I sat in the third row of a "Weird Al" Yankovic concert yesterday.
My friend, who unrelatedly worked on the first iPhone with Steve Jobs, couldn't make it so he gifted me his seats.
Don't worry, I already had tickets to see "Weird Al." I wouldn't kiss that gift horse on the mouth when he rode through my city.
But they were in row P! P! That's P for PEON SEATS!
This was
the third row.
I was so close I could see his spit!
I was so close I could see the shimmer of Al's Hawaiian shirt serenading me with the tender tunes
of "When I Was Your Age," "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," "I'll Sue Ya" and "My Baby's in Love With Eddie Vedder."
All the songs my wife hates even more than the parody covers he plays on his stadium tours.
So she stayed home
with the baby while I took her dad to the show. He would torment her with "Weird Al" when she was younger so it was only natural that he keep it going.
If you're a newbie to these emails you might be rolling your eyes.
"Weird
Al Yankovic...bleurgh..."
But you longtime loyal followers of my fifteen years of Audio Issues are probably going, "He likes "Weird Al." Sounds about right."
And if you're familiar with how these emails go you already know
that now's about that time I somehow tie a strange story into something relevant and hopefully useful to your mixes.
But I'm coming up short.
It's almost as if my attack wasn't quite right this time.
Kind of like when you have a kick drum that doesn't quite cut through the mix no matter what you do.
Even the boostiest of boosts on your EQ won't punch that beater through the mix.
And you've already checked the compressor to make sure your attack isn't so fast that's it's squashing the transients.
So what to do...what to do...
Maybe at that point it's time to try
something...weird.
Maybe it's time to bring out the accordion of the audio processors: The transient designer.
Slap a transient designer on that kick and increase the attack on that transient to make it cut through.
Shape that waveform so that it's guaranteed to cut through all the tracks that are in the way, like an accordion mix at a "Weird Al" Yankovic concert.
And if that works out for you and you'd like even more tips, tricks, and proven techniques to
transform your amateur drum sound into powerful drum mixes, check out my Drum Mix Toolkit.
It's on sale until Friday for 30% off with the code DMT30 so make sure you click here and grab it before the discount expires.
Toodles,
Björgvin "I Sing Along to Weird Al" Benediktsson