i have a question about mixing

C

carlpony351

New member
ok i have this problem,i'm in this band and well now we're recording soundbytes and demo's so we can get better at mixing the songs before we make the final cuts on all the songs.

well one memmber wants to mix in 5.1 using cubase sx and then make it better in wavelab.

my question is if i mix it in 5.1 in cubase and then use wavelab,does wave lab make it stero again when i save it or does it remain in 5.1????

i'm against recoring in 5.1 purely for the fact that many people still have stereo and all those people that have listened to a recording that we did in 5.1 on stereo speakers said it sounded like crap and wasn't mixed good, witch it was but it was put in 5.1.
my band member also said that every remaster that comes out are mixed in 5.1 even though it's not noted on the package, is this true, are the remasters mixed in 5.1 or stereo??? and i'm sure if it was 5.1 it would be noted on the package correct???

then he told me that many new bands records are released in 5.1 and not stereo but i'm sure if it was 5.1 it would be noted.........??????????????


i really need some ino on this and is 5.1 really the way to go??? i mean we could make it some srot of b-side or something but to have it as an actual track is pure blashphemy
 
Unless you're doing a major=label release, there's little point in doing a surround mix....

Worry about getting a good-sounding mix in 2-tracks before working with 5!
 
I agree. Worry about stereo first. That's hard enough, especially if your experience is limited.
 
forget surround man. unless you're experienced in mixing and you know what you're doing, you'll probably make a hash of it. concentrate on a good 2 track version.
 
carlpony351 said:
my band member also said that every remaster that comes out are mixed in 5.1 even though it's not noted on the package, is this true, are the remasters mixed in 5.1 or stereo???
Click to expand...
Ummmm... CD's can't even be 5.1. Unless he is talking about DVD remasters, no, they are not 5.1. Mix it in sterio. Do you even have monitoring abilities for 5.1?
 
forget reMASTERS, the thing would have to be reMIXED to surround!

honestly man, it's not worth it unless you really know what you're doing and you can nail 2 track really well. if you're not really at that stage, i dont mean to be rude, but you'll probably end up with a bad surround mix which would have probably sounded 100 times better in a more basic stereo form.
 
a lot more thought has to go in to surround aswell.

the main thing is.... you dont really know where your end user is placing the 5 main speakers (-sub). with stereo, you have less speakers to go wrong with, but i mean, something which sounds cool on your monitors might sound completely different in another 5.1 place if the speakers are not setup how you have them. it's not a major problem but you have to think about these things and mix appropriatly.


surround hasn't really interested me y'know. i think 2 track is enough of a headache, let alone 5.1!
 
I doubt that surround is going to take off like all the surround magazines claim it will. :D

Really, aside from possibly putting the reverb in the rear speakers to emulate being in a bigger room, there is little that it has to offer for the "realism" in music. If you think about it, our perception of music is seeing performers playing IN FRONT of us, with a left to right stereo field.

I get this subscription to Surround mag, and read it from time to time just to see what the big deal is about. All the artists that use surround either use it to send reverb to the rear speakers, or write music that has "special effects to utilize the surround experience". So to break it down, you either need to WANT an unatural surround effect in your music that isn't replicated in real life musical experiences, or you can create a tad more realism by using the read speakers for a big hall reverb experience.

Surround is much better suited for movies, and is indeed a great experience for that. In music though, I just don't see it flying, and certainly, I don't see people upgrading many home stereo systems to accommodate surround music mixes.

DVD audio may experience some of these "user preferences". The average Joe just doesn't seem to care about bit depth and sample rate increases. They just want to hear a "bitchin' tune".

I think I wrote a thread on this subject about 3 years ago on here. I predicted then that surround will not become a prevelant format for music mixing. I stand by that today too! :)

Ed (who will look like a complete ass IF surround becomes all the rage in music.....:))
 
I think you're right about surround and DVD audio.

