What's a play by play of the mixing process?

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Spaceboy108

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From step one to finished product ready for mastering, what's involved in mixdown?

I'm trying to branch from a solo musician to recording bands, and right now it seems like I'm only messing around with volume levels and panning on tracks. What other tools are commonly used to make mixes really come together?
 
You'll find many threads on this question here, and just as many different approaches.
Most people will start with the drums, then add bass, rhythm instruments, then vocals and any lead instrument parts, 'building' the mix.

Mixing your own work compared to mixing someone else's makes a big difference - doing your own stuff, you have a good idea what you want for an overall sound.
 
Spaceboy108 said:
I'm only messing around with volume levels and panning on tracks.
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That's a good place to start. As you build more of an idea how to mix according to those two elements, other tools like EQ and effects become part of the picture.
 
Yeah, EQ and effects is where I don't know to get started, or when it's needed. There seems to be something missing frmo some mixes I've done of "real" music, while I never had this problem when recording personal music via DI.

I'll probably buy that book though. I've been needing something to read anyway.
 
Read....read....trail & error...trial & error...read....read...trial & error...trial & error....read...read...
...trial & success. :)

That's from my own play-by-play book...covering many years. :D
 
when it comes down to mixing bands think of the mix like viewing the band in a 3D soundstage

first get your anchors working if that what drives the tune

bring the volume up, the use panning to move the instruments around the stage so they or not treading on each other (remember drums sit around 10am to 2pm, you wont hear the high hats coming from the left of the stage)

if two instruments are canceling each other use EQ to separate them, if that doesnt work then use delay or reverb to move one of the further back

pretty simplistic but if you imagine the stage as a 3D semi circle, pan moves your instruments left to right, EQ moves them up and down in frequency, and reverb/delay moves gives the depth

dont add anything you dont need to, you dont salt food without tasting it do you?

Once you set your mix up set up buses for similar instruments and colour code, once you in the habit of being well organised you'll get a quicker worfkflow

this is all really simplistic, read the book below and practice, mix everything, even sketches or files of the web, it'll all help




Tweakberry said:
you can start right here, best $35 i ever spent

Amazon.com: Mixing Audio, Second Edition: Concepts, Practices and Tools (9780240522227): Roey Izhaki: Books
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Bruce Miller is a Grammy Award winning engineer trying to help keep the old school studio mastery alive while all of us are out there hacking it to pieces.. ;)
His web site is full of awesome tips and tricks that he is offering to us for free (as he has time to contribute). Here's a video of the first 10 minutes of a mix session... Great stuff :)
The BAM Audio School
 
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