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Old 25th March 2006   #3
phelbin
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I always start my mixing in the exact same way no matter what style. I read that a few respectable mixing engineers start this way, and I tried it and kept doing it. I get the kick sounding roughly the way I want, then I adjust the gain to about -5db on the 2bus VU. Then I get the bass to sound roughly the way I want, and get it to -5 on the VU. Put together they should be about -2 or -3db on the VU. This gives me a good starting point. Once the rest of the drums and the other instruments are in the mix I'm at a fairly good overall level. I'm definitely tweaking the kick and bass all throughout the mix process, but I always try to stick to -5 as a guide.

And when I'm doing a rough mix in PT, I'll usually start the same way by putting a VU on a Master track and balancing everything out the same way.

When I first started, all my mixes were too hot and sorta crispy sounding. Starting with this really helped bring everything under control, and now my mixes breathe a lot better.
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