Thing is, DVD video is big news and makes a lot of money, and people are gonna get used to hearing stuff coming at them from all over the room, so after a few years, nobody's gonna care if the music doesn't sound 'natural'. On the other hand, I don't think anyone's gonna care if the music's still stereo, either.

But I see possibilities for recorded music in DVD video, for two great big reasons: first, it's got 24-bit resolution for audio. I don't know about you, but I really prefer listening to my 24-bit stuff rather than mp3s. And my hearing's not great, so I think that higher-resolution sound will stand a chance. And the second and bigger reason, is that a recording with all the video components that DVD video offers will be such a powerful medium compared to a CD. The problem for people who *make* the music will be that the bar will then be way, way, way higher. It won't be enough to make music - you'll have to make video stuff and interactive CDROM stuff as well. The guys who do well at this will be the guys who are able to form a team. Up until now, teamwork in music has meant putting a band together. If I'm right about DVD video becoming a premier medium for music, then the guys who will shine will be the ones who are able to assemble a DVD video team: music, video, computer interactivity - three areas of expertise. I don't see how any one person's gonna be able to nail all three.

I'd really like to work with a cameraman cum film maker and a computer whiz. *THAT* would be a project!
 
ed,

i think surround might get a bit bigger than it is at the moment, BUT....thing is, for every surround mix that is done, a stereo one would have to be done too. i mean, i cant see surround car radios, or surround walkmans happening. it's just a bit too much!


as soon as you start adding more speakers (5.1, 7.1), the mix gets more complicated. you cant guarentee the listener will hear it as you intended it.

it's too big hassle and im not interested enough to care about it.
stereo is enough for me!

i still think it might get a bit bigger though. but there'll probably be something new in the pipeline, technology wise!

Romesh
 
dobro, I will respectfully disagree that the average Joe will appreciate the increased fidelity of higher res audio for the most part. I can accept much easier that they will like the surround effects possible before they will appreciate high res audio! Hell, I know a LOT of people who still think cassette sounds "great". Certainly I have heard cassette's sound good, but they are just plain noisier than CD, and we are LONG over CD's not putting out a decent sound.

It really boils down to a format change, which traditionally, average listeners have not embraced so well. CD provided a reliable playback medium that was easy to handle, thus, it because predominant!

DVD audio will probably become the rage in music ONLY for the simple fact that it shares the simplicity of CD to the average user of the medium. Chances are better than average though that this will take a while before it comes along because most people are invested into CD technology for home listening.

Romesh, I am with you here about surround mixes not interesting me. I have heard some and it hasn't been all that earth shattering of an experience. I also agree that adding more speakers means a much better chance that people will not hear it the way it was intended. Hell, we already have enough of a problem with that with stereo! :D

Will music go the way of people accepting "effects" that surround can provide? A good question. My money is on that they won't care much. I don't see anytime in the near future where people will equate hearing music simply as that. There is going to be that "realism" factor involved (meaning, people will appreciate hearing music in playback mediums the way they would see it live). Stereo does just fine for that.

I could be wrong, but I just don't see this surround thing being predominant in the average bands music production. Most people that I know that have surround for their movies don't think it added that much to the experience of watching a movie at home.

Ed
 
i think for movies, it will be great. i mean, i do agree with it in film context.

i think some kinda stepping up cd format to 24 bit might be something to set as a standard, but surroudn is way too fiddly.

..hi ed!
 
To mix previously recorded music in true 5.1 you have to resort to the original multitrack recordings or to the stems if any were made. You cannot create true 5.1 mixes in the remastering process although some engineers use fake surround sound methods but that is a different discussion. Mixing music in 5.1 is great for film but I really see very little future for it in stand alone music production. Lets be honest, many people have problems setting up two speakers properly let alone 6! The amount of houses I've been to where the speakers are either out of phase or positoned in ridiculous places! LOL!
 
I think most of the guys who do surround mixes tend to mix them mainly in stereo anyway. I read some don't use the centre speaker, and some don't even use the sub! Their main concern is getting it to playback universally.
 
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