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mixintheMake Something ‘Too Loud’It’s a good idea to identify which musical partsin your track are the most important. It’ll oftenbe a catchy riff, bassline or a vocal hook. One ofthese parts can be given a bit of special treatmentsound-wise and then balanced quite loud toemphasise its catchiness. I’ll often get a balanceusing only the vital elements – rhythm track, vocaland hooks – then gradually mix in the supportingtracks. It’s often tempting to try for a ‘perfect balance’where all the sounds have equal clarity andimportance but in practice that approach can endup confused or bland.Simon Gogerly, Producer/Engineer and AM ContributorListen With Your Ears, Not With Your EyesMetering and waveform displays are all part of the modern DAWmethod, but they can distract you from listening to the audio.Try mixing without looking at the screen and act on what you can hear,not what your eyes tell you. It’s easy to miss a section of distorted audiobecause the waveform looks right, or to rely too heavily on meteringfor overall left-right balances. If something looks like it’s in time butdoesn’t sound in time, then it probably won’t be in time.Rob Holsman, Consultant, Jigsaw SystemsTECHNOLOGY FOCUSSmart AV’s Tango console uses a scrolling screen based channel overview display called MonARC.MonARC’s touch screen display provides the selection of up to 300 channels. The display can beconfigured over multiple displays with the addition of the extension bay. It can also overlay workstationand picture displays.The system provides a meter bridge with indicators for EQ, auxiliary sends, solo, mute, automation andfaders. It also provides channel or group metering for surround sound, with up to 12 channels in a group.www.smart-av.comCatalogue ShotIt’s not generally known that many CD manufacturers, particularly the larger onessuch as Sony DADC, use CD catalogue numbers as a kind of administrative hookto hang the whole manufacturing process off, and this helps ensure that jobs aretracked through the system and delivered on time. Even if you’ll only ever do onetitle for your own label it’s therefore a very good idea to invent a catalogue number:something in the format ABC001 would work and help move things on.Nigel Palmer, Lowland Masters and Audio Media ContributorFan BoySound design for a gigantic hovercraft that Bond uses to chase the Ekranoplan, a Russian cargo plane that flies some ten feet above theCaspian Sea was provided by – “a simple desk fan. The sounds we achieved by sticking various objects in the blades of the fan running atdifferent speeds – metal, plastic, and cardboard – were totally incredible. Naturally, we then processed the hell out of them but I have to sayit proved a really cool, improvised session at a time when we were really struggling with that sound – it’s a must have for every foley studio.Mathias Grundwaldt, Lead Audio Designer, James Bond 007 – Blood StoneAudio Media, November 201026AUDIO MEDIA AUGUST 2011