It’s so easy to try and buy ourselves out of a problem when it arises, after all, as professionals we are often working on projects with not enough budget or time. Buying a plugin to solve a problem seems to be the simplest solution. However, sharpening your audio skills may be even better.
I recently wrote about the need to read the user manual of all the equipment and software you own. However, you can go even deeper by understanding audio basics and techniques. Here’s a real world example.
About a week ago, I was working on the audio for a new product advert. There had been a lot of back and forth about the library music used, the client wasn’t convinced about it. A day before the deadline I was sent a new piece of music. Anyone who has cut music to picture will know that often the cuts and other significant events ause hit points, changing the music can change the entire visual impact of the cut.
At one point in the cut there was one such hit point, when supplying the music the client asked for a riser effect to conclude at that hit point. There was no riser in the supplied audio, so it was down to me to create one.
Creating a riser required a number of things. The first was to figure out the tempo of the audio bed so that the riser would rise over time and reach its crescendo at the right point. The second thing, of course, was to create a riser effect. I could have used the useful Air Riser plugin, I have a licence, so purchasing wouldn’t have been an issue. However, I didn’t have time to master it, even though it has a lot of presets, I tested some of them, but none of them were achieving the right effect.
I decided to make a riser. To do this I inserted the free tone generator plugin in Pro Tools (most DAWs ship with one) and set it to pink noise. On its own it does exactly as expected and spits out a lot of noise. However, then the magic happens. Below that I inserted a McDSP Filterbank 202, an old favourite of mine, although one could use a simple filter. I then switched it to a LP setting and pulled it all the way down so no audio was passing. Then I added the freq setting to an automation lane and drew in it rising from 20Hz to 20kHz over a number of bars. On the hit point I then drew the automation to pull it back down to 20Hz as a dead stop for the effect.
It wasn’t quite right, it needed the somewhat ubiquitous pumper effect. Time to buy a pumper plugin? Perhaps. Waves make a very useful One Knob Pumper, but there are some very complex pumper plugins out there. I happen to have the Waves one as part of one of their bundles, but I’ve never had the need to use it. However, even if I didn’t own one, then a compressor driven with a side chain, triggered by a percussive source, could do the same thing.
However, the pumper wasn’t working quite right, I needed it to increase in division as it reach its climax, starting at 1/4 then growing to 1/32. It was time for another automation lane.
The riser was made, it worked and the client was happy. To be honest they have no idea how it was done, but as I wrote in another article Our Best Audio Work Often Goes Unnoticed.
As I’ve already said, I could have bought plugins to do all the above. Ironically, I didn’t have time to learn new plugins, I also certainly don’t have money to waste. So I drew deep from the well of years of doing audio for a living.
I know many reading this will already know all the techniques used to make this happen. And yes, they are techniques not HACKS or TRICKS - it’s doing things the gear was designed to do, even if it requires a little thinking outside the box.
There seems to be a school of marketing doing the rounds right now creating baddies. Music theory is a baddie, those who know music theory are elitists, so buy Pro Level Chord Packs… don’t get me started! Or marketing saying that audio theory is the enemy and here’s some software or hack that the ‘pros don’t want you to know.’ That’s utter BS, I don’t know of a single pro on the planet who is trying to keep their knowledge secret. On the contrary, many long term audio professionals are delighted to see the next generation of engineers and producers sharpening their fundamental audio skills - it makes them smile with joy.
There is an enemy trying to stop you creating great audio, ignorance. No one, wherever they are on the journey need to accept that. Be inquisitive, adventurous and thirst for knowledge. Start with the fundamentals of audio and they will hold you in good stead.
Last week I encouraged people to read the manual, but don’t stop there, go deeper and learn the fundamentals of audio and music theory - it may save your bacon and your money.