The MIXING thread

Tips & Tricks
51

I totally agree. Mixing in mono has the advantage that the mix translates really well. A good mono mix is most likely a good mix on any system.

And this is the down side of mono mixing. Some spatial effects are just unavailable.

In terms of binaural plugins, the best usability IMO GUI wise is the DearVR Pro. (I’ll link all the plugins tomorrow, it’s super late and I gotta gets some sleep before tomorrow) DearVR also has a free “micro” version, I think it’s the old Sennheiser Ambeo repackaged.
Then there’s the VR thing, made for rift or something. Can’t remember the name right now.
And one really interesting is Anaglyph. Can be a real CPU hog, but has some very convincing results. If anyone here knows MATLAB, there’s a collection of thousands of HRTFs available for Anaglyph, for free if I’ve understood correctly. I don’t have enough knowhow to convert them to a file the plugin loads, but I really think it’s possible
There’s some other one’s too, Panagement, haven’t really tried that one … Can’t remember any other right now.

You got a point here. I have been sacrificing my mono mix, for the sake of my stereo mix. Damn, this discussion is fire. :fire: Maybe I’ll try to mix exclusively on mono for a while, and just check on stereo. Switch it up, maybe I’ll learn something new and get my mixing forward. :walkman:

I’ll honestly feel like my latest mix was way too sharp and piercing on the top end. I mixed it with a way too hyped house curve. Had a bit of an honeymoon with room EQ stuff. 6dB shelf on the low end feels really nice with a sub, but fucks up your mix really easily. But I just feel a straight frequency response sounds so damn boring. Maybe I’ll try something milder, 2 or 3 dB.

I’ve been meaning to get into bark scales. Read about it, but didn’t apply in practice. I’ve been thinkg that it might be possible to build an EQ that is tuned to the bark scale. One bell for each band, couple of EQ10s in serial. Maybe some utilities, save as FXchain. The Eventide mastering EQ and transient designer work with the bark scale if I remember correctly.

This is one damn golden nugget you dropped on me! :exploding_head: :melting_face: I’ve never done that! :pray: I gotta try it!

Damn I love these forums, I’ve learned so much from here.

2 Likes
52

Personally I don’t put much attention to mono I just make sure the low-end is tight and mostly mono and then in the mixing stage I usually check on a JBL bluetooth speaker.

Recently watched this thing on youtube

53

I so much hate these tutorial videos… why nobody cannot simply write down their wisdom into a solid, better thought article nowadays? And then add some scientific conclusions to it? Adding proper images? The result would much more useful than the 10984674th opinion about mixing as a video.

54

Right, that’s why you also check in stereo after checking in mono. If the mix isn’t already great after switching back to stereo, it usually just needs small adjustments regarding loudness, which doesn’t affect the mono mix negatively. It’s similar to checking the mix at different volume levels or like the difference between listening through headphones and speakers.That means there might be some small adjustments necessary, but no fundamental changes. I think mixing in mono at low level through speakers is absolutely crucial and the base for a good mix. The video posted by @Garf (In the Mix - good channel btw) didn’t change my opinion at all, it’s quite the opposite.

1 Like
55

Mixing in mono surely matters IF you play big mono systems. It’s absolutely crucial to make sure your mix translates there IF you’re going to play out on a big mono rig. If not, it probably isn’t essential as long as the low end is fairly tight mono. Music intended for home listening, headphones, etc. doesn’t strictly need to be mixed for a stellar mono image, imo, although with so many people listening through mono in their phones these days it probably doesn’t hurt anything to mix in mono, imo (and stereo, too, of course!) :upside_down_face:

If you have no intention of playing clubs/festivals where there may be a mono rig, it may well be a waste of time to invest the time in a pristine mono mix.

But, if you do find yourself playing out on a big mono system, you’ll be kicking yourself if you only mixed your tracks in stereo. Speaking from experience, it can be really disturbing to discover phase cancellation issues in your mix in the middle of a live performance!

