Got Any Good Mixing Tips?

[Anderton]

I've mentioned this one before, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen it...

 

When I set up a mix, I always do so in mono and adjust EQ while the mix is still in mono. This really highlights where any conflicts are occurring. If i can get each part to sound distinct and separate in mono, then when I start creating a stereo field, the sound really opens up.

[Anderton]

Here's another one. Sometimes when mixing, there's "volume creep" as the individual channels acquire gain changes, EQ boosts, etc. Instead of bringing the master fader down, I'll group all the channels and bring them down in level ratiometrically until the master levels are once more correct.

[Anderton]

Another one...

 

You know the deal about cutting out subsonics and really low frequencies from tracks that don't have musical energy down there to tighten up the overall sound? I've found there's a corresponding phenomenon in digital when working at 44.1 or 48kHz: Removing highs from tracks that don't have a lot of high frequency energy. A steep high cut starting at around 15-18kHz warms up the sound, and gets rid of that funky stuff that happens when high frequencies start bumping up against filter limits. Audition all your EQs to see which ones handle this kind of function best; I can hear definite differences between different EQs.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Another one... You know the deal about cutting out subsonics and really low frequencies from tracks that don't have musical energy down there to tighten up the overall sound? I've found there's a corresponding phenomenon in digital when working at 44.1 or 48kHz: Removing highs from tracks that don't have a lot of high frequency energy. A steep high cut starting at around 15-18kHz warms up the sound, and gets rid of that funky stuff that happens when high frequencies start bumping up against filter limits. Audition all your EQs to see which ones handle this kind of function best; I can hear definite differences between different EQs.

 

 

That really helps. I get rid of subsonic rumble on just about all my tracks by either using a high-pass filter or a shelving EQ (cruise it up until you hear a difference in tone, and then back it off), and do the same on the high end, only obviously with a low-pass filter or shelving EQ.

 

This is one of the things I really like about working in a DAW since I didn't have access to all these sorts of EQs with my old mixing board before.

 

Obviously, I also like the automation.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Here's another one. Sometimes when mixing, there's "volume creep" as the individual channels acquire gain changes, EQ boosts, etc. Instead of bringing the master fader down, I'll group all the channels and bring them down in level ratiometrically until the master levels are once more correct.

 

 

And occasionally, if I've done the opposite of "volume creep" and lowered everything, I'll bring them UP in level using the same technique.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

I've mentioned this one before, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen it... When I set up a mix, I always do so in mono and adjust EQ while the mix is still in mono. This really highlights where any conflicts are occurring. If i can get each part to sound distinct and separate in mono, then when I start creating a stereo field, the sound really opens up.

 

 

I use a Mackie Big Knob, which has a Mono Button, so I will frequently mix with the button engaged. It's gotta sound good in mono. And occasionally, someone will question this..."Oh, look, most people are gonna be playing this in stereo!" But I think that it's still important because if you step away from the stereo, you're largely hearing mono anyway.

[Jeff da Weasel]

I don't know if this is a mixing tip per se... more like a philosophical exercise.

 

You know that moment when a mix is just not working? You've been mixing for too long, everything starts to sound louder than everything else, and you can't understand why something that sounded so good a little while ago now sounds like ass?

 

Here's an idea: start over. Yeah, it's hard zeroing out those faders after you've been tweaking them for hours. But I've seen a few great engineers say "screw it" and sweep everything down (Bruce Botnick was known for this), and just begin again.

 

You can be your own worst enemy as you get too close to a mix. There's an old saying... "familiarity breeds contempt". Well, I've seen a number of mixing engineers start hating a project simply because they didn't step away from it every so often. And sometimes, the only way to bring yourself back is to go from square one. By then, you've likely made a mental catalog of the problems you ran into the first time, and you'll probably avoid them when you approach it freshly.

[Hard Truth]

With my DAW I have found it helpful to setup a separate output bus coming from the master which I use to control the monitor levels without taking my eyes and hands away from the screen and monitor.

