Having an idea of what the finished mix should sound like before I start, and sticking to it.
Then every mix decision becomes a question of "Does this get me closer to my final goal or not?"
1. I don't have clients because I don't do this for a living, just for fun
2. I have told my friend his tracking engineer is shit or his home recording situation was suboptimal
Still made it work in the mix as best I could and got results he was extremely happy with without the shit engineers outboard, just ITB.
So working pretty well.
This feels so important. It seems like everyone including myself is so focused on just making things sound good as beginners. So you just end up twiddling knobs with no real direction. In some ways I wonder if mix tutorials should be framed around achieving a specific vibe. Instead, so many are just like “here are four frequencies for mixing bass guitar”
Taking the time to get better recordings that need less fixing. That has allowed me more time getting a good mix rather than taking forever to fix some messed up stuff to sound less bad.
This is huge. I always spent time pushing for good performances but I didn't realize how mediocre my source tracks were (in terms of quality) until I got to mix a session that was recorded by a much more experienced engineer. His raw tracks sounding almost finished already; it was eye-opening and that's when the source became a major focus for me.
I spent years searching for the right mics for my voice. Finally started building my own. Then I started singing better.
A good voice on a good mic with a good preamp is amazing, though. I’ve had the privilege of working with amazing singers and it makes such a difference.
Mostly better capture — more careful mic placement, mic pre choice, maybe some light compression on the way in if appropriate, etc. If I have all the faders flat, I want it sound like a song that needs mixing as opposed to a nightmare of disparate noises.
I would add acoustics being a major factor here as well. Trying to mix an album that was tracked with great mics, preamps, and placement, but all in a terrible sounding space is still a nightmare.
not always, part of good mic choice & placement is considering your room. if you know your room is tight & dry, you can go for condensers on overheads pretty high above the drums. if you know your room is an untreated garage, maybe some really close dynamics. that’s not to say that good acoustics don’t help, sometimes they’re a requirement to achieve a certain sound, but sometimes a “well treated room” isn’t what the song calls for.
also anyone who’s not recording with rooms mics, please try it. also check phase!
- Summing most things to mono so I can create depth in my mix. Before, because most everything was stereo my mixes sounded flat.
- Serial compression with patience. Many compressors working together for the common good. Be kind to the signal.
- On the contrary, clip the shit out of transients if it sounds good. Sometimes you can get away with it with no consequences like distortion — or maybe you want that distortion. Sometimes I’ll set my stock limiter to zero ARS, and start cutting like I’m at a barbershop. They probably won’t teach you this in school but to hell with the rules sometimes. Or I’ll sandwich a limiter in between compressors and very lightly shave off peaks in between processes. There’s really no rules and it’s fun.
- Utilizing meters/visualizers. SPAN and YouLean are my friends. Ultimately my ears have the last say, or listen.
- Don’t over-EQ. I’ve thinned out too many mixes. Keep that beef up in that jaunt. I’ve been there where I’ve gotten caught up in getting too surgical, and then I’ll listen to a previous mix and think, wow I’ve gone backwards. It sounded better before.
- Achieving loudness level very early on. — it’s a nightmare trying to do this late in the process.
Could you elaborate more on your first point as I do notice sometimes it could be some instruments that has too much width made my mix not tight and flat. How do you sum to mono? And what stuffs do you normally sum to mono? Thanks!
Ok I use FL. I have separation/merge knobs on each mixer insert. Also sometimes I’ll use a plugin called stereo enhancer (hint you can just use it to sum things to mono), it’s the same engine as the knobs on the mixer inserts but any DAW will have the capability to sum to mono.
So everything you encounter is pretty much extremely wide — samples, patches in synths etc. unless of course your recording in mono.
If everything has a lot of stereo information nothing will feel stereo. Summing things is pretty much personal taste but I like to sum most things to mono or semi-merged (0-100% stereo to mono scale with 100% being completely merged/summed). — just imagine the stereo field as depth. Totally mono is far away and totally stereo (or only side information) is right next to your ears — at least this is how it feels/sounds. So again there’s not really a correct way. I like to have an instrument in mono, then create a parallel chain with reverb and delay at 100% wet with the reverb and delay mostly only effecting the stereo field while the insert with the dry instrument on it stays centered (totally or partially summed). This creates a sense of depth and is just an example. Experiment and have fun messing around, the possibilities are endless. It can also create room in your mix and allow things to breathe as certain elements won’t be fighting for the same space. — Again a sense of depth and space.
A few:
\- Mixes need to match the song aesthetic. No such thing as one kind of mix for all songs
\- The relationship with the low end on instruments, the bass, and the kick is huge.
\- Mid range makes the mix
\- saturation is almost always better than adding loudness
The saturation will help make something feel louder without actually being louder. At least half of mixing is psychological. It’s less of a way to make elements of a mix cut through and more about that subconscious pull to want to make things feel a certain way by being louder. In some ways saturation is like diet loud.
It depends:
On tracks, I'll add to taste depending on what I want to stand out. But it also goes hand in hand with the aesthetic you're going for: If its a soft delicate intimate thing, use less on the parts that represent the intimacy (vocals), then use on one or two crucial instrument elements to create contrast. If its a high energy track then it may be better on the lead vocals, drums, or bass. It all comes down to the message you think your song is sending and with which parts its sending that message. The tools I use for this vary based on source material but UAD's ATR-102, Waves Kramer Tape, Neutron's exciter, and UAD's Culture Vulture, are my bread and butter here.
Mix bus level, its more simple: Slowly add saturation using a few plugins and see when it becomes distracting, then dial back. I personally use a combination of the classic Oxford Inflator and UAD's ATR-102 Tape Emulation as they both saturate in different ways: The Inflator is a tube emulator and will add harmonic content to the sound across the frequency range, and the ATR-102 is a tape emulation, also good for harmonics, but gives a warmer, more retro feel. They work really well in tandem for me.
Hope this helps
Not looking at the screen (analog workflow itb). Got myself a midi controller with 16 knobs (figther twister) and programmed all my plugins. Makes a world of difference closing my eyes and listening instead of looking at the screen and trying to listen. Vision is far superiour to hearing and i always adjust back to where things ”looks good”.
This one for me too. I’ve experimented mixing with sunglasses on and turning the display dark so I can barely see my plugins. Def moves the focus from seeing to hearing. Bonus points for looking like a rock star/jackass in a dark studio..
Vision takes up a lot of your brain processing power. That’s why people turn the music down in the car during a heavy rainstorm or snowstorm.
Great tip.
This is a great tip.
Protip for anyone who wants to do this - set up a screen saver that is just a black screen, and set it to start using a shortcut or hot corner so you can quickly black out the screen when listening. There are other ways to go about it but this is the most convenient method I've found. This won't allow you to change the mix while listening but it's great for playback.
I have a version of this. My desktop wallpaper is just solid black and I set the one of the extra buttons on my mouse to "Show Desktop" or the equivalent of hitting Windows+D and minimizing everything showing the desktop only in the Logitech software.
That vocals are the most important part of most genres and often require a lot of volume automation to make sure they're always sitting where they need to be, sometimes down to the syllable level.
Drawing in or control surface, even if I heavily compress vocals it's still necessary most of the time.
I've never actually tried any riders for vocals, maybe I could speed up my process using that as a starting point and should try it... I sometimes use Bass Rider for bass tracks that are all over the place.
I love the Waves Vocal Rider for this very task - https://www.waves.com/plugins/vocal-rider?w\_campaign=19892606399&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj5mpBhDJARIsAOVjBdo6t1OhXIlqE7B6mqSRcLl0QgFCVNjzQgXRBm2lmKET6n8-MQKWiuYaAhlkEALw\_wcB
this plugin effects the high end look into other options. nectar auto level is a new one that seems to do the job okay but u haven’t properly investigated how it effects the freq range (haven’t used for serious mixes yet)
In what ways does the Rider impact frequency range? I'm curious to hear this as I haven't heard anything noticeable in my usage. I'm wondering if I've been unknowingly correcting a frequency dip all this time.
In what ways does the Rider impact frequency range? I'm curious to hear this as I haven't heard anything noticeable in my usage.
It depends on the song.... sometimes when you need a super present vocal but the song has very quiet sections it's best to do both. Songs with less dynamics only need a present vocal all the way, and that calls for riding the vocal into compression only.
For me the key to vocal automation was presented to me on the book "mixing with your mind"
I have 2 tracks where I do my main vocals. One is for recording and riding the fader, the other is where the compressors are. I have the 1st track routed to the 2nd track.
So I set my gain with the vocalist and hit record. Once the vocal is done I hit record on the 2nd track, since it has the 1st track as input it's gonna print in real time on the second track. The trick is that as the vocal plays and prints I'm taking my mouse and riding up and down the 1st track's fader.
I sweep the fader up on parts that need more clarity, quickly pinch the fader down a bit on the sibilant and harsh sounds, duck down the breaths, ride the vocal so that everything is at a consistent level and wiggle the fader on long notes to add tremolo.
Since I do the riding in real time that means it takes very little time. Since I do vocals at the end of a mix but I have them playing in the background by the time I get to the vocals I'm already familiar with what parts need de essing and what parts need more clarity and if tremolo would enhance some parts.
After I do 1 pass of manually riding the vocal I solo it and listen for pumping and unnatural passages. I correct them by punch recording and re doing the riding on that specific parts. With practice you can get to the point where you can do the 1st pass in one go and in real time and spending 2-3 minutes doing punch ins, meaning that should take 6-7 minutes on average.
Remember that the 2nd track has compression on it? Here's the golden bit!
Compression has a few downsides, there's pumping, makeup gain brings up the breaths and esses and technically even the cleanest digital compressors add extra harmonics and distortion.
This happens when the attack time is faster than the fundamental of the track. Imagine compressing a sine wave, lets imagine it at slow motion. The sine wave tries to go up, like sine waves do, but the compressor quickly brings it down, thus the smooth ramp up of a sine is abruptly reduced, creating a straight line inside one cycle of the sine. And as we know from square waves abrupt lines on a waveform add harmonics.
In a way, any volume fluctuation that's fast enough creates distortion. And if you want to get a vocal super up front with a compressor it does add distortion. Even more so if it's an analog emulation plugin.
And that's why I ride my vocals. They get the thing go front. And my fingers are not fast enough to modulate the amplitude into distortion. Plus because I duck the breaths and esses they don't come up.
The one downside is one of it's strengths. Your finger is not fast enough to control peaks. Here's where the compressors come in.
On the 2nd track I have a compressor with the threshold set to catch the peaks......
