Home Recording - part 2 Arranging, mixing & multitracking In part one of this article I covered the audio interface to your computer and recording software. In part 2 I will talk about arranging, mixing and multitracking.
When you change from the first version to the second version of the same accompaniment do you hear any interesting drum breaks leading from one to the other? Can you use these drum breaks elsewhere? Make a note of them. Likewise, how do the other elements change? Does the piano arpeggios suddenly change into a challenging brass section? Do the same with you right hand voices. Too often we stick with those we are familiar with but some of those other voices can be used to advantage. It is possible to discard a voice without giving enough thought to how it is set up and if your instrument allows you to adjust such things as sustain, DSP, chorus and reverb those unused voices might be turned into something useful. Sometimes a soft voice that we do not use as our main voice can be added to great effect as a second voice. It is also surprising that many players are unaware of some voices - such as percussion. Some instruments include several drum kits to be used with the right hand and not the accompaniment. If you have these consider how they might be used to add percussive highlights to your arrangements. Many voices are discarded as not being of much use but once we start considering special arrangement they can be utilised to great effect for a bar here and there, to punctuate or make a stronger point. Once you start to think about arranging, mixing and multitracking you start to see that you are no longer limited to just 2 hands. The easiest way to start your own arranging is to listen to your favourite music and attempt to copy it. When playing from printed music we simply accept the closest preset accompaniment on the instrument and this is all very good but how far away from the actual recording is it? Can you get it closer? If you are taken by a magnificent drum break two thirds of the way through can you build that into your own arrangement? Are there any nice arpeggios that could be introduced leading up to the chorus.
Mixing and Multitracking So you have been practicing your favourite piece and you have added everything that it is possible to add while playing with just two hands but it is not quiet what you want so let's add some extra tracks to it. Plug everything in. Launch you Cubase software or whatever software you have chosen. Start a new 'project' in the software and open up a new audio track. Click on record and start your music.
Finally you like it all but that drum in track 2 sounds a bit tinny and you want a big drum sound so click on the equaliser and add a bit of extra bass. Still not right so you select a bigger drum from you voices, play the whole lot back and at the appropriate beat include the big heavy drum. Now it is all perfect except that you wanted the final chorus to sound a bit louder so get the mixer up and increase the volume just for that section. Oh! you wanted a fade out at the end? Fine. After a week of listening to this masterpiece you decide that it is a bit weak after the last verse just before the chorus and you have found a nice little fill in somewhere else inside your keyboard that you think would sound absolutely perfect in that spot but you don't want to record the whole thing again. You might even develop this to a whole 8 bar bridge section. All you have to do is snip the tracks you already have at the spot where you want to insert the extra 8 bars, move them to the right for 8 bars then play back the recording. When you reach the cue where you want to insert the extra 8 bars begin playing. When you finish playing the recording will pick up the final bars that you have moved. If you didn't quite get the new bit in the right place you can move it about until it fits exactly.
Using your computer to create sequences and additional voices. Some instruments allow you to record sequences and separate voices which you can play back while you play over the top of them. You can then re record the whole thing together and slowly build up a complete orchestration. If you do not have this feature it is a very easy matter to use your computer to do the same thing. When you start with this it is helpful to have some sort of beat going, if only a metronome. it is also a good idea to have the tune complete so you can play it back and know exactly where you want the extra sequences to occur. You then record the sequences in one track at the correct place in the score. You can then play back this one track as you play the major score on your keyboard and the sequence pops up exactly where you want it. As you have a 'line in' from your audio interface to your keyboard you may be able to record this into your keyboard so that you can take it wherever your keyboard goes. Just play around with whatever you've got until you find a method that works for you. It is the same with additional voices. Your instrument might allow you to play only one voice at a time but you want to add an angelic choir singing harmony in the background for the chorus. Simply add the track as described above then play along and the angels will start singing at exactly the right time... with a bit of practice. You can then record the whole lot.
This article is by Stephen Parry, author of the keyboard tutorials 'Learn To Play Keybord' and 'Play Keyboard By Ear'
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