Can somebody explain how a spectrum analyser helps you mix if you don’t already understand what’s going on? It’s perfectly possible to interpret the results if you have learned to link eyes and ears, but I’ve spent the summer with the display of my output of live sound displayed on a screen and I don’t think it helps me mix, but it clearly helps me see what goes on. Watching it during a Queen tribute, I could see the bass player’s contribution on another one bites the dust. Every note spiking so it could be followed. Interesting. But where would that fader sit? That’s an ear thing. Same with the kick which was quite close to the bass note in the display, but wider. It’s like having a recipe meter, every ingredient of the chilli displayed on the screen, but how much of each one to make it excellent is down to taste, not the ingredients as a list in the book.
I would be screwed without it. sometimes my ears tell me that my mix is not bright enough but the analyzer is telling me its fine. i literally have to ignore what my ears are telling me and trust my eyes. when listening to the mix again in the morning its all good! luckily i can get frequency balances and seperation with fatigued ears (within reason) but i just cant judge brightness.
Literally sometimes I have no idea if vocal needs to be brighter, or if the rhythm guitars need to be duller, a quick look at the analyzer and I know straight away.
When mixing the hard hitting chorus's or densly packed tracks I use the entire frequency range and WILL fill in any consistent holes that the spectrum anaylzer picks up on. Which lets me have tracks lower down in the mix while being heard well, which in turn translates beautifully. If I don't approach balancing in that way and try to just wing it by ear, I will end up with a kickass mix that sounds great in my studio only. Example: My first instinct is to listen to the tone of a lead guitar and think to myself, if I eq up a bit at 600hz to fill in this valley a bit, which helps pop the track out of the mix and make it sit perfectly, then am I ruining the tone? and if I think yes.... then I will nudge the whole thing up 1db with the fader instead and it will sound awesome in my studio but when listening on another speaker, that 1db lift becomes far too apparant and the track sits right on top and you get an urge to turn down the speakers when that part comes in. Using the spectrum analyzer can really stop me from making some wrong choices because the lesser of the evil is actually a SLIGHTLY worse tone with the tradeoff that the track gets glued in place and translates.
I can achieve a mix that has everything at the same volume (by perception) and no matter where I listen to the mix everything seems to just sit right. No way can I do that without the spectral display. But I wish I could. Maybe I would have better luck if I was to take my time more and have frequent breaks. I dunno.
It has a sound if you mix that way, and it can be flat and boring, but once you got the flat and boring static mix then you can go nuts. It's the equivellent of mixing in mono where you get the mono mix banging, and then you can go nuts with panning and it will just sound extremely polished and professional.
I am trying not to rely on it. It's a personal goal of mine to scrap it actually. But my ears are going to have to be damn near golden for that to happen.
I can't remember what mixer said it but he was asked (when do you know when the mix is finished? and he replied.... When everyone in the band thinks their instrument is the loudest) The spectrum analyzer is my only hope right now.
I don't use reference tracks by the way until after the mix is pretty much done, the spectrum analyzer is my crutch instead. Some people prefer the reference tracks instead but I am trying to force my ear to learn what a good mix sounds like without references. it's a nightmare but I think if i do it enough....
