Using DAW tools in an EDM remix

Hello, and welcome to the fourth and final lesson in the unit EDM Remixing. Today's lesson is called Using DAW Tools in an EDM Remix. It's a jam-packed lesson with lots of cool and interesting tasks, so without further ado, let's get right into it. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use music technology tools to enhance your EDM remix. This lesson has five keywords. They are riser, dynamics, volume automation, balance, and EQ. A riser is an electronic sound effect which creates a gradual buildup of sound. This is often used to create a climax in EDM. Dynamics is how loud or soft the music is. Volume automation is a DAW tool that allows you to gradually increase or decrease dynamics within a track. Balance is the relative dynamic level of two tracks or instruments. And EQ stands for equalisation, which is the process in which you can adjust the sound frequencies within a track or project. This lesson is split into three parts. The first part, we're gonna have a look at risers. So let's jump right into this first part of the lesson. I'm gonna look at risers. We've just had a little sneak peek in that keyword slide of what a riser might be, but let's look at it in a little bit more detail. So EDM artists use many different music technology tools and effects to enhance their music. One common effect in EDM is called a riser. This is an electronic sound effect which creates a gradual build up of sound. So we're gonna listen to a couple of examples. To listen to these examples, I'm gonna ask that you go over to the slides of this lesson and find this slide, press the listen button, which will open up a new tab. You'll be able to listen to these pieces in that tab, and once you're finished, close them, come back to this video, and press play. So hopefully, we're able to notice the risers in those examples. They're particularly useful at the end of sections, and this creates a climax in music. You can imagine that if our riser is right at the end of the section, it's kinda building up to something, and then there might be a drop after it, for example. They are specifically synthesised sound effect that build up the volume, the pitch, or the speed, and it actually thickens the texture as well. When used effectively, they are a really powerful tool for building up the energy in your music. We're gonna watch a video on how to use risers to create a buildup in a remix. This video will show you how to create a new track, how to select a suitable riser, record at the end of an appropriate section, and we'll also talk about how to use these sparingly. Remember, if we're using these in every single section, they're gonna lose their impact, whereas if we use it once or maybe twice in a song, then it's gonna be way more impactful. So let's take a look at that video on risers now. Now, I'm gonna have a go adding in a couple of risers to enhance my remix. A riser is a sound effect that creates a gradual buildup of sound, and they come in all different shapes and forms. I'm gonna look for a couple of places in my remix where I want to create a buildup and I'm gonna use them there. First of all, I'm gonna create a new track, and then to find the rises, I'm just gonna search the word riser. Whatever software you're using, that will probably work as well. Now, I can see a range of options coming up here. There are eight different risers. Let's hear what they sound like. I'm gonna select one and just play a key on my keyboard (dramatic electronic music) (dramatic electronic music) (dramatic electronic music) (dramatic electronic music) So you can hear they're very different from one another, but they all have the effect of creating a buildup of sound. And this is used a lot in EDM at moments where the artist wants to create a real buildup and a real sense of climax. So going back to my remix, I'm gonna have a look for a couple of places where I might decide to use one of these. Now, I would say there are two places where it's suitable to use a riser in my remix, and those are the places where I've had a big buildup of the texture. So the first one is probably at 17. Here, you can see I've gradually built up from a very thin texture at the start, a thicker texture at bar nine, and then at bar 17, that's where the texture suddenly gets thick. I've got the kick drum coming in, I've got some additional parts coming in, that's the sort of buildup from the introduction. So I might use a riser just in the lead up to bar 17 to enhance that buildup. I'm gonna select that new track. I'm gonna choose a riser that I like. (dramatic electronic music) I quite like that one actually. I like harrowing risers. I'm gonna go for that and I'm gonna record it in just at this point here so that it finishes around bar 17. Now, for most of these, if you just play any key on your keyboard, it will play the riser and you have to hold it down for it to build up. So I'm gonna start somewhere here and I'm gonna play my riser maybe a couple of bars before 17. (dramatic electronic music) Okay, so I'm just gonna listen back to that, and what I might do is move it slightly forward or slightly back, depending on if I think I started a bit too early or a bit too late. So let's have a listen. (dramatic electronic music) I actually think that's in in about the right place, but if I didn't, I can move it a little bit to the left, little bit to the right until it fitted preferably where I wanted it to. The other place I might use a riser in my remix is at bar 49 where I have a similar thing going on. I have a thin texture at 33, a little bit thicker at 41, and then 49 is where it builds up to that climax. So I'm gonna do the same thing here, I think I'll just use the same riser, but I could use a different one, and I'm gonna record that in in the build up to 49. (dramatic electronic music) So there, I've used a very simple sound effect, which is a riser to enhance the buildup in two