To any Pro mixer/producer

  • Thread starter Thread starter ecktronic
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ecktronic

ecktronic

Mixing and Mastering.
I am wondering what you folk do when automating your mixes. It is mainly the drums i am concerned about. I mean do yous automate the drums aswell as the other parts (if needed)?? It seems like alot to do automating everything in respect to everything!!
I know if something needs done in automation you should do it, but i just want to know if automating drums is a common practice in mixing.
Would you buss your drums to a stereo pair? That would make it easier to control the volume, but then you couldnt bring say the snare out at parts where it seems to get hidden under the rest of the mix.
Any feedback would be appreciated as i am going to start mixing down my first studio recording demo in a few weeks. ( i will put it on mp3 section for critique.)
 
I hate to tell you this - Anything that needs to be automated is automated.

I've mixed albums where almost every track has some sort of automation for one song and none at all for the next.

It's totally dependent on what needs to be done during the mix.
 
I agree with John, at the very least you want to use mute automation to get rid of count-offs, stick clicks, and the drummer farting between drum breaks.
 
ecktronic said:
I am wondering what you folk do when automating your mixes. It is mainly the drums i am concerned about. I mean do yous automate the drums aswell as the other parts (if needed)??
Yes.

It seems like alot to do automating everything in respect to everything!!
I know if something needs done in automation you should do it, but i just want to know if automating drums is a common practice in mixing.
Would you buss your drums to a stereo pair?
Yes.

That would make it easier to control the volume, but then you couldnt bring say the snare out at parts where it seems to get hidden under the rest of the mix.
You can still control the individual volumes, as almost all bussing/summing is done post fader.

Be careful with mute automation as it can introduce some popping if the software/console/etc. is not "pro". I prefer to use volume automation and have a steep curve for ups and downs. Also compression is your friend when mixing drums. I often like to send my drum tracks through one bus and my cymbals/overheads/room to another. Then I can hit a compressor a little on the drums to even things out without having to worry about the cymbals "pumping".
 
Cheers everyone, i will try my best with the mix and see what happens. I hope yous will critique my recording and mixing skills in around 2-3 weeks when i post a sample up in the mp3 section. I have a fair idea what i want to be doing, its another thing getting it done within a certain time!!
 
When it comes to drums in particular, a lot of times you can make two drum mixes and cut or crossfade between them in different parts of the song.

A mellow, natural sound with more cymbal/overhead/room ambience during mellower parts and a triggered, gated reverbed, snare and kick out front sound for loud parts for example

Enveloping or muting out dead space in tom tracks can be a form of automation

this is the age of the million dollar demo. Figure that you must automate EVERYTHING, and anything you dont have to is a blessing
 
Cheers pipeline audio. I spent a couple of hours in the studio today mixing one of the songs i recorded. I came into a few problems though. For some reason my kik drum track had my audio click track in it instead of my kik drum! The kik wave was still there in the right place (track 1) in cubase VST 5 but when i played the track it was the audio click! I looked at the vst inputs and the cubase channel mixer and everything seemed ok. IM CONFUSED to what is wrong. Something else happened with one of my other songs where every track came out on channel 1 and 2 and not where they were meant to be!! even though i checked the vst inputs and channel mixer!
Any help would be great with this BIG problem. If i canny fix it i am going to be soooo far behind.

Anyway on a lighter note, here is a sample of a quick rough mix with NO automation (yet). enjoy and rip it too shreds.

PHRANTIK
http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamM3U.m3u?ID=1666756&q=Hi
 
If it needs automation--do it. One of the best mixdown tools ever... next to compression. :)
 
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