[John Sayers]

care to share these mixes you talk about?

[Ernest Buckley]

 

I don't know if this is a mixing tip per se... more like a philosophical exercise. You know that moment when a mix is just not working? You've been mixing for too long, everything starts to sound louder than everything else, and you can't understand why something that sounded so good a little while ago now sounds like ass? You can be your own worst enemy as you get too close to a mix. There's an old saying... "familiarity breeds contempt". Well, I've seen a number of mixing engineers start hating a project simply because they didn't step away from it every so often.

 

 

Yes, this has happened to me many a time and its awful. Now I am aware of my energy level during a tracking session and mixing. If I notice my attention or energy is starting to go, I stop immediately, think about what I just did in the last few minutes that stole that energy and I`ll back track.

 

Sometimes its such a small tweak like adding too much reverb or too much compression... its usually too much of something.

 

So back track! See if that gets you back to the energy level you were riding on and then save the file. Best to leave it there until you can come back with fresh ears.

 

 

care to share these mixes you talk about?

 

John, PM me with your email and I`ll send you some of my tracks or better yet, go to my website and listen. Peace.

 

EB

[Jon Chappell]

 

Here's an idea: start over. Yeah, it's hard zeroing out those faders after you've been tweaking them for hours. But I've seen a few great engineers say "screw it" and sweep everything down (Bruce Botnick was known for this), and just begin again.

 

 

Of course, this is easier to do with automation; you can preserve what you've done already, start over, and then compare the two. "Zeroing out and starting over" is definitely a great exercise.

 

 

And sometimes, the only way to bring yourself back is to go from square one. By then, you've likely made a mental catalog of the problems you ran into the first time, and you'll probably avoid them when you approach it freshly.

 

 

Definitely true in my case. Approaching the mix with all the "problems learned" gives you a leg up, and allows you to focus on "just the good stuff." Good suggestion, Jeff.

 

My late-stage tricks:

 

 

To wit, "mixing yourself up"--as well as varying the controls on the board--is just as important for keeping things fresh. It's okay if you have to work a little bit yourself to hear things.

[Lee Knight]

Roll highs off of electric guitars.

 

 

Always check polarity in the kit. Mono, OH against OH. Then Kick in, then Sn over, then Sn under, on through the kit. Reversing polarity one by one. No eq, only mono, level adjustments and polarity. Then open up to stereo and... THWOOOOMP!

 

Now eq and compress. You'll use less of both.

 

 

 

All this talk about not soloing. Well... try soloing the lead vocal. Work on its eq, compression, effects, all in solo for a while with effects engaged. A good while. Turn it up too loud and see if it's still fun to listen too. Get it sounding golden all alone. Now fold it back into your mix.

 

 

 

Going through each section of the song, solo just the guitars and keys. Intro, do they all work together? Is it better if something is muted here? Sort the pans after muting getting each section of the tune to balance in a cool way, yet not necessarily symmetrical.

 

Move to the next section and repeat. After you've done that all the way through, make sure you have a through, and logical arc to the mutes and reentering all the chordal instruments. Make sure the overall arc builds and releases, build and releases in an artistic and engaging way.

 

 

 

If your DI bass tone is too invisible and you want a present fundamental, try comping off the bass track and driving Massey's Tape plug and mixing that back in with your bass tone. Mess with alignment or polarity if needed to get it to punch. Now you should have a fat yet clear tone with out it being biting. Adding the upper harmonic tends to give your ear a nice nudge that says, "Hey, here I am."

 

 

 

Try working on just drums, bass and lead vocal for a good while. Get that sounding great alone. Make it work first with just those three elements. Now bring in the chordal instruments.

[Lee Knight]

For a modern drum sound without samples...

