Historique: 9 - partage de piste

9 – Le partage de piste

Si certaines pistes ont plus d’une partie instrumentale (le «partage de piste» est une pratique courante si le nombre de pistes que vous possédez est limité), il est alors fort probable que les différentes parties aient besoin de niveaux différents d'égalisation et autres effets. (Bien que si vous avez lu mon article sur le réglage des niveaux d’enregistrement, vous saurez que je suis partisan d’enregistrer plusieurs éléments de la même piste à leur niveau relatif correct, il sera beaucoup plus facile d’effectuer un «contrôle du mixage» approximatif pendant la production).

Afin de ? trier, répartir, séparer ? différentes parties d'une même piste, vous avez deux options. Vous pouvez soit :

• Automatiser votre table de mixage afin que les réglages corrects «entrent» dans la partie droite du morceau.
• Dupliquer la piste et utiliser différents réglages avec la même piste passant par deux canaux différents.

Sur un système analogique conventionnel, la deuxième option est simple: il vous suffit d'utiliser un cordon de raccordement pour connecter la piste à deux canaux différents à la fois. Sur certains systèmes logiciels haut de gamme, vous pouvez également le faire (commande interne au logiciel), mais pas ce n'est pas systématique. Sur certains systèmes PC, vous devrez peut-être dupliquer la piste pour la faire apparaître sur deux canaux de mixage différents.

La deuxième option est de loin la plus simple en termes de temps de travail à produire. Même si «automatiser» le même canal pour qu'il modifie soudainement les réglages de la partie pertinente de la chanson semble «intelligent» et «net» et donc attrayant, il est chronophage et peut être difficile. En plaçant le même son sur deux canaux différents, vous pouvez jouer manuellement, sans automatisation, à votre guise, ce qui est beaucoup plus facile, la seule automatisation dont vous devez vous soucier est le «mute» automatisé qui bascule d’un canal à l’autre aux différentes parties de la chanson.
Sur un système entièrement basé sur un PC, la première option est préférable, car elle permet une utilisation plus efficace des ressources de votre CPU, car chaque piste ou canal supplémentaire tend à consommer plus de puissance. Une solution de contournement à ce problème de consommation d’énergie du processeur pourrait consister à «restituer» les paramètres des deux parties et à les mélanger sur une seule piste, en sauvegardant les originaux au cas où vous en auriez besoin à l’avenir.

Résumé de l'ajout de pièces principales :

L’essentiel lors de l’ajout des éléments principaux est de ne pas adopter une approche injonctive qui respecterait aveuglément les «règles» qui sont décrites plus haut. Vous devez vous assurer de bien comprendre ce que chacune des parties expose et comment elles interagissent les unes avec les autres. Cela vous aidera à définir à la fois le son et le positionnement stéréo. Utilisez vos oreilles et employez les commandes, uniquement, si vous pensez avoir mal agi ou si vous souhaitez appliquer les paramètres d'une session ultérieure ; Souvenez-vous qu'il n'y a pas de règles, et que ce qui compte, après tout, c’est uniquement la manière dont l'enregistrement sonne qui importe, et non la théorie sur la façon de faire. Et surtout rappelez-vous que les commentaires ci-dessus ne sont que des suggestions et conseils utiles, alors n'hésitez pas à les contester et les contredire.

Vous avez peut-être des approches totalement différentes, alors n'hésitez pas à expérimenter autant que vous le souhaitez. Rappelez-vous cependant que, à mesure que le temps passe, vos oreilles seront de plus en plus fatiguées et vous serez moins en mesure de prendre des décisions judicieuses. Travaillez aussi vite que vous le pouvez et ne passez pas trop de temps sur un instrument en particulier, vous risqueriez d'être entraîner vers une dépression😀.

