Mixing County Music

Yea. uh - hu....
 
The sounds I hear on contemporary country radio and trying to get it too have left me in the state I am.
 
Sometimes I swear it's just acoustic guitar, bass and drums with vocals in the verse but when I try it it just sounds like: acoustic guitar, bass and drums with vocals in the verse but not sounding as it did.
 
It's a sickness.........

I think a massive part of getting the "country" sound lies in the instruments and performance themselves. The rest seems to be just trying to get it sounding as clean and crisp as possible. I'm not a fan of newer country music but man do they have some amazing engineers behind them.

Come to think of it maybe you'll want to look more into the microphone/preamp end of things. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find out what gets used to capture audio in Nashville. You could also look at the gear lists of some of the big country studios to see what outboard stuff they use for mixing then find their software equivalents. Seems there's an emu for pretty much everything out there these days.
 

Chuck's Ainlay was covered in an article called "A DAY IN THE LIFE: Mix Magic On Music Row". I think it was a Mix Magazine article. If you can find this article, it walks you through a country mix by one of the masters. Covers EQ, Delays, routing and FX. (Found it http://www.emusician.com/news/0766/a-day-in-the-life-mix-magic-on-music-row/145566 )
 
Also this http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_justin_niebank/
 
Overall Mix Magazine and Sound on Sound cover a lot of how to track and mix country. Look for Mike Shipley's article in SOS about the Alison Krause's "Paper Airplane Album". A Master Class article.

Chuck Ainlay, mentioned above, has his own set of plug-in settings to Toontrack's EZMix2 which are country-oriented.  
 
http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=106
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Gztqp_dvM

Some good advice already... which I'll echo
 
There isn't a set of EQ guidelines for Country, Rock, Hip-hop, etc...
Rather, think of EQ as being a sculpting tool.  That's exactly what it is...
Instead of chipping away stone, you're chipping away parts of audio that you don't want... and enhancing the desired parts.
What you do with the EQ is entirely dependent on the source... and what you're trying to achieve.
As Mike mentioned, use some reference audio (similar style that you like)... and make sure your mix sounds similar.
Listen to the vocal in particular.  Listen to the bottom, mids, and top.
More than likely, you'll want to run a high-pass filter... and maybe enhance the mids and top.  But don't just blanketly boost the mids/top.
Listen to the vocal... and only do so if needed.
We have such easy access to so many different processors (plugins), it's all too easy to go overboard.
 
Start at the source.  Try to get the sound right when recording.  
If the vocal performance is captured well (good performance with a mic that's suits the singer/situation)... it really doesn't need a whole lot of processing.
 
Mixing is just another form of trouble-shooting/problem-solving.
Once you get a handle on how to solve specific issues (chip away what you don't want, enhance what you do), mixing will be much more intuitive.

Excellent advice from Middleman and Jim Roseberry, Larry.
 
It's pretty easy for most of us to say "yeah, that sounds great" or "uggh, that sounds terrible." The biggest hurdle for you given the advice you've been given is "ok, I can hear when something is good, I can hear when something is bad....how the heck do I fix something if it's not quite right and how do I get X or Y results?"
 
This doesn't come from listening and learning alone. You may very well need someone to teach you what and how to listen. The problem here is, the first step in knowing what to listen for is whether or not you can even trust your monitors to begin with. If your monitors aren't tuned and you have issues with your room, you could have all the best advice in the world at your finger tips and still fail profusely.
 
So the first thing is to make sure your mix environment is where it needs to be.
 
Next, you mention country ballads....do you mean modern country or box car willy type stuff...like older country western? See, the reason I ask is, today's country is pretty much 80's pop rock. The instruments are effected with reverbs, delays, and anything else that is considered in most other styles, a no no. We have big rock drum sounds in country music today...rockin' high gain guitar sounds, basses with sub lows, and thinner acoustic guitars so they fit them in the mix with all the other instruments. Modern country is much more involved in my opinion than the older sounding country stuff. They really paint pictures with sounds today where the older stuff (though still great) is way less production oriented than things are today. The pop stuff is an artform all in its own, seriously.
 
So the older style country will be easier yet still have its hurdles, but the more modern stuff is loaded with production all over. Every thing you can think of is in this pop country stuff minus auto-tune to the point of sounding fake and robotic. Put it this way...
 
I'm a rocker/metal head. I absolutely HATE recording and mixing modern rock or metal. Why? Simple...all they want is loud and compressed. They don't "produce" anything. With modern country, I'm actually challenged in a good way as an engineer. Compression isn't the only effect in the arsenal. LOL! I welcome country artists with open arms when they come to me and cringe when the newer rock acts come in.
 
