Trevorgordonofficial
New member
I personally love to use Kickstart for an easy side chain to give my bass room. It's easily one of my most used VST's.
Mixing: What is your greatest trick to mixing?
- Thread starter Trevorgordonofficial
- Start date
I prefer to use a traditional compressor against a ghost kick. Regarding side chaining. If you like Kickstart, you should try Trackspacer. Gives you more options for side chaining.
I've only just started producing. But my mixing tip would be to use a EQ without spectrum analyser. SSL EQ is my current favorit. In my experience, my mixes usually sound better using my ears rather than letting my eyes give me doubts..
I've only just started producing. But my mixing tip would be to use a EQ without spectrum analyser. SSL EQ is my current favorit. In my experience, my mixes usually sound better using my ears rather than letting my eyes give me doubts..
Br00tal.Productions
New member
If I'm mixing at home, I have a pair of old computer speakers that aren't so good on my desk, so what I do is switch between those and my actual good quality monitors while I'm mixing to see how it sounds on both. Usually if your mix sounds good on crappy speakers it will sound great on speakers that are of higher quality. Sometimes I also add headphones to the list, and switch between all 3.
Another thing I normally do, is a get a basic mix going while listening to the track at normal volume. Then I turn the volume all the way down to 0. Then slowly bring the volume up until I can slightly hear the track and stop. With the volume THAT low, all you should hear is snares, or hi hats, or any hi bright noises. If you hear any kick or bass or lo sounds at that soft volume, then that usually means they are too hot, and you should turn them down a bit. You don't want a muddy mix.
Another thing I normally do, is a get a basic mix going while listening to the track at normal volume. Then I turn the volume all the way down to 0. Then slowly bring the volume up until I can slightly hear the track and stop. With the volume THAT low, all you should hear is snares, or hi hats, or any hi bright noises. If you hear any kick or bass or lo sounds at that soft volume, then that usually means they are too hot, and you should turn them down a bit. You don't want a muddy mix.
DJMSherman
Rookie Audio Producer
I in ableton, I like using Corpus as a return track, and then turning the dry/wet to 100 percent, and messing with the knobs, and then automate the dry/wet field in the arrangement view, to get a cool eerie metal sounding atmosphere to what ever you place it on... I usually place it on tom patterns, or some type single note sound....
here is an example......
https://soundcloud.com/michael-sherman/808analog32_preiview
here is an example......
https://soundcloud.com/michael-sherman/808analog32_preiview
TrevDabeatsmith
New member
All I did was check the demo songs, try applying effects as on the demos... BOOM you off to a good start... excuse my English
I tend to like various noise reduction techniques overall, dealing with noise is very underrated in my opinion. Noise can mess with the modulation quality of a mix a lot, which can remove some of the beauty and emotion. Far into the process I might only have an acoustic guitar, an electric piano and lead vocals in an ultra clean state building up the entire mix, the rest muted. Then when I have those in great shape I might already find I'm almost done. Then the rest is like icing on the cake... But I've found that if you really want a mix to sound sweet it has to stay silent, even if it is loud. It must stay very pleasant even at very high volume.
I also like to match frequencies in layers, meaning various sub groups inside of the mix are frequency matched towards different sound types... In other words I like to focus the character I apply towards certain sound sources that I find are nice sounding with that character. So for instance bass guitar and electric piano might both have the same character, but each with its own signal chain providing that character. This makes it sound the same, but without the noise of sharing the same signal chain among multiple sound sources. (broad stroke)
And maybe my favorite technique is to achieve the final quality as early in the overall process as possible, preferably already during production.
I also have a number of gain staging techniques, relating also to monitoring.
I also like to match frequencies in layers, meaning various sub groups inside of the mix are frequency matched towards different sound types... In other words I like to focus the character I apply towards certain sound sources that I find are nice sounding with that character. So for instance bass guitar and electric piano might both have the same character, but each with its own signal chain providing that character. This makes it sound the same, but without the noise of sharing the same signal chain among multiple sound sources. (broad stroke)
And maybe my favorite technique is to achieve the final quality as early in the overall process as possible, preferably already during production.
I also have a number of gain staging techniques, relating also to monitoring.
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chris carter
New member
My GREATEST trick? Hmmmmm.... focusing on the lead vocal and making everything else secondary. That, and focusing on the midrange... the highs and lows are relatively easy to work out, but the midrange is what the typical listener in a typical listening environment will hear the most.
Extremely good reply!
