Tips for a noob mixer....

[stepXinXtheXmix]

Hey all, I'm fairly new to the world of mixing and mastering....I just bought a new Pro Tools LE system and have some songs that I recorded of a friend and I'm wanting to learn some tricks to a really good mix....

I usually start with the drums and shape the drums, then moving on to guitars, bass, piano and synth and then lastly vocals. I bounce to disk and run down to the car and do a "car test". The mix sound ok. But nothing like some of the stuff i've recorded myself at other studios when I played with my band. i.e. loudness, fullness and punch.

Some things that I hear are....

Kick gets lost in mix
Guitars sound harsh
as the mix or song grows background vox don't pop like they should

Are there any book, tips, videos that you all can suggest? I'd really appreciate it!

 

[doulos24]

first thing you dont do is turn it to your ears bleed

ok so now that you spent quite a bit on your equipment the fancy computer and your recording setup now you want to learn to mix. that's cool we all started somewhere, but now would be the time where you should listen to us when we tell you to treat your room with acoustic treatment. don't start anywhere else. You can't mix what you can't hear and learning your room and your speakers in an untreated room the moment you move your setup it will be like mixing blind trust me on this. The things I would do while working on treating your room would be things like this. Get well mixed albums and listen to the play back with a db meter set at a decent mix level about 75 to 85db or so and start learning what good music sounds like on your monitors find a style or album that resembles what your aiming for with the tracks you have and try to get comparable levels in the low end if your in a dorm or something get some small refrence speakers and work with them that should help take the "room" out of the mix and give you a guide to what things will sound like from diffrent playback systems

read everything you can on mixing and mix as much as posible in the same setup on the same speakers at the same volume level roughly 80 to 85 db
experement with eq and compression over do it and learn what it sounds like same with reverb and most importantly treat your room treat your room treat your room dont be afraid to hear you suck cause your going to and learn to take and ask for critique. mixing is an art form and takes years to learn

 

[Chili]

Well, right off the bat I can tell ya, you aren't going to get commercial quality mixes when you're just starting out. It isn't as simple as buying all the right plugs and gear and everything comes together for you. There's a lot of factors that go into getting a decent mix, the first being experience. You just gotta keep at it, experiment with the mix. Make changes, see what it does. Some work, some don't.

Read, read, read. Start in the forums here. Do seaches for topics that you need help on. Drums, Greg_L did a great tutorial on tracking and mixing drums. It's a sticky in the drum section. Mics and positioning is covered in another great thread by Harvey Gerst in the mic section. Your room is important. Go to the Studio Construction section and read about ways to improve your room.

Read some more. I bought the book Homerecording for Musicians for Dummies by Jeff Strong when I first started recording seriously. Read it in one day, still refer to it every so often. Good book for starting out. There's many more.

Post your samples in the MP3 clinic and get feedback on your mixes. Lot of people here are putting out great songs from their home studios. You can get good feedback and suggestions. Be sure to participate when others post their work for review. You'll get more comments when you give more comments. Take special note of the songs that did't do so well. Find out what was wrong with the mix.

lots of work ahead of you. It's too much fun.

 

[Murdersgalore]

Post your samples in the MP3 clinic and get feedback on your mixes.

I second that advice. Nothing helped me out more than having other ears on my stuff. You may find yourself concentrating on one part of the mix so much that you ignore the rest. Let someone else hear it. Not just the pothead next door but some of the trained ears here. I have been recording shit for nearly 15 years or so and I am just now getting results I am truly happy with.

It isn't as simple as buying all the right plugs and gear and everything comes together for you. There's a lot of factors that go into getting a decent mix, the first being experience.

This man knows his shit. I record alot of my stuff these days with a very minimalistic approach. You won't find a guitar rack with a bunch of modelers or a huge palette of mics or see me mixing on Pro Tools with a bazillion different plug-ins going. If you can get things to sound good before the mic or the line, there is no reason to change it with the exception of eq and such.

Of course, I am just reinforcing their thoughts so here's a thought of my own. If you want to get good at mixing/recording in general than do it. Do it any chance you can. Sure you can read about it and ask about it and buy books and equipment, but just like learning an instrument or training for a sport the best learning experience is trial and error.

 

[stepXinXtheXmix]

First off thanks for the input....

The position i'm in right now is I'm in the process of remodeling my two rooms and I am definitely investing in some acoustic treatment, thats just a given. I know some basics about mixing but when it gets to the technical stuff, as far as getting the maximum volume out of the mix. I am definitely not looking to get super professional quality out of this setup but I know for sure i can get a good quality recording.

I'll definitely post some mp3's of what I've mixed so far. But have mercy on me cause i'm not in an acoustic sound room what so ever. I'm kinda in limbo and trying to get a feel for using pro tools.