YOU
MAY have seen references to automated boards or mixing and wondered what they meant. When we
record to multitrack format, drums may take up four or twenty tracks, along with
bass, 
guitars, keyboards, horns, strings, and vocals. When mixing, these
tracks need to have their levels adjusted with respect to each other.
This is fine if all
you have to do is turn up the guitar during
the solo and bring down the volume of those background harmony vocals on
the outro chorus. But what if you have many more moves to make? What if
the horn parts stay soft on the verses and come up a bit on the choruses,
and the piano part gets a bit loud in one spot, and the snare needs to
come up a bit on the bridge, and the vocals need to go up here and down
there? Whether your project is analog or digital, a computer can record
all those volume changes and repeat them during each playback.
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“We’ve
recorded with a few other studios, but Oak Grove has made our band
come alive. I highly recommend this studio to any local act looking
for a great sound.”
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—
John Bourque
of the band “Ed Nasty”
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Not only does automation memorize the
volume levels of your mix—you can make changes. Let’s say you turned
up the guitar to where you thought it should be on the solo but now,
listening back, you’d like it up just a bit more, or down a bit. With
the tap of a computer key you can change the level.
For
sessions with complicated mixes, automation can save time and money . . .
and keep you from going nuts because, for example, you remembered all
seventy-two moves perfectly on the last mix but forgot the seventy-third.
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