Here are my general "Mixing Approach" Notes:
1 - Set Master Level at -18db to –12db
2 - Set all faders all the way day down
3 - Sort tracks by instrument groups (drums/percussion, leads, backups, vocals)
4 - Start with principal drum track; get it peaking at -10/-12db
a. Alternatives: Start with Vocal Lead, or Lead Instrument, then drums, then everything else.
5 - Mix the rest of the tracks against the drums or vocal, one at a time, then relative to each other
6 - Once overall initial track levels are set, Ride each track to best levels (using Automation and/or Item Volume)
7 - Use FX on Tracks or Folders/Groups of Tracks:
a. EQ, especially High Pass Filter
b. Compression: Start with Ratio 4:1, Attack 20ms, Release 85ms, Auto Makeup checked, Delay around 190ms, No Dry signal, Threshold down to -12db, then play with Threshold.
c. Reverb/Delay (leads/vocals)
d. A second EQ for High Shelf, if needed.
8 - Ensure there are no peaks (+0db or higher)
9 - Render/Mixdown a 24bit Wav file, review parameters vs headroom standards/targets.
10 - Aim for an overall level of -18 to -12 (max of -9.0db), of Rendered/Mixdown file to support the Mastering process.
1 - Set Master Level at -18db to –12db
2 - Set all faders all the way day down
3 - Sort tracks by instrument groups (drums/percussion, leads, backups, vocals)
4 - Start with principal drum track; get it peaking at -10/-12db
a. Alternatives: Start with Vocal Lead, or Lead Instrument, then drums, then everything else.
5 - Mix the rest of the tracks against the drums or vocal, one at a time, then relative to each other
6 - Once overall initial track levels are set, Ride each track to best levels (using Automation and/or Item Volume)
7 - Use FX on Tracks or Folders/Groups of Tracks:
a. EQ, especially High Pass Filter
b. Compression: Start with Ratio 4:1, Attack 20ms, Release 85ms, Auto Makeup checked, Delay around 190ms, No Dry signal, Threshold down to -12db, then play with Threshold.
c. Reverb/Delay (leads/vocals)
d. A second EQ for High Shelf, if needed.
8 - Ensure there are no peaks (+0db or higher)
9 - Render/Mixdown a 24bit Wav file, review parameters vs headroom standards/targets.
10 - Aim for an overall level of -18 to -12 (max of -9.0db), of Rendered/Mixdown file to support the Mastering process.
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Hmm. I don't have a set of "greatest" tricks, but there are a couple of staples I rely on when doing a mix:
1) Gain staging
2) Volume automation for dynamics emphasis
3) Understanding the arrangement of a song and which instrument is meant to shine at when (I mostly work with instrumental music for media so yeap, there's hardly any vocals to take centrestage)
4) Panning & Mixing in mono at soft/loud volumes on different playback devices
5) Reference tracks
1) Gain staging
2) Volume automation for dynamics emphasis
3) Understanding the arrangement of a song and which instrument is meant to shine at when (I mostly work with instrumental music for media so yeap, there's hardly any vocals to take centrestage)
4) Panning & Mixing in mono at soft/loud volumes on different playback devices
5) Reference tracks
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BRHSM
New member
-9db? You're sure?
I almost never go that loud, but once in a blue moon there's a peak (usually vocal or percussion) I'll leave in because it just sounds so great, and the re-recording curve is just too high...
BRHSM
New member
i usually go to -6db... but i probebly mix more agressive material then you...
My workflow varies depending on the feel of the track but usually,
- Grouping or busing drum tracks, adding a very small amount of Ableton's glue compressor, also little saturation on high's which I find makes your drum tracks pop out in the mix.
- Always gain stage every sound, leave a maximum headroom of -6 Db, this is very useful in mastering stage as there is a lot of room to work with.
- Panning and Stereo shaping to make the mix as full as it can be.
- Keeping kick and bass elements in mono is a must.
- Parallel reverb's with eq's cutting all low end content.
- Grouping or busing drum tracks, adding a very small amount of Ableton's glue compressor, also little saturation on high's which I find makes your drum tracks pop out in the mix.
- Always gain stage every sound, leave a maximum headroom of -6 Db, this is very useful in mastering stage as there is a lot of room to work with.
- Panning and Stereo shaping to make the mix as full as it can be.
- Keeping kick and bass elements in mono is a must.
- Parallel reverb's with eq's cutting all low end content.