of the key points of my remix. Go through your remix, see if there are any points where you think a riser would work, and make sure if you do use one, use it sparingly. If you put too many in, it won't have the intended effect. So make sure you just use them for those key moments where you want to create that big buildup. Great, so I hope you enjoyed that video. Let's have a think about this question. So which of these three clips contains a riser? Again, just like these, I'm gonna ask that you play these within the slides, so you can pause the video in a moment, go over to the slides, press play on those listen buttons, and once you've got your answer, come back to this video and press play. Great, well done if you said C. C contained the riser. when is it appropriate to use riser? Is it A, at the start of a section, B, at the end of a section, or C in the middle of a section? Well done if you said at the end of a section. Remember, we're building up to something. We wouldn't wanna build right at the start of the section because we've gotta build towards something. So good job. This brings us on to our first task, where we're going to add the riser to create a buildup in your remix. We're then going to copy the process to add one or two more risers into your remix. The success criteria for this task is that we're only gonna add riser at the end of a section and we're going use it sparingly. So we're gonna aim for one or two, and if you really want to, you can add that third one. Great, so pause the video here and have a go at task A, and I'll see you after you finished when you come back and press play. So for the second part of task A, we're gonna study this image below and we're gonna think about what this student could have done to use the riser more effectively. Just gonna draw your attention to the fact that the riser track is right at the bottom. It's just labelled there. Have a think about why that's not so effective. Okay, so you might have said that they should have used the riser less often, that theirs is happening far too often, so it's gonna lose its impact after a while. That's gonna become pretty predictable. They should have also used the riser at the end of a section rather than just spread it out throughout. So well done than if you noticed those things, and let's move on. So for this second section, we're going to be looking in more detail at dynamics and volume automation. So when composing, producing, or performing music, it's important that no instrument is too loud or too quiet compared to the others. We call this balance, and this is true whether you are playing in a rock band, whether you are a singer being accompanied by a piano, or you're in an orchestra. Balance is incredibly important because as performers, composers, and producers, we want to make sure that the parts of the music and the texture that we want to be played out are heard and not being drowned out, or even drowning out other parts as well. So to achieve this correct balance, we need to be able to hear each track well enough so we can adjust the dynamics of a track individually on our DAW, and that's what's so powerful about a DAW, whereas in a live setting, it might be more difficult to control the dynamics of the different parts. So we're quite lucky in that respect. Changing the dynamics as well, it creates this interest in the music. To edit dynamics on a DAW, we can adjust the dynamics of individual tracks. Remember that dynamics is kind of talking about the volume. Is it louder or is it soft? We can also use volume automation. Now, volume automation is the tool that allows you to gradually increase or decrease dynamics within a track. It's particularly useful when you want a track to fade in or fade out, or kind of like a riser, to build up before a climax. We're going to take a look at these two videos. The first video, which I'll play for you, is going to show you how to adjust the dynamics of individual trucks. So let's take a look at that now. Now, that I've developed my texture, so I have sections of thick texture and sections of thin texture, I'm gonna have a go at making sure I have correct balance between my tracks. Balance is the relative dynamic level of two tracks. When we're creating music, we have to make sure that no instrument is too loud and no instrument is too quiet, and that we can hear every part perfectly. At the left hand side on GarageBand, these sliders control the volume of that track, so I can adjust them to make sure that each track is at exactly the right volume as I listen through. On different software, there'll be a similar slider at the left hand side that you can control. What I'm gonna do is go through my remix bit by bit, section by section, and make sure that within each section, I can hear all of the parts that are playing perfectly. Let's go from the start, so here, I'm listening for this track and this track, where I have a thin texture, and I'm gonna make sure that they're at perfect dynamic level and that the balance is correct. (dramatic electronic music) You'll see there, I adjusted the volume of the melody slightly by bringing it down because I thought it was slightly too loud. Let's go to this next section at bar nine, where some of the drum parts, the clap and the high hats, join in. (dramatic electronic music) Again, I thought the clap was slightly too loud, so I brought it down, and the high hats as well. I don't want those sticking out too much and drowning out the melody and the codes. Finally, let's go to bar 17, where the texture gets a lot thicker and let's see what we need to do here. (dramatic electronic music) So I made quite a few adjustments in that section. My complex bassline was a bit too loud, so I brought it down, and this different code track, but I wanted to hear a bit more of my kick drum, so I brought that up. So I'm adjusting all the parts to make sure that the balance is absolutely spot on. What you're