Engineers, your guidance on mixing to artists

steffeeH

steffeeH

New member
To all experienced professionals.
(I recommend you read the text below first, before reading the questions)

These days we have a whole world of tutorials made by professionals in both videos and articles.
But in the end, isn't this just the theory of an artform?
We learn the techniques, but we don't learn how to judge the track correctly.

To clarify this a little using something similar: while taking your driving license, you read a lot of theory, but without driving lessons with an experienced teacher you're still a horrible driver, because then they haven't taught you the proper judgement of each situation.

And when learning mixing at home, you come across all of the theory, but you don't get the chance to practice under the influence of an authority (=lessons with an engineer) and learn the proper judgement to make the right moves for the track, unless you go to an audioengineering school, and that's great if you want to become a professional audioengineer, but that's nothing for a bedroomartist that want to carry out a good mixing himself (probably because he can't afford sending his tracks to professionals).

Sure, we have interviews with famous mixers, but they assume you already know a lot of things, so they dive into others things than the stuff we artists may really need to know.
They may give some nice tips and tricks, but they are more the do's and dont's, not the philosophies of experienced judgement while mixing.

So the question is: If you had a person that you were teaching mixing, what advices/philosophies/judgements/etc would you teach him, when it came to:
- EQ/Filters
- Compression/Limiting (+ multiband)
- Gating
- Distortion/Saturation/Drive
- Levels (not just the gainstaging, but also the balance of different levels)
- Panning
- Reverb/Delay
- M/S-Processing (both M/S-Gain and M/S-EQ)
- Parallel/Serial-processing
- Creative effects
- Etc..

Of course you have the philosophy "Use your ears", and that's true, but it feels like only the top of an iceberg.

As stated before in the text, this post isn't about further tips and tricks, but the foundational philosophy and proper judgement of mixing.

Thank you in advance!
 
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steffeeH said:
So the question is: If you had a person that you were teaching mixing, what advices/philosophies/judgements/etc would you teach him, when it came to:
- EQ/Filters
- Compression/Limiting (+ multiband)
- Gating
- Distortion/Saturation/Drive
- Levels (not just the gainstaging, but also the balance of different levels)
- Panning
- Reverb/Delay
- M/S-Processing (both M/S-Gain and M/S-EQ)
- Parallel/Serial-processing
- Creative effects
- Etc..

Of course you have philosophy "Use your ears", and that's true, but it feels like only the top of an iceberg.

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...

As to EQ/filters... cut before boost. Usually you can find a cut/notch you can do with the EQ in another instrument that will effectively "boost" the EQ in the instrument you're working on.
Like kick/bass guitar... I'll do a wide "Q" cut by about 3db in my kick drum mids to help my bass cut thru. Stuff like that.
Also I tend to cut lo to lo-mid out of pretty much every instrument or vocal that doesn't have any "good" EQ down that low. Like vocals...I'll cut off the lows cuz I'm not Barry White and all I have down in the 80 to maybe 100 range is mud. Cut it and I get a bit more clarity. Add that cut to a few other vocals/instruments and my whole project has more clarity and punch.
More headroom too. Which comes in handy at my (cough cough) "mastering" stage.

As to distortion..... (like guitar?) I do less than I normally would playing live. If I jam live with distortion at say...8, my tracking distortion is down around 6 or 6.5. My guitars just sound better, fuller and more "chunky" if that's what I'm goin for. And my rhythm guitars are always double tracked. NOT copy/paste. All that does is make it louder. Track it twice and you're golden.

Really, for me at least, I'm more minimalist in my approach these days. Less reverb, less effects in general.

my thoughts anyway...
:)
 
steffeeH said:
unless you go to an audioengineering school, and that's great if you want to become a professional audioengineer, but that's nothing for a bedroomartist that want to carry out a good mixing himself (probably because he can't afford sending his tracks to professionals).
Click to expand...

I think that's a load of malarkey. I know more engineers that are "professionals" working on the mixes you hear on the Billboards that never went to school once. Shoot, there are some people I know who started out of their house with nothing more than a few thousand in gear and have built their space up to a multi-thousand dollar studio (the first one that comes to mind for that is both 456 Studios and the one I'm currently working at).

You don't need to go to school for this. I personally did because there weren't many places to intern in my town that would allow for an educational experience, but it's not required by any means.

steffeeH said:
So the question is: If you had a person that you were teaching mixing, what advices/philosophies/judgements/etc would you teach him, when it came to:
- EQ/Filters
- Compression/Limiting (+ multiband)
- Gating
- Distortion/Saturation/Drive
- Levels (not just the gainstaging, but also the balance of different levels)
- Panning
- Reverb/Delay
- M/S-Processing (both M/S-Gain and M/S-EQ)
- Parallel/Serial-processing
- Creative effects
- Etc..

Of course you have the philosophy "Use your ears", and that's true, but it feels like only the top of an iceberg.
Click to expand...

I'll be dead honest with you, that's not really the tip of any iceberg. That's all engineering is, really.

Shoot, just pick a song that's a favorite of yours that's mixed by a professional and use it as a reference on a track of yours that you're wanting to sound good. Then mix away by using your EARS.

When you're mixing (especially useful with a reference), you shouldn't be saying, "Well, I heard you should be boosting several dB at 60Hz on the kick because that's where the fundamental is, and I should be cutting at 500Hz because there's boxiness, and I should be boosting the snare at 4kHz because the crack is there..."

