Read what i did, tell me if its crazy!!

[Chris Jahn]

Ill try to send some samples tonight or tomarrow when i have a chance but in the meen time read what i did to a troubled mix and tell me if it was the "right" aproach or if i just randomly stumbled across somthing that happens to sound good, cuz im more pleased with this than anything ive done so far.

I had a song that was tracked a little thin in the guitars, The snare was a litle uneven (becasue of the drummer not being consistant), the floor tom was "flapppy" (cuz i tried a new micing techinique and it sucked) basically the over all mix i had going was just kinda lame to put in lightly, Then........

I started from scratch. I got the kick and snares (top and bottom) sounding good, light compression, the right eq, no verb, and carfully automated each snare hit up or down to even them out. I then bused those three to a heavy compression and they KICKED ASS. Then i did the same with the toms and sent them to there own compression busses. I then brought in the overheads with zero eq or comp cuz they didnt sem to need them. Then the bass, I eqd the bass so soloed it was lame, no bottom, but i did that intentionally to keep in from conflicting with the kick. the sound in the mix was good, then guittars with the super highs and super lows rolled off, but a BIG boost in the mids, and a little bump around 1k and the near freaquencies for some edgyness and brightness but no harshness.

Then doubled the vocal track with light comp on one and heavy on the other.

Then i sent EVERTHING to a bus with one standard reverb and ajusted the mix of that verb with each individual bus pot, the idea was to give the mix an overall "live" feel by sharing a common verb.

Then some misc noise and effects i had going in the song (some midi stuff and some Kaoss pad stuff) went into the mix.

After that a little automation to bring certain guitars up and down as needed and i was done. SOOOOOOO, im happy with what i hear, but did i go about it in a round about stupid uneconomical way, or was all this nonsence a "smart" aproach??

thanks for reading, like i said i try to send it soon.

 

[FALKEN]

all of that sounds about right. except cutting the lows out of the bass. I usually boost the bass at about 100 and the kick at 60 but if it sounds good for the song, then it IS good. Also the vocals can usually benefit from some volume rides but again, if it sounds good then it IS good. you also might experiment with automating the reverb.

 

[s_amuel]

Yeah, the heavy compression/distorted-bus for drums is standard for me nowadays- that is a kick-ass trick! i´m working on a "vintage-sounding" mix right now so I want the drums pretty dull/dark... we´ll see if that bus is needed.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Ill try to send some samples tonight or tomarrow when i have a chance but in the meen time read what i did to a troubled mix and tell me if it was the "right" aproach or if i just randomly stumbled across somthing that happens to sound good, cuz im more pleased with this than anything ive done so far.

I had a song that was tracked a little thin in the guitars, The snare was a litle uneven (becasue of the drummer not being consistant), the floor tom was "flapppy" (cuz i tried a new micing techinique and it sucked) basically the over all mix i had going was just kinda lame to put in lightly, Then........

I started from scratch. I got the kick and snares (top and bottom) sounding good, light compression, the right eq, no verb, and carfully automated each snare hit up or down to even them out. I then bused those three to a heavy compression and they KICKED ASS. Then i did the same with the toms and sent them to there own compression busses. I then brought in the overheads with zero eq or comp cuz they didnt sem to need them. Then the bass, I eqd the bass so soloed it was lame, no bottom, but i did that intentionally to keep in from conflicting with the kick. the sound in the mix was good, then guittars with the super highs and super lows rolled off, but a BIG boost in the mids, and a little bump around 1k and the near freaquencies for some edgyness and brightness but no harshness.

Then doubled the vocal track with light comp on one and heavy on the other.

Then i sent EVERTHING to a bus with one standard reverb and ajusted the mix of that verb with each individual bus pot, the idea was to give the mix an overall "live" feel by sharing a common verb.

Then some misc noise and effects i had going in the song (some midi stuff and some Kaoss pad stuff) went into the mix.

After that a little automation to bring certain guitars up and down as needed and i was done. SOOOOOOO, im happy with what i hear, but did i go about it in a round about stupid uneconomical way, or was all this nonsence a "smart" aproach??

thanks for reading, like i said i try to send it soon.

I believe they call that "mixing".