What Are The Absolute Essentials?

[Autobot]

Hard work and low forum post frequency

[wagtunes]

Hard work and low forum post frequency

Again, no help. And I probably make more music in a year than 90% of the people who come here.

So, if you're not going to help, please, just go away.

[seismic1]

Some sort of Tape/Tube saturation processing may be useful. I tend to use it on the master bus after mixing. There are lots of options available, freeware or payware.

[Etienne1973]

Yes, I am aware of room treatment and all this stuff. I've done everything I can do on this front without going broke. Right now, I'm just looking for essential plugins for mixing.

Ok. If you really sure that mixing in your room is possible then ...

... EQ and Compression. You already have them. No need to look any further.

No brands, no nothing will avoid your learning curve. That's what at least I've learned. Me? I'm no overnight sensation.

Saturation is an important thing. In the end and relatively easy Delay and Reverb.

[donkey tugger]

I would add an exciter - used sparingly really brings out the fine detail in the upper frequencies. I like Plug n Mix Clarisonix personally;

http://www.plugandmix.com/products/p873-Clarisonix/

You mentioned stereo expansion. A1 stereo control is excellent;

http://www.alexhilton.net/A1AUDIO/index ... reocontrol

The new free Ozone imager looks good too. Not tried it properly yet though;

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mas ... mager.html

[Autobot]

Hard work and low forum post frequency

Again, no help. And I probably make more music in a year than 90% of the people who come here.

So, if you're not going to help, please, just go away.

Hard work is a good advice, not? Clarity, Depth, Weight, Grading. I believe you have all necessary plugins to achieve this. It's no rocket science. All you have to do is to know how a track and your tools works. And what a specific genre needs to sound like it should. Regarding to loudness you should google for the classification and standards ... So go work listen and study. I do so ... Good luck

[wagtunes]

I would add an exciter - used sparingly really brings out the fine detail in the upper frequencies. I like Plug n Mix Clarisonix personally;

http://www.plugandmix.com/products/p873-Clarisonix/

You mentioned stereo expansion. A1 stereo control is excellent;

http://www.alexhilton.net/A1AUDIO/index ... reocontrol

The new free Ozone imager looks good too. Not tried it properly yet though;

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mas ... mager.html

Thank you.

[resynthesis]

Has anybody mentioned decent metering for the latest radio loudness standards?

[ghettosynth]

So then what you're saying is there is nothing that I shouldn't be able to do just using those tools.

Not really, I'm saying that between those tools and your DAW's tools you should be able to get a high quality ITB mix.

A lot of plugins are just convenient combinations of existing tools. For example, de-essing, is just dynamics and EQ configured properly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing

If you're looking for some particular set of tools that's going to give you a polished mix without understanding mixing, it doesn't exist. Yes, certain tools will make certain tasks easier. I really like several EQs because the results that I get with them are easy to dial in, but, I could probably achieve something similar, or frankly, just make music without them if I didn't have them.

I think that the biggest hurdle isn't really about learning the techniques so much as it is, first recognizing that there is a problem with the mix, and second, recognizing that there is a specific problem with the mix. So you go from "that doesn't sound right" to "there's something wrong with those vocals" to "the vocals have excessive sibilance" to "I need to learn about de-essing."

It's probably easy to hear those things when they are really obnoxious but much harder to hear them when they are subtle and hearing all of those problems when they are subtle and correcting them is probably what makes the difference between a decent mix and a top quality mix. I say probably, because I will defer to experts here, but, that's my perception based on where my mixing is at today and where it was a number of years back. What has improved it is learning to recognize the specific kinds of problems that hamper my music. In other words, it's about ear training as much, or more, as it is about learning the technical details of new tools.

I get that skill is going to have a lot to do with my results, but at the same time, I'm not going to try to loosen a screw with a hammer. So if there is something out there that is going to make doing XYZ easier, I'd like to know what it is.

In other words, I can't believe that professional mixers do everything that absolutely has to and can be done with just an EQ and Compressor.

There isn't really much more than EQ, Dynamics, Distortion, and Space. It's just that there is a ton of variation on all of that.