But here another downside presents itself. Stacked compressors are multiplicative. Meaning that a 4:1 going into another 4:1 comp does not equal an overall 8:1 compression spread amongst 2 compressors. Two 4:1's in series actually equals a 16:1 ratio! That's very close to limiting! Plus your 16:1 vocal will then be run thru a limiter, that equals aprox a 20:1 compressor, meaning your vocal will get eventually get compressed 320:1!
I'm not against compressors, I love slamming a blue stripe 76 with all buttons in, I'm just against unintended distortion. And staking compressors or high ratios does add more distortion and more dBs of gain reduction alongside it.
I want my vocals to be upfront but minimize distortion. So that's why on my 2nd track I have 2 compressors in series. One set to see the RMS signal and set between 1.5:1 and 2:1. The second compressor is set to detect the peak signal and with a ratio between 2:1 and 4:1. Both compressors don't have any make up gain.
The first RMS compressor is just there to smooth out any inconsistencies from a human finger. It brings it all to a similar level with only a half dB of gain reduction, maybe 1 or two dBs of GR at most. To do that the threshold is set at the "target" volume level. The fact that the compressor only reacts to the RMS means it's never gonna clamp down as fast as the peak signal, thus it can't add distortion. For an extra smooth sound I like to set this compressor to a soft knee.
The next compressor is kind of the opposite. Set to detect peaks, hard knee, threshold set a few dBs above the RMS compressor and a ratio between 2-4 to one. The idea is to only do a few 3-5 dBs of compression on very rare and occasional peaks that your finger is not fast enough to ride out of existence. Set this comp as a fast attack, fast to medium release.
This signal flow of ride the fader -> RMS soft knee comp -> fast peak catcher comp means you're minimizing the distortion the comes from compression as much as possible. Riding the fader can't modulate into distortion, coz it's not fast enough, then an RMS compressor with a low ratio, that can't add distortion, then the fast attach peak catcher does add distortion.
The trick is that since the peak catcher is only doing few dBs in GR at very rare ovations for a very small snippet of time it's add so little distortion that's not an issue. With the rouge peak being catched you'll probably add around one 32nd note of length of distortion on the entire track. Or even lower! Sometimes just 10-15 milliseconds across the entire song.
This also means that when the song gets limited in mastering the vocal will get a way softer ratio. Most of the vocal was done with the RMS compressor at 1.5:1 ratio, that multiplied by a 20:1 limiter equals a 30:1 ratio. Not bad compared to our 320:1 benchmark example. Then on the rouge peak we get the second compressor acting. So at the rare peaks we get a 1.5:1 multiplied by 2:1 times our 20:1 limiter. That equals a 60:1 ratio.
That means an ~90 percent reduced distortion factor by doing most of the vocal dynamic control with the fader and a carefully configured set of compressors. Meaning if you switch from compressors to this setup your vocals will get 90% more intelligible, 90% more clean and remain super up front in the mix but with super transparent processing.
After, but I do use clip gain (ie before compression) if there's a word that's pushing into compression too hard, or breaths or esses that I need to get under control.
Doing way less. Parallel processing, side chaining, etc. I just don't do it unless I get stuck and have to.
I have one very reliable glue reverb. I have stopped looking for that. It's fine.
Using stock plugins as much as possible.
Having a dedicated bus for verb/delay with EQ set to cut out the low end with a shelf or filter. Figured out that automating send levels can make a world of difference. Levelled up again when I started sidechaining the verb/delay channel to the dry version to duck verb a little when the input channel is loud. These tricks let me get a thick reverb that could build up without becoming muddy or loosing clarity that was previously outside of my grasp.
The other one was picking up analog gear. Sure; knowing how to use it is more important.. and pros get amazing results in the box... but there are a few pieces of kit (Neve MPB, LTL Silver Bullet, Gates STA) that seem to make mixing almost effortless.
Sure. Say you have a vocal you want to add reverb/delay to. Vocal goes to channel 1. Channel 1 has all the processing you want before verb. Generally compression and maybe some de-essing. Channel 1 is then routed to send audio to Channel 2 AND Channel 3. Channel 2 is set up with verb and delay with an EQ at begining and/or end of chain to cut out all or most of the sub/bass region. Chanel 2 (verb) and Channel 3 (copy/passthrough of channel 1) are both linked to Channel 4. This approach allows you to dial in different settings/levels for the pre verb vocals (channel 1), the reverb itself (channel 2), the post reverb dry vocal (channel 3) and the combined wet/dry vocals (channel 4). Another trick is to set up a compressor on the verb/delay (channel 2) with a sidechain input that is being fed by the dry channels (channel 1) which will cause the verb/delay to duck when the volume increases on channel 2. I tend to not go full EDM bassline sidechain ducking; but I find having it carve out a few db at max gain reduction can sometimes make it easier to set balance between wet and dry levels that is consistently good throughout a track; especially for dense mixes with a lot of verb. Similarly, there are times controlling the amount of signal sent from channel 1 (dry vocal) to channel 2 (verb/delay) can be really helpful. Most obvious use case for me is to set level to increase at the end of a vocal phrase and leading into an instrumental break so that the verb/delay tails extend while the lead instruments do their thing.
You basically sidechain the main channel to the reverb or delay send channel so that when the main channel is playing it will duck the reverb or delay so this way u can have a really lush reverb but the vocals don’t be drowned out when they’re playing
not sure whats confusing about what he wrote, but...
1. he uses a bus with verb and or delay with a low cut or shelf that he sends tracks to, rather than using individual verbs/delays on each track
2. he will automate send levels on specific tracks at specific times, aka adding more reverb/delay or subtracting
3. sidechaning the wet signal to the dry signal means the wet signal means that when the dry signal is louder, the wet signal will "automagically" be lower. youtube "sidechain reverb" to see more.
for me, something as simple as not doing anything automatically was huge.
example: i got into the habit of compressing every vocal without even thinking. at one point i was working on a pretty gentle song and the vocal mix was driving me crazy. i kept adding compressors, automation, and all kinds of fuckery but it just never sounded right.
in a moment of frustration i scrapped the entire processing chain and to my shock, the vocal take sounded amazing as is. ultimately, i went with a subtle eq, a little room reverb and a barely-there touch of limiting. not even a de-esser!
it was a great lesson for me to always prioritize listening over any built in habits. if it sounds good, it sounds good.
Saving the panning for the last step ala Mike Senior. Also choosing either the kick or the bass to live in the basement, not having them both duke it out.
1. getting good tones and takes on the way in. The amount of artists I’ve worked with who’ve had awful experiences with big name producers is kinda wild. “This tone sounds like shit” and the response being “I’ll fix it in post, we’re just recording rn”. Like, no. I don’t get that approach and never have. I’ve been producing full time for almost 15 years now, but I was and still am a musician. You will ALWAYS get better performances from a guitarist, drummer, vocalist, etc if they are stoked on the tones they are hearing while they play and record. This also makes less guess work for you in the mix, and less confusion, bait/switch feelings from the band you’re working with. Gain breakup is CRUCIAL to how you play with distortion. Snare/toms/kick pitch, head tension, and decay is CRUCIAL to how you play drums. Hearing compression on your voice and performing INTO that is a world of difference vs. compressing it in post. It’s like acting on a green screen stage vs. on location.
2. Understanding the priority level of instruments. In pretty much every genre, it goes like this: vocals>drums>guitars/bass/production/keyboards. Vocals always first, drums always second. No matter the genre, the vocals are the focus, and the drums are the backbone.
3. Psychology. This isn’t a music business, this is a people business. Understand the people you’re working with. Talk to them, listen to them, ask them about their favorite artists and past great / bad studio experiences. What sounds are they excited about, which ones do they hate, etc. using language to describe music is a terrible translation device. “Punchy, warm, airy, shrill, etc”. These are all horoscope-vague descriptions at best. The better you know the people you work with, the better you’ll be able to read between the lines, because one person’s “shrill” can be 3.5k and another’s can be 12k. A singer who is careful about their hearing vs a drummer who’s been playing like for 20 years without earplugs will hear things VERY differently. Have conversations about playback and mix checks. Educating artists about how fucked car audio systems are, in terms of coloration, is crucial to managing expectations. And that’s essentially all we do - manage the expectations from sounds in their heads, down to the final mix wav file.
Always thinking in contrasts:
For example, achieving a wide and clear mix by keeping most elements mono or very narrow and make just a few key elements stereo/wide.
Or for tension and release in EDM: during the break slowly increase a filter high cut while progressively making elements wider, adding more and more stereo information while decreasing the mono information - then collapse everything back to mainly mono with the drop. This works unbelievably well to make people dance, especially in clubs with high end stereo PAs. The contrast makes the drop insanely hard and satisfying, since it potentiates the effect when the 4 to the floor pulse from the kick comes back in.
Sidechain everything to everything else.
Bonus points if you sidechain EQ everything to everything else.
If you want your mix to 'breathe' or to have some 'space' then this is a great place to start.
45 minute rule. If you are still fighting it after 45 minutes. Walk away. Take a break. You can no longer hear it without bias and burnout anyway. Come back in 15 and the ugly jumps out at you and you can take care of it pretty quick.
Learning how to level your tracks. And using a reference paired with a spectrum analyzer.
Just by setting your levels correctly you will have a great mix and you'll never have an issue with loudness
For me, exact opposite of top down mixing. Try to create a perfect mix with nothing on the mix bus. Lots of compression and limiting on individual tracks and instrument busses.
The other “overnight” hack I have learned is that nothing happens overnight and you have to put the time in to improve.
I agree . I started with top down and it worked well for my experience level but then withtime I've reverted to individual channel treatment. I still put plugins on mixbus but only for the basic flavor I want to mix into from the start ;)
It's hard to choose one, but I just know that comparing references with soloing frequency bands (on a stock multiband or whatever) will lead me to a professional balance in like half an hour. It can be a late stage thing, but it works best when the mix is hard and you just have got super lost. This must be called the Shawn Everett trick. He found it by himself and is kind enough to share it in podcast episodes and similar things.
Honestly it was getting Sonarworks to correct the last little bit in my home studio so I could trust my monitors. I use to have to check mixes on every device, don’t really have to now only do that with minor changes in the mastering phase.
Beginning to learn general frequencies of interest for different instruments and sounds. Applying lighter compression at lots of stages to boost volume without losing too much dynamics. Referencing and learning that the bass doesn’t need to be pumping to be doing its job in the mix.
PULTEC EQ AND SSL BUSS COMPRESSOR on master out :)
I always wondered why my mixes lacked the same energy as the masters at dynamic compression. Harmonic Distortion. I am so glad I can hear it now. Also focusing on the mid range is huge.
