Mixing Electronica

  • Thread starter Thread starter jamtheguitarman
  • Start date Start date
jamtheguitarman

jamtheguitarman

New member
hey,

Im just finishing up writing my first whole electronica piece and was wondering if anyone had any tips on mixing the thing?


At the moment its just a whole bunch of vst's through Cubase.

Should i adjust all the levels of the tracks so they arn't clipping on the vst outputs or anything and then bounce them down individually to audio tracks to do a proper mix?


Any advice on Eq'ing synths so they perhaps blend together better?
Or should i leave all the eq'ing and filtering to the midi vsts themselves rather than editing the audio files after?


Final mix and mastering advice?



cheers everyone.
 
halfway through bouncing down 25 7minute tracks and im thinking this is probably fairly stupid!


I can EQ the separate vst outputs and add effects to them. The only reason i see needing to bounce a track to audio would be if i wanted to do some specific audio editing on a certain part.


hmmmm, right?
 
jamtheguitarman said:
The only reason i see needing to bounce a track to audio would be if i wanted to do some specific audio editing on a certain part.


hmmmm, right?
Click to expand...
Another reason would be to free up CPU resources if you're running low. Although freezing the tracks would help a lot.

As far as EQ and such, I try to get the sounds to work together as much as possible at the sound design stage, although some EQ and compression maybe necessary while mixing.

Yes, try to keep things out of the red. In fact, if you keep your individual tracks NOT peaking beyond -6dBFS, you should be OK.
 
although some EQ and compression maybe necessary while mixing.
Click to expand...

Do you bounce down to audio to do this or just use the vst outputs?



Just finished bouncing all the tracks down and loading up a project to work with them, all seems pretty pointless and a whole load more hassle.
 
I use quite a few Vst-I's and I normally bounce them to loops in Ableton live. If it is a synth part with natural long decay, or an effect which increases decay time I will bounce the whole track. I have a slow processor so bouncing is a necessary evil for me(amd sempron 2200). Thankfully I have a amd 64 x2 4200 on the way this week, and i cant wait to see how many vst's i can throw at it.
When I am bouncing loops I raise the level a few db if necessary to ensure I am able to use them with future projects if i choose.
 
I make some electronica music myself and I went through the exact dillemma as you. I always bounce my midi tracks to individual audio tracks, then mute or delete the midi tracks when it comes to mixing. As for the vst levels before the audio bounce, you should definetely make sure its not clipping or your audio may come out distorted OR that the midi track isnt too quiet then raise a couple db's. Usually i dont have that problem, i just leave all the midi faders at unity.

So I suggest bouncing your midi tracks (making it sound as dry as possible with as little or no effects such as reverb) to audio mainly for 2 reasons.
1) just as noisewreck said, it saves a ton of load on your cpu
2) i personally feel that adding reverb, or e.q.ing midi. just doesnt have that natural sound to it. Thats why when i make my songs in midi. i strip out all the e.q. and effects when i bounce. then i add them back in audio.
 
with electronica music, you have total control over all the sounds, and the ability to choose which ones sound good together without EQ and other effects, assuming you have enough quality virtual instruments to work with. :)

i would try avoiding EQ and spend that time finding the right sounds that will fit together naturally.

i also agree with JD that in most cases it's easier to just render the MIDI track to audio, and apply all the effects then. i think some effects that come with MIDI programs aren't quite as good as a lot of the VST/DX plugins out there.
 
i think some effects that come with MIDI programs aren't quite as good as a lot of the VST/DX plugins out there.
Click to expand...

Im still using the normal audio processing vst plugins, just on the vst outs rather than on a bounced audio track.


Ive pretty much finished mixing the track now (using the vst outs way, not audio bouncing), ill post it in a few days.








oh...........and................GOD DAMN MOTHERF*****G KICK DRUMS GO TO HELL!!!!!





thank you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top