2 Likes
56

You’re right, BUT if you mix in mono first your stereo mix will benefit from the mono mix AND you’re achieving a proper mix way faster. So in the end it’s not a waste of time to invest in a mono mix, it’s quite the contrary because you’re saving time! :wink:

2 Likes
57

I think that mono mixing has additional benefits other than good mono playback. It is the minimum spatial resolution the music can have, thus no matter how well the stereo image will be for the listener in the end, the mono mix always shows you what will be in the foreground in any situation for the listener. Think of listening to speakers, and then turning one ear towards the middle of them, the other opposite…you still get some spatial cues due to room effects and lateral location abilities, but it won’t be optimal. But you will still be able to clearly hear what is in focus when you listen to the mix in mono. Then any spatial effect can be viewed as sugar on top and bringing more depth to that image. Ofc with proper stereo you quasi add another dimension you can hear by and gain much more resolution, but this also brings the risk to make mixes that aren’t clear anymore under suboptimal conditions. Also don’t forget that as a producer we use pristine gear and perfect stereo imaging, but many listeners won’t have these conditions. Making the mix translate well to mono (or lack of bass…) will help with making sure people will get something nice to hear no matter how crappy their gear is.

@SimulatedZen

One bell for each band, couple of EQ10s in serial.

Yeah a critical band tuned eq is probably a neat thing to play with. I remember a special EQ plugin that worked like this, with one peak/notch per bark scale band. But you could also move the position of the peak/notch inside the band, which is important to fit multiple sounds together in one band and to make them more distinguishable from each other. If the peak is going towards the upper frequency side of the band, the sound can have a compressed/intense/congested/lucid/bright quality. If the peak is going to the lower side of the bands, the opposite is the case, the sound will rather seem big/vast/powerfull/dark/dull/relaxed/wide/heavy. If the peak is on the border of two bands, then the sound will also gain power by it and seem kind of like the balanced mid, but more powerful.

2 Likes
58

before making a mix, it is worth understanding and learning to hear how sounds should generally begin to interact with each other. To do this, you need to learn to hear what is in the sound initially. In my opinion, from personal experience, this skill is easiest to get by starting to listen to your mix against pink noise. pulling every sound out of silence is the most accessible way to find where something is wrong with your sound relative to the rest of the mix.

2 Likes
59

Here is a video of live mixing of a series of loops
https://www.youtube.com/live/vJzbrplBGAQ?feature=share

My concern is that the way I do parallel processing might be causing phase issues… but I don’t know. I don’t think I have the ear to pick up phasing problems.

Mixing multi track recordings truly is a lifelong concern for me… I’ll never solve the mystery!

1 Like
60

I bought UVI Shade, for me it seems to be the best available mixing EQ. The GUI and the workflow seems to be even easier than in Pro-Q3, and more precise. And then it can do a ton of another stuff, plus has resonant variants of most filters. Also it seems to be very efficient, loads and opens very fast. The dynamic mode works very good so far, too. Highly recommended. It is on sale.

1 Like
61

where is it on sale, and for how much?
looks dope, but it’s hard (for me) to justify throwing money at plugins these days

1 Like
62

Agreed. I only bought it because of this bundle for 89: UVI Special - FL Studio
But now I am quite happy with it. The other stuff in the bundle, I don’t know. That reverb sounds aged. You can install a demo of UVI Shade from the uvi webpage (scroll down).

1 Like
63

nice. thank you!

64

I just have seen another video that shows some very useful things:

I would recommend to check especially the saturation “trick” at 6:32 and the vowel sound to distinguish and to identify several frequencies in the mix at 9:05.

65

Want to side chain kick and bass kickstart 2 style:

It activates the compressor but with an envelope that syncs to tempo. Anyway to replicate this with the native compressor and side chain device?

66

I think the best way to replicate that is with this method:

KeyTracker → LFO → Hydra

2 Likes
67

Keytracker–>lfo–>hydra Thanks, i have kickstart 2 as well. If there is a way to do natively then that’s my first option.

1 Like
68

It’s easier to just use kickstart then…
Would be sweet if it was possible to make Devices with Tools then we could make a fancy little ducking device.

69

This is cool:

70

Maybe this has been mentioned before but… I use the Sigal Follower → Hydra → Gainer on what ever track I want to “side-chain”. And of course you can also route the Hydra to specific EQ bands, for example. Setting up the right volumes can be a bit fiddly but you just have to evaluate it by ear, not with numbers. That’s a generally good idea anyway. :slight_smile:

2 Likes