“TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” is a 1974 hit recording by MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) featuring vocals by The Three Degrees. A classic example of the Philadelphia soul genre, it was written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff as the theme for the American musical television program Soul Train, which specialized in African American musical performers. The single was released on the Philadelphia International label, and it is arguably the first disco song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Working with sound is a profession that deals with technical aspects of recording and sound transmission . Sound engineers deal with it especially on television, radio and recording studios and film. The purpose of this article is not to provide expert interpretation of this concept and nor fully describe the work of engineer . The effort is to pass some of that experience, to recall some important things and to help young music producers and composers to make a better sound.

Working with sound should be done in two or three steps:

1. Mixing in home studio (if you have a professional studio, feel free to skip this step) – If you’re doing music at home or in your home studio , try to mix your track as best as you can . On my site you will find tips and guides on how to achieve a good sound in limited conditions.
2. Mix in a professional studio – Any serious work deserves quality mix. If you are an experienced sound engineer and have a professionally equipped studio, you have the advantage. For others I suggest to give your track to the professional studio.
3. Mastering – It has been already written a lot about the mastering. The base is to realize that even the very best done mastering will not sound good when mastering was done on a poorly mixed track.

In the following sections we will talk about everything that affects the sound quality and the possibilities of sound , we look in detail on individual procedures and review some sound effects.

What can affect the work of audio engineer?

1. The overall concept – the sound should match the theme of song. For example, if you do the horror theme song, it would be good to mix song in the same style (for example, a lot pulled up of EQ, drastic changes in dynamics and lots of wild effects). Generally, the more obscure songs, the more we use the EQ, a lot of dynamic changes and wild effects. For soft music we use on the contrary the uniform volume, the smooth effects, balanced panorama (stereo).
2. Melody – if the melody is the main element of the song, it is good to use multiple effects (delay, reverb, flanger). If it is a simple melody it is necessary to enrich the melody by effects or the greater panorama. In contrast when melody is complex, we use fewer effects. When the melody is complex, it is again appropriate to increase the volume not to lose individual parts in the background. in this case I would not recommend using of delay or reverb effects (unless it is not conceptual plan).
3. Rhythm – we can use the same basics as for the melody. If the rhythm is complex we use fewer effects and increase the volume. Alternatively, we can increase only some frequencies by EQ. A simple rhythm provides more space for effects.
4. Harmony – adjusting the harmony depends on the type of music and most of the genre. For some genres it will be good to put more dissonance into the background for some quite the opposite. For consonant harmonic components we can use reverb or different “space” effects. Do not be afraid to pay the attention to the dynamics, effects, stereo width, etc.
5. Lyrics – depending what kind of lyrics the song has, you can also add different effects and play with dynamics.
6. Arrangement – again it depends on the overall concept and genre of the song. I can keep arrangements either clean, so that all parts would be understandable (for example by using of EQ), or I can fatten the mix by adding some effects (reverb, flanger).
7. Instrumentation and interpretation – it depends on how you rate the performance of artist or band. Generally, it is suitable to increase the volume and extend the panorama, if we have a good performer. For not so good performances you can use more stereo effects and to put a track more into the background. For totally bad performances, apply effects and turn down the track as much as possible.
8. Structure of songs – for different parts of the song it is good to do some dynamic changes. For example at transient passages you may slightly increase the volume of the drums, use more reverb on the snare, etc. Do not be afraid in different parts of your song to use another reverb and stereo spread, it makes the song more interesting.
9. Quality of recordings – if the quality of the recording is poor you must avoid increasing the high frequencies. Sometime it is even better to reduce them using the EQ.

If you mix the song, you should have all 9 points in mind. Feel free to take notes on paper and think about each of them. Before the actual mix, it is good to know what you want to achieve and how the result should look like. If you can not imagine it, you can play some professional track and use it as a reference model.

The visual representation

The sound can be characterized by three properties – the position (location of sound source), shape and color, or also by the volume and location in panorama, the height of individual frequencies (EQ) and using different effects.

