Balance in the mix

[bouldersoundguy]

I listened to a few of your Bigfoot mixes....they sound very clean and well balanced.
Maybe it's the dinky computer speakers I'm listening on at the moment, but it also sounds like you generally place a good deal of your mix elements more in the center of the mix....yes?

I try to distribute elements across the whole width rather than do a lot of wide panning. What you heard probably had wide drums and the rest panned within that space.

If something is taking up a lot of space at the extremes I pan other stuff more moderately. I also try to distribute things according to their dominant frequency ranges, more to give it some spatial movement and balance than to keep things from clashing.

[kip4]

I'm not getting into the whole write and wrong way of doing it thing but I tend to pan before setting the levels for the simple that sometimes panning after can drop the levels and i have to go back and double up on any automation and reset the levels. Which quiet frankly is a pain in my harris.

I take on board both opinions and respect your knowledge and experiance and hope to grow and learn from it.
Masking has been a problem for me in the past I'm slowly learning to try and get the tones right at source rather than applying heavy EQ after tracking as i used to.
I liked the suggestion in point 4 Bobby made.

My recording have improved over the years partly due to the fact that my ears have improved not physically sadly but in terms of bieng able to objectively listen out for potential problem areas.
I hope this continues to impove as one day i hope to succesfully mix and master my own tracks and achieve a level of competance i can live with and hopefully others wont find too unpleasant.
thanks for all the replys and feel free to add more.
by the way I am seriously impressed that Bobby came back. Its probably time i bought his book on mixing.

[bouldersoundguy]

I'm not getting into the whole write and wrong way of doing it thing but I tend to pan before setting the levels for the simple that sometimes panning after can drop the levels and i have to go back and double up on any automation and reset the levels. Which quiet frankly is a pain in my harris.

There is no right or wrong order for setting levels, eq and panning. You have to find what works for you.

by the way I am seriously impressed that Bobby came back. Its probably time i bought his book on mixing.

I highly recommend it. It has very much influenced the way I work and how I think about mixing. One of the coolest things is the collection of different, even contradicting, ideas from different mix engineers. It goes to show that there isn't ONE RIGHT WAY to get the job done.

[kip4]

When i'm done reading Mike Senior (SOS) mixing secrets for small studios. Bobbys book is next on my list.
thanks for the recommendation.
Rich

[miroslav]

There is no right or wrong order for setting levels, eq and panning. You have to find what works for you.


One of the coolest things is the collection of different, even contradicting, ideas from different mix engineers. It goes to show that there isn't ONE RIGHT WAY to get the job done.

Absolutely.
Five people can approach the same mix 5 different ways and all five can sound good and yet different.

I chuckle sometimes at how nuts some folks get about how their mixes sound in their cars...but if you sit there and listen to a dozen tunes off the radio...THEY ALL SOUND DIFFERENT!

I find mixes that I really like by other people...but then when I mix, I don't do what they are doing, as I have my own preferences....so it's all good.
There's a huge difference between comparing good and obviously bad mixes....and ones that are all good but they just don't sound the same....they don't follow the same approach.

[chuckduffy]

I chuckle sometimes at how nuts some folks get about how their mixes sound in their cars...but if you sit there and listen to a dozen tunes off the radio...THEY ALL SOUND DIFFERENT!

Yep - And also - all cars are different, unless they are the same :-)

[kip4]

Yep - And also - all cars are different, unless they are the same :-)

This is also true
I will say though the car on my way to work for me is where i play a lot of my cd. so i kind of know what to expect from commercial offering in my car. Its always a bit bassy in my car compared to home stereo and even more so than my monitors.
So as a referance point i trust my car stereo because my ears have become accustommed to it.
If there are any mixing or mastering things that really stand out on the car stereo I always revisit the mix.

[chuckduffy]

This is also true
I will say though the car on my way to work for me is where i play a lot of my cd. so i kind of know what to expect from commercial offering in my car. Its always a bit bassy in my car compared to home stereo and even more so than my monitors.
So as a referance point i trust my car stereo because my ears have become accustommed to it.
If there are any mixing or mastering things that really stand out on the car stereo I always revisit the mix.

Oh yeah - tell me about it. I bought a new car in Jan. I had the previous one for 8 years. It was my goto spot for checking mixes, and I'm devastated now as I was so used to it....