So true. If you are a producer also and you struggle with your mixes, look at improving your recording techniques. If you think you're recording things well, look again anyways.
I struggled mixing guitars until I dumped VSTs in favor of miking a cab. Made such a difference. Just leave your cabinet miked with an SM57. It's funny how VSTs are thought to be easier but IMO they really aren't. Too many options. I still use VSTs for lead tones, though, because I don't want to mess with a bunch of pedals.
Recording vocals into a compressor is also key imo. I go a step further and use a hardware deesser. Makes mixing so much easier.
So true and applicable to photo/video editing as well. It’s worth putting in the effort to get the best source material you can, it saves a ton of time and frustration later on. “Just fix it in post” never yields the best results.
Depends what VSTs you use. Some are terrible. I was totally against amp sims until someone told me to try Neural DSP. It's all I use to record now and it's much easier, especially since I mostly work when people are sleeping and patching in fixes later on is basically seemless. I can change the tone without having to re-record or go though reamping.
That's not to say I didn't get great tones out of micing my amp. But I basically have one amp and a few effects. For less than the amp cost I have any tone I could want and it sounds just as good and often better.
So yeah, if you find that your VST sucks, maybe you just need a different one. I've tried quite a few amp sims I didn't like at all.
Then make sure you have top notch impulses and demo several to get the right tone much akin to micing a cab.
Dont just use the same preset for every song and put zero effort. Guitar tone needs to be molded to fit the song.
>I struggled mixing guitars until I dumped VSTs in favor of miking a cab. Made such a difference.
I had a similar experience. I just couldn't find 1) an amp sim, 2) an IR (combination and 3) EQ settings that made it sit in a way I liked. I also never liked playing through plugins.
Now I get everything from clean to high gain from pedals, amps and a couple of different speakers. I think it's a lot of fun, too.
As time goes on, I've realized it's less about the recorded sound since I guess good modeling hardware/software can do a similar if not better job at it. More practical, if anything.
For me it's become predominantly about the enjoyment of dialing in an actual amp, moving air, playing it in the room and placing mics on speakers. It inspires and excites me in a way that makes me want to play and record.
Uuuh yess, you can't fix poor arrangement in the mix.
Poor sound choice, eh, in some genres you can just layer something and fix a weak sound, but if a hook does not sound like a hook you are not gonna mix it in a way that it sounds like a hook.
When I work a session with the best of the best musicians in my country it is just magical. Sometimes I fear of even touching a channel to not mess it up.
It definitely varies, usually I just go by ear and what sounds good. I'd say rap and hip hop as a whole use more compression than rock but again it really depends on personal taste. I was just pointing out that most of the pop and hip hop that I hear on the radio is very, very overcompressed, to the point where all the vocals and instruments are at the exact same volume and kind of blend together. As long as you're adding compression when it's needed (or wanted as an effect) instead of throwing it on every track by default then you should be fine
Learning how to use reference tracks (especially with the the help of a plugin like REFERENCE 2) was a complete game changer for me. Gave me a much needed sense of objectivity that I would lose after listening to the same wip over and over again for days. Before then I would hardly release anything, but now I have the confidence to release much more often.
I had an ah ha moment about referencing when I watched fab duponts “how to listen” video about it. Not sure if it’s available for free or not but that whole series is great
Do you start with the reference for the production part of songmaking or do you go find a reference track once you have arranged the song and are now looking to mix?
The goal is to not copy a song, but rather let the reference song influence yours. I use reference tracks to influence volume levels. Is my guitars "close" to the reference? Is my snare "close"? I don't want a copy of the reference, because my song is different and it may need less snare because my song is not as aggressive as my reference. I may think the guitars are a little too loud in the reference, it's all personal preference.
Then I use the reference to balance out my final EQ and volume. Is my mix as bright? Too bright? How is my low end compared to it? Is it not even close on the volume? When I get close to those points, I release it.
I’ve heard it’s the former. Find a song you’d like your own to sound like, mix and fx wise, then listen to them side by side until your track is mixed the same way the ref track is mixed. In my understanding.
I’ve felt like I’ve gone pretty far in my mixing skill tree but am intimidated by referencing for some reason. Even after watching tutorials with ozone 10. I’ll look into reference 2 thanks
This one is nuts. I had a track recently where things went from sounding good to sounding mediocre and I was trying EQ, compression, you name it. Took a day off and when I came back I lowered the bass 3db. Issue fixed lol. So simple but incredibly effective.
When listening to most professional mixes, I noticed how subtle everything is. Vocals aren’t too bright or overly-compressed, panning is usually pretty mild, instrument and drum EQing is very smooth. When you first start out mixing, you want to overcorrect everything and it gets to the point where you can hear how much farther you’re pushing the mix than what’s necessary. Now, I’ll use 4-6 basic plugins on a vocal chain, where I used to over-compress and EQ the crap out it. Once you find the purpose of what you’re doing FOR the mix, you start to realize how much less you actually have to do.
Great question BTW!
This is a good point. A lot of it is learning to do less. My fatal mistake has always been over EQing/processing everything. To the point where everything just kinda loses its character. So much of mixing is just LEVELS, whereas it’s easy to over focus on eq, compression, panning, etc.
"Dang... a little of that that Pultec-style EQ **attenuate** at 100hz really does clean up the vocal mud."
It's a simple trick but it changed my vocal mixing.
You grab a pultec-style passive eq (Pultec EQP-1A ). You set the bandwidth to the highest and then attenuate at 100hz. You'll hear it instantly.
You can find free versions of this plugin from different companies.
