To Be Wise I Will Listen To Wise Men, I NEED SOME ADVICE FOR BASIC MIXING.

[Shorn Hertz]

I'm a total noob too Shorn, but I wanted to say I listened to the track and I like it a lot. I agree with what the others have said in that the vocals are a little too "up front", but that's just from a listeners perspective. If you can figure out how to make them blend a little more I think it would really help.

Good luck!

thanks xcali Ive learned to compress the vocals instead of just having them floating in front the beat. what i am trying to do is mix bright vocals. vocals are the main part of a song here... they matter alot. if you have any pointers be free to add

 

[Rafael Morgan]

Thanks Again Raf, definitely checking that out. how about a link to your music bro? i'd love to take a listen and get some perspective from another P.o.v

Man...I'm quite a perfectionist.

At the moment, I've got an album project going on. I'm mostly writing lyrics, making arrangements and studying a lot about the theory behind mixing and mastering.

Hopefully I'll have something decent to show you soon enough, but I can't make any promises.

Right now, I'm mostly at the same level as you are, you know, trying to make things sound right...struggling to get the desired results...However, I've been making a lot of progress, mostly because, like I said, I'm a real nerd and study as much as I can.

Raf.

 

[hellstens]

Leave the mix down track to -6db, match your vocal with that so it blend nice with the music. Save a mix down. load the mix down in your DAW and master it to right leave with a Multipressor and maybe a EQ
I always use Waves L316 when I master, only that If the Mix down is good. It's newer good to master same time you mix, leave it a day, so you start with fresh ears ;-)

Good luck!

Tom.

 

[Groovemaster]

Just had a quick listen:
1. If you use reverb (or delay) on bass frequencies they get washed out, meaning they will loose bass and punch. If you don't want to change your reverb (and I am not suggesting you have to) I suggest you use your reverb filter (don't know the real name), I don't know Cubase or studio one well, but normally there is a possibility to limit the bandwidth of your reverb, just like you can limit it to 12kHz to make it less obvious. In this case I would use the filter to remove the low end of the reverb, meaning there is only reverb on the mids and the highs.
2. Mixing a vocal on a track is not easy (so normally you would start with the vocal in the mix). The problem here is that there is no room for the vocal to fit in. So just make place for the vocal in the backing track. I would start to get the vocal how I would want it to sound, and then remove the most important frequenties of that vocal in the backing track (that would be something between 1,5 and 4 kHz). And you will be surprised how little bass a vocal needs once all is balanced.
3. Reverb: while panning shifts you from left to right, reverb will shift you from front to back (I am quoting Dave Pensado here). Meaning: the more reverb, the further away it sounds. For example: if you keep the vocal dry and the snare wet, the snare will be behind the vocal. Do it the other way round and the vocal will sit behind the snare. Here the vocal is much drier than the music so it sounds disconnected as someone said.
4. Looking at normal meters to guess how loud something is, is silly. The human hearing is much more sensible to the average level than to peak levels. If you want to do that with one compressor, it will have to work too hard. So using multiple busses with each a little compression on them will be more natural (I am not saying better..)

Hope this helps, and if it doesn't help, just ignore it. So many people can tell you what to and how to but you have to find the way for yourself (I am sounding like Buddha now?), everybody hears things different, so what will work for someone else, won't always work for you. Just like learning an instrument.

 

[sparky123]

It's A good song.. playing here at 50%.. Got plenty of volume.... could use some more bottom end. good job and I would go with studio one pro two

 

[Shorn Hertz]

Just had a quick listen:
1. If you use reverb (or delay) on bass frequencies they get washed out, meaning they will loose bass and punch. If you don't want to change your reverb (and I am not suggesting you have to) I suggest you use your reverb filter (don't know the real name), I don't know Cubase or studio one well, but normally there is a possibility to limit the bandwidth of your reverb, just like you can limit it to 12kHz to make it less obvious. In this case I would use the filter to remove the low end of the reverb, meaning there is only reverb on the mids and the highs.
2. Mixing a vocal on a track is not easy (so normally you would start with the vocal in the mix). The problem here is that there is no room for the vocal to fit in. So just make place for the vocal in the backing track. I would start to get the vocal how I would want it to sound, and then remove the most important frequenties of that vocal in the backing track (that would be something between 1,5 and 4 kHz). And you will be surprised how little bass a vocal needs once all is balanced.
3. Reverb: while panning shifts you from left to right, reverb will shift you from front to back (I am quoting Dave Pensado here). Meaning: the more reverb, the further away it sounds. For example: if you keep the vocal dry and the snare wet, the snare will be behind the vocal. Do it the other way round and the vocal will sit behind the snare. Here the vocal is much drier than the music so it sounds disconnected as someone said.
4. Looking at normal meters to guess how loud something is, is silly. The human hearing is much more sensible to the average level than to peak levels. If you want to do that with one compressor, it will have to work too hard. So using multiple busses with each a little compression on them will be more natural (I am not saying better..)

Hope this helps, and if it doesn't help, just ignore it. So many people can tell you what to and how to but you have to find the way for yourself (I am sounding like Buddha now?), everybody hears things different, so what will work for someone else, won't always work for you. Just like learning an instrument.

thanks man! every point taken