Adding To The Mix - Huh?

[etanercept]

Just an observation on my part. I hope this should'nt be in the newbie (I am) section (If so I apoligize, and someone can berate me). I play rock/blues styles. I like to start my mixes with the drums panned at 50% R and L (I mix them all down to 2 tracks). I then slip in the bass untill it sounds good panned 25% R and L. I bring up the vocals dead panned. It usually sounds pretty good at that point. Nice and full. Thick and heavy sounding, the dynamics "feel good". Now I start with guitars. The basic rythm I pan 100% R and L, fills get panned anywhere between 50% and 75%, but do not necessarly "mirror" on an opposite track (I hope that makes sense). I like to layer 4 or 5 guitar tracks each seperatly played. I usually run the solos center, but it depends. I try to put each sound in its own space (L and R / Fwd-Back). Asleep yet? Thanks for your endurance. Here is the kicker. While adding more guitars makes it sound wider and have more depth, it seems when I get done, I lose the full and heavy "feel" I had at first with just drums, bass, and vocal. Am I crazy or does anyone else have this problem? Is there a solution? Thanks.

 

[Erockrazor]

Take a look at this thread. Read it through. There is not a formula to make a good mix, variables are always changing from song to song or even verse to chorus. You need to mix according to what is happening in the song and in the mix, no predefined solution.

So pan how you want and where you want, it's artistic or an engineering choice. Not a rule.

I should add, copy and pasting a track, only makes it louder ... you perceive a difference in the volume not the tone. Also, you might be losing punch because of doubling up tracks. Where there is mud, you're just adding to it. You need to sculpt your mix then it should be a bit more punchy. Hopefully after reading the thead (link below) you will understand a little more where I am coming from.

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=155915

Good luck! Eric

 

[DrewPeterson7]

That's actually a rather good read, Erockrazor, and after the opening, I really didn't expect it to be.

Before mixing a song, it may be a good idea to run a mix where you use no effects or eq and just adjust volumes to get the best mix you can. Burn that to CD and start listening on many different systems. You may be surprised at how good it actually sounds on home stereo systems, and how much more open and unprocessed your mix is. You will certainly still have a few things you would like to fix, but now you KNOW what needs to be fixed, and are not being biased by the better sounding D/A converters and monitors your setup has.

I cannot believe that viewing a recorded kick drum on a DAW doesn't show the one kick in the middle of the song that is like 12db louder then the rest! Then when you mix, you have the whole damn mix at like -20db average because if you turn it all up, that one kick drums peaks out. USE YOUR DAMN EDITOR AND CUT AND PASTE ANOTHER KICK DRUM HIT THERE!!! OR AT LEAST HIGHLIGHT THE HIT AND TURN IT DOWN!!! I AM SHOUTING BECAUSE THIS IS HOW MUCH LOUDER YOUR MIXES WILL GET WHEN YOU DO LITTLESTUFF LIKE THAT!!!

I make a point to listen everywhere I go. ...You will find yourself using a lot of the same 2 or 3 reverbs in most stuff you mix. Really. Don't settle for factory presets. Get into the unit and play around a lot and find reverbs that sound like rooms you have been in before. These are the most desirable ones to use.

Couple highlights for me. Kind of a no brainer in retrospect, but the next time I track something, I'll definitely be doing a quick mixdown after doing no more than setting levels - no EQ, no FX, no nothing, just to get a sense of where it stands.

 

[Weasel9992]

The denser a mix gets the more potential there is for relative phase issues, additive distortion artifacts and for tracks to simply compete with one another.

To check relative phase just solo the mix and make sure you can hear everything...if you can, then phase it probably fine. Distortion is usually introduced during tracking (tracking too hot), and the effect is additive; it only takes a few over cooked tracks to ruin the bunch. Tracks competing with one another starts in the arrangements and gets worse with tracking. Usually I find that the best thing to do first is to simplify the arrangement...in other words, remove some stuff. After that, panning and EQ can be useful in terms of getting everything where it needs to be.

Frank