Mixing 101

[Mr. ROUSH]

I've decided to post some fundemental things about recording. I see a lot of guessing and missinformation being given in this thread.. not that this thread is thriving like it should be..

at any rate I'm going to post one or two subjects at a time and if you would like, feel free to ask any specific questions you have or suggest things you would like me to cover that you've been dying to know..

what qualifies me to be posting this info? Great question, and let me tell you.. I've been recording for ten years.. what is more significant is that I came up just like the majority of you here.. I started with a radio shack mic.. an external soundblaster.. CEP.. and no fundamental knowledge of what I was really doing.. only an ear to hear with and trial and error.. I built my own foundation before I had any professional instruction.. Currently, I'm completeing course work with a professional instructor.. my rig includes a creation station pc running PT 8.0 LE / neuman u87 / ma200 / digi 003 factory / FF ISA 220 / and the JBL lsr series studio monitors.. later this year I am upgrading to a ProTools HD system

So, I want to save you all hours and maybe even years of wondering.. I can, and will provide you with a true reference to test your knowledge & understanding.. so let's get started..

Ok, the #1 mistake that people are STILL making around here is to think that you can find one chain.. one process.. that will work every time.. now.. don't get me wrong.. as sure as I'm saying this someone will come in this post and say.. "BS.. I use the same thing every time and listen to my quality it's good" This may in fact be very true.. but this is also the difference between an amature mix engineer vs a professional one.. If you are making demos only.. then great.. just use that one process that suits you.. however, if you want professional results every time then it's an absolute must that each song be given unique attention in the mix.. where this becomes so very important is to the overall energy level of the track...

I mentioned in another post here that if you make the entire song sound the same.. even if it all sounds big and clear and punchy and all of those buttery words.. the energy of the track will be deminished.. If there is no variant then your ear doesn't have anything to decipher between.. nothing to compare.. no change up to emphasise certain parts where the energy of the song stands out more then others.. you're ear and you're brain will get bored very fast even if the track is overall big sounding and high quality..

so here is an example of a trick that is widely used and never fails.. use whatever method you would like.. either automating mutes, or removing notes via midi sequencing.. however you prefer.. but the trick is this simple.. for maybe 1 or 2 bars right before the chorus of a song.. mute or remove the kick drum.. maybe even just 1 or two kicks before the chorus.. so that the song drops the bottom end right before the chorus and then when the chorus drops back in with the kick it suddenly sounds twice as big as it did before.. this is because you are tricking your ears while they decipher the difference between the energy level of the two sections.. make sense?

Another trick to use here is to add an extra insturment in the chorus that wasn't previously in the verse before it... now with rap music this is already the standard in most cases, but take it another step.. so lets say you have a horn in the verse.. and a horn and piano in the chorus... for the verse don't double the horn... for the chorus do double the horn so it's different in the chorus than the verse.. and coupled with the piano creates a whole seperate energy level.. The arrangement is of the utmost importance when making beats that you want to contribute to the song to gain this effect.. the arrangement is equally if not more important to get the effects you want, as say actual effects filters etc.. You've got to see the big picture..

recording is truly an art that is not unlike creating a sculpture.. you have to slowly and skillfully chip away just the right peices to be left with the desired end result.. doing the same process in recording every time would be like making the same sculpture over and over.. it would become boring, repetative, and old..

The second mistake I see is that a lot of people I see here don't grasp the concept of layers and steps.. People look to make an adjustement on an eq and hear a drastic improvement.. no once setting should ever make a drastic improvement.. in fact you should barely hear any audible change for example when you cut or boost in EQ in any one step.. think more in terms that you would miss it if it wasn't there, but otherwise you don't hear an audible change by the fact that it's there until you take it away.. the overall drastic improvement you're looking for is only ever acheived by a combination of many layers and stages contributing to the overall mix...

a good excersize to try is this.. cut your steps in half.. so let's say you normally boost at 3-5K and that normally you would boost by 3db.. first of all.. understand in sound.. a boost of 3db is double the original level.. (even though it may not sound like it this is true).. so next time.. try 1.5 or less.. you can add more in other stages and you will get much better results if you do it this way rather than counting on one eq to work harder to acheive the same result.. it's like photoshop for example.. you can take one picture and adjust color levels one picture and it will look ok... or, you can combine 3 copies of the image with increments of different effect combined for a much more professional looking result.. think of layers in music like layers in photoshop.. (for those of you with photoshop experience that is) bottom line you will get better results using multiple layers and stages then you will applying all the same principles at 1 stage...

