gummblefish
Twitchy Wanker
Top post, Very Good read!
Ford Van said:Year after year after year, you prove that you are just envious of my ability to condense ideas into easy to understand essays that people LIKE to read!
Nah, just shade tree editors .Ford Van said:Bunch of fucking literary lawyers here!
ez_willis said:Remarkably Mixing is heralded by shopkeepers and investment bankers alike, leading many to state that Mixing is not given the credit if deserves for inspiring many of the worlds famous painters.
jrhager84 said:Wow, you sure are one complex creature... Is there any end to your smug, condescending, self-righteous attitude?
Very true. A lot of people just don't seem to be able to hear the difference between the frequency balance of a commercial release compared to their own mixes. Vocals are particularly prone to being bass-heavy and lacking air and the nasty presence peak on their cheapy LDC makes them think the vocal is present and bright when it's simply harsh and hollow.The Audio Cave said:You have to become accustomed to hearing things "right". You have to build a frame of reference so that when you mix your music you'll know when something sounds wrong (frequency balance wise or tone wise or space wise) in your room with your speakers in your genre(s). Give it a few weeks / months and compare your mixes to the previous ones, I'll bet they'll sound better.
This helps prevent the situation where you mix to 2 a.m. and listen again first thing the next morning and wonder just what the hell you thought you were hearing the night before.The Audio Cave said:I mix first thing in the morning while my ears are their very best. I intentionally schedule my mixes for early morning. It helped a LOT. Honestly, if you want to do your best why not use your ears when they are their best? Unless you stayed up until 4am smoking dope and drinking you should be physically, mentally and aurally at your very best about an hour after you wake up. As you get better it won't matter as much but you still have to prepare to mix by RESTING YOUR EARS. Mix at 7pm? Turn off the TV at 5 and read a book or something.
Yep, you have to train yourself to keep your hands off the equipment until you know what you want to achieve.The Audio Cave said:Never turn a EQ knob or patch in a comp or anything unless you have a specific clearly identifyable purpose. Inexperienced mixers tend to EQ way too much. You have to train yourself to be disciplined enough to analyze WHAT you need to do (by listening critically), and then deciding how to approach that and ONLY that.
This is why the tip from the "secrets" post about doing a dry mix with no EQ and living with it for a day or two is such a good idea. It gives you time to analyze WHAT may be needed if you're not sure. It also gives you time for a fresh listen and new perspective BEFORE you make those critical decisions.
I think you will always need to repeatedly compare to your references while working on your mix. It's so easy to let your ears become accustomed to what they are hearing and not realizing that the EQ and levels are getting more and more askew. This is a natural part of the automatic volume and EQ control built-in to our hearing and we need to recalibrate frequently; especially when working on a tricky EQ problem. A quick listen to your reference music will snap your ears back to what they should be hearing. It doesn't even have to be a reference from a similar genre to do this. I have my loudness-adjusted reference CD running continuously in the player and I don't usually care which track it's playing at the moment I switch to it, the ear-reset still works.The Audio Cave said:Also ... update and refresh your frame of reference WHILE you mix. Rip some of those reference CD's and use something close to reference while you mix. Eventually you won't need them but for now they will make a HUGE difference. I sometimes will play 30sec to a minute of a similar commercial song 3-4-5 times or more during a particulary dense or difficult mix to compare to what I think I hear. You can't be afraid to do that, it helps.
jrhager84 said:So apparently all newbs are rock-dwelling retards who can't tell their own heads from their asses, right?
You also insulted the validity/credibility of FV's post. Like he's simply "regurgitating" commonly seen things. Well if he is, I sure haven't seen/read it, and I do QUITE a bit of reading/researching about mixing/audio/etc.
Wow, you sure are one complex creature... Is there any end to your smug, condescending, self-righteous attitude?
P.S. Negative rep doesn't phase me anymore. Piss and whine all you want!
ez_willis said:New users should be forced to read this, twice, then be quizzed on it before being issued a username and password. We'd eliminate 85% of the stupid shit that gets asked.