frequency questions...

[gangan]

Hello, I've been break my head to get specific answer to that, just TO KNOW. I all the time work by MY EARS, not "follow the book"...but i have some questions:

THE ISSUE: If i take my samples and instruments, BEFORE i put them together in the mix, and "polish" them, with frquency work, cut low here, cut high there...you know.

1. it will make MY MIX sound brighter/commercial/clear?

2. it will cancel ANY phase that could be?

3. I know when u put all in the mix, then "NEW" frequencys created, cause all play in the same time...so that's new cretaed frequencys that's IS "good" freq?

4. If i don't do that "polish" work, can i still make a clear brighter awsome mix? cause until now i work like this. and the mix played good.

I know that playing "solo" channel, it's not important like when you play ALL, this is what's important and count.

Thanks for your answers guys and girls!

[Mathematics]

Honestly, if you just start with the dry sound and start sculpting the sound, you'll find you will "polish" the sound differently than if you were to do it before mixing. That's not to say you shouldn't, because I like starting with a powerful sounding Steinway, then sculpt around that...as an example. The raw Steinway sounds limp but after a nice chain, I can get it to punch. With that said though, If the recording was good to begin with (which in most cases it is) and if the sound is good enough, try to put something together then eq what you need to and then start fine-tuning. This is just one of dozens of ways to get a mix started. To be honest, no one will be able to tell exactly what is better. I just proved that polishing first is fine but at the same time, I don't believe one needs to do that to every instrument unless you can truly find a "bad" note in the sample or stem that needs to be cleaned up. Vocal tracks especially can benefit from a little volume automation and slightest compression before mixing...that is common to do.

I wouldn't be surprised to see someone mention it's all about the performance. If the performance is good, there's less house-cleaning. As far as soloing channels...yes, do it for comparison not to polish the isolated sound...you need to listen to it in the mix. This is all basic stuff you can find in a textbook. Go look up "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior. You'll find a lot of answers there and learn a whole lot of stuff. Yes...you will have to read and study; I can't of anyone successful that didn't invest into education.

[BertKoor]

There's this part in the famous Slipperman Thread (which was about recording high gain distorted guitars) where he talks about mixing in general, sculpting frequencies... There he makes this great analogy with taking an impossible photo:

Imagine yer 2 buss is a telephone booth.
Imagine yer mix is a bus stop full of loomers from a local college cheering section.
You might have....:

Some fat guys, some skinny guys, some chicks with big asses, some dudes who play rugby, a coupla jockeys, an occasional basketball player. Ya might even have baby Mastodons(Hey! He might be the mascot!!!) Etc.

Yer mission, should you be stupid or crazy enough to accept it, is to jam all these characters into the telephone booth in a fashion where.....

1.) The smartest and most important guys can reach the handset.
2.) You can close the door and the booth is still primarily intact.
3.) As few people as possible die in the process.

Now these might not be THE ONLY objectives you'd be concerned with in any given mix... But these would be the ones you'd ALWAYS be dealing with. Fer instance: You might ALSO decide you wanted to be able to:

1.) Take a photo of the whole shebang where the chick with the great face and stunning lungs is jammed up against the front glass looking like she's getting rogered by the drum major.
2.) 3 different guys alternate placing and answering the phone whilst the mastodon whips up a enchanting cheese fondue and screens unreleased Fellini films on a stolen eggplant/camcorder.
3.) You keep as much of the original clothing and body shape/mass of the landscaped Gospel choir intact whilst shrinking the rest of the occupants down to personal voodoo doll size and set them to work powering the South Bayonne Elks Lodge on tiny Velcro hamster wheels.

All common scenarios.

[gangan]

Thanks guys!

I will buy this book.

So...It's not set in stone...about freq stuff.

Another question, so How i know if i NEED freq work? If i have phase? cause if the mix sounds good no need...

[DJbrimLo]

This is a great question. I used to spend a lot of time trying to find that magic EQ boost or cut to get my Mix to sound pro. Or there would often times be the moments where I felt like if I just added that compressors that would be what the mix needed to compete. There is some truth, but I think the steps to getting that pro sound is before that. In relation to the questions presented, I would say really focus on the sounds in the composition. Like if you think want to add 6dB to a snare to give it the body you feel is missing, just layer or replace with a snare that has energy. I have often found that boosting an EQ to make it fit one gap, will just leave another gap. Layers in the original composition/production is the biggest ticket to that "pro" sheen and thickness. With proper layers in my production I find myself doing more work on things like phase aligning snares & kicks using InPhase from Waves. I usually find a lot of the body and low-end I was looking for and I hadn't even used an EQ yet. And from there if it doesn't need any EQ then don't. I have several track that will only be Phase aligned and running thru my Virtual Summing via NLS from Waves.

[MogwaiBoy]

You may face more problems than fix - if you go through and individually "polish" each sound or instrument before even mixing the track - the main one being that you'll make very different EQ decisions if you're only dealing with each sound in isolation. This is especially true with things like distorted guitars which sound much fuller and better with some low-end thump dialed in... until you insert the bass guitar...

You really need to get all the ingredients in the pot before you can figure out if it needs more salt : )

Just do it all in the mix - solo out the stuff you want to focus on and always check how it sounds back in the full mix - and tweak and refine again and again as you go along.