This article is provided by Audio Geek Zine.

 
I’m currently working with a band and after each part is recorded I’m spending a good amount of time editing to tighten up the performance.

It’s not because they can’t play well, they’re actually really good, I could probably get away with not doing any tightening of the performance at all.

I’m tightening the performance not because I can, but because it sounds better. To me at least. You can disagree, I don’t care.

For me the effort and time spent is worth it. It makes the song sound more polished and another step closer to a professional result. I do this kind of editing on everything I work on; I won’t mix a song that has a sloppy performance.

Pocketing
This editing to tighten things up is often called “pocketing.” It takes time and it’s not very much fun, but it really makes an difference.

In this project I’ve edited the drums, bass and guitars to be perfectly in time. Some people like the bass a bit behind the beat by a certain amount and have different ideas about where things should be.

I do everything right on the grid and it sounds right to me. I have not yet had a complaint that it sounds too perfect or too rigid.

How Perfect
You don’t have to do every 16th note of the performance, you can do much less than that.

I usually start by lining up all elements at the start of each section of the song.

Then go through in finer detail if anything sounds off. Often I’m adjusting down to 8th notes especially if parts are double tracked, with two performances panned left and right of the same part.

If those parts aren’t tight you get a distracting bounce between each ear. I really hate that.

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