There are a few things in music production that we all know - because we've been told, on forums and in magazines, by professionals and amateurs alike - that you just shouldn't do. It's all about getting the best possible mixdown, right? But sometimes, abusing the production tools at your disposal can yield some very interesting and worthwhile results. So let's consider a few tips that might show you how to break the rules and get away with it.
A little received wisdom can be a dangerous thing. I was teaching a student recently who had put a compressor on every channel as a matter of course. When I asked why, he said he just thought it was what you were supposed to do. He didn't really have a clear idea of what he wanted those compressors to do, and in fact many of them were not helping the mixdown at all. It was a good reminder that while "what you're supposed to do" can sometimes be helpful, you should use your ears above all!
Read a forum and you'd think that digital clipping was the sin of all sins - harsh, cold, pointless and all the rest of it. It sometimes is - but not always. This author has used it extensively over the years, and if you load up a decent wave editor (Audition is very good for this) you can clip samples in a very controllable manner. Lopping the top 2 or 3 dB off a wave or sample can be a great way of adding a bit more punch to a sound, and the brutal levelling that a digital editor produces means that your transients will still be relatively intact; you'll often get a more transparent result than using a compressor. Plugins like GClip offer a similar functionality from within your DAW too. This isn't something that's advisable on a master output, but can sound great on drums and percussion.
Low-fidelity sounds are another contentious issue. Many people insist on using 24-bit audio at every possible juncture, but this is not always necessary, or even desirable. So for a start, get a bit-reduction plugin and try it on some of your sounds. The classic dance records of the early-mid 90's were all made with 12-bit samplers like the Akai S950, and no-one's going to criticise them for a lack of audio fidelity when they sound so fat, gritty and full of vibes. Obviously choice of sound here is important - an 8-bit sine sub will be distractingly noisy and full of harmonics (you can filter those out though); while a background pad may gain an interesting hiss and flutter; especially if you then put other effects like phasers on there.Similarly, unorthodox choice of sample source and quality can lead your music to some unexpected places. Sampling film DVDs is a well-rehearsed trick, but if you've still got a VHS player, dig out some old tapes and get some hissy analogue goodness from there. (Cassettes recorded from the radio back in the day work well here too). Or even take samples off youtube - they'll be low-grade, digital mp3 rubbish no doubt, but if the rest of your track is well produced then a couple of low quality samples won't cancel out all your hard work; they'll just add some extra textures into the mix.
Don't forget to misuse your plugins too - there's a world of fun to be had when you shove a standard effect to the very edge of what it's supposed to do. Noise gates are a good example. Turn the threshold up to the point where the sound is just about triggering the gate, and turn down the hold and release, (maybe distort the sound beforehand to cut out some of the dynamic range) and you'll be left with a clicky, glitchy mess which you can bounce down, filter and make cool rhythms with. Or if you've got a reverb plugin that will accept impulse response files, why not try loading a vocal or percussion loop into it instead, to see what happens?In general, "the rules" are there for a good reason, although you may find that through the medium of forums and blogs they get somewhat twisted through a 'Chinese Whispers' kind of process - however they are frequently a good guide to getting a tidy mixdown. But if we all followed the same rules, we'd all be making the same-sounding music! So next time you're about to load up that plugin in the same way that you always do, try doing the opposite instead. You might just be surprised at the results....
