 | Make a separate directory for each season’s raw music, edit files and
final mixes. That makes it easier to “back up” a season, and clean up
your PC’s hard drive. |
| Consider backing that directory up to a CD on occasion, so if
you had computer problems, you would have all of the files required to
continue mixing. |
| You can use the program’s “speed” function to slow down music. This
is useful for practice sessions, where you are teaching difficult moves. You
can also tweak the tempo of a song for your team. Just don’t change it so
much that people turn into chipmunks! |
| Note that some programs will allow you to speed up or slow down the
"beats" of a song without affecting the pitch. Sonic
Foundry has a product which will do this. |
| You can record “live” material such as vocals, voice-over
introductions and sound effects. These are useful for production effects,
but can be equally useful in the studio or practice setting (think “5,6,7,8…”:
you can create voice over instructions and remove them later (using the
"mute" feature) after the team
has learned the steps.) |
| Before you are finished, play the finished mix at very loud volume on a
good stereo. Listen for any stray sounds that got into the mix, such as
fades that went into another section. Make sure that the song is not
so loud that the music is distorted. If you have a
"normalize" function on your program, use it. |
| You can create a neat echo effect by copying and pasting a selection,
lining it up .3 seconds after the original, and dropping the volume to about
half. |
| If you have a web site for your studio, you could post your mixes in a
password protected area and let the students listen to the music from the
‘Net. Just don’t release “your” mixes to the public! |
| Wouldn’t it be kind to show the song, artist, album and “liner notes”
of your studio’s experience with a song in the recital program? If you
have a studio website, you could also link the song names that you used to
CDNow or Amazon.com to support the artists. |
| Love the song, but hate one word? I’ve successfully “airbrushed”
over an offensive word by suddenly cutting the volume by the offending
section (the volume markers make a “V”), and inserting another word
right under it with the opposite volume shape. Only the original singer
could tell! I actually fixed "Greased Lightning" to a
"G" rating using this method. |
| MP3 Audio Mixer has a feature called Groups. It lets you combine two or more sound
fragments into a group and treat that group like one sample. So, you could
get all of the cuts right in an song, group the bits, and then slow it down.
It really saves time. You can also import other entire mix files. They act
like the groups mentioned above. |
| If you're making a competition CD, consider putting 10 seconds of dead
space at the end of each song on purpose. That way, if the technician
cued a track, the next song won't begin to play immediately after.
Also, it's a bit easier on the studio people. |
| Use the "Insert Marker" feature of MP3 Audio Mixer to mark
intros, verses, choruses and interludes when you listen to a track.
That way, you can converse intelligently with the instructors, and make your
cuts much faster. |
| Want to end a song with a BANG instead of the supplied fadeout?
Listen for a strong downbeat of the same chord, and copy and paste it over
the desired downbeat position. Another BANG trick: Copy that
same bang section, and slow it down to 50%. That lowers the frequency
exactly 1 octave, keeping it in tune with the song. Then, slide it and
mix it separately, and you will have an awesome end BANG! |
| Song key changes got you stumped? Looking for a bang, but its in the
wrong key? Copy it anyway, and paste it into place. Next, highlight
the song area, including the pasted sample, and then play with the
"RATE" of the sample until the pitch matches the song. Most
songs change key +1/2 step, which amounts to 105-107% pitch change, (or
94-95% if you pulled your sample from the "before" key
change). A couple of minutes of pitch puttering and it will be
perfect. |