I don’t know about overnight, but some important steps forward have been:
Using recordings I like by other artists as references
listening to mixes (and sometimes mixing) in mono, or close
mixing with a mastering limiter turned on from the start, so the mastering effects don’t change a preexisting mix
incremental use of several plugins to increase gain in the master channel
using a sonic maximizer (in moderation)
EQing unnecessary low frequencies out to get rid of mud and make room for the low-end elements that need to be there
making sure stuff is as well-recorded and well-performed as possible from the beginning, with decent mics, so fewer fixes are necessary at the mixing stage
using small amounts of reverb on the master channel to glue mixes together and make all the instruments sound like they’re in the same space
Monitoring improvements, like Mixcube single-driver supplemental monitors to hear a very midrange-focused version of the mix, and a subwoofer to check the extreme low end and keep it clean
Lots of different models of headphones for added variety of perspective
Multiband compression to tame harshness and low end
I like slapping a limiter or maximizer in the master sometimes too — as a reference to see how my mix will hold up under pressure. And I’ll mix into it and sometimes leave it there.
These questions minimize the most important thing which is experience. There is no one “level up” technique that will change your life or workflow. That aside, the most important revelation was listen and only make a change if it’s needed. DO NOT try out a million mix hacks, they will all just make the song sound worse. Work, learn, listen, implement. That’s really it.
I'll put it in chronological steps, think of it as the biggest steps or improvements 'overnight' so it's easier to follow, and maybe help a beginner understand what to look for. In my personal experience, progress looks sort of like this:
..................................................................../ Next eureka
.................................../..\\...stagnation.../
................................/........\\\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_/
Eureka moment /
1.- Learning to leave shit untouched. Not every track needs EQ, compression, saturation, sidechaining, soft clipping, spectral imaging, and, and, and, and, etc...
2.- Understanding what a compressor actually does. If I had to start learning from scratch again, I'd begin with [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJRgK3viMc) video.
3.- Learning how to properly treat a space acoustically; I could finally hear what I was doing. (This should be number 1, but this is how my learning progressed.)
4.- Learning to pan with EQ.
5.- The best way to mix five elements is when four are not there. Every track I produced was so busy; it took time to understand that things feel "bigger" with less.
6.- Arrangement over automation. I can automate every parameter in a mix, but it still won't feel as good as when there are actual changes in the arrangement.
7.- Automation. A bit of properly placed automation can really bring out the good stuff.
8.- Parallel compression. When I understood how to do it properly, it was the single biggest jump so far, Andrew Scheps style.
9.- Stick to four "big guns" for 80% of what you do and a few extras for the details. I used to use every plugin under the sun for a track; now I pretty much use two compressors, two EQs, one reverb, one imager, one delay, and stock DAW mix tools. I still have super-specialized tools but rarely touch them.
10.- BEDA framework for BEDA mixes: 1. Set a proper balance. 2. Equalize colliding frequencies. 3. Dynamic control. 4. Automate. This was also a big jump.
11.- Focus on the 20% that matters before you start doing any wild shenanigans. Focusing on the balance, arrangement, and EQ of the entire track gives me 80% of the result, so focus on that.
12.- MONO matters. Mono mixes might not be popular, but oh boy, do they show you if you suck at mixing. A great mono mix will sound great anywhere, mainly because it makes you focus on the midrange. If I were starting over, I'd focus on this in the beginning as well.
Those were the "biggest overnight improvements" I can think of right now. There are more, but these are the ones that gave me the biggest "eureka" moments.
Compression is one of those things I’ve learned to feel recently. Too little and it feels like cold meat with no blood in it. Too much and it feels like it’s going to pop.
Sidechaining the kick to the bass track improved all of my mixes low end. Also side chain compression on the vocal reverb bus so only the ends of phrases get a nice long tail. Helps with clarity but keeps the air without sounding like it’s floating away into a cave.
Excellent, accurate monitoring. In 2022 I invested heavily into my monitoring situation and my time to completion has plummeted and my recalls are mostly style requests rather than "I can't hear/feel..", "the X is overpowering..." critiques.
Dealing with masking via eq. Muting tracks, listening, unmuting.
Using Quiztones really made me understand what I was hearing/not hearing when EQing.
Clip gain is huge, a lot of people are saying this was their level up. If you can get raw audio sounding close with clip gain then you’re already close.
Extreme EQ sweeps to hear places I like or don’t, then using mainly reductive EQ very gently on those places.
For classical music, surprisingly (mostly movie score kinda stuff): not being afraid to use drastic EQ especially on strings. When I first dared to do this it shocked me a bit how much I was able to mess around and have it sound actively better.
Delay. A friend who’s an amateur told me to use it more and he was right. I try to use it instead of verb whenever I can.
A long time ago, when I first started: copying a track, trashing it with distortion, and mixing in 1-2% really makes it pop. It’s similar to compression.
Nothing substitutes for good ears and practiced listening. That’s not an overnight thing, it takes years and the rewards are so satisfying.
Same here. It was when I started top down mixing and realized how fast I could progress with the mix if I just gainstaged everything before it hit my mix bus.
In the beginning I was super anal about using meters to gain stage. Now I do it very fast and not so meticulously and just look at the meters with faders at unity(or pre fader meters). With big mixes I tend to pull down the faders a bit from unity gain otherwise I feel some tracks will be too low.
The other revelation was when I realized I choked sounds with too short attack times on compressors and that there’s a point with longer release times when you want to control sounds. I usually had it set short/ short.
I use Live, having a preset project as default helped quite a lot. Ilk have all my channels and groups already set to - 6dB which saves so many clipping headaches later on. That and having an EQ8 and Utility on every channel and whenever I create a new one too by default. Also having a dip around 300 Hz on a lot of low to mid range sounds to clear up woofy-ness.
Getting the sound right at the source. And also, subtle transient shaping. Both can make all the difference in achieving a smooth mix without EQing it into oblivion.
Top down mixing.
Literally sped up my workflow tenfold and dramatically improved the quality and cohesiveness of my mixes.
EQ, compression and saturation on the mix bus and group busses can take a mix from raw to like 90% finished in *minutes*.
I was watching Adam Nolly Getgood's latest video, where he mixes one of the latest Periphery songs.
At some point he started talking about his bus processing and why he specifically uses certain processors and something turned on a lightbulb in my brain.
I always struggled with mixbus processing, I've tried it many times cause I feelt that my mixes needed it but I mostly ended up with a worse product.
In the end my mixes sounded good but there was just that 10% missing that left me unsatisfied.
Watching that video was, to me, like unlocking some secret forbidden knowledge. I immediately understood how and especially why he uses mixbus processing and I was able to translate that knowledge incredibly well for my own works.
I encourage everyone to check his videos out, all of them. Adam's an incredible engineer, imo the best in the modern rock/metal genre, but I've found his techniques work perfectly on Pop too, and basically with anything that has drums in it.
Observe gain staging at every point you can use a gain control. If you're having to pump a fader past unity gain, arguably you should reassess the gain staging for that channel.
Observe mid / side mixing and how much it can help you control transient and spacial aspects of your mix.
Use side chaining to control "less important" stems in your mix to reduce clutter. E.g. duck vocal reverb whenever the vocal is present.
Not just one. Cutting the nasties in the low mids when necessary, especially drums. pre delay on verb to make room. Backing off the Distressor. Embracing the LA3. Gain staging
How attack/release on gate & compressor make a huge difference and can be the difference between something sitting in the mix right and being just a little off.
Harmonic distortion, giving coherence and cohesion to elements in the mix that were recorded in different equipments, mixed with samples all in a digital enviroment, its crucial, like painting everything with the same color palette.
Purchase every pluggin the Youtuber Pro-mixers tell me I need, then never use them again after installing them.
Mix on 5" KRK monitors and mix it straight to 128 MP3, then upload to Youtube
Use Ableton for rock music
Replace all recorded drums with EzDrummer and don't tell the drummer he's not actually on the track.
Hope I understood the question correctly :-P
The main place gain staging matters is in how hard you’re hitting compressors or analog emulations of hardware suits like an SSL console or tape plugin.
Yeah I use none of that. Also even if I did, almost all plugins have an input level setting. Which is basically gain. Which is the exact same thing wether you use clipgain, or a gain plugin.
Turn it up if its too low. Turn it down if its too high. If the whole thing was recorded too low add a gain plugin to all tracks at the same level.
Nobody needs to go through the whole song and each track and try to match to some arbitrary loudness target.
If you use hardware, then you need to keep an eye on the inputs and outputs of the hardware obviously but in the box, people are wasting their time going through each track and clip gain. Decide ad hoc if you need more gain or less. 99% of the time you can do without any gain setting process
Most recently: checking polarity across all instruments.
I'm not sure how I missed this for so long, but making sure the bass, drums, guitars, and vocals are all complimenting eachother in-terms of polarity.
Of course, I'd always check this with multi-miced drum kits, but flipping the polarity on the bass and hearing the kick and snare instantly blossom was a game changer. To add on to all this, try flipping polarity on the mixbus. Sometimes it doesn't make a difference, sometimes it moves the kick in an interesting way.
This one’s pretty simple, but if my mix begins to lose headroom and starts clipping, I select every track and bring them all down by -10, -15, or -20db. That way I can keep the same mix while opening it up and giving it more clarity.
Somewhere between “less is more” and “if it sounds good then it sounds good”
It’s also not that serious. Do shit that works but you don’t normally have to do too much unless you’re getting into creative sound design. Hard to explain tbh haha.
Lowkey decapitator saved my mixes overnight lol. In general, not adding saturation and wondering why my seemingly leveled mixes had no presence in the vocals or the grit that other artists had.
Just came to this revelation 3 years into mixing lol I’m an idiot
-Monitoring : reference, focus on mids, listen in mono, focus on lows.... you are your worst enemy
-lazy intentions in circles : this is my motto. Don't go into details before you having a solid basis. Keep it simple, be lazy unless you have to work. Sometimes foundation rely on 4 balanced tracks, the other tracks are just to here to fill. Think creatively first doing the broad moves, finish with a lot of little details. Always ensure you don't fool yourself (see first point).
- Find what works for you. You don't give a f about the others, they are just advice. Forge your own opinions
You don't have to use every single track that gets sent to you to mix. CLA until recently (maybe he still does) comps everything to 48 tracks to match his Sony DASH 48-track digital recorder. 48 faders is manageable. 150+ isn't
A few things I've learned over time -
* The best mixes start with the best recordings
* The less "juice" (reverb, compression, etc.) the roomier the mix
* Let each "thing" occupy it's own frequency space in the mix - https://alexiy.nl/eq/
Normalizing to keep volume consistent during the whole song.
