GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
QUESTION : WHAT IS YOUR TOP TIP FOR MIXING?????
Here are 10 great tips to help your mix sound better. They are simple things that really can give you better results.
1.)TAKE FREQUENT BREAKS: Mixing for a long time can make your ears go numb. Mixing with loud source material stresses your ears. After a while it gets hard to tell what sounds good and what doesn’t. Take a break, go get a drink and let your ears rest. When you come back, you will have “fresh ears” and start to hear things that you didn’t notice before.
2.)MAKE SURE YOU DON”T ALWAYS SOLO TRACKS We don’t listen to music one track at a time. We listen to the entire mix. If you have one thing in the mix that is sticking out, go in and solo it. But don’t spend to much time trying to solo each track. The overall mix is more important.
3.)BE CAREFUL ON WHAT YOU MAKE SOUND WIDE Many plugins take a track and made it sound wider. Be careful with this. It creates a phase issue in many cases. It can help on strings and keys, but it does push the sound away from the middle. For bass guitars, it’s not a great idea. Use your ears and not your eyes to tell you when it’s going to work and not.
4.)OVERBOOSTING When using digital plugins, you have to be careful about headroom. Unlike analogue units, digital boosts can easily go to far and create artifacts and distortion. Use very small boosts when using e.q. Plugins. The tone can get brittle and break up. So take it easy on boosting with E.Q. Try to use cutting rather than boosting. Every time you boost you add more noise.
5.)BE MINDFUL OF CLIPPING Don’t let your master bus clip. Also, don’t send a boosted signal to a plugin and try to fix it by turning down in the input on the plugin. Make sure the signal is not clipping before you pass it to a plugin for processing. If you see the meters bouncing too much in the read, pull the fader back. If the track is too quite, pull the other faders back as well.
6.)USE COMPRESSION ON THE MIX BUS Keep your main bus (the two track output) from clipping and don’t be afraid to use a little compression. This can tame the mix a bit and keep your levels where you want them. Also use a little E.Q. on the mix bus.
7.)DON”T MASTER DURING THE MIX Bounce the mix and come back with fresh ears and then start your mastering pass. If you overload the mix bus, trying to master while you mix, you don’t leave any room for actual mastering.
8.)DON”T BE AFRAID OF VOLUME AUTOMATION Automating the volume on your tracks can make all the difference. When a track needs to be more present in the mix, automate it up a pinch, when a track needs to go lower in the mix automate it lower. This lets you feature different instruments in the song and creates a dynamic mix. Mix first, then look at the automation.
9.)JEEP TEST YOUR MIX Take your mix, bounce all the tracks and put it on something you can carry with you. Then try to listen on various playback systems like your car, the stereo in your bedroom, your ear buds, etc. Try it in as many settings as possible to see how the mix “travels”
10.)SEE THE SONG AS A WHOLE It’s not just about technique. The song itself needs to work as a song. So keep the idea of the song in your head and do what’s best for the song. Does it need a louder vocal? Should the guitars be up front? What is the song itself calling for? You are trying to create an emotional response. Step back and hear the song itself.
Learning Apprentice Player Posts: 10.149
Joined: 5-July 14
From: The Black Country, England
Great share Todd thanks,
I haven't watched it yet but could you go a little bit more in depth with 6, 7 and 8 please. If the video goes in depth just say and I'll be sure to watch it.
“Success is not obtained overnight. It comes in instalments; you get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow until the whole package is given out. The day you procrastinate, you lose that day's success.”
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
The vid does go a bit more in depth It's well worth a watch! Let me know what you think after.
Todd
QUOTE (Phil66 @ May 28 2020, 07:24 AM)
Great share Todd thanks,
I haven't watched it yet but could you go a little bit more in depth with 6, 7 and 8 please. If the video goes in depth just say and I'll be sure to watch it.
It's well worth a watch! Let me know what you think after.