 

Try something like the L1 or the Massey limiter on each drum track. Set the limiter to shave the hard hits but not touching the lower level stuff. Make sure to set your output back to unity gain. Follow that with a nice compressor like the Massey CT4 or the Waves Ren Comp

 

Next, set your downstream compressor to a slow attack. Hit it hard. Adjust your output for unity gain, in or out. Mess with the release now and get the shell resonance where you want it for the tune. Now follow that with your eq and do your thing there. That's my basic, modern drum channel. I tend to have identical plugs on each drum channel to retain the alignment. Screw latency compensation.

 

As you build the tune you can go back to the limiter threshold and make adjusts either to the more natural/higher threshold, or the more hyper modern lower threshold. Depending on what's needed with the busyness and volume of the arrangement. Always readjust your output gain on each plug for unity gain as you go along.

 

What you've done is create your own transients and stable dynamics. Shaving the natural transient with the limiter, then creating a new one with the slow compressor attack. All controllable. It's not natural but can be very cool.

 

Now, automate your OHs. This will bring a sense of the real dynamic back in, albeit exaggerated by your automation. Up in the chorus, down in the stripped back verses... all while the nice stable hyped drums tracks are doing their thing.

[WRGKMC]

I'm all burnt out from mixing last night. The song was just a rehursal take and not all that great sound wise. The song was written on the spot and I often take new stuff that has potential and buff it up to where its tolerable to hear.

 

I had this wierd rumble happening that took me awhile to figure out. The studios miced and ready to go so its not like I got to set things up each session. I found a mic stand on the mic drum set migrated over and was touching the roto tom bracket attatched to the kick sending vibrations through making two mics pretty much worthless with that rumble happening.

 

So I remixed with less drum mics and it still sounded OK. Sometimes mixing

It gets to the point where you just about have it as good as it can get and you either do something that messes the balance up or you just cant do better with what you got.

 

Fatigue is my biggest enemy. I may get involved mixing and the hours fly by. I'll come home from the day job and mix what I recorded weekends. I find the biggest mixing tip is to schedual your time. I'm good for about 3 hours straight. If I put in a marathon, then I lack enthusiasm and precision to do it again the next schedualed day. I try to mix every other day so I have a breather as it is.

 

As far as volume creep, I'll set my levels first where they sound balanced. Then I'll put a brickwall limiter set for clip protection on a buss and send all the channels through it.

 

Then when I'm adding effects and EQing I'm not having to constantly retweak the levels as much. Then when its pretty close to being correct with those I'll remove the limiter and tweak the individual channels and compare the mix through several different sets of monitors for compatibility. The limiter is just a time saver for me that seems to work. i'll also check the mix with the mains way down and see if the vovals and snare are the first things I hear cracking the volume. Seems to work well on most stuff.

 

As I said I know where my tracking levels are going to be cause littel changes between sessions. I have tracking levels, mic positions etc preset and only need to tweak those in if changes are made. This also makes many of my presets darn close to where they need to be. I change them to match the genre of the music or for artistic needs vs raw maintainence restleing the sound where it needs to fit.

 

I may on exchange the limiter after its removal from the buss for a multiband if its good to go and doent need broadband eqing. I usually do my mastering on a different computer though and add Final EQ, Multiband and limiting in an editor program, in a different room and computer. I pretty much need a break from the studio and wear a different hat so to speak, to finish it off with a different perspective hearing it as a whole, vs separate parts.

[Cirrus]

None of these were originally my ideas so I can't claim much credit...

 

- Often the powerful thump of the bottom end makes me more excited about the mix than I should be, so I've taken to rolling off the bass and treble of the master buss, leaving myself just the mids from say 200-1500Hz. This to me is the heart of the mix, where things need to be balanced and complimentary. Once I've got rid of any clutter and cleared it up, I bring back the full frequency range and start low/high passing stuff as needed.

 

- I kind of think of treble as the cold, thin, clear air above the clouds that you see in a plane. The reason it looks so big is because there's basically nothing there. A warm sounding mix with a breathy vocal sounds airy in a way that an enslaught of high hats, fizzy guitars and raspy snares never will.