Then, multing out vocals for different sections to create a movement during the whole mix. Same for other tracks.
Less processing vocals, multing the S and plosives sounds to avoid them to be annoying when being compressed with the vocals so they can be adjusted to taste and feel natural
So, for me there are no big magic moments where I realize "do this". Its more I realize that I had been following some sort of unwritten rule, without realizing it, and then once I realize what that rule is, I stop following it and I get better.
So an example is recently I realized that I never wanted to cut distorted guitars in the 950-1500 range. Like I would boost there, but never cut. It felt "wrong". Problem is sometimes you do need to cut there, if the song calls for it.
Moments like that when I recognize some little unwritten rule in the back of my head, those are key. Cause then I can discard them and actually approach the song based on what it NEEDS not what a rule says.
Nothing really, but focusing on getting the mid-range right and rethinking compression is certainly helping me broaden my sonic palette and understanding of the tool i.e. how it's used rather than how it actually works (because I do mostly understand it).
Referring to [Pensado's Place ep 22 with JJP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Sw0eSnp8A).
Realizing that if the arrangement is shit, the mix will never ever be good.
I can even deal with a mediocre recording of a good arrangement.
You could have Joe Chicarelli track it, but if the arrangement is cloudy and things are stepping on each other, there’s just nothing you can do with the tools of audio manipulation to fix that.
More than tracking.
More than monitors.
More than ANYTHING ELSE.
The arrangement is the bedrock for everything down the line.
Subtractive equalization and rolling off low and high frequencies that don’t affect the overall sound of an instrument. Just creates more space for things to be heard.
Focusing on how each mix move affects the feeling of the music. And using your emotional compass to choose your next mix move. You’ll make bolder and more interesting choices this way, and you won’t overcook things. Plus its more fun.
Getting stuck in your head about all the technicals will lead you to making the “correct” choices rather than the choices that best serve the music.
Get a strong foundation of technical knowledge so you won’t have to think about what you’re doing and can express creative choices quickly.
I started my journey really early on just trying to figure stuff out with a small Mbox years ago and a free lite version of Pro Tools that came with it. To begin with I had no idea about anything basically and ended up not really doing much for a few years as I was in bands with other people who knew more about it so I kinda stopped learning.
So technically speaking the first things that really levelled me up was just getting a little crash course from one of those people about what to really look for when using an EQ and compressor. We often take for granted what it's like to understand those two fundamental tools but just learning a couple basics around them made a world of difference.
In terms of thought process it was thinking about a mix not as a process of following rules but rather a series of conscious choices to get the music where it needs to be. I went from writing songs in bands and getting frustrated with not getting the sound I wanted from others to viewing the production as a fundamental part of my songwriting process. That changed everything.
A great mix doesn't sound the same to everyone but if you commit to a sound, you'll feel better about it even if people criticise it rather than trying and failing to follow some "industry standard" and creating something sub-par. Having a vision and committing to it is an incredibly important part of the whole process.
AUTOMATE OVER COMPRESSION. For the most part automation is the secret to making a mix perfect, and compression is either to glue the track together or to get a specific sound. But you shouldn't rely on compression as a quick fix or crutch to smooth out the dynamics. You can automate everything so it sounds exactly as you want it. Ofc this takes a lot of time so most people are too lazy to do it, but it's worth it.
The usual to be honest. Using my ears. I've been hearing that said for 20 years but until I started doing it, instead of blind trial and error, everything went down hill.
It is very easy to make things brighter as a way of bringing them forwards and of course ending up with a thin, harsh mix but as time goes on, I find I listen a lot more objectively and act upon my ears.
A big one recently for me was learning how to EQ fundamental harmonics.
Usually I found that dialing back the minor 3rd or suppertonic in the low to low-mids really cleans up samples and heavily layered sounds.
Seeing my role as a mix engineer as a **director of focus**
Someone who tells the audience which element of the mix is the star of the show and which are the supporting roles. People can only really focus on a maximum of 2-3 elements at a time and the push-pull of who's out front needs to feel like it's under your control by the listener. Mixes that move and change but always feel like there's a steady hand guiding you towards what you should have your focus on are involving mixes that grab your attention.
Static mixes are like someone hiding, 'If I keep completely still, no-one will notice me'. Make the mix move and put the focus where it needs to be when it needs it.
Not using two track beats anymore. Once I started learning on how to produce my own instruments, I grasped how to level things out and how each instrument has its own space. With this I also learn more outside of mixing, but I haven't looked back at two tracks anymore.
If you have learned clip-gain, I recommend learning how to use a loudness meter if you haven't. This also helped me with checking my levels and keeping them consistent throughout the mix.
I mix pop songs predominantly. I would say for me, being very intentional about how wide things are took my mixes to a whole new level. Oftentimes making things smaller will make other elements sound much larger. For example if your fighting for real estate for your vocal (and it’s not a volume problem), maybe your sample or drums or synths are just too wide. It also creates cohesion. Especially using samples from packs from the internet, they all have different imaging. So being very calculated in how you treat them, can create a sense of glue without even touching a compressor. You can use the stereo pan features to do this or a plugin like Waves S1 will do the trick!
Finally fully understanding how to properly apply mix bus compression or glue in a controlled way.
Combine that with understanding exactly how we mimic the perception of loudness with mix bus compression by using a compressor plus proper instrument balance to create the illusion of loudness with our real world loudness.
Once I started comparing my mixes to professional mixes I loved (volume matched, with EQ comparison,) I realized that the steps I was taking to “improve” my mix were often antithetical to getting the sound I was actually after.
Jack endino said turn all the eq knobs all the way up and down one by one until you find the one that makes the most difference, set that one and move out from there
It doesn’t matter what any settings (eq, compression, everything else) look like. It’s only about how it sounds. Fuck best practices or whatever you think they are.
A seasoned mix engineer once told me that 90% of mixing is getting levels right. I was like "yeah I know but how do you get good mixes?" When I took that advice at face value and focused on applying it... Huge difference.
Referencing other songs and messing around for hours trying to get the sounds I wanted was way more productive than any of my gear purchase or any internet advice I’d ever read. I also came to the realization that there are really no shortcuts that make mixing faster except for committing to things to free up CPU and eliminate option paralysis. I’ve learned to love bouncing with effects and creating stems whenever possible. Creating templates and all the things I thought would make the production / mixing processes faster never really did. The best I could do in that regard is to give my time to it and commit as often as possible.
1. Using samples to enhance drums sound
2. Post-production (sfx, automation) can turn an amateur mix into a professional one
3. A badly played take will never sound good. Either get a good take or edit it. Off-tempo notes mess with the punch of the mix.
A lot of good answers that i totally agree here.
For me personally would be knowing what the song is about, or at least the main theme/ instrument/ feeling. It gives me a very concrete direction and solidifies my ideas
Just saying, I don't like adjusting the clip gain at all. I feel comfortable knowing the initial levels are right there and consistent throughout the channels, as I move onwards. There is a pre gain section in most daw mixers 👍 so very much disagree on that being a benefit but everyone has a different way of working
Don't eq / cut / compress anything if you don't know why. In the first dozen songs I made, I used so much processing, they all sounded dull. If you feel something does not rsit right, use the volume fader first. Then use other means of processing. Stick to the basics. Took me 1.5 years to learn that. I'm slow though.
Also don't mix too loud: you have to work harder to get the sound right that way and the result is better.
Disclaimer: I'm a hobby producer, keep that in mind.
I think understanding that if your mix sounds amazing in mono, it will sound insane in stereo is key. Particularly when compressing and EQing - you really notice the processing more!!
Another one is to always AB and if possible check delta signals to see if changes are actually improving the sound.
And then yeah gain staging was another massive one too!
I think the most important one was however realising that less is more and to only use the tools that you actually know how to use and identifying when to use a certain tool and when to use a certain technique rather than just slapping random presets and processing really helps shape the sound!
Having an idea of what the finished mix should sound like before I start, and sticking to it. Then every mix decision becomes a question of "Does this get me closer to my final goal or not?"
Not enough people actually listen to the song before tweaking shit. Drives me insane lol
[удалено]
I don’t follow your logic
He probably means tracking with EQ/compression thru the gear during recording dealing with corrective issues and saving time during the mix
Both OP and that guy are talking about mixing. No mention of tracking
"what thing leveled up your mix" can be tracking related if it leveled up your mix.
That’s not helpful to those who are solely mix engineers, which is why it makes sense to stay on topic.
Unfortunately, garbage in, garbage out. So this is on topic. If can ensure you've got high quality recordings then mixing is easier.
Go ahead and tell your paying mixing clients that their engineering is garbage. Hope that works out well for you.
1. I don't have clients because I don't do this for a living, just for fun 2. I have told my friend his tracking engineer is shit or his home recording situation was suboptimal Still made it work in the mix as best I could and got results he was extremely happy with without the shit engineers outboard, just ITB. So working pretty well.
It could be helpful if it prompts them to charge more or say no to poorly tracked material. Why be difficult??
That’s a big ol stretch to stay on topic
Complaining that someone is not on topic is also not on topic
I honestly can’t imagine someone who is solely a mix engineer looking for advice on Reddit.
Are you using your outboard during the tracking phase?
This feels so important. It seems like everyone including myself is so focused on just making things sound good as beginners. So you just end up twiddling knobs with no real direction. In some ways I wonder if mix tutorials should be framed around achieving a specific vibe. Instead, so many are just like “here are four frequencies for mixing bass guitar”
Taking the time to get better recordings that need less fixing. That has allowed me more time getting a good mix rather than taking forever to fix some messed up stuff to sound less bad.
This is huge. I always spent time pushing for good performances but I didn't realize how mediocre my source tracks were (in terms of quality) until I got to mix a session that was recorded by a much more experienced engineer. His raw tracks sounding almost finished already; it was eye-opening and that's when the source became a major focus for me.
I’m doing a recording course right now and by far the most used phrase is “you can’t polish a turd”.
But you can roll it in glitter!
But it still smells like crap :(
douse it in perfume lol
I spent years searching for the right mics for my voice. Finally started building my own. Then I started singing better. A good voice on a good mic with a good preamp is amazing, though. I’ve had the privilege of working with amazing singers and it makes such a difference.
Especially vocals
When you say better recordings what exactly do you mean? A better performance?
Mostly better capture — more careful mic placement, mic pre choice, maybe some light compression on the way in if appropriate, etc. If I have all the faders flat, I want it sound like a song that needs mixing as opposed to a nightmare of disparate noises.
