{Audio Post exercise - pt 1}

So today we're going to start doing an audio post tutorial that is part of the official Pro Tools 101 class. Basically, you're going to be working with a video clip and working with all the sound in it.

Your main objectives for today are as follows:

• Import the video clip into the Pro Tools session
• Import some music tracks to go under the video.
• Import some sound FX of swords.
• Record a short VO clip.

OK, first things first - Find the folder called PT101_Post Project on the Media Share folder and drag it into your folder on your computer. Open the session.

Importing the Video

1. Choose File>Import>Quicktime Movie.
2. Navigate to the Video Files folder (found inside the PT101_Post Project folder that you just copied).
3. Select Red Dragon.mov and click Open. The movie will be imported into your session and will open in a Movie window. A movie track will also display in the Edit window.
4. If you feel like watching the movie, go to the beginning of the timeline and hit the SPACEBAR.

Import Music Audio Files to the Region List

1. Choose File>Import>Audio to Region List.
2. In the Import Audio dialog box, navigate to the folder called New Music (found inside the PT101_Post Project folder).
3. Select the four New Music files (click on the first, then Shift-click on the last to select them all) and click the Add Files button. The files will be added to the Region Import area of the dialog box.
4. Click Done. The regions New Music 1 (Stereo) and New Music 2 (Stereo) will display in your Regions List.

Import Files from the Workspace Browser

1. Go to Window>Workspace to open the Workspace browser.
2. Click on the Find icon (magnifying glass) to reveal the search fields.
3. Type Sword Group in the Name field.
4. Select Region Group File from the Kind pop-up menu. Make sure that there is a check next to the disk volume that contains the Post Project folder.
5. Click Search. After a moment the Sword Group file will appear in the lower pane of the Workspace browser.
6. Drag the Sword Group file onto the Swords track in the Edit window.
7. If necessary, use the Grabber tool to drag the Sword Group to the very start of the session.
8. Close the Workspace browser to get it out of your way.

Record a New Voiceover

1. Get a mic and cable from the instructor.
2. Get the track called New VO ready for recording (set the input, set your levels, record-enable the track, etc.)
3. Find the memory location called New VO Start. This is the point where you will start recording.
4. Record yourself saying the following sentence: "You traveled the world, now you must journey inwards." Be sure to include a dramatic pause between the words, "world" and "now".

Save the project.

Elements of Audio Post Production

Today, we're going to jump into working with audio post-production. What exactly is audio post, you ask? Well...
Audio post-production refers to all the work that is done on a movie's sound after the shooting has finished. The sounds that go into a video or film can be broken down into 4 basic categories:

1. Dialog - the MOST important part of the soundtrack. Includes anything being said by characters on or off screen. In many cases, the dialog you hear in a movie is actually NOT what was recorded at the time of filming; it is rerecorded in a studio by the actors who say their lines while watching the video of their performances. This is called ADR (Automatic Dialog Replacement). When the dialog is being spoken by someone who is not on the screen, it is called Voice Over, or VO.


2. Foley sounds - sounds made by the characters as they move around in the scene (footsteps, clothing rustling, picking things up, etc.). These sounds are performed by foley artists who specialize in making sounds that realistically match the actions on the screen (even though the sounds may actually be made using all kinds of crazy materials).

3. Sound effects - sounds not made by the characters. These can include realistic sounds (cars, animals, everyday things), ambience, bigger-than-life sounds (explosions), and imaginary sounds (lightsabers).

4. Music - there are four main types of music you might hear in a video

• Score - Music composed specifically for a film or video
• Jingle - Music composed for a commercial
• Environmental music - music that is actually part of the background of a scene (from a radio, playing in a bar, etc.)
• Soundtrack music - any music where the music is the main audio focus (a music video, the end credits of a movie)

PT: Using Aux Sends for FX

OK, so today we're going to learn about how you can use the Aux Sends in Pro Tools to put an effect on a bunch of tracks at once.

First of all, what the #*!& is an Aux Send?

An Aux Send is a part of a mixing board that lets you take the signal from one track and direct it somewhere else.

Why would you want to do that?

One big reason is to have a multiple tracks going to the same FX processor.

Why would you want to do that?

• versatility - isn't it more useful to have an effect be accessible to every track rather than just one track? Also, you can get really creative by sending sounds to different places and doing different things in the mix.
  
