Editing - Time/Phase Alignment of Drums or Locking In of Other Instruments/Vocals for $75

The editing stage of a song is crucial. If your tracks are properly edited and prepared for mixdown, it means that your performance will translate into a better mix by making sure the timing is locked in and all your tracks are in phase and at a level that will be easy to work with as a mixing engineer. Editing is arguably the most tedious and laborious task of music production, so let me bear the headache so that you can focus on the creative decisions.

Depending on the style of music I may use my ears and eyes to just fix downbeats and rushing and dragging where noticeable while retaining the bands unique feel, but often a perfectly edited "on the grid" sound is desired. If that's the case then I’ll quantize every note cleanly.

If you have recorded drums and would like them edited, I can do that for you. I utilize slip editing in Reaper so as not to disturb any transients, while examining every cross-fade to make sure no artifacts are left behind. If desired, I manually trim and gate your tom tracks or split the snare into two separate accent and ghost note tracks.

If drums have already been edited or programmed and all the other instruments are recorded, I can lock in the rest of the band with the drummer. I will also align any background vocals to the lead manually using stretch markers so that each word starts and ends together for tightness and clarity. I will also automate the volume of each vocal phrase so that there is consistency through the entire song, making it easier to dial in a compressor and set an overall level. If you would like the vocals tuned, that can be arranged as a special offer depending on the extent (a clean bridge in a metalcore song vs layered pop vocals will cost differently).

If a song has been multi-tracked, but no metronome was used then I can align the band internally to a reasonable extent. I'll pocket the drums and bass together and important rhythmic band shots will be tight and together.

In addition to the regular edits of your tracks, I will also properly align the phase of drums and mutli-mic'd instruments, and do a nominal leveling of the tracks to a volume that is ideal for mixing and gives the mixing engineer the right amount of headroom to start with, a sort of pre-mix master. I also offer these services only as a separate offer on their own for $15 per song.

When I send your tracks back, they’ll be as polished as could be for raw tracks and ready for mixdown. Looking forward to working with your music!