 

- Turn the mix riiiiight down low and see if you can hear the important stuff and if it's still balanced - Vocal, bass drum, bass guitar, lead instruments... sometimes I do this and the whole mix becomes a snare drum.

 

- Reverb and delay can de-clutter a dense mix. Sounds insane and I didn't think it could be so for the longest time, but our ears expect to hear reverb around sounds - it's what helps us localise them in the sound field. So with a busy mix, I like to set up a couple of stereo reverbs. One is more of an early reflections patch that makes things that are recorded dry sound like they're in an actual space, and because various parts of the mix go through this common reverb, it gives a sense of togetherness that is often lacking from tracks recorded in a piecemeal fashion. The other is a longer, band passed reverb which adds depth to tracks I don't want to be pressed up against the speakers.

[techristian]

I listen to 98% or more of my collection in a moving car. Seldom do I listen to music in my front room, so I mix accordingly. I make sure to not create too wide of a dynamic range because anything under 40 db will be wiped out by motor noise and wind noise. If that song ever gets airplay, I feel that this would give me an advantage, while many listen to the radio during rush hour. I do realize that radio stations play with the EQ and compression though.

 

Phil Collins - Take Me Home

 

Is an example that I love. This is a GREAT SONG, but on my LP it FADES IN. I hate that because I don't hear anything for almost a minute (while driving) . I was just listening to another version online, and it seems that that version was compressed....WHICH I LIKE !!

 

I also try and hear my mix on many different stereos before deciding on the final mix.

 

Dan

[Ernest Buckley]

I also try and hear my mix on many different stereos before deciding on the final mix. Dan

 

Dan,

 

You make an interesting point about Take Me Home...

 

I know this is a little OT but when you consider some of the truly classic records (and Pink Floyd comes to mind), many of those records created a space...an atmosphere that only time and (more importantly) dynamics made possible. Listen to stuff from The Wall and Dark Side... to take the listener somewhere, the band used a good 2-3 minute intro that started really soft and distant and eventually comes to the listener but first the listener must go to the song. Something which has been lost with most records being made.

 

It seems no one wants to invest the time to actually listen to a song, we just want a beat and more cowbell. This has nothing to do with this thread but I think the idea of putting some tracks low and in the back and then bringing them up into a mix is something we have lost. Thanks for the reminding me...

[UstadKhanAli]

I know this is a little OT but when you consider some of the truly classic records (and Pink Floyd comes to mind), many of those records created a space...an atmosphere that only time and (more importantly) dynamics made possible. Listen to stuff from The Wall and Dark Side... to take the listener somewhere, the band used a good 2-3 minute intro that started really soft and distant and eventually comes to the listener but first the listener must go to the song. Something which has been lost with most records being made. It seems no one wants to invest the time to actually listen to a song, we just want a beat and more cowbell. This has nothing to do with this thread but I think the idea of putting some tracks low and in the back and then bringing them up into a mix is something we have lost. Thanks for the reminding me...

 

It's a combination of numerous things, but when you have people who are looking for instant hits + people using drum machines, sims, plugins, and stuff and not recording people in a unique environment or at the same time, you're far less likely to create songs with signature atmospherics.

[Ernest Buckley]

 

It's a combination of numerous things, but when you have people who are looking for instant hits + people using drum machines, sims, plugins, and stuff and not recording people in a unique environment or at the same time, you're far less likely to create songs with signature atmospherics.

 

 

Good point Ken. Yes a space can inspire space in a recording but I also think its like you said... "people looking for instant hits" hinders the effort to even record something like that.

 

Hits usually mean 3 minutes of repetitiveness and something you can shake your booty at. Not really what Pink Floyd was going for.

 

Referring back to Bruces other thread, I cannot count on the gear to create an atmosphere. Yes, reverb helps get space, but it really comes down to people deciding to write something along those lines and turning to technology to sculpt those ideas.