So I'll leave you with this to ponder and I hope this is not hard to follow.. I will periodically add more to this post from time to time, because when I was the one who knew nothing.. there were very few people giving me the real low down.. It was so frustrating.. so out of respect for those who are in that spot I want to save you the trouble of what I went through to get here.. recording processes are buried in a secret society.. people are intentionally misleading like they are protecting a family recipe for busch baked beans or something.. and I understand why, but I love music most of all and good music comes from creative minds.. nothing curbs otherwise great musical ideas like the inability to record right or to learn how to record right.. I personally want to hear more, and much better music that is only limited by creativity and not ability to translate that creativity to an actual song..

so anyway, I hope this is helpful to someone and please ask any questions that you may have and I will get to them in short order. Best of luck!! Make that music!!!

[Stash]

stickied-

[Mr. ROUSH]

What up Mo.. You staying busy?

[Mr. ROUSH]

2nd Installment / The ever so crucial relationship between drums and bass explained

In rap music there is one thing that needs special attention that will be essential to glue the track together and essential for a big sounding mix, and that is the relationship between drums and bass.. more specifically in rap the relation between the kick drum and the bass.. Since most times the kick drum and the bass occupy much of the same frequency range in the lows and mid lows, this is often a recipe for a muddy, muddy mix.. this is something I have really struggled with since making beats was my second priority versus writing and recording vocals.. therefore I was very much behind in my learning curve as a new beatmaker..

so.. here's something of a staple in almost every rap song if not every rap song you've heard.. and that is side chain compression... I don't know about you all, but this was greek to me.. I read how important it was, but just didn't take the time to really understand why this was so usefull, and couldn't figure out how to apply the theory.. well in the end it's very simple...

pull up a kick drum in one track in pro tools and in a second track pull up the bass... on the bass track, open up any compressor as an insert that has a side chain input.. (the stock digi compressor has a side chain input)

settings on compressor: very, very fast attack.. try it hard left (10us) moderate release time.. (around 140+/-) 10:1 ratio +/- No makeup gain.. set the threshold accordingly.. with the settings above you'll probably end up with a threshold around -15 to -17 but play around, and as always these settings are just a preset you can start from and I would encourage you to tweak these settings, or in some cases you will completely change the settings.. but this is a good starting point for the purpose of this example...

ok.. now that your compressor is set up.. insert a send on the kick drum track.. (it's important that you use a send rather than sending the output of the track itself since you will still need a dry signal for the kick in the mix) you'll want to send it to any availible bus.. now pull the compressor back up.. in the upper left hand corner you will see a "key" and next to the graphic of the key you will see an input drop down menu.. from here you can select the same bus as the input to the compressor that you sent the kick drum to.. so if you put a send on your kick to bus 1 then you want the "key" input on the compressor to also be bus 1.. now turn up the fader on the send from the kick drum to a moderate amount.. 3/4ths or more. Now look at the "side chain" settings in the upper right hand corner of the compressor (if using the stock digi compressor) You have to select the left botton at the top of the side chain options section to turn the side chain on. the button on the right will allow you to hear the signal going to the side chain but you don't want this on (illuminated) You're all set.

what does this do you ask? Well compression as most here know levels the waveform to a more relative overall level.. boosting the softer passages and compressing the peaks of transients that are in danger of clipping.. normally when you apply a compressor on a track it is on all the time compressing the entire track based on how you have the settings.. well.. think of the "key" input as a trigger.. in this case for our example the kick drum is what will determine when the compressor kicks in.. so that the bass will only be compressed when the kick drum hits... each time the kick hits the bass is lowered by the compressor which carves out exactly what room is needed to allow the kick drum to stand out an be completely intelligible while at the same time being blended with the bass very tightly and this makes for a bigger bass sound and for a tighter relationship between the kick drum and the bass loop...

so all of that being said, once you understand this priciple there are other devices such as gates where you can apply this principle.. such as using a drum track as the key to a gate to create vocal stutters, or as a very easy way to create sixteenth notes without having to manually do it and paste in each hit.. this will literally save you hours and hours.. go on youtube.. look up side chaining.. if you want to really lock in your drums then this is something you should be using a lot, if not every time..

