This week, I'm going to show you how to produce and manage 'hard mutes'. These are really useful production tricks where the volume of almost everything in a mix shuts down completely - as if the Mute Button had been pressed - to leave room for just one sound which carries on playing.
For some Track types, simply adjusting region lengths to carve out some space is relatively straightfoward. But if you're working with MIDI parts which have long Release times, or if you're using spatial FX like Reverb and Delay, sometimes there's a legacy from sounds which last across the area where you're trying to carve out space.
So I'll show you how to create and copy Volume automation data across different track types, manage any clicks and generally clean up space around a sound to let it run the show for a little moment of glory.
00:00 Intro - what are Hard Mutes?
01:04 Track playback
01:54 Identifying the bar for a Hard Mute
02:29 Some audio files are easy to 'hard mute'
03:49 Hi-Hat with Aux FX
04:37 Why Volume Automation doesn't always mute track level
05:30 Options for managing Aux FX levels
06:44 Managing first Aux level
09:28 Managing the FX for Auxes 2 and 3
12:04 Dealing with clicks
12:35 Dealing with long Release Pad
14:53 Track playback with Volume mutes
15:23 Summary