No, those are all just guidelines of where you'll likely find what you'll want to boost or cut when you LISTEN to the track first.

Listen to your drums. Then compare them to a reference track. Because if I'm being honest here, there have been some times I've been handed a kick that's too bloody boomy for the track and I'll have to CUT at the fundamental. Because I'm using my ears and thinking, "huh, there's too much boom in that. Maybe I should get it a little more present by removing some of the low end?"

Your ears are all you have to work with. What you need to do is...

1.) Make yourself a library of reference tracks so you'll have something to work with from whatever genre you'll be working on.
2.) Mix anything and everything you can.

#2 is important. I've found I can make something sound good if I record it personally because at the studio I work at, we've got in house drum kits and guitars and amps and cabinets and basses and EVERYTHING a musician could want, so if I need to swap something out for the song, I can use what I need to and it's going to take minimal effort (assuming the musician that comes in is good) for me to mix that track.

But that's what's interesting. Try grabbing some recordings from other home recording people and work on mixing them. It's going to force you to use your ears to mix, because you're going to be hearing things recorded in rooms you aren't familiar with, instruments you've never recorded, and they'll have used mics you may not have. You'll have to listen to the track and work them with all those tools you listed off to be able to get a quality final product, using your ears to make your decisions. That's really all you have that's going to make your track sound great.

Oh, and another aspect of #2... When you're learning all those tools you listed off, when you're just starting out, use them in excess.

Get as creative as you want with that EQ. Slam all your tracks at different ratios, release times, attack times, whatever. Throw a ton of distortion on a vocal, throw a ton of verb on everything.

Then when you learn how everything sounds at it's extreme, pull it all back. You'll be able to hear in excruciating detail what each of those things are doing, and you'll learn how they all affect the sound. Of course, 95% of the time you probably won't be using them to that extreme, but now you know what happens if you don't use them conventionally if you ever want to use those tools creatively!

tldr; You really do just have to use your ears, and you really don't need college.
 
Basically.....to answer all your questions.....

Read as much as you can (there's already a TON of info out there, no pont listing it here again), practice mixing as much as you can, and if you can find some hands-on guidance from pros and/or spend some time in a pro studio environment, that won't hurt.

Somewhere....out of all that....you might at some point get a handle on what to do and when to do it.

Not everyone does.


Oh....and there's no finality to it. Every session has something new to be learned.
 
steffeeH said:
while taking your driving license, you read a lot of theory, but without driving lessons with an experienced teacher you're still a horrible driver, because then they haven't taught you the proper judgement of each situation.
Click to expand...

If the above is true, then the following is a waste of time. For someone to provide answers requires you then to read them, i.e. a lot of theory.

steffeeH said:
If you had a person that you were teaching mixing, what advices/philosophies/judgements/etc would you teach him
Click to expand...

Fortunately, though, the first statement is not totally true. I agree that having an experienced teacher is a huge bonus. But there is also a lot to be gained through heuristic learning.
 
Advise: Just quit now and save yourself a lot of aggravation. As for some philosophy; stay out of the pool during a lightening storm and one of my all time favorites...sometimes less is more but more is always more.
Sorry couldn't help myself. :facepalm::D

As far as your question, my answer is use any/all as appropriate. Theory is good since having a general understanding about what/how equipment works is the basis for everything (i.e., the tool box). Spend lots of time turning knobs (applying the tools) and far less time looking for silver bullet answers.
 
way too many questions to answer in one post, you'll have to learn all this through experience, especially practical experience. Get some books and study, like e.g. :mixing with your mind, mixing for the small studio. Unlike other books they actually encourage you to practice and learn whilst actually listening. They also teach you that being an engineer IS creative and not scientific without getting into too much tech jargon, and when they do it's very well explained. I haven't had the chance to be an intern at a massive studio so that's my way of learning, in 2014 it makes sense and I'd rather do that than waste money of an audio engineer course and waste time and get in £30,000+ debt.
 
Excellent post. The driving analogy is not quite right though. If you get in a car after reading up on driving, you'll be a shitty driver to start, but after some time you'll get to be a good driver...or at least better.
That said, there's no replacing the apprentice/mentor model. In mixing, there are a hundred decisions to be made on every mix, and every mix is at least a bit different. Watching an experienced mixer deal with these decisions and maybe
being able to ask questions not only gives you some concrete strategies, but also teaches the reactive nature of mixing.
If you're able, I would suggest offering to assist an engineer near you to get some in person experience - if you can't do that, the internet is pretty amazing for learning.

good luck, dd
 
davedarling said:
Excellent post. The driving analogy is not quite right though. If you get in a car after reading up on driving, you'll be a shitty driver to start, but after some time you'll get to be a good driver...or at least better.
That said, there's no replacing the apprentice/mentor model. In mixing, there are a hundred decisions to be made on every mix, and every mix is at least a bit different. Watching an experienced mixer deal with these decisions and maybe
being able to ask questions not only gives you some concrete strategies, but also teaches the reactive nature of mixing.
If you're able, I would suggest offering to assist an engineer near you to get some in person experience - if you can't do that, the internet is pretty amazing for learning.

good luck, dd
Click to expand...


where's the driving analogy from? I couldn't find it! lol but also agree with you
 
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