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Koby Parks
Koby Parks - May 15, 2016
The past couple have weeks have been pretty productive. For my midterm I was required to take it at the studio in front of Alex and I aced it, only missing one question. With that said I'm now in the second half of my studies and I'm hitting the groud running on utilizing Pro Tools. For the next four chapters, I'll be working on a mix project that Recording Connection assigned me (the songs to choose from are pretty horrendous recordings, but thats just my opinion) But who's to say I wont make the best of it? I'm also beginning to download my own stems and multitracks for other well-known songs to get some good mixing practice in. In all, I'm stoked on getting into mixing because it's always been one of those things I haven't fully grasped until now and after this last chapter on mix theory, it got my gears spinning and my mind is continually growing to work in new ways that it hadn't before in the music creating/mixing process.
In the studio this past week Alex had me come out before an overdub session and setup the SSL to where I could attempt a 24 track mixdown (volume and panning) from drums to vocals on a prerecorded song in his library. I started with the drums and bass, got levels and built the foundation for the stereo image, and got a good blend to settle in. After that I added all 4-5 guitar parts, solo'd them out, panned what sounded good on the left or right monitors, and put them back in with everything else. Last to add were the vocals and harmonies. After that we had a pretty good mixdown set up and the levels just right (a good RMS) so the mastering and compression station on the console could do the rest. Alex demonstated what the mastering suite did and how it filled the room and tightened up the sound of the band in the overall mix. He also went a step further and showed me an abbreviated intro to EQ and some of his EQ techniques on the Kick and Snare and how to filter out unwanted frequencies of each, which I'll be getting more into next chapter. After that I hung out for the afternoon and watched Alex run a fun guitar overdub session. I've taken a lot of what Alex does in the studio and have applied it to some of my own everyday work ethic so far and have found it easier and successful to work in a studio setting and on Pro Tools. I'm hella excited to start my way to making my own killer mixes.