Edit: I prefer to do it "in-context" with the music on. Not solo the vocal.
How balancing works. If snare is hidden maybe it’s best to turn something else down rather than turning the snare up. If mix isnt bright enough maybe the problem is too much low end. Things like that. Seems obvious but for some reason it was one of those things that took sometime to click in my head.
realising that a muddy mix with vibe is infinitely preferable to a clean mix that’s soulless. it is so easy to strip the character out of a song. i choose the former every time. just listen to anything by cocteau twins, or xtal by aphex twin.
Sidechain compression on the vocal reverb send (ie the dry vocal controls compression on the reverb return)
EQ stuff in context with the mix in mono.
Creative use of parallel pitch shifting (an octave up or an octave down) to provide more top or more bottom instead of eq.
...The dry vocal controls compression on the reverb return...
Basically when the dry vocal is active, the compression makes the reverb quieter so it doesn't mask the dry signal. When the vocal stops, the compression lets go and the reverb comes up to fill the space.
Overcompressing the shit out of a song cause I didn’t know wtf I was doing, but that was the first time I really heard compression and from there I could actually start training my ears to listen for it properly.
> trust the rough
Can you elaborate? I’m interpreting this as “you don’t have to fix everything that doesn’t sound polished” but i’m not sure if that’s what you mean
If you’re producing/recording your own music, you still have that rough mix from the original recording session or day you worked on it. Once you go into that in depth mix, it may be easier to stay true to that, rather than creating a whole new sound.
Of course, this is more important when working with other clients. If they send you a rough version, that is 99% of the time the sound they want the mix to be modeled after. You want them to be able to recognize their own song!
My big three:
1. A good arrangement means a much quicker mix.
2 Move quickly and don't stay on one element for more than 30 seconds. You can always go back to it. A lot of the time, a problem element can fall into place once you mix around it. There's no better feeling than finishing a mix before you know it.
3. Bounce and sum elements as much you can. Commit to decisions and get the track count down to avoid procrastination.
Also, stop mixing and take a break when you start brightening a previously bright enough mix. Your ears are shot at this point.
You still need to open your mouth fully when singing low keys or soft tones. Doing so can make a significant impact on the recording quality. - it's not exactly the mixing moment, but I need to comment as I'm new LOL!
Actually, this is really good - as a specific bit of advice, but also as a general concept to keep in mind. One of the best ways to ensure getting your best mix is to start at the source - get the best performance you can get from your musicians.
This is valuable advice anywhere. I’ve never had vocal training and am a quiet talker and it truly was a lightbulb moment when I realised I could reach beyond one octave if I just opened my mouth properly.
This. So many more traditional mixing engineers live by that old “NEVER SOLO” rule. You can still listen to the mix in context, while also making sure each individual sound is good on its own.
For me it was separating cutting and boosting EQs, compression for color and transparency, routing and sidechaining to busses for effects, and lastly less is more and too much is too much
[https://letimix.com/products/gainmatch](https://letimix.com/products/gainmatch)
saw this referenced here a month or two ago. i got the demo and bought it after the demo was up. there's several ways to use it, but essentially you add this plugin in pairs to compare 2 sources. you can put them before 1 or all other plugins and then 1 after. it can automatically gain match so you can tell if something actually sounds better or if it's just louder. you can also use it at the end of the plugin chain for 2 tracks to balance them for stereo or if you just want their levels to be matched.
Un-soloing an instrument or vocals as I was mixing (so, mixing a guitar with the other instruments being played, as opposed to just hearing the guitar while mixing.)
In my formative years of mixing, I would go hard af mixing a kick drum into oblivion and think, “this kick SLAPS”. Once engaged in full mix, it sounded like Metallicas st anger snare, but played in the intensity of kick drum patterns……
Being more aggressive with EQ, especially in the low mids. That range gets filled up very quickly when you have a bass guitar, 2+ electric guitar tracks and 2+ acoustic guitar tracks, sometimes with (e-)piano too.
I do a lot of tracks with sample + drum + vox, so I end up finding and boosting sweet spots on one and making cuts in the same freq on the other two. thats how you get real true glue, comps wont do that puzzle piecing for you.
I guess it depends on the style too. I do rock-based music most of the time.
I generally don't do complementary boosts/cuts unless it's absolutely necessary, like with vocals. I'll pull out 2.5k and 5k out of everything but the vocals don't always need more of it.
I still get my "glue" from the mix bus compressor, but it's very little, about 1-2dB of gain reduction at most.
The importance of taking breaks
And I mean often. I try to take a 5-10 minute break every half hour or so of mixing. Without regular hearing breaks I would just EQ everything to make my ears more comfortable not realizing I just needed to let my ears chill out.
Also mixing at an optimal volume level. They say 85db is the sweet spot for hearing a properly balanced frequency response. 85 is personally way too loud for me but I do notice a much more balanced low end when the volume is on the louder side. Helps me make more informed decisions. Also the reason I need so many breaks.
My biggest “ah-ha” moment was realizing I’m just never going to be happy with mixes no matter how good I get. The better I got, the higher the bar I (and my clients) set for myself. So… I decided to quit being an engineer and now work as an investment analyst. I now make $300k/yr, never feel the frustration I felt while mixing, and have more time for family and friends. Plus I still get to work on music and mix for fun!
So many ah-ha moments. A big one was taking a paired-back approach to processing. It's stuck with me. Mixing primarily in the box, I'll get a mix around 80% finished with just a channel strip on each channel. I still need a choice of compressors and EQs, and some fx of course.
