Recording - November 2011 - 6

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Mixing and making mashups mesh
Hi, I have been tinkering with mashup music and have been creating projects based on music soundbites (fair use or via Creative Commons license) from different sources, including CDs, DVDs, MP3s, etc., all of which have been previously mixed and/or mastered in different ways. Assuming a project has multiple tracks based on such samples, is there a way to help ensure the overall piece sounds more consistent overall, based on samples with different underlying qualities (e.g., in terms of eq, compression, etc.)? I understand this is a complex question, but was wondering if you could provide advice on where to start—I don’t have much experience in this context, although I have been successful at creating interesting mashups. Thanks in advance!
Greg Sinco via email

Greg, thanks for the letter! I adore mashups myself; my music collection includes an original cassette release of Gunderphonic by the Evolution Control Committee, which contains arguably the first-ever full mashup tracks—two instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, with rap vocals over the top from Public Enemy. Great stuff! With lessons learned from listening to and creating tracks like this, hopefully I might be able to provide you with a few pointers here and there. When incorporating ordinary samples into music, there are certain techniques that work very well; even when you do full mashups of multiple whole songs, the basic principles remain the same. Mastering engineers do this every time they have to assemble a sonically pleasing compilation album from multiple sources, but I find that the tools that help me most when building an actual song with interlocking sampled parts (rather than entire songs spliced end to end, as in a mastering job) are those of the mix engineer. The best way to think of unifying samples and song sections in a mashup is to treat them as basic tracks that were captured in a recording session to be their very best, but which now need to be mixed for a pleasing final result. In a way, working with multiple sample sources is no different than working with three different guitar tracks recorded with different mics on different amps at different times, plus a DI bass, ten different mics on a drum kit, and a variety of miked and direct keyboards. All the sounds are good... but pulling them together properly so they don’t get in each other’s way and in fact reinforce one another is key to a pleasing final mix. You will be off to a good start when you apply the mix engineer’s listening strategies and basic tools—volume control, eq, dynamics control, and effects. Start by adjusting

your track (sample) levels. Listen to the level of each sample as it appears in the track, match them as best you can, and adjust them so the most important bits are forward and the less important ones are pulled back to support it from underneath... but be careful with overusing level for emphasis, as pushing samples (especially repeating ones) way out in front was very much a cliché of early house music in the 1990s, and will make your work sound dated. Similarly, be careful with samples starting and stopping abruptly, especially if they’re up high enough in the mix so that the start of the sample instantly introduces a change in the background noise level and character. You can then work on eq, remembering to carve out portions of the frequency spectrum to make room for each sample; cutting is always better than boosting. Extreme eq can sometimes work well in a situation like this, as it emphasizes the “alien” nature of the introduced sounds... the desired effect can be to not have everything mesh perfectly! Compression can be used to smooth out jagged dynamics, in much the same way as it is in a conventional mix... and like a conventional mix, a samplebased mix can be squashed to death and ruined by overuse. The fact that some of the stuff you’ve sampled has already been compressed makes it important not to do it again if you can help it, unless you want that weird oversquashed vibe (but that’s a creative choice). Finally, remember that a coherent mix all lives in the same space. A judicious (not overwhelming) use of a particular ambience or reverb program lets all of your samples live in the same space, and careful panning inside that space gives the illusion of a unified soundstage and goes a long way toward giving you a coherent mix. Experiment with these ideas and you’ll soon work up a healthy collection of mix tricks for this type of material; take notes as you go (and save the projects that work out well with all their DAW settings), and when you find out something that works particularly well (or poorly) for a certain type of material, you’ll have a starting point for the next time. As a final comment, I am encouraged to hear you mention fair use and Creative Commons in your letter, as that shows you’re paying attention to the legal side of what you’re doing. Be sure you understand the legal circumstances for each sample you lift, so you don’t end up in trouble down the line. Assumptions can be dangerous! Have fun and thanks for reading.—MM

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RECORDING NOVEMBER 2011

Recording - November 2011

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