Setting up a mix...

[FinnArild]

Since this is a discussion about mixing, I'll go through what I do when mixing.

When all recordings are done, all voice tracks are tuned and good, first of all, I clean up the tracks.

I turn all the faders down, then I make sure I have kick, snare, ride/hihat and the rest of the drums on four seperate tracks.

Then I hit the mono button. I start all mixes in mono.

I start with the kick - I turn it up to around 0db, and eq it so it sounds good. I follow up with the bass guitar, and listen through it all to make sure the bass guitar and kick follow nicely. I might do some editing or even re-recording at this point. Then fade up the snare - eq it and maybe add some reverb. So I turn up the hihat and cyms a bit low (I sometimes tweak them more in the end, but usually they take care of themselves since they're in their own frequency range - sort of) and the rest of the drums.

Then I follow up with the voice. I make sure the voice is nicely above the drums and bass, and that it has it's seperate freq. range. I usually compress the voice 2:1 on recording and then 2:1 in the mix.

Then I turn up the other instruments, one by one, and make sure they don't collide with each other eq wise, - most importantly; not colliding with the voice.

Finally, I hit the mono button, and play with the stereo perspective - this is when everything really works or falls apart. If it's a bad mix, it's often better to make a note of what doesn't work, and start again from that point. An bad decision often snowballs other bad decisions later on.

Then I master it down and run it through Waves L3 (if you haven't got it, get it) and take the mix around to listen on different equipment. I now know my speakers so well, I usually don't need to tweak much - but always some.

[tgrover]

What gear are you guys using? Or are you using a studio?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We use a DAW. Sonar 3 pod xts. Bass Vamp. Roland drum kit. Joe Meek pre amp and AKG c4000b mic. Not a studio more of a pc in the corner of my bedroom

[tgrover]

hi this might be a usefull link to some.... few tips from the big guns in recording

http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_mixing_str...pros/index.html

[FinnArild]

hi this might be a usefull link to some.... few tips from the big guns in recording

http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_mixing_str...pros/index.html

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the last quote from Palmer was good: "The song is, and will always be, king. It's funny that as we increase sampling rates and bit rates in the recording side of music, the public is moving the other way and downgrading from CD to MP3. They are showing us they really care about the songs, artists, and performances. That is not an excuse for poor production and mixing, but a reminder about what makes someone want to own a piece of music. Sometimes I feel we miss the point. Don't forget that the best cure for a bad mix is a great song!"

[BongStuff]

Hi

having seen a few tracks criticised for the mix I thought a thread about setting up a mix would be useful. So what do you do? How do you prepare?  Do you have standard way to approach a mix?

Cheers

John

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the easiest trick to getting a good mix is to be sure to test it on different monitor setups e.g. main amp/monitors, nearfields, then on some hifi speakers, then say on some cheapo PC speakers, then convert to a low-bandwidth mono format and try that too.

Make notes on each mix then go back to the drawing board - or mixing desk - and make some fine adjustments...repeat until they all sound good...

BS