is Peachy" by Korn

So, yeah... I do realize this album is probably their most angry album, but I will say... this album... every fucking song on it is solid!! I don't think there is one song I don't like, and listening to it lately... really enjoying it!! I do think their first "self-titled" release is probably their strongest, but there are a couple of songs on it that I feel are kind of filler. With "Life Is Peachy", absolutely every fucking song is solid! The other thing I like about this album, is that... it seems every fucking song runs into the next one, and it feels like a very consistent record between the tracks. Everything seems to fit together nicely! I'm not sure why the songs were placed the way they were on the album, but it feels very natural! Even the quality of the mixes and mastering, and the general quality of the audio is excellent as well! I feel it is very clear!

The track list is excellent; when "Twist" kicks in and it kind of sets the tone of the album... then "Chi" kicks in immediately after... there's all these weird sounds on the tracks, weird noises and shit... which have been created with guitars. Personally, I think it's awesome! I will say from a sound perspective, I find this album... well noisy, but not in the white noise sense, I find it noisy in the sense that there is a lot of interesting distortion on the guitars and as already stated, the weird noises and shit! It feels very crunchy I guess! Even the vocals, Jonathan Davis' vocals seem to have some kind of distortion on them, likely they're not, but there definitely a nice crunch to them (it could actually be the choice of mic they used for the recording of the vocals). I will also say, even though I found this album noisy, everything seems to cut through in the mixes... which to me makes this album even more interesting cause, despite the noise, everything seems to fit in place and makes the overall sound of the album better!!

As most of you know, Korn is a huge influence for Twitch! And, I love going back to these earlier releases and really just listening and not only just enjoying the album, cause of the sound quality of the mixes, but finding inspiration within these tracks and applying some of this to my own endeavor!! There's also a lot of memories associated with these albums, a time and place of where I was at and my first time actually listening to this album. I think when I first heard this, I was in my first band Adam Hates You! at the time... and I remember seeing the music video for the song "A.D.I.D.A.S", it was fucked... seeing the band in a morgue and writhing around and all that kind of shit... it's kind of funny, cause that song is about well, their use of the acronym is: All Day I Dream About Sex... and the video is of them in a morgue. If I'm not mistaken, that was the only song off that album, that saw a music video treatment, but such a great song!!

Even though their first "Self-titled' release was explosive from the get go, this album seems more focused and refined in the sound! Yet, still explosive!

I will say here; outside of the genre nu-metal... I don't really listen to any other metal genre... unless we are talking about industrial metal... then that is whole other beast (Fear Factory anyone?). I will be honest here, I was tempted to put something in here about sound design, but out of all honesty, I think most metal bands, don't really do a lot of sound design type stuff (unless there is major use of synthesizers; ie: Industrial Metal)... I will say though, there is a certain quality of sound here... not necessarily sound design aspects, but certainly in the way the album was recorded, mixed, and mastered!

Love this album... and I will say, out of all honesty I think my favorite tracks off this album are "A.D.I.D.A.S." and "Wicked"!

What do you folks think of this album?

P.S.: Hey we released a new album called "Databomb", you can download it here!

Mixing Tests: Subjectivity...

(Ye, things are going well!!)

Well, today's mixing test went well!! I'm starting to get a feel for doing all this mixing, and things are starting to make sense! If you've done any mixing of music or audio, you would know the process is subjective, but if you keep in mind what you are going for with your audio, between tracks... then at least I'm finding things make sense and really fit together! I will be honest, for previous audio efforts, and albums, the mixing process was really experimental for me, and stuff that I would do in the mixes would really be stuff that I've picked up from various videos and tutorials on the internet (especially YouTube)... but after doing this audio mixing bootcamp, initially I was feeling a little directionless, cause I wasn't sure what to do... but things started to make sense, after kind of deciding, what exactly I wanted my mixes to sound like, and after a lot of trial and error, and kind of working with the audio that I have/had... and then being consistent with that mixing decision through all the mixes for this testing! Also, a little query here and there from various friends with how they do their audio mixes... and also keeping in mind what I want the end result to sound like after the mastering process (if the mixes need anything in the end)!

I'm very satisfied with where things are going, there's been lot's of learning, in the beginning of my music endeavor, I really didn't have any idea what I wanted my mixes for my previous albums to sound like, and as the years passed and picking up tips here and there, for a while, I thought there was kind of science to it, but ultimately there isn't... as stated above mixing is subjective, and it really is up to the mix/audio engineers ears and what they want the final mixes to sound like, while keeping in mind what a band or artist kinda has in mind for the mixes as well. 

I would say, things are going well!

Mixing Tests: Ear Fatigue?

(Ear Fatigue?)

Ok, so there is definitely a debate whether ear fatigue is real or not. Quite frankly, I don't know... I listen to music everyday, there really is no quiet time for me (except for when I meditate), I pretty much have something going on in the background all day, every day... and when I'm writing, typically in the past I would write/record and constantly be listening to sections of the track and then sometimes the full track, to hear how it all fits together.