Try this out and come back and post how it turned out for you. Anything that is unclear please don't hesitate to ask.. Best of luck!

[Mr. ROUSH]

Stop EQing all of your Vocal tracks the same

This is one mistake that is allll too common.. I have been all too guilty of this many, many times... It's very important that you stop applying the same eq curve to every vocal.. so in other words.. people will make the mistake of putting say the lead vocal take on solo and listening to one vocal track at a time (within one verse, so including doubles and adlibs) .. so they'll take just the first take within the verse.. solo it.. and then eq just that take to sound it's best alone... to make it even worse.. so many once they find where that one track sounds good will apply it to every other vocal track in the verse. HUGE MISTAKE!!

If you have a lead vocal.. 2 doubles.. and one adlib track... it is VERY IMPORTANT that you eq them each differently, and in many cases the exact opposit of each other.. you have to make all of the takes within a verse take up the whole frequency range... if you eq them all the same then they are all occupying the exact same frequency range and then your vocals are fighting with each other for space.. let a lone the other instruments...

so, try this... it's pretty common to boost the high end a bit with a shelf or a curve.. so do just that on the lead vocal take.. but then on the first double.. cut the high end.. and on the second double don't do anything to the high end.. by doing that, you have just filled the entire high end range more or less, verses crowding the high end alone... and the same applies for mids and lows.. of course on vocals you should always be rolling of the unused low end frequencies, so that is one exception to this rule.. but for the high range on the lows.. mids, and highs.. you want to do this technique.. if you boost 1 track at 4k then cut the other at 4k... if you boost a track at 120hz then cut one at 120hz, and so on and so forth..

stop boosting so much.. you aren't going to have any headroom to master when you're boosting the shit out of everything.. cut more than you boost.. use a wide q to boost and a narrow q to cut.. remember to leave room in other stages like I talked about above.. especially the mastering stage.. there will be more EQ applied in the mastering stage, so if you use all the headroom in the mix on your eq's then you'll never get anywhere near the sound quality and overall loudness of a professionaly mastered cd.

When you're boosting.. try to stay within 1.5 - 2.5db boosts. If you find that this just doesn't do it for you.. then you probably have issues with the quality of the preamp / mic.. or problems with mic placements.... great mics don't need any eq a lot of times.. so remember.. you're making up for the defficiencies your front end source gear has.. so don't think that you HAVE to eq the shit out of everything to begin with..

try putting your eq BEFORE your compressor sometimes.. if not all the time.. this will allow the compressor to tame the curve you have applied and it will sound more natural.. now that's one that's widely debated really.. so try it both ways and trust your ears.. I used to be a compress first then eq guy.. now I'm the other way around most of the time.. I get much better results..

one last thing on EQ.. stop reading about what frequencies do what, and start listening.. Every voice is different and therefor the effects will vary.. so adding 1k to my voice might sound great.. adding it to yours might sound like shit... so sweep the frequencies.. if you don't truly grasp what it means to do sweeps then look on youtube.. basically you turn the gain all the way up and sweep the frequency knob back and forth in the basic range you are adjusting until you find exactly the range you want to boost... then lower the gain back to a normal level... when you're done.. often times if you have a good ear.. you'll find your curve will be close to the suggested frequency curves.. but not every time.. sometimes it will be totally different, and you'd have never found it by applying written guidlines..

as always, best of luck.

[GrownMan Tah]

thanks

[Mr. ROUSH]

MONO VS STEREO

Ok.. there is much discussion out there about this.. I'm here to tell you.. in rap music... this is very, very flexible.. most people will tell you to work with mono tracks.. however, in rap music.. it's very common to render tracks from say reason.. in stereo.. import them to pro tools and work with them...
here's the trick.. it's simplified by thinking of a stereo track as two mono tracks.. but what it does to import stereo tracks.. is it doubles everything.. it will give you a fatter sound.. and if it sounds good.. it is good..

Now keep in mind this doesn't work for everything.. if a track doesn't have any actual stereo information then you may want that in mono.. and you always want vocals in mono.. so don't get me wrong there.. rap vocals should always be mono unsless there is an actual stereo recording specific to the sound you're trying to get.
For example.. the kick drum... when you import the kick from a stereo track rendered in reason, you will want to put both of the pans at zero.. and what that does is makes the output mono.. it's that simple.. anything you want to turn from stereo to mono.. you only have to match the pans. So if it's mono panned to the right you want.. say at %30.. then put both channels of the stereo track panned right to 30 and you have a mono output panned to the right.. but othwise there will be a lot of tracks, maybe even most of them, that you will leave in stereo. This is going to make your mix a lot more accuarate from the jump and will prevent you from having to overcompensate later in the mix.