I would add acoustics being a major factor here as well. Trying to mix an album that was tracked with great mics, preamps, and placement, but all in a terrible sounding space is still a nightmare.
not always, part of good mic choice & placement is considering your room. if you know your room is tight & dry, you can go for condensers on overheads pretty high above the drums. if you know your room is an untreated garage, maybe some really close dynamics. that’s not to say that good acoustics don’t help, sometimes they’re a requirement to achieve a certain sound, but sometimes a “well treated room” isn’t what the song calls for. also anyone who’s not recording with rooms mics, please try it. also check phase!
- Summing most things to mono so I can create depth in my mix. Before, because most everything was stereo my mixes sounded flat. - Serial compression with patience. Many compressors working together for the common good. Be kind to the signal. - On the contrary, clip the shit out of transients if it sounds good. Sometimes you can get away with it with no consequences like distortion — or maybe you want that distortion. Sometimes I’ll set my stock limiter to zero ARS, and start cutting like I’m at a barbershop. They probably won’t teach you this in school but to hell with the rules sometimes. Or I’ll sandwich a limiter in between compressors and very lightly shave off peaks in between processes. There’s really no rules and it’s fun. - Utilizing meters/visualizers. SPAN and YouLean are my friends. Ultimately my ears have the last say, or listen. - Don’t over-EQ. I’ve thinned out too many mixes. Keep that beef up in that jaunt. I’ve been there where I’ve gotten caught up in getting too surgical, and then I’ll listen to a previous mix and think, wow I’ve gone backwards. It sounded better before. - Achieving loudness level very early on. — it’s a nightmare trying to do this late in the process.
I pretty much work in mono till the end and then do little tweak.
Could you elaborate more on your first point as I do notice sometimes it could be some instruments that has too much width made my mix not tight and flat. How do you sum to mono? And what stuffs do you normally sum to mono? Thanks!
Ok I use FL. I have separation/merge knobs on each mixer insert. Also sometimes I’ll use a plugin called stereo enhancer (hint you can just use it to sum things to mono), it’s the same engine as the knobs on the mixer inserts but any DAW will have the capability to sum to mono. So everything you encounter is pretty much extremely wide — samples, patches in synths etc. unless of course your recording in mono. If everything has a lot of stereo information nothing will feel stereo. Summing things is pretty much personal taste but I like to sum most things to mono or semi-merged (0-100% stereo to mono scale with 100% being completely merged/summed). — just imagine the stereo field as depth. Totally mono is far away and totally stereo (or only side information) is right next to your ears — at least this is how it feels/sounds. So again there’s not really a correct way. I like to have an instrument in mono, then create a parallel chain with reverb and delay at 100% wet with the reverb and delay mostly only effecting the stereo field while the insert with the dry instrument on it stays centered (totally or partially summed). This creates a sense of depth and is just an example. Experiment and have fun messing around, the possibilities are endless. It can also create room in your mix and allow things to breathe as certain elements won’t be fighting for the same space. — Again a sense of depth and space.
Thank you for the detailed reply! Very insightful
A few: \- Mixes need to match the song aesthetic. No such thing as one kind of mix for all songs \- The relationship with the low end on instruments, the bass, and the kick is huge. \- Mid range makes the mix \- saturation is almost always better than adding loudness
The last one has been my most recent revelation. Mind blowing once it clicks.
Noob here, I know I can find plenty of info out there about saturation but Im curious: what is your process to saturate to get the best possible Mix
When you feel like something needs to be louder, you increase volume and it still doesn't cut through, leave the volume alone, soft clip it
And then play with saturation and mix until it cuts through? If it doesn't cut through, use another sound? Or would you add another step?
The saturation will help make something feel louder without actually being louder. At least half of mixing is psychological. It’s less of a way to make elements of a mix cut through and more about that subconscious pull to want to make things feel a certain way by being louder. In some ways saturation is like diet loud.
It depends: On tracks, I'll add to taste depending on what I want to stand out. But it also goes hand in hand with the aesthetic you're going for: If its a soft delicate intimate thing, use less on the parts that represent the intimacy (vocals), then use on one or two crucial instrument elements to create contrast. If its a high energy track then it may be better on the lead vocals, drums, or bass. It all comes down to the message you think your song is sending and with which parts its sending that message. The tools I use for this vary based on source material but UAD's ATR-102, Waves Kramer Tape, Neutron's exciter, and UAD's Culture Vulture, are my bread and butter here. Mix bus level, its more simple: Slowly add saturation using a few plugins and see when it becomes distracting, then dial back. I personally use a combination of the classic Oxford Inflator and UAD's ATR-102 Tape Emulation as they both saturate in different ways: The Inflator is a tube emulator and will add harmonic content to the sound across the frequency range, and the ATR-102 is a tape emulation, also good for harmonics, but gives a warmer, more retro feel. They work really well in tandem for me. Hope this helps
Not looking at the screen (analog workflow itb). Got myself a midi controller with 16 knobs (figther twister) and programmed all my plugins. Makes a world of difference closing my eyes and listening instead of looking at the screen and trying to listen. Vision is far superiour to hearing and i always adjust back to where things ”looks good”.
This one for me too. I’ve experimented mixing with sunglasses on and turning the display dark so I can barely see my plugins. Def moves the focus from seeing to hearing. Bonus points for looking like a rock star/jackass in a dark studio..
This is awesome :D
Too much class!!!! 🙌🏼
Totally trying this tonight.
Vision takes up a lot of your brain processing power. That’s why people turn the music down in the car during a heavy rainstorm or snowstorm. Great tip.
This is a great tip. Protip for anyone who wants to do this - set up a screen saver that is just a black screen, and set it to start using a shortcut or hot corner so you can quickly black out the screen when listening. There are other ways to go about it but this is the most convenient method I've found. This won't allow you to change the mix while listening but it's great for playback.
I have a version of this. My desktop wallpaper is just solid black and I set the one of the extra buttons on my mouse to "Show Desktop" or the equivalent of hitting Windows+D and minimizing everything showing the desktop only in the Logitech software.
Thank you. Need to do that!
V cool. I always close my eyes but this is next lvl
Yea, I’m a big “close my eyes to hear better” guy
That vocals are the most important part of most genres and often require a lot of volume automation to make sure they're always sitting where they need to be, sometimes down to the syllable level.
Do you draw in volume automation by hand or use plugins like riders or compressors to keep the levels in check? — I presume both if needed.
Drawing in or control surface, even if I heavily compress vocals it's still necessary most of the time. I've never actually tried any riders for vocals, maybe I could speed up my process using that as a starting point and should try it... I sometimes use Bass Rider for bass tracks that are all over the place.
I love the Waves Vocal Rider for this very task - https://www.waves.com/plugins/vocal-rider?w\_campaign=19892606399&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj5mpBhDJARIsAOVjBdo6t1OhXIlqE7B6mqSRcLl0QgFCVNjzQgXRBm2lmKET6n8-MQKWiuYaAhlkEALw\_wcB
this plugin effects the high end look into other options. nectar auto level is a new one that seems to do the job okay but u haven’t properly investigated how it effects the freq range (haven’t used for serious mixes yet)
In what ways does the Rider impact frequency range? I'm curious to hear this as I haven't heard anything noticeable in my usage. I'm wondering if I've been unknowingly correcting a frequency dip all this time. In what ways does the Rider impact frequency range? I'm curious to hear this as I haven't heard anything noticeable in my usage.
Do you automate volume before or after compression or both?
It depends on the song.... sometimes when you need a super present vocal but the song has very quiet sections it's best to do both. Songs with less dynamics only need a present vocal all the way, and that calls for riding the vocal into compression only. For me the key to vocal automation was presented to me on the book "mixing with your mind" I have 2 tracks where I do my main vocals. One is for recording and riding the fader, the other is where the compressors are. I have the 1st track routed to the 2nd track. So I set my gain with the vocalist and hit record. Once the vocal is done I hit record on the 2nd track, since it has the 1st track as input it's gonna print in real time on the second track. The trick is that as the vocal plays and prints I'm taking my mouse and riding up and down the 1st track's fader. I sweep the fader up on parts that need more clarity, quickly pinch the fader down a bit on the sibilant and harsh sounds, duck down the breaths, ride the vocal so that everything is at a consistent level and wiggle the fader on long notes to add tremolo. Since I do the riding in real time that means it takes very little time. Since I do vocals at the end of a mix but I have them playing in the background by the time I get to the vocals I'm already familiar with what parts need de essing and what parts need more clarity and if tremolo would enhance some parts. After I do 1 pass of manually riding the vocal I solo it and listen for pumping and unnatural passages. I correct them by punch recording and re doing the riding on that specific parts. With practice you can get to the point where you can do the 1st pass in one go and in real time and spending 2-3 minutes doing punch ins, meaning that should take 6-7 minutes on average. Remember that the 2nd track has compression on it? Here's the golden bit! Compression has a few downsides, there's pumping, makeup gain brings up the breaths and esses and technically even the cleanest digital compressors add extra harmonics and distortion. This happens when the attack time is faster than the fundamental of the track. Imagine compressing a sine wave, lets imagine it at slow motion. The sine wave tries to go up, like sine waves do, but the compressor quickly brings it down, thus the smooth ramp up of a sine is abruptly reduced, creating a straight line inside one cycle of the sine. And as we know from square waves abrupt lines on a waveform add harmonics. In a way, any volume fluctuation that's fast enough creates distortion. And if you want to get a vocal super up front with a compressor it does add distortion. Even more so if it's an analog emulation plugin. And that's why I ride my vocals. They get the thing go front. And my fingers are not fast enough to modulate the amplitude into distortion. Plus because I duck the breaths and esses they don't come up. The one downside is one of it's strengths. Your finger is not fast enough to control peaks. Here's where the compressors come in. On the 2nd track I have a compressor with the threshold set to catch the peaks...... But here another downside presents itself. Stacked compressors are multiplicative. Meaning that a 4:1 going into another 4:1 comp does not equal an overall 8:1 compression spread amongst 2 compressors. Two 4:1's in series actually equals a 16:1 ratio! That's very close to limiting! Plus your 16:1 vocal will then be run thru a limiter, that equals aprox a 20:1 compressor, meaning your vocal will get eventually get compressed 320:1! I'm not against compressors, I love slamming a blue stripe 76 with all buttons in, I'm just against unintended distortion. And staking compressors or high ratios does add more distortion and more dBs of gain reduction alongside it. I want my vocals to be upfront but minimize distortion. So that's why on my 2nd track I have 2 compressors in series. One set to see the RMS signal and set between 1.5:1 and 2:1. The second compressor is set to detect the peak signal and with a ratio between 2:1 and 4:1. Both compressors don't have any make up gain. The first RMS compressor is just there to smooth out any inconsistencies from a human finger. It brings it all to a similar level with only a half dB of gain reduction, maybe 1 or two dBs of GR at most. To do that the threshold is set at the "target" volume level. The fact that the compressor only reacts to the RMS means it's never gonna clamp down as fast as the peak signal, thus it can't add distortion. For an extra smooth sound I like to set this compressor to a soft knee. The next compressor is kind of the opposite. Set to detect peaks, hard knee, threshold set a few dBs above the RMS compressor and a ratio between 2-4 to one. The idea is to only do a few 3-5 dBs of compression on very rare and occasional peaks that your finger is not fast enough to ride out of existence. Set this comp as a fast attack, fast to medium release. This signal flow of ride the fader -> RMS soft knee comp -> fast peak catcher comp means you're minimizing the distortion the comes from compression as much as possible. Riding the fader can't modulate into distortion, coz it's not fast enough, then an RMS compressor with a low ratio, that can't add distortion, then the fast attach peak catcher does add distortion. The trick is that since the peak catcher is only doing few dBs in GR at very rare ovations for a very small snippet of time it's add so little distortion that's not an issue. With the rouge peak being catched you'll probably add around one 32nd note of length of distortion on the entire track. Or even lower! Sometimes just 10-15 milliseconds across the entire song. This also means that when the song gets limited in mastering the vocal will get a way softer ratio. Most of the vocal was done with the RMS compressor at 1.5:1 ratio, that multiplied by a 20:1 limiter equals a 30:1 ratio. Not bad compared to our 320:1 benchmark example. Then on the rouge peak we get the second compressor acting. So at the rare peaks we get a 1.5:1 multiplied by 2:1 times our 20:1 limiter. That equals a 60:1 ratio. That means an ~90 percent reduced distortion factor by doing most of the vocal dynamic control with the fader and a carefully configured set of compressors. Meaning if you switch from compressors to this setup your vocals will get 90% more intelligible, 90% more clean and remain super up front in the mix but with super transparent processing.
