been using audition for a bout a year now, still dont know how to mix down properly

[Abstrak]

well as the title says, i dont know how to mix down properly in audition.

About a year ago, i started using auditon to record tracks, but i never knew how to mix it down, but i didnt mind.

Now im looking to get a better quality and such from my music.

Can someone give the sort of basics i would need to look at, things i would have to think about and consider, and things i would need to do to get anything close to a proper mixdown in adobe audition.

I know this is a thread that would belong in the newbies section, but i didnt wanna crosspost, so i chose here, hoping to get a better answer.

Thx.

 

[tarnationsauce2]

Actually this would be best in the Cool Edit forum.

To do the act of creating a mixdown, just go to File > Export >Audio Mixdown
Then choose the format you want.

But your question is more how to create a "mix" (ie blend the audio to form the song's levels).
That is a very general question that isn't specific to Audition. There are entire books on that subject.

Personally I start by adjusting EQ/Compression/effects/volume/pan.
I will solo what I'm working on.
First the drums, kick, snare/under, overheads, toms, etc.
I then move on to the guitars, then bass.
Finally main vox/ backups/ and other stuff.
Then I mix everything with no soloing. Making sure there is nothing eating up too much frequency space. I'll also put a subsonic filter on the master, and/or on individual tracks.

And many more things that I don't have the time to get into.

 

[RDMSstudio]

Balloon games

Mixing is a bit like holding one of those long skinny balloons in front of you. If you squeeze one end the other gets bigger. Squeeze it in the middle and both ends pop up.
NEVER try and find a perfect sound by soloing a track. Only solo to identify problems.
As you adjust the EQ, level etc. of a track try and focus on how it's affecting the rest of the mix.
For example... if a vocal is a bit muddy, rather than adding treble to it try and remove some 300hZ from bass and other instruments.
As a further experiment solo a drum kit and listen to the kick, now add the bass guitar and listen to what it does to the kick sound....

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Good work, if you can get it

Mixing is like art painting or engineering design (or both), depending upon whether you're right-brained or left-brained (or both.)You need to have an idea, a plan, before you adjust the first knob or push the first fader. In the case of mixing a song, you need to develop a mental image of what the final mix is going to sound like, where the instruments are going to be placed, how they are going to sound when they get there, where the hooks are and how to best use them, which riffs and fills should stand out and which should fall back, etc. This sonic design is crucial to a good mix, I believe.

Sometimes one has the sonic design figured out from the get go, which is an advantage especially if they are doing their own tracking. If one is mixing someone else's stuff, or if one made the mistake of not tracking with a particular sonic design already in mind, then they should sit down and listen to the tracks individually and in different groupings as needed and as mant times as needed before doing any actual mixing. Get to know both the overall feel as well as the detailed structure of the song with the view of building the mix design. Let the song itself dictate how you build the mix:

-Determine what and where the major hooks of the song are located and start building the mix around those.
-Determine what kind of emotion does it has in it's sound or in it's lyrics and how much of that emotion do you want reflected in the way it's mixed. A moody ballad and a rockin' anthem get different emphasies in the mix.
-Determine roughly where and when to automate the levels on the different instruments in order to showcase the best or most dramatically important music phrases for each track. When is the guitar more important than the piano and vice versa, and when do they both take a back seat to the vocals, etc.

Once the song has dictated and defined the above to you, then you can build your design of the 4-D soundstage to get the mix to fit right, sound right and move right. (see the DIY clinic thread for a detailed discussion between me and Tom @ Mastering House of the three or four dimensions of mixing; pan, spectrum, depth and drama.)

Put all that together and you have a dynamic mix with all parts sitting together nice and pretty with plenty of hooks and proper emotion. Not a bad list of things to get out of a mix

G.