KVR :: Production Techniques » Stages in mix processing of song? [View Original Topic]
There are 12 posts in this topic.
hazerj - Mon May 07, 2012 1:20 pm
Hi all
What is the typical mix process of a song? What are the different stages?
Thanks
hazerj - Wed May 09, 2012 6:41 am
Anyone?
Mushy Mushy - Wed May 09, 2012 6:44 am
Idea, Write, ?, Profit
JD Gaffe - Wed May 09, 2012 6:46 am
Mix process? You mean the order in which an engineer goes through mixing a track?
It's different for everyone.
Keith99 - Wed May 09, 2012 7:22 am
Roughly:
My very first thing would be to get a decent gain stage going on. I go through all tracks tweaking the input gain so the output is around -12db.
Next I will get a rough mix together just by setting volumes and get an idea of what will need compressing, automating etc.
Then I work through the tracks in order of importance doing the detailed mixing adding compressors, eq etc.
Final things will be adding reverb and then limiter(s) etc. to get the volume up.
manducator - Wed May 09, 2012 7:40 am
Take a look at this pdf, it is a great guide for me:
http://fliiby.com/download-start/5740/bwf4bj680p/
Text is called 'Mixing a pop song from scratch'. Floating around the web for years.
chokehold - Wed May 09, 2012 7:52 am
What kind of music?
I mix mostly Metal and Rock, and I always go at it like this:
voice(s) -> drums -> bass -> guitars -> synths and the rest
As against the full blast of drums, bass and guitars, the voice is the one thing that will probably do different things from verse to verse, so it's the first thing the listener will concentrate on.
Get the voice to sound as it should, mould everything else around it.
Next: drums. After the voice, delivering the rhythm and the "feel" of the different parts is most important. Get the Hi-Hat and the Cymbal EQ wrong, an no one will notice that the rhythm changes from a fast, hectic 16th rhythm to a slow and pumping 4th rhythm. (Believe me, getting the brass right is way more important for things like this than bass or guitar are!)
EQ/compress the Kick+Snare wrong, and they'll sound smashing and in-your-face during slow passages, but any blastbeat will sound like there are no Kick+Snare in the mix at all.
Then there's the bass. Put it above the Kick frequency-wise. Be sure to have a LOT of sound and saturation in the High-Mids, and put some air in the Highs, that will make the bass stand out against guitars and drums - but watch that it doesn't take the presence out of the voices!
Having a massive bass (above the Kick, NOT sub-bass) will be a perfect fundament for the guitars, so if you got the bass right you can now Low-Shelf quite a lot from the guitars, say at least at 250Hz, and Low-Cut everything right above the basses base frequency range, which could be anything from 80 to 150 Hz. Try it.
Also, watch the Mids and High-Mids, it's oh so easy to make them sound sharp and cutting-through, but that will suppress the voices/brass and could make the whole mix sound hissy and fizzy.
I find myself shallowly High-Cutting heavily distorted guitars at around 4-5kHz most of the time, depending on the material and tuning.
[EDIT: actually, that was wrong. I cut the guitars shallowly somewhere above 4-5kHz, just so that 3-5kHz -depending on where the guitars' presence is- is still audible, but most of the "air" around 6-8kHz that should be reserved for the voice is free.]
Don't be fooled into thinking that "bright guitars = good" in a mix. The voice has to be more present, so if the guitars and voices overlap - find another frequency range to concentrate on with the guitars.
Everything else ... depends.
If you're into electronic music, I guess all of the above was useless to you.
hazerj - Wed May 09, 2012 9:07 am
JD Gaffe wrote:
Mix process? You mean the order in which an engineer goes through mixing a track?
It's different for everyone.
It's different for everyone.
JD Gaffe > I meant for an engineer/DJ producer/etc... I understand it is different for everyone but I was just asking for the main parts
hazerj - Wed May 09, 2012 9:09 am
Thanks for all the input guys!
Sorry I wasn't precise in the topic, I meant for electronic music!
itsNano - Wed May 09, 2012 10:47 pm
greetings! I am an EDM producer and here is a very brief way of how I start mixing my tracks:
-before I start my brief explanation of my personal mixing and mastering, here are the four effects that I use most during my mixing: compressor(ableton compressor), EQ (fabfilter Pro-Q for those wondering
), and a little bit of multiband compression (izotope) and limiting (izotope). I leave the limiter for more of the mastering stuff.
