What was the most important technique/trick that put our mixes to the next level?

[allbaldo]

Originally Posted by JP11

If you're working with lousy intruments, a lousy room, weak mic collection, mediocre monitors, mediocre songs/arrangements, average singers, crappy computer, uncomfortable chair, stuffy room, neighbors making noise, and on and on...mixing is going to be pretty much a bitch all the way around.

This describes my situation to a tee...and I STLL like mixing.

[rewt_]

good source sounds
getting phase relationships correct
recognizing sounds that are "too big"
preferring unique recordings to perfect ones
having no fear to try new things

[warhead]

Monitoring at lower levels.

You can hear so much more, and the balance is so much easier to achieve at lower volumes. If you can get it spankin' at low volumes you've done something.

Plus you save your hearing from fatigue.

Delays, using delays at very low volume. I never reached for them much, now it's one of the first things I set up (2 delays, one might end up 1/4 note and one might end up whole...but yeah typically a short and long) and it can add so much depth to the mix. You just can't make it obvious.

War

[norman_nomad]

1. Mixing at low volumes.
2. Automation.

[studjo]

studying music and knowing/understanding a lot of different styles
a nice set of speakers that work for me
multibuscompression and distortion
room mics and knowing where to **** with em


Jo

[Andreas G]

Knowing how the human ears and brain are working.

[Darius van H]

Originally Posted by Jay Kahrs

Learning how to really listen and understand.

Not much else really matters.

Yes, listening....sounds simple, but it ain't....all those plugins, DAWs, internet forums, phase scopes and FFT displays, magazines etc etc......filling your mind with often spurious informatzioni.....putting that all aside and just listening fresh is hard and took me a long time to learn.

[stevep]

>>>>>>>>> How do you explain the smoke coming from channel 35?

Just calmly pour your beer on it .............??

[u b k]

Originally Posted by rewt_

preferring unique recordings to perfect ones

that's one of the best things i've read on this site to date. and i needed to hear it more than i knew.

thank you.


gregoire
del ubik

[not_so_new]

What was the most important technique/trick that put our mixes to the next level?

No one trick here, lots of little things over the years tend to add up. The ones that come to mind are in two categories.

1) Mental non-physical. Actually listening to the song to get a mental picture in my head of what I think the song is looking for, where it is going and what I think the client is after. Also trying to keep my personal preferences out of the picture (for instance I don't like reverb but some clients do so I need to find a way to use reverb in the mix in a tasteful way). Lastly knowing when the mix is finished as well, too much can be too much.

2) Physical stuff. Learning to not use the solo button much. Parallel compression. The best monitoring chain I can get. Monitor at lower levels and take the mix down to almost nothing every now and again to get a new feel for it.

[GYMusic]

"What was the most important technique/trick that put our mixes to the next level?"

Quit talkin' about it and go do it.

[Mr Edit]

Reductive Eq

[GRiFF]

My contribution...there are no rules to eqing!

Sometimes you want to aim for naturalistic super fidelity with little if no eq or compression, and other times you want to cut huge amounts of tone from a great sound until its crusty as hell.
Whats hard to understand is all the conflicting opinions about this, some people would have you believe that an EQ is evil incarnate. Its not that you should see EQ as a must do, but as something to try if your mix is cluttered or else a part is in need of a sonic lift.
I always got confused with advice in books and on Gearslutz, a huge, sparkly, jangly acoustic guitar may not always be what your after, although relatively easy to create if you do it text book. Far harder is finding the right tone for your particular mix - thats the art right?

[JP11]

Originally Posted by GRiFF

I always got confused with advice in books and on Gearslutz

thats the art right?

I think maybe the reason for this sort of confusion (and I know what you mean) is that these questions are kind of general, and those books are kind of general.

There's a difference, I think, between someone looking for advice who is trying to move from "demo" level to "pro" level, and someone else who is at the sonic level they want to be, but now want to work on being more artistic or creative.

My feeling is, learning how to record and mix is no different than learning anything else, like learning carpentry or something. There's not really a lot of voodoo involved (not nearly as much as there is, or should be, in creating the actual music).