So in summary.. render your instrument tracks all in stereo and import them to pro tools when ready to track and mix. Then center the pans of anything that you want mono.. (always do this to the kick especially and the snare)
If you've ever had a beat sounding great in reason only to find it was sterile when you recorded the tracks to mono tracks in pro tools using rewire.. now you know why.. Stereo is your friend..

[Mr. ROUSH]

Stop overusing plugins

You know there is a sea of plugins out there.. just a ton of sick plugins out there.. a lot of them are easy to get your hands on and even easier to overuse them.. take it from someone who learns everything the hard way.. just because you have them doesn't mean you have to use them.. consider them your bag of tricks.. you don't want to use all of your tricks every time..

Plugins eat up a lot of computer resources.. obviously the more you use.. the more problems you run into with that.. and this shouldn't be plauging you every session.. if it is then you are using to many.. You really have to learn to hear what is needed and know when it isn't.. if you have 5 plugs on every track.. you're probably tracking wrong in the first place.. there are exceptions to all of the "rules" of course as long as you know what you're going for and how to get there..

A few things that will help.. #1 Background vocals.. %75 of the time or more you can throw all of your background vocals on a bus to an aux input.. eq and compress the aux input instead of putting effects on each background vocal track.. and no it hasn't escaped me that this is in direct contrast to what I said above about not EQ'ing your tracks the same.. and I stress that it is very important to do that.. You want to do the same when you use a buss.. eq your lead one way and eq the aux track for the bg vocals differently. If they were recorded well the buss trick should do fine.. if they still don't sit in the mix then put an eq on the individual track to hone in on problem frequencies..

The point is to do what is necessary.. don't be afraid to forget the rules.. some mistakes become tricks in your arsenal, so no matter how much you know.. keep experimenting with it finding new tricks..

On that note.. there are two ways I look at mixing.. there are the general guidlines that apply to most every genre.. and then there are added guidelines that apply to rap music.. which consequently are a lot different than many of the common general guidlines as far as settings for compression, eq, etc.. let me give you a prime example..

compression: two contrasting scenarios.. scenario 1.. most everywhere you read and a lot of people you ask will tell you not to compress to disc (use a compressor while recording) I'm here to tell you.. while I agree with that a lot of the time.. there are times when it is a great idea to compress while recording.. YOU GUYS WITH SHITTY ROOMS PAY ATTENTION.. if your room sucks or you're in a kitchen, bathroom, basement, whatever.. try compressing to disc.. part of being an engineer is making whatever situation work.. if some star wants to record in the hotel.. you're going to have to still make it sound good.. and it's tricks like compressing to disc that can make that happen for you.. of course you have to understand the application and set the compressor properly.. but that's how you get to know you're setup.. and that's important..

now if you're room is really tight then compressing to disc starts to get less desirable.. but it's something to always keep in your bag of tricks..

Scenario # 2.. generally it is common and frequent advice to compress lightly.. eq lightly.. and I will say again that I agree with that MOST of the time.. but again.. rap music might be completely different.. heavy compression is common and often preferred by the masses when done correctly.. and rap music is your chance to do that.. you might compress some things a lot more than others.. you might want to get a telephone voice with a band pass eq.. which while we're on it.. all that is.. is an eq.. roll off all the lows.. roll off all the highs.. boost around in the mids... and you have a bandpass.. which can give you the telephone voice... which is ultimately an example that in rap music sometimes the rules are opposite..

so don't get stuck always doing things one way.. get your arsenal out and remember to mix up your tricks.. mix up the general guidlines with techniques more specific to rap.. remember to use your plugins where they're needed and not just because you have them.. most importantly.. if it sounds good it is good.

[ezejesus]

I read the stop EQ'ing all your vocals the same part and it really gave me some insight. Good post.

[MisterE]

your a fuckin god, i'm going to utilize alot of this



thanks for taking the time outta ur day to share knowledge homeboy


btw, check my thread if you get a sec general advice on improving my quality?


its got my music link an everything in there.....any knowledge u can drop would be greatly appreciated