-My favorite EQ trick when mixing: I use the lowcut/highpass filter to take out any unneeded low frequencies because it takes up space and creates unneeded wandering frequencies which make the track muddier as a whole. When I take out the low frequency rubbish in each track, it creates a much tighter and cleaner mix. But remember, you still want low end in your mix! don't just drain the bass because your track needs it to keep that power and punch. It's like a burger without any sauce... it tastes alright, but it's not great. We are aiming for great. Anyways, enough of my chatter, lets get on with mixing and mastering!
Mixing Tips:
1. Usually I have TONS of channels in my track (20-50) so the mixing that needs to be done is insane! That's why it's the worst part of making the song xD. So... I choose to start out by grouping all of my separate tracks. I make a drum kit group, a synth group, and an FX group (sweeps, risers, noises, etc.). This makes it much easier to mix because everything is organized.
2. When I start my mixing, I usually begin by EQ'ing and Compressing the Kick drum at the same time because I hate doing things twice. After I did that, i would continue moving on down the drum kit group (snares, hats, percussion, etc.) because it is the simplest part of my tracks.
3. After that, I would obviously go to the Bass. Now, if you like to EQ the kick and bass before you move on to the snares n such, then that is fine. It's a matter of preference. When EQ'ing the bass, make sure that it has a dip where the kick is and it's EQ'ed out of where the kick usually is. I tend to keep my kicks at around 60 Hz and my bass at around 75-85 Hz (but it can vary due to the sound). Make sure you do some EQ sweeping to make sure you are boosting or cutting the right frequencies in the sounds (a.k.a., boost the sounds where they seem to be more dominant and dip them a little where other sounds are boosted. This helps keep everything in the mix).
4. Next, I would EQ and compress the synths (chords, plucks, leads, etc.) because they are a little bit more high end (when I mix, I tend to move from lower frequencies to higher frequencies, except when I'm mixing the drums). Usually my synths are at about 200 Hz, so I would make a little boos there and then dip it where other sounds (i.e., kick, bass, snares, etc.) might be. NOTE: if some of your sounds (it may be any sound, including: bass or synths, whatever) stick out like a sore thumb when they play certain notes, you want to use a compressor because that will make every note play at the same volume level (at least from my personal experience
).
5. Last but not least, if you're mixing a lead and a medium-high frequency synth, you want to EQ sweep and find each other's strong frequencies and give each one a little gain boost at those frequencies. For example, lets say your synth chords are hitting the strongest at 4000 Hz (or 4KHz). You would want to give it a little gain boost at 4KHz. If you have a lead in the song as well and it might be strongest at 5000 Hz (or 5KHz), then you would want to give it a little boost at 5KHz. Now, here's the important part... These two sounds are pretty close in frequency, so they are competing with each other, so it might sound kind of muddy together. What you want to do is take the synth chords that are boosted at 4KHz and put the gain down a little bit at 5KHz (where the lead is boosted). Do the opposite with the lead (dip it at 4KHz where the synth chords are playing). Make sure that the "Q" is farely large so that you are not cutting or boosing TOO much frequencies
.
6. Ahhh, the FX is usually the easiest part of my mixing. Because I'm a lazy person, I'll tell you this: mostly I use a lowpass filter on my EQ to cut out any unneeded low frequencies that might be taking up space and boost it it I think the noise or something is too muffled or dip it if it's too bright. Do what you want with your noises, depends how you want them to sound.
FINAL NOTES & MASTERING:
- make sure you mix around -10 to close around 0 Decibels (dB) because it is going to be much easier to master, but if you happen to mix below those volumes, its fine; just try not to go too low because when you compress/limit the master, you might find that it distorts your sound a bit and you'll want to remix your track, trust me it is disappointing! lol. I usually throw a compressor and limiter on my master and sometimes an EQ if i'm finding that i have too much bass or high end in a track, so i would dip it a little in certain frequencies to keep the track clean and appropriate for the ears.
-And finally... the internet is your greatest friend for this. Make sure you check out some youtube videos and google any questions you might have about production or certain tricks. I found a lot of useful videos and articles about producing and I'm sure you will too.
It takes a lot of time to read and study this stuff, but eventually it will pay off. Better now than later! Good luck and I hope this helps
hazerj - Fri May 11, 2012 6:49 pm
Thanks a lot for that reply!
itsNano - Sat May 12, 2012 4:13 pm
any time dude
, i'm tryin to learn as much as i can on this forum and i do the best i can to help out with what i know as well. There are 12 posts in this topic.