Good places to learn mixing/mastering

Rameshsalvi

New member
Hey i'm tryna learn as much about mixing and mastering as I can. If anyone has any good videos or anything that taught them a lot i'd appreciate
 
Hello Rameshsalvi.


The best way to learn mixing and mastering is through communication with other artists.
So im going to share with you some things i learned.

First it's important to know the different characteristics of mixing and mastering.
In electronic music, mixing seems to be integrated in the production process (Arrangement, Sounddesign,..)
While mixing acoustic recordings is its own process.
But in both ways it’s about balancing frequencies and both share the same tools.
The most important part of mixing is to focus on what you hear and not what you see.
Metering for example can be a great reference tool to visualize the relationship of different signals to each other but there is no universal recipe for these relations. it means that mixing is intuitive.
For me, mixing is some sort of psychoacoustic discipline.
It should sound and feel as good as the best music you know.
To achieve that you need to now the tools for shaping and manipulating sound. (basic audio-effect theory)
If if you not there yet then don’t worry.
Never stop making music and the sound will get clearer and clearer.
Use reference tracks of your favorite artist while mixing.
Don’t forget, there are only individual problems when it comes to mixing music in the studio.

I understand that there are some standards when it comes to music distribution.
Which brings us to the mastering process.
If your mix sounds well, you don’t need mastering.
Mastering is a normalization process to fulfill industrial standards. (CD, Streaming, Live-performance, …)
The mastering process is much more technical than mixing.
Whats really important is that there should be no hope that mastering can rescue your track.
If something is not how you want it to be (excluding the individual sound of your studio) you should fix it in the mixing process.

When i master my music, i try to make the mix sound as perfect as possible.
Then i aim for loudness.
First a little bit of processing (EQ, compressor, saturation, …)
but only minimalist changes.
Next i use a dynamic eq at the loudest part of my track to control individual peaking frequencies at high volume (special focus on 1kh to 5kh to increase transparency).
Then, also at the loudest part of my track, i drive the signal into a limiter with -0.3 dbfs ceiling (to prevent inter sample peaks) and approximately 6 db RMS (+/- 3db) until its as loud as possible without distorting the signal.


This is just an example of my present mastering technique.
But i try to stay flexible and to be open to different ways.
I learned the most of youtube videos and books.

If you have a specific problem with your mix and master or any other question feel free to contact me.
I will try to answer them.


I hope i could help somehow.
Checkout my music if you like. Its free to download

Music | Xenophilia


All the best!!!



——
New Strange Antiquark album coming soon!!
Liveset:

Strange Antiquark | Free Listening on SoundCloud

 
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Guys, is it a good idea to use more than one mastering software when mixing a track, or should we just use one program to do everything? And what about layering duplicate tracks together to go for loudness? Is that a bad idea, will it just cause distortion?
 
Hello RuzzyRuz.


What software you use depends on your needs of the mastering process.
For example:
If you master a lot of music for clients you probably want to use Wavelab or Protools.
But you can do nearly everything what Wavelab and Protools does with other DAW’s as well.
if you do your own mastering, for streaming or CD’s, it really doesn’t matter what program you use.
I would recommend you to stay with your favorite DAW because Its vital to have a fast workflow and full concentration on the sound quality.


I produce everything with Ableton (Arrangement, Mixing, Mastering) and i wasn’t satisfied with the sound for a long time until i realized how important a linear sweet-spot is.
Mastering in untreated environment is like learning to play an untuned guitar.
You will never get the sound right.
If you want to get the most out of your track you need to focus on your speaker system.
It’s not a bad idea to use room correction software like Sonarworks if you can’t effort physical acoustic treatment. Or just measure your room to know how it influences the spectral behavior of your speakers.



To layer duplicated tracks can be effective if you use parallel compression or saturation but the duplicate should be different than the original. Otherwise you just get constructive interference and you gain +6 db amplitude but it won’t distort your track unless there is clipping on masterbus.


If you want to go for loudness try parallel compression:
Heavy compression on the duplicated signal 1:10 ratio, if you want punch and more transients than go for 30-50 ms Attack (otherwise less) and maybe 150-200 ms release (depends on your Bpm)
Then slowly mix the compressed duplicated into the original track.
There is also a variation of this technique called NY-parallel compression.
Just add an EQ with +3db lowshelf at 100Hz and +3db highshelf at 10kHz after the compressor.

Hope i could help!
All the best!!

--

https://xenophilia.bandcamp.com




 
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