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Post by indiehouse on Dec 19, 2018 9:40:21 GMT -6
I was sent a couple of songs to mix. The songs themselves are actually pretty good, they just weren't played well. The tempo is pretty bad. Any tips on how to go about cleaning this up a bit? I doubt it was tracked to a click. The drummer doesn't sound like he knows what a 'tempo' actually is. I know I can tempo map is Pro Tools, but how does that help me to tighten things up? Should I tempo map and then use Elastic Time to bring each bar closer to an average tempo? How well does this work for things like acoustic guitar and other instruments?
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Post by M57 on Dec 19, 2018 10:07:18 GMT -6
Logic has a newer feature where you drop a track in and it creates a tempo map, which you can then just assign to one tempo and everything follows. PT must have a similar feature..?
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Post by Ward on Dec 19, 2018 11:02:01 GMT -6
Logic has a newer feature where you drop a track in and it creates a tempo map, which you can then just assign to one tempo and everything follows. PT must have a similar feature..? None that I've ever found and been able to rely on! Another reason why I'm thinking about adding Logic! |
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Post by christopher on Dec 19, 2018 13:19:55 GMT -6
I’m open to seeing what other people do.
I usually make a quick decision:
Can it be loose and funky, with drums in back?
Or does it need drums forward?
- loose and funky: I focus on a mix without drums, then fade the drums in just enough to not totally destroy the mix. Same thing I do with crappy vocals, or anything else that sucks.
-if the genre demands drums forward, ugh.. first I decide if the rest of the band /song is good enough to deserve the amount of work it’s going to need. If yes, start to estimate how long it will take and start getting a quote in my head. Typically 8-10 hours hourly rate added to the mix. Everything is edited into sections, each section will be auditioned and rated for best performance. Best measures copied and pasted, stretched, time adjusted where needed, cross faded together, drum fills found and pasted where needed. I do drums first, then have to match up the other instruments. It’s a ton of work! I’m rebuilding the whole song note by note, before I can even start the mix. I try to make it sound human and not the grid edited sound. Makes the artist sound better than they really are though. In their defense, could be monitoring issues messing them up during tracking. So I’ll always suggest re-tracking before I go down that road.
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Post by Blackdawg on Dec 19, 2018 14:36:48 GMT -6
Yeah style of music is going to dictate this a lot
But if you can get the drums and bass more tight and then edit stuff to those, it will help a lot!
Just don't over do it and take the character way. When I do this I either use elastic audio 1 or 2 bars at a time or up to 4. Don't do every beat. Sync up a part, let it go then resync. This will help it stay a little more human sounding. Id do the drums first followed by the bass. Then vocals and guitars/keys.
Again, genre dependent on how far you tighten it up.
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Post by indiehouse on Dec 19, 2018 15:14:57 GMT -6
This is WAYYY loose. Sloppy at best. Good song, though.
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Post by Blackdawg on Dec 19, 2018 15:43:06 GMT -6
Sounds like you'll need to do it no matter what.
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Post by sirthought on Dec 21, 2018 4:38:25 GMT -6
In Logic I have used the Flextime feature to fix a bass player who must have gotten tired part way through the song and just lost his feel of the timing. It took some effort, as I don't do that all the time, moving specific notes even, but in the end it really sounded better. I wouldn't always prescribe that but sometimes it's what is required.
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Post by theshea on Dec 21, 2018 15:14:35 GMT -6
had a band a few weeks ago that wanted to do all live ... i gave 'em a chance but ... in the end i made them ret-track all to a click. if they demand a "radio-ready" sound than, in my experience, that's the only way. it was really not worth the manual tidiyng, to much work even with logic flextime and follow-tempo-mode.
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