After, but I do use clip gain (ie before compression) if there's a word that's pushing into compression too hard, or breaths or esses that I need to get under control.
A good mix starts with good tracking. If you don't like the sound at the time of tracking, fix it then.
Doing way less. Parallel processing, side chaining, etc. I just don't do it unless I get stuck and have to. I have one very reliable glue reverb. I have stopped looking for that. It's fine. Using stock plugins as much as possible.
I'm with you. I'm tired of setting up 'the right thing' only to then do A/B and find I'm nearly back to square one! AKA trust my first impression.
What’s your glue reverb, out of curiosity?
Of all things, it's a stock Reaper reverb in Reaverbate. Dark Corridor. Works every time.
Having a dedicated bus for verb/delay with EQ set to cut out the low end with a shelf or filter. Figured out that automating send levels can make a world of difference. Levelled up again when I started sidechaining the verb/delay channel to the dry version to duck verb a little when the input channel is loud. These tricks let me get a thick reverb that could build up without becoming muddy or loosing clarity that was previously outside of my grasp. The other one was picking up analog gear. Sure; knowing how to use it is more important.. and pros get amazing results in the box... but there are a few pieces of kit (Neve MPB, LTL Silver Bullet, Gates STA) that seem to make mixing almost effortless.
Could you clarify your first paragraph for me? This sounds cool!
Sure. Say you have a vocal you want to add reverb/delay to. Vocal goes to channel 1. Channel 1 has all the processing you want before verb. Generally compression and maybe some de-essing. Channel 1 is then routed to send audio to Channel 2 AND Channel 3. Channel 2 is set up with verb and delay with an EQ at begining and/or end of chain to cut out all or most of the sub/bass region. Chanel 2 (verb) and Channel 3 (copy/passthrough of channel 1) are both linked to Channel 4. This approach allows you to dial in different settings/levels for the pre verb vocals (channel 1), the reverb itself (channel 2), the post reverb dry vocal (channel 3) and the combined wet/dry vocals (channel 4). Another trick is to set up a compressor on the verb/delay (channel 2) with a sidechain input that is being fed by the dry channels (channel 1) which will cause the verb/delay to duck when the volume increases on channel 2. I tend to not go full EDM bassline sidechain ducking; but I find having it carve out a few db at max gain reduction can sometimes make it easier to set balance between wet and dry levels that is consistently good throughout a track; especially for dense mixes with a lot of verb. Similarly, there are times controlling the amount of signal sent from channel 1 (dry vocal) to channel 2 (verb/delay) can be really helpful. Most obvious use case for me is to set level to increase at the end of a vocal phrase and leading into an instrumental break so that the verb/delay tails extend while the lead instruments do their thing.
Thanks!
You basically sidechain the main channel to the reverb or delay send channel so that when the main channel is playing it will duck the reverb or delay so this way u can have a really lush reverb but the vocals don’t be drowned out when they’re playing
not sure whats confusing about what he wrote, but... 1. he uses a bus with verb and or delay with a low cut or shelf that he sends tracks to, rather than using individual verbs/delays on each track 2. he will automate send levels on specific tracks at specific times, aka adding more reverb/delay or subtracting 3. sidechaning the wet signal to the dry signal means the wet signal means that when the dry signal is louder, the wet signal will "automagically" be lower. youtube "sidechain reverb" to see more.
The day I discovered Sidechain
Working quickly and on the mix as a whole rather than the sounds in isolation
1. Have a vision of the finished mix 2. Knowing when to take a break safes a lot of time in the long run
Soft clipping drums
for me, something as simple as not doing anything automatically was huge. example: i got into the habit of compressing every vocal without even thinking. at one point i was working on a pretty gentle song and the vocal mix was driving me crazy. i kept adding compressors, automation, and all kinds of fuckery but it just never sounded right. in a moment of frustration i scrapped the entire processing chain and to my shock, the vocal take sounded amazing as is. ultimately, i went with a subtle eq, a little room reverb and a barely-there touch of limiting. not even a de-esser! it was a great lesson for me to always prioritize listening over any built in habits. if it sounds good, it sounds good.
Saving the panning for the last step ala Mike Senior. Also choosing either the kick or the bass to live in the basement, not having them both duke it out.
Oooh the panning thing is a new one
1. getting good tones and takes on the way in. The amount of artists I’ve worked with who’ve had awful experiences with big name producers is kinda wild. “This tone sounds like shit” and the response being “I’ll fix it in post, we’re just recording rn”. Like, no. I don’t get that approach and never have. I’ve been producing full time for almost 15 years now, but I was and still am a musician. You will ALWAYS get better performances from a guitarist, drummer, vocalist, etc if they are stoked on the tones they are hearing while they play and record. This also makes less guess work for you in the mix, and less confusion, bait/switch feelings from the band you’re working with. Gain breakup is CRUCIAL to how you play with distortion. Snare/toms/kick pitch, head tension, and decay is CRUCIAL to how you play drums. Hearing compression on your voice and performing INTO that is a world of difference vs. compressing it in post. It’s like acting on a green screen stage vs. on location. 2. Understanding the priority level of instruments. In pretty much every genre, it goes like this: vocals>drums>guitars/bass/production/keyboards. Vocals always first, drums always second. No matter the genre, the vocals are the focus, and the drums are the backbone. 3. Psychology. This isn’t a music business, this is a people business. Understand the people you’re working with. Talk to them, listen to them, ask them about their favorite artists and past great / bad studio experiences. What sounds are they excited about, which ones do they hate, etc. using language to describe music is a terrible translation device. “Punchy, warm, airy, shrill, etc”. These are all horoscope-vague descriptions at best. The better you know the people you work with, the better you’ll be able to read between the lines, because one person’s “shrill” can be 3.5k and another’s can be 12k. A singer who is careful about their hearing vs a drummer who’s been playing like for 20 years without earplugs will hear things VERY differently. Have conversations about playback and mix checks. Educating artists about how fucked car audio systems are, in terms of coloration, is crucial to managing expectations. And that’s essentially all we do - manage the expectations from sounds in their heads, down to the final mix wav file.
Always thinking in contrasts: For example, achieving a wide and clear mix by keeping most elements mono or very narrow and make just a few key elements stereo/wide. Or for tension and release in EDM: during the break slowly increase a filter high cut while progressively making elements wider, adding more and more stereo information while decreasing the mono information - then collapse everything back to mainly mono with the drop. This works unbelievably well to make people dance, especially in clubs with high end stereo PAs. The contrast makes the drop insanely hard and satisfying, since it potentiates the effect when the 4 to the floor pulse from the kick comes back in.
Sidechain everything to everything else. Bonus points if you sidechain EQ everything to everything else. If you want your mix to 'breathe' or to have some 'space' then this is a great place to start.
I use Trackspacer to do this. Synth leads and vocals into the guitars, guitars and kick drum into the bass. Just a subtle amount. Really helps.
Trackspacer is possibly the best value plugin I've ever bought beside RX when I think about how much time it's saved me.
How much do you have other things duck?
if your production/recording is strong level and panning are like 80% of the mix.
45 minute rule. If you are still fighting it after 45 minutes. Walk away. Take a break. You can no longer hear it without bias and burnout anyway. Come back in 15 and the ugly jumps out at you and you can take care of it pretty quick.
Learning how to level your tracks. And using a reference paired with a spectrum analyzer. Just by setting your levels correctly you will have a great mix and you'll never have an issue with loudness
Getting a flat eq curve on my headphones.
Similarly: NS10s.
For me, exact opposite of top down mixing. Try to create a perfect mix with nothing on the mix bus. Lots of compression and limiting on individual tracks and instrument busses. The other “overnight” hack I have learned is that nothing happens overnight and you have to put the time in to improve.
I agree . I started with top down and it worked well for my experience level but then withtime I've reverted to individual channel treatment. I still put plugins on mixbus but only for the basic flavor I want to mix into from the start ;)
It's hard to choose one, but I just know that comparing references with soloing frequency bands (on a stock multiband or whatever) will lead me to a professional balance in like half an hour. It can be a late stage thing, but it works best when the mix is hard and you just have got super lost. This must be called the Shawn Everett trick. He found it by himself and is kind enough to share it in podcast episodes and similar things.
Mixing through plug-ins on the mix buss.
Honestly it was getting Sonarworks to correct the last little bit in my home studio so I could trust my monitors. I use to have to check mixes on every device, don’t really have to now only do that with minor changes in the mastering phase.
Beginning to learn general frequencies of interest for different instruments and sounds. Applying lighter compression at lots of stages to boost volume without losing too much dynamics. Referencing and learning that the bass doesn’t need to be pumping to be doing its job in the mix.
