Mike Caliri
New member
Has anybody tried mixing with pink noise?
Why would you want pink noise in your mix?
That would be a no. Do you by chance mean an analyzer?
So, how exactly do we make this pink noise work to our advantage when mixing? The idea is that you use a noise generator (I’ll recommend a free one in a moment) to create the pink noise, and calibrate it so that, at the stereo bus, it registers a sensible average level for mixing on your meters. With the noise level set, you solo your first source, so that it alone plays alongside the pink noise, and balance it directly against the noise by ear. You’re aiming to find the level at which the source is just barely audible above the noise, but not hidden. Then mute that source, solo the next one and repeat. And go through each and every source in the same way. Take away the noise and you’ll have your basic level mix. That’s just an overview, though. Now I’ll take you through things step-by-step.
What happened to just making stuff sound good?
Good monitoring and practice will give you good mixes.
I can see it possibly being useful for a beginner or in an adverse acoustic situation.
Most of the shortcuts that I've seen discussed are, at best, a crutch and at worst, a waste of time that keeps you from actually getting better.
Most of it has to do with some need for speed...
I always tell people that I like to take my time and I move slowly in the studio.
My backlog is 15 years long, and I only have so much free time to record. I'm always looking for tricks to help me record faster!
(Ironically, I'll often spend an entire day working on a fix that will maybe save me 30 minutes.)
I just had to cut up an hour and a half long tracking session into what ended up being 54 individual "songs"
...
if it took me more than an hour, I'd be doing it for free.