 

So many jazz records were made with a bunch of people hanging out in the studio all day, take after take until they got something worth shaking a stick at. Miles Davis` Sketches of Spain comes to mind.

 

So this is really a composing/tracking issue to me, not mixing. Sorry for the OT.

[UstadKhanAli]

It's not so much mixing, sure, but when you record in a space - especially when it's recorded as an ensemble, everyone playing in a room at once - you capture that space. And if people don't record like this as much anymore, then you're obviously losing that sense of space, that sense of atmosphere. So, yeah, between that and going for instant hits...

 

I'll bring it back to mixing now.

 

One thing I like to do is, if I have a lead instrument or vocal, if I make a slight bump in EQ to accentuate it, what I like to do is carve out that same frequency in the other midrange-frequency instruments (rhythm guitars or keyboards or whatever). This creates a "trough" for the lead instrument or vocal to be nestle in, allowing it to pop through without me necessarily jacking the volume.

[Ernest Buckley]

 

One thing I like to do is, if I have a lead instrument or vocal, if I make a slight bump in EQ to accentuate it, what I like to do is carve out that same frequency in the other midrange-frequency instruments (rhythm guitars or keyboards or whatever). This creates a "trough" for the lead instrument or vocal to be nestle in, allowing it to pop through without me necessarily jacking the volume.

 

 

Yes, thats a great way to carve out space for the lead vocals!

[techristian]

Dan, You make an interesting point about Take Me Home... I know this is a little OT but when you consider some of the truly classic records (and Pink Floyd comes to mind), many of those records created a space...an atmosphere that only time and (more importantly) dynamics made possible. Listen to stuff from The Wall and Dark Side... to take the listener somewhere, the band used a good 2-3 minute intro that started really soft and distant and eventually comes to the listener but first the listener must go to the song. Something which has been lost with most records being made.

 

 

I like Dark Side of the Moon. However, I must sit down in a quiet room to appreciate it and not be driving 70 mph down the highway, unless, I turn the volume way up.................BUT THEN THOSE ALARM CLOCKS!!!

 

BACK TO THE MIXING.

 

I remember reading an old article about psychoacoustics in the EM magazine (back when Craig was the editor).

 

What it stated was the that the first sound heard in a mix will SEEM louder to the listener. I have tried this and know it is true. You can change a mix by moving a track a few milliseconds sooner. (to the left in a displayed wave)

 

So you can turn up the volume slightly on a track, without turning up the volume. This slight move won't really change the feel.

 

Dan

[temnov]

Make breaks - 5-10 minutes every hour, or at least every other hour. All know about it, not too many do it.

 

Freshen you ears - listen to very good recording of very good classical or jazz performers even if you mixing rock band. Listen to reference CDs during long sessions, it is so underrated!

 

 

I've taken to rolling off the bass and treble of the master buss, leaving myself just the mids from say 200-1500Hz. This to me is the heart of the mix, where things need to be balanced and complimentary.

 

 

Totally agreed with above. Same with working in Mono mode first.

 

Use EQ and dynamic on effect groups, they are your music instruments, too.

 

Don't afraid to Solo your tracks. It's true, you are working on MIX and elements of the mix could sound strange in solo. But solo help you to define what ingredients should be added.

 

Listen to live music in concert halls and imagine that it

[Geoff Grace]

Mixing Tip:

 

11 parts gin

3 parts dry vermouth

 

Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain in chilled martini cocktail glass. Squeeze oil from lemon peel onto the drink, or garnish with olive.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[michaelhigh]

Here's another one. Sometimes when mixing, there's "volume creep" as the individual channels acquire gain changes, EQ boosts, etc. Instead of bringing the master fader down, I'll group all the channels and bring them down in level ratiometrically until the master levels are once more correct.

 

I do it ratiometrically, but take each fader and kick 'em back one notch at a time till the creepiness is gone. Then it isn't so creep-y.