Welcome to Essentials: Volume Management
There are so many ways in which questions around volume can arise when producing music, from the optimum level for first recordings, all the way through to the best set of tools to use when mixing and mastering. Let's explore this most fundamental of concepts.
The Course
Working with volume is, on one level, one of the easiest concepts to grasp in music production. From our earliest musical experiences, we very quickly feel the desire for music we love to be turned up in volume, whereas we twist the volume dial in the opposite direction whenever we hear something which isn’t more directly to our taste.
For everyone who starts a journey into music production, however, managing volume can become more involved and potentially complicated. Essentials: Volume Management will take you on a journey through all of the ways in which volume presents itself through the production process, to offer advice and guidance for managing this most simple and yet most challenging of concepts.
- Learn the difference between volume at the input and output stages
- Understand signal flow, including the benefits of Headroom
- Velocity and Volume are not the same thing!
- Find out how level meters can help you, whilst learning to trust your ears
What you will Learn
Sometimes, whilst each channel of our tracks is operating at a ‘safe’ level, the output channel of our mix is overloading. Equally, whilst the volume of the lead vocal in a verse feels right, it’s drowned out when the chorus arrives. Compression limits the dynamic range of sounds, meaning the ‘distance’ between their loudest and quietest moments is narrowed - but does that mean that a sound no longer needs volume automation to control its level?
It’s not hard to see how issues surrounding volume can lead to a lot of questions. And they go on… is there a way to deal with sounds which have been recorded with too much input gain? And what is the right level for music if you want to upload it onto streaming platforms? Volume needs careful consideration throughout the writing, production and mixing stages and Essentials: Volume Management is here to tackle all of these questions and many, many more.
- Learn how Compression and volume automation work together (rather than separately) to deliver full mix control
- Manage more complex mixes, understanding groups, VCA Faders and bus automation
- Understand how volume changes every time you add a plug-in to your mix
- Discover the secrets of optimising the volume of your tracks for streaming platforms
Curriculum
Essential
Develop an richer understanding of a fundamental musical concept
Structured
Learn how to plan for volume requirements in a production, to prevent issues later
Thorough
Develop a tool-set of skills to help you manage volume in a wide variety of ways
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Your Instructor
I’m Jono Buchanan. I’m a composer and producer specialising in music for TV and Production Music. I write extensively for some of the largest broadcasters around the world, having also worked on films, documentaries, composed for sports broadcasts and much more besides. I’ve always been a huge fan of electronic dance music too and in the early to mid 2000s, worked as a producer of remixes for some of the biggest pop acts of the day, including Whitney Houston, Pet Shop Boys, Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes.
I have been a visiting lecturer at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama for 25 years. Despite a busy life as a media composer, I’ve never been able to stop myself wanting to teach - I love seeing creativity unlocked in anyone who wants to learn more. For me, the mix of composing, producing and being fascinated by developments in music technology have all developed side-by-side.
YouTube has provided a platform to offer free Logic Pro instruction and on the Jono Buchanan Music channel, a new longer-form video and a Short are posted every week. My Teachable courses will let you take your knowledge deeper, as they're all designed to allow you to unlock your creativity in a more immersive and focused way.
- Learn from a Guildhall School of Music & Drama Professor with 25 years’ experience
- Jono’s extensive experience as a media composer is central to this course
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Immersive, focused teaching