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Koby Parks
Koby Parks - July 7, 2016
Yo! It's been a good while since I've updated things with a new blog post, but things are continuously active in my recording/mixing world. Lately I've been recording and mixing some of my own demos and cover recordings, as well as helping a friend track a demo EP. With minimal resources at the moment I use triggered MIDI drums, and occasionally I map out Bass parts on MIDI when I don't have a bass guitar around (or until I have a bass). I've been recording lots of DI guitar and vocals and have been experimenting with ReAmping DI signals with amp sims and impulse response and it's probably one of the greatest things in existence. Watch out on my soundcloud or Facebook soon for some samples of these demos and experiments. The first several may or may not be the best mixes by any means but it will be a start to what will hopefully be a very successful career in this biz.
As far as recording connection studies go, I'm on the verge of the path to home plate as I near the last few lessons of the basic audio engineering course. I believe my last blog post had to do with EQ and things of that nature and since then I've taken a huge dive into compression (Dynamic control of the mix) and Time-Based effects such as delay and reverb. There are several nit-picky details that go along with learning what compression and these effects do but the best way to go about them is to TRY THINGS and EXPERIMENT!
With compression, we find that we can make the overall dynamics within a track or mix balanced, whether that means we're making the low's higher or the high's lower (as far as gain is concerned) or tighten up our mixes as a whole.
When we use delay, we can add emotional or colorful character to vocals, guitars, or other instruments and effects. What delay does is basically play back what has been recorded or performed through the signal chain and repeats it a set number or times at various rates to add that extra color. For a very basic understanding of delay, If you yell in a deep canyon, the effect you hear after is the natural "reverb," if you will, but has the same effect as delay would in a song or recording. Reverb is simply a bunch of delays in one and is more of a "room" effect. For instance, if you were to stand in a concert hall and clap, you would hear a boomy echo of the source clap after you clapped, resulting in many delays that make up the room reverb.
Apart from the meanings and examples, I've gotten to experiment with these things in the studio as well, utilizing outboard gear as well as having Alex pull up the mix I'm working on for Recording Connection and have me experiment with the plugins and effects right there on the spot even if I've never used it before. It's all been fun so far and has helped me branch out in Pro Tools and just in my own habits as well to get into experimenting with more things and just seeing what all works. After all that's what it's all about! Look out for the last few posts to come soon as this thing nears the end. I'll keep everyone posted on where this might be taking me in the near future!