En outre, n’ayez pas peur d’utiliser une forte compression sur certaines des parties principales si vous pensez que cela semble nécessaire. J’ai souvent été étonné par le niveau de compression dont certaines parties ont besoin mais pas dans le son général du mixage, où une compression importante n’est souvent pas particulièrement perceptible (contrairement à la «compression finale» qui est très audible si elle est excessive). Assurez-vous toutefois que le compresseur n'agit pas en permanence, sinon vous n’en tirerez pas le meilleur parti. Sur les parties les plus "calmes" d’une exécution, la «réduction de gain» ne doit pas apparaître ou très peu ( Si le compresseur a un vu-mètre de «réduction de gain» c’est évidemment très utile ). Si les voyants de «réduction de gain» sont toujours allumés, le réglage de la commande «Seuil» est certainement trop bas - À moins que vous utilisiez délibérément le compresseur pour ajouter du «punch», auquel cas c'est excusable. Sinon, un compresseur dont le seuil est réglé trop bas commence à agir de plus en plus comme une simple commande de volume et c'est perdre son temps.

Ajout des percussions

Il n’est pas nécessaire d’ajouter des percussions après les parties principales, il est parfois logique de le faire avant, lorsque vous avez la batterie, la basse et toutes les parties de pad en place. Cela dépend de la chanson. Personnellement, j'aime souvent jouer de la percussion plus tard dans le mixage, car vous pouvez avoir une meilleure perspective de ce que la percussion ajoute réellement de ce mixage. Cela vous donne également une pause après avoir joué de la batterie et de la basse, ce qui a probablement déjà heurté vos oreilles.

Les directives sont similaires aux parties principales. Écoutez ce que chaque partie «exprime» et cela vous aidera à réaliser vos positionnement stéréo. Certaines choses feront presque partie de la batterie (comme les cabasas, les tambourins et les maracas, qui fonctionnent souvent conjointement avec la charleston). D'autres éléments sont bien distincts (comme les timbales) et ne doivent être présents qu'en de très courtes périodes, avant qu'ils ne deviennent ennuyeux.
Il n’est pas nécessaire d’utiliser toutes les percussions lors du mixage, en fait, il est généralement préférable de ne pas le faire.
La raison en est que lors de l'enregistrement, les percussionnistes ont tendance à être trop généreux. Ils ont mis beaucoup de "au cas où" sur le motif qu'il pourra toujours être supprimé du mixage. C'est une raison valable, alors gardez cela à l’esprit et envisagez d’utiliser des sourdines automatiques sur le système de mixage pour importer les percussions dans des sections particulières qui nécessitent un peu plus de «couleur».
Lors de l’équilibrage des percussions, rappelez-vous que si vous souhaitez obtenir davantage de graves, le fait d’enlever les graves et les médiums vous donnera un son plus doux et plus lisse que de simplement monter l’égalisation dans les hautes fréquences. Ce n’est pas que l’un soit nécessairement meilleur que l’autre, seulement, ils produisent des résultats différents.










Nom di diou roudoudou... y'a du monde là !!!!!

For example, things that go throughout the entire song, like perhaps congas, cabasas, maracas and the like, normally respond to subtractive EQ (removing low and mid, rather than just boosting high) for a smooth sound – otherwise they tire and strain the ears. But things which are featured only briefly – such as timbales – benefit from the extra “thwack” that high-boost alone provides. Additionally, in the special case of something reinforcing an important drum beat – such as tambourine beating in time with the snare – such a sound can benefit from the extra energy that pure high-frequency boost gives, and make it stand out against the drum it is competing with.
Generally speaking, for most percussion it is not at all unusual to have to remove a fair bit of low-end to get the percussion to “cut through” the mix. Bongos and congas – no matter how well recorded – usually need to be “thinned out”, in order to be properly heard on a busy pop mix.

Our old friend – the “small” reverb – is of particular importance when mixing percussion. To get a truly spectacular effect, try being generous with the small reverb, and try making the percussion sound like it is “outside” of the bounds of the rest of the mix – so that it sounds, further back, yet bigger, and “surrounding” the rest of the mix instead of being in the middle of it (unless of course, you are trying to get a 70’s disco sound, in which case leave the percussion fairly dry). If you do this “wide spacing” using short reverb, it is often most effective if it is used only on some parts of the mix (like a percussion break) – if it is like this for the duration of the track it can be tiring on the ears, and distracting to the rest of the mix.