So you'll definitely be challenged in a few areas with this stuff, but if you do a little soul searching as well as investigating into the right areas, you should get yourself on the right track. Best of luck!
 
-Danny

Agentcalm
Good post Danny.  like Larry, Im a fan of new country (jason Aldine, McGraw, Chesney etc).
I love that driving bass sound and the deep shell drums.  I too am new at this and just starting to toy with effects.  I take the point that everyone so far has made that there are no hard and fast rules and you just have to listen.  But as a general guideline are there any effects (for example) you would put on a vocal or for that matter NEVER put on vocals.  For example would you never use reverb on vocal or is reverb ok?   I want to go have a look at some of those links posted earlier as i have no idea what a compressor does.  I know what it does when you put air in your tires, but in music terms i dont know what these effects do.
cheers
Xave. 

Thanks! Yeah those are the artists I like as well. Well, my advice to you would be, if you are just getting into this, don't worry too much about effects because they can be the death of you. Effects processing is an art in my opinion. When people use them that are new to recording, they over-use them which can bring in lots of issues into your recordings. Your best bet is to try and get your stuff to sound as good as you can without effects first.
 
When I say "without" I mean no verbs, chorus, delay, phaser, flanger, special effects, stereo enhancers. All this stuff can really throw you off the path. Picture it like this...
 
When you go out to a wedding or something, you're going to do all the necessities before you get into your suit, right? Wash your hair, shave, etc. The suit is the final touch...consider that "effects".
 
If you lay around for a few days, don't shave, don't shower or wash your hair, you can put on that suit and still look horrible. If you're clean with your hair combed, no out of control beard, you can wear anything and look presentable really.
 
My point in saying that is...no, not to upset people that have beards or don't like to comb their hair or shower. LOL! My point is, get the mix aspect right before you "dress it up." Mix and get th eq right...learn about compression. I teach my students to mix without anything other than compression and eq for the first few weeks unless someone comes to me that is a bit more advanced.
 
If someone cannot give me a mix that sounds good without all the bells and whistles, they have no right using the bells and whistles. When you "dress" a mix up, it doesn't make it better....it polishes it a bit more. The core of your mix shouldn't rely on effects. I'm telling you this because you mentioned you were new at this. The best advice for someone new is to stay away from effects until you can make a mix stand on it's own with the following:
 
1. Tracking (recording) properly: This is the most important to me because if you record garbage, you're stuck trying to fix garbage. The better your sounds and attention to detail, the shorter it takes to mix.
 
2. Eq: This of course allows you to tweak each instrument in the mix so they all get along well together. Get this wrong and effects will REALLY wreak havoc on you.
 
3. Panning: This to me is another important one. You have 200 pan fields. Use them to keep instruments out of each others way. Don't pan too wide and don't pan too narrow. This is cool to experiment with...but what you do here alters the stereo field and can make you or break you. So find that happy medium.
 
4. Volume leveling: This of course balances your mix to where you can hear everything at all times...and in some spots, hear certain instruments a little less. Automation is huge here...which is the ability to have something move per your instructions that would require you to have more arms, hands and fingers. You get the above things down, you're really making gains as an engineer. THEN you can experiment with some effects.
 
5. Compression: Though I wish it was as easy as the thing that fills up your tire, it's probably the most confusing effect in the the mixing realm because it has so many variables, there are so many of them, and just about everyone has their own idea as to what compression is as well as how much to use. This is something you need to read about while experimenting so you can hear as well as see the effects of a compressor. What helped me the best, was someone literally showing me what a compressor good and bad, should sound like. So that's how I show my students when we work with this animal.
 
There are several ways to use it. Let's forget about it as an effect for a second (though it will always be considered effect, but in my world, the most important part of a compressor is "the necessity" part) and talk about the dire need which to me is less effect, more consistency. The compressor (in short) when used correctly, is going to keep things at a more consistent level. It will keep sounds that lash out, under control and sounds that are low...it will bring them up a bit to keep them consistent. This is really important when you have instruments like bass guitar going all over the place because the player may not be very good, or the bass may not be set up correctly. Quick scenario..
 
A bassist playing a cheapo bass has not set up the action on that bass and he also uses a pick. When he picks, it's very percussive and sounds well....not quite like a good bassist should sound. Also when he plays, the strings that are closer to his pick-ups are louder than the strings that are further away from his picl-ups.
 
