Great new mixing / mastering technique

[BongStuff]

Try this...on a track that you're at the very final mixing stages with,

don't listen to it for 24 hrs or so. Then come back and bring the mix

up again - BUT - keep your monitoring volume *very* low.

Just low enough to make it a bit frustrating! Tease yourself

Now your challenge is to make the track listenable *without*

turning up your monitoring. I'm not saying just compress the

hell out of it - cos it won't sound good, and we're going for

listenable - just "louder" so that you can enjoy the track again.

Once you've squeezed frequency bands you never even knew existed,

and been through your whole arsenal of toys, dump it to CD/WAV

and listen again, this time at higher volumes. Doesn't it sparkle

a lot more? Don't a lot of the most positive instruments take centre

stage rather than the atmospheres and embellishments?

Of course now you can go back and more traditionally hone the

mix you've just left with. But I'll bet you a few beers that you'll

have a less cluttered, more powerful sounding track.

BS

[Prometheus]

The only problem I've found with that is that sometimes it ends up sparkling to much... I think it's a good idea, but I think it's better still to alterante between moderately loud and quiet passes... After all, you want to know what you're stuff's gonna sound like at different levels...

Another thing I think is a good idea for mastering is to walk around the room while you're listening to your product. Sometimes, certain nodes in the room can make frequencies become apparent when you stand in certain locations...

[Songstuff]

It's worth doing the same exercise with the mono sum of your mix, a small mono hi-fi speaker and a studio amp. Take a commercial track that you really like the mix of and run it through the system at an easy listening volume, adjusting the amp treble and bass until you like the sound. try a few tracks if you want. Now invert the settings. If you boost the treble by 1db, make it cut by 1db.

Now go through the process you have describe using the mono set up. reset your amp treble and bass and listen back through your normal monitor set up.. Yet again you'll have to hone the mix, but hopefully you find a nicely balanced mix. One thing to stress is that as much as possible your mix EQ should be determined by individual track eq settings, and that you tend to get a better mix by cutting frequencies, not boosting.

Be aware of the basic frequency ranges of your main instruments, and then use your EQ to make room for them by cutting those frequencies in your pads and backing instruments. the clarity and overall volume of the track will increase a hell of a lot.

Cheers

John

[Donna]

Fascinating - I've heard all this before, I guess I'm hooked. More homework...

[ATom2]

This is all fine and dandy, but where does that other sock go in the wash?

I mean......really!

[BongStuff]

This is all fine and dandy, but where does that other sock go in the wash?

I mean......really!

He hops in, complains about a missing sock, and hops out again!

BS