Balancing the levels of the percussion is a tricky business, and best done at fairly quiet levels on small monitor loudspeakers, otherwise there is a risk that one thing (like a handclap or tambourine) will dominate the final mix.

The Big One – The Lead Vocal
Ironically, after all the effort you’ve put into everything so far, there is one musical “part” which if you screw it up, everything is lost.
All the time and money spent doing everything else is just money down the drain if you can’t get the vocal right.

So what are your objectives?

Primarily, you are trying to ensure that what the vocalist is saying can be heard. I don’t (just) mean physically heard, but emotionally heard. That has a substantial impact on the kind of things you will want to do to the lead vocal as part of the mixing process.

Secondly, you need to get the vocal to “fit in” with everything you’ve been working on for the last few hours. Hopefully, if you’ve followed this article so far, you’ll remember that everything has been mixed with at least a little of everything always present, so you should have been listening to the vocal – at least to some degree – all the time you’ve been mixing so far. If you haven’t, then you may have a very nasty surprise when you fade it in. It may sound, tonally, quite different from everything else, and you will realise that much needs to be done to the sound to get it to “gel” with everything else.

But shouldn’t the lead vocal be “pure”? Should it not be unaffected, uncompressed, unEQ’ed, with just a little specially prepared reverb?
Well, try that for starters. It might work. If so, well… erm… that was easy… skip the rest of this section!

In all likelihood though it won’t be. If you’ve done a good job of the mix so far, then everything should sound very impressive and polished, and the vocal will probably not sound as stunning as everything else.

There are – needless to say – so many different ways you can approach the lead vocal that an entire book could be written on the subject. But here are some tips anyway:

Consider using a different reverb for the vocal that you have not yet used on anything else on the track. Normally, reverb on the vocal benefits from much less “damping” than general-purpose reverb, and – if you can – try taking some low-frequency out of the reverb return or send. Both the vocal, and it’s reverb should be clearly audible above everything else in the mix, without being overly loud. Generous pre delay on the vocal reverb is often very effective, as it makes the reverb sound like it is reflected off the back wall of an auditorium, or off a mountain or canyon. Be careful not to overdo the vocal reverb, as it can sound either somewhat dated, or just plain tiring to the ears.
You may have to “thin out” the vocal a little, and add some very top end to give the vocal a little polish, and you might also need to use a de-esser to counteract the effects of this EQ. You instead might consider using an Aural Exciter processor effect to add more top end without sibilance, or try playing the vocal through a Dolby encoder (as if it is recording) which will make it brighter. “Switching off the Dolbies” on playback was a standard technique on both lead and backing vocals in the analog days.
If the vocal needs compression, then expect to spend a fair bit of time doing it. The lead vocal exposes poor compression, so it can take much time to get the settings right. You are trying to get the vocal “present” for the duration of the song, without it sounding squashed or restrained – the vocal should (normally) – sound spacious and open, and able to move freely. An over-compressed vocal actually sounds claustrophobic! (naturally though, this can sometimes be desirable). Sometimes however, you might find you need to “expand” a poorly recorded, over-compressed vocal in order to put some “life” back in it. If you thought setting up a compressor is hard, then try setting up an expander to correct an over compressed lead vocal! Believe me, you won’t want to over compress a lead vocal when recording one in future after that experience!
I often use chorus on the lead vocal. What? Is that legal? Well, yes it is. I’m not talking about swamping the vocal, or making it sound like it’s been double-tracked – I’m talking about just the weeniest, weeniest amount of very slow chorus at a low level. The level should be so low that the chorus effect itself is inaudible. Instead, the effect is that the high frequencies sound fuller, and the vocal sounds “bigger” and more powerful in a way that is hard to describe. You need to try this to understand what I mean. Just very, very faint chorus on very subtle settings – hardly even there at all.
Sometimes, using an “old-fashioned” equaliser such as a “Pultec” or other valve-style equaliser can let you change the vocal sound, without making it sound like it has been deliberately equalised. I’ve personally known a Pultec “rescue” a mix that seemed doomed because the vocal didn’t fit with the rest of the track no matter what was done, but two minutes with a Pultec and the vocal was perfect. This is no guarantee though.
Generally, use only the highest quality effects and processors on the vocal. If you’ve used them up already whilst mixing, consider hijacking them back for vocal purposes, and reworking the other instrument using a spare, unused, cheaper effect unit.
Using a delay with fairly generous feedback – either on the beat, or perhaps in triplets – can be very effective on a vocal. Often it works well throughout the entire track, other times it works best when you just “spin off” occasional words at the end of particular sentences. Be careful doing this, or it will sound too “corny”.
Make a final check on the vocal sound, and make sure that it doesn’t sound too “effected”. The human ear is especially sensitive to vocals (we hear the human voice every day more than probably any other sound), and vocal parts can reveal poor processing or poor choice of effects very easily. When this happens, it sounds like the vocal is somehow “crumbling apart” and it somehow sounds “bitty” (even on an analog system!).
Vocal levels should be set whilst monitoring at a very low level – make sure the lyrics are clearly audible at all levels.
Backing Vocals

