How to BALANCE/LEVEL Your BACKING TRACKS
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- Опубликовано: 1 июл 2024
- In this video, we are going over the 2 techniques that I use to balance and level your backing tracks. We all know what it's like to finish a new backing tracks, and it's either blaring loud or extremely quiet compared to the other ones. This video will give you a starting guide on how you can minimize that problem. I use LUFS to measure when I'm setting up the backing tracks, and then I use the apps Stage Traxx 3 (or Multitracker) to have control over different stems. Hope this helps you out, as I've gotten this question a good number of times in the comments of my videos.
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0:00 - Intro
0:36 - LUFS in Logic Pro X
7:29 - A/B Listening
8:11 - Apps with Stem Controls
11:53 - Outro
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Видеоклипы
Perfect! New to all this backing tracks stuff. Thanks man!
Another excellent video. You seem to always be there when I need some help.
Thanks for everything!
Thanks Chuck!
Scott , you deserve to go to heaven for all the content of this channel. Thanks a lot!
You have a knack for making videos exactly when I need them, thanks again Scott
Glad to help 🤘🤘
Your channel is 🔥.. thanks for all your detail, time and effort. By far THE BEST and most thorough channel for backing tracks on YT!!
Thank you Ashley 🤘
Awesome video Scott! Thanks so much!
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful
Thank you for this. I have learned so much from you. Really grateful.
Thanks 🙏
Listen up folks, Scott is a bad ass teacher. Kudos!
Thanks man 🤘🤘
Thank you so much! And im also so stoked on the x air content too!
Thanks!
so helpful...thank you!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Man!! Thank you so much for this info!!! You are the GOD OF THE MIXING!! CONGRATULATIONS!!
I'm having just these issues with my band.
Thanks! 🙏
This is soo amazing mind blown thank you man . What I do balance our backing track , after it's finish editing mix in and check the level using isotope Tonal Balance
That's a great idea!
Hey, you helped me set up my in-ear monitoring system! Didn't know what you look like till now lol
Hahaha yeah I didn’t film myself on camera for quite a while when I first started doing videos 🤘
Hey Scott! I'm not a stranger to backing tracks, but I really found this very instructive, since I was constantly tweaking loudness on backing tracks this weekend on my mixer. Today, I ran all of them through Audacity and balanced them to ITU-R BS.1770-3 Loudness. They sure sound a lot closer in level to each other now, thanks!
Nice! Glad to help 🤘
@@ScottUhlMusic as I was ruminating more on this, I realized that the first time I ever used backing tracks was in 1976, with a TEAC 3340 reel to reel tape deck.
Man, things are so much easier now!
Your videos are always exactly what I'm looking for in terms of making my bands live shows the best they can be. One thing I'm wondering is, back when you made the video about projecting synced videos in your live show through logic, how do you actually connect your projector to logic? In other words, how do I make sure whatever movie file is in my project is being outputted into my projector?
You use the hdmi out of the laptop into the hdmi input of the projector 🤘
Thank you for answering another question I was about to ask 😂. Very useful tips. I like the splitter cable method. Just started converting my tracks over after watching your other video. Using ST3. I just used the volume control in ST3. Mostly good. However I like the LUFS meter approach. Thanks heaps! I don’t have logic. Can’t update on 2009 Mac. Any plug-in suggestions for Ableton or Pro Tools?
Thanks! And I know they have free LUFS meters out there, I just use the Logic Pro one
Great tutorial as ever! You have inspired my to share my own experience... I hope ya'll find this useful... I produce my own live rock/pop tracks in midi and aim for -1.0 dBTP, -13 LUFS +/-0.5, ~6 LU for quieter music and ~3LU for rock. The Logic meter is accurate and useful ...for nerds who find things like PSR/PLR measures interesting I recommend Youlean as it's fast, acccurate and inexpensive. intergrated loudness is really a measure of the whole track and I suggest using short-term loudeness for short passages and momentary for catching peaks.
I arrived at my values above 1. by monitoring the rate that peaks drove my PA input stage into distortion, 2. following the recommendations for normal loudness settings i.e. between -12 and -14 LUFS (integrated), and 3. by how it feels when I perform the songs - I feel 'glued into' the mix at these levels rather than competing with it.