gonna do is go through your remix and do that throughout the whole project, all the way up to wherever you've got to, and make sure that the balance of your tracks is perfect by adjusting the master dynamic controls on the left hand side. Great, so I hope you found that useful. The second video is talking about volume automation. So how to gradually increase or decrease that dynamics within a track. Again, useful for fading in or fading out. Let's take a look at that video now. Now, I'm going to use volume automation to further enhance the way I'm using dynamics in my remix. Volume automation is a tool that allows us to gradually increase or decrease the dynamics within a track. So rather than changing the volume of the whole track for the whole length of it, we can increase and decrease the dynamics within a track, so they go up and down. Let me show you how we do it. On GarageBand, if you press A on your keyboard, that will open up automation, or you can go to Mix at the top and select Show Automation. On other software, there may be a button here that allows you to open up automation straightaway. The way volume automation works is on each line on each track, there is a line that we can see here, and that is our dynamic line. So that tells us how loud that track is. Now if I click on that line and draw a few dots, I can then change the dynamics within that track. So at this point here, this high hat track would be quite loud, then as the line goes down and get quieter, and then as line goes back up, it'll get louder. Just have a little listen to that. (dramatic electronic music) (high hat tapping) So you can hear it went from loud to quiet, and then back up to loud. That's how automation works. And when the line goes downhill, the volume's getting quieter. When the line goes uphill, the volume is getting louder. Now, when we're using volume automation, we have to be a little bit careful not to go over the top with it. If we draw very steep lines like this and do lots of drastic shapes, it will sound quite messy. It won't sound very effective for our remix. So we wanna make sure that we're being subtle with it and not using too much of it and not using it in an over-the-top manner. Where it's most useful is where you want to create a buildup. Now, if we have a look at my remix, the big buildup in my remix is from bar 33 to bar 49. At bar 33, we have a very thin texture. We have one, two, three tracks playing at the same time. At 41, it gets a bit thicker. We have three more tracks joining, and then at 49, it gets very thick. So at that point, we have seven tracks playing altogether at bar 49, and that's the sort of build, the big moment of my remix, the big climax. So I can use some dynamics and volume automation here to enhance that buildup. Let's open automation back up by pressing A. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put my remix on, I'm gonna have a listen, and I'm gonna adjust the automation on some of these tracks so that they start quieter and gradually get louder, meaning that when we get to 49, it creates a real impact and a gradual buildup up to that moment. So let's pop on from 33 and watch how I adjust the volume automation to enhance that buildup. (dramatic electronic music) (dramatic electronic music continues) So what I've done there is in most of the tracks that are playing, my melody, simple bassline, my chords, my high hats, I've gradually increased the volume using volume automation to enhance that buildup. So 49, when those other parts join in, it feels like it's built up to it. These are subtle changes. You'll notice I've not done any big, steep angles in my dynamics. I've done quite gentle angles, quite gentle slopes as it were, and that means that it's a subtle difference, but it really enhances that buildup. So go through your remix, see if there are any points where you think volume automation would help you to create a sense of a buildup and experiment with it, see what happens. Great, so hopefully you found that video really useful as well. Now, automation is an incredibly powerful tool, but there is a danger where it can become overused or we don't even realise that it's on, and we're thinking, "Why can't I hear my guitar part?" And it's because the automation is on. So you can always check that on your DAW as part of your troubleshooting in your workflow. Gonna listen to a couple of examples now. These ones, I'll play for you and we can listen to them together in just a moment. We're thinking about balance now, so this idea of the instruments being not too loud, not too soft, and being able to hear all the different instruments and all the different tracks nice and clearly. So which of these clips has the best balance? Is it A? (dramatic electronic music) Is it B? (dramatic electronic music) Or is it C? (dramatic electronic music) Well done if you were able to identify that it was, in fact, C that had the best balance. In this example, we can hear all of the different tracks, and no part was particularly too loud or too quiet. In most pop songs, we want the melody to be the one that's kind of at the forefront that we can hear most clearly. So in examples A and B, that melody was being drowned out, so that's kind of what we're thinking about when. You might have noticed that in A and B, the melody was really hard to hear. And actually, we want the melody to be, in most pop songs, the main part that we're listening out for, so when we're balancing our own tracks, we wanna try and ensure that we can always hear the melody over the other tracks. That's not to say that they have to be loads quieter, but in part of the balance, we definitely don't want the melody to be, melody, sorry, to be overshadowed by the other parts. So which of these do you think uses volume automation most effectively? Is it A, B, or C? So have a quick study of those images and decide your answer. Well done if you said C. Now, the automation in A, it's too