Mixing for Dummies (or, me). Quick step by step?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AlecBeretz
  • Start date Start date
A

AlecBeretz

New member
First, sorry if there are similar posts.

I have mixed music for about a year now, self learned, etc. i find some stuff that works, but i don't really know when/if I'm committing musical sins.

So, my question is:
What am i missing? Here's generally what i would do, sort of in order (using logic 9). quantizing would be somewhere in the beginning, i just don't know how to do it yet. also, im a rock/punk musician, if that makes a difference:

-Record instruments/dub guitars and vocals where necessary
-take out unwanted noise
-barely tweak some EQ, to improve tone. mainly the mids. i leave treble and bass enhancement for later in the mix, unless i need to cut the bass on cymbals and stuff where it just adds mud to the mix
-pan tracks / do stereo spread
-balance levels
-add reverb, compression, noise gates where its needed (ex. compress the drums a bit with some roomy reverb for a bigger rock sound. maybe dub it so theres a normal drum track and an ambient one. gotta love layering :D)
-i move on to the master track, boost the treble and bass a bit, add compressors and limiters, barely noticeable track reverb
-fade the ending off or whatever it needs


am i missing anything? doing things in the wrong order? applying FX or EQ where it shouldn't be? it seems to quick and simple.

Thanks! i f**king love this website.
 
LOL. You must be the guitarist/vocalist, right? You mixed the stuff on tragicwaste.net?
 
i am. but i didn't mix those. well, i mixed the "stay right here" demo a WHILE ago and i've gotten quite better since then. that was done on garage band with a guitar hero microphone and simulated drums. "terrified" and "it's not you its me" was done by this other guy. didn't turn out too well. lets live for tonight was audio ripped from a video.

see why im desperate? im in a band stuck with crappy recordings.
 
i am. but i didn't mix those. well, i mixed the "stay right here" demo a WHILE ago and i've gotten quite better since then. that was done on garage band with a guitar hero microphone and simulated drums. "terrified" and "it's not you its me" was done by this other guy. didn't turn out too well. lets live for tonight was done in like 15 minutes also on garage band.

see why im desperate? im in a band stuck with crappy recordings.
 
I'm learning as I go along, too!
After recording all the tracks, I start my mix with the principle instruments of the song - guitars and/or keys. I'll mute the percussion and vocals out while I work on these. Add reverb, initial panning, no EQ unless I find something needs it badly. I'll leave any lead instruments for later, mute those too.
Once I have that part done, I will start playing with the percussion tracks - adding reverb and panning at the same time as I play with the levels. I'll put all the other instruments on a group fader, to adjust as needed, too.
Once I have the percussion, add the bass, play with the overall mix sound now - all instruments, vocals still muted (although I may have opened the lead up at some point to get a better idea of the song dynamics).
Then the same thing with the vocals, first the lead, adding reverb, doubling, whatever EQ needed, then backup vocals. By having the instruments and percussion on group faders I can lower their overall levels to make it easier to work on the vocals. Once I've got everything *about* right, bring it all together with the group faders and then start additional tweaking.
 
When I bought my first gear I recorded some songs and mixed them. It was missing the "pro" sound. I figured it was because I was just starting. So I got really good at mixing over the years of hobby work. It was still missing the "pro" sound. So I figured it was because I wasn't mastering...

Long story short, these days I do live sound at a high level. National acts and Grammy winners and all that. Six years ago when I found myself on stage with my first national act getting ready for the sound check, I found my answer. The drummer started warming up. Without a single microphone, I was hearing a raw version of the exact sound heard on pro recordings.

I thought my sounds were good at home. I thought I was recording good playing. I had no idea how much farther up the food chain a professional sound and performance was. Yes, learn to mix with what you have to work with. What else can you do? But go back and dump mountains of effort into the sounds of the instruments and the people that play them. Practice for as many hours a day as you can. Tune and tweak everything you can. Especially the drum heads. Devote some time in band practice to cutting out any fancy stuff and just grooving on something simple until it sounds so much better than simple.
 
1. Record.
2. Make a mono balance mix with no processing until the balance is right.
3. Pan
4. Make level adjustments and process if needed.
5. Effects.
6. Automate stuff.
7. Mix down.

Everything in between is subjective and material dependent.

Cheers :)
 
I just want to add that it's a mistake to focus on something like the guitars just because you're a guitarist. Sometimes when I listen to mixes I can immediately hear whether the mixer was a drummer or a guitarist or a keyboardist because they are LOUD and don't serve the song.

Having a holistic view of a song and giving every part and instrument fair consideration is a BIG part of mixing effectively and creating a dance of contrast in the aim of producing an exciting mix.

That is the secret if there ever was one, imo.

Cheers :)
 
A couple of comments/suggestions:

First, it always worries me when a standard step is "take out unwanted noise". Noise reduction should be a last resort, not something that should always be applied--and even the best noise reduction affects the rest of the sound as well. If there's inherent noise in your system, work on it at source.

Second...and this works against your request for a step by step guide...don't make anything a regular process. Listen to your tracks and only add processing or effects if you wish to achieve something specific. That's not to say you shouldn't use EQ or compression or reverb or whatever you want--but they should be tools in your kit that you bring out when you need them, not because "it's always done".
 
This is what i typically do when mixing...