Of course, that doesn't mean there is no voodoo at all, or that some people aren't better at it or more creative than others...but I'm not sure you can really learn that, although I suppose it's worth a try...

[ZEUSS]

Anyone get weird phasey artifacts when doing parallel compression with Vocals?

[Watersound]

Using reflections creatively makes a huge difference. I also like to print all of my effects onto separate tracks...it really gives you a ton of flexibility and you can dial in just the right amount and save it there. Even if you like the source to sound dry, you can very sparingly add some reflections to make it sound so much more defined. Oh the biggest one though was getting that damn computer out of the control room. My control room is SILENT now and man the mixes are improving noticeably!

[joho]

1)to me the biggest improvement was when I started using linear phase eq for hi pass and low pass etc. - everything got "cleaned" and the separation is awesome compared to the best non linear eq's - they still had part of the sound in the way of something else... working together with phasy eq's to get any sound you want from a source

2)compressors for the sound, not for compression (or tiny amounts of compression) keeping on looking for the right one (most of the time i hear the sound i want, but don't keep looking...wrong)

3)tracking lead vocals while riding a fader BEFORE the compressor, not allowing much gain reduction differences in the verse & chorus - awesome way of keeping the dynamics when the vocal gets loud

[opentune]

Don´t press the solo button unless you have to investigate
for a noise or something!!

My mixes improved a little after i broke with that habit.

[chriscoleman]

Like another before me said: many levels to go, but...

The most recent mixing upgrade came from going on a forced monitor quest. I was pretty comfy with Mackie 824's (6 or 7 years on them, stuff translated okay, etc.) BUT, I wanted to check the market to see what was out there.

I tried passive Dynaudio BM15's with a Hafler 9505, NS10's, Truth Audio TA-1P's, and finally some JBL LSR6328p's. The JBL's are staying for the time being - but the musical-chairs-monitor-experience opened my ears up to the fact that I can get mixes done on pretty much anything. All mixes done on all the monitors translated very well.

Now, my setup is:
- JBL LSR6328p's
- cheap-o sub
- cheap-o boombox from Memorex that looks like a member of the iPod family (sum to mono, send a mix to this puppy, get your mix roughed out and you're 95% there)

[Bodoc]

All good stuff--

One little trick that has worked for me is to play the mix for other people (not involved in the project) that I respect. It is like aural MSG--I seem to hear and taste what works and what doesn't just by putting the mix in the hotseat.

For a little less pressure-- wait a few days, get your mind altered(not numbed)--and then LISTEN--not on your monitors, but on a good stereo in a good, calm listening room.

Take notes on what works and what doesn't (if you can remember how to use a pencil....)

[Glenn Kuras]

That you can not polish a turd.. Well you can compress or run it through some sound thingeee but man it really is still just a turd..
Also if you have a room you can trust to give you the right feedback about the mix your life becomes very easy.

[Shan]

What was the most important technique/trick that put our mixes to the next level?

I have quite a few. Mostly a bunch of little things that when added up, put the mix to the next level for me.

As mentioned by many, parallel compression is one, but also parallel processing and mults.

Refraining from using EQ, compression or anything else etc on a track that needs nothing at all. Just push that track to the level it needs to be and thats it, dont touch it.

Not being afraid to use what may seem like drastic EQ settings. Some of my EQ settings just 'look' so wrong but 'sound' so right in the mix. Whatever it takes.

Placement of instruments in a front to back perspective with verbs, delays,EQ and volume level etc. This has done wonders for me with the 'cluttered' part of tracks I get inwhich muting stuff is not an option because of the artists or producers request.

Shane

[figur8]

First it was learning how to do real good tracking. the next important thing was to learn the use of good sound replacement on drums to fix up real bad drummers where evemn the good tracking could not help me. The last thing was mixing a big part of the time in mono. I love it.

[PRobb]

1- monitor softer and do level passes in mono

2- roll off EQ, especially in the lower mids

3- a lot less time in solo. Make it work in context.