I've been asked about mastering advice for live use and competative loudness mastering practice is not relevant as there is a big difference between listening to a single, competively mastered track at -10dB or -8dB , and 2.5 hours of exposure to a live entertainer! It's more important to have consistency between tracks rather than achieving a release standard such as EBU etc.
Also note that PA speakers will compress a lot at high volumes: I experiemented with tracks mastered to -10 LUFS but they were far too aggressive on my 8kW EV ETX rig, and even in rehearsal I found it stressing. (Clipping the audio signal in a PA or driving too hard over time will kill tweeters and drivers!).
The point about entertainment is it's a conversation between the artist and the audience who respond to variety and suprise and the artist as a person. Playing over-processed tracks is just like shouting at people and any initial energy will wear thin very quickly!
Hope is this useful. Tx G
Awesome, thanks for sharing this info and adding to the conversation 🤘🤘 I appreciate it
Hi Scott, thanks for all the advice you give in your channel, Its been really helpful. Have you tried the new mastering option included in Logic Pro X 10.8 for balancing/level backing tracks?
Ooooh, no I haven’t heard of that. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check it out!
Absolutely loving your videos Scott, and I'm a new subscriber! If I run backing tracks on my iPad using StageTrax 3 or some other app, is there a way to automate midi changes within different parts of a song to change a preset within my amp modeling software running on my Macbook Air M2? I'm currently using Neural DSP for the amp modeling software.
Thanks! And yes absolutely: ruclips.net/video/R5IIrmJWKJ8/видео.htmlsi=DPEEYpD4hadbEO_3
Hey this is a great video! Thank you! How loud you generally leave the click and queue ?
And are you using Limiter and compression for each track or just for main buss ?
Thanks
I just make sure that my click and cues are always recorded at the same level. I have a preset in logic for the click so that’s always the same, and then for my voice over I have the same preset and gain set so it’s the same for every song
Excellent video I need to know more. Do you have a starter process for dummies like me, I need to know starting with equipment to finish Thanks 👍
I have a complete guide for how I do my backing tracks here: ruclips.net/video/nw8wZfFSQ2w/видео.html
Thank you for all the info question in tracks 3 if you make a mix change will that change be saved or do you have to edit the mix every time you play that file. Thank you
It will save the adjustments 👍
Great video. I try to keep things simple, so I only upload a mastered backing track as a single mp3 to my iPad. I noticed that between songs there are slight variations in volume between backing tracks. The volume control on my iPad is too course so if the track is loud and I take the volume down one notch it becomes too soft. Plus the FOH mixer tries to compensate which adds to the frustration. I usually have my own small Yamaha mixer next to me on a small table with two mics (myself and another singer), my guitar and backing track Bluetooth receiver from my iPad. I send FOH a single XLR cable and tell the mixer that I'll submix everything so he can just set master levels. If there was only an AI app that can automatically level/balance the tracks. It's probably coming.
That’s why I prefer the “best of both worlds” method I go over in this video: ruclips.net/video/UmbdfJpxiIE/видео.htmlsi=1QZx80Eaj6GmDzHh
It definitely helps to make adjustments to the individual parts
great video! what should the tracks be peaking at on the stereo out?
As long as yours are the same across the tracks (of course based on dynamics of a song), that’s what’s important
Scott can you do a video linking stereo mix and panning instruments for iem in the behringer?
Linking is quite simple, you just push the link button and it will pair channels 1&2 or 3&4 or 5&6, etc together. Then on the app that you use to mix your in ear mix, you pan the tracks that you want panned. But I might be able to do that. I wanted to do a video about mono v stereo, so that’s a good option of what to include in the video. Thanks!
Hey Scott, great stuff! I’m getting about ready to implement tracks in my band but had an “oh shit moment” last night when I realized that “left ear cues/click, right ear tracks” is not gonna work with my mono IEM set up fed from aux send on XR18.
Any ideas on that?
BTW, this video really answered my questions on how to blend the tracks with live.
It will work completely fine actually 👍
Thank you so much for the awesome video! Question, will stagetraxx remember the eq changes to each song? Thanks in advance!
Yup it does 🤘
Thanks!
