For this stage, all sound, recording synthesizers, selecting samples, recording sounds from libraries, recording vocals, etc., that is not only recording from a microphone, but also selecting all the sounds of music.
After good arrangement and thoughtful pairing, the most important thing is to select quality and nice sounds.
In real life, a person will choose a sound and then will use it in an arrangement.
This stage is similar to audio mixing. So, in fact, you begin to form the timbre, the nature of the song, on the record, which is actually mixing.
As in the other stages, the mistakes made here cannot be fixed in the next stage.
You will see that you can equalize all that, with the noise suppressor!
No, you can’t. The sound should be of maximum quality. If something doesn’t work out, you don’t just have to leave it to fate. You should rewrite it and change it.
Do not sacrifice your product. This is your main investment.
First, on the selection of samples – kick, snare, etc.
There are a lot of awesome libraries in Splice. You can find sounds of your favourite artists and a lot of other quality sounds.
Don’t get the no name sounds. Standard sounds from DAWs are usually not high quality, even though they are all at your fingertips, and you still need to be authentic.
The next step is – synthesize. I recommend choosing one nice synthesizer and upload all presets there. For example, Omnisphere or Spire.
Each of them will cover most of your needs. Here you can also make high-quality bass, good pads, and leads.
While choosing the sounds, just keep at hand references and compare the sound quality with it.
When choosing, be sure that the sound itself must be very high quality. I don’t recommend making a large layering if you are not a professional. If you want to change it a bit, then you’d better use the synthesizer itself instead of the equalizer on the channel. Equalization causes certain phase distortions to be handled.
In the matter of recording and selecting sounds, be uncompromising. If the sound does not fit, or it interferes, just change it.
I also recommend reading about the vocal recordings and work with the mic (I’ve already mentioned that).
Also, usually, in commercial songs, there is no need to make a lot of tracks.
The average session has up to 60 tracks, everything above is most likely superfluous.
Don’t make a lot of instruments, as I’ve already said. In each range, there can only be played one instrument at the same time.
Accordingly, there is no sense in making many tracks. Each tool can have a maximum of 3 layers. I mean the situation when you take 2 different tones for one instrument and part, for example 2 different kicks, one for a dense bottom, the other for the top and so on. If you did everything qualitatively and your track already sounds very good, then it’s time to go to the editorial office.
