Mixing

[Cell 2Dee]

Ok folks, it's about that time in my music production life where I want to learn how to mix. Now at the moment, it's gonna be a headphone mix, but when I've saved enough for my monitors then my situation will improve. At the moment, I don't use any sort of EQ on my tracks. No compression, no nothing. I want my tracks to sound real clean like a lot of you guys' tracks do. I guess I need any and all of your mixing tips.


(Note - I use Reason)

 

[thedreampolice]

Using EQ and compression can make your tracks sound more clean and give them the definition you want. It is a life long journey to learn how to mix. This DVD would be a good start.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SOTPDVD01/

 

[Shonsteez]

Just start with the basics first man.

Pick a CD that has a great mix that you want your music to sound like and use that as a reference first. Take note to where things are panned, levels of certain parts, etc.

After listening to your reference tracks, work on getting used to understanding how to balance all of your tracks together and then work on the panorama and how each track interacts with one another spatially.

At this point if things are feeling pretty good, take a step back and decide whether or not there is any masking going on in your song.
Examples:
Is your kick not cutting through your bass?
Is your Lead Synth muddy sounding when layered with your other Synth Sounds?
The list goes on....

So at this point, now your looking at reaching for your channel EQ (if needed) to first focus on partially carving out, or removing particular frequencies that aren't contributing to the mix.

This is a good spot to take a break and let your ears chill for a sec, so go have a cigarette, smoke a blunt, have a beer, whatever....

After things seem to sound good hopefully at this point, take a second to asses whether your levels and pans are still feeling good and proceed to render your first rough mix.

Burn this mix onto a CD and listen to it on as many stereo systems as possible. This will help expose any slight problem areas in your mix.

After this, just start at step one again and once things are feeling in place in regards to balance, pan, and track conflicts, you can decide whether or not to apply effects.

Just keep in mind that any effects you apply will alter the gain structure of that particular track, so new adjustments may be needed to balance that track in conjunction with others.

 

[krysolite]

FIRST! make sure the samples (drum hits, instruments, records) are nice in the beginning. like nice quality.

then this is what i do. route each drum hit into an eq and just hit each drum sample every time u load it or make a new beat and always tweak the pitch, drop/raise the low, mid, high ends to get it to sound the way u want. do this for each drum hit, u dont wana slack. like the kick should sound big but not muddy so play around with the eq for that (it depends on the actual sample). the snare should sound punchy, but enough high end to make it crisp as well. hi hats i try to get rid of most bass (not all) cuz it cuts in kinda. bongos crash w/e u can figure out.

a technique i use, if you want ur samples/hits to sound "cleaner", is to lower the the length knob to somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the full length. it kinda cuts the drums short, but sharply (may not be a real word). crashes should kinda splash, not stick out. when u play the drum loop, u shouldn't have anything jump out at u except the kick or snare (imo).

if u want then put some compressor on that, but i dont compress the drums alone (i should tho?).

same thing with samples/instruments. every time u load a new device. always route it through an eq. synths i try to raise certain low freqs. sometimes, but be careful when u do because it may get muddy and overpower ur kick so ur kick will sound shitty and weak. if this happens u can always do a sidechain eq taking an input from ur kick signal compressing the entire non-drum mixer. also u need some decent headphones with nice bass to make sure it won't be muddy (if thats what ur using). and on the synths, raise some high-mid freqs so it sounds crisp and half distorted? dayumm. try to make sure u cover the entire frequency spectrum (well most), or ur track is going to sound empty. play ur beat, then play a song that would be on the radio. whats the difference in eq missing?

for samples man (like. chopped samples), after u lay it out, solo it so its all u hear. now it should sound sick on its own. so u gota fucking eq that old ass scratched up vinyl recording so it sounds ALIVE. sometimes raise drop mid. almost always u need high end raised (i think). maybe high-mid.

i throw on a compressor and route everything through it (usually preset to 'pop' setting cuz it distorts the least i guess). set it to 'hip-hop' if u want really big bass. the combinator compressor, not the red one.

main thing is, EVERYTHING through an eq.

