What can I do during mixing?

[athrun200]

I have just learnt some of the stages of recording: 1. Tracking, 2. Mixing and 3. Mastering
I am now trying to do mixing but I have no idea what to do. I added the reverb effect, and then turned the EQ such that some of the high frequency are filtered out(The high frequency would produce an irritating harmonica sound, that's why I want to filter it out) and used a compressor. What else can I do?

I have several questions now.
1. Would the sequence of added effects affects the result. For example, if I add reverb before EQ, would the result be the same if I do EQ before reverb?
2. How to use compressor? I just used the default setting. And after adding compressor, there is a red line on the track, anyone knows what does that mean?
3. After adding the compressor, it seems the volume of the track is increased a little bit, shouldn't it be reduced to minimize the volume difference?

The mp3 recording is just some random stuffs played by me to test out my newly bought SM58 and scarlett 2i2.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Putting effects on one track isn't really mixing, it's just putting effects on a track. Mixing is combining/balancing multiple tracks.

What else can you do? Anything you want. The question is, what does it actually need? You used your ears and made a choice about the eq, so do the same with compression. Does it need compression? If so, put it on. How much? What kind? Those decisions are up to you to make, based on what you hear.

The sequence of reverb and eq isn't that important, but where you put compression in the chain will make a big difference in the outcome.

You use compression to address dynamics, slow or fast changes in volume. The odds against the default setting being good for a given purpose are astronomical. How you set a compressor depends entirely on the signal in question and your goals. Additionally, compressors often have some tonal effect that some people care about more than the effect on the dynamics.

The volume is louder after compressing because you have make-up gain enabled. The compressor lowers the level of the loud parts (above the threshold) relative to the quiet parts. Then make-up gain brings the highest peak up to 0dBFS, which makes it generally sound louder. I don't use make-up gain on tracks during mixing.

By the way, Audacity is a cool program for editing audio files, but it sucks as a mixing tool. Try a proper DAW.

 

[athrun200]

Thanks for the explanation. It seems I still have a lot to learn.

 

[david42]

Here's some areas you need to look at on individual tracks (Boulder is right about that) to help you get started:

Individual tracks will compete with each other. Unless you take steps to separate them somehow, you'll most likely have a poor mix.

But since you didn't have much foreknowledge of what you need to do, you probably have tracking issues as well., i.e., recording the tracks. That however is not the question you asked, so I will help with your mixing question.

1. EQ. Use Eq to assign frequency emphasis to different tracks, usually emphasizing the natural frequency ranges of the instruments. The more instruments you have, the less effective this is because of increased competition. EQing your tracks solo is useless--the goal here is not to make each one sound good independently but to get them all sounding good together. Start with a vocal and make it sound good--then keep adding until something starts detracting from the vocal. If doing an instrumental, trade the lead instrument for the vocals' place.

2. Panning. Especially when two instruments should have the same frequency range, you can pan them differently and thus make them more distinct. Panning also helps create an aural illusion of depth and spaciousness. Drums and Vocals are typically centered, perhaps bass as well, but this is probably most important for vocals/ But it's not always true--sometimes especially where there are two vocals--melody in the lead and counter melody in backing vocals--and a lot of it--they get panned differently.

3 Reverb. Further increases the illusion of depth and spaciousness. More reverb makes an instrument sound further away. Less, closer. Usually an engineer wants the drums sounding further away and the vocals up close and personal. Too much reverb sucks bad, though.


4 volume. Can't hear it? Turn it up. Not so much it overrides other instruments though. And keep in mind EQing also represents volume changes--cuts will lower volume, boosts will increase it. Some say only make EQ cuts and not boosts, which may be helpful in avoiding loss of headroom, but an EQ boost followed by reduction in volume is essentially the same thing, as is a cut followed by increased volume. Following the "no boost, just cut" philosophy is the safer though, probably. Boosting the highs is the same as cutting the lows (mirror image boosts and cuts that is) if appropriate volume adjustments are made.

I know I'm forgetting another important area here, but I just woke up.

The SM-57 is a much better mic for recording instruments, BTW.