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The Art of Mixing
A good mix is essential to good music production. Of course it won't make a poor performance good but it will make a good performance sound great. There are professionals who specialize in this very area to get the sound balanced and well represented. It is also very personal aspect of music making and some mix engineers are know for their "sound". While there is no auto mix app (dread the thought) good info and tips are a great starting point for creating your own style of mixing.
If any are familiar with the great resource that is Sound on Sound should also be familiar with the popular "mix rescue" in which a submitted song is brought to life through professional mixing. It is musical magic on a technical level. A great book that I have been reading through is "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior who, along with Paul White and others, do those mix rescues.
I would like to see some Q&A from the members here on this subject of mixing.
I'll start with a well know tip, reference tracks, pick some that are useful to your mix in a sonic perspective and try to emulate it. A good reference is Bob Katz, his Honor Roll is a great reference. Actually all the info on digido.com is excellent for mixing and mastering, he is world renown for his work.
Got others?
Comments
While $25/month is kinda pricy, lynda.com has a good 50+ hours of video tutorials covering everything from reverb to remixing, including an almost three-hour deal on Auria. Good stuff.
I've seen a couple of those, I agree great stuff, especially the Auria (in my case).
I watched some Charles Dye videos years ago when I started using a computer heavily. Pretty cool to see what he does with software.
Awesome @dreamless, He has some incredible cred.
The tools and tastes have changed from 10 years ago. We have some amazing tools at our disposal on ios, now with proper understanding we may be able to better utilize them.
I find it interesting when I listen to artists from different regions and how they use compression. Is anybody using MB compression on a track basis?
Hi,
Good post
I found a site/blog that seems to run a good series of tips on EQing (see links below). The first thing that pops into my mind (well, what I find hard) is how to get clarity of the mix. From a standard "band" perspective (with guitar, bass, piano and such instruments) there are always work to be done in the bottom and lower mid. I.e cutting frequencies (small ranges) in lower mid for a guitar to give room for other instruments/sounds that are working in the same "area", rather that focusing too much on volume. Its not easy and I'm not an expert. At all.
Vocal EQing
http://aaasounddesign.com/2014/04/29/top-tip-tuesday-no-1-vocal-eqing/
Guitar EQing
http://aaasounddesign.com/2014/05/06/top-tip-tuesday-no-2-acoustic-guitar-eqing/
Clarity is all about separation.
Sorry, beginner question - what exactly is predelay in reverb?
It's the time between the sound occurring and the reverberations commencing. It represents the distance between the sound source and any reflective surfaces.
Here's a guide I wrote on mixing that might help:
http://tarekith.com/assets/pdfs/Mixdowns.pdf
There's some others here too:
http://tarekith.com/helpandsounds/
My number 1 tip is to begin by getting the bass drum and bass guitar/synth/whatever working as a cohesive unit, if you have that instrumentation. Number 2, if you have vocals make sure everything else works to support them, and that during any lead breaks the lead instrument isn't more dominant than the vocals before and after. Treat the instrumentation as scaffolding to show off the vocals, because if there are vocals that is practically all most listeners will hear. Number 3, don't be precious about being able to hear every nuance of every sound, because unless you are very lucky/talented with your arrangement that just isn't likely to be possible. If you think an instrument isn't loud enough don't turn it up! Mute it, and if you can hear it's gone it was loud enough. If you can't tell it's gone then maybe you don't need it. Rule number 4, rules are stupid and you should feel free to break every singe one! (I have more rules, but I can already sense your eyes drooping........)
Even though I knew several of these mixing tips, this is still a great reference--bookmarked! :-)
4 mix tips from me:
1) Turn your mix down until it's barely audible. Whichever part you consider the most import should be the last thing you can still hear before it goes silent.
2) Use subtractive EQ as much as possible. Instead of turning the bass guitar up, subtract low frequencies from other instruments. Hey! It's louder! And you haven't lost any headroom.