[dokushoka]

Man, buss compression is great, but its not the only road to a great sounding mix. Its a "sound," and, IMHO, isn't always appropriate. If I'm mixing rock, they yeah, I get a nice drum sub going, but a lot of times, more subtle compression as an insert can lead to a beautiful, open sounding mix.

I think the single most important thing you can do to "take your mixes to the next level" is just to approach each and every song with humility, but, to also do everything you can think of to make the song shine. Sometimes that means doing almost nothing, others it can be doing hundreds of crazy edits, or, maybe it means washing everything is lush effects.

Have fun with! Music is not a sport =p

[i51423]

Wow! Neat thread. Just to clarify.. parallel compression would be something like duplicating a track in cubase, compressing it, then mixing it at a lower volume than the original track, right? If so.. how much compression is usually being used for something like this?

For distortion.. you mean literally distorting the track.. right? Then mix that to taste.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent verb at a low cost/free? I've been using the Classic Series one, but I'd really like to try a new flavor.

Thank you. I'd really like to figure out how to make the step up from crap to decent recordings.

[Mike Caffrey]

Originally Posted by frist44

Mike,
what kind of distortion are you referring to? Mix buss? or parallel bus distortion....

Brandon

Well it varies. Mostly in tracking, but in mixing on drum room mics. I just did a mix the other day and had a Culture Vulture on an aux send. Just mono with a mono return and I sent a bunhc of things to it. Some a little some a lot and somethings that were hard panned that got sent and returned up the center.

I track with a good amount of distortion and often have to add it when I'm mixing tracks that other people have recorded. I like bringing out some white noise on a snare. I've distorted reverb sends and returns. Vocals - usually in the cliched ways.

[GRiFF]

Originally Posted by Shan

As mentioned by many, parallel compression is one, but also parallel processing and mults.

Shane

Hi Shane, could you explain what parallel compression is. I understand mults to basically be compression on different elements of a single sound source, ie 3 tracks of bass guitar eq'd differently to strengthen different tones?
I'm after a simple, practical example if anyones got one

cheers

[TeReKeTe]

most important technique? making bad mixes in the past and having a friend w/ good ears pull no punches and really show me the details of what was wrong w/ em.

also:

--yet another vote for parallel compression. Processing things in larger chunks, in general: really making instruments react to each other via bussed dynamic control, mults, and eq.

--realizing that turning it DOWN is becoming the answer more often than turning it up. mixing to a lower level ITB and recording tracks @ lower levels (and using less FX) has made everything come alive more.

--bypassing cubase's internal eqs and either using waves plugs, or bussing as much out to my metric halo DSP box as i can. good plugs make a big difference.

--making bigger decisions about sound/scope/emotional impact earlier on and RECORDING it. synth sound is right w/ -26db of compression on it? record it and don't look back. build the track around that.

--in general, at least on acoustic sources, making dynamic control/fx work less.

--less 'verb, more (and more kinds of) delay. and mixed lower.

[spherop]

In order of importance:

1. Importing 1 or more reference mixes that i think are the shizzlenit onto stereo tracks in the mix I am working on. Mute them. Then solo them to a/b compare to my mix as I go. It is critical that the ref mixes are going through the same converters as your mix and not just out from a CD player. Once I started doing this I really could hone in on how I needed to work towards improving the sound of each mix aspect (bass, mids, highs, reverbs, etc). Ie., what does that favorite bass sound really sound like - not just from what's in one's memory.

2. Installing some good acoustic treatment in my home setup and investing in some decent monitors (dyn bm6as). Point 1 would not really be possible without hearing good clean low end, highs, and a rich overall accurate sound.

3. For Production - starting with high quality sounds. Hell yes, it's very hard to polish turds. And i have spent a lot of time doing it. I recognized in many cases there would be no way to accomplish point 1, simply due to the fact that the individual elements of my production were not even within range to sound like my favorite productions. So since that realization, I have gone about upgrading every aspect of my recording process to get the highest quality tones recorded from the get go. Now, my productions sound 75-90% mixed before the mix begins. When this happens I am are able to mix creatively - not medically if you know what I mean.