What's The Real Meaning Of Mixing?!?!
- Thread starter DMDBeats
- Start date
Each instrument is like an ingredient for a recipe. The ingredients are the instruments,effects, adjustments. The full recipe is the "mix" or the complete song. Mixing is adding the right "ingredients" , the right amount of the ingredients, panning, effects, adjustments, and so on to complete the whole recipe the way that's best to you.
You can compare adding too much of one ingredient to making a sound too loud in the mix, it can mess up the whole recipe/mix.
You can compare adding too much of one ingredient to making a sound too loud in the mix, it can mess up the whole recipe/mix.
Wallengard
Manipulator of energy
You take a bunch of sounds, and you mix them together to make everything sound the way you want it to. That's the real meaning of mixing. In the very simplest form I could possibly think of.
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AudioEngineer
New member
I like to think of it as finding each specific part's perfect location. If one part isn't in the right spot, the rest will also be off.
If a car double parks in the grocey store parking lot, the rest of the row will be off as well...
If a car double parks in the grocey store parking lot, the rest of the row will be off as well...
bandcoach
Zukatoku - Mod Scientist
nope mastering is the process of sequencing and preparing a release for the target medium. It may involve some subtle adjustments to each track to bring them into the same sonic sphere, but it is mostly concerned with inserting identification codes (ISRC) where appropriate and rendering to the distribution medium.....
Yumid
New member
There are 6 main elements to a mix that should be considered when planning. In no specific order..
1.) Panning-Find an area for each element of the song, don't overcrowd everything in one spot. Be realistic, if you're mixing a song, imagine the band actually playing that song live on stage and your song has 3 guitars in it..where do you picture those guitar players on stage? Pan each each guitar to where you think it should be, etc..thats just ONE way of looking at it.
2.) Balance-This refers to the volume or amplitude of each individual instrument the mix. The main thing people usually think about when mixing. Only refers to using volume faders.
3.) Dynamics- Volume control like balance, but instead of controlling volume with the actual fader. Its controlled through the use of compression, gates, limiters, etc...
4.)Dimension/Depth- Created by the use of effects, or what the overall 'ambience' of the song feels like.
5.)Frequency- Try to cover the entire frequency spectrum from 20hz-20khz ish without overcrowding and making certain areas muddy. (Lows tend to be the harder area in this category)
6.)Interest- A broad element, basically just means make sure there is something in your mix that stands out and makes it interesting. Varies by the mixer.
1.) Panning-Find an area for each element of the song, don't overcrowd everything in one spot. Be realistic, if you're mixing a song, imagine the band actually playing that song live on stage and your song has 3 guitars in it..where do you picture those guitar players on stage? Pan each each guitar to where you think it should be, etc..thats just ONE way of looking at it.
2.) Balance-This refers to the volume or amplitude of each individual instrument the mix. The main thing people usually think about when mixing. Only refers to using volume faders.
3.) Dynamics- Volume control like balance, but instead of controlling volume with the actual fader. Its controlled through the use of compression, gates, limiters, etc...
4.)Dimension/Depth- Created by the use of effects, or what the overall 'ambience' of the song feels like.
5.)Frequency- Try to cover the entire frequency spectrum from 20hz-20khz ish without overcrowding and making certain areas muddy. (Lows tend to be the harder area in this category)
6.)Interest- A broad element, basically just means make sure there is something in your mix that stands out and makes it interesting. Varies by the mixer.
Salem Beats
Ki from Salem-Beats.com
As it stands today:
- Mixing is concerned with the characteristics of individual sources and the relationships between these individual sources.
- Mastering is concerned with the characteristics of an entire song and the relationship between it and other songs.
You might find that there are activities that bleed from one to the other, and that's OK.
For example, I might get a song that an artist would like me to master,
and I might immediately identify that there's too much siblance in his lead vocals.
In this situation, I would attempt to isolate the problem area and fix it.
This would be manipulating an individual source against the other sources,
but with the intention of creating a consistent high-end so that the song's average frequency response is appropriate to what's expected from the genre.
What distinguishes mixing and mastering further are context and intention.
You mix a song immediately after recording instrument and vocal parts. Many people do some rudimentary mixing along the way.
You master a song after it's mixed. It's all about fixing any glaring issues that exist, and getting the song to fit in the landscape of other songs.
Many people are in disagreement over the meaning of mastering
simply because the roles in mastering have changed as the music landscape has changed.
What started as a purely technical role of creating a vinyl stamp for duplication
has gradually evolved to involve more artistic skills, as a final processing step for the mix as a whole.
Older folks or elitists will attempt to convert you to their dated perspectives on mastering as merely an identification and manufacturing process,
whereas younger folks and the inexperienced often believe that "mastering is just about making things loud" (often, that's the most obvious change an ME makes).
-Ki
Salem Beats
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