expanding my mixing options...

A

andy ablo

New member
ok, beyond the basics (EQ, compression, etc) there are a few mixing options I use all the time...
- doubling (stacking) vocals
- using 3 vocals, panning 1 hard left, 1 hard right
that kind of thing. but I'm not finding other (similar) mixing techniques, to expand my options. if anyone can list some techniques, or point me to where I can find them, I would appreciate it.
 
Wow, that could be a really long list, limited only by your imagination and perhaps the accepted norms of the genre you are producing.

Maybe you can provide a clip or description of a sound you are going for or a commercial mix you want to emulate, and then folks can give you suggested techniques to accomplish that.

J
 
One thing comes to mind, it is the Artificial Double Tracking (ADT VST) or you could do it the old fashioned way and get a reel to reel and use that method.
 
not "all the time", but frequently, and I need to expand my skill set. just base vocals sounds boring or not as good... I just don't know what other things to do. I'm fairly new to mixing. I've got to the point of 'basic competence' but I don't have knowledge of a bunch of options.
stuff like "using 3 vocals, panning 1 left and 1 right" sounds really excellent, and I'm looking for other awesome options. essentially... how do I go about upping my mix skills? is there a great website listing options? or excellent youtube videos? etc. I haven't been able to find them.

mixing RAP vocals, with Adobe Audition CS6, btw.
 
buy the mixing with your mind book, it has some very interesting information inside that no other book can provide.
 
haha. I was going to say "I'm too broke to buy a book" but checked amazon anyway and $250!!! yeah, I'm definitely hoping this forum has some more advice. somebody's got to know some more powerful mix techniques in the vein of "doubling" and whatever.
 
If your base vocals don't sound good, time to figure out why - is it the recording room, the style, mic technique, the singer, the microphone? The better your recorded tracks, the less work you need to do in mixdown.
 
I know Mythbusters proved that you could polish a turd, but really, do you want to?
If you have good material to work with, then Andy, bud, just four words...

X pear E meant. :D

There are all sorts of effects out there (phase, unison, flange, chorus, compression, etc.) that can work some "majik" on vocals. There are some techniques (parallel channels for compression/eq/distortion for example), but when it all comes down, if you have a great vocal performance/track, you can make it sound great. If you have a meh vocal performance/track you can make it sound okay. If your voice/room/mike/preamp/gain staging are off, you can't make it sound even meh.
 
andy ablo said:
haha. I was going to say "I'm too broke to buy a book" but checked amazon anyway and $250!!! yeah, I'm definitely hoping this forum has some more advice. somebody's got to know some more powerful mix techniques in the vein of "doubling" and whatever.
Click to expand...

$250!!! Where are you trying to buy it from?

Try here, AUS$78. Approx US$71.

Alan.
 
Doesn't that strike you as a hell of a lot of money for a book ? There's two on Amazon UK starting from £239 which is insane money. The AUS$78 works out to £44 {none of this includes postage or import duty} in the UK, which, for a book, is crazy money.
I believe in supporting the author but selling a book at that price when people are sharing the PDFs for free and downloadable within 2 minutes isn't going to encourage many people to shell out their cash to Brother Stav.
To Andy, there are lots of books on mixing out there written over a lengthy period of time with interesting info. But you'll find absolutely tons of free and useful info right here on Home recording .com ~ you'll just have to be patient and do some wading through 15 years of argument and counter argument to get to some of the good stuff.
 
grimtraveller said:
Doesn't that strike you as a hell of a lot of money for a book ? There's two on Amazon UK starting from £239 which is insane money. The AUS$78 works out to £44 {none of this includes postage or import duty} in the UK, which, for a book, is crazy money.
I believe in supporting the author but selling a book at that price when people are sharing the PDFs for free and downloadable within 2 minutes isn't going to encourage many people to shell out their cash to Brother Stav.
To Andy, there are lots of books on mixing out there written over a lengthy period of time with interesting info. But you'll find absolutely tons of free and useful info right here on Home recording .com ~ you'll just have to be patient and do some wading through 15 years of argument and counter argument to get to some of the good stuff.
Click to expand...

