Lately I've been trying to actively improve my mixing abilities, and was wondering what everyone's work order in terms of getting to your final mix was like. I found that, with all these ideas for a song and finally sitting down to mix it, I didn't know where I should start. What's your process like?
For example, do you usually pan first, set levels, compress, EQ, then add effects? Or, work in mono, EQ, pan, add effects, set levels, then compress? I really like the idea of finding the most important element, getting that right, and then building around that. So, more generally put, what do you tend to first -- dynamics, frequency range, 'character' (via effects), relative levels, or space?
Of course there's no right answer, and likely will vary given the song and style, but I'd like to hear about it.
Your mix, step by step.
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penrithmatt
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push up the vocal fader first.
push up kick drum fader second
push up bass amp fader third.
then fit everything else in around that.no real hard or fast way,everything is different every time.the only constant being that,if the song has a vocal then that's probably the most important thing,everything else has to support that,which is why it goes up first..........but yeah,beyond that,i make it up as i go along,different every time.
push up kick drum fader second
push up bass amp fader third.
then fit everything else in around that.no real hard or fast way,everything is different every time.the only constant being that,if the song has a vocal then that's probably the most important thing,everything else has to support that,which is why it goes up first..........but yeah,beyond that,i make it up as i go along,different every time.
If it's not distorted,what's the point??
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thethingwiththestuff
- george martin
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everything's different..... mostly i track bands live(minus vocals, or with a scratch track), and if i do, there's some sort of stereo pair set up to capture everybody. i start wih this, then add close mics as necessary. i obsessively compare the phase relationships between all tracks and invert what needs it. then, i start compressing, usually the bass first, then snare and kick. after that, i'll start notching out little frequencies that are competing.
a project i'm just finishing up though was multitracked separately. the artist mostly just plays acoustic and sings, so me and the other engineer decided we should start with her vocals, and bring everything in around them. a little Waves RVox, a little EQ, and a little verb until it sounded great a capella, then brought her guitar in, then each little overdub. space was made around the vocal with compression and a little eq, and some reverb on dominating instruments she didnt want to cloud the lyrics.
always start mixing during tracking with tuning, placement of instruments in the room, mic selection, and mic placement. that's all i got....
a project i'm just finishing up though was multitracked separately. the artist mostly just plays acoustic and sings, so me and the other engineer decided we should start with her vocals, and bring everything in around them. a little Waves RVox, a little EQ, and a little verb until it sounded great a capella, then brought her guitar in, then each little overdub. space was made around the vocal with compression and a little eq, and some reverb on dominating instruments she didnt want to cloud the lyrics.
always start mixing during tracking with tuning, placement of instruments in the room, mic selection, and mic placement. that's all i got....
The first thing I do is patch in my mix down deck if I'm mixing to tape. If not that then usually it's back into a pair on Protools. Once that's patched, I put my master fader all the way up, then all other faders up even steven with all pans at 12oclock then see how hard I'm hitting tape or tools. I'll give myself TONS of headroom to start with as fader creep slowly and inevidably happens with me so I give myself lots of room for that to happen until it starts to settle into someting resembling a song. After listenning for a bit, I plug in outboard stuff and start dialing away. More fader creep until it settles into a good gain structure and general awesome soundingness. At this point, eq stuff that needs/wants it all the while pans are still at noon. Once I feel like I can hear everything where I want to hear it in context of the song, I'll start to pan stuff.
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drumsound
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I'm kinda methodical when I start a mix. I set up a drum-buss parallel and a guitar parallel and a bass parallel. I also patch in the mix buss compressor. I may even set up some effect sends and returns.
Then I bring up the faders of the tracks, but leave all the parallels and effects down. I'll usually have the drum panning in place and everything else will be center. I'll usually hit the mono button, I listen and start to adjust balance, first with the faders and pans and then with EQ as needed (remember everything is a fader). Once the sounds make sense I start bringing in the parallels and see how much is needed of each and make adjustments on them. I might swap things around or only put certain elements in the parallels. I might start adding effects if something is crying out for it. I might insert compressors on specific channels. I'll listen to a couple mix arrangement ideas via muting or drastically changing volumes or effects.
Around that time I start to automate the mutes and maybe some faders too. All the while I'm making little adjustments as I hear their need. I sometimes make physical notes and almost always make mental notes of things that I want to automate, like a soft phrase in the voice or bumping the drums and gtrs in the chorus. I go through those things and possible write them, but sometimes I'm still doing them by hand. Somewhere in there I've taken the console out of mono. More effect things might come up during this are at this time. Once I feel I have a real handle on the mix I crank up the monitors and listen from outside the control room. I make a few last changes and call the client to come listen.