*also. i duno about u guys, but i think i naturally try to avoid bumping up the mid range often cuz it gets it sounding muddy, unless the sound is already in the mid range so i dont have to boost anything. maybe its my speakers. anyone else?

EDIT: lol i don't mean to promote or anything. i just want to give an example of what it would sound like if u do what i do. check out my myspace. don't comment on them tho cuz thats for the showcase. its just for u to see. IM NOT SAYING my way is right. but its my way.

PEACE

 

[Sanova]

I suggest reading the Guide over at Tweakheadz.
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Its pretty long but equally as informative. But there is a navigation through the pages/chapters on the left hand side and you can skip to EQ sections, i'll list a few:

Mixing 101 - http://www.tweakheadz.com/perfect_mix.html

Using EQ - http://www.tweakheadz.com/EQ_and_the_Limits_of_Audio.html

Pan Vol FX - http://www.tweakheadz.com/pan_control.htm

Mix Methods - http://www.tweakheadz.com/mixing_in_the_sequencer.htm

Mastering - http://www.tweakheadz.com/mastering_your_audio.htm

nov

 

[Cell 2Dee]

Plenty of great responses. I'll take all your advice on board and (hopefully) step my mixing game up. Thanks IllFam, appreciate it.

 

[Sanova]

haha word! i'm 100% sure that every active member on ill has stepped their mixing game up in some form or another thanks to this forum.

 

[7thangel]

stick to the basics first.

proper gain staging is a must, especially if you also record (vox and/or hardware otb). y'know the sayin', can't shine a turd. so getting that right is the first hurdle, usually overlooked and forgotten (hence the overuse of compressors and limiters in order to control the peaks as opposed to using it as an effect for flavour and sound) just like the other important aspect, signal flow. signal flow in the daw world can be real simple or as complicated as otb, and is really important to overstand if you're doing a hybrid, itb and otb together. don't jump into the more unique routing and methods (i.e. sidechaining) until you learn the basics and definitely not until you know your daw and set up.

once that is tackled, doing simple listening and training your ears,as well as referencing (especially on your set up but also hear what those references sound like a a treated studio to hear what you might be missing, although they also might have a less than stellar monitoring and treatment). while doing that, treat your room within your budget and with research, i don't expect people to get into absorption co-efficients and the many and ridiculously long formulas but just an overstanding that just place shit on the wall, with no air between it and the wall, isn't the proper method. knowing the deficiencies that can't be fixed or may cost too much and finding ways to compensate, sometimes it's just by knowing what steps you have to do after referencing your mix at places that have good acoustics. of course, good monitors and placed right.

stick to basic plugs in order to learn the tools. there are different types of eq's and compressors (and other dynamic processors), getting bogged down on fet, feedback/feedforward, linear phase, or worse, esoteric controls some of the good shit, both hardware and software, will muck shit up. learn about the problem freq's and freq build ups, masking, etc (the mixing engineer handbook is a good book to learn, as well as, the recording engineer handbook). once you get the basics and a feel on how you like to work, get to know the differences in the types of processes, while looking for the tools that you like sound and feel-wise.

same for time based processors

check youtube, certain dvd tutorial vids, maybe golden ears for freq ear training but shit is hella boring, books (i'm supposed to start reading the highly rated 'mixing with the mind) and vids specific to your daw and overstand that learning never stops and changes with the tech (even pros don't have a set comfortable way to deal with mp3 versions, some are treating it like a whole new format, like they had to when going from vinyl to cd, where a simple conversion isn't the best solution)

one thing, i like mixing and i see it as a total separate process but the times have changed, at least for beatmaking, where you're expected to make a good mix when looking for placements, but if you don't take a liking to it don't make it cut into the beatmaking creative time, which it will do to some extent.

also know, the same people that expect a good-great mix from you on your beat cd or submission tend to listen to shit in the worst places, go figure.

shit, that was long, it was supposed to be just the 1st line, lol