10 Tips to Improve Your Mixing Skills

[famous beagle]

There are many top mix engineers that use high quality speakers for all their mix decisions.

I'm wondering if you could provide some quotes or names to demonstrate this. I'm not saying I don't believe you at all, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone disparage the idea of using multiple sets of speakers (good and bad), so I'm curious to hear who does.

Thanks

 

[miroslav]

I was referring to the use of crappy VS quality speakers for mixing...

While you may see 2-3 sets of speakers on a console meter bridge...it doesn't mean people *mix* on all of them.
They often mix on their main/quality monitors, and just use the others for a "check"...not any different than you taking a mix out to your car for a check...but you don't sit in your car and *mix*, because then what's the point of having a studio with proper room acoustics and all that stuff.

And no...I'm not going "name drop" to try and prove a point.
You can read what studios/engineers use in a half-dozen or more audio rags out there....

 

[famous beagle]

While you may see 2-3 sets of speakers on a console meter bridge...it doesn't mean people *mix* on all of them.

I know that, and that's what I used to think. But I've actually been very surprised lately to hear how many world-class engineers actually spend the majority of their time listening to the cheaper speakers when mixing! Aside from Chris Lord, I read that Quincy Jones mixed Thriller predominantly (like 80%) on Auratone 5Cs. I've heard more people say that the bigger, nicer speakers are really mostly used for impressing the artists or record companies.

I'm not saying that it's better to mix on crappy speakers; I'm just saying I'm surprised to hear/read how many (famous) engineers actually use them a majority of the time.

 

[Greg_L]

And no...I'm not going "name drop" to try and prove a point.

That's how these goofballs operate. You need to apply a name to a thought or it doesn't count to these idol worshipers.

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

Wow!

Glad to see this thread is stirring up some controversy. It's interesting to see everyone's opinion with respect to the speaker issue. In the day of Ipod and MP3 it almost seems like monitoring through quality speakers is a waste anyway, but I digress. One thing I noticed while riding the subway here in L.A., is that I saw so many people listening to music on 99 cent earbuds, which got me to thinking. "Maybe I should have a pair of those lying around the studio" As I monitor my mix on my various systems, I will now actually do some minor tweaks while listening through the earbuds. The first rule of marketing is "Know your target audience". If my target audience is listening through earbuds, I'd better make sure they sound good through them... Keep it up guys, good stuff...

That's fair enough.
But my target audience is me and I listen to things on my only set of headphones so fuck everybody.

 

[Greg_L]

fuck everybody.

That's the spirit. Fuck all of these suckass fucking fuckers.

 

[RAMI]

Koom-By-Ah motherfuckers!

 

[Greg_L]

There's a bunch of fake motherfuckers around here that don't back up their mouths with results. Fuck these frauds.

 

[RAMI]

Hehe...Fuck Greg, I wish you lived in Montreal. We'd be best friends, even though we'd probably take turns kicking the shit out of each other every second day.

 

[Greg_L]

Hehe...Fuck Greg, I wish you lived in Montreal. We'd be best friends, even though we'd probably take turns kicking the shit out of each other every second day.

Ha, that'd be cool.

It'd be better than wading through the endless shit that gets posted in here by the frauds.

 

[RAMI]

Ha, that'd be cool.

It'd be better than wading through the endless shit that gets posted in here by the frauds.

You'd get to play with all this:

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

No need to post your sex dungeon on HR, RAMI!

 

[RAMI]

Holy crap!!!!!!!

Every time I post pictures here, they get bigger than the last time!!!!!!!!!

I didn't mean to take up half the internet. If a mod can re-size those, or just delete them altogether, that would be cool.

 

[RFR]

How is it even possible for you to be able to record such good music, yet take such shitty pics???

 

[Greg_L]

Rami, bromigo, get a better camera!

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

Btw. do you have 20kg plates or 45 pounds?
I was absolutely butt-devastated when I found out that a European "plate" is less than a North American "plate" (44 pounds to 45)

 

[Steenamaroo]

How is it even possible for you to be able to record such good music, yet take such shitty pics???

Rami, bromigo, get a better camera!

Unreal! lol.

 

[RAMI]

How is it even possible for you to be able to record such good music, yet take such shitty pics???

Rami, bromigo, get a better camera!

HAHAHA! It's a good camera, but it doesn't focus.....or something. No, it's actually a pretty good camera, but I can't take a good picture with it. Never had that problem with my old camera. I think this one is a right-handed camera.

 

[RAMI]

If you do Ctrl and the - key, enough times, those pictures end up looking pretty good, actually.

 

[RAMI]

Btw. do you have 20kg plates or 45 pounds?
I was absolutely butt-devastated when I found out that a European "plate" is less than a North American "plate" (44 pounds to 45)

That's true, I can't remember what it says on a plate in kilos, but it's 20.something. I don't have either at my place. They're not Olympic weights. They're in pounds, and the biggest ones are 25 pounds. I just use more of them. Makes it look heavier.