How to start off mixing???

Dennis1990

Dennis1990

New member
How is the way or ways to start off mixing???


Should I turn down all the volumes of each sounds and start from there by turning them up one by one???

What dB should sounds be ? mixing mostly for hip-hop.
 
There's several answers to this, and at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference.

However, here's what I'd recommend if you just have little direction and aren't sure where to start:

Begin with the drums. Often, the kick specifically. Then the snare, claps, hats, percussion, etc. Get the drums bumping, grooving, etc. Then move on to the instruments and it will be much easier to make everything fit together. It will be more about filling in spaces instead of just an abstract "how should this sound?"

Hope this helps!
 
quoted from here https://www.futureproducers.com/for...eneral-mixing-rule-thumb-479217/#post49806722

this may seem like a simple request, but in my experience there are very few people here who agree about what constitutes the best way to mix

for my money,
mixing is the art of making things quieter​

  • use mostly mono sound sources (removes issues with non-stereo sources in a faux stereo wrapper)
  • all faders set at 0dbrms/unity gain (usually somewhere between -6dbfs and -20dbfs, depending on the daw)
  • reduce the level of all channels except the one you want to hear most prominently (do not reduce levels to the point of ridiculousness, just enough to hear what is important)
  • now repeat for the next most important sound and so on
  • now start with panning, moving everything into their own position within the stereo Left-right spread as needed
  • you may need to revisit some fader settings to accommodate the changes in perceived loudness of individual channels
  • now consider fx, as inserts and then as sends
  • Use insert fx where you do not want to share the result with other sounds; use send where the result is meant to provide a glue between sound sources
  • now consider eq as a creative tool
 
what's up man? i used to ask myself the same question and it's just a matter of becoming accustomed to what you like. if there is a certain type of sound that you like (genre), then listen to it and emmulate. Mixing is just as much of an art than it is a science. most definitely learn the basics and then just keep practicing and you'll get better in know time. trust me.

as far as REALLY how to mix. i myself, start with listening to the volume of the song fairly low medium. solo the drums, get them right. then the synths and get them right. and bring everything together to make it sound right. make sure the levels sound okay and not peaking is a good start. check out a search on google on "eq". after listening to a lot of music and creating my own you start to see what levels you like on certain instruments and what needs to stand out.

hope that helps man. i know it's more of advice than something technical.
 
Select a sound that you want to mix after, make sure it has plenty of headroom. Then adjust the levels of different sounds so they sound good in combination to that sound, and eventually you can start adjusting different levels to cooperate with eachother.
One thing that people often do is taking the sound that has the loudest peak, and let it peak at perhaps -10 or -12 dBFS.
 
steffeeh said:
One thing that people often do is taking the sound that has the loudest peak, and let it peak at perhaps -10 or -12 dBFS.
Click to expand...
I thinks that it depends on the genre: for example electro-house, techno and house the kick is more audible and more present than the snare. and, for example, on drum and bass, the percieved volume are almost equal between the two, but it's more common to the snare to be a little more prominent than the kick.
 
Definitely depends on what you are mixing. And what approach suits you best. For me, I'm generally mixing sampled beats with vocals. I mix the sample first, then low-end, then drums, then vocals. Drums and vocals are what need to punch out the most usually which is why I save it for last. Just my two cents, I'm far from a pro. engineer.
 
Ddream said:
I thinks that it depends on the genre: for example electro-house, techno and house the kick is more audible and more present than the snare. and, for example, on drum and bass, the percieved volume are almost equal between the two, but it's more common to the snare to be a little more prominent than the kick.
Click to expand...
Know what you mean, but just saying it's a common practice among producers as I've noticed :)
But I don't know how it should affect the volume the kick and snare, since it's more of a matter of setting an initial headroom.
 
When you start mixing the drums, is it best to solo all thr drums at once to see and hear where best to place them, then continue to the other instruments, or mix them in context to the whole mix. I ask because naturally i would revolve the whole mix around the drums, which is the foundation of the mix.
 
The best advice you will get is as follows:

-Stop making beats or a few hours.
-By high quality MP3's (or CD's and extract the WAV files) of songs you want to emulate.
-Import these songs into your DAW and analyze each element of each song.
-Determine the level, high-pass and low-pass corner frequencies, panning and effects of each element in each song.
-Write down what you find.

You will quickly determine that the range of values is fairly narrow for similar elements across all songs. You will now have a staring point cheat sheet when you go to mix that says for example:

Bass Guitar
Level = -12 to -14dB
HP = 30Hz to 50Hz
LP = 1kHz to 2kHz
Pan = mono
Effects = none

Of course, this is just an an example. Hope this helps.
 
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