• simplicity - instead of putting an reverb on every track, you can just have one reverb and send whatever you want to it
• less processing power - why make your computer do a bunch of extra work if you don't have to
• gives your mix a more consistent sound.
  

So, where do you find the Aux section in Pro Tools? In the Mix Window, it is the light grey section under the Inserts.
When you click on one of the double arrows, you will be asked to choose either interface or bus. What is the difference?

Interface refers to something outside of the computer - you are talking about running something into or out of Pro Tools.

Bus refers to directing a signal to somewhere else inside Pro Tools, like another track.

Actually, you can create a special type of track in Pro Tools that is meant for being used with the Aux Sends. It is called an Aux Input and you can create it the same way you would create an audio track: Track>New Track

From there you just change the type of track from audio to Aux Input.

So now, you are going to try creating some Aux Inputs to use for FX on your own music.

Please do the following assignment:

1. Open the Pro Tools session of your most complete song. (If you don't have a song in Pro Tools, ask one of your classmates if you can use one of theirs for this assignment.)
2. Go to the Track menu>New Track and create 2 Stereo Aux Inputs.
3. Change the name of Aux 1 to "Drum FX".
4. Change the name of Aux 2 to "Vocal FX".
5. On the Drum FX track, change the input to Bus 1-2.
6. On the Vocal FX track, change the input to Bus 3-4.
7. In the Insert section of the Drum FX track, create a DVerb reverb processor (multichannel plugin>Reverb>D-Verb (stereo))
   
8. On ALL of your drum tracks (bass, snare, clap, hi hats, shakers, toms, tambourines, etc.), go to the Sends section and create a send going to Bus 1-2.
9. Solo each of these drum tracks and the Drum FX track so that you can only hear the drums.
   
10. Now one-by-one, click on each of the drum sends and raise the faders to where you can hear the track going through the reverb. Set it to where it sounds good - HINT: LESS IS USUALLY MORE! Some tracks might sound best with NO reverb on it.
    
11. Try adjusting the settings of the D-Verb to get slightly different sounds (Church, Room, Plate, etc.)
12. When you've got the drums sounding good, unsolo everything and listen to the whole beat. Does it sound good? If not, why? Is there something you could change to make it better?
13. Now see if you can do the same process with all of your vocal tracks (use Bus 3-4 in the Sends section)
14. Save this and have one of the instructors check it out.
    

{Amon Tobin - interesting electronic artist}

Below are two videos from and about Amon Tobin, a well-known electronic artist. One of the things he is known for is the way he records all kinds of sounds from the world and then uses them as samples in his music. Check it out and see what you think...

{Pro Tools Mixing Tutorials}

Today we're going to be working on a basic mixing tutorial that is available online through the website About.com. This exercise will give you the chance to practice using the two types of processors that we have been talking about in class: compressors and an equalizers (aka EQs).

Before you can get going with this exercise, though, you will need to copy the Pro Tools session folder to your hard drive. I have put this on the Media Share folder for you. Please drag the following folder to your hard drive:

Media Share>Class Materials>Mixing Lesson (PT 5-6.9)

When you've got the folder copied, please go to this website:

http://homerecording.about.com/od/mixingyourmusic/ss/mixinglesson.htm

This is the first page of a 6 part lesson. As you finish each part, just click on the Next button at the bottom of the page. These are very simple instructions that are just designed to give you a basic understanding of what is involved with mixing a song.

FYI, this is not what I would consider "good" music. But that's not really the point. Mixing engineers spend a very large amount of time working on music that they wouldn't normally choose to listen to. What is important is that you begin to develop skills that you can apply to any mixing situation, including but not limited to your own music.

Here are some things you should be aware of on a couple of the pages:

• Page 1 - I've already given you the PT Session, so don't worry about downloading it.
  
• Page 3 - There is no compressor preset called "Basic Snare". Use the one called "Snare Comp" instead.
• Page 4 - When it says you should work with the "low end", use the section of the EQ called LF (the red one). When it says to work with the "High mids", use the section called HMF (the green one).
• Page 5 - When it tells you to add a "tiny bit of mid range", which section do you think you should use?
• Page 6 - You don't need to bounce the song out of PT (just show your work to Chris or Corina), but you DO need to try compressing at least one of the other tracks they suggest (acoustic guitar, keyboards, electric guitar).
  

When you finish, save this (you don't have to rename the session) and have one of the instructors check it out. Then, go on to the next Tutorial about mixing drums...