sporadic, it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down. That is gonna be quite difficult to listen to when the pieces you know, and it's gonna bring a lot of attention to it as well, and it won't sound very good. In picture B, there's actually no difference. We've got four different dots, but because they are unmoving, that wouldn't have any volume automation at all, whereas in C, we can see that we have a very slight increase in dynamics and it stays flat for a while, and then in that third bar, it starts to come down. It's very gradual, it's very subtle, and out of those three, it's definitely the most effective. So well done if you've got that right. That brings us into task B. So we're going to do a little bit of experimentation with adjusting the dynamics in our project, so to be successful here, we're going to try and make sure that our tracks have a good balance, so we don't want tracks to be too loud or too quiet. And we also want to try and experiment with some volume automation, but we want to use it really sparingly. We want it at the end of a section to build up to a climax and/or to fade an instrument in or out. So try not to look like A, where we're up and down, up and down, up and down. Try and make it like C if possible, or a nice fade in or fade out somewhere else in your piece. To complete this task, you're gonna need to pause this video. It's helpful to have the success criteria open. Once you've finished and you are happy with your dynamics, come back to this video and press play, and we'll move on to the next part of the lesson. So for part two of task B, we're going to review your own project against the success criteria by answering the following questions. For part two of this task, we're going to review your own project against the success criteria, answering the following questions. Can you hear your track well? Are there any tracks that are too loud or too quiet? And have you used volume automation only to build up to a climax or to create a fade in or fade out? So take some time to reflect on your piece, answer the questions honestly, and make notes of what you have to do before finishing to make sure that the balance is all correct. Once you've done that, let's move on. So our final section of today's lesson is talking about EQ. EQ stands for equalisation, a process in which you can adjust the sound frequencies within a track or project. It allows you to radically change the timbre of an instrument affecting the texture and creating interesting effects. We'll watch two videos now that will explain a little bit more about using EQ in digital audio workstations. The first video that we'll take a look at will explain a little bit more and demonstrate what EQ actually does. So let's watch that one together now. The final SAW tool that we're gonna look at using within our remix is EQ. EQ stands for equalisation, and equalisation is a process in which you can adjust the sound frequencies within a sound or a track or a project. I'm gonna show you how we use it, how it works, and then give you some ideas as to how you might use it in your remix. To open it up on GarageBand, you need to first of all find the smart controls button next to the scissors. You can open that up, select the EQ tab, and then make sure you've selected the track tab rather than the master tab. So we've got track, we've got EQ. Within every sound, there are different frequencies. So within the sound of my voice speaking, there are some lower frequencies, there are some medium, mid frequencies, and then there are also some high frequencies. My voice sounds quite low because the low frequencies are the loudest, they're the most prominent. Let's have a look at this code track here. I'm gonna solo it and put it on the loop to demonstrate how EQ works. (gentle piano music) As this is playing, you can see the different frequencies within the sound represented on the graph. So in this particular instrument, there are a lot of mid frequencies. The most prominent sounds are those in the middle of the graph here. What EQ allows me to do is to reduce or increase the volume of different frequencies. So I'm gonna play around with it and listen out for what happens. (slow electronic music) (slow electronic music continues) You can see it creates some really interesting effects. Now, what I'm doing here is adjusting the volume of the different frequencies. If I drag this dot up at the left, at the right hand side, sorry, which is a high frequency sound, that means that the high frequencies within that instrument are gonna become louder. Equally, if I drag this one up on the left hand side, this means the low frequencies are gonna become louder. So the lowest sounds within that sound are gonna become more prominent. When we increase the high frequencies like this, it makes it sound quite thin because it really brings out the crispness of the sound. Equally, when I increase the low frequencies, it makes it sound almost as if it's underwater. You can't pick out the crisp bits of the sound. You can just hear the sort of boominess of it. Okay, so EDM producers play around with the sounds that they use in all sorts of ways using EQ because it creates, as you can hear, lots of interesting effects and means with one particular instrument, you can create much more variety in the timbre. And this next video will show us how to experiment with EQ within our tracks. Here it is. So I'm gonna have a look at my remix here and have a think about a couple of places in which I might adjust the EQ in order to create a particular effect. Now, the first place where I'm gonna do it is right at the start, actually. I'm gonna stick with this chord track here. I'm gonna put that on and I'm just gonna play around until I find a version of this instrument that sounds even better. So I'm gonna press play, I'm gonna play around with the EQ, and see if I can find something that I prefer to what I currently