So you have this dude blasting notes all over the place that are very percussive due to his pick and the notes are louder and lower all over while being inconsistent. A compressor set the right way as well as with an eq, can totally cure this problem or at least make it 90% more tolerable. You will probably still have to run some volume automation to keep the bass consistent, but the compressor and the right eq will help you make this bass sound a little more...well, like a good bass sound. There's way more to it than that...but I just wanted to give you a rough idea. I have a client so I'm typing this up really fast for you.
 
You asked about what effects on a vocal...to be honest with you, there are no rules as to what you can or cannot use. As long as what you use doesn't bury your actual performance and is enhancing more than degrading, enjoy yourself. Your best bet is everything in moderation...then again, it depends on the material and the person performing.
 
Reverb is fine as long as you keep the tails/decay small and don't make is sound like you are singing in a tunnel. Unless of course there is a part of a song where you WANT to sound like you're in a tunnel. But vocals are pretty much open season. I'm currently working on a song from David Draiman (singer from Disturbed) to where he has effects on his vocal prints unlike anything I've ever heard before. These effects make his voice what it is for his music. Would I use them? Heck no, but it's what he likes. Chorus, verbs, delay, filtering, pitch and octave stuff, you name it, he uses it.
 
So there really aren't any rules other than the ones you make for yourself. Just remember, most times, less is more unless you have a reason to go for more. I like to hear the delay on my guitar solo's where other engineers live by "if you can hear the delay on your guitar, you're using too much." If you are a clean player/singer etc, use as much effect as you feel you need without hiding behind the effects. If you have so much effect present that people can no longer understand you...then you know you're using too much. Hope this helps....good luck. :)
 
-Danny

The Groove3 Mixing Rock with Sonar X1 is excellent. It takes you step by step through mixing a whole song. It's kind of a country rock song he uses as the example song. Not a ballad for sure.

However his explanation of what to listen for and actually using the tools of Sonar are very helpful. I've re-watched through this tutorial several times because it is very practical.

It's not a tour of features like most books or tutorials, it's a demonstration of things to work on to make the mix work for your needs. I recommend it for your inquiry here.

There's a Groove 3 video tutorial that takes a country song from tracks to final mix.  It's called "Producing Modern Country" and it's only $15 right now.
 
http://www.groove3.com/st...ng-modern-country.html
 
Although it's not a ballad and it's not done in Sonar there is some good information on how to get that country sound.  A lot of good information in all the posts above too.
 
HTH
 
Paul

Lemonboy, You raise an interesting point.  When working as a studio player in my past, I played 100s (maybe 1,000s) of rhythm tracks with high string / Nashville tuning guitars—usually two of them panned hard left and right.  That was the thing.  My guitar case had an index card taped in the inside with the preferred gauges for the strings.  (I am mainly a keyboard person but used to be a decent acoustic rhythm person.)
 
Then the trend moved a little more towards heavily EQ'd standard six strings.
 
Now, there are a lot of tracks with four-string guitars or ukuleles, and some people are going back to the Nashville tuning.  I think a std six string one side and a Nashville tuning on the other work well, but just as often I use a std six string in open position and second one in a higher neck position.
 
The point is always the same: get the guitar to drive the rhythm and chord structure without getting lost in the piano, electrics, and other things that compete for the same range.  Acoustic rhythm is the backbone of my sound so it is much more critical to me than to others.  There is a lot of country music out there with no acoustics--but I didn't cut it!

Danny Danzi

Agentcalm
Good post Danny.  like Larry, Im a fan of new country (jason Aldine, McGraw, Chesney etc).
I love that driving bass sound and the deep shell drums.  I too am new at this and just starting to toy with effects.  I take the point that everyone so far has made that there are no hard and fast rules and you just have to listen.  But as a general guideline are there any effects (for example) you would put on a vocal or for that matter NEVER put on vocals.  For example would you never use reverb on vocal or is reverb ok?   I want to go have a look at some of those links posted earlier as i have no idea what a compressor does.  I know what it does when you put air in your tires, but in music terms i dont know what these effects do.
cheers
Xave. 
 
Hi Danny
Much obliged for all that great info.  I'll re-read it as there is a lot to sink in. I take your point on adding bells n whistles to crap.   I guess my concern is sending off some good demo songs to record labels or such and having them ignored because they lacked that little bit of something extra.  Meanwhile the next guy gets noticed cause he "improved" his sound  instead of leaving it raw.  But great points there and plenty for me to take note of.   Onward n upward pilgrim.   Thanks again Danny.   mighty neighbourly.
Xave.