Please teach me how to mix!

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Boray

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I know my mixes have quite a bit left to commercial standard. When I listen to commercial CDs, they simply sound a lot better. I suspect that it probably isn't really possible to get to those levels of professionalism in the mixes with the recordings I now have on my VS1680, but at least I want them to sound as good as I can. The one point that comes back in critisism of my mixes is lack of space/depth. Everything sounds upfront in your face or in the same spot people says (not ordinary people, but some other recording hobbyists). Now, what should I do about this? Use more reverb? Wouldn't that just make the mix more muddy? I think it's a lot more easy to create a sense of space with a few instruments. But I often pack in quite much in my tunes, making practically no room for too much reverb without making it too muddy... But anyway, what should I do to for example move an instrument futher back in the mix? Keep it uncompressed, roll off a bit of the high end and put more reverb on it? And to move something forward, it should not have much reverb and compress it a lot? Is that basically it? What instruments should typically be moved back in a mix? And what should I do to for example move a delay tail back in the mix? Roll off a bit on the high end? Put some reverb on it? (that could be tricky on the VS1680)...

If you want some reference, the latest mixes I have available are these three here:
http://hem.fyristorg.com/boray/wtg/
(The Star Trek song and the one of A or B that sounds best to you ;) )
And this one:


Thanks!
/Anders
 
The only one I can really comment on is the Butterfly track. Everything seems to be centered right down the middle. The sound stage has three elements, which is documented in a number of books.

Tall, Deep and Wide.

Tall (low to high frequencies) - Your mixes tend toward the high and less towards the lo. If that's your style then fine. I would like to have heard a broader range however. It sounds like you may be putting a master EQ across the mix, just a guess, that's cutting off the around 60-150. I think the power is taken away when this is done. Speculating here.

Deep, (Various levels of reverb on different insturments) creates a sense of the overall space, how fast things bounce off the walls.

Wide, (Delay and panning) - this is the one area which I would have worked on in your mixes. Setting the music up across a stage from left to right. Try to keep everything out of the middle except vocal, bass and kick. This rule is pretty standard but not critical. However, moving things around from left to right can reduce EQ build up, which is another reason that your mixes might be so intensely crisp.

Another reason for an EQ buildup might be the same preamp used for recording everything. Doing this starts to put the possible unwanted characteristics of a particular piece of gear into the sound of your tracks.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you very much!!!

I did a new mix today where I tried to think about "depth". I simply did what I suggested myself in my post above. Plus that I tried to hold back a very old habit from my stereo days -boosting the highs too much. Now it's hopefully more balanced.

Here it is:
(260kb)

And here is the old version:
(260kb)

Is the new mix any better? You are very welcome to comment on it. Did I manage to give more depth into it?

Thanks!
/Anders
 
Yeah that's closer to the mark. Somthing about the sound of the vocal bothers me but there was not enough track there to pinpoint.
 
Now you can also compare my most recent mix of this section...


To an old mix done on my old stereo (exactly the same section)
(260kb)

Because most of this song (or tune) was originally recorded in 2001. It was then an instrumental. So here you can now compare the difference between and old stereo mix - and a monitors mix + 2 years of more experiance (and maybe a change in taste)... Well, on this stereo I listen to here, the old section sounds almost about as good actually... Have I learned absolutely NOTHING in 2 years? Great....!!!

/Anders
 
when it comes to wide....clue me in on something here.....I double my guitar track....i pan one all the way left and the other all the way right....whether i put both in mono or stereo...they both still sound like their in the middle...how do i get that filling guitar sound? just go back in and record another guitar track? and pan that one so the guitar isnt exactly alike?
 
If you have exactly the same guitar track (same take) in both the left and right speakers, what you have is exactly as if you put the one track in the middle. You'll have to either add delay to the guitars with different parameters for each channel, or re-record one of the guitar tracks. Then, you'll get that wider, thicker guitar tone.

A channel "in the middle" is essentially the same thing as being equal volumes in both sides.
 
LOVE THEM CANADIANS! cool deal i thought about that and then brushed it off thinking "nah that probably wouldnt work"
 
No problem. Yep, I'm a Canadian... about a 10 minute drive from 2 US borders. Still, I've only been to the US about 10 times in my life.
 
havent been to canada yet but when i become a senior citizen I'll have a dual citizenship so i can get some cheap medicine. but in the mean time I'm about 18 hours drive from the canadian border
 
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