Mixed down Badly. Newbie needs help.

I

Ibrow

New member
Hey,

I'm a relative newbie to all this and I finally got around to mixing down a couple of songs. The speakers I monitor with suck, so I know I need to change that. That's not the problem I'm interested in. I am using Vegas and I mixed to one track. I had two songs, mixed them both down and put them on CD. They both sounded just lovely in the studio.

I took the CD to my car, and it was too quiet. Real CD's I listen comfortably at about 14 on my cd player, my mixes I had to listen at 20 to "hear" it. Also, there was way too much bass.

So, how do I avoid a "quiet" mix without clipping? Also, how do I lose some of the bass? My drums are done in Fruityloops, but I record myself playing the bass. I also have soundforge for editing purposes.

Any help is appreciated. :)

Ibrow
 
You need mastering.

No, I'm not trying to "toot my own horn" - You just do. 90% (at least) of mixes out there are considered "too quiet" until they're mastered. Unfortunately, many mastering engineers are going for sheer volume lately, and that doesn't help the cause...

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
yes, generally speaking, you generally need some sort of compression on the mix bus in order to make a cd sound "loud enough". professional mastering is one of the best ways to accomplish that. it's also generally not very cheap, and for rough mixes, stuff to listen to in the car or for gig-getting demos (etc) it may be a bit overkill. if i were looking to have a cd to sell (even just independently at gigs), and were gonna press silvers, then you bet i'd get it mastered. anything worth doing is worth doing right.

in the meantime, i'll "settle" for a cheap mastering compressor plugin on the mix bus. certainly it's nowhere near as good, but don't slam it too hard and you can generally get a dB or two out of it (which is usually just compressing the whack of the snare), and that's generally enough to make most things "not so quiet" sounding, and that's all you usually need. hit most plugin compressors harder than that, and you'll go to crap real fast. so tread lightly and carry not a big stick.


also, overmixing bass is a common symptom in home studios. it's usually due to faulty room acoustics, and in your case, also prolly due to a lacking monitoring chain. my guess is that you don't hear a lot of bass in your monitors from your mix position and you're overcompensating. likewise, i bet that if you were to go to another place in the room, the bass would be overwhelming (or at least significantly more prominent).

how to fix that? first, upgrade your monitors. second treat your room. in addition to that, you can learn your monitors and learn your room. listen to commercial cds you're very familiar with (and you consider well-mixed, or in the genres you normally record/mix) through your monitors. how do they sound? do they sound bass-weak? learn to recognise how much bass is enough from your mix position in that room so that your mixes translate better. it's prolly a lot less bass than you think. and treat your room.


wade
 
Cars stereos are the biggest test of a mix, because they are big bass boosters. Make sure you cut the low end out of any track that doesn't need it, even the extreme lows of the kick and bass, if needed. Unwanted low end will also eat up headroom, adding to your low volume issue. With a crappy monitor system, expect to do alot of trial and error mixes and to make lots of coasters.
 
agreed--i almost always shelve anything below 80-120hz on just about every track (to what degree and freq depends on the track). otherwise, muddy rumbles tend to ensue. also helps to separate the guitars from the bass, too and just about cleans up the entire mix.

maybe get some cdrws if your car can play em, that way you're not wasting so many discs on bad mixes. been there, done that.


wade
 
Ibrow said:
The speakers I monitor with suck, so I know I need to change that. That's not the problem I'm interested in.
Click to expand...
Funny you should say that, because that's exactly the problem you are interested in. Get real monitors. Import several pro albums into Vegas and play them through the real monitors at the same volume level you mix at. Only then will you have an idea of what you are shooting for volume wise and bass level wise.

Even then you will still need mastering to attain "full volume", but you will at least be much closer.
 
Thanks a LOT for the ideas/information fella's! :)

What plug-in would be considered a "cheap mastering compressor" plug-in and how would I use it? Just take the mixed track in Soundforge and hit normalize? :)

I'll look into the 80-120hz cut and see if that cleans it up a bit.

I'll do a search or two, but can you get almost, nearly, usable, half-way decent monitors for $200 per pair? :) What would you suggest? Or is it just sooooo much better to save up and get the
Yorkie's for about twice that?

Any help, always appreciated!

Ibrow
 
i'm using the MAudio SP5B's for monitors. they're great sounding for $200 monitors. nice mids and nice highs, maybe a little strident or harsh, but it could be my room too. not much in way of bass. you can HEAR the bass in all its roundness and tone, but you won't get the thump. of course, whaddya expect out of 5in cones? definitely very translatable once you learn what you're not hearing......but be forewarned that placement is CRUCIAL with those things.

that said, i'm looking to upgrade to something bigger. the 5b's are good for acoustic music, but for rock, they're a little weak in the low end. i'm gonna check into the YSM1's and the BX8's when i get a little more cash, and keep the 5b's as a secondary reference. so yeah, if you can wait and save, save and buy once. i kinda wish i had. at the same time, if i hadn't bought the 5bs a year ago, i'd still be needing monitors......

there's a LOT of "mastering compressor" type plugins out there. do a search for it here and you'll turn up all kinds of varying opinions on what's "usable" and what's not.


and yeah, that HPF should really clean up the low end. so will judicious panning of guitars, etc, but as always YMMV.


cheers,
wade
 
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