Keeping Everything Below The Metronome?

T

TheRealJoe

New member
What's up guys, new here, and in several tutorials online and forums on this thread, I've seen people talking about making sure the metronome is louder then the beat before starting to mix. I haven't tried this out yet, but I plan on it. I just feel as if that would be a pretty quite mix, although it does make sense that the low levels would give me plenty of room to work with during the mix.

What are your thoughts on this? Is this the best way, or is there an alternative you feel is better?

Thanks
 
I keep my INSTRUMENTS below the metronome, except for the main melodies... all of the harmonies and complementing instruments I keep low.... honestly, I could mix with or without the click track but I'll turn it on sometimes to get the basic levels of my first few instruments then turn it off... if how you're doing it now works for you then keep doing it that way .. there's no real right or wrong way.
 
Mixes aren't supposed to be loud.

Keep em low and balanced. Then do some basic "loudness mastering" on your Master Out w/ a bus compressor and limiter.
 
^^^ Exactly. Mixing low just gives you a lot of room to work with to get the levels of the mix right, you need to master afterwards to get the loudness your looking for.
 
People have jumped on this 'keep below the metronome' bullcrap just because Johnny Juliano mentioned it in one of his videos.

The metronome should have no influence on the volume of your mix. At the end of the day, if you're mixing correctly (i.e. low) then it should always be below it anyway. It's a pretty simple concept, yet people still struggle to understand what a 'low mix' is.
 
Don't worry about the metronome. You do want to keep your levels low'ish so that you don't have to worry about clipping. Unless you need it for specific reason, you probably shouldn't even have the metronome playing while mixing. For me, it's distracting.
 
JC_Biffro said:
People have jumped on this 'keep below the metronome' bullcrap just because Johnny Juliano mentioned it in one of his videos.
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Very true.. people dick ride JJ... he could come out with a video of everything you wouldn't want to do, pass it off like he does it, and producers all over the net would emulate it.

Not saying JJ doesn't know what he's doing, because his tracks are always good ... just sayin. Develop your own style and ways of doing things, that's what he did in the first place
 
why would you keep it below the metronome? a metronome is a speed device not a mix device, so it has no place being used in the mix or mastering phases. Add to that that it can have it's volume changed at will, the suggestion that you should keep everything below the metronome is ludicrous on the face of it and even when inspected more closely....
 
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People act like metronomes are calibrated or something. The volume of your metronome is wherever you set it. I suppose if you never change the volume, you could use it as some sort of crude measuring stick. But really, you should learn how to gain stage properly.

There's a post on my facebook page and here: Chris 'Von Pimpenstein' Carter: Tips Archive Where I talk about how loud I mix that everyone should read.
 
moses said:
this thread is hilarious, I'm speechless..
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Yet you're talking... :hmmm:

---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

To the rest of you, thank you for your responses. I wasn't saying have the metronome playing while mixing. I was saying using the metronome as a sound device BEFORE mixing. But I learned a lot from your posts and appreciate the insight! Thank you all.
 
TheRealJoe, I was just wondering about the fact that someone who's favourite task is to place a bunch of sounds in his sequencers/whatever in a regular manner isn't capable to use his creativity and common sense to create his own metronome, or even rethink the whole idea of using metronomes in modern production environments. This is what makes me speechless. You know this is called creative business, right? ;)
 
moses said:
TheRealJoe, I was just wondering about the fact that someone who's favourite task is to place a bunch of sounds in his sequencers/whatever in a regular manner isn't capable to use his creativity and common sense to create his own metronome, or even rethink the whole idea of using metronomes in modern production environments. This is what makes me speechless. You know this is called creative business, right? ;)
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1. You've successfully proved that you're an idiot. If you have nothing positive or helpful to say, why waste your time and mine???

2. You didn't even understand the question dumbass. I obviously know how to use a metronome. SOME producers make beats with the metronome on, in order to make sure no sounds (except for the lead in some cases) ARE LOUDER. That way when you mix, you have a lot of room to increase sounds without it being too loud. It's a technique. This has nothing to do with a metronome.

English must be your second language, I bet your music sucks.
 
lol everyone getting all worked up over a metronome post. I like the metronome idea I feel like its just a training wheel type of thing. Keep doing what you do if it works for you.
 
TheRealJoe said:
1. You've successfully proved that you're an idiot. If you have nothing positive or helpful to say, why waste your time and mine???

2. You didn't even understand the question dumbass. I obviously know how to use a metronome. SOME producers make beats with the metronome on, in order to make sure no sounds (except for the lead in some cases) ARE LOUDER. That way when you mix, you have a lot of room to increase sounds without it being too loud. It's a technique. This has nothing to do with a metronome.

English must be your second language, I bet your music sucks.
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way to make friends........ with a moderator no less

I would again say that you have to be not thinking straight if you think that keeping everything below the level of the metronome is going to help you mix effectively

A metronome is a timing device as I said previously and should really only be used to that end
 
The metronome is loud as **** as it is. If it's over the metronome you should already know you're ****ing up.
 
2ndchance said:
lol everyone getting all worked up over a metronome post. I like the metronome idea I feel like its just a training wheel type of thing. Keep doing what you do if it works for you.
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The reason why it's senseless advice it's because it's empty advice. It's like reading directions and one of the steps saying "make this side longer than a piece of string" A string could be of different lengths. A metronome could also be at different levels. A metronome is not a standard sound measurement and it's often custom. My metronome is set to different levels than stock.
 
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