Mixing / Mastering workflow

Billflinton

One thing I've been struggling with for a long time is a good mastering workflow on iOS, so I'm curious if you've come up with some good practices and tips.

Ideally, I'd like to have an app that would allow me to work on a several separate channels at the same time, with the ability to selectively look at the spectrum analyzers so I can quickly inspect if some of the frequency bands are too overcrowded. Something similar could be done for placing things in the stereo field, etc.

I already have and use Final Touch and it's pretty close to what I imagine, but you can use it only on a single track. And inb4 you say Auria – I got it too, but it's also far from being really frictionless and usable in this scenario (and also you can't really use the spectrum analyzer on more than one channel to quickly see if there aren't any conflicts).

Of course it's possible that my problem lies not with the tools, but with the approach in general, so I'd appreciate if you shared your ideas and comments regarding both the tooling & the workflow.

Tarekith

Are you trying to do stem mastering, or are you talking about more of a mixdown approach when you mention wanting seperate channels? Mastering is my day job, happy to help if I can.

Billflinton

I'm not sure what are the professional terms for what I'm doing, but I mean things like:

• eliminating certain frequencies from the bassline, so the kick drum is "clear"
• panning little additional percussion sounds to the left and right to have a wider presence
• adding a bit of eq or multiband compression to vocal so it stands out and doesn't blend with, say, pads

So I guess it's more of a mixing/mastering on stems, with the ultimate goal of having a well sounding mixdown at the end.

LeeB

For panning separate sounds/channels, you are obviously going to have to go the stem route.
For the mixing, I would use Auria and place a fabfilter pro q on each channel you need to address, using the spectrum analyser wherever needed.

telecharge

@Billflinton said:
I'm not sure what are the professional terms for what I'm doing, but I mean things like:

• eliminating certain frequencies from the bassline, so the kick drum is "clear"
• panning little additional percussion sounds to the left and right to have a wider presence
• adding a bit of eq or multiband compression to vocal so it stands out and doesn't blend with, say, pads

So I guess it's more of a mixing/mastering on stems, with the ultimate goal of having a well sounding mixdown at the end.

A common practice when starting a mix is to listen to all of your tracks together with your faders set to 0 and make some notes -- what stands out, what's getting buried, etc. From there, you adjust your volume levels and panning to taste.

The thing is, there are a multitude of mixing techniques, and there's no one size fits all option. For example, to make a kick drum come through if it's getting buried, you could use sidechaining (aka ducking). Without sidechaining, you may also be able to get the results you desire with an EQ cut on the bassline where it overlaps the kick and boosting the upper midrange.

You may want to consult a frequency chart. These are the basics, but you can find more detailed charts that tell you which frequency ranges particular instruments occupy.

Frequency Range	Frequency Values
Sub-bass	20 to 60 Hz
Bass	60 to 250 Hz
Low midrange	250 to 500 Hz
Midrange	500 Hz to 2 kHz
Upper midrange	2 to 4 kHz
Presence	4 to 6 kHz
Brilliance	6 to 20 kHz

Billflinton

I know there are multiple approaches to that, hence my question about the particular workflows that work for you on iOS.

As for the frequency ranges, I'm thinking of something that could show me exactly which frequencies are overcrowded in my mix when I'm adjusting the EQ for one specific track, because right now you need to either rely on the typical ranges (like the ońe you posted) or switch back and forth between several spectrum analyzers.

Tarekith

At the moment I don't know of any iOS apps that would let you see the spectrums of multiple tracks at once. That's still kind of rare even on OSX, though there's at least a few options. I get why you want to work like that, but I think if you're going the iOS route then you're going to have to stick with a typical mixdown workflow where you treat one track at a time.

You could kinda/maybe/sorta fudge it with some of the Fabfilter multiband tools in Auria on the stereo mixdown, but I'm guessing that's not what you're after.

Hmtx

1. Google Fabfilter Pro-Q2.
2. Watch some demo videos
3. Realize the plug-in has been ported to iOS (inside a DAW called Auria)
4. Make purchases accordingly.

You can put Pro-Q2 on individual tracks and on the main mix. The visuals are great and amount of control is top quaility. If you really want the best on iOS you don't have to look further than that.

telecharge

@Billflinton said:
I know there are multiple approaches to that, he center my question about the particular workflows that work for you on iOS.

What I said in the the first paragraph is what works for me in any DAW. Once I have my volume levels and panning set, subject to change, I decide what I need to work on from there.

@Billflinton said:
As for the frequency ranges, I'm thinking of something that could show me exactly which frequencies are overcrowded in my mix when I'm adjusting the EQ for one specific track, because right now you need to either rely on the typical ranges (like the ońe you posted) or switch back and forth between several spectrum analyzers.

I don't rely on analyzers too much. I tend to trust my ears and use EQ sweeps to make decisions on boosts/cuts -- being careful not to spend too much time in solo, so I know my changes will work in the context of the mix.

But if you're into analyzers, here's a thread with a number of options:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/8582/i-need-a-spectrum-analyzer-with-iaa-ab-support