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Post by christopher on Mar 28, 2024 14:31:34 GMT -6
When building a mix, I often get hints of areas to fix that I “feel”, more than I can figure out where to listen for. It started when I worked live, where I couldn’t just mute every track and find the problem. I just started to know, for example if I feel myself clinching my jaw, something is wrong and not ok! And well that is one example I’m not sure I ever solved- sometimes the snare crack is too loud, sometimes the kick has too much mids, often its lows are too boomy, etc.
It was fun to experiment on the crowd live, I’d watch everyone’s hips.. if they weren’t moving I knew I didn’t have the lows dialed. Then you go and slightly mess with the 31 band below 150Hz and watch as instantly 100 people all start tapping their foot. Then you could make them all stop, or start again. In the studio it’s just me, no visual clues like that..
So do you guys have tips that you “sense” and know where to look?
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Post by jeremygillespie on Mar 29, 2024 6:48:56 GMT -6
When I have that problem I usually prop a mirror up on my desk and look at myself and say “you are the problem you moron” and then I go have a coffee and come back and sometimes I suck a little bit less. But only sometimes. 😂
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Post by svart on Mar 29, 2024 7:14:16 GMT -6
When building a mix, I often get hints of areas to fix that I “feel”, more than I can figure out where to listen for. It started when I worked live, where I couldn’t just mute every track and find the problem. I just started to know, for example if I feel myself clinching my jaw, something is wrong and not ok! And well that is one example I’m not sure I ever solved- sometimes the snare crack is too loud, sometimes the kick has too much mids, often its lows are too boomy, etc. It was fun to experiment on the crowd live, I’d watch everyone’s hips.. if they weren’t moving I knew I didn’t have the lows dialed. Then you go and slightly mess with the 31 band below 150Hz and watch as instantly 100 people all start tapping their foot. Then you could make them all stop, or start again. In the studio it’s just me, no visual clues like that.. So do you guys have tips that you “sense” and know where to look? The sections that people gravitate towards in the mix process have been referred to as the "hero" sections by some. These are the parts where you should focus first because it's the best part of the song. Focus on those parts, make them the best they can be, then move to the lesser sections and use them to build up to the hero section. |
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Post by notneeson on Mar 29, 2024 18:02:03 GMT -6
Vocal, groove, great sounding guitars where applicable. And mostly don't eff it up.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Mar 30, 2024 14:27:38 GMT -6
You must be willing to edit judiciously. Once a track gives you that cohesive feeling, don't add too much more.
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Post by christopher on Mar 31, 2024 12:59:42 GMT -6
I hope you guys are having a great day..,
These are all very valuable tips... I actually tried what you guys said and it helped instantly. It’s clear from these comments, once you get the sound ok, it’s time to automate/mute stuff, change it up. Especially when I get the perfect mix for the chorus, ride is sustaining and everything is panned wide and big with a great balance, then they all let up and go to a light tapped hi hat. All these tracks end up spread out wimpy and imbalanced.
A little automation of panning inward during verses actually does help it be less painful- the low end of stuff is more glued and blended as one after this, so technicality not errant transients coming from L/R smacking me upside the head.
I think my question is due to my recent ARC experience and mixing flat. For live we’d always pink noise and tune the room(venue) to perfectly flat, and that removes all character and resonances. And it was damn loud and powerful, so my ears would be assaulted. So I instead of hearing clues in resonance or character, I’m just sort of freewheeling and the only clue that things need fixing is physically feeling pain: like daggers in the ears, or clawing on your eardrums, or kicking to chest, or getting slapped upside the face. Or feeling Godzilla stomping outside. These things don’t exist in references, but when mixing I’ll often have to tame all this stuff.
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Post by guitfiddler on Apr 1, 2024 3:48:43 GMT -6
I seemed to always have this issue when my converters were less quality. When I moved up to some top converters, decent monitors, and tightened up my room it was much less of an issue. Always striving for that extra 5% can get costly
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Post by christopher on Apr 1, 2024 11:00:55 GMT -6
I seemed to always have this issue when my converters were less quality. When I moved up to some top converters, decent monitors, and tightened up my room it was much less of an issue. Always striving for that extra 5% can get costly This is definitely a huge part! For example, I still have my RME, which is painfully sharp in detail, and no musicality. It’s different that other cheap converters, it’s more a bland and sharp detail, like grape nuts with no milk or sugar... lots of cheap stuff is a like dollar tree expired generic Cap’n Crunch: Sweeter and hard to define, slight yuck taste. So I listen through my console and summing amps, which changes everything.. it sounds much more expensive, I just capture it and all is good. I mostly mixed live in the analog years, and the quality 15 years ago was way better than what the digital boards were bringing. God awful sound in comparison to the rich warm tone of a Midas or soundcraft. Even Mackie gets a warmth going on the 2bus. These boards were $100k, tough to make sound warm and rich. Made me so depressed, and then recalling mixes became the only gig, it got very boring, it all sounded lifeless so I moved on from live sound. (Now bands tour with racks of budget Warm audio 76s and 2As.. thank god!) But yes.. even with great audio, chain, speakers.. pain can be a real issue. There is a list of symptoms I started to build, with EQ ranges that fix the symptoms. “Eye blink” is one. This is where it sounds great but a transient is shooting out somewhere and causing everyone to blink. Notice the blinking and it will be with the offending transient, usually snare. Solutions could be EQ, compression, or volume. |
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Post by christopher on Apr 1, 2024 11:03:31 GMT -6
When I have that problem I usually prop a mirror up on my desk and look at myself and say “you are the problem you moron” and then I go have a coffee and come back and sometimes I suck a little bit less. But only sometimes. 😂 This is maybe my favorite post ever by the way 😂.. you and Svart using Talor Swift as a reference? Personally I blame Kyle Shanahan.. it was a tough Super Bowl around here. I admit, I did listen to her track after reading your comments. |
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Post by guitfiddler on Apr 1, 2024 11:16:08 GMT -6
Yes, the good old analog days! Unfortunately those nice big breathing beasts that sound glorious are a huge luxury that require oodles of cash
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