Just based on some of your recent conversations on here, e.g., your confusion about mid-side, and I'm not trying to be critical here, just helpful, I think that reading and learning your DAW's tools along with Ozone/Neutron will take you a lot further than buying new plugins. Time, and not money, is really the solution.

[wagtunes]

So then what you're saying is there is nothing that I shouldn't be able to do just using those tools.

Not really, I'm saying that between those tools and your DAW's tools you should be able to get a high quality ITB mix.

A lot of plugins are just convenient combinations of existing tools. For example, de-essing, is just dynamics and EQ configured properly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing

If you're looking for some particular set of tools that's going to give you a polished mix without understanding mixing, it doesn't exist. Yes, certain tools will make certain tasks easier. I really like several EQs because the results that I get with them are easy to dial in, but, I could probably achieve something similar, or frankly, just make music without them if I didn't have them.

I think that the biggest hurdle isn't really about learning the techniques so much as it is, first recognizing that there is a problem with the mix, and second, recognizing that there is a specific problem with the mix. So you go from "that doesn't sound right" to "there's something wrong with those vocals" to "the vocals have excessive sibilance" to "I need to learn about de-essing."

It's probably easy to hear those things when they are really obnoxious but much harder to hear them when they are subtle and hearing all of those problems when they are subtle and correcting them is probably what makes the difference between a decent mix and a top quality mix. I say probably, because I will defer to experts here, but, that's my perception based on where my mixing is at today and where it was a number of years back. What has improved it is learning to recognize the specific kinds of problems that hamper my music. In other words, it's about ear training as much, or more, as it is about learning the technical details of new tools.

I get that skill is going to have a lot to do with my results, but at the same time, I'm not going to try to loosen a screw with a hammer. So if there is something out there that is going to make doing XYZ easier, I'd like to know what it is.

In other words, I can't believe that professional mixers do everything that absolutely has to and can be done with just an EQ and Compressor.

There isn't really much more than EQ, Dynamics, Distortion, and Space. It's just that there is a ton of variation on all of that.

Just based on some of your recent conversations on here, e.g., your confusion about mid-side, and I'm not trying to be critical here, just helpful, I think that reading and learning your DAW's tools along with Ozone/Neutron will take you a lot further than buying new plugins. Time, and not money, is really the solution.

Okay, well, this is actually kind of a relief. I'd just assume not have to buy anything if I don't have to. And as far as what you just shared, can't argue with any of it. That's why I've been spending an enormous amount of time trying to learn various aspects of mixing. I can't even tell you how many videos I've watched the last few days alone on a number of subjects.

I guess we can pretty much put this one to bed now. If I have what I need, no point in dragging this out.

[plexuss]

Ensuring your listening room is free of resonances and is as flat as possible (frequency response). Already covered in this thread (eg. room treatment). The speakers are important.

The reason you want to use a calibration tool is to tune your speakers and room so that you are getting as flat a frequency response as possible. Once its flat you then have a reference point - you no longer need to guess by using other monitoring methods (to arrive at an approximate average). With a calibrated flat source you can reference from your own perspective of what flat is. the point is that you have a point of reference to work from.

From there next most important things you need are tuned ears and a tuned brain - this is where you can train to a point but the rest is congenital competency.

The rest are just toys.

[deastman]

I agree with Ghettosynth. You probably have everything you need to get a good mix, and the rest is just practice. Although I'm younger than you, my hearing is now substantially worse than yours, and I'm trying to figure out how I can possibly still mix at all. For me, the answer is to rely on tools like Neutron which provide some degree of (questionable) intelligence for polishing individual tracks. Couple that with a good matching EQ to bring your mix more in line with an existing song which you already like the sound of. I'm also looking at Wavefactory Trackspacer as an alternative to Neutron for fitting multiple tracks into the same frequency spectrum.

But aside from all that, it really is all about EQ, compression, and mix levels. You need to control and shape the transients and dynamics of your tracks, carve out frequency spectrum for them, adjust their relative levels, and place them within the stereo field.

You can find all sorts of specialized tools and gimmicks, but that is really just icing on the cake. Developing your craft, to the best of your abilities, is mostly about practice and hard work, and less about buying more tools.

[Michael L]

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mi ... all-studio

[wagtunes]

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mi ... all-studio

Got the book, ages ago.

[Vortifex]

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