Mixing Hip-Hop Tutorial

Mixing Hip-Hop is a two part tutorial course from Matthew Weiss. (Snoop, Arrested Development, Gorilla Zoe, Royce Da 5'9 and more) This course is a simple to follow and easy to digest, the perfect way for the beginner to get their hands dirty in the world of urban music production and recording. The tutorial is broken down into two parts; one half focused on recording/processing rap vocals and another half on hip hop beat production.

Check out this Video Review from: SoundsAndGear.com



Topics Covered:

-Cleaning up vocals
-Controlling tone and dynamics Enhancing with EQ
-Constructing ambience
-Producing better vocals
-Setting levels
-Emotional automation
-Making the drums hit hard
-Enhancing the synths
-Home mastering tips

 The entire cost of the tutorial kit is $57 USD and it can be downloaded directly from the Mixing Hip-Hop website.

All the best,

Nick

What is Dither and How to Properly Use Dither

I know everyone that produces or works with digital music has seen it. That option in the bounce menu or on a plug-in that says "Dither" or something similar with the word dither in it. Every single digital audio system utilizes dither to add noise to a signal when a higher quality digital audio file needs to be down sampled or re-quantized to a lower bit-rate.

The whole idea behind dither is actually quite simple. My goal with this article is to condense the theroy in a way that I've not yet come across on the internet. The process of dither addition is very important, the problem is people don't know about it. Furthermore, when people go to find out about it they are smacked in the face with very complicated explanations behind the practice. It seems complicated at first but I'm going to do my best to explain this as painlessly as possible.

Lets talk about why we need it first and then I'll explain exactly what it is and how to apply it to your work.  Lets say we have a digital audio sample at a resolution of 24bits @ 44.1kbps. This audio sample is not an actual analog audio signal, it's merely a representation of one that has been digitally created using binary samples.  A 24bit sample has a number space of around 16.7 million spaces. This basically means that there is 16.7 million samples taken from the analog audio signal per binary word to create a digital audio version of it.  A 16bit sample by comparison only has 65,536 spaces in each of it's binary words. Obviously a 24bit sample is a much truer representation of the original analog audio. The higher the bit & sample rate the better quality digital audio you'll have. The problem is that high bit & sample rate files are very large in file size.  A CD is a 16bit 44.1khz digital audio file this is all fine and dandy but, bad things happen when we sample down from 24bits (the sample rate we should work with when recording & mixing) to 16bits for CD and mp3 creation.

When you down sample from 24bits to 16bits you're reducing the amount of digital spaces per binary word (the binary words make up the digital waveform) by a factor of 256 to be precise.  Basically the computer recalculates the digital waveform of each sample from a 24 space binary number down to a 16 space binary number whilst maintaining the same amplitude level.  Can you see how this might create a problem...  Imagine a bus with 30 people, no imagine all 30 of those people being told to get off the bus and get into a van.  Chaos!  The same thing happens when you down sample from 24bits to 16bits, there is audio chaos in the form of binary errors.

What we get in digital audio is harmonic distortion, and when you down sample without dither, harmonic distortion increases all the way up to very high level harmonics.  Fundamental frequencies of the tones show up at irritating levels in the harmonic spectrum.  These aren't pleasant 2nd and 3rd order music friendly harmonics, they are nasty sounding high level harmonics up into the 20th level harmonic and above.  These harmonics are not musically pleasant and will ruin what was otherwise a beautiful sound.  How do we prevent this from happening?  We add Dither, itunes does it, (crapilly) and we can do it on our own inside of our DAW.

Dither works by randomizing all those binary word errors that result in ugly sounding high order harmonics through the addition of low level noise to the digital audio signal.  The noise of dither is created by randomizing the least significant bit of each binary word sample.  The least significant bit is the last number in a binary word sequence.  Adding dither results in a random 1 or 0 being added to the sample (remember digital audio is simply 1's & 0's)  This random addition removes the regularity of errors in the digital audio sample.   If it's not regular digital errors and instead random digital errors (as it is when dither is added) we remove the harmonic distortion.  Basically, the errors are no longer errors we hear as harmonics but, instead random less noticeable sounding errors.  To sum it up after addition of dither the binary errors have been randomized so that we can no longer hear them.   Now the errors are spread out throughout the frequency spectrum, they still exist it's just that they aren't as present and extreme as they were before.  We can further mask these errors after the addition of dither through a technique called shaping.

Noise Shaping is a way of choosing where we would like to focus the dither "noise" in the frequency spectrum.  If we can do this we can eliminate the harmonic distortion and keep the overall dither "noise" level low.  Noise shaping adds a filter to the noise created by adding dither.   This allows the noise to only live in the inaudible frequencies from 20khz up to 22khz.   We can't hear this and it effectively kills the harmonic distortion while reducing the overall level of dither heard in the rest of the frequency spectrum.  To be honest though, you don't need to worry about noise shaping all that much unless you're doing serious mastering.  Most dither plug-ins do a fine job of noise shaping regardless of which setting you select.  Just remember to add dither and some form of noise shaping any time you are re-quantizing (down-sampling) IE: 24bit/48k to 16bit/44.1k.