Position

Every sound can be described by its location. Imagine a band on stage. When you listen, you can distinguish each instrument. For example, piano plays on the right side, the drummer is back in the middle, trumpet soloist on the other hand in front and at the right side there is a guitarist. The resulting sound is very natural and so pleasant to listen to. Similarly, you can deploy individual sounds when you are working with sound. Display of position is thus not only in the horizontal and vertical plane, but also in the z axis direction.

Horizontal axis – left and right side
You can use panorama to move the sound to the left or right side.

Axis “z” – forward and backward
This location is related to the volume of individual sounds. The louder the sound is, the closer it would appear. Apart from the volume there are many ways to give the impression of sounds from distant sources. There are time effects (delay, reverb) to create the impression of a remote sound. While using of much sharp compressor may cause an impression of a nearby sound.

Vertical axis – up and down.
We can do the location of sound in the vertical plane by adjustment layers of individual frequencies. However, this visual representation is only a perceived impression. Many people hear high frequencies above the lower frequencies. It is not important to examine the reason for it, but there is important to recognize it and try to use it for our needs.

It is important to realize that the sound can be placed in 3D space. You can use a variety of tools to achieve this. Placement of a sound barriers is affected by the studio itself – speakers position, floor, ceiling and walls. Therefore, it is good to listen to the recording in more places, such as in your car, at home or in the club.

Shape and color of sound

Every sound occupies a space in the mix and thus masks other sounds. The more space a sound takes the more it will overlap with other sounds. To achieve a really readable mix, we need to know how much spaces are taken by the sound.

The size and shape of sound in the mix is affected by the following characteristics:

• Frequency and its range
• Volume
• Panorama
• Reverb

The frequency
The lower the frequency, the more overlay of sound. Bass tend to occupy much space in the mix and cover other instruments. On the contrary high frequencies occupy very little space.


Volume
The louder the sound, the more it takes spaces in the mix.

Panorama
If you place the instrument into the panorama, it takes up more space in the mix. If you put for example the left channel of piano a lot to the left and right channel a lot to the right, the resulting effect will be the piano placed across the whole panorama, thus masking other instruments. If one channel is delayed of less than 30ms, the effect arises, which is called fattening. Our hearing is not able to recognize the echo if it is less than 30ms, and the resulting sound is connected together with the original. We can continue to edit fattening by means of effects ( such as EQ). The sound on following figures is indicated by the ellipse.

Fattening

Fattening High

Fattening low

Reverb
Reverb is a special effect that spreads the sound, to the whole space. Therefore be very carefully by using reverb if you want to have a readable mix. Similarly to fattening you can then apply another effects, and hereby make the correction of its location.

Conclusion

Everything can be described using sound characteristics (location, shape and color) and the basic effects such as reverb and stereo spread. All other effects and settings are only a combination of these 3 basic settings. The location of sounds in the mix, their camouflage, stereo spread and reverb show the resulting quality and readability of the recording. The work of sound engineer is to set these values so that each sound was readable and the whole recording would make the compact impression.

The main types and settings

Types – this includes usually a great hall, small room, plate, reversed, gate type of setting. Just characteristics of the environment, reflective material, etc. Great Hall is mostly used when we want an instrument to move from foreground to background, to create the impression that the instrument is playing from a greater distance. Plate reverb is used mostly on the drums (especially snare) and vocals (for solo usually a little bit less than for accompanying vocals), the sound is more pronounced and usually quite colored. Gate reverb is a reverb, which is interrupted by an optional setting, it is used often for its aggressiveness on percussion.

The main settings
Pre-delay – It is the time at which the reverb is recognizable and is set in milliseconds (20ms, 60ms…) It’s a good way to achieve a larger space, and used mainly on vocals.

Reverberation time (decay) – Some materials reflect more, some less. Reverberation time determines how much the original signal will still reflect and still be heard, until it drops below -60dB over the original signal. Long reverberation time works well on some strings and piano with the sustain pedal passages. Reverberation is important to align with the tempo and rythm – some sounds, especially in faster BPM songs, fit well with a short reverberation time, while the long reverberation time on vocals can be effective.

