1 Wrong move and your mix sounds like crap

[Tibbon]

Hitting the MUTE on the Stereo mix.

Flipping the left channel 100% out of phase with the right channel.

Letting ANY of the musicians decide how loud they should be.

[Jules]

boomy bass & esssing on the vocals - they are my devils...

I am mixing right now...

I hate mixing..

But I do it..

[DontLetMeDrown]

-Accidentally hit a hotkey in Sonar (this is as easy as hitting a single LETTER).

"Why can't I grab any regions? Can't create fades? WTF is going on!?!? Oh shit-- I enetered SCRUB MODE!?!?"

Who the hell uses that anyway?


-Careful with that Waves C4 plug on the master bus. One wrong move and your mix will go from "tha shit" to just "SHIT".

[pingu]

Originally Posted by Jules

boomy bass & esssing on the vocals - they are my devils...

I am mixing right now...

I hate mixing..

But I do it..

That surprises me Jules.

What do you enjoy most?

I find mixing to be the most challenging aspect of audio production.

[i51423]

Originally Posted by Jules

boomy bass & esssing on the vocals - they are my devils...

I am mixing right now...

I hate mixing..

But I do it..

Mixing is alright. I HATE editing. Ugh.

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by DontLetMeDrown

-Accidentally hit a hotkey in Sonar (this is as easy as hitting a single LETTER).

"Why can't I grab any regions? Can't create fades? WTF is going on!?!? Oh shit-- I enetered SCRUB MODE!?!?"

Who the hell uses that anyway?


-Careful with that Waves C4 plug on the master bus. One wrong move and your mix will go from "tha shit" to just "SHIT".

You bet... I freakin' hate single keystroke hotkeys... I have to remember to set my keyboard to NumLock off so that I don't accidentally hit one of the nudge hotkeys... since I have the first nudge value set to 355 samples (to adjust for track misalignment on my rig)... that's only about 8 ms so it's not exactly obvious you've accidentally nudged a track...

I've used CW/Sonar since putting together my first 8 ch PC-based DAW in '96 and I MOSTLY really like Sonar... but THAT little feature (as well as some of the other single-stroke hotkeys) drive me a little nuts.

But -- as I was writing that I thought... well it's kind of stupid for me to bitch about this, since I can easily REASSIGN those damn hotkeys (which I just did, it took 20 seconds or so)...

DontLetMeDrown, go over to Options/Key Bindings and fix your issues.

I feel kind of sheepish that I've complained about that now for a while (and just did again) but only now finally got around to fixing it. Don't be like me. (I just reassigned all the nudge hotkeys to File/Info, which was the first thing I saw that was harmless...)

Think I'll wipe out the hotkey for scrub mode and that weird envelope edit mode, too. Buttons above are fine enough.

Thanks for getting me off my backside on this! My life is better all ready...

[vernier]

How often have you noticed when mixing that it only takes one little mistake to be messing up the clarity of a mix.

Happened alot 'til I got into tubes and analog. Problem gone.

[pingu]

Yeah sure.

Your just convincing yourself the money was well spent.

[lemix]

Originally Posted by pingu

I find mixing to be the most challenging aspect of audio production.

Dead on mate..thumbsup
I've converted my operation to mostly mixing, as I find that the most rewarding, forward moving and respected aspect of the package..
Might just be my age ( I'm 100 years old ) or that I'm a drummer only.
Did many albums in the past but sitting through players never ending quest to hit the right note in tune/in the packet just ain't my cup of tea any longer.
I usually leave that battle to my assistant or the "producer"
Gives me time to take an outsiders perspective, while I enjoy a pint of Guinness, a smoke and a game of pool...

I love mixing...

take care all,

[djwayne]

Here's an analog tape screw up I did about 20 years ago with a cassette machine. I wanted to make some copies of a song I paid good money to have recorded, but the guy only gave me one cassette copy of the master....I had a dual well cassette recorder and put the master and the blank tape in the wrong wells.....you know what happened, I started recording and put a real nice blank spot on my master tape. Right in the middle of the song. It was early in the morning and I wasn't really woke up yet, but I had ruined my one and only master tape.

I figured hey that's okay, I can get another cassette made off of the reel that had the original recording, but couldn't find the reel anywhere.....still haven't found it.

[pingu]

Originally Posted by lemix

Dead on mate..thumbsup
I've converted my operation to mostly mixing, as I find that the most rewarding, forward moving and respected aspect of the package..
Might just be my age ( I'm 100 years old ) or that I'm a drummer only.
Did many albums in the past but sitting through players never ending quest to hit the right note in tune/in the packet just ain't my cup of tea any longer.
I usually leave that battle to my assistant or the "producer"
Gives me time to take an outsiders perspective, while I enjoy a pint of Guinness, a smoke and a game of pool...

I love mixing...

take care all,

Im finding i enjoy mixing the most aswell.