You like all the good musics
Thanks! 🙏
Thank you so much, Scott! I'm about to try to start leveling 30 or so songs with your method, as my current backing tracks are not quite consistent, as I leveled them by ear. At least, none are coming out too strong, but some appear a little.
Question: are you always satisfied with the leveling after you worked a song out to your consistent level (between -12 and -14), or do you still have to further adjust after playing live once? (You do talk about the couple of examples with bass too loud and too faint in your video. I use only backing tracks from the Version Karaoke site you mention.)
I do still seem to adjust when I need to for sure. But it’s definitely much more light tweaking whereas before it was a lot
@@ScottUhlMusic Do you still use the same target level for different types of songs, say a ballad like Ed Sheeran's Perfect versus a rock song like Robert Palmer's Bad Case of Loving You? I play both of them in a same set, with my saxophone as the lead (vocals).
Hello Scott. Love your videos! Do you do consultations? I’d like to be able to do a one on one about my specific backing tracks situation. Thanks!
Yes I do consulting! I do it quite often actually. You can book it through my website (link in the description)
Nice video question for you. I use GarageBand and I export out my backing tracks. But some of them are louder than others. Does this LUFS adjust the exported volume of the backing track? I use stage tracks myself, and I have the ability to adjust the Backing track volume for each track to handle tracks that are quieter or louder. Or if I use this LUFS process I be able to just leave each backing track volume set at zero DB?
Lufs is just a metering tool, it doesn’t affect the output of the track at all. It’s just so you can see your levels and make adjustments accordingly 👍
If my track finally fits in -20. What to do to correct? Increase the volume of each of the instruments? Or put some compressor on the master volume? All instruments are currently at 0 units. Thanks in advance.
All of the above are options! Again, I just use these as a guideline and don’t drive myself nuts trying to make it perfect
I've recently started using Stage Traxx. Thus far I've used my DAW to mix all tracks for a song into a master and put just the that bounced file in my ST3 songs. I'm wondering if setting up a song as multi-track should be my new default. Even if I only really need one file (music left, click right), I guess there's no downside to have addition slots for more files. Since multi-track has become available, do you routinely set your songs up as multi-track?
Switching over to MultiTracks in Stage Traxx has been the best because I can still adjust volume/level/eq on the individual files but also send them all out L/R (tracks/cues). It's the best of both worlds. I couldn't go back personally.
I’ve actually spent over a year developing a protocol for mixing backing tracks.
An to answer your question regarding LUFS differences
LUFS-Momentary: 400 millisecond period.
LUFS- Short Term: three second period
Problem that I have with Integrated especially with Backing Tracks is the Gating algorithm that it utilizes for the value.
Cool, thank you for sharing the numbers!
How did you arrive at your “goals”? Does this affect the levels or volume that the audience hears?
Thanks
I always get closer with every mix I do, but having stage Traxx to make adjustments is very helpful when hearing it live. And yeah the audience hears the changes too 👍
Every time i've tried using backing track ( for cover on insta ) my covers ended being very compressed and drastic lowers in volume, that has me very frustrated
Hey Scott could you direct me to a video of how to start and implement a session so that my bandmates can see exactly what I’m seeing on my iPad. I’ve know I’ve watched a video of yours talking about this, but I can’t seem to find this. Thanks appreciate it!
On stage Traxx? You “host a session” under settings and then your band mates “join session” 👍
Thanks Scott@@ScottUhlMusic
Do you know if there are any of these types of cables that are 15 to 20 ft? We want to run a sample pad on the other side of the drummer to the laptop at our 8n ear monitor rack
The splitter cables? Yeah definitely
@@ScottUhlMusic I haven't been able to find a 20ft midi to USB cable anywhere
Oh the usb cable? Yeah they are on Amazon for sure for different types (a, b, c, lighting, etc)
Ok, Scott, I've been researching this very topic recently. Have you messed around with ReplayGain at all? Peter, the ST3 author, said, "Running all tracks through ReplayGain is a standard process for me. But I only add the tags to the files and don't change the volume directly. This will get me in the ballpark when importing into ST3 and minor tweaks afterwards are still possible but not always necessary."
Oh nice!! I had not heard of that. Thanks for sharing. That does seem a lot easier!