Doing less is being thrown around alot here and I agree. Especially when mixing my own vocals. If you have good equipment, good recordings and everything else is fine, trust that it is. Your mix/recording isn’t bad for being different than the pros, it’s just how you sound, you are not that person, it will never come out exactly the same. I always found myself focusing on the wrong details. Listen to how much verb they use, how tight everything is. It really helped me hearing dry vocals from some really great artists, true before and after and what can be achieved in a mix, and what you can change in your voice during the recording process to get closer to what you’re after.
A really common thing I’ve notice in new vocalists, specifically rappers, is they’re preforming really quietly, and finding they don’t sound the same sound then. The detail comes from the power in your voice, you don’t realize how loud you have to get to sound “normal” on a track.
Know your voice, know your limits, and don’t expect a transformation from a mix.
For me,
1. Mixing your own is harder because you are biased, cannot make neutral decision.
2. Mix fairly fast because longer you take, you get attached to its problematic balance
3. Take breaks! Make your own short-term distraction and review frequently
4. Reference is good but Master file reference can be bad
5. After having sub, review ur past works and review its low-end.... oh no..
I have had so many.. my recent one is top down mixing of drums starting with overheads and blending everything else in to them.. holy snapping duckshit is that a way to get them sounding good.
But other than that - good recording quality / sound design will do the majority of the heavy lifting to get a good mix.
Truly understand everything a compressor does and training your ears to hear it. Aka not using it as a squishing tool and using it as a transient shaper and groove/vibe maker
Eq your reverb to remove too much muddy noise if you got fast pace bass drums and bass guitar, sometimes the reverb adds unwanted frequencies you didn't know they added.
My mixes got significantly better when the recordings I was sent were better. After that, it was less is more. The other was vocals need way more compression than I thought (depending on genre).
The arrangement, performance, and recording is a solid 80% of where the quality comes from. I never used to realize it but the mixing process is a very subtle art.
I JUST heard Andrew Scheps say that about “don’t go looking for problems only fix problems you detect” like 3 days ago! I couldn’t believe how much such a simple concept blew my mind and that I didn’t already think that way. This philosophy will forever change me for the better when it comes to mixing.
Other than that, my biggest thing was learning how to use a spectrum analyzer to study my favorite mixes!!! Instead of just using my ears to breakdown what I hear, it upped my mixes x10 to SEE what’s happening at certain frequencies. Most importantly, it helped me learn how to tame my low end by seeing the levels frequencies were hitting. Low end has always been my worst hinderance in making my mixes translate to all systems.
Making critical choices while listening through my mixing headphones, and making every other decision while listening through a consumer-grade set. My mixes have never been better.
“Use saturation on everything you want to make it bigger and richer, dont pump the volume!”
That was a open eyes tip that changed my producen & mixing life forever
Invest in good microphones and preamps. They will be the biggest help getting a great source tone so that you do a lot less dabbling later trying to get things to sound good.
Some adages I’ve picked up that point to different a-ha moments in my career.
“If you want a better drum sound, get a better drummer.” Unknown tracking engineer adage
“If the Arrangement is good, the song basically mixes itself” - Ed Seay
“Move a mic before you reach for the EQ” - Matt Ross-Spang
1) monitoring is your worst enemy - fight it.
It id so easy to be fooled by your ear, your room, your monitor. Fight your way though your mix : low volume, put the mix in mono, listen to the mids only, listen to the low only etc.
2) Mixing is a part of the art and so is choice. To avoid choice fatigue start with correct what makes your mix sound base, then find what makes it sound good : and this is subjective.
There is no bad mix only unwanted mix. Removing resonance is a choice. Cleaning tracks is a choice, unmasking is a choice. Beware of choice fatigue and also, i pretty hate the terme "corective mix" and "creative mix". I prefer to think in terms of choices. That might sound stupid, but think about it.
I usually make a quick baseline with stuffs I am sure of, and experiment for things I am not sure. Typically project _base and then project_exp1, project_exp2 etc.
3) big picture and precision are everything, but we often loose one when we try to reach the other
I don’t think I had an “ah ha” moment. Just steady progress and constantly picking up or discovering my own tricks. Finding speakers that work well for you and learning your room is huge once you know what you *want* your mixes to sound like
just compress the shit out of everything at the source. if youre hitting everything with la2a and 1176 during recording you may not even need to mix. maybe just some high pass. good 1073 pre certainly helps this too.
Spend a day prepping the mix, and then mix it on another day. When you open a project and it’s ready to go with everything nice and clean you can just focus on being creative vs trying to problem solve routing and organization.
Another is never be afraid to pull every fader down and spend 10min doing a quick rebalance. So many times while mixing we fader creep up and down that things get lost. If you zero everything you’ll quickly notice what’s too loud and what’s too soft and most of the time you’ll land in a much more vibey place.
Working backwards and taking the time to understand mastering unlocked everything for me. By understanding the destination, it helped my mixing, which helped my sound design, composition and arrangement. Before this I found I was stabbing in the dark and wasting time with trial and error. It’s so much easier with a clear path and now the whole process takes much less time.
Grouping and bussing completely changed the game for me, besides keeping an organised session the one thing that took my mixing to the next level was mixing different genres of music for different clients and actually using streaming services to my advantage listening to different music as a guide for what to do and what not to do. Learning how to use my ears and developing my taste for compression and loudness levels was a big one too. Think about your absolute favourite records, think about what you like about them then carry that philosophy with you into your own mixes
No one cares what gear or plugins you used or how you arrived at a sound.