I like to hang at the back of the room during the first playback with the client. I'll often invite the head honcho to sit in the catbird seat while I hang with the rest of the band. There's usually a few listens. We then get into what they might want changed, or are curious to hear. And we tweak the mix until its what they want.
Print it, make a CD-R or two and go home or move on.
Then I bring up the faders of the tracks, but leave all the parallels and effects down. I'll usually have the drum panning in place and everything else will be center. I'll usually hit the mono button, I listen and start to adjust balance, first with the faders and pans and then with EQ as needed (remember everything is a fader). Once the sounds make sense I start bringing in the parallels and see how much is needed of each and make adjustments on them. I might swap things around or only put certain elements in the parallels. I might start adding effects if something is crying out for it. I might insert compressors on specific channels. I'll listen to a couple mix arrangement ideas via muting or drastically changing volumes or effects.
Around that time I start to automate the mutes and maybe some faders too. All the while I'm making little adjustments as I hear their need. I sometimes make physical notes and almost always make mental notes of things that I want to automate, like a soft phrase in the voice or bumping the drums and gtrs in the chorus. I go through those things and possible write them, but sometimes I'm still doing them by hand. Somewhere in there I've taken the console out of mono. More effect things might come up during this are at this time. Once I feel I have a real handle on the mix I crank up the monitors and listen from outside the control room. I make a few last changes and call the client to come listen.
I like to hang at the back of the room during the first playback with the client. I'll often invite the head honcho to sit in the catbird seat while I hang with the rest of the band. There's usually a few listens. We then get into what they might want changed, or are curious to hear. And we tweak the mix until its what they want.
Print it, make a CD-R or two and go home or move on.
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cgarges
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I frequently work with different scenarios and my method has changed a bunch over the years. These days, most of the variation comes when I'm mixing something I didn't track. But this has been my sort of normal procedure as of late:
I'll usually push all the faders up to unity and get a general pan position thing happening with stuff at extremes first, just so I know what I'm listening to. Then, I'll push "play" on the multitrack and adjust tape trim levels on the console so that the basic working level for each track is around unity. That's just a really good point of reference for me.
After that, I start playing with pan positions and making things a little more placement- and depth-specific. I'll usually start playing a little more with level and maybe start EQing stuff on the console. I'll also make some general decisions about what might need some compression or maybe a specific outboard EQ. All the while, I'm doing very little soloing.
Once I get things rolling in the general direction I think is appropriate, I start listening to things in groups. I usually start with the drums--probably because I'm a drummer, but I also think that aside from (hopefully) providing a solid foundation, the drums are probably the largest and most important group of tracks to deal with as a group. Along those lines, I might mute everything except the drums and the bass and tweak from there. I might solo both the kick drum and the bass and then maybe the kit without room mics or maybe overhead and kick or whatever, just to see if I can find anything wrong. If I need to experiment with polarity reversal on any tracks within the kit, it usually happens here. I might plug in specific outboard EQs instead of the console channel EQs or I might start adding reverb or whatever at this point.
Then, I usually listen to other large groups of instruments: Guitars, background vocals, keyboards, usually with some reference, like the bass. (That helps me try to keep the low end in check.) I pretty much go through the same process here, all the while putting everything in together once in a while to make sure there's nothing blatantly wrong.
Then, I'll just listen to everything for a while on different speakers at diffferent volume levels in mono and in stereo. I'll do more subtle tweaks at this point and oftentimes end up un-doing what I might have done initially. Somewhere along the road here, I start monitoring off the 2-track and apply whatever stereo buss processing might be necessary.
Once I've got the mix fairly happning on it's own, I'll ask the band what they think and apply whatever comments, requests, or suggestions they may have. After I've plugged in their favorite bass flanging or vocal doubling effect or whetever, I start either writing automation or making notes about what sort of manual moves need to happen. I might practice these a couple of times while trying not to mess up my static mix. Once everybody's cool with it, I'll print it, then listen back to the printed mix. There's usually a "car test" at this point and if it's the first mix of the project, there's usually something to tweak. Then, I'll print another mix, listen back and keep rolling from there. I usually write background mixes and instrumentals while I'm at it, unless the client doesn't want them.
That's pretty much what I did today except it was a nine-track jazz recording so there wasn't much to it.
Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
I'll usually push all the faders up to unity and get a general pan position thing happening with stuff at extremes first, just so I know what I'm listening to. Then, I'll push "play" on the multitrack and adjust tape trim levels on the console so that the basic working level for each track is around unity. That's just a really good point of reference for me.
After that, I start playing with pan positions and making things a little more placement- and depth-specific. I'll usually start playing a little more with level and maybe start EQing stuff on the console. I'll also make some general decisions about what might need some compression or maybe a specific outboard EQ. All the while, I'm doing very little soloing.
Once I get things rolling in the general direction I think is appropriate, I start listening to things in groups. I usually start with the drums--probably because I'm a drummer, but I also think that aside from (hopefully) providing a solid foundation, the drums are probably the largest and most important group of tracks to deal with as a group. Along those lines, I might mute everything except the drums and the bass and tweak from there. I might solo both the kick drum and the bass and then maybe the kit without room mics or maybe overhead and kick or whatever, just to see if I can find anything wrong. If I need to experiment with polarity reversal on any tracks within the kit, it usually happens here. I might plug in specific outboard EQs instead of the console channel EQs or I might start adding reverb or whatever at this point.
Then, I usually listen to other large groups of instruments: Guitars, background vocals, keyboards, usually with some reference, like the bass. (That helps me try to keep the low end in check.) I pretty much go through the same process here, all the while putting everything in together once in a while to make sure there's nothing blatantly wrong.
Then, I'll just listen to everything for a while on different speakers at diffferent volume levels in mono and in stereo. I'll do more subtle tweaks at this point and oftentimes end up un-doing what I might have done initially. Somewhere along the road here, I start monitoring off the 2-track and apply whatever stereo buss processing might be necessary.
Once I've got the mix fairly happning on it's own, I'll ask the band what they think and apply whatever comments, requests, or suggestions they may have. After I've plugged in their favorite bass flanging or vocal doubling effect or whetever, I start either writing automation or making notes about what sort of manual moves need to happen. I might practice these a couple of times while trying not to mess up my static mix. Once everybody's cool with it, I'll print it, then listen back to the printed mix. There's usually a "car test" at this point and if it's the first mix of the project, there's usually something to tweak. Then, I'll print another mix, listen back and keep rolling from there. I usually write background mixes and instrumentals while I'm at it, unless the client doesn't want them.
That's pretty much what I did today except it was a nine-track jazz recording so there wasn't much to it.
Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
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Fletcher
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When I get something in to mix that I didn't track I usually fall back on a pattern like pushing up all the faders to get an idea of what the song is about and try to get a picture of the "groove" happening... then break it down to bass, drums and vocal.
I'll often try to get the bass and drums to work well together in the context of where the song may want to go... country song? More of a 'thud' on the kik that reinforces the bass notes on 1&3... metal song? Distinct point on the kik and a "whack" from hell on the snare with a thinner bass that will be made to support the lower octave of where the guitar wants to be it's hugest... punk ditty... who gives a fuck as long as it feels like it don't give a fuck.
With most things once I have the rhythm section feeling like it's in something close to a pocket I'll set up a couple of delays for the vocals. The delays will fall into a rhythm that is complimentary to the drum groove. If I'm dealing with one of those lovely 'seasick' speeding up and slowing down drummers then I'll set the delays so they drag when the drummer starts to speed up and pull when the drummer slows down... the delays will often work very nicely to mask the drummer's lack of skill and get the vocals into a good solid place with the bass and drums on a rhythmic level.
From there it's just deciding what will stay and maybe not stay with the other instruments and what frequency ranges they will want to sit, and what else wants to sit in the same space... which then comes to a decision of which sound wins the seat and which sound has to go away in that section.
I try to never have more than one ear catching "event" happening at any given 16th note... but that isn't always possible. When it's not possible then I'll at least try to split up the "events" that coincide in time into differnt striations of the frequency spectrum.
Then it's "print/listen/repeat" until the son of a bitch sounds and feels as good as I can figure out how to get it... then send it off to the client for approval [or to get fired which ever the client deems to be the appropriate action].
I don't know if this was of any help or not... but it's my basic approach. Best of luck with the development of your approach!!!!
I'll often try to get the bass and drums to work well together in the context of where the song may want to go... country song? More of a 'thud' on the kik that reinforces the bass notes on 1&3... metal song? Distinct point on the kik and a "whack" from hell on the snare with a thinner bass that will be made to support the lower octave of where the guitar wants to be it's hugest... punk ditty... who gives a fuck as long as it feels like it don't give a fuck.
