Archive for 'volume'

These days, everything in the studio seems to blend together. From recording, to mixing, to arranging, to songwriting. Some people are even trying to master while they mix. It can get confusing and convoluted. So the question for today will be: is it OK to mix while you record? And if so what does that look like?

In fact recently a TRR reader emailed this quandry, and I’m sure many of you can identify with his situation:

I might pan some of the guitars, turn them down, etc while I get ready to track another guitar, keyboard part, bass, etc. Is that normal or should I not touch anything on the mixer until the song is pretty much done in the recording phase? – Doug (TRR reader)

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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.

Anything Can Sound Good Loud

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 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.

Mix With Only Volume And Pan

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.

I think the hardest part of a mix is the end. That point where you are 90% of the way there, and it’s all to easy to cut out early, declare the mix over, and render that sucker down. Either we get impatient, or honestly we’re simply tired of the song. We’re over it already. Time to move on.

Before you reach for the Bounce To Disk option, you would be wise to consider a simple four step listening check. This process is fast, simple, and free,  and it could be the very thing that takes your mix to the next level. What are the four steps? Well, they actually are one step just repeated four different ways. Simply put, you’ve likely been working on one set of speakers the majority of the mix. Now is the time gauge your mix in four different listening environments, each with its own set of clues.

Step 1 – The Low Level Listen

Hopefully you’ve been already mixing at a reasonably low level the entire time. Why? Because your ears won’t be fooled by the hyped highs and lows characteristic of loud volumes. But what I’m suggesting you do first is turn your speakers way down (think light background music), turn off your computer monitor, and just listen to the faint noise of your mix.
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When it comes to mixing there’s one thing you must know about yourself. You will always prefer louder sounds over quieter ones. If we compare two vocal passes, we’ll pick the one that’s louder. If we compare two plugin settings, we’ll choose the one that is louder. It’s a well documented phenomenon, but how do we fight it? Gain matching.

Compressors And Makeup Gain

Compression is one area that I feel we can easily fool ourselves into thinking a compressor is either hurting or helping our tracks. In one scenario, we’ll slap a compressor on something like the mix buss, dial in a preset or some standard settings, and we’ll think, “Man this makes my mix sound better already!” Could it be that the compressor is simply boosting the signal by 3db and it sounds more exciting? The same could be true if the compressor setting makes your mix quieter. You think, “Where did my mix go?!”
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Do you ever second guess your volume levels near the end of a mix? Yeah, I tend to lose my mind on this when mixing. You think you have a track at the best volume level possible, but you aren’t sure. It can be maddening.

Finding The Sweet Spot

One simple and effective way to find that volume sweet spot of a track is to implement the 4db “rule”. It’s not so much a rule as it is a helpful framework for fine tuning your mix.

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!

The more mistakes you stop making, the better your mixes will be. Plain and simple. And we all make mistakes, it’s how you learn. In this series of posts I want to help you eliminate six of the most common mistakes I see young engineers making (and that I’ve made myself) in order for your mixes to improve. If you missed part 1, go check out the first two mistakes and then come back here.

Mistake #3 – Boosting With EQ

By way of preface, let me just say that there is nothing inherently “wrong” with boosting frequencies with an EQ. The point I’m trying to make rather, is that it is way smarter to train yourself to cut instead of boost. The reason is simple, when you boost an EQ frequency in order to shape a sound, you are only adding noise to the track and to your mix. If you could achieve the same sonic result by cutting other frequencies, then you would have less noise, more headroom, and more clarity in your mixes.
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As you near the end of a mix, you may be banging your head against the wall trying to get all of your tracks to be perfectly balanced and audible. You keep turning up parts so you can hear them only to have them fight with other tracks. Part of the solution is to use EQ effectively. My whole JumpStart To EQ video deals with that. But what if I told you there was a “trick” to getting your tracks balanced beautifully? Yep, it’s called the “Attack Principle.”

Note: I learned this from Kevin Ward. Check out his explanation of the Attack Principle over at MixCoach.com!

It’s amazing how much impact a subtle automation move can have on a mix. This is especially true when working with subgroups. If you’ve bussed all of your tracks so subgroups while working in the mix (drums, guitars, vocals, etc) then you can create energy and excitement by simply automating a handful of faders.

Reduce Your Mix Down To 5 Faders Or Less

If everything is routed to about 5 faders, then making fine tuned automation moves is much easier. Today’s video shows you how I like to automate just a few simple volume swells or crescendos on these subgroups, thereby affecting  all the tracks in my mix. It keeps things simpler while I try to polish a mix.