toBetheVeryBest

Thanks. I am pretty sure I follow about that same route

toBetheVeryBest

Very good article. I downloaded Reaper, and it is intimidating, but I will try my best to learn.

timcrow420

hahahaha I see what you did there.

)v(egaFan90

I would recommend checking out Jamesmsv's youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Jamesmsv

He has got an entire series on mixing metal! I'm not sure what type of music you're recording, but there is still useful information you can gather from his tutorials.

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Cavalcade

Accidentally gave a pretty decent guide to mixing vocals (maybe other than the 500Hz thing)? Yeah, I see it too.

crazysam23_Atax

A decent place to start is by reading the stickies in the Recording forum.

I would also recommend checking out "The Systematic Mixing Guide" by Ermin Hamidovic, which is $20 (Australian, ~$21.50 US). Not too bad a price for the good content.


Reaper's actually fairly simplistic, once you get used to it. Do yourself a favor and set up some track templates. You'll save SO much time doing that.


Other than the 500Hz thing ('cause where to cut depends on the vocalist), can I steal this?

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DisarmGoliath

Ok, ignoring the fact this should be in the forum I actually mod, I'll answer as this has seemingly been missed by everybody else.



Nope, I'm afraid the key is in the word 'pass'. Low pass = allows lower sounds to 'pass' unaffected while cutting the stuff above; high pass = allows higher sounds to 'pass' unaffected while cutting the stuff below. If the word after low or high is 'cut' then obviously it does the opposite and cuts below or above, respectively.


Not really, though you can make non-pitch specific sounds have a tonal pitch with aggressive EQ (sounds terrible, pretty much never try this), try to think of it more as a tool to bring out different character in a sound. You boost or cut different frequencies to bring out different things. For example, I might boost the 500-650Hz range of a vocal track to increase the intelligibility and natural sound of the voice, as this is the rough area where our ears focus on voices and many things. I may then cut the guitars in that same spot to allow a little space for the vocals to sit in and increase the effect. I may then boost the 4-8KHz range of a kick drum, to increase the volume of the beater hitting the skin, because I want to make it more obvious when the impact is, and add definition to a fast double-kick pattern.


I personally use Logic Pro, and there are thousands of tutorials out there, but your choice of DAW isn't a huge thing these days - they're all fairly similar and copy from each other, apart from the 'oddballs' like Ableton Live which is partly aimed at electronic musicians who wish to perform their songs live with the recording. I would recommend learning the ropes with Reaper as it is the cheapest commercial DAW out there.


Not a problem, but you'd seem more intelligent if you posted in the Recordings forum instead of trusting your fate to The Pit

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Cavalcade

Moderators can't move threads to different subforums? Whaaaaa-

DisarmGoliath

Can, but only if it's in a forum you moderate - I'm not a Pit mod so can't move this to Recordings for TS, if that's what you were wondering

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InfiniteRain

Mixing is very important regardless of what's recorded or what genre it is. In simplified terms, think of it this way:

You have recorded four separate tracks to one song. Track 1 contains all of the drum sounds. Track 2 has the bass. 3, the guitar. 4, the vocals.

Now, because when you recorded all of these instruments their volumes and dynamics differed quite a bit for each other, if you play them all at once it's going to be pretty difficult to hear each instrument to its full effect.

So one of the things mixing attempts to do is to make every sound work well together within a stereo (or, occasionally, surround sound) space. So if the drums are too loud "in the mix," you turn them down. Can't hear the bass? Raise the volume slowly until you can. Vocals are too quiet? Bring them up too until everything sounds good and balanced.

That's the very basic goal of mixing. However, you can (and eventually should!) go much deeper. Since we hear from two ears, utilizing the stereo spectrum is a good idea. That means that you can move sounds to be exclusively in the left ear, right ear, or anywhere in between. That means something could be 100% left, and if you were wearing headphones you would ONLY hear it in the left speaker. Something panned 50% to the left would be significantly louder in the left speaker but still come through a bit on the right.

What this allows you to do is to space instruments out even more and create a wider, more interesting soundscape. Let's go back to our basic recording mentioned above. Instead of having everything panned at 0% (or "in the middle"), let's create a more interesting soundscape.

So, for example, we might pan the hi-hat 25% to the left, the ride cymbal 25% to the right, and spread the toms across the entire spectrum. We'll keep the bass drum and snare in the middle, or close to it. Crash cymbals can be panned around as well.

Generally, the bass guitar and main vocals want to stay right in the middle.

Guitar, however, can really benefit from being panned out to the sides. So if you double tracked your guitar part (which simply means recording the same part on guitar two SEPARATE times), one trick is to pan one to each side. So "Guitar Track 1" would be panned to maybe 80-100% to the left, while "Guitar Track 2" would be 80-100% on the right. Minor differences in the two recordings give your recorded tracks enough dissimilarities to create a "wide" sound.

And then you can begin to use EQ (equalization), compression, and limiters, for example, to smooth things out. These things are best learned by experimenting, and I am by no means an expert at them. Equalization can be used to smooth tracks out, highlighting frequencies that you want and eliminating frequencies that you don't (think of EQ like your guitar amp: you have a Low, Mid, and High knob to shape your tone with; that's a simplified EQ). Compression will smooth out the volume of the tracks, so there aren't giant leaps from quiet to soft. Don't overuse it though, or your music will sound dull and lifeless. Limiters simply stop your track from going over a certain volume and clipping, for example.

There are tons of tutorials online for this kind of stuff. Find a DAW and play around with it. I use Logic, something like Reaper is an excellent and cheap alternative. You can find free plug-ins for just about anything you could want these days. Just head to YouTube and type in something like "How to record (In [DAW])" or "How to mix."

I've found that while tutorials are helpful, nothing is more effective than actually working hands on. Start recording some music and assess what you like and don't like about the sound. Try to get every instrument where you want it to be, with nothing overly muffled or loud. You'll begin to understand sound a lot better this way and how to tackle different scenarios. Plus, asking "How can I get my bass to sound more fat?" or "Why don't my guitars come through well in the mix?" are much better, specific questions to ask that people can directly aid you with.

Does this all sound overwhelming? It is a bit, but take it slow! And try to enjoy it! Mixing can be a lot of fun. Every time you make a song and try to mix it you'll develop a better ear for how things sound. It will also force you to listen to songs by other people more critically, and you'll understand that mixing is truly an artform and there is no one strict way to do it. Be creative!

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I’ve taken some comfort
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Ian_the_fox

You don't know how to mix? Well hell, you know what they say: sucks to suck!







































Jokes aside, get this: http://www.systematicproductions.com/mixing-guide.htm

Best $20 you will ever spend, completely worth it.

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