Mixing/ Mastering

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Phiend

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First of all, whats the difference between Mixing and Mastering? Ive heard different things each time someone tells me.

Recent work:
youtube . com/watch?v=kQQCMGnhzzg

I wanna know how i can make the quality of my vocals sounding better, with better Mixing/Mastering.
I currently have a MXL 990 USB Powered Condenser Microphone, and using Sony Acid Pro 7 to Record.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?
 
Wow, the amount of questions that this forums gets on this topic is unbelievable.

On the difference between mixing and mastering:

Mixing is the art of balancing any number of tracks, usually in a multi track environment (or in the case of live, a multi-channel environment), and often (but not always) using processing steps and effects to achieve an artistic mix. However, mixing is often viewed as the "cure-all" step that I find people put way to much faith into. In the case of a vocal recording, production starts in tracking. I personally view this as the most important stage of the recording process. A good vocal recording starts with the performance, then the mic, then the placement. Gear has little to do with it but enough to make a big difference when you choose the right ones. That, I'm afraid, comes with experience.

Mastering is the art and science of preparing a mix, whether mono, stereo, surround or otherwise, for duplication. It is not the process of "making it louder" although it can often improve the final sound of a recording and make things more cohesive and "like a record". It often (but not always) involves processing like EQ, compression, etc and sometimes exotic, lesser known processing that many mix engineers have never heard of. Mastering engineers are creative because they are limited by the medium of the mix in what they can manipulate. It is a dark art and those that can do it well are few.

Cheers :)
 
Thanks for the clarification!
Now can you help me with the second part of my question?
 
Phiend said:
Thanks for the clarification!
Now can you help me with the second part of my question?
Click to expand...

Is there any particular reason the vox are all panned hard left through the entire song?
 
tbh, i have no idea why it does that, but i always get people telling me that lol.
What do i need to do to fix it?
 
If you want to save the performances, I would assume you should be able to export the track as a mono file, then import it back on a mono track. I am not familiar with Acid so cant give any details there.
 
how long is it supposed to render? I opened the acid file and im rendering it as a mono track, but it says its gonna take 24hrs+ to save! Is this correct?
 
Phiend said:
how long is it supposed to render? I opened the acid file and im rendering it as a mono track, but it says its gonna take 24hrs+ to save! Is this correct?
Click to expand...

That is not right. I do not know enough about your DAW to help much. I can say that there is a problem there tho.

Somebody help!!!
 
mixing = e.g. 20-100 tracks
mastering = one stereo track (excluding stem-mixing)
 
it seems to me you are at the stage of audio production, where you shouldn't bother really about mixing and/or mastering,
focus on recording/production first,
remember- mixing and mastering are just extra stages to polish your music,
but if there's no music in first place ....then
if you record great song, with 3 guitar chords - whatever you mix and master it with is irrelevant,
music is art, be an artist make a great music:)!
 
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