What's on your mix bus?

[audiomichael]

Hi Tony,

How does mastering influence your finished product? When you send out a finished mix, are you leaving room for the mastering engineer to EQ and limit, or do the mixes leave your studio 'loud and proud'?

Thanks

[zboy2854]

Hey Tony, glad to have you here! I was curious, what do you usually put across your mix bus as far as EQ, compression or other processing? And if you have processing or plugins on the mix bus, do you mix through it from the beginning of your mix, or put in on at the end? Thanks!

Zach

[swaff]

Hi Tony,

There is a lot of discussion on mixing with compression on the master 2-bus, and I was wondering what kind of goals do you mix with in regard to this.

Do you mix with compression on your master faders, and if so, do you typically have a standard amount of reduction you go for? Do you aim for a consistent average level for every mix you do? I know with my clients, if I am sending them 3-4 songs mixed for them to review, they might comment that one is slightly louder than another, which is more of a mastering issue I think, but they don't realize that.

Lots of people talk about how once a limiter is put on a mix by the mastering engineer, the mix will change (sometimes drastically), and so there is debate on whether or not to mix with a limiter, check your mix with a limiter every so often, or don't use one at all. What are your thoughts on all of this, and what do you find works best for you (and the mastering engineers you've worked with) as far as printing your mixes and getting great results once it has been mastered?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us!

Best,

Swaff

[Jules]

Mix bus questions thumbsup

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by audiomichael

Hi Tony,

How does mastering influence your finished product? When you send out a finished mix, are you leaving room for the mastering engineer to EQ and limit, or do the mixes leave your studio 'loud and proud'?

Thanks

Hey Audio,
I come from the school of 'leaving room' for the mastering guy to do his/her job. I also don't believe our current 'level wars' will be the last word in audio. That being said, 10, 20, 40 years from now, when the owners of my mechanicals are doing a re-issue, they'll be ready to master with tomorrow's standard of gain and level. As a professional audio engineer, I feel this is my obligation to music, not my clients at the time, but the audience.

When I was a young engineer, there was a lot of archiving of sixties recordings to the 'new' digital formats. I was on a session where we were copying some James Brown masters over to Mitsubishi digital. When we put the faders at zero, coming from the 8 track one inch masters, the songs were done! Mixed. Perfect!!! They sounded like the JB songs I had grown up with and loved. Even though the Drums and Bass were blended together on tracks 1/2 and Mr Brown was scuffling about while he sang, the recordings were perfectly mic'd to capture the best performance and sonic integrity of the artist.

The engineering on those records was apparent and impeccable! I applaud the guys who made that history and feel it's my job to continue their legacy by 'training' the next generation of engineers to have the same concern for what they're doing.

t

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by swaff

Hi Tony,

There is a lot of discussion on mixing with compression on the master 2-bus, and I was wondering what kind of goals do you mix with in regard to this.

Do you mix with compression on your master faders, and if so, do you typically have a standard amount of reduction you go for? Do you aim for a consistent average level for every mix you do? I know with my clients, if I am sending them 3-4 songs mixed for them to review, they might comment that one is slightly louder than another, which is more of a mastering issue I think, but they don't realize that.

Lots of people talk about how once a limiter is put on a mix by the mastering engineer, the mix will change (sometimes drastically), and so there is debate on whether or not to mix with a limiter, check your mix with a limiter every so often, or don't use one at all. What are your thoughts on all of this, and what do you find works best for you (and the mastering engineers you've worked with) as far as printing your mixes and getting great results once it has been mastered?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us!

Best,

Swaff

Dear Swaff,
I use the Pendulum ES8 Limiter on my mixes. After the Chandler summer mixer, before the Lavry 4496 converters. I compress very minimally; usually .5 - 1.5 db of reduction. I never maximize 'to tape' but do send a maximized 'pre-mastered' mix for my clients to listen to and make comments on. I find if I don't do this, they're confused and can't put it in context with all the 'dynamically challenged' material they're listening to on a daily basis.

yeee,
t