MIXING- How do you do it?

[Glory_Morris]

I just finished recording a full length in no time flat-- When I turned it over to the band, they were really happy with it but of course they've never recorded anywhere but with me.

I have some MAJOR issues with this album-- weak snares on some songs that I just didn't have enough time to re-amp. The guitars though and bass-- those are my real issues.

How much panning do you use on your guitars?
Do you shelf the guitars or cut any lo-end --boost anything ?
Where do you let the bass guitar breath the most?
The mastering guy said the drums were fantastic sounding-- its just everything else that I thought I had figured out. On this record--and I know its probably idiotic-- I cut the bass at about 80-100hz to leave a little room for the kick. I cut the guitars at about 125hz to leave room for bass, which was in the end futile.

[Red Rockets Glare]

I would suggest you buy this book I'm reading right now called Behind the Glass, it's full of interviews with folks like Sir George Martin, Phil Ramone, ect and they all talk about their mixing styles.
It has helped me out in that I have tried a few of their suggestions and really learned a lot about how to build a mix.
They discuss things like EQ'ing guitars in a much more authoritative tone than you're likely to find anywhere else.

[billiamwalker]

I just finished recording a full length in no time flat-- When I turned it over to the band, they were really happy with it but of course they've never recorded anywhere but with me.

I have some MAJOR issues with this album-- weak snares on some songs that I just didn't have enough time to re-amp. The guitars though and bass-- those are my real issues.

How much panning do you use on your guitars?
Do you shelf the guitars or cut any lo-end --boost anything ?
Where do you let the bass guitar breath the most?
The mastering guy said the drums were fantastic sounding-- its just everything else that I thought I had figured out. On this record--and I know its probably idiotic-- I cut the bass at about 80-100hz to leave a little room for the kick. I cut the guitars at about 125hz to leave room for bass, which was in the end futile.

I just posted a topic about headroom stuff, but it also helps with the actual mix. Mess with the compression of the bass to get it to set right with teh mix. I was workign wiht a bass sound and it was good..but when i put it in the iwth mix it was sounding overloaded and muddy. i foudn the right compression (luckily it was a preset on my plug in) and i just had to adjust the threshold and it did all of the mixing for me pretty much. (har har) and i didn't have to do ANY eq'ing to it (which was the way i was trying to fix it). About the guitars... bass roll off. find the right spot to roll off so when you a&b the guitar with roll off and guitar without roll off there is no real change and all you will notice is that you have more headroom. I like to pan my guitars hard. it adds to the definition and fullness. But on certain occasions if a guitar is soloing or whatnot, keep it centered. It adds depth to the actual structure.

[mjau]

Morris! What's up amigo? How's San Antonio life?
Is this a Muldoon record you just did?

[Glory_Morris]

I will check out that book-- I've heard a lot about it recently. I compressed the bass ok-- and on some tracks I really got the bass to sound great. I only had about 6 hours to mix the damn thing, but it was just that on some songs the bass was THERE but not noticable and no matter what I did-- phase switching in mono, EQ'ing, general fucking about-- I couldn't bring it out. I should have reamped it because I recorded both the DI and the AMP.

Tell me more about shelving.

[;ivlunsdystf]

My recipe: Get the drums and lead vocals to agree with each other in the absence of all other parts, then start adding other parts,

get frustrated, take a rough mix out to the car, take two days off,

start over,

Eventually end up at a point where it's time to be done, which often coincides with the point at which I have removed most of the eq that I have haphazardly added in the earlier stages;

When it's all done, start looking for people/things to blame for the outcome.

[billiamwalker]

When it's all done, start looking for people/things to blame for the outcome.

That's priceless...

[Glory_Morris]

Yeah-- that's pretty good. I think the REAL problem here is that fucking bassist. He's an easy target...

[;ivlunsdystf]

Hey, that's good! If you're blaming the bassist you are already on the final step! Time to dive into the next project!

[cgarges]

The only thing I ALWAYS do when I'm mixing is playback the multi-track. The rest of it is situationally based. Sure, sometimes I hi-pass the bass, sometimes I hi-pass the kick, sometimes I hi-pass everything. It's different from project to project and if I haven't tracked it, I don't know which direction to take it until I've heard the multi-track. Sometimes the choices are asthetically-based, sometimes they're mechanically-based, sometimes they're financially-based. It varies pretty wildly. For me, anyway.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[mjau]

Blame the bassist? Try the drummer instead.
I try and identify the two or three things I want to come out of a mix - could be a vocal, the bass, and the snare, or the vocal, the acoustic guitar(s), and the synth pad - and treat everything else as serving those main parts, eq'ing and compressing as much or as little as need be. I'd like to get to a point where I perceive the mix as a "whole", but for now, focusing on a couple or few main parts and going from there is where I'm at.

[billiamwalker]

i agree with chris as well.

everyone's equipment is different. If a drummer is using an entry level kit and you record him then you use a drummer with a nice maple kit, different tones are going to come through on each kit. You can't use a set preset. You may be adding lows and hi's and compressing some stuff on the entry level kit as the nice maple kit is already nice and balanced. As some of you would hate for me to say it (and take it lightly for some situations) take every project as it was your first. New sounds = new methods. But take the new methods with confidence so that the band doesn't just feel like you're running in circles around the studio. KNOW the techniques you're going to be using. but recording isn't picture perfect. it's sonice perfect. you could revolutionize engineering by finding a new bass tracking technique (which COULD happen although i'm sure every idea has probably already been used up)

[Dubious]

there's another good book you might want to ppe - The Mix Engineers Handbook.. its a pretty good read.

personally i like to get my drums sounding the way i want them, mix in the bass.. have these locked as a solid unit then i mix the rest of the instruments from there...

I don't usually rolloff the bass or the kick... i tend to rolloff the rest of the instruments as needed to get them to fit with the rhythm of the track... all the guitars get HPF and usually pretty hard panned.

but it depends on the band / recording.. alot of rock bands tend to have really midrangey bass doubling the rhythm guitars.. personally i hate this sound.. bass is suppossed to be bass not a lower double of your rhythm guitarist...

[billiamwalker]

but it depends on the band / recording.. alot of rock bands tend to have really midrangey bass doubling the rhythm guitars.. personally i hate this sound.. bass is suppossed to be bass not a lower double of your rhythm guitarist...

disagreed..but in a non-violend mannered. When i record rock bands i like to have the fat-midrangey punch from the bass in the mix. it adds to the body of the song and overall it just sound fuller (if that's what the band is wanting). Better that than have a band that actually WANTS the mid-rangey tone from a bass that lacks all color whatsoever. and if a bass DOES have too much color, it's easier to pull back on it.

[Dubious]

personally i tend to gravitate towards a more dub / funk oriented bass tone so i go for LO