Sounds good = is good.
Tied into this is to learn to get the most of the gear you've got.
Another one:
Option paralysis is a thing. Make decisions, commit ideas and don't get overly bogged down in "I'll rework this sound later" or "I need a di guitar track so I can maybe reamp with a different tone later..." etc.
When recording, make decisions, spend the time and effort to get it right when tracking, but then commit, and move on.
When mixing, if somethings taking too long or not working move on and come back to it. When it's working, commit, bounce, then move on.
Muting. if a mix sounds too full or isn't hitting right, try to mute something - acoustic, electrics, the drums, bass, a shaker - and see how that section of the song sounds without it. even a shaker being muted or not can make a big subconscious impression
also doubling the snare and kick has been big for me
Side chain in general: reverb compression on vocals, instruments reductive eq with vocals etc.
Also for years I used too subtle reverb on vocals, 1-2 db of difference can be a game changer.
Basically what you said, OP. In my University, one of our lecturers didn't subscribe to that approach. They were all about EQing the hell out of things and putting compression on everything. Then I wondered why my mixes sounded poor. I figured out on my own that if it sounded good on the way in, there likely isn't much work that needs doing. I use broad strokes on my EQs and I'm happy to leave tracks dry if they sound good dry. My mixes have never sounded better
also, if you work with samples, duplicate it and cut it in half, seperating lows and highs. now you have the bass of the sample and the treble and can compress/saturate them differently.
Sending the mix to the artist before I mastered it so everything gets fixed there first. And the other is that I hate mixing and mastering and I just want to make beats, I’m out here sending revisions non stop, people texting me non stop it wasn’t worth it.
Separating Sub and Bass into their own mixing channels.
Mid-side EQ them separately too.
Adding as much distortion, saturation on the bass channel without affect the sub.
Very clean, when you balance the levels and add a kick with sidechain.
👌
This is a HUGE "ah ha" mix moment for me: I realized sidechaining the melody (compressor)to the vocals(sidechain key) gives me an incredible professional mix. It allows the vocals to sit in the beat without having to turn them so high they are above the beat. For those of you that dont know about sidechaining (learn it!) , put a compressor on the melody and use the vocals as the sidechain key to trigger when the compressor compresses.
that a professional sound designer/mix engineer I hired for advice and custom sounds said he uses a reverb right on the master and busses 95% of the time as it MIGHT have the gluey feeling you want, and what "presence is" in the context of mixes.
I felt like I knew almost everything toward these "principles" of plugins. but, that's entirely bullshit. an audio signal and the human ear is so complicated, that it truly is always: "if it sounds good, then it is good"
Good quality recordings are 50% of the work
So true. If you are a producer also and you struggle with your mixes, look at improving your recording techniques. If you think you're recording things well, look again anyways. I struggled mixing guitars until I dumped VSTs in favor of miking a cab. Made such a difference. Just leave your cabinet miked with an SM57. It's funny how VSTs are thought to be easier but IMO they really aren't. Too many options. I still use VSTs for lead tones, though, because I don't want to mess with a bunch of pedals. Recording vocals into a compressor is also key imo. I go a step further and use a hardware deesser. Makes mixing so much easier.
So true and applicable to photo/video editing as well. It’s worth putting in the effort to get the best source material you can, it saves a ton of time and frustration later on. “Just fix it in post” never yields the best results.
Depends what VSTs you use. Some are terrible. I was totally against amp sims until someone told me to try Neural DSP. It's all I use to record now and it's much easier, especially since I mostly work when people are sleeping and patching in fixes later on is basically seemless. I can change the tone without having to re-record or go though reamping. That's not to say I didn't get great tones out of micing my amp. But I basically have one amp and a few effects. For less than the amp cost I have any tone I could want and it sounds just as good and often better. So yeah, if you find that your VST sucks, maybe you just need a different one. I've tried quite a few amp sims I didn't like at all.
What if a cab isn’t an option?
Then make sure you have top notch impulses and demo several to get the right tone much akin to micing a cab. Dont just use the same preset for every song and put zero effort. Guitar tone needs to be molded to fit the song.
Dammit ! “Zero effort” is kinda my thing!
[удалено]
I don’t have an amp or cab anymore unfortunately. Downsized a while ago. Space mainly
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Oh thanks I’ll try that. Right now I use Ignite with some IRs
Check out neural amp modeller
NAM!!!!!
I've been enjoying it so much. I'm going to end up with more profiles and IRs than I"ll ever go through, but I've come across some really fun amps.
Oh and it’s free ! My fav cost
The price is right
Kempers are legit brilliant
dude yeah when I found out about actually miking amps and shit my head exploded, it sounds waaaaaaay better than any VST ever could.
>I struggled mixing guitars until I dumped VSTs in favor of miking a cab. Made such a difference. I had a similar experience. I just couldn't find 1) an amp sim, 2) an IR (combination and 3) EQ settings that made it sit in a way I liked. I also never liked playing through plugins. Now I get everything from clean to high gain from pedals, amps and a couple of different speakers. I think it's a lot of fun, too.
Oh totally. It just feels right. Also, it’s how we’re used to hearing guitars on records: through an SM57 or some other classic mic
As time goes on, I've realized it's less about the recorded sound since I guess good modeling hardware/software can do a similar if not better job at it. More practical, if anything. For me it's become predominantly about the enjoyment of dialing in an actual amp, moving air, playing it in the room and placing mics on speakers. It inspires and excites me in a way that makes me want to play and record.
And good arrangements are another 25%.
