A Fail-Safe Method for Mixing

  • Thread starter Thread starter markb287
  • Start date Start date
M

markb287

New member
Hey guys!

I'm new here and just wanted to get your opinions on a question.

If you had to stick to one basic method or procedure for mixing for the rest of your life, what would that method or procedure be?

Obviously, since different mixers will have different approaches to mixing, there are no right or wrong answers here. I'm just very curious as to what you guys think.
 
hard to do that... mixing and tracking have a crazy relationship ... tracking is definitely the dominant in the relationship... what i mean by this is ... you cant have a standard of mixing if you dont have a standard of tracking.

but to try to humor you... some "rules" i follow... drums set the stage... mix to the "stage" annnd aside from that it all depends on what kind of tracks your dealing with. for instance... i would treat a double tracked guitar completely differently than a single tracked guitar. i would treat a DI'd bass completely differently than i would with an mic'd cab

Vocals are situational to the mood of the song and the amount of takes are in it.
 
CMB Studios said:
hard to do that... mixing and tracking have a crazy relationship ... tracking is definitely the dominant in the relationship... what i mean by this is ... you cant have a standard of mixing if you dont have a standard of tracking.
Click to expand...

OK. How about if I word the question like this:

If you had four weeks to train me (a complete beginner) for a mixing competition and you had a million dollars on the line, what would the training look like? What key lessons or principles would you want me to take away from the training?
 
I would say you need way more than 4 weeks to even sniff what the pros do, plus the gear they use.

Everything you need to know is within this websight and others, but to get good is just like any other skill set, experience and hard work, there are no short cuts.
 
Do what is right for the song, would be my advice.

Also subtractive EQ > additive EQ
 
dreib said:
I would say you need way more than 4 weeks to even sniff what the pros do, plus the gear they use.

Everything you need to know is within this websight and others, but to get good is just like any other skill set, experience and hard work, there are no short cuts.
Click to expand...

I'm not asking whether it's possible to become a pro in 4 weeks. I'm asking what would such a hypothetical training look like. Nor have I said anything about shortcuts. It would probably help you in the future if you read the question right.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I would choose free will.
Click to expand...

I would choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.

If you have to be a "competitive" mixer within 4 weeks, then I'd suggest working with songs that have very few tracks.

Mixing a single acoustic with a lone vocal track is a lot easier to do a passable job on than some crazy Phil Spector 40 tracks mix.

Besides that, if your kick snare and vocal are audible, everything else follows from that.

If I were training you for a $million, I'd have you spending 16+ hours a day mixing random stuff. You would go through the entire Mix This forum and mix every song that's been posted. Then I'd have you post solicitations for more tracks to mix on the mp3 clinic. Then I'd Google for random mixing projects that have been posted on other sites. Then at some point, I'd have you throw out every mix you'd done so far and start over from scratch.

You've got to get 10,000 hours worth of mixing done in 4 weeks! Good luck!
 
It's such a wild wide open subject, how about instead we turn it around?
What are the things- points' you think are missing, that you'd need to set you up?
 
Step 1: Spend some time organising your tracks and signal routing just to make life easy for yourself later.

Step 2: Put on your listening ears and go by what sounds good rather that a set of arbitrary rules.

Step 3: Lots of breaks to rest your ears and avoid listener fatigue.

Beyond that, no rules.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I would choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.

If you have to be a "competitive" mixer within 4 weeks, then I'd suggest working with songs that have very few tracks.

Mixing a single acoustic with a lone vocal track is a lot easier to do a passable job on than some crazy Phil Spector 40 tracks mix.

Besides that, if your kick snare and vocal are audible, everything else follows from that.

If I were training you for a $million, I'd have you spending 16+ hours a day mixing random stuff. You would go through the entire Mix This forum and mix every song that's been posted. Then I'd have you post solicitations for more tracks to mix on the mp3 clinic. Then I'd Google for random mixing projects that have been posted on other sites. Then at some point, I'd have you throw out every mix you'd done so far and start over from scratch.

You've got to get 10,000 hours worth of mixing done in 4 weeks! Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thank you! This is sort of the answer I'm looking for. The idea behind the question is not to try to shortcut the process, but to streamline it so that beginning mixers know what is essential to worry about and what's not essential. But obviously the essentials will take a lot of practice. The problem I have with a lot of mixing advice is that it's hard to distinguish between what is essential and what is not essential to the art of mixing.
 
You have no hope. Kill yourself right after you kill me.

You just lost us $1,000,000.

Cheers :)
 
markb287 said:
The idea behind the question is not to try to shortcut the process, but to streamline it so that beginning mixers know what is essential to worry about and what's not essential. But obviously the essentials will take a lot of practice. The problem I have with a lot of mixing advice is that it's hard to distinguish between what is essential and what is not essential to the art of mixing.
Click to expand...

What's essential? Don't clip stuff. Decide what you like and don't like. Make it sound the way you want it to sound. Minutes to learn, years to master.
 
Well thanks for the snotty reply to your stupid question.

It would probably help you in the future if you read the answer to your question.
 
markb287 said:
If you had to stick to one basic method or procedure for mixing for the rest of your life, what would that method or procedure be?
Click to expand...
Mix at low volume and mix in sections. Listen to and get an image of the song, not the tracks that are contained in it.
 
92633703618_p0_v2_s600.webp..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top