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WillDarling
Will Darling @EDMtips.com
Mixing at lower levels! To try and peak around -6DB. This means that when the odd louder elements hits, it's got the space to stand out without clipping, and a quick louder sound generally won't mess up the master limiter and cause distortion.
Maybe I am old school but in my world of mixing and mastering I find that you sort of need a pretty solid monitoring situation to begin with. As I mentioned in a different post, various monitoring solutions are providing different weights at different frequency and level combinations, so when you balance the mix and it sounds pretty good at some level, it might not be so good really because that balance might reflect the mix the way it sounds when you've adjusted and compensated for the bumps and valleys in the monitor frequency response. In other words a certain quality of sound comes to a great degree from a certain monitoring frequency response. It is for this reason that you need to some degree correlate the levels to pro material, because else you have no idea what frequency response valleys and bumps you might have compensated for. So this is in my opinion at least one thing to focus on.
The above then leads us to a typical resulting issue, which is that when you have monitoring frequency response bumps and valleys at the wrong places, like for instance valleys around 200 Hz and 2 kHz, then that means that sound sources that are quite active there you are going to raise in volume and that in turn brings up all other frequencies of those sound sources too, so now all other sound sources have to compete much harder. This in combination with other things like for instance too short attack and release time on compressors, tends to force the volume faders down. That is where the signal is lost - the gentle emotional playing now becomes too silent and too low in modulation, the more expressive playing does not sound as expressive anymore. This tends to end up sounding "weak".
Another overall issue I find is that too many times the compression is too broad, meaning that engineers in general are unaware of how damaging compressors can be to a mix when they are applied to everything across the entire frequency range of those sound sources, even as narrow stroke. In many cases multiband compression is a much better overall option than normal compression. Sound sources like bass, vocals, kick, snare need a big enough dynamic range at certain frequency ranges. Some like as an option use a certain amount of EQ before normal compressors to focus the compression. A "snap" on a snare hit for instance may sound good with a low cut filter applied first to add some thickness to the "snap", then tune the comp attack and release to achieve the right kind of "snap" and then finally maybe combine that with a more "natural" snare in parallel. Some sound sources that are not so active in the mid range can be compressed a little in that range, before side chaining. This makes it possible to use much lighter side chains.
Another common issue is the amount of noise that reverbs and delays can produce, sometimes also long compressor release times. Noisy frequencies are an issue in most amateur mixes typically due to resonances local to specific frequencies caused by various issues in the recording, but it often becomes extra problematic when on top of that you have reverbs and delays that extend those noisy frequencies in time. In my view it is a good practice not to use reverb and delay at all until you have really learned how to remove noisy frequencies and when you have learned that you can then learn the art of adding reverb and delay on that content without adding noise when you do.
The above then leads us to a typical resulting issue, which is that when you have monitoring frequency response bumps and valleys at the wrong places, like for instance valleys around 200 Hz and 2 kHz, then that means that sound sources that are quite active there you are going to raise in volume and that in turn brings up all other frequencies of those sound sources too, so now all other sound sources have to compete much harder. This in combination with other things like for instance too short attack and release time on compressors, tends to force the volume faders down. That is where the signal is lost - the gentle emotional playing now becomes too silent and too low in modulation, the more expressive playing does not sound as expressive anymore. This tends to end up sounding "weak".
Another overall issue I find is that too many times the compression is too broad, meaning that engineers in general are unaware of how damaging compressors can be to a mix when they are applied to everything across the entire frequency range of those sound sources, even as narrow stroke. In many cases multiband compression is a much better overall option than normal compression. Sound sources like bass, vocals, kick, snare need a big enough dynamic range at certain frequency ranges. Some like as an option use a certain amount of EQ before normal compressors to focus the compression. A "snap" on a snare hit for instance may sound good with a low cut filter applied first to add some thickness to the "snap", then tune the comp attack and release to achieve the right kind of "snap" and then finally maybe combine that with a more "natural" snare in parallel. Some sound sources that are not so active in the mid range can be compressed a little in that range, before side chaining. This makes it possible to use much lighter side chains.
Another common issue is the amount of noise that reverbs and delays can produce, sometimes also long compressor release times. Noisy frequencies are an issue in most amateur mixes typically due to resonances local to specific frequencies caused by various issues in the recording, but it often becomes extra problematic when on top of that you have reverbs and delays that extend those noisy frequencies in time. In my view it is a good practice not to use reverb and delay at all until you have really learned how to remove noisy frequencies and when you have learned that you can then learn the art of adding reverb and delay on that content without adding noise when you do.