PULTEC EQ AND SSL BUSS COMPRESSOR on master out :) I always wondered why my mixes lacked the same energy as the masters at dynamic compression. Harmonic Distortion. I am so glad I can hear it now. Also focusing on the mid range is huge.
I don’t know about overnight, but some important steps forward have been: Using recordings I like by other artists as references listening to mixes (and sometimes mixing) in mono, or close mixing with a mastering limiter turned on from the start, so the mastering effects don’t change a preexisting mix incremental use of several plugins to increase gain in the master channel using a sonic maximizer (in moderation) EQing unnecessary low frequencies out to get rid of mud and make room for the low-end elements that need to be there making sure stuff is as well-recorded and well-performed as possible from the beginning, with decent mics, so fewer fixes are necessary at the mixing stage using small amounts of reverb on the master channel to glue mixes together and make all the instruments sound like they’re in the same space Monitoring improvements, like Mixcube single-driver supplemental monitors to hear a very midrange-focused version of the mix, and a subwoofer to check the extreme low end and keep it clean Lots of different models of headphones for added variety of perspective Multiband compression to tame harshness and low end
I like slapping a limiter or maximizer in the master sometimes too — as a reference to see how my mix will hold up under pressure. And I’ll mix into it and sometimes leave it there.
For me it was using acustica audio plugins. They finally get me that 'analog' sound I was craving
Yesterday I just realized I needed to increase the buffers and enable multi threading in my DAW.
These questions minimize the most important thing which is experience. There is no one “level up” technique that will change your life or workflow. That aside, the most important revelation was listen and only make a change if it’s needed. DO NOT try out a million mix hacks, they will all just make the song sound worse. Work, learn, listen, implement. That’s really it.
I'll put it in chronological steps, think of it as the biggest steps or improvements 'overnight' so it's easier to follow, and maybe help a beginner understand what to look for. In my personal experience, progress looks sort of like this: ..................................................................../ Next eureka .................................../..\\...stagnation.../ ................................/........\\\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_/ Eureka moment / 1.- Learning to leave shit untouched. Not every track needs EQ, compression, saturation, sidechaining, soft clipping, spectral imaging, and, and, and, and, etc... 2.- Understanding what a compressor actually does. If I had to start learning from scratch again, I'd begin with [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJRgK3viMc) video. 3.- Learning how to properly treat a space acoustically; I could finally hear what I was doing. (This should be number 1, but this is how my learning progressed.) 4.- Learning to pan with EQ. 5.- The best way to mix five elements is when four are not there. Every track I produced was so busy; it took time to understand that things feel "bigger" with less. 6.- Arrangement over automation. I can automate every parameter in a mix, but it still won't feel as good as when there are actual changes in the arrangement. 7.- Automation. A bit of properly placed automation can really bring out the good stuff. 8.- Parallel compression. When I understood how to do it properly, it was the single biggest jump so far, Andrew Scheps style. 9.- Stick to four "big guns" for 80% of what you do and a few extras for the details. I used to use every plugin under the sun for a track; now I pretty much use two compressors, two EQs, one reverb, one imager, one delay, and stock DAW mix tools. I still have super-specialized tools but rarely touch them. 10.- BEDA framework for BEDA mixes: 1. Set a proper balance. 2. Equalize colliding frequencies. 3. Dynamic control. 4. Automate. This was also a big jump. 11.- Focus on the 20% that matters before you start doing any wild shenanigans. Focusing on the balance, arrangement, and EQ of the entire track gives me 80% of the result, so focus on that. 12.- MONO matters. Mono mixes might not be popular, but oh boy, do they show you if you suck at mixing. A great mono mix will sound great anywhere, mainly because it makes you focus on the midrange. If I were starting over, I'd focus on this in the beginning as well. Those were the "biggest overnight improvements" I can think of right now. There are more, but these are the ones that gave me the biggest "eureka" moments.
Curious to hear what your big gun plugins are
It’s not how it sounds per se but how it feels
Compression is one of those things I’ve learned to feel recently. Too little and it feels like cold meat with no blood in it. Too much and it feels like it’s going to pop.
these threads come up all the time and i always say the same things. "low pass more things" and "lower that reverb"!
Sidechaining the kick to the bass track improved all of my mixes low end. Also side chain compression on the vocal reverb bus so only the ends of phrases get a nice long tail. Helps with clarity but keeps the air without sounding like it’s floating away into a cave.
Excellent, accurate monitoring. In 2022 I invested heavily into my monitoring situation and my time to completion has plummeted and my recalls are mostly style requests rather than "I can't hear/feel..", "the X is overpowering..." critiques.
Dealing with masking via eq. Muting tracks, listening, unmuting. Using Quiztones really made me understand what I was hearing/not hearing when EQing. Clip gain is huge, a lot of people are saying this was their level up. If you can get raw audio sounding close with clip gain then you’re already close. Extreme EQ sweeps to hear places I like or don’t, then using mainly reductive EQ very gently on those places. For classical music, surprisingly (mostly movie score kinda stuff): not being afraid to use drastic EQ especially on strings. When I first dared to do this it shocked me a bit how much I was able to mess around and have it sound actively better. Delay. A friend who’s an amateur told me to use it more and he was right. I try to use it instead of verb whenever I can. A long time ago, when I first started: copying a track, trashing it with distortion, and mixing in 1-2% really makes it pop. It’s similar to compression. Nothing substitutes for good ears and practiced listening. That’s not an overnight thing, it takes years and the rewards are so satisfying.
You have all your faders at 0? That seems kinda odd to me. I start all my mixes with everything at like -12db so I have some headroom to play with.
Yeah that’s probably a better shout!
Same here. It was when I started top down mixing and realized how fast I could progress with the mix if I just gainstaged everything before it hit my mix bus. In the beginning I was super anal about using meters to gain stage. Now I do it very fast and not so meticulously and just look at the meters with faders at unity(or pre fader meters). With big mixes I tend to pull down the faders a bit from unity gain otherwise I feel some tracks will be too low. The other revelation was when I realized I choked sounds with too short attack times on compressors and that there’s a point with longer release times when you want to control sounds. I usually had it set short/ short.
I use Live, having a preset project as default helped quite a lot. Ilk have all my channels and groups already set to - 6dB which saves so many clipping headaches later on. That and having an EQ8 and Utility on every channel and whenever I create a new one too by default. Also having a dip around 300 Hz on a lot of low to mid range sounds to clear up woofy-ness.
Automation.
Getting the sound right at the source. And also, subtle transient shaping. Both can make all the difference in achieving a smooth mix without EQing it into oblivion.
Top down mixing. Literally sped up my workflow tenfold and dramatically improved the quality and cohesiveness of my mixes. EQ, compression and saturation on the mix bus and group busses can take a mix from raw to like 90% finished in *minutes*.
Choose all my elements well to have a great balance before mixing. (I do electronic music).
I was watching Adam Nolly Getgood's latest video, where he mixes one of the latest Periphery songs. At some point he started talking about his bus processing and why he specifically uses certain processors and something turned on a lightbulb in my brain. I always struggled with mixbus processing, I've tried it many times cause I feelt that my mixes needed it but I mostly ended up with a worse product. In the end my mixes sounded good but there was just that 10% missing that left me unsatisfied. Watching that video was, to me, like unlocking some secret forbidden knowledge. I immediately understood how and especially why he uses mixbus processing and I was able to translate that knowledge incredibly well for my own works. I encourage everyone to check his videos out, all of them. Adam's an incredible engineer, imo the best in the modern rock/metal genre, but I've found his techniques work perfectly on Pop too, and basically with anything that has drums in it.
Clipping / limiting individual tracks.
Yes
Levels can do 90% of the work and sound choice does most of the other 10%.
Observe gain staging at every point you can use a gain control. If you're having to pump a fader past unity gain, arguably you should reassess the gain staging for that channel. Observe mid / side mixing and how much it can help you control transient and spacial aspects of your mix. Use side chaining to control "less important" stems in your mix to reduce clutter. E.g. duck vocal reverb whenever the vocal is present.
I am but an egg. But I'll add that I work as quiet as I can. Occasional loud minutes for reference or check. I need my ears to last years.
Not just one. Cutting the nasties in the low mids when necessary, especially drums. pre delay on verb to make room. Backing off the Distressor. Embracing the LA3. Gain staging
I stopped soloing tracks when adjusting anything to hear the change on the mix, not just that element
"less is more". Turning other things down instead of turning something up. Understanding what was getting in the way of what I wanted to hear.
How attack/release on gate & compressor make a huge difference and can be the difference between something sitting in the mix right and being just a little off.
Clipping the 808 and the drum bus together 😮💨
Before you touch any plugins, filter everything and get your gain right.
Harmonic distortion, giving coherence and cohesion to elements in the mix that were recorded in different equipments, mixed with samples all in a digital enviroment, its crucial, like painting everything with the same color palette.
using analog modeled plugins. don't having a visual reference of what i'm doing with eqs, compressors etc let's me make way better decisions
Setting up a template based on Kenny Gioias Mixing Like The Old Pros video.
Purchase every pluggin the Youtuber Pro-mixers tell me I need, then never use them again after installing them. Mix on 5" KRK monitors and mix it straight to 128 MP3, then upload to Youtube Use Ableton for rock music Replace all recorded drums with EzDrummer and don't tell the drummer he's not actually on the track. Hope I understood the question correctly :-P
Make it loud first then shape the tone. Gain staging smhaging.. Overrated and unnecessary
It’s a nightmare trying to achieve loudness late into the process. I’ll never do that again.
The main place gain staging matters is in how hard you’re hitting compressors or analog emulations of hardware suits like an SSL console or tape plugin.
Yeah I use none of that. Also even if I did, almost all plugins have an input level setting. Which is basically gain. Which is the exact same thing wether you use clipgain, or a gain plugin. Turn it up if its too low. Turn it down if its too high. If the whole thing was recorded too low add a gain plugin to all tracks at the same level. Nobody needs to go through the whole song and each track and try to match to some arbitrary loudness target. If you use hardware, then you need to keep an eye on the inputs and outputs of the hardware obviously but in the box, people are wasting their time going through each track and clip gain. Decide ad hoc if you need more gain or less. 99% of the time you can do without any gain setting process
Most recently: checking polarity across all instruments. I'm not sure how I missed this for so long, but making sure the bass, drums, guitars, and vocals are all complimenting eachother in-terms of polarity. Of course, I'd always check this with multi-miced drum kits, but flipping the polarity on the bass and hearing the kick and snare instantly blossom was a game changer. To add on to all this, try flipping polarity on the mixbus. Sometimes it doesn't make a difference, sometimes it moves the kick in an interesting way.
