>Step by step
Visual analysis plugins in practice
1 In this tutorial, we’ll be looking at a few ways you can make use of visual metering while producing and mixing. We’re going to analyse frequency spectrum, stereo image and phase response to spot a few problems in an example track, which you can find in the Tutorial Files. Then we’ll use a few simple tools and techniques to fix these issues. 2 Before we begin analysing, I want to establish something very important: In reality, sound is always much more complex than any visual representation of it – so always trust your ears first and foremost! Use visual feedback as support, to either confirm what you hear or don’t hear, or to spot possible problems that might have slipped your ears. 3 We’ll be using the Vengeance-Sound Scope metering plugin that comes with your issue of Computer Music. It shows you very detailed information about your audio. It even has a waterfall display and separate M/S frequency spectra for true geeks! It’s quickly become my go-to analysis plugin because it has everything I need to visualise what’s going on in a mix. 4 Load Scope on your master output channel. This allows you to analyse the entire mix at once or examine individual channels or groups by soloing them. Scope is ready to go with its default settings – if you want to tweak it to suit your individual preferences or needs though, there are plenty of options for that, too. 5 Start by listening to each track in solo mode while looking at the meters. Common problems that are easy to spot visually include unnecessary rumble in the low end, an unbalanced stereo image, outof-phase material, bass that’s too quiet or loud, and unwanted resonant peaks. Let’s ‘Scope’ these out… 6 On the FX Pad track, you can see there’s some action at the low end of the spectrum. This sound’s low-frequency content is completely unnecessary. It’s clogging up the low end of the mix and sitting in the way of the bass instruments (the bass drum and the sub bass). Lowend rumble from several tracks can easily accumulate and cause muddiness.
7 On the Bass track, the Stereofield meter shows that the bassline is shifted a little to the right in the stereo image. This can make the stereo image unbalanced and can cause mono compatibility problems, especially if the track is pressed to vinyl. The Spectrum also shows that the bassline might lack a little bit of extreme bottom-end ‘oomph’ around 40-70Hz. 8 On the Synth Arp track, we can see a nasty resonant peak at about 4770Hz. The phase correlation meter on the Stereofield page shows the material is also out of phase. This means trouble for vinyl, and can also cause the left and right channels of the signal to cancel each other out when summed to mono (which many club sound systems do). Not good! 9 Now that we’ve identified several mix issues, let’s get to work and fix them. We can sort out the low-end rumble on the FX Pad track with a high-pass filter. Apply filter settings by ear. Don’t cut too much from your sounds, though, as you can easily end up with a hollow-sounding mix. Here I’ve ended up at 290Hz. 10 To centre the bass, I’m using DotecAudio’s DeeMonitor CM, pulling the
Mid/Side slider all the way down to remove the track’s stereo information. To bring up the sub, I’m applying a 5dB boost at 30Hz using Lindell Audio’s 6X–500 CM. This plugin also provides subtle transformer-style saturation, which helps the bass stand out in the mix. 11 To fix the resonance on the Synth Arp track, I’m using DDMF’s IIEQ Pro CM. A
notch filter at 4769Hz with the highest Q setting does the trick. To get the signal back in phase, I can reduce the stereo width setting on SideWidener. I simply had it set too wide! It’s an easy mistake to make in the heat of the creative process. 12 To evaluate our result, let’s A/B between the original and fixed tracks. The bass now sounds a lot more solid, because we made room for it by removing the rumble from the pad, centred the bass and boosted the sub. Stereo image is in check, with out-of-phase material fixed. And the nasty ringing resonance in the synth track is gone. Much better!