Making things blend togetrher?

[jantzen]

Hi there,

I'm having trouble mixing all the recorded I've done. I mainly do sort of rock music and some rock ballad stuff. Actually, most of the stuff i've done are very softwarised, using mainly reason synths for traditional sound, apart from guitars and vocal.
I've got a Behringer condenser through the preamp on the 1820. Guitar's mainly through GuitarPort.

I just don't know how to make my stuff sounds more blended together like the commercial cds. I know everything takes time, but I think I need some general guidance since all my source have different acoustics, that makes it very hard for me. What do you guys do to make them blend together when mixing??


Jantzen

[pHz]

obvious trick is to add a LITTLE reverb on your master out to make all your tracks sit in the same 'physical' space ...

... beyond that maybe post a little excerpt of some of your stuff so we have something real to listen to and comment on (dont worry about how rough it is ... were not here to judge) ... its hard sometimes to talk about mixing etc in abstract general terms you know ???

slainte rob

[rawcan]

Hi Jantzen,

let us hear some of your music to know what we're talking about.
Basically blending things together is equing and compressing right. Rooms are also important in separating things or getting them together. Try one main room to place your music into. Separating things not too much frequency wise helps also for blending. Try to compress not everything seperately but more signals at once. These are some basic tips.


Best wishes, FRitz

[Left Headphone]

This is a good place to start http://www.recordingeq.com/rw/tip15.html

LoMids can kill a track.

Scoop the kick -4db @ 400hz. Play with the width of the eq band.

Scoop the guitar -2 to -6db around 100Hz to 200Hz. Play with the width of the eq band.

This is what I do to get a little clarity, plus a lot of experimenting.

[shamann]

I think good mixing goes along way towards your goal. Proper panning of individual voices, track volumes and EQ'ing.

[Programentalist]

Regarding the reverb on the master thingy... I prefer to put the reverb on a send, so I can control how much of each instrument goes there. This way you can move sources in the soundfield by adjusting how much of it goes to the send.

Also, apart from scooping certain frequencies to clear up the sound, slight panning and making places for the instruments that overlap a lot in frequency by cutting and boosting also works nicely... ie, if you have two guitars with a similar sound, you might pan them a little differently, and cut one frequency on the first, boosting the same on the second and vice versa with another frequency (I guess this works best with frequencies that are prominent for the instruments).

I think experimenting with all tips given in this thread already you'll go a long way...

[jantzen]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I tried sending slight reverb on every track (well nearly). But my ears dun tell much of a difference since the acoustics of the different tracks differ quite greatly? Or am I doing something wrong, I don't know.

Anywayz, so here we go. I know the guitar tone isn't perfect, but I'm also having hard time trying to get good stuff through guitar port..my problem probably.

http://www.heona.plus.com/myfuneral-excerpt.mp3

Jantzen.

[o'malley]

[funkynuts]

O.K. i,m listening on computer speakers in work so allow a margin of error...

1.Great guitar playing and drumming!

2.Drums..good but crashes probably 3 db louder than they should be and panned too wide in relation to the rest of the kit.There is possibly also too much top on the cymbals with the rest of the kit sounding a lot duller which stops the drums sounding cohesive.
Consider gating the ride/hat or adjusting the envelope to stop it sustaining quite so long which eats up space in the mix.
Maybe add a little more snap to the snare.

3.Rythm guitar..Cut a little low mid out and (use a tight q and 4-5 db of cut somewhere between about 180 to 350 Hz)
Roll off a lot of bass with a low shelf at about 60 hz (or higher if it helps.
Set a compressor with a slow attack and fastish release in order to keep more transient and highlight the percussiveness of the muted chords.
Back off the reverb a little and apply eq to the reverb return in order to clean out some of the bass/low mid again.
Consider turning it down by 1 or 2 db in order to let the lead breathe a little more.
( why is it out of tune towards the end? Nothing else seems to be so why did you let this slide?)

4.Lead guitar. Prettyb good sound and seperation.. Consider panning a little further out (opposite to the side favoured by the rythm.
Maybe have a (fast)delay line with a reasonably short feedback setting placed quite low in the mix in order to insrease the sense of space around it and increase seperation.(eq the delay and cut out everything below 180 Hz)

5. Bass...Very hard to hear on these speakers..but a low shelf roll off at about 40 Hz and a tight cut between 250 to 300 hz or so coupled with a tiny boost around 1-2k to highlight attack should help a lot.Again consider a slower attack and faster release on compression in order to tighten it up somewhat.

6.Vox..Not loud enough..hard to tell but seem quite clean and clear but they are buried by the rest of the music.

7.Overall..there seems to be a lot of compression issues in the mix with the level fluctuating wildly in the most dynamic settings.If you are using mix compression ,raise the threshold and use a lower ratio.Turning the crashes down will help a lot as they are definately helping to make the compressor/limiter pump wildly.

Cool tune sounds good with a lot of great playing!(like the old school vocals)

Take it easy
Funk

[P.T.]

I was going to say that EQ would be the way to get things to work together... but... someone has already done a very good job of explaining it.

EQ and relative volume levels.

Listening at very low volume also helps to get relative volumes right.

The drums (snare really) could possibly use a touch, just a touch, of reverb to sink them into the mix and the snare might be lowered 1-2 db.

That's a good sounding band.

[Jafo]

Mix-level compression, eq, and especially reverb are essential!

Here's another, subtle trick: If you're using a wide variety of different effects, you could try matching the effects more closely -- try using a smaller number of different effects, but using them in more places. Hmm, my explanation is as clear as mud. Use the same eq or compressor on more tracks, instead of different eq or compressors on each track. When possible, use an entire suite exclusively (say, the Classic series).

This will definitely help things sound more consistent, but it's possible -- easy, in fact! -- to overdo it.