Backing vocals need to sound like a tightly controlled block of perfect harmonies. Normally what’s on tape isn’t anything of the sort.
So how do you fix them?

Firstly, assuming that you have individual backing harmonies recorded on separate tracks, the first thing is to get them to blend together so the harmonies create a pleasing effect. You need a bit of a “musical” ear to do this, so experiment a bit until you get a result where a nice “chordal” sound is produced. Listening to them as a group by themselves, without anything else in the mix, is (unlike other parts) usually the best way to get started. Make a little stereo mix of them, with reverb on each part individually. This is because certain harmonies within the group may need more reverb than others. You can add some “small” reverb as well as long in order to give them each a bit of individual space, but – often that’s not a good idea – because you are trying to get them to gel together into one harmonious lump, not sound like a set of individuals. The spatial “spread” you try to give them in stereo is much more about creating a nice “blocky” sound than separating the harmony parts.

Normally, the levels of the backing vocals don’t fit together. So compress them to death! Yes – it’s OK to do this on a pop track. Feel free to go quite mad. The backing vocals will usually be at quite a low level in the mix and so the compression will either not be noticeable, or will even enhance the sound! You want them to be a rock-steady block with little or no dynamics. If they need dynamics it is (unlike other instruments) best to compress them like mad individually so that they fit together properly, and add any dynamics by hand using automated fader movements on the stereo backing vocals as a whole.

If the backing vocals don’t sound “thick” enough, or simply sound out-of-tune (a common problem), then adding some chorus to them is often a good idea. If you have a “true stereo” chorus try setting the chorus return (or the send) so that it is in reverse – i.e. Parts on the left hand side, have a chorused sound to the right, and vice versa. This creates a nice stereo sound for the backing vocals without getting too much separation on the individual performers themselves. Check them in mono to make sure you haven’t added to much chorus (you normally don’t want them to sound “effected” as such) and the other reason is to check that you still get a nice “chordal” sound on the backing vocals when the mix is played in mono.

To help thicken them up some more, either try using an “Exciter” effect such as the Aphex Aural Exciter or try Dolby encoding, or simply add some very top end (12 kHz), using a de-esser if necessary to remove any sibilance introduced.

Finally, consider compressing the stereo mix of backing vocals as a whole as well. Yet more compression!! – Have I gone completely mad?? Not at all. Compressing the group has a different effect than individual compression, and often both are needed to get that “brick wall sound” that makes good pop backing vocals sound spectacular.

If you are using a PC based system, you might now have to “render” the backing vocal mix in order to get some life back out of your CPU!
If the backing vocals are already “premixed” to stereo, you either have to hope that they were combined using the techniques above, or instead, try adding EQ, reverse-stereo chorus, EQ, Exciter, compression etc. to the stereo track as a whole and see if that helps. When working with a “premixed” stereo set of backing vocals, you will often have to use midrange EQ with a narrow bandwidth in the middle of the note ranges of the harmonies, to “bring out” or “suppress” harmony parts that have not been correctly mixed together.
What? Did you expect a little thing like backing vocals to be easy?