With most things once I have the rhythm section feeling like it's in something close to a pocket I'll set up a couple of delays for the vocals. The delays will fall into a rhythm that is complimentary to the drum groove. If I'm dealing with one of those lovely 'seasick' speeding up and slowing down drummers then I'll set the delays so they drag when the drummer starts to speed up and pull when the drummer slows down... the delays will often work very nicely to mask the drummer's lack of skill and get the vocals into a good solid place with the bass and drums on a rhythmic level.
From there it's just deciding what will stay and maybe not stay with the other instruments and what frequency ranges they will want to sit, and what else wants to sit in the same space... which then comes to a decision of which sound wins the seat and which sound has to go away in that section.
I try to never have more than one ear catching "event" happening at any given 16th note... but that isn't always possible. When it's not possible then I'll at least try to split up the "events" that coincide in time into differnt striations of the frequency spectrum.
Then it's "print/listen/repeat" until the son of a bitch sounds and feels as good as I can figure out how to get it... then send it off to the client for approval [or to get fired which ever the client deems to be the appropriate action].
I don't know if this was of any help or not... but it's my basic approach. Best of luck with the development of your approach!!!!
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joel hamilton
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I always picture what I do like this:
Everything... every track, every channel, every compressor, every effect... sort of moving around a lot. like shoving up the vocals WAY out in front, then tuck them in, then push them back up again... I do that with like every single channel for a little while. I hardly ever work out of context or solo. I just push something up a little or a lot, and then figure out where it wants to live...
I keep doing that to every channel in smaller and smaller increments until it all feels good.
I feel like I just start with big moves and work my way down to tiny moves.
The whole time I am moving between pairs of monitors and listening LOUD the soft, loud then soft, the medium, then soft... you get the picture.
I will rarely ever listen to the whole song at one volume until I think I have a MIX 1 together.
Everything... every track, every channel, every compressor, every effect... sort of moving around a lot. like shoving up the vocals WAY out in front, then tuck them in, then push them back up again... I do that with like every single channel for a little while. I hardly ever work out of context or solo. I just push something up a little or a lot, and then figure out where it wants to live...
I keep doing that to every channel in smaller and smaller increments until it all feels good.
I feel like I just start with big moves and work my way down to tiny moves.
The whole time I am moving between pairs of monitors and listening LOUD the soft, loud then soft, the medium, then soft... you get the picture.
I will rarely ever listen to the whole song at one volume until I think I have a MIX 1 together.
It's ridiculous how often this is the case for me; I'm still feeling out the equipment I use, and it's always a surprise when I go for a mixdown and realize that the mic and placement choices I made earlier -- which I thought at the time sounded fine -- don't really jive with my mixing ideas. It's definitely something I'm trying to anticipate more now.thethingwiththestuff wrote:always start mixing during tracking with tuning, placement of instruments in the room, mic selection, and mic placement. that's all i got....
Very good idea. I had that running-out-of-headroom problem with my last mix, and had to constantly pull back bunches of faders to get some space back.tommy wrote:I'll give myself TONS of headroom to start with as fader creep slowly and inevidably happens with me so I give myself lots of room for that to happen until it starts to settle into someting resembling a song.
I like the wide variety of approaches here. All very interesting and helpful to hear!
Yup. Try this. Start your channel faders down pretty low. Have your monitoring level up pretty high. The result is that your actual monitoring level is at a comfortable level because your faders are down low. Then whatever your process of mixing is (inserting outboard compression, parallel compression, eqs, fx, whatever) start to build your mix UP to where it should be sonically as well as level wise on your mix down deck all the while bringing down your control room monitor level as you go.Very good idea. I had that running-out-of-headroom problem with my last mix, and had to constantly pull back bunches of faders to get some space back.
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Russian Recording
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I try to get most of the mixing done during tracking. I spend a lot of time placing mics, setting compressors, getting the amps, drums, etc tuned and sounding good. I record the band getting warmed up. We listen, figure out what we don't like about the sounds and th mix we're getting right off the recording, and adjust until we are happy.
When it comes time to mix I find I end up using at most one or two channels of compression and some board EQ to cut some annoying shit in the bass or to clean up the low end on ambient/room tracks. After that it's just a matter of balance and getting everything to work together in terms of relative volume which I find to be the hardest and most crucial part of mixing. While nice EQs, effects, compressors etc can add something a little special to your mix, it's nowhere as crucial as making sure the drums are loud enough, or the guitars aren't buried.
