I Like Everything in My Mix, But.........

D

drpez

New member
........It just isn't big enough.

I'm very happy with the clarity of each instrument, everything has it's own place on the EQ and the panning seems to be okay, reverbs have helped with the "bigness", but it just doesn't have the power that I think it should have. It's not mastered, so I understand that a lot of that is part of it, but am I not supposed to improve this in the mixing stages as well? Is there a way to improve this without sacrificing the clarity that I have now? Thanks for your help fellas.
 
You might try experimenting with delays rather than reverbs. Or delays and reverb. The delays could be single tap or multi-tap, but keep them in the tempo of the song.
 
pez, this question is asked at least three times a week in this forum and even in the "Recording Techniques" forum. Browse through a couple of pages of thread titles in these forums and you're bound to find a few threads chock full of the info you're looking for.

G.
 
I, too, would like to hear some expert opinions on this. I don't think it has been asked very often in terms of "bigness". Usually just "loudness". this is different.
 
FALKEN said:
I, too, would like to hear some expert opinions on this. I don't think it has been asked very often in terms of "bigness". Usually just "loudness". this is different.
Click to expand...
Define "bigness".

G.
 
It could be related to the size of the sound stage? I've had this happen to me a bit--especially with 3-piece guitar rock type bands. Doubling tracks, delays and panning can help spread things out; as can different reverbs and playing with relative volumes on different things--e.g., lowering the level and adding more reverb to things you want to sound "farther away".
 
Drpez, I don't know if you already did something like this. But I highly recommend multi tracking guitars and equalizing them differently. If you want it to sound "bigger" or "wider", what u can do is take the alreadly recorded guitar track with the tone that u already like and pan that to the right about 60%. Then re-record another version of the guitar for that song (maybe with slight variations or counterpart) but eq this track so that it's a tad bit muddier or bassier and pan it to the left 60%. Then Copy the Right track and paste it back into the center of the mix, however cut out around 50% of the mids. The cutting of the mids is important for the middle track. What you're aiming for is to not be able to really hear or notice that middle track existing while monitoring in headphones. However, while monitoring the song through your speakers, (try to monitor the song in mono), eq the track or increase the volume just ever so slightly enough so that it increases the "presence" of the guitars through your speakers only. This centered track will make up for the lack of presence that gets weakened in the mix when you pan the guitars left and right. You need this barely noticable middle track just in case you happen to listen to the song on a mono stereo system. However, it's all personal taste, and the middle track may be unnecessary if you're adding other instruments like keyboards and such that would take up the space in the middle.

Just some suggestions that worked with me when I fealt the guitars where thin...hope it helps u
 
yep double stuff up. big rythem guitars eqed a bit diff panned out. send an aux verb to a diff can and put this up the center. alot of times ill take a bass and run it through a comp and bring it back on a seperate channel as well. run your kick and snare through a buss sidechain with comp and eq to fatten the mains up (treat it as an effect). put a quick tap on the snare to give it more depth. double vox, reamp one and bring it back dirty on a diff channel to add some balls to the dynamic changes. really in order to make your song "bigger" you just need to decide where in the soundscape its feeling flat and get creative thinking about ways to liven that source up. all part of the fun.
 
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