Mixing Process

Kinda of an interesting concept.  I may try it . Sounds like a pop music kind of formula, ( heavy vocal with the snare at a simular level ).  I usually set my mixes up based around the drums,  but it would be a new way of thinking for me.
 I sometimes use tube saturation on some indiv. tracks and things such as drum or guitar busses. It can have somewhat of a compression type of effect. 
 I've heard of it being used as the first plugin on the master buss, sometimes with tape saturation also. 

Saturation is very widely used. It's why so many commercial mixes are tracked in the box but mixed to tape. Use of tape-sim plugins is less common among the pros, but growing in acceptance.

It's really a bit of a crutch. It helps the mix by smudging everything together, like a charcoal artist uses his thumb. Overdone, it turns the whole thing into mashed potatoes. Personally, I do not use it. I prefer the crispness of digital audio right there in yer face, warts and all.

This is just one of  many ways to work a mix..... I'm thinking the number approaches the number of people mixing..... maybe even more....

The important thing is what the mix sounds like when you finish. If the final mix sounds good..... it's a viable method..... if not, it's not or you didn't do something right.

Have a go at it.

Dave,

it sounds like a good formula for pop music as stated above.  My problem would be mixing the realitive volumes w/ the vocals already set.  Do you set it to -6 dB or what.  I guess it is just another way to work, and it is certainly easier to move the vox fader than everything else as you bring them up ;-)

As far as distortion - I never found it to supply the analog roundness putting distortion on every track is supposed to supply.  It just gets gnarlier. Maybe the staturation plugs have gotten better, or softer or rounder or whatever.  I'll have to see.

One thing that might work (I'll have to try it) is to roll off the highs and then saturate.  Most of my home stuff is electronic, anyway, which works differently than more traditional styles.

It might be a useful way to try, and god knows here at home I often do several mixes from zero.

@

mike_mccue


Dave King,

re: #6

IMO, digital saturation is silly.

Anyone saying it is a regular step in a mixing process is more dangerous than silly... but still quite silly.

best,
mike

Some would say analog saturation is just as silly... 

drewfx

Slugbaby

 
Have all except kick drum and bass guitar going to Reverb Buss at appropriate levels. 

Matt I would have agreed with you up until last year, when I thought 'actually, why am I not putting reverb on the kick and bass?'

What I do now is set up 3 -4 reverb busses with varying ambiences, and have the kick and bass sent to a small room 'verb, maybe about 20% or so. To my ears it seems to 'glue' them into the mix.

By contrast stuff like synth burbles and atmospheric percussion details might go to bus with a huge cathedral ambience.

The logic I was applying was that everything has to be heard in some kind of space, so leaving those elements dry didn't seem natural. Of course it all depends on genre.

Anyway, sorry to sidetrack there..

I just bought my Sonar producer in December so I am on a very steep learning curve taking it one small step
at a time,have just really started recording some material and will eventually start attempting to mix  what I have  
written,this formula that you have does sound like a kind of brit pop sound which I am a little familiar with,but don't quite yet
understand the buses thing, do you just place for example,snare and toms in one bus, with effects,and maybe hi hats, cymbals,
and crashes in another bus with different effects et. and build up a mix that way ? would be interested in some feedback please
Cheers
jwh
  

6) Add "subtle saturation" to everything except lead vocals (I assume this is tube saturation like Colortone, CamelCrusher, etc.)

This could really just mean .... Season to taste! if it needs a little seasoning, add some?

Ah!  I found it!

This is the original post by someone named Kim Lajoie on the KVR Audio forum:

Just to add another cook to the kitchen, try this:

First, we start with the meat.

If your mix sounds balanced and "finished" without the vocals, you need to start again.

Step one: Start with the vocals. Mute everything else. EQ and lightly compress the vocals until you're happy with their sound on their own. Reference some vocal-dominant music. Depending on your mic and voice, hipass anywhere from 100hz to 250hz. Reduce the low mids around 500Hz (wide, though!) by 6-12db. It will sound thin on its own - this will save you when you add the other instruments. The amount of thinness you give the vocal is based only on your judgement. You'll get it wrong the first few times, but you'll get better with practice.

Step two: Add the snare drum. Nothing else, you should only be hearing the snare drum and the vocal. Work the snare (sound choice, eq, compression, just the usual) until you LOVE the sound. Don't be lazy - keep working until you can honestly say to yourself "This is THE snare drum for this song. This is IT.". Set the level of the snare so that it sounds roughly the same level as the vocal. Again, this is based on your judgement, and you will get it wrong the first time. Keep going. Use your ears. You are only defeated if you fail to understand WHY it's wrong.

Step three: Add the bass and the kick. Entire forests have been felled on this subject alone. I have my methods, and you will need to find your own. How you approach bass and kick greatly depends on your taste, and your style of music. When you've got them ready, set the level so they're present, but just a notch behind the vocal and snare. You are not mixing in a club. You are not mixing in your mate's hot car. You are mixing in a studio, and the vocal and snare have to be in front of everything else. That's why you start with them - because it's ALL about the vocal and snare.

Step four: Add the other instruments. Now that you've got the vocal, snare, bass, and kick (the meat) locked, you can start adding the vegetables. Keyboards, pads, guitars, hats, percussion, vocoders, background vocals. Don't make them huge. Don't listen to them. Always listen to the vocal and the snare. Set the level of these other instruments to minimum (where you can't hear them), and bring them in one by one. Raise the level until you can hear it, but avoid bringing them near the level of the vocal and snare. You'll probably need to hipass these other instruments. Be brutal. Remember - it's all about the vocal and the snare.