Frequency characteristic (cut-off at higher frequencies) – a certain environment reflects the frequencies differently. For example, wood-paneled room will reflect the best the mid-range frequencies, while the bottom spectrum will absorb more. Higher frequencies have a shorter reverberation in nature. Frequency characteristics can modify their behavior and thus add reverb to our credibility. Sometimes it is sufficient to connect an EQ on the signal and adjust those frequencies that does not fit well with the overall mix.

In addition, there may be settings as ER – early reflections, diffusion, stereo – separate channels, mono EQ, wall, reverse, etc. Most of these settings simulate environments, such as the wall sets the position of walls in space. It depends on the particular reverb hardware or software and it is therefore good to read the manual. Personally I usually simply upload and edit preset key settings as needed. It is hard to catch up the minor differences anyway in your home studio.

Today there are more or less no rules for applying reverb, reverb can be used both on track to achieve a certain compactness (mastering reverb) and the individual channels as required. Previously, the reverb was set through the send connection in order to take advantage of the mixer’s routing features. In this case the main signal was mixed with the reverbed signal. This connection preserved performance in the digital mix of the old engines, because one reverb was used on multiple channels. This problem is eliminated with the increasing power of moder computers and therefore the reverb can be connected directly to the signal. But keep in mind that it is important to keep the correct wet and dry mix settings (most programs already sets this up for you automatically). For direct connection, Dry mix is on 100% and Wet mix is incorporated, as appropriate, while for routing connection, Dry is on 0% and Wet on 100 % – the amount of reverb in the mix is then set by adjusting the loudness of the routed signal. Routed connection has also other benefits, namely the possibility of further modification of the reverbed signal. For example by using EQ, phaser and other stereo engines, changing panorama etc. Moreover the original signal can be further edited by the compressor etc. Pretty good trick is to use a chorus instead of the piano or synth just to the reverbed part of the signal to achieve very interesting rich sound.

Today’s digital reverbs are also already equipped with MIDI, so you can change individual parameters during the song. For example, you can dramatically change the reverb in the transition from one part to another.
Reverb is, in my opinion, one of the most important effects at all and I can not imagine the work without the use of reverb. With a little experimentation you can achieve a really interesting sound effects. But please note that excessive use of reverb can made your record messy. Improper use of reverb or too large and long reverb can ruin the whole song.

What is a compressor

Compressor is an audio processor, which reduces the differences between the weakest and the strongest audio signal. Basically, it will help you to equalize your recording in a way that all parts will sounds approximately equally loud. Which means the loudest places are muted according to your choice of parameters, while the weak points are left untouched. You can use it on track for compressing individual instruments or voices, such as guitar, drums, vocals and also for the overall mix.

To understand the compressor it is first necessary to describe the basic types of settings.

Threshold

It is the limit of the signal at which the compressor is switched on. For example, it may be -10dB. The louder signal will be lowered by adjusting the ratio. The signal can be measured by its volume – Peak level. The human ear however perceives a signal in much more complex way. We call it its total acoustic power – RMS level. Some compressors can therefore be switched on this measurement. A special way of measuring is the so-called low- level, where the bass frequencies are considered for the final signal level.

Ratio

It is the ratio by which the signal will be muted (1: n ) or amplified ( n : 1). This ratio , however, may not be linear.

Knee (Waveform)

It is the shape of the curve. It can be linear (hard knee) and logarithmic (soft knee). Some compressors are also able to simulate the curve of the old tube compressors and thus simulate the old school sounds. Sometimes these compressors are referred to as vintage compressors.
The best way to describe it is in the picture below:

The X axis indicates the input signal level and the Y-axis output signal level. The curve shows how the sound will be muted. In our case, the compressor is set to a ratio of 1:2 and Threshold to -20 dB.