Do you always send tracks to FoH in mono?
I personally do, yes
On my in ear, click track, backing track journey - this is the area that confuses me the most. Sure you can use a meter like this, but not all instruments really need to hit a certain level, right? Music is dynamic - some are more loud than others. For example, I am doing a synth track for a part of the song. It’s a software instrument, and the volumes are nice and solid. However, my fear is going to a live show and having this blare out of the FOH speakers WAY too loud and also dealing with a sound guy who doesn’t care to balance the tracks on the fly for us. I would want to preset the specific track volumes as CLOSE to possible all in the box and hope that it translates live. I still can’t comprehend how to do this.
Also, running the tracks in ableton for in ears, I also want control over THAT volume, independent of the volume that may need to go out to FOH. I know I can use the mixer sliders on my XR 18 for my in ear purposes, but then THAT slider affects all my incoming backing tracks for ears….so the whole balancing thing is really complicated to me!
It’s always a fine line process…. And you’ll likely have to redo some of them. That’s just a part of it
@@ScottUhlMusic Thinking best practises here, lets say you have 12 song set in Ableton. But those 12 songs all have some variety of backing tracks (synths, sounds, etc)...In Ableton you could add all possible 'tracks' for each possible sound (in all 12 songs) but that would end up being very large tracklist. Does it make more sense to control all this in the DAW and bounce it down to keep the tracks to a minimum?
Hey Scott, why ST3 only accepts 6 stems? Do you know the reason for that limitation? I guess Multitracker allows more stems, but I prefer ST3 user interface, hope they’ll add more tracks in the next updates!
I'm not a fan of that either. Even though ST3 only allows for 6 tracks, it IS 6 stereo tracks. I guess there's an issue with 6 stereo track crossfading with 6 more stereo tracks, so there's like 24 mono tracks playing at once and that's up against the limit of what a tablet can do. I couldn't care less about crossfading, and would much prefer 12 mono tracks.
@@Riffman42 Yes! Or maybe 8 stereo tracks could be a sweet spot
@@its_me_mari0 I have no interest in stereo tracks. To me, it doesn't make sense to have to go through all of my songs and combine mono tracks into stereo tracks just to work with this app. Multitracker definitely has the right idea. Another thing that Multitracker is awesome for is it allows for a midi track as well which can be used for lights or program changes. Makes a lot more sense to do it that way than a bunch of midi codes embedded in the lyrics like ST3 implements it.
@@Riffman42 Yeah, I’m leaning more towards Multitracker. The app makes more sense to me too, but the UI is painfully bad. Well, I guess we can’t have it all, isn’t it?
@@its_me_mari0 True! Plus, no lyrics. I'm torn between the two myself. There was a video that John O'Brien did using a midi command from ST3 to trigger the playback from Multitracker. Kind of the best of both worlds!
Gin Blossoms! Okay we are friends again ;)
😅
Merci !
Thank you! 🙏
I have a lot of mp3 tracks from years of gigging and the volumes are over the place. Can I use this to create a template to get my final levels more consistent? Thanks.
Yeah, lufs will help a lot 👍
Hey Scott, thanks for this info! What I've been doing is mixing the track as best I can on Karaoke-Versions site, in addition I eliminate instruments I don' want or need . Then I download, not the individual instruments, but the entire song. I then import the song into my DAW (Traction Waveform 12) and Master it to set the Overall Volume of the Track to match all my other Tracks. It is a FastTrack way of doing it I know, but what do you think about my method?
Here is a sample of a track I mixed online then mastered in my Daw. I also make a video to go along with my track so I don't have to memorize lyrics and every chord change, also helpful when someone else plays along with me, I'm mostly a solo musician.
ruclips.net/video/8qqF26_ijXk/видео.html
Thanks again for all your videos on Backing Tracks!!!!
Skip, rhythm guitarist & vocalist.
There isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to do this…. Just what works best for you. So if it’s working, then keep doing it 🤘🤘
I would LOVE to see you do a full review of the CYMATIC AUDIO LP-16 and/or the CYMATIC AUDIO uTrack24. P.S. Love your Spiral Cell music and of course your mask!
Thanks! And the cymatic I’m pretty sure is discontinued