Processing of Mixes

T

Twelves

Member
How much can be done to a live mix (after it has been recorded) to make it sound better?

And how far can you take this before the term 'live' cannot be applied to the mix?
 
I tend to just normalize it, then off to cd-r/mp3 or whatever. I'm sure there are about a gazillion little tricks to make it sound just a little bit better.
 
you could run it through T-racks and master it, but I can't see many times when that's necessary.

I'd say that when you start applying computer FX and stuff like that it's not a live mix anymore.
 
Straight off 'da mixer, baby! Screw the processing...let your tunes do the work.

Although processed mixes with splices and loops and nips and tucks can sound fantastic, straight from the tables always sounds more "human."
 
I record my mixes Live into Soundforge from my DJM-500.

I like to add slight compression and Normalization to the Entire recording, THEN use sound forge to make track markers.

Still every bit Live, but just sounding better/warmer on the home stereo.
 
how do you do your normalization? I always seem to have one track or two that is a good bit lower than the rest (no matter how hard i try). I bring that one up and then normalize peak value to 100% (in SF).
I'm just curious to what you mean by "a little" compression & normalization. LIke manually bringing parts up and down, or just normalizing the whole set?
 
Compressing and cutting into tracks is kinda' part of a "mastering" process of sorts...which is completely fine, and even preferred. A nice set cut up into seamless tracks are key, and as a bonus, it's so cool and professional.
 
I usually normalize my mixes and add a little bit of reverb.
 
do everything you can to get the level as high as possible without clipping and do everything you can to get the sound right on the first take w/o any post production.

get the best A to D that you can possibly get. i use Paris to record everything in, and that's it, it gets recorded in at 24 bit and dithered with the apogee dither that comes with WaveLab 4. and it sounds amazing.

remember K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) :)
 
A company called ultrafunk makes a brillian multiband Compresser that allows you to compress the whole mix ( i never bother with individual tracks) with different compression settings for mid/high /low. You can also adjust the compensate for gain changes so the whole mix comes out as loud and clear as possible.

Thing i like most is the "vintage" compression presets that allow you to "warm up" cd mixes

cheers ts
 
citytank said:
how do you do your normalization? I always seem to have one track or two that is a good bit lower than the rest (no matter how hard i try). I bring that one up and then normalize peak value to 100% (in SF).
I'm just curious to what you mean by "a little" compression & normalization. LIke manually bringing parts up and down, or just normalizing the whole set?
Click to expand...

Hey Citytank,

I'll record, say, an hour set into SoundForge live. So when I stop I have one track in Soundforge that's 60 minutes long.

I add a "slight" compression to the whole 60 minute track to tighten up the snares and add punch to the bass. I use the Wave Hammer Plug IN, or the Akai Multi-band compressor. I start with the "Smooth Compression" preset and change some things:
4:1 Compression, long look ahead, and I leave the Volume Maximizer at the default. Sometimes I don't even do this step, but it is something I do on Occasion, especially since I mix in a two family house, so sometimes my "recorded" level is less than I think since I'm keeping my monitors low out of respect for my neighbors.

The next step is to Normalize the entire 60 minute mix. I bring up Normalize, have it scan the entire file (not just the first 5 seconds). Then I'll select Normalize to either -16db (the preset) or -17db. Click OK, go have a smoke and a sip and about four minutes later the whole thing is maxed out. Then I manually go through and place track markers where I switched tracks or where it sounds good to switch over. I try to put it on the "4-and" of the last bar before I'm completely into the next song. That way if you listen to each track seperately it starts on the one (with either a crash or a Bass Drop). Adding track markers while it's still a 60 minute .wav file, ensures there is no gaps in between the tracks (that and burning Disc at Once).

Then I'll choose "Save Regions as Seperate Tracks" and it will ask for a prefix for the tracks. I'll put a letter or an underscore (I'll delete it later) and it will export my entire mix as seperate files. Then I delete the big 60 minute file (or keep it if I want to convert it to real media to put up on my website).

If I master to real media (or MP3) for streaming, I will select "Mono" as most people who listen to mixes on the computer as they stream are doing so at work, school, or with headphones. A Mono mix is about twice as easy for slower modems/DSL lines to download and stream, so the benefit of people not getting the buffer warnings outweighs the stereo seperation in my opinion.
 
thanks for the details man!
I think i really kind of got normalization and compression mixed together. I would take my 60 minute track into SF and find spots where the level was higher or lower than it should have been - and manually raise or lower the volume to make it match - then I'd normalize the whole thing up. Really a pain in the *** actually & in no way very perfect.

I will definitely look into a compressor plugin!
 
Hey Mingus, I listened to some of your mixes and I really like some of the tunes on there. However, they were only streamed at 20kbps, so the quality was pretty poor. You got any higher quality ones I can check out? I'd be interested to see how much difference compression/normalisation would make to my mixes...

Thanks!

:D
 
Twelves said:
Hey Mingus, I listened to some of your mixes and I really like some of the tunes on there. However, they were only streamed at 20kbps, so the quality was pretty poor. You got any higher quality ones I can check out? I'd be interested to see how much difference compression/normalisation would make to my mixes...

Thanks!

:D
Click to expand...

I'll work on that and post back here when I got some.

I don't have a HUGE website, space wise, but I'll try for 128kbps.

I'm assuming you have a Cable/DSL/T1 line.

Thanks for the feedback on the mixes as well...They are getting dated, but I still hear them in co-workers speakers, so I guess it's all good.
 
Yeh, I've got cable so bandwidth isn't a problem.

We seem to have very similar tastes in music, so I'll try borrow some webspace and uplaod a mix somewhere!

:cool:
 
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