3) Play your mix in reverse. If you don't hear any satanic overtones you're doing something wrong. Also, do everything @paulb said about pre-delay and reverbs. I find it's critical particularly in a denser mix. Remember that the pre-delay time can be set to be in sync with the tempo, even if it's a 32nd or 16th note of delay. If your reverb unit doesn't offer pre-delay stick an actual delay before it @ 100% wet.
4) Hire Bob Clearmountain to do the mix for you.
@PaulB, @Periurban and @syrupcore many thanks. All fantastic, extremely helpful info. Generous of you to share.
Edit: Thanks as always to @Tarekith
@flo26 For the price of about 10 iPads you can probably get him to mix a song for you.
Might be more than that even.
Defintely go easy on fx especially reverbs i.e. Reverb on individual tracks and then another reverb on a group of tracks is generally a bad idea. The trick of mixing at low volume is a great one, some of the old big custom mixing desks had a little mono speaker built in to emulate a sound of a transistor radio! Also eq is good instead of or as well as volume at bringing a particular thing you want to the foreground. Slightly increased high frequencies will do a better job than whacking up the volume. Another trick I remember from the few recording lessons I've been to at Milan civic school of Jazz was to keep low frequencies in the centre of the mix (kick, bass) as human ear can't tell where they're coming from accurately. I also find that high volume of hihats is often responsible for a harsh mix. Sorry for this mashed up info.
Those are some great links above.
A jury of your peers
Quote from " behind the glass" of Alan Parsons " I don't think any single engineer, artist, or producer ever achieved anything by working on his own. You learn from other people, you achieve great things by working with other people".
this info from @Tarekith's site. (Great reference)
"Clearly you want to take opinions with a pinch of salt, because opinions vary. Take advise from fans of that sound, death metal fans aren't likely going to praise plastic dance pop. Filter out what you deem irrelevant and keep what is useful." Actually this quote goes into many aspects of life:)
Break the rules, but you must know them to break them.
Now for a question, is anybody using MB compression on a per track basis, say with Audio Mastering or Fabfilter?
First, I'd like to say that this is an excellent thread idea! I love checking into Audiobus forums and finding a gem of a thread such as this.
So here goes...
One book that I would recommend is "Mixing with Your Mind" by Michael Stavrou. Covers a lot interesting mixing concepts. Definitely worth a read.
And one tip...give your ears a break! There's this thing called ear fatigue, which over long periods of time can affect your hearing. This can lead to mistakes in your mix. Take breaks, and step away from the music. Fresh ears will help.
@WMWM said:
Sometimes I'll use it for a bassline, if there's a really strong sub bass peak and the rest of it sounds fine. Easy enough with Pro-MB to just tame that simple peak and leave everything else alone.
Best advice I have for MB compression is that you don't HAVE use a bunch of bands. Often just a band or two to fix the issue is fine, and doesn't mess with anything else. That's actually a major critique I have of apps like Final Touch, where they present the compressor with a bunch of bands already drawn and active. Makes people feel like they have to use all of them to be using it right
Garbage in garbage out! Take the time to set input levels properly, placement of mics etc. The better preparation before commiting to record the easier the mixing post recording.
Mix through monitors and track with headphones. Reverb and delays can sound very different on monitors. the stereo field will also more apparent than having the sound going directly into the ear as with headphones.
Above all if Vocals are a dominant part of the whole strive for excellence, above all else vocals are what is heard and remembered.
OK, I have a question for everyone. I know all about the loudness wars and over compression and how it can ruin the sound, BUT, it is generally expected to have a loud mix. I personally always end up with quiet mixes, and would like to make my mixes louder. Here's my question:
Which would be better, to mix the whole song without loudness in mind, and do the loudness work after the mixing is done, OR focus on making each track as loud as possible and then mixing?
Or...
It seems to me that there would be benefits to limiting transient peaks and recording each track as hot as possible, and then mixing the volumes of the recorded tracks until one has the proper mix. Then, finally, using a final compression to glue the mix together and bring up the remaining volume as needed. This would I imagine, be making use of both methods that I mentioned previously.
I guess the short version of my question would be: Is the achievement of a loud mix something that has to be considered and worked toward throughout the mix, or is it something you can do when the general mix is done?
