mixing price

  • Thread starter Thread starter RobbieD
  • Start date Start date
Don't just turn down "some" of the reverb. You should (IMHO) avoid tracking with any reverb/delay on anything, since all that stuff can be applied later on during the mix when you can really hear how it sounds together with other tracks.
Sure...that lush string pad track sounds great by itself with all that reverb...then you add another...and another...and pretty soon you have soup.
There are very rare conditions that might warrant recording a track with reverb/delay effects...but it's best to wait for the mix before adding those things in.
Also...where's all that reverb on your vocals coming from??? That's even more extreme than what you have on your keyboards.
Dry out that stuff. You will find that *during the mix* (not tracking...no reverb during tracking) if you pull back the reverb on a lot of stuff, you'll need that much less on your vocals. Have some completely dry (NO reverb/delay) tracks too, as that creates contrast and depth in a mix...not just cavernous reverb on everything.


Cutoff and resonance on your keyboard most likely refer to the dialing in of specific frequencies that enhance/focus the patch. Resonance is the amount of...well, resonance... :D of the frequency. It affects the level of a chosen frequency.
Cutoff is the point where you are terminating the resonant frequency.
Those sliders are best set with experimentation and your ears.
 
agreed

ill record some synths with reverb in the patch if Im sure thats what Im going to finally use but whenever possible I just turn it off and add it in the mix...effects should really be part of the mixing process not the tracking

I use a lot of delays and reverbs and its a balancing act to not end up with a soup....sometimes a high pass the reverb on the aux to keep some of the darkness out of the mix if that makes sense


its also important to use different delay and reverb effects and not just one of each on an aux bus....this will help separate the sounds
 
RobbieD, I listened to some of your stuff from your Youtube channel (Rolling in the deep accapella). You definitely have some talent there man and you have pretty good pitch. A bit less strength there in the falsetto parts, and when you drop to a low note, but strong for the most part. Without backing music behind you, you seem to have better control. Are you using reverb on your voice while tracking? I would suggest you pull back on that if you are, and also experiment with panning your headphone mix to one side and pulling the other off your ear a bit so you can hear your voice in the room while you track. I think having less reverb in the tracks you are recording to, may also help with pitch issues while tracking.

Overall, you got some skills there man. Refine them. And don't take any of these criticisms as attacks. Take em as opinions that you can better yourself with. See you on an 'Idol' show soon! :D
 
Thanks dude, ya i have alot better control with accapella bcuz i can hear myself perfectly.. no i dun;t record with any reverb on it, its completely dry
 
yo guys ive been trying to get everything in perfect pitch, but the low notes are pretty anoying, so how much does melodyne cost, i looked at it on youtube, it looks pretty sick, and will it work with cubase 5?
 
Yes it does. $234.00. You know you have pitch correction in Cubase 5 right? VariAudio. Not quite as smoothas Melodyne, but I use it quite often. :D
 
jimmys69 said:
experiment with panning your headphone mix to one side and pulling the other off your ear a bit so you can hear your voice in the room while you track.
Click to expand...

+1 for this. Most people I've recorded do this, and I do it.
I find it really hard to sing well with headphones on properly.
But then I find it hard to sing well in general! :p

It's probably really bad advice, but lately I've just been recording with no headphones, and the monitors really really quiet.
Works for me.
 
jimmys69 said:
Yes it does. $234.00. You know you have pitch correction in Cubase 5 right? VariAudio. Not quite as smoothas Melodyne, but I use it quite often. :D
Click to expand...

on steinberg site it only shows Cubase 6 and VariAudio isn't listed in the plugins :confused:

Feature Comparison*:**|*http://www.steinberg.net/

ok wait - maybe it's not a plug-in - its a built in feature?

ok NM - its in Audio-editing features....

now i will look for pricing'

- ok well upgrade is $299 so probably wont be getting Cubase 6... I will check out the melodyne offer again :)

- I did try the melodyne trial but it seemed to be really complicated - all those lines and curves and peaks and valley's... I messed with it for an hour and was like - screw it
 
That would be because VariAudio isn't a plug-in. It's built into the editor. You pull it up by double clicking an event then select it. You should get C6. :D
 
jimmys69 said:
That would be because VariAudio isn't a plug-in. It's built into the editor. You pull it up by double clicking an event then select it. You should get C6. :D
Click to expand...

$300 man - I am kinda broke ATM... that's a bit of a stretch
 
RobbieD said:
Ok so I got the program, how do I put it in cubsae
Click to expand...

Should be install instructions. You run the installer and make sure it puts the plug-in in your plug-ins folder in you Cubase folder. then restart Cubase
 
Long story short, $600 is a totally fair price for a one-off mix from a guy with ample experience and a good-sounding reel.

If anything, $600 is fairly inexpensive for a really decent mix of a single song at a good studio. $400 would be a real bargain. I don't know many people who I'd trust to do a good job who'd mix at a rate less than $400/day. And remember, a relatively dense modern track could easily take 8 or more hours to mix. especially if it's a one-off.

What you're really paying for is time and expertise. In my experience, a decent studio with a proven engineer crafting a compelling mix will likely run you $400/day at the low-end of the spectrum, $800/day and up or so for someone you've actually heard of (who's mixed a bunch of records you've actually enjoyed listening to) and $1,000+ for someone very much in demand. Things go much higher than that if we include the exclusive cabal of major-label mixer-dudes and successful snakeoil salesmen.

Of course, if you're lucky and in an inexpensive market, you may be able to find someone who's fairly capable but still learning for something more like $200-300/day. College students itching for experience may charge even less. If you're really lucky, the person you wind up with will be really great at it and that price will be a steal. (In which case they won't be charging that little for long!) If you're less lucky, they'll really stink at it, and after a long, drawn-out series of back-and-forth negotiations and remixes, you'll be out $300, looking for someone more capable to start over from scratch.

Of course, it is possible to bring down the per-song cost of a mix if you're getting several songs mixed as a batch. Alternately, if you're not in a rush and willing to have a hobbyist or semi-pro mix on their home pro-tools rig nights and weekends, your could also save some money that way and get some ok results if you happen to hook up with a someone who's really talented.

Anyway you slice it, that old adage from the construction world applies here: "Cheap, fast, good. Pick any two."
 
oki just played around with melodine, please tell me that the pitch shift can move to anywhere you move it, becuase im moving it to exacly on the note and becase i was flat to the note, when i go to move it upward it goes too sharp... is there something im not doing right or is that how it is??
 
Hold down 'ctrl' while you move it. Or is it 'shift'? One of the two will get you in between (Variaudio is different). If the music you are tracking to is out from 440, then you need to compromise. You may also find that the note that MD finds to be the right one, may not be. If it doesn't separate notes correctly, realize that it is assuming what it 'hears'. In other words, if you hit the wrong note to begin a phrase and dropped down to the note that MD read, you my need to cut the segment and tune them separately.

You really should watch some tutorials/manual/Google searching. It is really hard for me to explain how to use MD without being in the same room with you.

BTW, did you try to use VariAudio in Cubase before you purchased Melodyne?
 
no lol but its ok, ok that worked thanks dude. so how do i use melodyne with cubase 5? i keep looking for tutorials but i cant find one that helps
 
I'm confused, what worked if you haven't used Melodyne in C5? I can help better if you answer questions and give more specifics.
 
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