What Makes A Good Mix A Great Mix PT 2

Pt one is below this, read that first to follow what is on this lesson.

I can not over stress you must learn to master the stereo spectrum, the stereo filed, and what Hertz , each instrument lays in, this should be known, esp. instrument Frequency before you do anything, these are free all over the net, have it where you can see it, next have a track sheet, like the big boys, you need to label your channels, if using an out board mixed and can do the same with most software mixers, know whats what and where you are going.

Use near field monitors, on this site you will see my recommendations of near filed monitors on this site, I always keep a low budget in mind that will produce a pro sound.

To make a great mix, you need three types of speakers, near field monitors, small PC monitors, yes in the old days we used small car speakers, now days PC monitors, decent ones with a sub bass, only around 40.00 , than the reference monitor, a little bigger , but these come in the most at the mastering portion of your mix, have a good pair of headphones, esp if your next to a person trying to sleep, and your making a hit song at 2 am, thats how I work. I need and have one pair of cans that are called extreme isolation, around 100.00, these are used by Engineers in a live performance, to drown out all the crowd noise and monitor the in put of the board, I have them , because I must, I create 1-3 am  as many musicians do, and I live in tight quarters with others sleeping.

Never try doing a master with headphones, I do not care how much they cost, why? It will not give you the space to hear what is real, in the proper stereo field, and after 30 min, you lose a lot of your hearing in certain frequency's, even with speakers, take a break , esp. in the master session every 30 min and 5 min to 15 min break is a must, to have fresh ears. Before you call your mix a done deal wait one or two days and listen to it again, so do not dither at this point, as 90% of the time, what a day, or two difference makes with fresh ears, and sober minded , fresh. You will be amazed and say, how on earth , or why on earth did I do that, and changes will be made, but beware of over tweaking, this will kill a song, over tweaker's will mix, and mix and re-mix and this goes on forever, you lose the creative edge, and at the end of a log tweaking week, you will compare mixes, to find the first one, or second, may have been the best, funny, but true.

Remember break all the rules, once you know them try new sounds, ideas, music now days has become stall, a fresh new sound is needed, it could be you, yes, you reader that will be the next B.T. the father of Trance?

What Makes A Good Mix From A Great Mix -Some Tips

So, what makes a great mix, there are many good mixes, but what makes a great mix? It starts with the recording chain. The mixer, hardware or software mixer should be set where the white or grey lines are, this is a start. As a Jr Recording Engineer, so many years ago, my job was to see who was on the list to be recorded, what instruments, style of music, any notes the artist gave, the SR. Engineers instructions and notes, than off to the room to set up. I would than do what’s called a basic mix, meaning setting up the channel strip, say Guitar I would set to the normal frequency and the same on the rest of the instruments, this is a basic working mix, many new musicians do the same, and go no further.

This is step one, but you will need to tweak as you go, this takes years of practice, learning what’s called the stereo spectrum. Placing sounds properly in the stereo field. Many sounds may be all in the 1.5 to 2.5 Khz range this is normal, what you end up doing is masking sounds, you recorded that sound you can not hear, due to other sounds fighting for the same range, this is where EQ comes in and stereo placement. Put some sounds panned to the left, others the right, add some EQ and on some, some effects to make them sit back in the mix, but are now where you can hear them, sounds easy, OK, .

When mixing down you ride the faders, this is simple enough and you know when a solo is coming up so you ride the fader up and slowly not fast lower it.

A solid intro and ending fade is a must, many need to work on fading out, takes practice, many songs I hear have are awful  on the fad, to slow, or to fast, to fast of a fad is the norm, slowly, lower the master stereo faders it takes practice, but you can do it.

Many make the mistake of using too much EQ, this will make a muddy sound, or a sound that over time kills the ears. Bass is important, it must be heard, waves has a great plug in just for this, a simple plug in, it does not change the volume of the bass, but it makes it stand out, complex  to explain, but wow what a great little plug in, just for the bass. You may not have a waves bundle, they are not cheap some 2-3K or more. There are many free plug ins that can do the job, on this blog I have given links to great free VSTi’s and VST effects, amazing.

If you have not read the page on where to get these unreal free VSTI’s and VST’s do so, the sampler alone is as good as my samplers I use, I now use the free one more I kid you not, esp. for strings.

Over use of effects, compression, EQ, can be an over kill, always record dry and add the effects after. Aside from maybe some compression on bass drums and bass so you do not peak out.

You can listen to your great solo vox as your singing with some reverb, but it is recorded dry, it is hard to sing as you would when hearing your self dry in the cans.
A great mix will make great use of the stereo field this and sparse use of EQ and effects will make your song shine, a lot of effects will not make a album filler , sub par song sound great, a great song is great with a  vox and one instrument, all else is more sounds. what is already great, is great with little, little is better. I have songs with a lot of effects, certain songs require wild effects just think PINK Floyd, and others, I use tons of effects, but in proper sequence and laid out in the proper way. To get a fat lead axe or pad sound, try and double the track, pan to left and right - not completely to left and right 30-40% left and right and it will stand out , sound great  in both eras and add depth.

I will write more on a great mix in my next post, till next time, keep on making music and have a creative week.