Common mistakes when mixing: overused plugins and techniques

[gearwatcher]

Let's take this hypothetical scenario. I set the compressor up to even out the all over the place hihats performance of a drummer.

I want to even out the hits but also reduce the peaks to meat (or simply peak to rms) ratio.

But I need that hihat to sizzle and I need it to boost the 400Hz fundamental of the radius resonance but I want the 2kHz really down as it clashes with something else or maybe I just want that sound. My EQ inevitably has boosts and cuts (or just insanely deep cuts and I raise the gain up to compensate).

What does my signal look like now? Have I tamed my transitents or are they peaking out like Roman phalange spears? Is the performance more evened out - or less?

There are no rules that work every time. There is no substitute for measuring, listening critically and understanding what the processes do.

[Uncle E]

Are they "mere cargo cult practices"?

[kraster]

Ignore anyone who says, producers hate me for revealing their secrets.

"Producers hate this one trick!"

"Secrets the pros don't want you to know"

"This trick is a cheat code and should be illegal"

[Aloysius]

[billinder33]

I get a lot clinical and sterile sounding tracks for mixing lately - and I noticed (asked clients) that they all over-do Soothe and equal plugins, thinking if they remove all the "weird" resonances that instruments / mix will glue better. :/

I think Soothe is a really clever tool for taming very spiky, overly resonant synths by using the high sharpness setting on a narrow frequency band.

Then I go an Youtube and see people just hammering everything with it, vocals, pianos, guitars, full mixes. Then other videos where people are cranking a narrow Q bell filter and listening for whistles (they always find some, shocking I know!!) and now there are all kinds of resonance killers, dynamic EQs, spectral EQs, etc. entering the market to put a full frontal assault on resonances.

Unless there's some specific frequency or harmonic series that pops out of a sound in an obvious, irritating way, I never even think about resonances. But these days it seems like tons of producers just hunt and kill them for sport. What is it that has people so obsessed over resonances?

[Steve Bolivar]

Not utilizing AI fully to automate the tedious mixing process. Human ears and listening environments are flawed. AI has no ears or listening environments and is therefore flawless in its mix decisions. AI has assimilated all the "secrets the pros don't want you to know" and all the "trick cheat codes that should be illegal" that you didn't have time to learn.

HASHTAG SATIRE

[pluginnow]

About saturation... my ears don't like it, but I'm open to new (old) ideas tough.

I see it as noise, like a blury tv screen image.

If needing more saturation, I just turn on the FM receiver.

Someone englishten me please. Why so much recordings over saturated? I think it's traces of the loudness war.

[Scoops]

Mixing on just speakers or headphones.

[gearwatcher]

Are they "mere cargo cult practices"?

Everything you take at face value -- without understanding it and applying it with critical approach with measurement and listening, and considering how it relates to the material -- is cargo culting.

Every time you assume a practice is a law that you should always reverently abide to -- you've made your own little cargo cult.

[legendCNCD]

Are they "mere cargo cult practices"?

Everything you take at face value -- without understanding it and applying it with critical approach with measurement and listening, and considering how it relates to the material -- is cargo culting.

Every time you assume a practice is a law that you should always reverently abide to -- you've made your own little cargo cult.

Was about to write this. You did it better

[lingyai]

Once I used an eq before the compressor....
What a school boy error that was.

Eh?

[lingyai]

Quantizing
Beat mapping
autotune
pitch correcting
comping takes
spectral compression

How is comping taked a mistake, and how do you suggest it be remedied?

[lingyai]

I get a lot clinical and sterile sounding tracks for mixing lately - and I noticed (asked clients) that they all over-do Soothe and equal plugins, thinking if they remove all the "weird" resonances that instruments / mix will glue better. :/

I agree that when Soothe is overused (easy to do) it makes things worse, but when used sparingly, works great

[lingyai]

Believing binary, non-negotiable advice like "always eq after compression, never before" has any merit in reality, or comes from a point of authority and not mere cargo cult practices.

The reason EQ is better after compression is because the compressor will need to be adjusted any time the EQ is changed.

So make that 2nd adjustment. You're talking about easing workfliow, not reaching quality results, which sometimes defy this "rule" of yours.

[lingyai]

Let's take this hypothetical scenario. I set the compressor up to even out the all over the place hihats performance of a drummer.

I want to even out the hits but also reduce the peaks to meat (or simply peak to rms) ratio.

But I need that hihat to sizzle and I need it to boost the 400Hz fundamental of the radius resonance but I want the 2kHz really down as it clashes with something else or maybe I just want that sound. My EQ inevitably has boosts and cuts (or just insanely deep cuts and I raise the gain up to compensate).

What does my signal look like now? Have I tamed my transitents or are they peaking out like Roman phalange spears? Is the performance more evened out - or less?

There are no rules that work every time. There is no substitute for measuring, listening critically and understanding what the processes do.

What's a "meat ratio"?