Ambient Advice: Carving Out Space (Patreon)

Blog post for the Ambient Presets tier and up!During a recent S1gns Circle Livestream, I was presented with a choice. One of the members of

Blog post for the Ambient Presets tier and up!

During a recent S1gns Circle Livestream, I was presented with a choice. One of the members of The Circle submitted a track that needed some dramatic improvement and I knew it. I had to choose whether to be honest and tell them the truth about their track, or find a way to merely suggest what they might take a look at and still walk the line of being encouraging and finding the best pathway to true learning. (side note: this is often what a good teacher has to do! This is the art of teaching and can only be learned through experience…which as many of you know, I do have!) So in this track, certain elements were clashing together and causing the track to be very “muddy” at least to my ears and it felt like there wasn’t enough room for the track to “breathe” on it’s own. All of this was giving the listener the feeling that instead of being able to “walk into the soundfield,” we were met with a walled garden of sound that felt flat and two dimensional.

How many times have you experienced something like this?

The purpose of me sharing this story is not to call this person out, quite the contrary actually! The story ends well. They took the changes I suggested and turned around a quick “new mix” of the track which was infinitely better than the first version. It really made me think that other members might have this problem so…here we are. How do we actually “carve out space” in our mix without ruining the transients that are already there? At what point do we make technical decisions and not feel bad if they are artistically changing the outcome of our precious sound forever? Furthermore, how do we do this? Well as you might have guessed, I’ve got a few suggestions for you which I hope you can compartmentalize in your mental notes and take with you the next time you are faced with the choice of either carving into your track for the better, or leaving what is and always wondering if you could have taken your basic track into something that truly sounds next level.

First thing you’ll want to do to start “carving out space” is remove ANY low end content from elements that don’t occupy the low end. Pads for example, unless they’re played on the lower end of the octave scale can be carved out to only play in a certain range. Some of the best pads I’ve ever heard have been very limited in their range which not only increases their effectiveness, but also makes tons more room for other elements to do their thing. This is the first step in understanding clarity in a mix is you actually gain clarity by separating frequency. If elements are competing for the same frequency space in both frequency AND loudness…well, you can figure out the rest.

The next thing you’ll want to make sure that you’re doing is using the filter on your synth to keep the frequencies under control before the patch even leaves your synthesizer. Filtering on a synth based level is almost ALWAYS better than using an EQ after the fact, simply because it allows better control over the outcome if you nip it in the bud at the source. So often I hear mixes with pads or elements which are “wide open” that need to be fixed on a patch level with the filter rather than trying to EQ the end result. If you can get used to this concept, you won’t make pads with too much high end content - and notice that I said “too much” here because high end content in pads is okay…but too much of it and it become overpowering, particularly in the 1-3k region where there is so little room for error. You really want to utilize every tool you have in your bag so you get give your track the best chance of coming across perfectly to the listener.

The last thing I’ll mention in this post is using an EQ during the mixing stage to “carve out” what you want your individual tracks to sound like. This is a process that I feel is personal to everyone…you are literally tone shaping at this point. This is why I use the Pro Q-3 now as it offers me such an amazing level of control and gives me the right tool for the job. Don't be afraid to make bold decisions, even creative ones.  This is the opportunity to make your boring ordinary pad sound extraordinary. This is your chance to make that digital synth sound like you're crossing over alien terrain or exiting a spaceship airlock. Use these tools wisely and you will be rewarded! Compression is also key at this stage for containment and evening out sounds, but really if you had to give me just one tool…I’ll always reach for an EQ. Use your EQ like you were the master sculptor. If there are frequencies that “stick out” in your sound, subtract them. If you aren’t hearing enough detail, boost it. If you still haven’t pulled that filter back far enough and there’s no way to record that track again, carve them back. Do everything you need to do with the right EQ because it’s YOUR sound! Nobody else is going to change it for you.

In the end it all comes down to getting a cleaner mix. If you can use the tools you have available and push yourself towards that result with a conscious intention, there’s really no “sound quality level” that’s unobtainable - even with the most basic tools. BONUS TIP: Learning how to keep parts separated on a frequency level is half the battle. The other thing you should always be thinking about is not overlapping too many sounds at once. Arps clashing, pads that are all crowded in the same range, etc. Even the best filtering and EQ jobs can’t fix a mix if there’s way too many thing happening at once. Our ears are easily distracted so it’s your job to give the listener enough to focus on as to not be overwhelmed by the tapestry of sound you’ve created. Use discernment when juxtaposing sounds together and if all else fails, start silencing tracks and seeing what other worlds open up. You never know until you try…

Cheers,

-S1gns

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