When I think about ear fatigue, quite frankly, that is the one thing that we ultimately can't get away from... sound, if there is wind, rustling leaves, cars going by, fans, buzzing of fridges or microwaves, people, sirens (depending on where you live), we can't actually turn off our ears (even meditating, there is some noise outside that ultimately our ears can't block). So do we actually experience ear fatigue? Being that we can't really turn off our ears... there is no silence (maybe unless you are in outer space, but that might be a discussion for another time). I will tell you though, during these mixing tests, I find actually stepping away and not listening to the audio for like 5 to 10 minutes, and then coming back to it, helps. Now, I wouldn't equate that to ear fatigue necessarily, I would more equate that as stepping away, and then coming back to it with a fresh mindset.

What are your thoughts? When you mix, do you feel you get ear fatigue? Or do you feel ear fatigue is not real?

Mixing Tests... Monitor Placement!

(Mixing Tests...)

So, I'm doing these mixing tests... you know, more as something to learn and... I'm realizing why it's very important to have your desk, and monitor placement correct... The unfortunate part in all of this, is that I don't really have the space to setup my studio, the way it should be setup, and I don't really have the room to add a couple of monitor stands to my studio either... buuuut, I know I should at least raise the monitors on my desk so they are level with my ears, cause quite frankly, I realize that I'm not hearing things properly, and I'm finding I bend over a lot so that I can actually get an idea of the "true" sound that is coming out of my monitors... gotta find a way to raise them on my desk. I know that isn't the best or perfect solution, but at least it will do in the interim, until I can setup my studio the way, or very close to the way it should be.

Any of you folks know of an affordable way to raise studio monitors on your desk?

Studio Diary: Night... Structure?

(Night... Structure?)

Yep, today's session (June 9/2020) was excellent! Very productive, got everything done at around the 8:30pm mark! Today's track was, once again a lot of fun to make! This whole process has been a lot of fun, and I'm really enjoying the new things I'm learning, and new ways I'm doing things! 

It's very exciting, and I will say this again I love working with my synth pretty much exclusively for this challenge! Moving forward... for future albums, I'm exclusively gonna be using my hardware synths (Yamaha EX7, and DX100) for all sound creation, outside of guitars!

I will say this again too, even though I don't really have the luxury of time, and once I'm done writing one album, I should move on to the next... I will say, I'm glad I did take the time away from writing/recording for the length that I did (10ish months). The sound design and programming is vastly different than what I had initially envisioned, and I think this album will be better for it! I will also say, even though I don't like the isolation, it has truly been an inspiration! After a certain point of this period of self-isolation, my ideas and thoughts around what I was gonna do for this has changed... and like I said, I think this is better because of it!

I've also got a lot of new ideas for performance aspects and the live show and all that kind of stuff! When this challenge comes to a close, the way I do things musically, will be vastly different from what I normally would have done things! The one thing that is sticking in my mind? Get the ideas out, as they come out!! Personally, I feel the songs are better off this way... and is waaaay more natural, than sitting for hours deliberating on things that ultimately don't matter in the communication of the song!

Sooo much inspiration out there! So much to do, so much to learn! Loving every minute of this!!

Studio Diary: WeeoooWeeoooWeeoo!

(WeeooWeeooWeeoo! What is this..?)

Well, another productive evening in the studio!! Once again knocked off another song! Making a lot of progress these days!! The song for this session (June 8/2020) was taken from concept to completion today! Once again, the vocals were the last thing to do, though this time around, the session was coming to a close around 8:20pm... so it wasn't quite the end of the night, but did vocals, and song done!!

So far this challenge has been a lot of fun!! I'm getting things done a lot quicker than I normally would, which ultimately is making me think that, my normal process, does not need to be as long and drawn out as it is, at least for some of the stuff I do! I have made it a goal to write at least one song per day during this challenge... it really forces me to really only utilize the tracks and not get too fuckin detailed with shit. A lot of the tracks I've written out of this process have been very minimal, I think the highest track count I got to for a song was near 18 tracks (I think)... The other thing is, is after a track is considered finished, I'm not going back to them to listen to what I have done, I just get to a point, where I feel the track is done, and finish things up, and then move onto the next song! I'm also writing the songs one at a time, typically in the past when I was working on an album, I would start a track, and work on it, till I get to a point where I have no new ideas, so I set the track aside, start a new one... and kinda work that way, and then when it felt right, I would go back to the unfinished tracks and eventually finish them. The process sometimes took weeks or months, sometimes there was a lot of listening too, but now that I'm trying to do a song a day... I'm just focusing on one song at a time, trying to get my ideas, as soon as they come out... which is helping me finish the tracks, cause I'm not really messing around all that much, everything is more focused, and I've found when getting my ideas out in this fashion, it is actually a lot easier to finish songs!!

I will also say here, I'm not recording any (new) guitars on my own, and actually, I'm using royalty free and creative commons samples for various guitar parts, as well as stuff that I recorded a long time ago, in the past that I've never used before (thank fuckin christ I built a guitar sample bank, with a bunch of stuff that I wasn't sure what to do with)!

This process has been a lot of fun!! The challenge so far has been very eye opening, in what I'm capable of, and there has been a lot of learning (I know I've already mentioned this, but... I'm just having a lot of fun, and when this challenge is done, I can't wait to share this stuff with you)!! Ultimately, this challenge will end eventually, and I'll have to figure out what the next challenge is (already have an idea, but I'll get into that another time)!