How to learn mixing?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roel
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Roel

Roel

That SMART guy.
I was just reading the Mastering Tips-post, especially the anekdotes of Sjoko...

So how do you learn to mix? I've been mixing live concerts for a while (once a month or more) and did some mixes at home. When I do this, I always end up in one of 3 ways:
- I'm happy with the mix, don't hear anything that is dead wrong.
- I'm not happy, I hear something isn't right, I know what, but I really don't have a clue what to do about it.
- I'm sad, I hear something is wrong, but I haven't got a clue about what it is.

Now, how can you work on these things? Mostly the mixers that own the PA systems are worse than me, so they cannot help me out...

An example: sometimes I hear room resonance on the bass guitar. (don't know if you should say it that way, sounds like woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :) ) What do you do about that? Try to find the freq and lower it, right? And how do you do that?
(I never got to play with it. The bassplayer plays that loud that I don't have any control, he uses only his own amp.)
 
That bass problem, could be fixed, by mikin' the cabinet closer,and maybe cutting back on the mic gain so it's not so hot, trying to grab every sound in the room... I prefer direct boxes in my studio for bass, and guitar... (a mixer's best friend)... I can't help that much about your mixing problems,, other than try to find out what bugs you, and fix it... Don't be scared to touch the eq's. One thing I hate about many engineers, is they want everything as close to flat as possible, and the less eq is better type of motto... For my likings, that can't be more wrong. Twist them knobs, experiment, have fun!!!.. Thats what it's all about, and you will stumble upon your optimum mix... (hopefully)
 
Cutting back mic gain. Good idea... The bassplayer would beat me to death if I tried putting a DI in front of his vintage amp. :)

Twisting the knobs... eq... That's what I want to learn. How can you learn to listen and knowing what has to be done, without experimenting and just set it at the closest you accidently got? This is easy for compression and gates. Just listen to the levels... (You can do more with compression, but I don't think you have to do any of those things live, right?)
But how do you do(learn) this for eq? Any tricks?


I find that drums, sometimes vocs need alot of eq. Synth, guitar and bass need less. Depends on their own sound I guess... But it's nice to compare the dry sound with the equalized...
 
You will learn, slowly by experimenting, and your sound s won't be incidental, they will be thought out, as you slowly learn how to recreate your "experiments".. I get my best bass sound, and had pro engineers compliment me on it, by recording DI and mixing flat... No eq at all.. But i know, there are as many purists out there as there are people who just want a good mix and it's hard to comprimise, but It can be done.. you gotta tell that bass player to turn it down at least, and you should be able to get a great sound by close miking the cabinet, and not gaining too hot.. I have a POD for guitar, and It is the best thing i have ever recorded guitar with, but once in a while I get a guitar player, who wants me to mic his marshall stack at 3/4 volume, and record his "rig", the way it is on stage, then on mixdown, they bitch that there is a huge Buzz (from the amp) in the recording, you just can't win in this situation...So i do know what you mean, about the bass player....
 
Well... I'm slowly getting there. The guitarpayer has a 1968 Orange and a 1970-something HiWatt, and this sounds good all the time. But he turns it up, so the bassplayer doesn't hear himself anymore. Or that's what he thinks (last show he had his tone control at 0, he hears it, but doesn't know it's there...), so he puts it up too. Monitor? He doesn't believe in that. I'll get him to believe in it next concert. :)

But slowly, very slowly, I can get them to adjust their volumes a little. a little more each time it's needed. They trust me, it just needs some time...

To come back on the EQ. There was a list posted over here, a while ago, with the effects of the different freqs on different instruments. Do you guys really think about it this way, or is it more intuitive?
 
....And if you're getting bass feedback, you can cut frequencies from 75hz and below, or if the board employs a sub-harmonic roll-off switch you can employ that!.
 
One trick that sometimes works is to slowly sweep the area near the offending frequencies with a boost and listen for the ugly to jump out. Then cut when you find exactly where the bad frequencies are.

The more you pay attention to how different frequencies affect the sound the easier it gets to locate something that's buggin' ya in the mix (or to bring out the good). I'm no expert, but 2 years ago -3dB @ 3k meant nothing to me. Now I can listen to something and have a vague idea of what that might do to it. Just read as much as you can and experiment. If you have specific EQ questions there's more than a few guys around here that really know their way around.
 
Bass "boom" often lives at 200 cycles.Try parametric rather than graphic EQ if available because you can really zoom in on a narrower band.For example,bass "punch" is around 100 cycles.So a narrow cut (or "Q")around 200 is necessary to avoid messing with the desireable frequencies at 100.
As mentioned,sweeping with your parametric will make the problem area jump out at you.Try to be a surgeon and only remove the "diseased" tones.It really bums me out to hear a guy (for example) scoop out a great freaking gash in the electric guitar spectrum for the vocal to "sit".Poor planning!Try to be as sneaky as possible with the EQ so your listeners are blissfully unaware of your technique.

Tom
 
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