Magical Creature Part Two
Magical Creature
Hi folks, welcome to the next installment of this series, where I talk about how I composed, mixed and mastered my latest track, Magical Creature. Take a listen to the mixed version below and read on if you're interested.
First thing I do, save a copy of the arrangement/the composition and rename it to Magic Creature Mix. That way I leave the original work safe and don’t touch it, compositionally. Then I get that project open and spend some time tediously getting rid of all of the tracks I didn’t use.
That leaves me with something that looks a little less like this.
And more like this.
This way, my MacBook Pro has a lot less to manage, CPU wise. Now we can get to mixing these individual tracks!
Mixing
I begin by going from top to bottom, nice and methodical. With the Hollywood Choirs track I had going, I wanted to remove some of the superfluous low end, below 60hz and give some presence to the High Mid Frequencies and the Higher Frequencies.
This just gives the track a little more presence where it’s necessary and removes some unnecessary frequencies, that the sequencer and speakers are going to try to play, unless I remove that material from the signal.
Now, with the Sopranos line, I wanted to make sure they poked through the mix a little more but also, I really wanted to emphasise the breathy lower octave voice in the second half of the passage where they play.
So again, I removed everything below 60hz to shape the signal a bit and clean up the low end on this track. I then experimented a bit with where the High Mid Frequencies should be adjusted and went for a considerable boost to the +4khz range but the effect I wanted to go for was achieved so who cares if 6db looks ‘extreme’.
I also wanted to apply a little bit of compression to this track, just to smooth out some of the peaks in volume/expression and bring up the quieter parts of the patch.
Woodwinds & Flutes
Next, we have the flutes. If you read the previous blog post then you’ll remember that the flutes were just used to layer another texture on top of the piano part, at certain points within the track. Even still, I could get rid of unnecessary low end, and adjust some of the High Mid Frequencies, to make the instrument a little breathier, airy, so-to-speak.
Brass
Now in the Brass section, I layered two different Trombone samples and doubled the Trombone part with a French Horn, which later n takes a melody all of its own.
To the Trombones, I applied different EQ’s, as the samples were recorded and produced in different spaces and obviously, were played by different players when recorded.
I removed everything below 45hz and boosted the Low Frequencies & Low Mid Frequencies by about 1db. This just brings out some of the fundamental frequencies of the Trombones.
French Horns
The French Horns were a little more varied and dynamic in this track because they took a melody in the Third Act. So, the EQ had to be a little different but naturally, the part itself needed shaping a little.
So, I removed everything below 50hz and cut some of the muddier frequencies of the instrument, by around 2.6 dB around 630hz. This is supposed to make the parts that the French Horns plays stand out a little more.
Short Strings
Now the short strings become a prominent part of the track in Act Two and I used 3 different layers of samples to create the section. I needed to make sure each library worked well with the other, as some libraries have a lot more reverb, some have a lot more attack and punch, stuff like that.
Spitfire Audios Staccatos
Spitfire’s Strings from Albion One are quite wet (lots of reverb) in the recording, so layering them with another library allows me to provide punch and use the benefits of Spitfire’s Staccatos.
Again, I cut everything below 120hz because those frequencies were entirely unnecessary. I generally applied cuts to the lower end of the spectrum, in an effort to add a little more punch to these string samples.
I then boosted the higher frequencies, above 2khz and 5.8khz, to bring out some of the attack and air of these samples.
I layered these strings with Native Instrument’s Ultimate Library, which are considerably wetter than the Spitfire Strings I just spoke about.
I then layered the part with another Native Instrument library, the ensemble version of their Strings.
Staccato Strings Compression
The thing with short strings is when you layer them, you have several different sounds combined together but they’re still very much separate. To glue them together, I can use EQ to shape them and mould them, so that they fit together but I can also use compression. The goal being, to slightly squash the strings together, and make them sound a little fuller.
Long Strings
The string section needs to work together in harmony, not fighting each other for frequency spectrum space. The problem is, the mid-range and high-mids, contain a lot of the information, for all of the string section.
Violins
The Violins, being the instrument that represents the higher octaves, naturally have a lot of higher frequency content. So I shaped them to express themselves in the higher end of the spectrum and gently removed some of the lower frequencies so there would be a little more room for the rest of the section.
Violas EQ
The Violas were similar to Violins but they sit a lower in the spectrum and have a more nasal tone to them. So I EQ’ed them accordingly.
Cellos
Again, with the Cellos & Basses, it was about getting them to fit together without clashing. Both instruments are deep and warm in tone, so making them work together while bringing out the natural colour of the instruments is what I tried to do here.
Giant Piano
Obviously, the Pianos were a huge part of this track, adding a lot of detail and subtle (if I do say so myself) melodies and arpeggios.
I removed the unnecessary frequencies in the low end and boosted the High Mid’s by about 1 db. I also adjusted the higher frequencies to add a bit of air to the pianos, just to make them stand out just that little bit more.
Cimbalom
Now the Cimbalom was an important part of this track, being layered as an additional texture in the beginning of the track and being used as another texture in other parts of the track, adding more presence to the piano in the Third Act for example.
So, I removed a lot of the bass, because the part didn’t require it and just boosted the instrument part a little around the Higher Mid Frequencies.
There were lots of other bits and pieces, other instruments I applied EQ to, but I won’t bore you to death with repetitive low-end cuts and Low Pass Filters.
If you are interested in anything mix related or otherwise, let me know, I’ll get back to you with an answer to your question.
Thanks for reading, and please, if you liked this, share it, drop a comment and like it.
Stay tuned for the third instalment in this series, where I talk about how I mastered the track. While you’re waiting, check out some of my other content below. Thanks!