PROFESSIONAL AUDIO WORKSTATION Tutorial E
Tutorial—AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation Showing a Yamaha AW4416 to a recording engineer, say, 20 years ago, would have a similar effect to showing an interplanetary probe to Galileo. After the initial shock both parties would probably nod their heads and mumble something about inevitability. It had to happen. The AW4416 can do what once required a couple of rooms full of very, very expensive equipment that required considerable expertise to operate.
Tutorial—AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation ❒ Contents AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation ........................................ 1 A Note About the Tutorial .................................................................... 1 Contents .............................................................................................. 2 Laying Down the Basic Tracks .......................................................... 5 Rhythm First! ................................................................
Tutorial—AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation Tracks 9 & 10: Strings ........................................................................ 22 Tracks 11, 12, & 13: Chorus ............................................................... 22 Track 14: Lead Vocal ........................................................................... 22 Save the Song! ................................................................................... 23 Phase 5: Finalize the Mix & Set Up Automation .......................
Tutorial—Laying Down the Basic Tracks Laying Down the Basic Tracks Although the basic tracks you’ll use to assemble the “So Fine” mix have already been recorded for you (of course you can add your own tracks, if you like), let’s take a moment to discuss the initial recording process.
Tutorial—Laying Down the Basic Tracks ❒ “Scratch” or “Guide” Vocals If you’re working alone this won’t be necessary, but when recording a band it’s sometimes a good idea to have the singer lay down a “scratch vocal” track while recording the rhythm section. This is simply because bands are generally used to playing with vocals, and the performance can suffer if there is a void where the vocals are supposed to be.
Tutorial—Laying Down the Basic Tracks ❒ Overdubs The actual procedure for recording overdubs is really no different from recording the basic tracks, except that you’ll be monitoring previously recorded material while doing it. Remember to use a good pair of closed headphones to monitor the backing tracks while recording acoustic overdubs or vocals (not open types or the in-ear types often used with portable stereos) to prevent leakage of the headphone mix back into the microphone.
Tutorial—Load the Demo Song Load the Demo Song Before you can work on the demo song, you’ll first need to load it onto the AW4416 hard disk from the supplied CD-ROM. This tutorial assumes that you already have a CD-RW drive configured for use with your AW4416. See the Operation Guide for information on installing and connecting an external CD-RW drive. Load the Demo Song From the CD-ROM Onto the AW4416 Hard Disk 1. Press the AW4416 [FILE] key. 2. Press the [F2] function key to go to the “Restore” page. 3.
Tutorial—Load the Demo Song Load the Demo Song from the Hard Disk 1. Press the [SONG] key (and the [F1] function key if necessary to select the “Song List” page). 2. Use the DATA dial to select “So Fine”. 3. Move the cursor to “LOAD” on the display and press [ENTER]. When the “Will Save Current song … ARE YOU SURE?” confirmation prompt appears, move the cursor to “YES” or “NO” and press [ENTER] to begin the load operation. 4.
Tutorial—Mixdown Mixdown Although the term “mixdown” seems to imply a single action, it is really a process that can involve many interrelated steps. As you become more experienced, the individual steps will sort of blend into one larger operation. This is important because at all times you’ll need to consider how each small action will affect the overall sound. A small change in equalization on one instrument, for example, can affect the way the others sound.
Tutorial—Mixdown 1. Make sure that the RECORDER [MONI] MIXING LAYER is selected. 2. Recall the scene number 01 “FADERS NOMINAL” provided to set faders 1 through 14 to nominal (Press the [SCENE] key, use the data dial to select the scene number 01 “FADERS NOMINAL”, move the cursor to “RECALL”, press [ENTER], select “OK” in the confirmation and press [ENTER] again). 3. Press the MIXER [VIEW] key so you can see the selected monitor channel parameters on the display.
Tutorial—Mixdown Phase 2: Set Up a Rough Mix The rough mix is only the starting point for the final mix, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. The purpose of setting up a rough mix using only levels and panning is to give you a reference point on which to base decisions about more detailed processing, effects, automation, etc. You shouldn’t spend a lot of time on this phase of the mixdown process.
Tutorial—Mixdown cases where the drums or other instrument seems to occupy the entire stereo field, try panning the left and right channels between about a third and half way to the maximum values. In the case of the “So Fine” demo, however, the drums were recorded “live” in the studio with proper stereo imaging (i.e. this is not a sampler or drum module), and sound fine panned full left and right. Go ahead and set the left and right drum track pan values to L16 and R16, respectively.
Tutorial—Mixdown ❒ Add the Lead Vocal Ah-ha! Fooled you! You thought we were going to add the chorus parts on tracks 11, 12, and 13, and THEN add the lead vocal track, didn’t you! Well we won’t, and the reason is simply that the chorus parts really must be heard in relation to the lead vocal in order to set appropriate levels. Turn ON channel 14, leave the pan control set at center (the normal position for lead vocals), and reduce the fader level to about –7.3 dB.
Tutorial—Mixdown Phase 3: Assemble the Mix Part by Part Now we’re ready to do some serious work on the sound of the individual tracks in an attempt to make them “mesh” to create a well-balanced overall mix. INSTANT GRATIFICATION! Once again, we’ve provided a scene you can simply recall to automatically make all the settings included in “Phase 3”, below.
Tutorial—Mixdown ❒ Track 3: Claves/Electronic Drums This track needs a bit of compression to make the electronic drums jump out of the mix when they appear at the outro. Later, when we work on the automation, we’ll boost this track a bit at the outro for extra impact. 1. Press the track 3 [SEL] key to select the claves/electronic drums track. 2. Press the MIXER [DYN] key to access the dynamics parameters. 3. The “COMP” dynamics type should already be selected (it’s the default).
Tutorial—Mixdown ❒ Track 5: Rhythm Guitar The rhythm guitar track needs to be a little “chunkier” to achieve the classic R&B type of sound we’re after. A little EQ and compression will accomplish that feat, and the compression will also help to even out dynamic variations that cause the guitar part to be buried in the mix from time to time. You should know how to make the EQ and dynamics adjustments by now, so we’ll just give you the figures and you can make the settings yourself.
