The biggest mixing secret you've always wondered

[mitchiemasha]

and mastering is for the mastering engineer to worry about

No, that's for me to worry about. I want that power!

I would also suggest, however, that mixing is about blending sounds and the techniques used to achieve this, rather than isolating them. Interrelation of sound through summing, sub-mixing and cross modulation can add interest, glue, sense of space and clarity.

I totally agree.

[mitchiemasha]

Remember, this isn't about totally isolating each and every sound. It's about realising something that previously isn't shown. It's about the "of course, that makes perfect sense now" moment, when first it didn't. In so many different ways. It might not for others but it did for me. It's about realising what your choices are doing, what it's changing and how that change effects the full picture.


A LC isn't just about removing mud. If your low end wasn't specifically tight, the phase shift, once dialled in correctly, can do wonders in reducing problematical dynamics. Dynamics that are requiring more Squish that you'd like to use to achieve the overall loudness. We can use that phase shift to our advantage. But, in many cases you'd get it wrong, losing headroom, unless you're aware of it.


And it's not just LC's, it's everything, it's understanding the combined waveform, the limitations of that and how that relates to voltage, the movement of the speaker, the compressed air in the room, variating in pressure and how we perceive that as sound.

[Unaspected]

Remember, this isn't about totally isolating each and every sound. It's about realising something that previously isn't shown. It's about the "of course, that makes perfect sense now" moment, when first it didn't. In so many different ways. It might not for others but it did for me. It's about realising what your choices are doing, what it's changing and how that change effects the full picture.


A LC isn't just about removing mud. If your low end wasn't specifically tight, the phase shift, once dialled in correctly, can do wonders in reducing problematical dynamics. Dynamics that are requiring more Squish that you'd like to use to achieve the overall loudness. We can use that phase shift to our advantage. But, in many cases you'd get it wrong, losing headroom, unless you're aware of it.

Indeed. If it sounds good, it is good.

And it's not just LC's, it's everything, it's understanding the combined waveform, the limitations of that and how that relates to voltage, the movement of the speaker, the compressed air in the room, variating in pressure and how we perceive that as sound.

I would presume wave theory to be a prerequisite to mixing. Not that you can't gain some mixing experience prior to learning the physics behind it but it definitely aids in understanding the process.

[mitchiemasha]

Another instance... You might have an extra 3db of compression you don't want on your drum buss, this could be due to the alignment of the low end, other hits sitting at the top of the hill, do you realign the low end, adjust the low cut on the lower providing tracks or add more compression and live with some hits been more squashed than you'd like. It's a mix choice.

[mitchiemasha]

I would presume wave theory to be a prerequisite to mixing.

Ahh wave theory, thank you, that might be more related to what i'm interested in here. Perhaps a little too deep but I like deep.

[mitchiemasha]

VS will first hand show you which hits are sitting ontop of the hill. Which areas are resulting in (or will result in) over compression when going for max volume.


A lot of mix engineers (or youtubers at least) say it "sounds tighter," with no context to why, well, now we know why.

[Unaspected]

Another instance... You might have an extra 3db of compression you don't want on your drum buss, this could be due to the alignment of the low end, other hits sitting at the top of the hill, do you realign the low end, adjust the low cut on the lower providing tracks or add more compression and live with some hits been more squashed than you'd like. It's a mix choice.

Indeed, there are many ways you could address that. Attenuating the input or adjusting the threshold seems like the most logical answer. Maybe high passing the compressor's key input. Usually I find that drum busses can be tamed simply by clipping the snares. The low end could be an issue between toms and kicks but it depends on how much they ring and whether this is perceived as a bad thing or not.

You can keep toms snappy and then use a resonant high pass filter to regenerate the fundamental. Then you have more control over the ringing. This can also add some natural variation to more static sounds if you use an analogue modelled filter such as The Drop.

I would presume wave theory to be a prerequisite to mixing.

Ahh wave theory, thank you, that might be more related to what i'm interested in here. Perhaps a little too deep but I like deep.

Much of wave theory is quite logical and easy to visualise. Those things that might be more difficult to understand, such as additive synthesis, can become clearer through use of a modular environment.

[Skyfall72]

I have been technically mixing in the box since I started writing and composing music in Cakewalk version 5...anyone ?
The mixing journey continues to protools 6 and more and more powerful computer. I have bought and watched numbers of mixing tutorials online and on dvds some of them were good others just teasing. The best dvd set was “ mix it like a record” by Charles Dye. It really opened my eyes and ears on to how and what mixing is all about.
Ever since…I invested into buying high quality plugins available on the market.
When you mix in the box your set of plugins are your secret weapon. Know them really really well , keep them closer than your enemy. Unlike mixing console, your computer and DAW is too sterile to make music the plugins is your sound.
Check out some of my mix:
https://soundcloud.com/thinkmusic007

[kingozrecords]

Why not use my free LA bands 2 EQ, it will give you a head start and sounds nice. Like bootsy's rescue mk2, you will find it reliable and stalwart. GL. https://leattol.com/work

[AndonHH]

Is recording envelopes on the effects channels of each instrument in the mix considered tweaking?

[Unaspected]

Is recording envelopes on the effects channels of each instrument in the mix considered tweaking?

When you have everything set up and you're just making minute adjustments here and there; that's tweaking.