What are the recommended methodologies?
One methodology: You want to start with loud in mind. You do not need to track hot but you should mix hot from the start. Think: subtractive EQ feeding compressors feeding compressors feeding compressors. That is, carve away as much as possible on each track [1] and put it through a channel compressor. Then, bus the track with similar tracks and add a compressor to the bus. Finally, the two mix should have one or maybe two compressors on it in series (or comp -> limiter).
The trick here with all of these damn compressors flying around is that none of them should be working that hard (unless for effect...). You can add volume with the channel and bus compressors.
You want to be doing all of this stuff as early as possible in the mixing stage because compressors can change the sound of the mix plus the bus and master compressors will react differently depending on the material. Plopping it on at the end will make it very difficult to get a good 'maximized' mix.
[1] It may be counter intuitive to aggressively use subtractive EQ to get a loud mix but cutting everything but the most essential stuff allows you to get the track loud without clashing with other instruments. It's easy to take it too far and end up with a pile of shit but you can use an analyzer to figure out where to put upper and lower shelves and then use your ears for everything else.
Great tips, very knowledgable
Here is a good reference for dynamic range on a lot of releases. http://dr.loudness-war.info
Thanks @Tarekith for your advise, much respect.
So much great advice here...
Over the last year, these are some of the most useful lessons I've learnt:
@Audiojunkie said:
Most of the time you can just focus on making the mix sound the way you want, and them worry about the loudness after the fact. For most songs, you'll still be able to get them plenty loud if the mix is nice and balanced.
However, some people REALLY want stupid loud as hell masters, and if you're one of those who wants to push that limit, then definitely everything up to the mastering stage must take that into account. The sounds you use, the arrangement, how many parts are playing, which parts of the song will still work with a little bit of distortion on them, etc.
Cool! Thanks for the responses guys! :-) I agree that this is a great thread, because I always want to improve my understanding and technique! My output may be limited (real life always gets in the way), but I don't mind as much as long as my understanding continues to grow. :-)
OK, here's another one: Analyzers are essential in the art of mixing; what are tips that you recommend in using an analyzer when EQ'ing your mix?
@WMWM said:
It's always fun to see what other releases are, but I usually recommend that people NOT try and aim for a specific RMS value or set amount of dynamic range. Make it sound good and then look at that stuff out of curiosity when you're done
@WMWM - Happy to help, I could talk mixdowns and mastering all day
Totally agree on make it sound good. Better to compare with your ears (put a reference mix in and AB with your mix) than to look at a meter, especially an RMS meter.
Though, at one point in time I definitely learned a lot about my 5k+ levels by looking at spectrum analsys comparisons of my mixes and reference mixes. I seemed to always have a downward curve! I started trying to fix that as an experiment (even though the mix sounded fine to my ears) and was surprised to learn that if I cut the mud out of all of my medium and higher frequency stuff I could turn them up and get a much more balanced mix (and frankly louder even if I wasn't going for that). Totally possibly to have arrived at the same place with ears alone but my eyes gave me the clue to investigate. Ear fatigue is a real thing (plus I was mixing on NS-10s primarily at that point!) and my ears seemed to tell my brain to turn down the highs.
@Audiojunkie said:
I wouldn't call them essential but they can sure be useful (see above!).
Here's an EQ tip that doesn't require an analyzer. If you want to find an overtone in a particular track (say a ring in an acoustic guitar that you want to tame) use a parametric EQ, set thr band to the narrowest Q you can and then turn the band up as high as it will go. Now sweep around and when you have the urge to kill a kitty, you found it. Cut away.
Basically acts like a synth with the resonance on the filter turned all the way up. As you sweep the filter you hit points where the relationship between the filter frequency and the osc frequency (or guitar overtone in with the EQ) cause the freak out/feedback.
Oh, one more related to taming an overtone. Once you've found the frequency via sweeping around you can also try cutting just a little there and then a little at octaves above and below it (half and double the freq) instead notching out the root frequency. Not always but sometimes has the same result without bastardizing the original sound as much.