If you’ve had the opportunity to do any audio recording, you might be familiar with the term “ducking”. Without getting into the weeds, ducking has to do with lowering several of the audio signals in the mix for a short period of time to allow another signal to rise above the other tracks.
If you listen critically to a song on the radio, you will notice how ducking is used to allow little guitar fills and percussion bits to cut through the mix.
Ducking’s primary use isin adding clarity to the lead vocal.
When I write songs, I always have the concept of ducking in the back of my mind.
After the introduction to the song, the accompaniment is ducked a few decibels so the melody can be introduced with less clutter behind it.
At the end of the first vocal phrase, the accompaniment will probably rise a bit and duck again at the introduction of the next phrase.
This pattern will continue through the song with each successive phrase until the chorus is hit and the accompaniment is at its most sustained loudest, nudging the melody’s volume and emotional content.
Ducking, like all audio mixing techniques, should be as transparent as possible and not distract the listener but rather sustain the listener’s line of thought.
One of the greatest weaknesses in the early songs we write is forgetting how a static accompaniment quickly gets boring and automated.
Be careful to constantly varying your accompaniment volume (as well as density and texture) as you develop your melodies.
If you keep ducking in the back of your mind, it will be like having an audio engineer working with you – namely, you.
The beauty of this paradigm is that when you turn to the audio engineer and start to say, “I need more of me.”, it’ll be you and you will have already read your mind and bumped up your volume!
If you listen critically to a song on the radio, you will notice how ducking is used to allow little guitar fills and percussion bits to cut through the mix.
Ducking’s primary use isin adding clarity to the lead vocal.
When I write songs, I always have the concept of ducking in the back of my mind.
After the introduction to the song, the accompaniment is ducked a few decibels so the melody can be introduced with less clutter behind it.
At the end of the first vocal phrase, the accompaniment will probably rise a bit and duck again at the introduction of the next phrase.
This pattern will continue through the song with each successive phrase until the chorus is hit and the accompaniment is at its most sustained loudest, nudging the melody’s volume and emotional content.
Ducking, like all audio mixing techniques, should be as transparent as possible and not distract the listener but rather sustain the listener’s line of thought.
One of the greatest weaknesses in the early songs we write is forgetting how a static accompaniment quickly gets boring and automated.
Be careful to constantly varying your accompaniment volume (as well as density and texture) as you develop your melodies.
If you keep ducking in the back of your mind, it will be like having an audio engineer working with you – namely, you.
The beauty of this paradigm is that when you turn to the audio engineer and start to say, “I need more of me.”, it’ll be you and you will have already read your mind and bumped up your volume!
RSS Feed