rush909 wrote on Fri, 11 March 2005 08:58 |
Hey Terry... |
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...when mixing a record, do you use any spectrum analyzers to see what's going on in each instrument and try to make room for stuff across the EQ bands or do you do it all by ear and feel... I am looking for tips that will allow me to create more space in my mixes and better separation of elements... |
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...also on a related note, can you discuss a little your approach to mixing... ie: do you get the drums sounding hot first, then build it from there or do you get the vocal right first, then move on to other elements, etc... or do you put it all up and get a levels first and then start isolating instruments one at a time... |
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For a long long time I would always start with the drums and bass, and get those happening first, then go to the other instrumental track instruments one at a time, soloing each, then integrating into the track as a whole. I would always save the vocal(s) for the last. But in the last few years, I have started by first putting up everything and getting a quick, basic rough mix, and then going back to building from there. As much as I always enjoyed my previous method, I now believe that the newer way gives me a better overall sense of the song before I start tweaking things. Drums especially may sound great by themselves, but can be very different when mixed in with the other elements of a song. Once the rough is pretty good, I will usually go back to the drums first with everything else muted, but not make any major changes which would negate the validity of the rough. I will then bring in the bass in the same manner, followed by other instrumentation, and once that is pretty solid, will return to the vocals, including fine tuning lead vocal levels to be sure everything is audible and sounds balanced within itself. |
drumsound wrote on Tue, 15 March 2005 00:23 |
I do a lot of the mix in mono, including panning. I rarely use solo, unless I'm stumped like Eric said. |
Norwood wrote on Tue, 15 March 2005 19:36 | ||
How the crap do you pan in mono? Wouldn't it just sound like you're pulling the fader down? |
compasspnt wrote on Tue, 15 March 2005 23:35 |
BY THE WAY I should have mentioned before (and I am sure this will elicit howls of rage from many) in discussing my mixing approach, that my number one rule is: ONLY MAKE ONE MIX, AND MAKE THAT THE RIGHT ONE. No vocal up mixes. No vocal down mixes. No alternate-decide-later mixes. Beatles didn't do it...I don't do it. Be a man, and do a man's mix. |
John Sorensen wrote on Tue, 15 March 2005 18:32 |
This reminds me of a funny story. A very fine engineer, in his younger days, reportedly was under the mistaken impression that using the front/back panner on a quad buss console, while mixing in stereo, helped him to make certain elements sit "back" in the mix. It's anyone's guess what he thought the front/back panner did exactly....suffice it to say that panning to the rear, when mixing in stereo, just makes it quieter....which might be construed as pushing something "back" in the mix, I guess |
cgc wrote on Wed, 16 March 2005 12:38 | ||
Feeding the rear channels into a stereo reverb could work really well. If I had access to a quad board I would like to try that myself. |
compasspnt wrote on Tue, 15 March 2005 18:35 |
BY THE WAY I should have mentioned before (and I am sure this will elicit howls of rage from many) in discussing my mixing approach, that my number one rule is: ONLY MAKE ONE MIX, AND MAKE THAT THE RIGHT ONE. No vocal up mixes. No vocal down mixes. No alternate-decide-later mixes. Beatles didn't do it...I don't do it. Be a man, and do a man's mix. |
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I have mixed for clients, of course, who demanded multiple mixes. In that case, you really need to follow their wishes, unless you can talk them out of it. I worked a few years back mixing for a well known artiste who wanted every kind of "this up" and "that up" and "this down" and "that down" mix you can imagine, in every possible combination. For an entire album, the average number of mixes per song was 19. |
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This meant also that, although I put the MAIN, BEST (in my opinion) mix to 1/2", that he took all 19-ish mixes on DAT (!) to master from. And he edited, and edited, and edited between them...you should have heard the phone call from the mastering engineer later, as we comiserated! |
Austin Ince wrote on Wed, 16 March 2005 04:22 |
Don't think that's true about the Beatles. George Martin did do two track masters of the mono mixes, backing track one side, vocals the other, so it could be rebalanced in mastering. Strictly speaking I suppose this was stems. These were never intended for stereo release but eventually were! |
compasspnt wrote on Wed, 16 March 2005 18:55 | ||
If this is so, I stand corrected. Thank you! However, it won't change my philosophy one iota...if they didn't commit, then it was their problem... |
compasspnt wrote on Wed, 16 March 2005 18:55 | ||
If this is so, I stand corrected. Thank you! |
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(For many years I refused to admit that there were any panning positions other than the three "cardinal points" of left, right, and centre, but recently I have actually started panning in between a bit...but I feel like a sell-out.) |
wwittman wrote on Thu, 17 March 2005 12:21 |
I almost never put anything anywhere other than L-R or centre. It's unnatural. |
Austin Ince wrote on Thu, 17 March 2005 21:57 |
I think 2 track masters for a mono cut will do me? |