Well, this is the current state of affairs in the writing /book industry, I am sure I have seen this attitude before, oh yes, the music industry. We are in the age of wanting free stuff and not paying for it. Someday soon, the smart ones will stop using their time to create useful things and not getting paid to do it.

If anyone wants to be a serious music maker, what is a few dollars to buy a book?

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Well, this is the current state of affairs in the writing /book industry, I am sure I have seen this attitude before, oh yes, the music industry. We are in the age of wanting free stuff and not paying for it. Someday soon, the smart ones will stop using their time to create useful things and not getting paid to do it.

If anyone wants to be a serious music maker, what is a few dollars to buy a book?
Click to expand...
You've pegged me wrong Alan. I stated, quite deliberately
grimtraveller said:
I believe in supporting the author
Click to expand...
and I do. On my bookshelves I have some 400 books and I have paid for every one except three that were offered as free downloads by the author {you couldn't buy them if you wanted to !} or a couple that were given to me. I don't even like borrowing books, if I like the look of one that I've seen at someone's house or someone recommends one here, I'll locate it and buy it.
I stand by what I said. I think 44 quid for a book on mixing is crazy money. I would like to read "Mixing with your mind" but I'm not buying it at that price because I know that if I never read it, I'm not going to spontaneously combust. I've been reading books on mixing for a number of years, there's lots out there but £44 is not "a few dollars" when every one I've ever bought has been at most, a third of that price.
By the way, I'm 51. I'm of the generation that bought it's own records, it's own tapes, it's own walkmans, saved up and bought it's own stereos, clothes and tellys, didn't get Mummy and Daddy to buy things for us once we hit 18 and doesn't think that music should be free.
There was a time when it wasn't difficult to amass a music collection and check out lots of gigs because these things were actually reasonably priced. When Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the key of life" came out in 1976, there was a big 'to do' in the press here because it cost £6.99 and it was dubbed as "Songs to the tune of Seven quid" even though it was a double album with a bonus EP of new songs on it. My older sister was 16 and she bought it and didn't bat an eyelid. Records weren't expensive and the only people who thought that music should be free were panhandling acid brain fried hippies at the Golden Gate.......
 
There a million beautiful records that only use one voice down the center. You can flavour it with a reverb or a delay and then back it up with backing vocals but a constant, full stereo lead vocal sounds very overly intense. I assume that it would also make the lead vocal very loud in mono.
 
grimtraveller said:
You've pegged me wrong Alan.
Click to expand...

I was not really aiming at you personally, just the current attitude thats around about getting stuff for free. I did notice your age and I knew that you would have been from the same generation as myself and would have bought a lot of books and music through the years.

On the price of books and my statement about if your serious you would buy some, I still buy several recording mags a year which would add up too much more than the mixing with your mind book, the mags are a constant source of ideas and how others do things, never too old to learn.

Alan.
 
grimtraveller said:
Doesn't that strike you as a hell of a lot of money for a book ? There's two on Amazon UK starting from £239 which is insane money. The AUS$78 works out to £44 {none of this includes postage or import duty} in the UK, which, for a book, is crazy money.
I believe in supporting the author but selling a book at that price when people are sharing the PDFs for free and downloadable within 2 minutes isn't going to encourage many people to shell out their cash to Brother Stav.
To Andy, there are lots of books on mixing out there written over a lengthy period of time with interesting info. But you'll find absolutely tons of free and useful info right here on Home recording .com ~ you'll just have to be patient and do some wading through 15 years of argument and counter argument to get to some of the good stuff.
Click to expand...


have you read the book though?
 
Well, no. When I couldn't find it on Amazon for less than £230 and ebay was more, I downloaded a PDF of it as I thought it was out of print. But while it was downloading, I came across a comment somewhere where the guy said he was a mate of Stav and it could be bought from him. So I deleted the PDF without reading it.
To be honest, it's not essential reading for me, but it would be interesting to see what the author has to say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top