have. Let's have a listen. (gentle music) So what I've done there is I've reduced the volume of the mid frequencies here by dragging that dot underneath the line in the middle, and I really like that sound now. It sounds really warm and almost muted. So the timbre has changed quite a bit by editing the EQ there. Let's just have a quick listen at how it sounds now. (gentle music) And this was how it sounded before. (gentle music) So it's a subtle difference, but I really like the warmth that that gives to the sound. While we're at the start, let's have a look at the melody as well and see if adjusting the EQ on that makes it sound a bit better. So I'm gonna select that track. I'm gonna solo it so it's playing on its own. Make sure I've got EQ selected, make sure I've got track selected, and let's have a play around with this. (dramatic music) I like that end product there, where I've reduced the high frequencies a little bit. Again, it makes it sort of slightly more muted and sort of warmer sound. Let's have a listen to those two tracks together. (dramatic music) I'll remind you how that sounded before I edited it. (dramatic music) So can hear there's a big difference in the timbre there just by editing that EQ slightly. I'm gonna do one more example, and then you're gonna go off and have a go at playing around with EQ in your remix. So I'm gonna go to later on in my remix, and let's have a look at, maybe, let's go for bar 41. We'll pick out this bass part because we've not edited a bass track yet, so I'm gonna click on that. Oh, smart controls, EQ, track. Make sure we've got the right track selected. You don't wanna edit the wrong track by mistake. And let's put this bassline on here and let's play around with the EQ. (slow dramatic music) That end product there is quite different to what we originally had. I've taken out quite a lot of the lower frequencies and reduced them, as well as the mid frequencies, and have brought the higher frequencies up slightly, which means that there's much more attack on the start of the note, but that also, it's a sort of warmer, deeper sound almost. So in context, let's have a listen to that with the other parts there. (dramatic electronic music) So some subtle changes there, and these all slightly adjust the timbre, but it means that we can take much more control of the timbre of a particular instrument and create much more variety and interest and make much more specific sounds than otherwise we could. So open up your remix, find the EQ setting, have a play around with adjusting the EQ, exploring the difference when you increase the high frequencies, reduce the high frequencies, and the same with mid and the same with the low, and see if you can come out with any interesting effects that contribute and enhance your remix. Let's take a look at the images below. Which is the correct button for accessing the EQ function on garage band? Is it A, B, or C? Yep, well done if you said A, good job. So our final task, we're going to experiment with adjusting the EQ of some of your tracks. Remember that EQ adjustments are most useful when you want to create a contrast in texture. So to be successful in this task, we're going to make sure that the change in EQ on at least one track to create an interesting effect, and also to use EQ sparingly so that most of the tracks are the same as they were before. What we don't want is a radically changed timbre for every single instrument that happens throughout the whole entire song. We want to pick a moment, pick an instrument, pick an EQ setting, and that way, it will have a lot more impact. If you need to go and watch those videos that we saw before about EQ, feel free to rewind this video to those moments. If you are ready, then feel free to pause the video on this screen so you have the success criteria open to refer back to, go off and enjoy, and good luck, and when you're ready for the second part of this task, come back to the video and press play. For the second part of this task, I'm going to listen to the example of a project with EQ adjusted. We're focusing on the chord track, which is at the bottom of the screen. What feedback would you give to the student? Let's take a look at the video together now. (dramatic electronic music) (dramatic electronic music continues) Okay, so again, we're thinking about what feedback we would give to the student. Well done if you said something similar to, "The use of EQ could be improved by making sure that it's not too extreme. At the moment, you can't really hear anything in the chord track because the EQ has cut out almost all of the sound frequencies. So reducing the adjustments make it possible to hear more of the frequencies in the chord track" would be the feedback. So well done if you noticed that. And that brings us on to the end of the lesson. In summary, we talked about the fact that artists creating EDM use many different music technological tools and effects to enhance their music. They included risers, dynamics and automation, and EQ. Risers are an effect that are useful when you want to create a buildup at the end of a section, and to be careful not to overuse them. Otherwise, they'll lose their impact. Dynamics, or volume, can be adjusted with volume automation or by adjusting the master dynamic levels on individual tracks. This helps us to create balance within our sound. And EQ adjusts the sound frequencies of a track and can be useful for changing the timbre and texture of music. So well done on finishing this lesson and well done on finishing this unit. You should now have a good understanding of EDM remixes and an EDM remix of your own. And hopefully, you can use these skills that you've learned in this unit to make your own remixes. You can remix different songs with different chords, different instruments, and I hope that you enjoy doing that. Once again, I've been Mr. Chapman, and I'm sure I'll see you in the next one. Have a good day.