Archive for 'Video'

If you want better mixes, faster, then skip today’s video at your own peril. So much of good mixing technique comes with good foundations that help you from fighting yourself. I’ve learned this the hard way and I’m trying to save you the frustration.

Pretend The Solo Button Doesn’t Exist

When you begin applying EQ to your tracks, don’t do it in solo. If you can avoid the urge to pop that track into solo so you can “focus” on it and hear it “better”, then you’ll save yourself hours of wasted EQing. What matters is how the frequencies interact with the other tracks, so solo EQ is rather pointless.

If you can get EQ right, your mix is almost done. It’s really that important. And like we looked at in yesterday’s video, how you approach EQ has a lot to do with your final result. Today’s tip is no exception.

Cut Away The Bad Stuff

If you want mixes with more clarity, musicality, and headroom, then consider using EQ to cut away the bad stuff than to boosting the good stuff. If you use EQ as primarily a carving tool it will serve you well in the mixing process. Lets take a look.

We’re back with another video mixing tip. Today’s is so foundational that it’s really worth more than one day’s tip. But it’s so easy that it can easily be overlooked by newer mixers.

Mono Forces You To Work Smarter

If you want to get the absolute best EQ balance in your mixes, then make it a habit to do most of your EQ’ing while in mono. That way you won’t have the stereo field to distract you with “easy separation”. You’ll be forced to think hard about which frequencies need attention to get your tracks to sit together well.

Mixing drums is one of the hardest things to do well. But before you even dive into what kind of EQ, compression, and effects you want on the kit, you should take a few minutes to ensure your drum tracks are in phase as best they can be.

A Quick Phase Check Never Hurt

This step isn’t really a tedious one. I generally just try to make sure each close drum mic is at the best possible phase relationship with the overheads. That way you’ll have the fattest, punchiest raw sound to start with. Trust me, when you start to do this, you’ll wonder why you never did it before. Let’s take a look!

Like we looked at yesterday, where you start your mix matters. I know some people like to mix with all the faders up, but I find it a bit easier to zero in on one instrument at a time, and build from there.

Your Anchor Track

One helpful tip is to find the most important instrument for a given mix and start there. Make it your anchor track and begin building the rest of the mix around it. This could be the drums, piano, or even vocals. It all just depends on the song. Let’s take a look.

Welcome to day two of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix. I’ve got plenty of great stuff in store for you and today’s video is no exception. Again, don’t be fooled by it’s simplicity. This one tip can totally change the outcome of your final mix.

Where You Start Matters

When mixing, where you start makes a huge difference. Too many of us jump all around randomly when we mix. Today I’ll make it simple for you. If you can identify the most important section of a song and mix that to perfection first, the rest of the mix will come together naturally!

Welcome back to 5 Minutes To A Better Mix, a free mixing series where we’ll look at 31 mix tips in the next 31 days. I hope you’re ready for a month packed with mixing tips and techniques!

Your Faders Are Like An EQ

To start things off this time I have a huge foundational tip for you: treat your volume faders as your first line of EQ. Sometimes the slightest volume fader tweak between channels can make all the difference in getting the tonal balance you want out of all your tracks. So before you reach for that vintage EQ, go back to the faders and tweak till it’s right.

Share The Wealth

If you like what you’re learning here on the blog, do me a huge favor and share it with at least one other person. We’ve got 30 more videos coming this month so why not share the wealth and help someone else get a great start to their recording and mixing in 2012! Thanks for being a part of The Recording Revolution, and here’s to a year full of great music making!

Want to make more music in your studio this year? Then you’ll be glad to know I’ve brought back the insanely popular 5 Minutes To A Better Mix video series. The first time I did this, thousands of people joined in and watched the videos. Starting this Sunday, January 1st, I’m bringing this free mixing series back with 31 brand new videos covering all new content!

Make Better Music In 2012

I promise you’re going to love round 2 of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix. Just log on to the site each day for the month of January and spend 5 minutes of your day with me learning a new tip, trick, technique, or philosophy and then go apply them to your mixes. Get motivated and pumped to start your year off right with the resources you need to make not just more music, but better music!

Whether you’re looking tighten up a multi-track drum performance or snap whole bass lines into place, Elastic Time in Pro Tools is a great way to do it. In today’s video I want to cover this foundational editing tool built right in to Pro Tools and how to best use it to get smooth, musical edits in your sessions. Let’s dig in!

If you use any one of the Saffire audio interfaces from Focusrite and are trying to setup headphone mixes, this video is for you. Coming from the Pro Tools world where we never used an in between software mixer with our interfaces, I was more than confused when I first opened up the Saffire MixControl with my Liquid Saffire 56. I’ve since figured out a solid workflow between the interface and my DAW. This video will explain how to setup zero-latency headphone mixes. Let’s dig in…