About mixing

Movies, TV, Music, Videos, Gaming ... all things entertainment.
Post Reply
User avatar
Juha
Posts: 213
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:57 pm
Location: Bonn, Germany

About mixing

Post by Juha »

Since there's professionals around here! I've been recording some demos lately, and the usual problem I have when mixing the instruments together is that the guitars are blended together.
Some tricks that I've been trying are:
-one guitar more to teh left, other to the right side
-guitars use very different tones/distortion settings
-using EQ, -2dB to the rhythm track on the frequency where melody/lead is

Scenario is the very typical rock band, 2xGuitars, Drums and sometimes Bass too.
And just noticed that when using very moderate amount of distortion/OD, the sound doesn't muddle up much, if not at all.

All practical tips are welcomed.
All I ever wanted, was my own way
Tolwyn
Site Admin
Posts: 304
Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 2:11 pm

Re: About mixing

Post by Tolwyn »

Mixing and mastering are the hardest (and most-subjective) part of recording and audio-engineering.

A LOT has to do with the source material.
Compression and EQ are a must. Sub-channel grouping can also help, but that also relates to EQ.
Keeping parts in the stereo sonicscape and not being muddy is difficult. The entire mix has to share the frequency spectrum and dynamic range.

My best recommendations are never record WITH effects on guitar. Record dry (or do a dry track and a wet duplicate track (doubling).

Getting your individual tracks to "sit in the mix" is tough. And mastering is ONE of the hardest things to learn and "get right." It takes a LOT of practice and good monitoring gear.

I'd be happy to take a listen to the source material and try a mix myself, to see what kind of stuff you're dealing with and to give some advice, depending upon how it was recorded, etc.
User avatar
Juha
Posts: 213
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:57 pm
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: About mixing

Post by Juha »

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

In all honesty, these recordings are for my own development - and I am a beginner in music!
I found out that recording is a quite brutally honest way of getting instant feedback about my progress, but it can't hurt :mrgreen:

My gear consists only of Amp (Yamaha THR-10) with USB-connection to PC and I'm using Audacity (recording / mixing / exporting) for processing the results, as it is a very simple and free piece of software. The amp came bundled with Cubace, but I didn't like it, a bit too softiscated program for my needs. Unfortunately no dry+wet recording is possible with my current setup, but I should have a look into it - thanks for the tip!

In the shared folder there's the .wav tracks (the drum track is from Soundforge, it was shared for free) and a .mp3 that is what I'm mixing at the moment.
Tracks started as something done in dorian mode, but now I believe they evolved into something else - it's all practice for me.

Thanks for the help!
All I ever wanted, was my own way
Tolwyn
Site Admin
Posts: 304
Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 2:11 pm

Re: About mixing

Post by Tolwyn »

Ok. I need to find these files. I've downloaded them... give me a few.
User avatar
Juha
Posts: 213
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:57 pm
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: About mixing

Post by Juha »

Meanwhile,

I've tried to apply the advice given... results:

http://tinyurl.com/nv4qkb5

I think it's much more clear now, with EQ and all. There might be excessive bass, but that's from my tiny monitors.
All I ever wanted, was my own way
Post Reply