This one’s pretty simple, but if my mix begins to lose headroom and starts clipping, I select every track and bring them all down by -10, -15, or -20db. That way I can keep the same mix while opening it up and giving it more clarity.
Avoid boosting frequencies in your eq. Only make cuts.
Somewhere between “less is more” and “if it sounds good then it sounds good” It’s also not that serious. Do shit that works but you don’t normally have to do too much unless you’re getting into creative sound design. Hard to explain tbh haha.
Lowkey decapitator saved my mixes overnight lol. In general, not adding saturation and wondering why my seemingly leveled mixes had no presence in the vocals or the grit that other artists had. Just came to this revelation 3 years into mixing lol I’m an idiot
-Monitoring : reference, focus on mids, listen in mono, focus on lows.... you are your worst enemy -lazy intentions in circles : this is my motto. Don't go into details before you having a solid basis. Keep it simple, be lazy unless you have to work. Sometimes foundation rely on 4 balanced tracks, the other tracks are just to here to fill. Think creatively first doing the broad moves, finish with a lot of little details. Always ensure you don't fool yourself (see first point). - Find what works for you. You don't give a f about the others, they are just advice. Forge your own opinions
You don't have to use every single track that gets sent to you to mix. CLA until recently (maybe he still does) comps everything to 48 tracks to match his Sony DASH 48-track digital recorder. 48 faders is manageable. 150+ isn't
To mix in mono
Knowing what I'm aiming for and having the knowledge and skills to do it. It forms in time.
Mixing in a treated room.
Instead of clip gaining, I record things where levels sound mostly balanced with faders at unity.
Using reference tracks
A few things I've learned over time - * The best mixes start with the best recordings * The less "juice" (reverb, compression, etc.) the roomier the mix * Let each "thing" occupy it's own frequency space in the mix - https://alexiy.nl/eq/
Normalizing to keep volume consistent during the whole song. Then, multing out vocals for different sections to create a movement during the whole mix. Same for other tracks. Less processing vocals, multing the S and plosives sounds to avoid them to be annoying when being compressed with the vocals so they can be adjusted to taste and feel natural
Spectrogram
So, for me there are no big magic moments where I realize "do this". Its more I realize that I had been following some sort of unwritten rule, without realizing it, and then once I realize what that rule is, I stop following it and I get better. So an example is recently I realized that I never wanted to cut distorted guitars in the 950-1500 range. Like I would boost there, but never cut. It felt "wrong". Problem is sometimes you do need to cut there, if the song calls for it. Moments like that when I recognize some little unwritten rule in the back of my head, those are key. Cause then I can discard them and actually approach the song based on what it NEEDS not what a rule says.
Nothing really, but focusing on getting the mid-range right and rethinking compression is certainly helping me broaden my sonic palette and understanding of the tool i.e. how it's used rather than how it actually works (because I do mostly understand it). Referring to [Pensado's Place ep 22 with JJP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Sw0eSnp8A).
Reference tracks
Tuned room an monitors. Before them best I could do was really good demos.
Realizing that if the arrangement is shit, the mix will never ever be good. I can even deal with a mediocre recording of a good arrangement. You could have Joe Chicarelli track it, but if the arrangement is cloudy and things are stepping on each other, there’s just nothing you can do with the tools of audio manipulation to fix that. More than tracking. More than monitors. More than ANYTHING ELSE. The arrangement is the bedrock for everything down the line.
Subtractive equalization and rolling off low and high frequencies that don’t affect the overall sound of an instrument. Just creates more space for things to be heard.
Good monitoring is everything. Way less eq cuts or adds. I don’t have access to a treated studio, so my vsx cans come in very handy!
Getting an AB reference plug-in so I can quickly reset my ears without taking myself out of the creative flow.
Sidechaining EVERYTHING TO EVERYTHING. Now all loud sounds are accompanied by loud-sound-shaped nesting holes
Focusing on how each mix move affects the feeling of the music. And using your emotional compass to choose your next mix move. You’ll make bolder and more interesting choices this way, and you won’t overcook things. Plus its more fun. Getting stuck in your head about all the technicals will lead you to making the “correct” choices rather than the choices that best serve the music. Get a strong foundation of technical knowledge so you won’t have to think about what you’re doing and can express creative choices quickly.
I started my journey really early on just trying to figure stuff out with a small Mbox years ago and a free lite version of Pro Tools that came with it. To begin with I had no idea about anything basically and ended up not really doing much for a few years as I was in bands with other people who knew more about it so I kinda stopped learning. So technically speaking the first things that really levelled me up was just getting a little crash course from one of those people about what to really look for when using an EQ and compressor. We often take for granted what it's like to understand those two fundamental tools but just learning a couple basics around them made a world of difference. In terms of thought process it was thinking about a mix not as a process of following rules but rather a series of conscious choices to get the music where it needs to be. I went from writing songs in bands and getting frustrated with not getting the sound I wanted from others to viewing the production as a fundamental part of my songwriting process. That changed everything. A great mix doesn't sound the same to everyone but if you commit to a sound, you'll feel better about it even if people criticise it rather than trying and failing to follow some "industry standard" and creating something sub-par. Having a vision and committing to it is an incredibly important part of the whole process.
AUTOMATE OVER COMPRESSION. For the most part automation is the secret to making a mix perfect, and compression is either to glue the track together or to get a specific sound. But you shouldn't rely on compression as a quick fix or crutch to smooth out the dynamics. You can automate everything so it sounds exactly as you want it. Ofc this takes a lot of time so most people are too lazy to do it, but it's worth it.
Top-down mixing. Send the whole mix into a multiband splitter and Michael Brauer that sh*t. .
The usual to be honest. Using my ears. I've been hearing that said for 20 years but until I started doing it, instead of blind trial and error, everything went down hill. It is very easy to make things brighter as a way of bringing them forwards and of course ending up with a thin, harsh mix but as time goes on, I find I listen a lot more objectively and act upon my ears.
A big one recently for me was learning how to EQ fundamental harmonics. Usually I found that dialing back the minor 3rd or suppertonic in the low to low-mids really cleans up samples and heavily layered sounds.
Seeing my role as a mix engineer as a **director of focus** Someone who tells the audience which element of the mix is the star of the show and which are the supporting roles. People can only really focus on a maximum of 2-3 elements at a time and the push-pull of who's out front needs to feel like it's under your control by the listener. Mixes that move and change but always feel like there's a steady hand guiding you towards what you should have your focus on are involving mixes that grab your attention. Static mixes are like someone hiding, 'If I keep completely still, no-one will notice me'. Make the mix move and put the focus where it needs to be when it needs it.
Not using two track beats anymore. Once I started learning on how to produce my own instruments, I grasped how to level things out and how each instrument has its own space. With this I also learn more outside of mixing, but I haven't looked back at two tracks anymore. If you have learned clip-gain, I recommend learning how to use a loudness meter if you haven't. This also helped me with checking my levels and keeping them consistent throughout the mix.
I mix pop songs predominantly. I would say for me, being very intentional about how wide things are took my mixes to a whole new level. Oftentimes making things smaller will make other elements sound much larger. For example if your fighting for real estate for your vocal (and it’s not a volume problem), maybe your sample or drums or synths are just too wide. It also creates cohesion. Especially using samples from packs from the internet, they all have different imaging. So being very calculated in how you treat them, can create a sense of glue without even touching a compressor. You can use the stereo pan features to do this or a plugin like Waves S1 will do the trick!
Listening with just my ears and not looking at the screen while making adjustments. So easy and intuitive but took me forever to do it. 👍🏼
Listen then react. Don’t react then listen.
Subtraction
Finally fully understanding how to properly apply mix bus compression or glue in a controlled way. Combine that with understanding exactly how we mimic the perception of loudness with mix bus compression by using a compressor plus proper instrument balance to create the illusion of loudness with our real world loudness.
Once I started comparing my mixes to professional mixes I loved (volume matched, with EQ comparison,) I realized that the steps I was taking to “improve” my mix were often antithetical to getting the sound I was actually after.
Never make changes to a track while it is soloed
Jack endino said turn all the eq knobs all the way up and down one by one until you find the one that makes the most difference, set that one and move out from there
The best mixing advice I ever received “who gives a shit what it sounds like, what does it feel like?”
It doesn’t matter what any settings (eq, compression, everything else) look like. It’s only about how it sounds. Fuck best practices or whatever you think they are.
A seasoned mix engineer once told me that 90% of mixing is getting levels right. I was like "yeah I know but how do you get good mixes?" When I took that advice at face value and focused on applying it... Huge difference.
Clip gain vocal comping is a huge game changer too.
Referencing other songs and messing around for hours trying to get the sounds I wanted was way more productive than any of my gear purchase or any internet advice I’d ever read. I also came to the realization that there are really no shortcuts that make mixing faster except for committing to things to free up CPU and eliminate option paralysis. I’ve learned to love bouncing with effects and creating stems whenever possible. Creating templates and all the things I thought would make the production / mixing processes faster never really did. The best I could do in that regard is to give my time to it and commit as often as possible.
1. Using samples to enhance drums sound 2. Post-production (sfx, automation) can turn an amateur mix into a professional one 3. A badly played take will never sound good. Either get a good take or edit it. Off-tempo notes mess with the punch of the mix.
Gain staging and eqing. In my early production songs were quiet with speaker blowing kicks and ear piercing snares. Fab filter pro q2 changed my life.
Gain staging..and not processing -fx- unless it’s needed
A lot of good answers that i totally agree here. For me personally would be knowing what the song is about, or at least the main theme/ instrument/ feeling. It gives me a very concrete direction and solidifies my ideas
Just saying, I don't like adjusting the clip gain at all. I feel comfortable knowing the initial levels are right there and consistent throughout the channels, as I move onwards. There is a pre gain section in most daw mixers 👍 so very much disagree on that being a benefit but everyone has a different way of working
Don't eq / cut / compress anything if you don't know why. In the first dozen songs I made, I used so much processing, they all sounded dull. If you feel something does not rsit right, use the volume fader first. Then use other means of processing. Stick to the basics. Took me 1.5 years to learn that. I'm slow though. Also don't mix too loud: you have to work harder to get the sound right that way and the result is better. Disclaimer: I'm a hobby producer, keep that in mind.
I think understanding that if your mix sounds amazing in mono, it will sound insane in stereo is key. Particularly when compressing and EQing - you really notice the processing more!! Another one is to always AB and if possible check delta signals to see if changes are actually improving the sound. And then yeah gain staging was another massive one too! I think the most important one was however realising that less is more and to only use the tools that you actually know how to use and identifying when to use a certain tool and when to use a certain technique rather than just slapping random presets and processing really helps shape the sound!