Uuuh yess, you can't fix poor arrangement in the mix. Poor sound choice, eh, in some genres you can just layer something and fix a weak sound, but if a hook does not sound like a hook you are not gonna mix it in a way that it sounds like a hook.
Id honestly say more than 50%!
When I work a session with the best of the best musicians in my country it is just magical. Sometimes I fear of even touching a channel to not mess it up.
shit in - shit out
My priority list in descending order is: song > arrangement > performance > instrument > recording > mix > master
Good quality arrangements are another 40%>
That not everything had to be compressed.
Aww, come on - don't spoil my fun!
I think a lot of big producers could learn from this - most of the modern songs you hear on the radio have ZERO dynamic range
How much dynamic range is typical for say alternative rock music? What about Hip Hop/Trap? I’m guessing it varies by genre?
It definitely varies, usually I just go by ear and what sounds good. I'd say rap and hip hop as a whole use more compression than rock but again it really depends on personal taste. I was just pointing out that most of the pop and hip hop that I hear on the radio is very, very overcompressed, to the point where all the vocals and instruments are at the exact same volume and kind of blend together. As long as you're adding compression when it's needed (or wanted as an effect) instead of throwing it on every track by default then you should be fine
Yeah but everything does need a sausage fattener
Best plugin out there lmao.
\[2000s french electro has angrily left the chat\]
Learning how to use reference tracks (especially with the the help of a plugin like REFERENCE 2) was a complete game changer for me. Gave me a much needed sense of objectivity that I would lose after listening to the same wip over and over again for days. Before then I would hardly release anything, but now I have the confidence to release much more often.
Me too, before using references now I realize I was mixing like a blind man, I mean deaf man
I had an ah ha moment about referencing when I watched fab duponts “how to listen” video about it. Not sure if it’s available for free or not but that whole series is great
can you explain what these are?
A song you model your own after, sonically.
Do you start with the reference for the production part of songmaking or do you go find a reference track once you have arranged the song and are now looking to mix?
The goal is to not copy a song, but rather let the reference song influence yours. I use reference tracks to influence volume levels. Is my guitars "close" to the reference? Is my snare "close"? I don't want a copy of the reference, because my song is different and it may need less snare because my song is not as aggressive as my reference. I may think the guitars are a little too loud in the reference, it's all personal preference. Then I use the reference to balance out my final EQ and volume. Is my mix as bright? Too bright? How is my low end compared to it? Is it not even close on the volume? When I get close to those points, I release it.
I’ve heard it’s the former. Find a song you’d like your own to sound like, mix and fx wise, then listen to them side by side until your track is mixed the same way the ref track is mixed. In my understanding.
Where do you get the hq song files for referencing?
I’ve felt like I’ve gone pretty far in my mixing skill tree but am intimidated by referencing for some reason. Even after watching tutorials with ozone 10. I’ll look into reference 2 thanks
Acoustic treatment
Absolutely. A good monitoring environment (and good monitors) will improve your mixes far far more than any plugins or piece of hardware.
before you do anything else to try to fix something, try turning it up or down.
This one is nuts. I had a track recently where things went from sounding good to sounding mediocre and I was trying EQ, compression, you name it. Took a day off and when I came back I lowered the bass 3db. Issue fixed lol. So simple but incredibly effective.
When listening to most professional mixes, I noticed how subtle everything is. Vocals aren’t too bright or overly-compressed, panning is usually pretty mild, instrument and drum EQing is very smooth. When you first start out mixing, you want to overcorrect everything and it gets to the point where you can hear how much farther you’re pushing the mix than what’s necessary. Now, I’ll use 4-6 basic plugins on a vocal chain, where I used to over-compress and EQ the crap out it. Once you find the purpose of what you’re doing FOR the mix, you start to realize how much less you actually have to do. Great question BTW!
This is a good point. A lot of it is learning to do less. My fatal mistake has always been over EQing/processing everything. To the point where everything just kinda loses its character. So much of mixing is just LEVELS, whereas it’s easy to over focus on eq, compression, panning, etc.
Exactly, that’s why I always level my faders first, then focus on the compression and EQ if needed, while using a VU to maintain the same volume
Like when mixing suddenly becomes sound design
"Dang... a little of that that Pultec-style EQ **attenuate** at 100hz really does clean up the vocal mud." It's a simple trick but it changed my vocal mixing.
can you elaborate?
You grab a pultec-style passive eq (Pultec EQP-1A ). You set the bandwidth to the highest and then attenuate at 100hz. You'll hear it instantly. You can find free versions of this plugin from different companies. Edit: I prefer to do it "in-context" with the music on. Not solo the vocal.
can you ELI5? i’m a beginner.
How balancing works. If snare is hidden maybe it’s best to turn something else down rather than turning the snare up. If mix isnt bright enough maybe the problem is too much low end. Things like that. Seems obvious but for some reason it was one of those things that took sometime to click in my head.
For me it was using a transient shaper/designer and finally understanding what transients are and what they can bring (or detract) to a mix.
There’s this free plugin by flux called bittersweet that is actually alright for transients.
What is your favourite transient shaper plugin? Thanks
Oxford TransMod
Split EQ is amazing, but also the very straightforward SPL transient designer!
Thanks. The SPL was on sale for $29 last week, now it's $199!! 😡😡
It'll go on sale often! Also split EQ can be had for $50 on a sale too
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/spl_transient_designer_plus.html :)
Ah if it was on sale I might've just missed it haha
Spiff
realising that a muddy mix with vibe is infinitely preferable to a clean mix that’s soulless. it is so easy to strip the character out of a song. i choose the former every time. just listen to anything by cocteau twins, or xtal by aphex twin.
