General Mixing / Mixdown Question

Salabim

Salabim

New member
I've done the odd spot of recording and i want to get it half decent. i know what sounds good but it is a matter of getting there. I can get an ok mix going, but i cant manage to get close enough to the mix i had in mind...

i am basically mixing a standard rock 3-peice band (guitar, bass, drums and voicals).

there are just a few things that i dont really know. like what should be the main driving force behind the music, how far should the vocals stick out, what should be panned off to the lest or the right etc...

is anyone able to perhaps give me some pointers in the right direction???
 
One of the nice things about 3 piece is that each sound has more room to be heard.There's a variety of styles in mixing this formation,I'd suggest listening critically to the band playing live and try to get a sense of what seems to stand out naturally to you,and try to put the accent on those things when you mix.The drums can be panned to either reflect the way the drummer hears them,or the way the audience hears them.In either case,it;s probably a good idea to keep the main elements of the kit in the center(snare and kick).THe hi hat could go slightly to the left,and if you use overhead mics you should get a nice stereo spread of the cymbals and the toms.Bass guitar also in the center,and guitar slightly to the right.If the guy uses fx,you could spread those out a little to the other side to get a bigger sound.The voice usually goes dead center and in most styles of music is mixed slightly louder than anything else in the mix,although this is down to the individual situation.I would also recommend checking how it sounds in mono because music still does get listened to in mono and you want it to sound good both ways if possible.There is a lot of good information available in other threads on this site,you can do a search for specific things.Cheers!
 
The answer is: Whatever you feel like!! ;)
Virtual.rays answer covers it, but don't be afraid to experiment and do totally whacky things either.

A 3-piece that sounds good live will be pretty easy to record if you have good mics.
One of the first recordings I ever did on a 4-track porta was a 3-piece, and it sounded pretty good!

As for the vocals: They should always be louder than you think. :)
 
I'd agree to a certain extent with "do whatever sounds good" but there's a caveat to that--there'a a number of things that wouldn't make sense. For instance, you probably would't want to pan everything to mono, pan the entire mix left or right, pan the bass off centre, eq the entire mix so it fills the midrange with no bass or treble...what I'm getting at is, it helps to have some clue as to how mixing is generally done. Once there's some foundation of knowledge and experience, that's a better place from which to start experimenting. I wouldn't generally give a newbie the advice to do whatever sounds good. It takes awhile to learn what sounds good, why it sounds good, and how you get to that sound in the first place.
 
Listen to a lot of reference material you like that is similar to your style through your monitoring system. Comapare that to your mixes side-by-side. Determine as best you can exactly what it is that's keeping your stuff from sounding like "what the big boys" do. Monitor at reasonable and even low volumes to avoid fooling yourself into believing there is more "energy" in the mix than there really is. Given 2 mixes, one slightly louder, a LOT of people think the louder mix sounds "better". If you get it sounding good at a low volume, it can really kick ass loud. Check the mix loud, but don't do so for very long. You ears will tend to stop hearing the high end when they get fatigued, and that can be disasterous to the mix. Post in the mixing clinic if you get stuck.
 
YO sALAbim/saladim/salad with olive oil and vinegar:

Man, what you are talking about is MIXING DOWN THE FINAL CUT. That takes mucho practicissimo. I just spent 2 hours in my studio mixing down a 3 minute cut I did with one of my Canary-clients. To get the vocals up front, you might try recording the vocals on two tracks for more OOMMPH. Also, it's a very critical move with the faders as you put in the music track: bass, {how much ompph?] How high? How low with the EQ? How much pan to dampen the band? Man, you need to experiment and read this site and read this site and read this site and ask the advanced guys specific questions that center on one point of recording rather than a very general queery that could entail a long lixiviated editorial.

Green Hornet
 
thanks for the advice everyone! much needed and much apreciated...

thanks Regebro for the tip on the vocals being louder than you think - very valuable
 
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