Oh, I have also been messing around a bit with some parallel group compression though, and it can be quite helpful with dynamically challenging material.
mike
When it comes time to mix I find I end up using at most one or two channels of compression and some board EQ to cut some annoying shit in the bass or to clean up the low end on ambient/room tracks. After that it's just a matter of balance and getting everything to work together in terms of relative volume which I find to be the hardest and most crucial part of mixing. While nice EQs, effects, compressors etc can add something a little special to your mix, it's nowhere as crucial as making sure the drums are loud enough, or the guitars aren't buried.
Oh, I have also been messing around a bit with some parallel group compression though, and it can be quite helpful with dynamically challenging material.
mike
It is really interesting to see how other people work here. However..
Am I seriously the only guy who values the "solo" button?
I will totally listen to the track first, just to get an idea of the song, arrangement, whats coming in where, where there needs to be space for x instrument, what instrument/vocalist/etc. is taking the lead at what times, so to speak, so you know what you're going for. But immediately after this I have no problem throwing down all the "faders" so to speak (in the box) and startin with the drums.
So then, to the drums. Overheads first. Shouldn't be any problems. If the drums sound kinda shitty in the overs or too loud in relation to the cymbals I may compress, but not until I add in all the other mics and check phase relationships, and pan the toms, etc. until they are sounding agreeable. Then I have no problem solo-ing (gasp!) the tom or kick mics and seeing if there are any proximity-effect, etc. frequency buildups that need some fixin, and just to see how much low-end I can get away with rolling off. Same with snare, but I won't eq the snare close-mic without hearing it in the drum submix. At this point I'll probably set up a drum buss and a compressor on it.
Next, bass. Put it up, it should be fine if I did a decent job in tracking. If need be I'll split it up (sometimes I'll even do this with drums too) into two tracks, one for the verses, one for the chorus, so I can set different levels, etc. for the different sections. Easy. Listen with drums.
Main rhythm instruments. Put em up and pan em. Again I'll solo them to listen as i try to clean up the low end. This may sound really stupid to many of you but I've always dealt with the vocals last. Throw them in there, usually split up for different sounds in verse/chorus/whatever and create some auxes for delays/reverbs. Once the vocal is happening in the mix usually other midrangy stuff needs adjustment. Guitars, snare drum, etc. may need to be eq'd or panned differently to make room, but I like to have a good instrumental sound happening before adding vocals. This is the same way I write songs, so its not really surprising I mix this way.
My main point is really just that don't be afraid of solo'ing, and even solo eq'ing... but of course not to lose context of where that solo'd track is going to fit into the mix, especially in multi-mic scenarios. As long as you keep that in the forefront of your mind, I find you can be a lot more "clinical" in cleaning up the low-end or whatnot, boring technical stuff, on each track by solo eq'ing before getting into a mud-bath as soon as you start mixing it all together.
Mike
Am I seriously the only guy who values the "solo" button?
I will totally listen to the track first, just to get an idea of the song, arrangement, whats coming in where, where there needs to be space for x instrument, what instrument/vocalist/etc. is taking the lead at what times, so to speak, so you know what you're going for. But immediately after this I have no problem throwing down all the "faders" so to speak (in the box) and startin with the drums.
So then, to the drums. Overheads first. Shouldn't be any problems. If the drums sound kinda shitty in the overs or too loud in relation to the cymbals I may compress, but not until I add in all the other mics and check phase relationships, and pan the toms, etc. until they are sounding agreeable. Then I have no problem solo-ing (gasp!) the tom or kick mics and seeing if there are any proximity-effect, etc. frequency buildups that need some fixin, and just to see how much low-end I can get away with rolling off. Same with snare, but I won't eq the snare close-mic without hearing it in the drum submix. At this point I'll probably set up a drum buss and a compressor on it.
Next, bass. Put it up, it should be fine if I did a decent job in tracking. If need be I'll split it up (sometimes I'll even do this with drums too) into two tracks, one for the verses, one for the chorus, so I can set different levels, etc. for the different sections. Easy. Listen with drums.
