Monsieur Periné

CaptainMoto

Blues Voyager
Just a couple of things to chew on a bit:

Mixing in a room that you are familiar with is the best. Use reference tracks to help you familiarize your space. For example a song that you are really familiar with that has a similar vibe as the one you are mixing..

Mixing solely on headphones CAN produce good results, but ya gotta take a few things into consideration, like isolating the stereo strictly left and right. It can let you hear great detail, but in reality we don’t hear that way. We hear with directionally from one side to the other. In other words right channel hits your ear, bounces around your head then is picked up by the left, for example. So if, for whatever reason, I need to mix solely on cans, I set up my session with bleed and delay from left to right an right to left. (Or Waves has NX something or another that uses your webcam and will bleed left to right depending upon your head movement). I have but don’t use it.

It is also a good idea to check you mix in mono, to be sure it translates well. If it does, you typically have your stereo image good.

Good basic info has been offered here with regard to EQ. I like to approach EQ as subtracting offensive, or unneeded frequencies. I try not to boost much at all, and take it easy on makeup gain. Use as many EQs as you need. Nothing wrong with using 2 or 3 on the same track.

Sometimes, a soloed track may sound harsh or thin once EQ has been applied to fit it into a mix. Don’t worry about that.

Moreover, have fun. If it sounds good it is good.
Hey Cowboy Bob,
I was hoping you'd join the conversation.
I hadn't heard of that bleed idea with cans. I do use multiple EQs though.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I have been spending a ton of time working on mixing.............there is a lot to learn, honestly, I am not sure if learning a instrument is easier or harder than what good mix/mastering guys do
I stopped doing fancy recordings because it is a completely different path than playing. It isn't a rabbit hole, it is a career :rolleyes:

For someone like me who just wants to play the recording process just takes too much time away from learning and playing music and I get bored and frustrated doing take after take.

Personally, I had to make a choice between being a player and composer or being a sound engineer. I don't have time to be good at both and it isn't worth the effort for me to be half-fast at either of them. YMMV, of course.

Eric
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I find the more you mix, especially genres that you are unfamiliar with, the easier it gets. Like anything else really, there is no substitute for experience. I use reference tracks all the time but if you think about it, we have all been listening to music for a hell of a lot of years, so we all know what sounds right and what doesn't. So it pays to go with what your ears are telling you sometimes and don't get too bogged down with the technicalities.
I agree, but, sometimes you hear something isn't quite right and without having trained your ears it can be a frustrating experience trying to fix it. It's like music theory. You can make beautiful music without knowing it.... until something isn't quite right and you spend a lot of trial and error time trying to figure out what's wrong or missing. The technicalities can speed up the process a lot. I mean, a lot. Of course, as usual, YMMV :)

Eric
 

Cowboy Bob

Horse Player/Guitar Wrangler
Hey Cowboy Bob,
I was hoping you'd join the conversation.
I hadn't heard of that bleed idea with cans. I do use multiple EQs though.
Yeah, many don't consider that using cans isolates the channels and that is not the way we hear in 3 dimensional space.

When you think about, it is easy to demonstrate just by sitting in the sweat spot of your near fields and moving your head side to side.

I had heard of the "trick" of bleed or cross feed and delay on your cans quite a while ago, and have used it more or less successfully. I still prefer mixing with the near fields and mid fields in my space. Oh I always check things with a 'phone mix, and will always sum to mono to check as well as taking the mix to my car, and my boom box as well.

I still will also double check from time to time with a reference track, just to be sure things are still working.

As I said, Waves has a plugin called NX Virtual Mix Room it uses your webcam to to determine the position of your head and automatically pans, delays, cross talks in your cans. >>HERE<< is a you tube demo.

Also I use room and headphone correction (it is actually a GLOBAL EQ that helps your room and cans sound as flat as possible). I use Sonarworks Reference 4.
 

BigMike

Blues Oldie
I was not trying to say you don't need technical knowledge. Of course you do. What I was trying to say is that from personal experience, when I started home recording I lost sight of what I was trying o achieve I.e. Publish my songs with acceptable quality, by over engineering them. Sometimes a little is more when it comes to EQ and compression.
Regarding the mixing with cans debate, I have tinnitus so I find them uncomfortable therefore I rely on good studio monitors. But like Some others have said, It's good to listen to tracks on as many possible outputs as possible, including cheap and nasty earplugs!
I was looking at the new Waves plugin Abbey Road Studio 3, looks like that uses NX technology and may be of interest if you do mix with cans.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I was not trying to say you don't need technical knowledge. Of course you do. What I was trying to say is that from personal experience, when I started home recording I lost sight of what I was trying o achieve I.e. Publish my songs with acceptable quality, by over engineering them. Sometimes a little is more when it comes to EQ and compression.
I agree. I knew what you were saying so sorry if it sounded like I was disagreeing. Sometimes less ls more, but, sometimes more is more too. And it really depends on the tracks. We're not disagreeing :)

On a completely different topic...
One of the easiest ways to control a mix when, for instance, a guitar track and a vocal track are in the same frequency and dynamic spectrum and getting in each others way is to use compressor side-chaining. You can quickly and easily duck the guitar track without having to mess with the faders by using the output of the vocal track to the input of the compressor's side-chain on the guitar track. Then, whenever the vocal track is in effect the guitar track will be automatically compressed and will be released when the vocal track is silent. This way the guitar will have full dynamic response when the singer is not singing and its dynamics will be reduced when the singer is singing. You get the effect of having a full out guitar but you can still hear the vocal. And you don't have to waste time messing with the faders.


Eric
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
my software actually has side chaining built in, havent used it yet though

Compression and eq "fix" problems so if you haven't had problems you'd not really need to use them. They are also creative tools but like you said before learning to use them is like learning a whole new instrument.

My suggestion is learn how they work before using them to "fix" things, and, just "turn the knobs and listen" if you want to use them creatively, though understanding what they do will speed up the process.

Eric
 
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