Part 14 of 31 - Working with a thin, maybe weak sounding snare drum in the mix? Need to fatten it up a bit? No problem. Just grab your stock EQ and let’s get to work.
The key to using an EQ to fatten up a snare is to go searching for the fat frequency. Every snare has one. Usually in the low mids. Once you find it, you can emphasize it over some of the other frequencies in the track, gain match it, and KABAM: fatter snare!
Part 13 of 31 - Are you sure your EQ or compressor is making your track sound better? Could it be that you’ve only made the track louder?
The honest truth is, we as humans tend to think that louder sounds better. If you do any processing on your track that makes the track louder, you will favor the sound with the plugin than without the plugin. Louder sounds like we’ve enhanced it somehow. To fix this, you must gain match your plugins before making a true comparison.
Part 12 of 31 - It seems to be the age old question: should you EQ before you compress? Or the other way around? Well there is no right or wrong way to do this. But here’s a suggestion.
My preference, generally speaking, is to place my EQ before my compressor. I like to think of EQ as a way to clean up or fix a track. You can remove offending frequencies and accentuate the better ones. Then you can use compression to enhance or reveal more intentionally what’s left.
Part 11 of 31 - Struggling to get your kick drum and bass guitar to both be heard in the mix? Here’s a little compression trick you can use to free up a bit of space for both to live peacefully.
By strategically using a key input and sidechain you can have your kick drum triggering a compressor on the bass guitar, turning it down just a hair every time the kick drum hits. The result? You always hear the kick drum instead of it getting lost under the bass. It’s easier than it sounds.
Part 10 of 31 - One of the easiest ways to make impact with your drums is to take advantage of panning. Like narrow? Awesome. Like wide? Great. How about both?
Mixing is all about impact. And one simple and effective to way to create impact is to automate your drum overhead panning through the mix. Start with a narrow panned overhead in the verses and then open up the panning wide in the chorus. It’s subtle but it will open up the mix in a tangible way.
Part 9 of 31 - Want a hack to get good compression settings on drums? Turn down your speakers. I mean way down. Then start dialing in the compression.
The truth is, it’s easy to fool yourself into thinking your drums sound awesome if you mix with them at loud volumes. The trick is to set your compression levels when the drums are super quiet. If you can get them to snap and have punch at low volumes, you’re dialing in the right amount of compression.
Part 8 of 31 - Wish you could save CPU power and bring your mixes together faster? It might be time to consider processing your tracks on the buss level first before putting plugins on the individual tracks.
One thing I’ve been doing a lot more of lately is processing my drums, guitars, and other similar instruments on the group level with a buss or aux track first. With fewer plugins I can bring my mix closer to the sound in my head, in less time. And isn’t that what many of us are short on these days: CPU power and time?
Part 7 of 31 - Want to mix faster and learn your plugins better? Then treat your DAW like an analog console and only use one EQ and compressor for everything in the mix.
The great thing about mixing consoles is they have only one EQ and one compressor on every channel. It makes mixing fast, intuitive, and fluid. We have too many choices when mixing in a DAW so keep it simple, pick one eq and one compressor to the lion’s share of your mixing and you’ll work faster and learn more in the process.
Part 6 of 31 - Want a bigger sounding mix with more width and clarity? Then pick one stereo track to stay stereo and fold the rest down to mono. Ironic, isn’t it?
I always thought big wide stereo tracks were the goal. Have stereo piano, stereo guitar, stereo drums, stereo loops, etc. That much stereo should equal one big ole’ mix, right?! Wrong. The secret to wider mixes is simple: use mostly mono tracks. A bunch of stereo tracks just cover each other up and wash out your mix.
Part 5 of 31 - Where you put the volume faders and pan pots at the beginning of the mixing process has tremendous influence on the sound of your final mix. Before you jump into processing, you want to create a great static mix.
If your tracks had to stay at only one volume and pan position for the entire mix, where would they be? This is the question you want to ask yourself as you begin the mixing process. Get the mix to sound solid with only volume and pan and you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
Graham Cochrane is a creative and versatile producer, engineer, songwriter, and worship leader based out of Tampa, FL. He provides remote mixing, and mastering services to clients worldwide.
As the founder of The Recording Revolution, Graham's articles and tutorials have been featured worldwide by Avid, PreSonus, Slate Digital, Editors Keys, and Behringer to name a few, reaching readers in over 40 countries.
For more information and samples of Graham's work, please visit www.grahamcochrane.com.
RT @Slateproaudio: Fun Fact: Little kids believe anything you say. That explains why the 8 year old next door is telling people that I inve…22 hours ago
Recording drums this week? Consider this approach for your bag of tricks... http://t.co/nrPdUMYzzOyesterday
Why placing your drum overhead(s) over the drummer's shoulder makes sense... http://t.co/xJw2DHcfCWyesterday