Main rhythm instruments. Put em up and pan em. Again I'll solo them to listen as i try to clean up the low end. This may sound really stupid to many of you but I've always dealt with the vocals last. Throw them in there, usually split up for different sounds in verse/chorus/whatever and create some auxes for delays/reverbs. Once the vocal is happening in the mix usually other midrangy stuff needs adjustment. Guitars, snare drum, etc. may need to be eq'd or panned differently to make room, but I like to have a good instrumental sound happening before adding vocals. This is the same way I write songs, so its not really surprising I mix this way.
My main point is really just that don't be afraid of solo'ing, and even solo eq'ing... but of course not to lose context of where that solo'd track is going to fit into the mix, especially in multi-mic scenarios. As long as you keep that in the forefront of your mind, I find you can be a lot more "clinical" in cleaning up the low-end or whatnot, boring technical stuff, on each track by solo eq'ing before getting into a mud-bath as soon as you start mixing it all together.
Mike
Making Efforts and Forging Ahead Courageously! Keeping Honest and Making Innovations Perpetually!
I tend to do this with bass and vocals a lot. Well at least a lot more than the other tracks. Especially when I'm pretty near printing. It almost always feels like those two elements are the ones I'm second guessing just a teeny tiny bit. Kind of like when you leave the house and you think to yourself, hmmm, did I lock the front door? The rest of the elements, I usually feel pretty confident about.like shoving up the vocals WAY out in front, then tuck them in, then push them back up again...
Whenever I post in these types of threads, I do so as the bedroom recording guy with a computer working on his own multiple tracks, with maybe a couple guitars or vocals or drum submixes added from other people, often sent by snail or email.
(Although I just did a 16 track mix sent to me to add vocals; great fun after I made the stereo tracks properly mono tracks (most were double mono), and adjusted way-low levels.)
So...
In that I have usually recorded my tracks with my common levels, mic placements, etc., (and have cleaned up the chair noises, loogie-spitting and maybe even done sum high and low pass filtering) I start my mixdowns with my kind of typical default level and panning choices. For example, I usually start with the bass 10dB below the snare, which is usually near or only a dB or so higher than the kick. Two rhythm guitars? Pan at 9:00 and 3:00, set about the level of the bass. The lead vocal goes about the level of the snareand straight up, backing vocals a little less and mebbe 10:00 and 2:00, lead melody instrument about the vocal level at 11:00 or 1:00, extra percussion starts about 12-14 dB below the snare and panning varies.
By starting like this I get a starting place I am used to, with the ability to more or less hear everything, with a running-start at how I intend to finish. And if it sounds booring, at least I have eliminated the obvious settings/choices!
Next, I do a lot of what is posted above, between tweaking, parallel and sub-mixing (I usually do a submix of drums, of backing vocals, even of rhythm guitars or keys; I use parallel compression less, but it can be invaluable on, for example, duplicated submixes that I bring up under the mix.)
I guess what I am adding to this thread is the concept of a sort of template approach, at least to start...
(Although I just did a 16 track mix sent to me to add vocals; great fun after I made the stereo tracks properly mono tracks (most were double mono), and adjusted way-low levels.)
So...
In that I have usually recorded my tracks with my common levels, mic placements, etc., (and have cleaned up the chair noises, loogie-spitting and maybe even done sum high and low pass filtering) I start my mixdowns with my kind of typical default level and panning choices. For example, I usually start with the bass 10dB below the snare, which is usually near or only a dB or so higher than the kick. Two rhythm guitars? Pan at 9:00 and 3:00, set about the level of the bass. The lead vocal goes about the level of the snareand straight up, backing vocals a little less and mebbe 10:00 and 2:00, lead melody instrument about the vocal level at 11:00 or 1:00, extra percussion starts about 12-14 dB below the snare and panning varies.
By starting like this I get a starting place I am used to, with the ability to more or less hear everything, with a running-start at how I intend to finish. And if it sounds booring, at least I have eliminated the obvious settings/choices!
Next, I do a lot of what is posted above, between tweaking, parallel and sub-mixing (I usually do a submix of drums, of backing vocals, even of rhythm guitars or keys; I use parallel compression less, but it can be invaluable on, for example, duplicated submixes that I bring up under the mix.)
I guess what I am adding to this thread is the concept of a sort of template approach, at least to start...
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thethingwiththestuff
- george martin
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- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:00 pm
- Location: philly
wow, vvv, that's so different from any way i've ever tried to work. it's interesting. i end up mixing myself a lot too, be it my band, or me drumming for someone else. i cant imagine ever thinking in terms of "bass 10dB down from snare." how do you keep these values at all consistent and meaningful? do you ever alter any placements and settings in your space?
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