Attack

The time from the moment when the signal entered into the compressor until the compressor starts to operate. This will produce a more natural sound.

Release

It is the time at which the compressor stops compressing the sound after that the signal falls below the threshold. This is a very important setting as it affects how the recording will breathe.

Holdtime

It is a sort of extension of the compressor operation. It is used mainly for bass when the compressor operation in the classical setting is too fast and the sound is badly dyeing.

Before we describe the specific examples of using, there is necessary to explain what we shall avoid.

Change the color of sound

During strong compression, the signal will be more balanced, but loses its dynamics and the recording will not breathe properly. Because the loudest parts are usually the bass and treble sound, recording will be more centrally positioned, and especially the bass loses its dynamics.

Distortion

Distortion arises for example when we set a bad attack and release settings. If you set the attack time too short, the sound will sound unnatural. If the release is too long, it can change the sound. This could be seen for example on kick, where these values play an important role.

Using of the compressor

1. Each time start with compressor off, or ratio of 1:1 and without threshold. It is important to first listen to the sound sample throughout its whole length and find out what we want to achieve.
2. Set ratio according to the type of track. Set higher ratio for voice or live recording. To the contrary, for the mere deletion of records select a smaller ratio. You can experiment, in which case it is advisable to start from the ratio of 1:10.
3. Set the threshold so that there is a small reduction in sound, but that it still sounds natural. Listen to the recording and set the appropriate value of the threshold.
4. Set attack and release. It is a little bit harder, because it takes a lot of listening. Please note that the compressor with a shorter release moves the sound to the center strip. Use the equalizer after the compressor if necessary.
5. Set knee – use soft knee for warmer and more natural sound.
6. Repeat procedure until you are satisfied with the outcome.
7. Do not be afraid to experiment and engage two different compressors to be consecutive. Each compressor is different and provides different sound which can be used. Or vice versa, using of an unsuitable compressor can drastically reduce the sound quality.

If you don’t want to spend time manually adjusting the compressor, use predefined presets, which almost every compressor has. At least as a base for further editing, presets are good and quick.

Basic settings for individual instruments

Kick
Ratio 5:1
Attack 50ms
Release 100ms

Snare
Ratio 4:1
Attack 38ms
Release 800ms

Contra bass
Ratio 3:1
Attack 60ms
Release 300ms

Acoustic guitar
Ratio 6:1
Attack 1ms
Release 100ms

Electric guitar
Ratio 5:1
Attack 60ms
Release 160ms

El. Piano
Ratio 2:1
Attack 23ms
Release 100ms

These settings are only indicative and I recommend it be used more as a basic guide. The final adjustment will be governed by sound quality, color of sound and overall dynamics. Threshold set by ear.

2jazVas is a collaboration between rappers Nulovic and PeBe. And here is another of my songs that I have composed for 2jazVas. Please, check out their new video clip.

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is a song originally written by Robert Hazard and made famous by singer Cyndi Lauper. It was the first major single released by Lauper as a solo artist.
We have remixed this song using new vocals and music arrangements.

Rebelution is a reggae band from Santa Barbara, California. Current members of Rebelution are Eric Rachmany, Rory Carey, Wesley Finley, Marley D Williams, and Khris Royal.
We have remixed one of their reggae song.

Robert Glasper (born April 5, 1978) in Houston, Texas is an American jazz pianist and record producer. Glasper’s music can be described as “experiments with space, rhythm and chord textures”, creating a vast array of sound. He has said that he tries to make the music flow in a way more like a hip-hop beat, trying to always leave the music open for someone to rap over.
We have remixed one of his song called “Move Love”.

In 2009, a group of musicians from San Francisco / Bay Area came together and formed Sherlock Tones. Sherlock Tones creates an electric alternative hip hop sound with pop sensibility.
We have remixed their song called “California Girl”.

New Orleans traditional jazz fused with urban influences of baile funk, ska and hip-hop. Funk until you drop rhythms combined with blazing hot horns and party all night vocals.
We have remixed their song called “504″.