So now that we know how it works lets talk about how to correctly add it to our material.   The best way to add dither is in mono form.   If you're adding it to stereo material bounce it to mono first without dither at the same sample rate and then re-bounce the now mono material with a dither plug-in down to a lower sample rate.   Here's an example: Lets say I'm in the mix and I've got a stereo sample of live drums at 24bit/48kbps that I want to add to an old 16bit/44.1kbps session.  Fist I'd bounce the stereo sample to mono at 24bit/48kbps (no down-sampling, merely bouncing to split the stereo file to mono) I'd open a session at 24bit/48kbps drop the drum sample in there and add a dither plug-in such as Waves IDR.  I'd select my bit rate (for this example it's 16 bits) and choose my shaping option, "normal" is usually more than adequate.  Then I'd bounce the two mono files out as a stereo file and have a perfectly re-quantized sample at 16bits/44.1kbos without any harmonic distortion at all. It's that simple and it will make a difference in the overall sound of your work if you do it correctly and at the right times.

Dither is, in all reality most important during mastering when preparing material for CD & mp3 distribution but, it should also be put to use during mixing as well, like in the example above. It seems a little daunting at first but it's very important in digital audio and makes the difference between the pro's and the amateurs. Learn it, love it, use it. It's dither and it's noise that is our friend!  If you're still confused and have question just shoot me an email and I'll do my best to help you out!


Best,

Nick

Thermionic Culture All Valve Professional Audio Products

What sounds better than digital gear?  Analog gear... What kind of analog gear sounds the best?  TUBE analog gear!  All valve (tube) equipment actually process 100% of the incoming signal, Class B (tubes are Class A) forms of equipment only process 50% of the incoming signal.  Not to say this is a bad thing, it's just that tubes do in fact sound better than solid state gear.  They just add that pleasant harmonic touch to everything they process, no plug-in will EVER be able to replicate vacuum tube's effect on audio.  Tubes bring the life and harmonics from a piece of material that would've been otherwise dull and unappealing.  I can't explain it in a way that will make sense without typing 4,000 words though, you just have to hear tubes action for yourself to understand why they're so much better.

Since there isn't a lot of manufactures left who make all tube gear some things have happened to the industry.  First: Gear that's 100% all valve has gotten fairly expensive. Second: Everyone knows tubes sound better, so...  Companies will throw a crumby tube in their equipment to process the basic tone but still leave the power amp as a class B design.  This is just flat out misleading.  Don't buy tube gear from companies who don't specialize in all tube designs.  Thermionic Culture doesn't sacrifice quality to cut the bottom line & fool the consumer, they make amazing sounding gear for the masses who want professional sounding productions!

The man who started Thermionic Culture; Vic Keary, built his first studio's in the 50's and has been in the audio world ever since.  In the 50's you couldn't just buy a bunch of commercially available gear you actually had to "build" a studio, with your hands and brain.  Vic Keary is an audio legend and the company he's created will surely become a page in the book of professional audio companies.

I could spend a bunch of time explaining all of the products Thermionic Culture offers the public but that would be quite a lengthy article.  Instead I'll just give you a run down of the basic idea behind the company and then you'll be able to take that info with you when you visit Thermionic Culture's website to check out their gear!  Thermionic Culture is a professional audio equipment designer and manufacturer from England.  Everything they build is constructed by hand (if this isn't fantastic I don't know what is)  Thermionic Culture's gear can be found in some of the best professional studio's in the world.  People that know audio know tubes sound better, people that know tubes sound better know Thermionic Culture is the business when it comes to sweetening sounds.  Thermionic Culture has 16 different models of all valve based gear in the form of Pre-amps, Compressors, Summing Mixers & EQ's.  I am quite interested in their Phoenix Mastering Compressor and can't wait till I have enough cheese to afford one.  Thermionic Culture's company motto is: 100% Full Fat Audio Content.  Why give your productions and projects anything less than 100%?  Check out Thermionic Culture's Website and do some digging for yourself, you'll understand why this in indeed one of the most respected professional audio companies out there! 

Check out this video from Sound on Sound featuring Kevin Walker from Thermionic Culture to learn more about their flagship product The Culture Vulture!



Best,
Nick

Benchmark Audio Masters From Their Day

Here's an episode from Benchmark Audio's Masters From Their Day Webisode Series.  This is the second episode and I chose it because I think this is by the most appealing and beautiful song featured thus far in the series.  The quick little 10 minute videos show you what happens in a recording session from beginning to end.  It's a great in depth look into what actually goes down in a studio to capture the sounds that eventually create an entire song.  If you've never seen how a recording session works I can't recommend this video series to you enough.  You'll see how passionate these engineers and artists are about capturing the perfect sound.  The studio featured is the world famous Pie Studios in Glenn Cove, NY and the band that's in the video is Annie and the Beekeepers.  The song is called "In the Water" and you can download it for free from the Masters From Their Day Website.  While you're over there make sure you check out the other 2 videos as well!  Enjoy!



Best,
Nick

Sound Design Profile for Inception Feat: Sound Designer Richard King, Mixers: Lora Hirschberg & Gary Rizzo

"Inception" Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.
A Producer/Engineer/DJ friend of mine by the name of Craig Williams sent me a link to watch a video last night.  He didn't tell me what it was, he only mentioned that it was a really neat video and I should take a look.  When I opened it, I was immediately intrigued after reading the title.  I still haven't seen Inception but I know it had a multi-million dollar budget behind it which translates to dope sound design!  This is a little video showing you how they created, manipulated, recorded, placed all the sounds that make up the film.  It's extremely interesting and if you like film or audio this video is right up your alley.  It's extremely revealing and you get an idea for the amount of work put in by these engineers to help make some of your favorite movies truly amazing. Check it out!