So you’ve got a great mix on your hands…
You know the song is well written, it’s been recorded well and now you’ve balanced everything really nicely with intelligent use of your faders, EQ, compression and effects. But something’s still not quite right.
You know exactly what you want your chorus to sound like, but for some reason, it doesn’t quite have the impact that you want it to have.
Now, more often than not, there are a couple of very simple techniques you can use to create highly effective transitions between sections of a song without having to do any more heavy duty mixing.
These techniques sit nicely between the production and mixing world, but more importantly, they’re being used all around you without you realising.
In today’s video, I’m going to open a few of these techniques up for you, so that you can create some really effective, smooth transitions in your mixes!
So check it out!
Now, I’d love to know…
What’s your most effective technique for transitioning between verse and chorus?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
I liked the music much more before you changed it.
Thanks Peter. Not much I can say to that!
This can only mean that when we are doing this kind of work, it is wise to keep the original intact and let the client decide which record he / she wants to sale… 😛
Yes, absolutely. In this situation, the client and I agreed that I’d do something a bit different from his mix because I really liked the original mix. Luckily, the client was also very happily with my mix!
I`m happy for you! (honest) Have a nice weekend…
Transitions and Arrangement is a topic that just doesn’t get publicized very much, I do have a recommendation though my friend Amos in New Zealand wrote a book that is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/Song-Arrangement-Small-Recording-Studio-ebook/dp/B01N3QYKNX
Thanks for the recommendation, Pat!
Narrowing the stereo spread just before chorus then opening it back up for chorus can add impact to chorus and transition
Same as some kind of distortion and / or radio-like effect…
Or volume automation, or even a total “break down” (silence) before the chorus…
In fact, there`s a never ending world of possibilities, depending on one`s taste / creativity or client`s demands.
Love it!
Stephen,
Love the ideas and how you worked everything in. Thank you for showing the techniques you used to accomplish this. I’m still a little fuzzy on the ‘riser’ affect. Did you duplicate the bottom riser from the top riser and use auto reverse to get the back-end? And exactly how did you get the ‘riser’ affect…..fascinating.
Mr. Michaels! They’re actually separate effects created with Native Instruments Rise and Hit collection. I did modify them ever so slightly once they were converted to audio regions rather than clips.
Hallo Stephen,
someone call this “sweetening”. If you mix your own material, you can also make smaller the arrangement bevor the refrain. Less instruments, less volume, less plugins, less frequencyrange before make the romm for come back (that sounds great). Thaks for sharing this and all other articles.
Thanks Gerd. Yes, you can do a huge amount in the arrangement to accentuate the chorus. These little extras add the “bells and whistles”!
Hi Stephen! Glad to hear from you.
Last friday night I`ve recorded an entire live performance of a rock covers band (only Drums, Bass and Vocals + Guitar). The concert was in a tiny little concrete space.
Spent some time making EQ+Compression+You Know What to create that “stage ambience” during the weekend as I`ve promissed the guys and already sent the result.
Now, I want to surprise them with a special offer: I`ve picked one of the songs (Owner Of a Lonely Heart – Yess) and started adding keyboards (what else!), my own voice as backing vocal and using an analog vocoder to enhance the transitions (Ah! That`s the point…) and give more life and feeling to that particular song.
Soon as I finish this task, I`ll send my “Portugal Mixtake Offer”, hopping to “catch them by the balls”. But, like Mr. Peter Van der Zee made his point above, I must be ready to hear them say: “What the f…. !? This guy killed our performance!” 😛
Guess that`s a risk every producer has to take… 🙂
All the best! Again and again…
Hi Stephen! Glad to hear from you.
Last friday night I`ve recorded an entire live performance of a rock covers band (only Drums, Bass and Vocals + Guitar). The concert was in a tiny little concrete space.
Spent some time making EQ+Compression+You Know What to create that “stage ambience” during the weekend as I`ve promissed the guys and already sent the result.
Now, I want to surprise them with a special offer: I`ve picked one of the songs (Owner Of a Lonely Heart – Yess) and started adding keyboards (what else!), my own voice as backing vocal and using an analog vocoder to enhance the transitions (Ah! That`s the point…) and give more life and feeling to that particular song.
Soon as I finish this task, I`ll send my “Portugal Mixtake Offer”, hopping to “catch them by the balls”. But, like Mr. Peter Van der Zee made his point above, I must be ready to hear them say: “What the f…. !? This guy killed our performance!” 😛
Guess that`s a risk every producer has to take… 🙂
All the best!!
That was a great video, Stephen. I’m not focusing on how your decisions fit my own aesthetic preferences, but on the resources you present us. In fact, while comparing your mixing/production choices with my own arrangements, I noticed that I’ve been relying a bit too much on drum fills to mark the beginning and end of sessions, hehe, and now I know some other, more inventive ways to do this. Thanks a lot!
Glad you liked it Rodrigo! Sounds like you’re rocking it.