Blend, Separation and Clarity: EQ

Next in the series on balancing, separating or blending mix elements is EQ (equalization). The first thing to keep in mind is that what we're really talking about here is the overall tone of any musical element; this is the combined result of all aspects of the sound's heritage. For an acoustically recorded instrument, this includes the instrument itself, the musician's playing technique, any amplification or effects applied by the musician, the choice and placement of the mics, etc. Even in the case of the synthesis/samples, all of the original characteristics of the patch become part of the overall tonal presentation.

EQ is a complicated characteristic of recorded sound. One reason for this is that EQ affects not only the perception of each individual sound element, and the relationship between the elements, but it also is part of an overall tonal profile of the blended mix. As a result, you can't simply make EQ judgments for a particular element based on its sound alone. There are many times when an instrument, when considered in isolation, may have a tonal profile that seems imbalanced; for example, an electric guitar that sounds too bright and thin. Yet, if that guitar is playing very tightly and consistently on top of a very warm and solid bass, the overall combination may be just what the audio doctor ordered! Conversely, if an engineer tries to pack the entire frequency spectrum into each element, with a full-bodied tone that covers the whole range, the result is likely to be a mix where each element in isolation sounds wonderful, but when combined are fighting each other for space and attention. The result is a confusing busy mess. This is unfortunately a common mistake for beginning sound engineers.

So with respect to the desire to blend sounds together, the ability to lay sounds on top of each other is directly affected by the tonal combination those elements create. If your arrangement dictates that you want certain elements to lay on top of each other (playing at the same time, and especially with the same rhythms) try to make sure that the tonal characteristics of the layered sounds complement each other, rather than reinforce the same frequency ranges. Try to let warmth come from one element, clarity from another; sparkle from one element, solidity from another. Stay aware of the overall tonal spectrum that each layered combination presents, and don't clutter up the tone with too much of any particular EQ range. Your mixes will breathe easier, with more transparency and punch.

So the lesson here is this: yes, of course it is important to understand how to shape the tone of the i

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Blend, Separation and Clarity: Arrangement

Probably the single most impactful aspect of maintaining a desired combination of blend and separation is the arrangement of the musical elements. In this context, I am referring not so much to harmonic arrangement, but rather to the rhythmic arrangement.

At this point, engineers who would read this might say, "Wait a minute! I didn't write this stuff; I don't have control over the arrangement!" In many situations, this may be the case. However, an awful lot of folks wear various hats in the music production process; you may be an all-in-one writer/musician/arranger/producer/engineer (or some subset). Also, even if you are working with someone else's material, it is not at all uncommon to have some creative input on the tracks as they are being created.

The key aspect to using arrangement in this context is the alignment of the elements. Simply put, elements that play on top of each other, tend to blend together. A good example of this is two rhythm guitars. If they are played in precisely the same rhythm, the result is something that sounds like a single instrument that has the tonal characteristics of both guitars blended together. The effect is most strong if the tonal characteristics of both are similar; it is somewhat less apparent if the tonal characteristics of the instruments are very different (e.g. Les Paul/Marshall Stack layered with an acoustic 12-string :)

The inverse here is that playing very different rhythms will help separate the instruments. If one rhythm guitar is playing straight eighth-notes, while the other is playing whole note power chords, even your grandma will be able to tell there are two guitars playing. Also keep in mind that this is another case where combining the technique with others such as pan can be very effective.

I'm using very blatant examples for the sake of explanation, but of course remember there are lots of possibilities for more subtle way to use this technique. One example might be that two instruments that play together most of the time, but diverge once every four bars during a turnaround. Like everything else with audio production, each situation is different, but use of rhythmic arrangement is one more powerful tool at your disposal in the quest for those magical mixes.

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Blend, Separation and Clarity: Pan

(Please see this post for the introduction to this series)

One of the most basic ways to either lay sound elements together or separate them is through the use of pan. Yes, I know, it's not exactly rocket science, but there's no reason to overlook a useful approach just because of simplicity.

If you're trying to stick elements together, put them in the same position in the pan spread. This is actually considerably more effective if you can place the elements somewhere OTHER than the center. This is simply because typical production approaches generally center up the most prominent elements such as kick, snare, bass and lead vocals. If the elements you're trying to stick together are in the exact same positioning at 9 o'clock rather than straight up the center, the binding effect is stronger because the listener sub-subconsciously notices the positioning more readily because of it differing from the norm.

Somewhat more obviously, if you are trying to separate elements, place them in different pan positions. Remember that it's not just a matter of hard left and hard right; if you give each element a different pan "slot", (e.g. 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, center, 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock), it can be very helpful to create a full sound where multiple elements each maintain their own space.

Also remember as we talk about different ways to blend or separate elements, that various techniques can be used in combination; e.g. pan and volume. Stay tuned for more mini-posts!

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Blend, Separation and Clarity: An Introduction

As an audio engineer, or even just a music lover, I'm sure you've noticed how some mixes seem to have this magical quality; where the overall sound is tightly integrated, balanced, clean and transparent, yet each element has its own character and can be perceived on its own. In contrast, lower quality mixes sound busy, muddled and confusing. It's not always easy to point out what the specific differences are between the good and the bad. I'd like to talk about some principles that you can use in your effort to continually improve your mixes. This will be a series of mini-posts, each discussing different aspects of this topic.

In my experience, probably the key overarching concept to keep in mind is blend vs. separation. One primary task as an engineer or producer (or for that matter, as an arranger) is to make good choices as to which elements you want "stuck together", and which you want separated. A classic example of elements you might want stuck together would be a kick drum and a bass guitar. Because a typical rhythm section beat might have these two elements playing in lock-step on nearly every 1 and 3 of nearly every bar, we would typically want those elements to be perceived as stuck together rather than separated. In other words, we would want their sonic characteristics to blend in such a way as to be perceived as a single element within the overall mix presentation.

In contrast, an example of elements you might want separated would be a distorted electric guitar and an acoustic guitar. They have completely different natural sonic profiles, and in most cases would be intended to provide distinctly different flavors in the overall mix; perhaps a meaty solidity contributed by the distorted electric guitar, plus a light clean gloss contributed by the strumming acoustic. In either case, you have a range of tools at your disposal to either blend or separate the elements as desired. In the upcoming posts, I'll work through a handful of theses tools and approaches.

By the way, it's important to remember that for this series, as well as in nearly all discussions about audio production, we are talking about principles, not laws. For me, one of the continually satisfying aspects of audio production is that, like music, it is a combination of art and technique. The technology can be sophisticated, and yet in the end, the human ear, guided by passion and inspiration, is required to produce great work. As a result, while I have found these principles to be invaluable, there will be times when doing something that completely violates one or more of these principles is the perfect choice. You should always feel the freedom to apply or ignore the "rules" as needed. In other words, caveat emptor, YMMV, etc.

Watch for more coming soon!

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