Members alerieb23 Posted February 27, 2004 Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 I have 4 drum tracks that I recorded on a 4track (bass, snare, 2 overheads). I mixed them to 2 stereo tracks on the computer. I tried to do them all separately and then micx on the computer but it is near impossible to line them up properly. They sound decent but when I add more tracks the bass drum gets lost. How do you all pan. I usually put the drums in the middle guitars left and right, the vocals a little off center and the basss in the middle. Any general guidlines for mixing a basic rock song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ulank Posted February 27, 2004 Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 What I would do is pan the OH mics about halfway on the four track before mixing down to your PC - I'm assuming you're using a stereo cable/connection between your 4track and PC, right? Leave the kick and snare in the middle. Other than that, there's not much else you can do. The main vox should be dead center. Double track the guitars and pan em L & R. Bass dead center. As far as the kick getting lost in the mix, that seems more like an EQ issue than a panning or level issue. You might want to add some highs to the kick on the 4track before mixing down to PC to bring out the attack a bit. In fact, in my experience, you need to give the highs a nudge anytime your workin with the four track. When I track something, I always have the highs boosted a bit. Then if I bounce tracks over, again, I have the highs boosted a bit. When I mix down to PC, I have the highs boosted a bit. It helps the mix retain some clarity as it tends to sound darker each time you transfer a track. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alerieb23 Posted February 27, 2004 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 How does having the highs boosted bring out the bass drum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Old Steve Posted February 27, 2004 Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 Originally posted by ulank As far as the kick getting lost in the mix, that seems more like an EQ issue than a panning or level issue. You might want to add some highs to the kick on the 4track before mixing down to PC to bring out the attack a bit. In fact, in my experience, you need to give the highs a nudge anytime your workin with the four track. When I track something, I always have the highs boosted a bit. Then if I bounce tracks over, again, I have the highs boosted a bit. When I mix down to PC, I have the highs boosted a bit. It helps the mix retain some clarity as it tends to sound darker each time you transfer a track. Good luck! Yup, and yup. You gotta carve out a spot for the bass and for the kick since they occupy the same bandwiths frequency-wise. If the bass is really 'poppy' with a lot of really percussive sounds, I'll boost it's higher end a little bit. If the bass is more in the backgroud, I'll try to bring out he 'click' in the kick. As for 4 tracks, everytime you bounce from tape to tape, you lose high end. So everytime I bounce, I boost the highs a little bit to keep things clear. You can also do an 'external' bounce to a digital medium and then bring it back to the 4 track. The digital source will grab your highs better, and then you can feed that back into the 4 track. Finally, with a 4 track, pre-panning is everything. If you're going to mix down on the 4 track, I try to submix as much as possible upfront, and use the fewest number of tracks possible. As a result, I'll often end up with the drums all on one track (mono, centered). While it's nice to have drums in stereo, the kick and snare are usually centered anyway, so you're really only using any panning for toms and cymbals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ulank Posted February 27, 2004 Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 Originally posted by alerieb23 How does having the highs boosted bring out the bass drum. I'm referring to boosting the highs on the kick drum track on the 4track before sending it to PC. Basically, you'll add more "slap"to the attack...just don't go so far with the highs that the kick drum ends up sounding like a coffee can. And yah, Steve brought up a great point about finding the spots for the kick and bass to reside without stepping on each other in the mix. And similar guidelines apply for the relationship between the guitar and bass. If you've got a nice fat bass tone, you'll probably want to cut out some of the lower mids on the guitar tracks. On it's own, the guitar will probably sound a little thin, but it opens up room for the bass to come in and add some ass to the mix without turning into mush. Mixing and EQing is truly an art...I suck at it, but it just takes practice, practice and more practice...have fun with it and happy mixin!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DarthWader Posted February 27, 2004 Members Share Posted February 27, 2004 Originally posted by ulank ...it opens up room for the bass to come in and add some ass to the mix without turning into mush. Sorry I know it's both juvenile and off topic, but I thought this sounded really funny . Wade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ulank Posted February 28, 2004 Members Share Posted February 28, 2004 Originally posted by DarthWader Sorry I know it's both juvenile and off topic, but I thought this sounded really funny . Wade Dude, welcome to my life...I could be reading about the Pope and starving children and find something juvenile to laugh at. Then I cry for being such a dick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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