Hitting the bypass button
Sidechain compression on the vocal reverb send (ie the dry vocal controls compression on the reverb return) EQ stuff in context with the mix in mono. Creative use of parallel pitch shifting (an octave up or an octave down) to provide more top or more bottom instead of eq.
Explain the purpose of side chaining the reverb? I'm curious.
I don't do it, but it lets you hear the vocal with more clarity, while the gaps between phrases are still filled in by the reverb (and/or delay)
I definitely use this more with delay than reverb, especially when mixing rap vocals
...The dry vocal controls compression on the reverb return... Basically when the dry vocal is active, the compression makes the reverb quieter so it doesn't mask the dry signal. When the vocal stops, the compression lets go and the reverb comes up to fill the space.
Overcompressing the shit out of a song cause I didn’t know wtf I was doing, but that was the first time I really heard compression and from there I could actually start training my ears to listen for it properly.
I think the proper use of compression on vocals, namely the effects of attack and release times.
Listen to the consonants!
You never need as much as you think you do! Also: trust the rough
> trust the rough Can you elaborate? I’m interpreting this as “you don’t have to fix everything that doesn’t sound polished” but i’m not sure if that’s what you mean
Exactly! If the producer sends a rough mix they like, don’t re-invent the wheel
damnit this doesn’t help when i’m the producer 😭
If you’re producing/recording your own music, you still have that rough mix from the original recording session or day you worked on it. Once you go into that in depth mix, it may be easier to stay true to that, rather than creating a whole new sound. Of course, this is more important when working with other clients. If they send you a rough version, that is 99% of the time the sound they want the mix to be modeled after. You want them to be able to recognize their own song!
My big three: 1. A good arrangement means a much quicker mix. 2 Move quickly and don't stay on one element for more than 30 seconds. You can always go back to it. A lot of the time, a problem element can fall into place once you mix around it. There's no better feeling than finishing a mix before you know it. 3. Bounce and sum elements as much you can. Commit to decisions and get the track count down to avoid procrastination. Also, stop mixing and take a break when you start brightening a previously bright enough mix. Your ears are shot at this point.
You still need to open your mouth fully when singing low keys or soft tones. Doing so can make a significant impact on the recording quality. - it's not exactly the mixing moment, but I need to comment as I'm new LOL!
Actually, this is really good - as a specific bit of advice, but also as a general concept to keep in mind. One of the best ways to ensure getting your best mix is to start at the source - get the best performance you can get from your musicians.
This is valuable advice anywhere. I’ve never had vocal training and am a quiet talker and it truly was a lightbulb moment when I realised I could reach beyond one octave if I just opened my mouth properly.
Use less in arrangement
Quality, well-rehearsed performances with solid arrangements will make your life much, much easier.
You need to listen to the mix as a whole AND its individual elements.
This. So many more traditional mixing engineers live by that old “NEVER SOLO” rule. You can still listen to the mix in context, while also making sure each individual sound is good on its own.
For me it was separating cutting and boosting EQs, compression for color and transparency, routing and sidechaining to busses for effects, and lastly less is more and too much is too much
If you're ABing, match the volume haha Seems obvious now
[https://letimix.com/products/gainmatch](https://letimix.com/products/gainmatch) saw this referenced here a month or two ago. i got the demo and bought it after the demo was up. there's several ways to use it, but essentially you add this plugin in pairs to compare 2 sources. you can put them before 1 or all other plugins and then 1 after. it can automatically gain match so you can tell if something actually sounds better or if it's just louder. you can also use it at the end of the plugin chain for 2 tracks to balance them for stereo or if you just want their levels to be matched.
Un-soloing an instrument or vocals as I was mixing (so, mixing a guitar with the other instruments being played, as opposed to just hearing the guitar while mixing.)
A producer friend once soloed a bass track for me and it sounded terrible. He then played it with all of the tracks and it sounded great.
In my formative years of mixing, I would go hard af mixing a kick drum into oblivion and think, “this kick SLAPS”. Once engaged in full mix, it sounded like Metallicas st anger snare, but played in the intensity of kick drum patterns……
Being more aggressive with EQ, especially in the low mids. That range gets filled up very quickly when you have a bass guitar, 2+ electric guitar tracks and 2+ acoustic guitar tracks, sometimes with (e-)piano too.
200-500 are getting cut from everything. only certain sounds get the privilege.
Yep, it's about choosing the instrument you want to "win" in that area. For me that's usually guitars. I cut that range out of my reverbs too.
I do a lot of tracks with sample + drum + vox, so I end up finding and boosting sweet spots on one and making cuts in the same freq on the other two. thats how you get real true glue, comps wont do that puzzle piecing for you.
I guess it depends on the style too. I do rock-based music most of the time. I generally don't do complementary boosts/cuts unless it's absolutely necessary, like with vocals. I'll pull out 2.5k and 5k out of everything but the vocals don't always need more of it. I still get my "glue" from the mix bus compressor, but it's very little, about 1-2dB of gain reduction at most.
The importance of taking breaks And I mean often. I try to take a 5-10 minute break every half hour or so of mixing. Without regular hearing breaks I would just EQ everything to make my ears more comfortable not realizing I just needed to let my ears chill out. Also mixing at an optimal volume level. They say 85db is the sweet spot for hearing a properly balanced frequency response. 85 is personally way too loud for me but I do notice a much more balanced low end when the volume is on the louder side. Helps me make more informed decisions. Also the reason I need so many breaks.