First, copy the following Pro Tools session file to your computer:
MediaShare>Class Materials>Mixing Drums Session

http://homerecording.about.com/od/protoolstutorials/ss/drums_pro_tools.htm

Fundamentals of Sound (part 4) - dynamics/compression

Okay, so we have been talking about and working with a number of different aspects of sound, mainly dealing with Frequency (Harmonics, Filtering, etc.)

Today I want to talk a little bit about the other main aspect of sound: Amplitude.

More specifically I want to talk about what is called dynamics.

Dynamics is the way the amplitude (aka "volume") of a track changes over time.

Just like frequency content is really important to the sound of your music and the way it hits people, the dynamics can also really affect the way the listener responds to your music. Think about the difference between listening to an R&B love song and an angry heavy metal song; how do the singers sing differently? How are they using the dynamics of their voices differently? Why do you think they do that?

Now, generally speaking, it can be really useful to have the dynamics of an instrument or vocal change over time so that you can give a song more flow - the loud parts of a song will hit harder if you have a soft part right before them. However, sometimes, when you have a performance that gets too quiet in certain parts, it gets hard to hear it over the other instruments. This is especially a problem with things like vocals, which really need to be heard by the listeners.

Fortunately, we engineers have a tool for adjusting the dynamics of a track: compression!

What is compression?

The short answer is that it's a type of processing that allows you to automatically control the loudness of your tracks. The type of device that allows you to perform this magical processing is called (wait for it)...a compressor.

For example, say you have a vocal track where the MC's performance is at a pretty consistent level for most of the song, but then he/she suddenly gets really loud at one part. In this case, compression could be used to just turn down the loud part and leave the rest of the performance the same. This is what compression was originally used for...

But, in most modern pop music, a TON of compression is used on pretty much every track. I know of at least one major producer who says that compression is "the sound of modern music production." Why? Here are a couple of reasons:

1. To make things sound smooth (aka "clean").
2. To make things sound punchy (aka "slap").
3. To make the song loud.

So, if you want your song to have any of the above qualities, you should probably take some time to learn how to compress your tracks properly.

The basic concept is that you set a certain volume level on your compressor, called the Threshold. If the volume of your track goes over the threshold, then the compressor kicks in and turns down the volume until the signal goes back down under the threshold. The amount it turns the volume down by is called the Ratio. These are the two most important settings on a compressor - they tell the compressor when to start working and how much. Check it out...

The next two settings you need to consider are the attack and release. The Attack tells the compressor how quickly to start working once the signal crosses the threshold. The Release tells it how quickly to let go once the signal goes back below the threshold.

The last setting you should know is the Gain, or makeup gain. This setting allows you to turn the overall volume of the track up. Why would we want to turn the volume back up when we just used the compressor to turn it down? Good question. The short answer: the slap factor. Think of the gain knob as the slap control. BUT, the slap control only really works if you've set the other settings properly.

Here is a picture of the Digidesign Compressor/Limiter that comes standard with Pro Tools software. It features all the controls we just discussed, plus a few that you don't need to worry about just yet. You can Insert this on any of your audio tracks:


Here is a general formula for compressing a vocal track:
1. Solo a vocal track and insert a compressor on it.
2. Set the Ratio to 4:1
3. Now adjust the Threshold until you see a maximum of about -6.0 dB of gain reduction happening in the column called "GR"
4. Set the Release to about 150 ms.
5. Now turn the Attack all the way to the right and slowly start turning it left (counterclockwise) until you hear the vocal just start to get muffled. Stop.
6. Now adjust the Release until you see the Gain Reduction moving nice and smoothly in time with the music. Close your eyes and listen. The volume of the vocal should sound pretty even and consistent. If you hear any sudden jumps, then you should try to adjust the Attack and Release settings until the jumps get smoothed out.
7. Turn up the Gain to 6.0 dB.
8. Hit the Bypass button to check what the track sounds like with the compressor on and off.
9. Now unsolo the track and listen to it in context with the rest of the song. Turn the bypass on and off to hear how the compressor is affecting the overall feel of the song.

{Reason Assignment - Verse/Chorus}

Today I would like to have you all compose

Create a Reason beat that has all the following elements:

1. At least 4 different instruments (only 1 Redrum, please!).
2. Verse (16 bars) and Chorus (8 bars) sections.
3. Copy the Verse and Chorus so that you have at least 3 of each.
   

When you finish making this beat, please save it as: (your name)_beat_012609