New to mixing/mastering

[whatwhat]

Hi everyone. Well...I'm new to the whole mixing and mastering thing. I'm recording my band which is primarily hard rock (think Linkin Park) I plan on using WAVES GOLD and my main question is the order in which you mix and master things. ie...should i mix everything down first, and then use the plugins in WAVES GOLD. Like everyone else, I want my recording to sound very full. If you wanna post on your own step by step process of mixing and mastering rock music, that'd help a lot! Thanks EVERYONE!

[jake-owa]

Tracking is the most important phase. Mixing is next and should be easy if you tracked right. By easy I mean a day or two to mix at most. the mastering I would forget about until you've got the mixing part down. Too often home recorders try to fix bad tracking with magical mixing. That's backwards...record it right and the magic will add to the song not make it passable. The mastering is another extension of this home recorder's dillema. When the mix ends up sounding pale the natural instinct is to try to beef it up in the mastering. that's two wrong steps. Your best outboard peice of gear is the microphone...put it in the right spot. Spend the time there and avoid the cheap sounding fixes.

My mixing style is tracking...my mastering style is mixing.

I "master" just for my listening pleasure. A tinsy bit of eq and a bit of boost by compression and I'm good.

[whatwhat]

Hey...Thanks a lot man. That sorta helps. I know there are people out there who usually have their normal steps after tracking..w/ their mixing and mastering...so if anyone else out there wants to help me out by posting...feel free!!!

[Shailat]

First of all Jake gave you solid advice. I would add to the basics, the "musical arrangment" of your song. If the arrangment sits your more then half way there. Making sure the guitars play in the right register at the right time and so on will make it all fall into place and leave you with less work during mixing.

There are different mixing styles and every one has his way but
a basic starting point for a newbie at mixing would be to try and get the Kit - Bass - and vocals to lock together correctly. If you can get done properly and there is punch and it holds the lead vocals while balanced properly, then your on your way. It's way more complicated then that, but work on those three for a starter then
fill in the rest slowly making sure there are no conflicts.

You got a long way to go bud.

[mixmkr]

Not that I would disagree, but wouldn't arranging really NOT fall in the roles of the mixing and/or mastering engineer? Granted if the tracking engineer is playing producer as well...sure... But it seems changing parts at the last moment for the musicians would not the best time to do so. Preferably before you hear a "playback" would be the time. However...home studio time is usually priced right!!!

I only bring this up because the question seemed to be about the recording/mastering and not the writing/production aspect of creating a recorded song.

I agree...jakeowa summed it up well.

[Shailat]

Originally posted by mixmkr
Not that I would disagree, but wouldn't arranging really NOT fall in the roles of the mixing and/or mastering engineer? Granted if the tracking engineer is playing producer as well...sure... But it seems changing parts at the last moment for the musicians would not the best time to do so. Preferably before you hear a "playback" would be the time. However...home studio time is usually priced right!!!

I only bring this up because the question seemed to be about the recording/mastering and not the writing/production aspect of creating a recorded song.

I agree...jakeowa summed it up well.

For sure it's under the role of the musician. What I was saying is that if the musician works out the arrangment properly and like in this case were he is in the band and he is also the mixer, his job is half done.

There is only so much a engineer can do to fix a song badly arranged. Conflicting parts alike a guitar and keyboard playing conflicting rhytm parts in the groove itself can't be fixed in the mix no matter how much say... panning you do to seperate them. when the musician brings in a well arranged song, it all falls into place like a puzzle and the mixing is half done by the musician himself as he lays down the tracks. Sometimes you just bring the faders up and it's almost done with a great arrangment.

But there are a few things the engineer can suggest like..."lets mute the second guitar on the first chorus, and let it rip in the last chorus " kind of thing.