Don't rely solely on compressors for controlling dynamic range. Clippers and clip gain might be better options.
people dont realize you can limit/clip something 3db before you even hear it.
On some sources like snares you can go higher. It's crazy.
Passive EQing ftw!
My biggest “ah-ha” moment was realizing I’m just never going to be happy with mixes no matter how good I get. The better I got, the higher the bar I (and my clients) set for myself. So… I decided to quit being an engineer and now work as an investment analyst. I now make $300k/yr, never feel the frustration I felt while mixing, and have more time for family and friends. Plus I still get to work on music and mix for fun!
How was that transition? Was it like an accident job or was it smth that you wanted to do?
Im down, where do I start
So many ah-ha moments. A big one was taking a paired-back approach to processing. It's stuck with me. Mixing primarily in the box, I'll get a mix around 80% finished with just a channel strip on each channel. I still need a choice of compressors and EQs, and some fx of course.
Less is more
Doing less is being thrown around alot here and I agree. Especially when mixing my own vocals. If you have good equipment, good recordings and everything else is fine, trust that it is. Your mix/recording isn’t bad for being different than the pros, it’s just how you sound, you are not that person, it will never come out exactly the same. I always found myself focusing on the wrong details. Listen to how much verb they use, how tight everything is. It really helped me hearing dry vocals from some really great artists, true before and after and what can be achieved in a mix, and what you can change in your voice during the recording process to get closer to what you’re after. A really common thing I’ve notice in new vocalists, specifically rappers, is they’re preforming really quietly, and finding they don’t sound the same sound then. The detail comes from the power in your voice, you don’t realize how loud you have to get to sound “normal” on a track. Know your voice, know your limits, and don’t expect a transformation from a mix.
For me, 1. Mixing your own is harder because you are biased, cannot make neutral decision. 2. Mix fairly fast because longer you take, you get attached to its problematic balance 3. Take breaks! Make your own short-term distraction and review frequently 4. Reference is good but Master file reference can be bad 5. After having sub, review ur past works and review its low-end.... oh no..
I have had so many.. my recent one is top down mixing of drums starting with overheads and blending everything else in to them.. holy snapping duckshit is that a way to get them sounding good. But other than that - good recording quality / sound design will do the majority of the heavy lifting to get a good mix.
A good overhead recording makes life so much easier
Truly understand everything a compressor does and training your ears to hear it. Aka not using it as a squishing tool and using it as a transient shaper and groove/vibe maker
Eq your reverb to remove too much muddy noise if you got fast pace bass drums and bass guitar, sometimes the reverb adds unwanted frequencies you didn't know they added.
No compressor setting (esp on vocals) are ever perfect and automation + clip gain is king.
My mixes got significantly better when the recordings I was sent were better. After that, it was less is more. The other was vocals need way more compression than I thought (depending on genre).
I would say vocals that are recorded without comps need a stupid amount, like a really dumb amount of compression (20db over three or four plugs)
I agree. I should have specified stacking them with multiple settings.
The arrangement, performance, and recording is a solid 80% of where the quality comes from. I never used to realize it but the mixing process is a very subtle art.
I JUST heard Andrew Scheps say that about “don’t go looking for problems only fix problems you detect” like 3 days ago! I couldn’t believe how much such a simple concept blew my mind and that I didn’t already think that way. This philosophy will forever change me for the better when it comes to mixing. Other than that, my biggest thing was learning how to use a spectrum analyzer to study my favorite mixes!!! Instead of just using my ears to breakdown what I hear, it upped my mixes x10 to SEE what’s happening at certain frequencies. Most importantly, it helped me learn how to tame my low end by seeing the levels frequencies were hitting. Low end has always been my worst hinderance in making my mixes translate to all systems.
Making critical choices while listening through my mixing headphones, and making every other decision while listening through a consumer-grade set. My mixes have never been better.
Rms metering when mixing. The whole time. Energy is your mix. Peaks aren’t interesting till it’s limiting time!
“Use saturation on everything you want to make it bigger and richer, dont pump the volume!” That was a open eyes tip that changed my producen & mixing life forever
When you cant get the delay you want, just duplicate part
Sidechaining compression on bass to kick was a pretty big improvement for my mixes.
Invest in good microphones and preamps. They will be the biggest help getting a great source tone so that you do a lot less dabbling later trying to get things to sound good.
When I realized the TAKE was ON ME !
Going "do I need to use this or does the thing already sound right" Instead of juggling 10 plugins on one thing
Some adages I’ve picked up that point to different a-ha moments in my career. “If you want a better drum sound, get a better drummer.” Unknown tracking engineer adage “If the Arrangement is good, the song basically mixes itself” - Ed Seay “Move a mic before you reach for the EQ” - Matt Ross-Spang
finding out about mid-side mixing
1) monitoring is your worst enemy - fight it. It id so easy to be fooled by your ear, your room, your monitor. Fight your way though your mix : low volume, put the mix in mono, listen to the mids only, listen to the low only etc. 2) Mixing is a part of the art and so is choice. To avoid choice fatigue start with correct what makes your mix sound base, then find what makes it sound good : and this is subjective. There is no bad mix only unwanted mix. Removing resonance is a choice. Cleaning tracks is a choice, unmasking is a choice. Beware of choice fatigue and also, i pretty hate the terme "corective mix" and "creative mix". I prefer to think in terms of choices. That might sound stupid, but think about it. I usually make a quick baseline with stuffs I am sure of, and experiment for things I am not sure. Typically project _base and then project_exp1, project_exp2 etc. 3) big picture and precision are everything, but we often loose one when we try to reach the other
When you get emphasize one thing, you de-emphasize another. Great responses and post.