Mike Stavrou says its like playing 8 games of chess at once.

[pingu]

Id like to mix something youve tracked.

[Marjan]

Originally Posted by ArtGarceau

I track with the intention of capturing the final sound so a lot of decisions are made in the beginning. That can be a long and stressful process trying to capture a complete/polished/mixed sound coming in to the board.

Me too.

Originally Posted by pingu

...it only takes one little mistake to be messing up the clarity of a mix

Too much Limiting on Mastering.

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by pingu

What are some of the definite no nos that you've come across when mixing.
Things that steal that precious stereo space.

That one is easy for me..
Mixing in the box[Protools]..Period

[u b k]

finding singular problems in an otherwise tight mix is so easy... the mute button reveals all.

more often, though, when things just don't sound right, it's because i'm not being brave, i'm hedging the muse. everything is too close, too balanced; nothing sounds focused because i haven't *created* the focus, i haven't prioritized the elements and really given the proper push to the tracks that deserve it.

it always astounds me, once i've got a rough mix together, just how far i can push some things and have it sound great. next time you've got a reasonable mix and ten minutes to kill, grab some faders and take them as far as they'll go, why hold back?


gregoire
del
ubk

[meteor]

As I am learning to shape sounds with compression, space, and level... I find that I am using less and less EQ. For me, the overuse of EQ, even if it's slight, can just send my mixes straight into the hole.

cheers,

[joelpatterson]

When you get right down the the real nitty gritty... what I'm trying to do when I mix is hit that perfectly magical combination of everything that triggers some response, deep in my brain, that goes... "Yeah! Cool! Don't change a thing! That's awesome!"

What exactly this is... some latent tribal memory? Who knows.

All I know is, until I get there, the whole thing is just aggravating and maddening, and makes me feel like a worthless failure. And then, I hit pay dirt, and I feel okay.

[Jose Mrochek]

With my little mixing experience I would say that knowing where to place vocals is the hardest/most important part.

[DontLetMeDrown]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

...All I know is, until I get there, the whole thing is just aggravating and maddening, and makes me feel like a worthless failure. And then, I hit pay dirt, and I feel okay.

This one kinda hit home. I thought I was the only one with the pessimistic monkey on my back. The entire band will be saying, "Yeah dude, it sounds great!" and I'm thinking: "I need to hurry up and get this listenable."

[djui5]

One of the worst offenders I've noticed is overcompressing, especially the stereo buss. Also, panning the wrong instrument hard left/right can kill a mix.

Piling up verbs/fx on the hard left/rights can do major damage, quickly.

[taturana]

i actually enjoy tracking a lot... being with the musicians... making music or watching it being made... but when it comes to mixing, i consider it the harder part of the job... it's lonely (i mix alone) and very very boring... once it's done, though (and it may take hours, days, weeks or months) i actually get to the point i enjoy the most... listening to the finished product... after all critical work has been done,that's the real fun part !

[bogeyeater]

well, the really chewy torturous teeth-pulling bit for me is SONGWRITING.

before that little f1uck is hitting the buttons you might as well put all the studio wizardry into cold storage.

i'm not saying that you shouldn't lay some stuff, sit back, tweak it, etc. i've had great results working like that.

all of us, it's a mountain we're climbing. i get to the foothills with loads of ideas. i get to base camp with a few less. camp one trims off a few more, then it's camp by camp, all the way up to the summit.

i get a great endorphin rush at that moment. a tune in the bag! i go out, celebrate, woohoo! awesome feeling of satisfaction - nothing like it!

then after 48 hours i get the slump. back to base camp again...

[Mark Warren]

OR how about "One wrong move and your mix sounds great?!"

There's also many times that accidentally doing something yeilds an idea that you haven't thought of or a tonal variation you may never have explored hadn't you screwed up.

So mixing nerdy anal perfect isn't always the best option.

[bogeyeater]

yes! never ignore a fortuitous accident

[taturana]

that would be a great thread...

sometimes accidents can sound good.... most of the times though...

[six_wax]

yeah, there's that 30 seconds where it's totally in focus ("must... remember... to... save...")...

then the one tweak you think will make it perfect totally kills it...

then you chase your tail for another hour and a half and settle for something that doesn't sound as good as that moment...

[Cujo]

boomy bass seems to be my problem.
Jules, do you like to pull out frequencies on Bass Guitar when mixing?
If so, what and how much...I realize it is all dependant on the source..but do you have favorite areas to notch back?

Originally Posted by Jules

boomy bass & esssing on the vocals - they are my devils...

I am mixing right now...

I hate mixing..

But I do it..

[Reptil]

LOL this is exactly what happens with building a patch on a modular synthesizer. Even more than while mixing.
better, better, even better, *twist* oops gone forever...

it keeps one sharp, and I love it

[stevep]

Originally Posted by RoundBadge

That one is easy for me..
Mixing in the box[Protools]..Period

Nice !

.