Drums first, for me, is crucial.. it sets the stage of the track... so I track them, quantize them if needed (usually is a bit).. then i solo out the kick and get that sounding as good as i possibly can as a starting point... UNDERSTAND THE MOOD OF THE SONG AND ADJUST ACCORDINGLY... if its a folky song, it will probably be a smaller sound than it would in a punk/rock band.. make sense?

with the kick, i go a bit overboard and double mic and reinforce with midi (if necessary).. with each track i EQ and compress only.. and only when it does justice to the sound and doesnt flatten it or make it rediculous or sound fake... all that jazz. i send those tracks to a bus to unify all of them to 1 kick fader, and i treat it as 1 kick mic at that point, and i may EQ/compress a bit to that aswell, really depends on what sounds good right?

same exact process with the snare for me, except i will add a small amount of reverb to the snare bus... a very small amount, just to kinda mold the multiple tracks together a bit.

same process to the toms, get them mixed right and then send all the toms to a bus to control as 1 fader.. however each respective tom is panned relative to where the drummer is sitting... the high tom i pan a bit to the left, the floor toms i pan a bit to the right.. gives rolls and nice (im right there) effect

same process to the OH's... but i pan them left and right... which is pretty typical... the amount you pan them is up to you.

i send all those busses (Kick bus/snare bus/tom bus/OH bus) all to a master drum bus named "Drums". with the master drum bus i typically ad a small amount or reverb to give it a nice room sound (since i only close mic and cant really rely on my room for great sounds... my OH's are never as pristine as i'd like them to be :(...)

In my opinion.. drum sounds are THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to nail... they are typically the driving force of the entire song and its the only really ROOM sound by nature.. flat drums will give a flat mix... great sounding drums will make OTHER things sound even better.

once i have the drums sounding the way i'd like them to sound.. i move on to either rhythm guitar or bass... whoever wants to go first really...

now that you have a GOOD drum sound... it will be easier to make the rest of the instruments to sound better... because when your mixing your song is in its own world really... now that you have that good sound to compare your bass/guitar too... you will understand more of what you need to do to your bass/guitar to get the sound your looking for.

EQ and compression works well here aswell.. try some amp sims/delay/reverb.. really whatever is called for by the song and parts of the instruments.
I typically double track rhythm guitar and pan one take all the way left and the other all the way right, unless there is another guitar part that is taking somewhat of a rhythm role (in other words... not a lead riff).

Lead guitar or piano/keys tend to come next for me and to be honest... lead guitar is nothing but expirementing and it REALLY depends on the context of the song and the surrounding noises... a couple of givens are EQ and compression... besides that your on your own.

Next comes either sequencing if necessary or vocals... which yet again for both... EQ and compression... but then your kinda on your own again.

Delay and reverb will be on most focal tracks, especially for punk
once you have gotten all the instruments sounding thw ay you want them... kinda an "adjust as you go" method.. .mix to "perfection"... mix down, upload to the internet... listen to it on every computer you can, in every car you can.. get opinions... come back.. see if you still like themix... if oyu dont... tweak it

rinse and repeat untill that day you come back and say... "yea... this is where it needs to be"..

then you have yourself a song.

make sure nothing is clipping and dont worry about volume output.. that kind of thing will be taken care of in mastering... if your not mastering... then there are some pretty cool presets in logic that can give you output volume... (mostly just pushing the master track through a limiter and amultipressor and an EQ)

but thats where you will get your volume... NOT by clipping and distorting.

any questions on what i said?

this is just what i do... doesnt mean its good!!! haha but i can send you a clip of a song im working on if it will give me any credibility haha
 
another thing to remember... not everything is going to stand out nor should it.. some things should be hard to hear.. especially if you like layers...
for instance... i am mixing a song currently that has..12 drum tracks (each mic on the kit plus 2 midi tracks)... 1 bass track... 5 guitar tracks.. 2 lead vocals parts both with a high harmony, a choir of 4 tracks, a group vocal part and a harmony to the group vocal..... a total of....

32 tracks at once?.... tamming that beast is pushing my mixing limits... but if i can get that sounding just right then im onto somethin ;)... and im pretty damn close!!!

edit... those are all at once during the outtro btw
 
Bisson820 said:
another thing to remember... not everything is going to stand out nor should it.. some things should be hard to hear.. especially if you like layers...
for instance... i am mixing a song currently that has..12 drum tracks (each mic on the kit plus 2 midi tracks)... 1 bass track... 5 guitar tracks.. 2 lead vocals parts both with a high harmony, a choir of 4 tracks, a group vocal part and a harmony to the group vocal..... a total of....

32 tracks at once?.... tamming that beast is pushing my mixing limits... but if i can get that sounding just right then im onto somethin ;)... and im pretty damn close!!!

edit... those are all at once during the outtro btw
Click to expand...

Wow, that's epic. Good luck with that! :)
 
haha thanks man!.. but... its a beast of a song from a mixing/recording/engineering standpoint!!! its a good thing i love doing it hehe
 
I'm not great at all, but one thing that really helped me was to mix the kick and bass together first with all other faders dropped down. Then add in the snare, then rhythm stuff like guitars, then lead stuff, then vocals. Starting with the rhythm is like getting a strong foundation before getting all of the extras.

I do all of this with no effects (delay, reverb etc.), and if any, minimal compression. Then I'll put on effects and compression and pan stuff and the mix is done.

I also usually pan as I'm going because I usually know where I want things from experience, but I try not to make too many panning decisions until at least the kick and bass and snare are sitting well.
 
thanks!

hell yeah. this is exactly the stuff that i needed. appreciate it all.
but i have one SUPER NOOB question. sry.

what is "mix down." messing with the final output? or processing it to go to mastering? or wut? sry again, all self taught. :D
 
Mixdown is the process of either recording the finished mix back into the DAW (in the case of using outboard gear) or tape, etc, or bouncing/exporting the audio as the finished stereo file.

Cheers :)
 
what he said...in simple terms it is when you render (bounce, whatever your DAW calls it) the mix down to a WAV file (or some other format MP3, AIFF).
 
I personally highpass everything... it results in much better definition...
up to 40hz for a bass drum sometimes...
150hz for the super annoying distorted guitars that take up the whole space.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top