Space Is the Place, Part 2

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Myles Boisen

           
 

OPEN UP YOUR MIXES BY AVOIDING "SPACE INVADERS"

Quality, Not Quantity

A recording often sounds dense and lacking in space simply because it is cluttered with too many tracks. One of the big drawbacks of the high track counts available in DAW recording is that it's easy to keep adding instruments. And seemingly, come mix time, it becomes even more difficult to take anything away to make space.

One of the most extreme cases of overtracking I encountered was a song brought to me with four similar bass tracks running simultaneously! “Beefing up the chorus” is another practice that, when taken to the extreme of adding four or five keyboards and guitars at once, can suddenly double the apparent volume of a song, overwhelm any subtlety, and diminish the potency of subsequent verses.

Whenever possible, I get clients to consider the old adage “Less is more” in relation to their arrangements. In 3-D mix-speak, this translates to stripping away unnecessary tracks and then emphasizing depth and imaging relationships to open up space and dynamics within a wall of sound. Which tracks are going to be most crucial for your music is really case dependent and defies easy generalization. But here are a few things to watch out for if you feel your mixes have become an overstuffed closet in need of a sonic spring-cleaning.

Easy on the Icing

It's one thing to have a lush, lavishly orchestrated track as the centerpiece of your next CD project, but it's another thing entirely if every song you've recorded has multiple keyboard and guitar parts, strings, horns, five or six background vocals, and enough percussion instruments to start a school music program. I call this condition “all icing, no cake.” When this happens to you, it's time to take a step back and admit that you've become a track addict.

One useful exercise for regaining perspective on track addiction is to strip things down and keep your arrangements real. Think for a moment what your ideal real-world band would be: perhaps a folky 2-guitar-and-percussion unit, a conventional modern-rock band, or a larger R&B combo with keyboards, horns, and a couple of background singers.

With this real-world band in mind, go back to your mixes and mute any tracks that couldn't be performed by the players you envision. This may be a big shock at first, but give yourself a chance to get used to this part of the game. Next, devise an arbitrary rule that will govern the number of tracks you allow yourself to unmute and add back to your production. This could be as basic as using only one new instrument per song, and one doubling track.

Revisit your levels and panning and then give the song a listen to see if you can live with this new austerity. (You'll probably add a few tracks back in that you just couldn't live without.) Hopefully this track trimming will clean up your arrangements, improve vocal clarity, and restore a sense of space simply by clearing out the clutter.

Another part of a mix that's often ripe for trimming is doubled tracks. Doubling has its place for vocals and chordal instruments, but too much can easily backfire and turn a mix from lush to impenetrable. As with the previous exercise, start by muting all tracks that double other tracks. Doubling can mean a duplicate performance, a similar instrument, or an identical rhythmic feel on a different instrument. Add doubles back into the mix one by one, starting with the tracks that are most essential.

As you do this, consider the content that you are adding and how it fits into the three-dimensional mixing space. Experiment with foreground-to-background relationships and depth by reducing the level of any doubling tracks at least 3 dB below the existing track. Explore the horizontal dimension by panning the double away from the existing track, or change the frequency of the double to differentiate it within the vertical dimension (or do both). Ideally you will end up using less doubling and reapplying these tracks in interesting and subtle ways to enhance the mixing space (see Web Clips 2a and 2b).

Another way to approach dense recordings is to build them up and break them down by way of the arrangement. Varying the dynamics can really help a song breathe. For instance, after a dramatic bridge or chorus, stripping a verse's support down to one or two rhythm instruments is a tried-and-true way to reengage the listener. Beginning a song with simplified orchestration is another conventional way to build up to an impressive chorus, while establishing a sense of space right from the start.

From an EQ perspective, don't underestimate the spatial importance of treble in your arrangement, especially when using sparse instrumentation. Most instruments — even bass and low brass — have some high-frequency content. But, for example, arranging cello and acoustic guitar behind a male voice may produce a dull or predominantly bottom-heavy production that needs tambourine or hi-hat to establish a feeling of air and help fill the vertical dimension.

Reverb needs to be considered as an interactive arrangement element as well. Once you have lightened your track load and banished space invaders from the arrangement, double-check to make sure that the amounts, lengths, and character of your reverb choices are still appropriate to the production. Bear in mind that changes in doubling, panning, and compression will also impact reverb perception. And whenever possible, resist the urge to fill up that newfound space with reverb.