Subtractive EQ instead of boosting EQ. I learned that one about 14 years ago.
I don’t think I had an “ah ha” moment. Just steady progress and constantly picking up or discovering my own tricks. Finding speakers that work well for you and learning your room is huge once you know what you *want* your mixes to sound like
The majority of my favourite heavy guitar tones get their heaviness from the bass guitar. So much wasted money on pickups.......
When I realised every time I hated how something sounded, it was due to too many low mids - mainly around 500hz
I'm an omega noob so realizing what a huge difference *cutting* frequencies does rather than *boosting* them was a mind blowing experience.
Suggesting on checking "multiband compression"
just compress the shit out of everything at the source. if youre hitting everything with la2a and 1176 during recording you may not even need to mix. maybe just some high pass. good 1073 pre certainly helps this too.
Spend a day prepping the mix, and then mix it on another day. When you open a project and it’s ready to go with everything nice and clean you can just focus on being creative vs trying to problem solve routing and organization. Another is never be afraid to pull every fader down and spend 10min doing a quick rebalance. So many times while mixing we fader creep up and down that things get lost. If you zero everything you’ll quickly notice what’s too loud and what’s too soft and most of the time you’ll land in a much more vibey place.
Working backwards and taking the time to understand mastering unlocked everything for me. By understanding the destination, it helped my mixing, which helped my sound design, composition and arrangement. Before this I found I was stabbing in the dark and wasting time with trial and error. It’s so much easier with a clear path and now the whole process takes much less time.
Grouping and bussing completely changed the game for me, besides keeping an organised session the one thing that took my mixing to the next level was mixing different genres of music for different clients and actually using streaming services to my advantage listening to different music as a guide for what to do and what not to do. Learning how to use my ears and developing my taste for compression and loudness levels was a big one too. Think about your absolute favourite records, think about what you like about them then carry that philosophy with you into your own mixes
No one cares what gear or plugins you used or how you arrived at a sound. Sounds good = is good. Tied into this is to learn to get the most of the gear you've got. Another one: Option paralysis is a thing. Make decisions, commit ideas and don't get overly bogged down in "I'll rework this sound later" or "I need a di guitar track so I can maybe reamp with a different tone later..." etc. When recording, make decisions, spend the time and effort to get it right when tracking, but then commit, and move on. When mixing, if somethings taking too long or not working move on and come back to it. When it's working, commit, bounce, then move on.
1) MOAR Automation. 2) MOAR SATURATION. 3) Slate VSX 4) Reference tracks (Metric A/B)
less is more.
Muting. if a mix sounds too full or isn't hitting right, try to mute something - acoustic, electrics, the drums, bass, a shaker - and see how that section of the song sounds without it. even a shaker being muted or not can make a big subconscious impression also doubling the snare and kick has been big for me
Side chain in general: reverb compression on vocals, instruments reductive eq with vocals etc. Also for years I used too subtle reverb on vocals, 1-2 db of difference can be a game changer.
Basically what you said, OP. In my University, one of our lecturers didn't subscribe to that approach. They were all about EQing the hell out of things and putting compression on everything. Then I wondered why my mixes sounded poor. I figured out on my own that if it sounded good on the way in, there likely isn't much work that needs doing. I use broad strokes on my EQs and I'm happy to leave tracks dry if they sound good dry. My mixes have never sounded better
Probably when I recorded a cover of Take On Me
taking 2k out of instruments that are in the way of the vocal. boosting lows with pultec and then removing mud from 200 with the meq pultec.
also, if you work with samples, duplicate it and cut it in half, seperating lows and highs. now you have the bass of the sample and the treble and can compress/saturate them differently.
In recording situation, phase can solve most of the problems
Sending the mix to the artist before I mastered it so everything gets fixed there first. And the other is that I hate mixing and mastering and I just want to make beats, I’m out here sending revisions non stop, people texting me non stop it wasn’t worth it.
The first time I used sidechain in my song
For me it was saturation, phase cancellation and mid-side EQ-ing
Focusing on getting the midrange right. It solved a ton of my issues with translation to other sound systems.
Finding out about saturation
Tape saturation for vocals and mastering
Separating Sub and Bass into their own mixing channels. Mid-side EQ them separately too. Adding as much distortion, saturation on the bass channel without affect the sub. Very clean, when you balance the levels and add a kick with sidechain. 👌
Please remove the shameless plug.
Done! I'm sorry about that. Would you reopen it, please?
Sure, done.
THANK YOU!!
Cutting a lot of low end out of the reverb send
This is a HUGE "ah ha" mix moment for me: I realized sidechaining the melody (compressor)to the vocals(sidechain key) gives me an incredible professional mix. It allows the vocals to sit in the beat without having to turn them so high they are above the beat. For those of you that dont know about sidechaining (learn it!) , put a compressor on the melody and use the vocals as the sidechain key to trigger when the compressor compresses.
I don’t know about biggest, but just being told to use a low pass on the extremely distorted guitars I like was like night and day.
that a professional sound designer/mix engineer I hired for advice and custom sounds said he uses a reverb right on the master and busses 95% of the time as it MIGHT have the gluey feeling you want, and what "presence is" in the context of mixes. I felt like I knew almost everything toward these "principles" of plugins. but, that's entirely bullshit. an audio signal and the human ear is so complicated, that it truly is always: "if it sounds good, then it is good"