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Question to all the production gurus
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| Microlab |
| So i have approched to the final process of writing my track - mixing and mastering. And I feel really frustrated now becasue I see no decent way out of my problem. I want to raise the general volume of the track, however if i raise the volume of each single sound individually, the reault is quite far from what i want to hear. I tried to boost the volume with the multiband compressor on the master, but how do i guess that my mix sounds as it should be. It is pretty tricky, even if i compare it with other professional tracks. Although, i read a number of times that the multiband compressor on the master is quite unreliable (you might know that rule - the fewer effects you apply to your final mix, the better). So what should i do? |
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| Nightshift |
A good way to mix i've heard and used myself:
Turn down all the faders on all the sounds. Loop the loudest part of the track with the most sound playing.
Bring up the kick to -8dB.
Bring up the synths one by one (& bassline synths that do not contain sub frequencies)
get a good balance between those sounds.
then bring up the SFX
then bring in the percussions till u have a nice balance of them.
then last but not least bring up the bass. |
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| Beyer |
I donīt quite understand what your problem is.. You feel you have a decent sounding mix, but the master
level is too silent? Why not select all of the mixer channels at once, and raise them up till you
reach the level you need.
If your issue is that you are peaking at 0db (more or less), and you still need more jiuce.
Then the answer is very tricky. Itīs about compromise, and I suck badly at getting high
rms without ing up the sound completely. |
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| mfitterer1 |
| Most of the time this happens is when people are mixing into a compressor on the master with their kick too loud. If your kick is too loud (the starting point of mixing) then your whole mix will be too quiet because of the lack of available headroom left. Either that or your attack and release on the multiband compressor are off and cutting out sound and color from your mix. Make sure your kick isn't too loud and then adjust the attack and release to taste for the track in question. |
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| derail |
| quote: | Originally posted by Microlab
So i have approched to the final process of writing my track - mixing and mastering. And I feel really frustrated now becasue I see no decent way out of my problem. I want to raise the general volume of the track, however if i raise the volume of each single sound individually, the reault is quite far from what i want to hear. I tried to boost the volume with the multiband compressor on the master, but how do i guess that my mix sounds as it should be. It is pretty tricky, even if i compare it with other professional tracks. Although, i read a number of times that the multiband compressor on the master is quite unreliable (you might know that rule - the fewer effects you apply to your final mix, the better). So what should i do? |
It's odd that you say "how do I guess that my mix sounds as it should be". You can only make the best judgement you can make, according to your level of experience. But I'd call it a "judgement", not a "guess".
A well mixed song can be pushed up to "competitive levels" very easily. It shouldn't require much compression/ limiting on the master channel.
Everything starts with the original sounds - finding sounds that fit together well, that work well together. Your song should sound pretty good before you apply any EQ, compression, anything like that. If it doesn't, it's going to make the mixing stage more difficult, and the mastering stage more difficult. You're creating a lot of work later on if your initial sound choices aren't optimal.
Then it's about mixing the sounds together properly - the number one tool for great sounding mixes is the fader - setting appropriate levels for each instrument/ sound. After that, EQing/filtering, compression, reverb and so on. But the levels are the most important thing. It seems easy, but you'll find you get better and better at it each year you spend working on music.
Then it's about mastering/ finalising the mix. There have been many discussions about mastering, and a lot of people don't even see a separation between mixing and mastering any more. For me, mastering involves a second person. If there's no second pair of objective ears involved, it's not mastering. That's my personal definition, other people have their own definitions. According to my definition, the external mastering step will be made much easier if the first two stages have been performed optimally - the sounds chosen well, and the sounds mixed well.
"Competitive levels" come primarily from the original sounds. If that's not possible, then you still have more scope at the mixing stage than the mastering stage to correct problems.
It takes a number of years to train your ears to hear the deficiencies in your mixes. When I started out, my kicks and basses were much too loud, and much too boomy, but my ears weren't developed enough to hear it and correct it. It's just a process we all need to get through - you can't just grab 10 years of experience overnight. |
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| DigiNut |
Sigh.
Once you realize that proper mixing is not an afterthought, then you won't have this problem. That can take months or years. Until then, don't try to compensate by squashing the master track, just practice your mixing skills, specifically EQ, compression, and panning/stereo imaging. |
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| LoveHate |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nightshift
A good way to mix i've heard and used myself:
Turn down all the faders on all the sounds. Loop the loudest part of the track with the most sound playing.
Bring up the kick to -8dB.
Bring up the synths one by one (& bassline synths that do not contain sub frequencies)
get a good balance between those sounds.
then bring up the SFX
then bring in the percussions till u have a nice balance of them.
then last but not least bring up the bass. |
i have no idea what any of this means
-goes back to reading how to master- |
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| Tom Smykowski |
| If you have a decent sounding mixdown, and the only problem is that it is too quiet, you could just export it to wav, open it in the audio editing software of your choice, and simply normalize the track to somewhere between -1dB and -0,1dB. |
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| Fledz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nightshift
A good way to mix i've heard and used myself:
Turn down all the faders on all the sounds. Loop the loudest part of the track with the most sound playing.
Bring up the kick to -8dB.
Bring up the synths one by one (& bassline synths that do not contain sub frequencies)
get a good balance between those sounds.
then bring up the SFX
then bring in the percussions till u have a nice balance of them.
then last but not least bring up the bass. |
While the method is good, the order doesn't always need to be like that. It's very dependent on what your leading sounds are in the track as those will be the ones you bring up first (after the kick of course) and then fit the rest around them.
Digi is right though. I find that the more I produce the more natural it becomes and you just learn to do everything as you go rather than at the end.
Doing a complete mixdown at the very end is an absolute nightmare. |
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| Nightshift |
I agree fledz but sometimes I and many producers get very biased to how your tune is currently sounding, making you vulnerable to mixing mistakes. I find that even after 6 years when I use this technique (maybe not always in the order i listed) it helps me find and eliminate mixing mistakes more efficiently with levels and EQ. Its the closest way to getting a fresh pair of ears, without a fresh pair of ears. Thats how I see it.
and @lovehate: reading about mastering most likely wont teach you very much about mixing... |
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| Tarpex |
Increasing volume and multiband comps are two opposing parameters.
Don't use multibands unless you're 100% you really need it (1% of cases).
Compress the track using master compression (not a multiband one) slightly, then limit it till the desired level; then you'll see how ed up your mixdown really was, when sounds start disappearing, then adjust accordingly.
So! Here it is, in one sentence, at least a year of mixing / mastering experience, pointless to explain everything since you have to figure some stuff out yourself.
Seriously thinking about making a ITB home mixing & mastering guide, given the amounts of threads appearing almost each day about it, it's slowly getting ridiculous. |
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| Nightshift |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tarpex
Seriously thinking about making a ITB home mixing & mastering guide, given the amounts of threads appearing almost each day about it, it's slowly getting ridiculous. |
srsly. everyone thinks mastering is the key to making your tracks sound.
however i think we all go through that phase, i know i did and i was horribly mistaken. |
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