Ok, now you've got your mix, time to add the spices.

First: Panning. You've got all your tracks panned centre right now, don't you? If not, go back and pan them all centre. Once you've fixed your mix so it sounds great in MONO, pan your tracks one by one. The meat (vocal, snare, kick, and bass) stays center. Everything else gets panned all over the place. Be crazy. Keep it mostly balanced (equal loudness on both sides), but don't sweat it. The meat keeps it grounded.

Next, add subte saturation to everything except lead vocals. I don't want to write too much about it here, so I'll keep it brief. Saturation will add some hair and "realism" to the overly clean sound of your mix. For each instrument, add a tiny bit of fuzz until you think it's too much. Stop there - it'll all gel in the mix and tomorrow you'll hardly hear it. Try to use a tool that doesn't add much compression. Remember - you're not changing the sound, you're just adding to it.

Lastly, add reverb. If you've already got any reverb anywhere in your mix, remove it (unless it's a special effect). Add the best hall reverb you have to a send bus, and mute everything except the lead vocal. Add reverb to the vocal, and tweak the advanced parameters to get it to sit right. Sometimes the "Rich Vocal Hall" preset will be perfect, sometimes you'll tweak for half an hour. Don't be lazy. Keep going until you can honestly tell yourself "That's the sound". Read the manual if you have to. Now, set the level of the reverb for the vocal so that it's generous, but not overpowering. Next add a slight amount of reverb to each instrument. Again, remember that you're adding to the sound, not changing it. Give each instrument some depth and space, but don't (for example) transform "guitar" into "reverbed guitar". A TINY amount of reverb on kick and bass will keep them from popping out of the mix.

Congratulations, your mix is complete!
 
http://kimlajoie.wordpress.com/

I think mixing is a deep and complex process and you just cant post something like Dave did of Kim's and say here it is. What if there is no vocal or snare? Where would Kim be then? I wonder how many other genres of music he has mixed for example. How does this apply to an Irish folk band. or a jazz ensemble. Nowhere see. (his techniques are excellent in the areas of music he is working, and he is so right about that snare level too. I found out mixing hip hop and listening to people like DJ Quick, Dr DRE etc The snare levels are almost higher than normal in these situations hence the reason Kim talks about vocal/snare relationships)

There are a few things though. If you start early with important things that you want to hear at the end, then you cant go wrong. If I was mixing a Pat Metheny track I think I would start with his Guitar sound first. Or a Kenny G track then his sax sound. And a Madonna track I think I would go straight for her first and get her vocals sorted out. If you want a big kick ass drum sound at the end then start with the drums and they will stay in there. But if the vocals are important and you do everything else first, you are going to have big problems trying to fit them in.

Another thing is monitoring levels. How loud are you mixing? Important! Also critical balance is a term I use to describe how well a whole lot of things all fit together. Listening on a small mono speaker at 60 to 65 db SPL really sorts this out. Snare (and vocals) levels are much easier to set at very low volume monitoring. Loud listening is good for bass and reverbs. (but not for too long!)

Then there is K system or your metering too. If you are working at K -14 for example, when you start bringing in those first few important things you have got to watch your levels and get things coming up to but not quite reaching 0db rms (or - 14) You have to allow for the other stuff to come in so when it is all in there, the meters are crusing around 0db rms or -14 db FS. If you are not careful with metering you will blow it out by the time all the parts are in.

''Step two: Add the snare drum. Nothing else, you should only be hearing the snare drum and the vocal. Work the snare (sound choice, eq, compression, just the usual) until you LOVE the sound. Don't be lazy - keep working until you can honestly say to yourself "This is THE snare drum for this song. This is IT.".

I don't get the logic of this. How can you get the snare sound right if you can't hear the other instruments?

Check out Mike Stavrou's book - Mixing With Your Mind. It's one of the more interesting recording/mixing books out there, as it teaches you to listen and experiment.

jamesg1213


''Step two: Add the snare drum. Nothing else, you should only be hearing the snare drum and the vocal. Work the snare (sound choice, eq, compression, just the usual) until you LOVE the sound. Don't be lazy - keep working until you can honestly say to yourself "This is THE snare drum for this song. This is IT.".

I don't get the logic of this. How can you get the snare sound right if you can't hear the other instruments?

That was my first thought.  With the plan I wrote, the first few steps are all for rough volume and panning.  EQ, compression, etc, is always constantly in flux until everything has been completed.  An instrument (or voice) will usually sound pretty bad with instruments if you've set it up to sound good in isolation.
 
And I don't usually Verb my kick or bass because they add so much boominess to the "room."  To get them at a level I usually like, the reverb send is set to nearly 0 anyway.
In pop music, the drums and bass are usually the foundation of the track, and (to me) it makes sense to get the rhythm section set so you can build on it.  With vocals first, you're trying to corral an incredibly dynamic foundation.

Mixing is not as simple as a step by step process. It's a process of getting ALL the elements working TOGETHER. A soloed lead vocal will not necessarily sound great in the context of an entire mix. That's especially true for the snare drum. It might sound good on it's on, but you have to get it where it cuts through everything else.

I typically start with all the drums and getting a nice sounding full kit. Then I move to vocals. Everything else works in context with those elements, but then, and here's the fun part. EVERYTHING changes, whether it is a subtle or extreme change. It all has to work together.

To my mind, mixing is an interative process whereby a change to A leads to a change in B, which in turn leads to a chnage in C........blah blah, whicxh eventually leads to a (hopefully much smaller) change in A and you go around the loop again.

If by the time you get back to A it's wildly out then you've got a problem.