Art1820m


Thank you very much guys for the advices, I feel little better knowing it has nothing to do with the DAW, But what about the interface? do I need to go HD or no, Because I wanna get Quality mixes , and by saying quality I mean being able to identify all the sounds ,open , clean mix that there is no frequency masking, I know guys (complimentary Eqing still dont get what I want) I'm talking about the separation of sounds, I even Sum to analog board to  avoid frequency masking,  but still problems,. Ive been through a lot of trial and errors  many many years and a lot of frustration also  . I mean is there some kind of secret? seems funny :( once you come to a point that you overcome the trials and errors, then do you know what needs to be done every time you mix??  Danny Im gonna research on the settings for my  profire 2626 and compatibility with Sonar, did you have any particular setting in mind?

The interface will help you get good sound going IN.  I'm not sure about summing to a board - but if you render a mix in Sonar, the interface has NOTHING to do with the quality.  I've confirmed this with Noel: All mixing / summing is pure mathematics and happens inside your computer - nothing to do with your interface.  However, if you are somehow sending individual outs to external hardware and letting it do summing, then that will have an impact on the quality for sure.  Not sure why you'd want to do that though.

ultimately, you want to get to a point where you are so good at recognizing balanced sound, that when you track something, you don't touch the eq, you don't touch the compression, you move the mics, adjust the source sound, and the way the track plays back to you, sounds exactly like it did going in.


then, you literally put all the faders up to about unity gain, and the mix automatically happens!!

LOL

i've done this, maybe, once, every one hundred mix sessions.

the daws are simply capturing wav files.

the 'quality' really starts at the source.......
then the mic.

after that, to a much lesser degree, is all the gear used to amplify the mic signal. you can ruin the sound that the mic captured, at this point.


but the daw, is only seeing the final capture, in a wav file, at whatever bit depth and sample rate you dictate, that it is capable of.

I go to a site where I can download raw material and work on these songs for practice. These songs are free to mix and for practice you can't go wrong. There is also a book "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio"That is not that expensive. The website is the extra information and has a lot of that. When mixing use your ears and your "Soul" . Trying to compare with the Studio recordings does'nt get you there. You have to feel what the song is telling you. After all when we mix a song the only thing we are doing is polishing what was already there. Nothing more - Nothing Less. But sometimes we get lost in the technical mixing and lose the song al together. 

www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-chInset.htm

Very nice point guys thanks a lot. you guys are right about getting the source right in the right begining, Im using a lot of virtual inst, most of the time instead of the bass guitar I play live unless the song calls for a synth bass. however Im thinking to give a try to send the virtual inst out to a gear, preamp or something for color then in to DAW, what do you guys think of that? Im just very happy to know the mix has nothing to do with the interface. My mixes and can be doneright if the right approach is necessary. thanks very much guys. 

no ITB tweaking will ever give you vibe and soul out of a synth instrument.

thats just my opinion.
but it's a strong one.

Tho I use mostly virtual synths and loops these days for my own stuff that presents its own set of problems.  A synth sound sounds good - great.  But you start stacking full range sounds together and you have all kinds of reverb and frequency overlaps.  I find I use more and more drastic filtering on soft synths to get them to fit in (as well as nixing the built-in reverb).  This has not so much to do w/ power as with mush, which can become flabby and anti-power.  Loops and emulative synths ususally are better about this, but still something to watch out for.

As far as interface - bouncing in the box doesn't pass through your interface.  However, using outboard stuff to mix through does pass through it.  Although expensive AD/DA is nice, that is probably the last thing you have to worry about or spend money on until other things are taken care of.

I do find that nice outboard provides a nice polish to ITB productions - even just mixing through it and routing it back into your DAW.  I can't speak to cheap comps, but I have a nice stereo comp/limiter that I mix through and all the yummy transformers and high-quality electronic components do help give ITB productions a more professional sheen - even when not squeezing the sound much.  I would never do that if I had an extra DBX 163, but from +$1000 electronics yes.

Spending money isn't the answer itself - such can help but ain't necessary.  Once you reach a certain point in mixing, tho, it can help carry you over the line.  Sending individual tracks could help, but it is probably more important coming in (which these tracks aren't doing).  Playing the synth through could help more.  But you'll get most of the impact from sending your entire mix out and back end.  But don't think that will fix your mix, even spending stupid money won't really help until you have the basics of good technique down.  And cheap stuff will probably worsen the situation.

@

droddey


The only way it sounded beautiful unmixed is because it was recorded beautifully. It all starts with the source. If you don't record good sounds, you'll be struggling to make it sound good. If you do record good sounds, then you can spend your time enhancing them in ways that don't get in the way of the good sounds you already have. The biggest problem of all, IMO, with most of us newbies is that everything you read on the net is about mixing, mixing, mixing, mastering, mastering, mastering, as though a bunch of plugins are all that matter and everything suddenly sounds great. Pros know how to record it to sound good to begin with, so they are starting off a few miles ahead of you.
 
If you are recording yourself, then put more time into learning how to record. Try to make it sound mixed as recorded. Take the time to get it right. Listen to songs you like and try your best to break them down and figure out why those parts work together. It'll pay off more than anything else you can do. Work on how you select parts so that they fit together to create a nice overall effect.
 
If you are just interesting in being a mixer, then get some professionally recorded tracks to mix, where you know that they were well recorded and you can hear other people's mixes of those tracks to get a feel for what is possible, so that you know if you can't get what they can, it's your fault and you need to learn more. Look into the Shaking Through stuff. Those guys record some very interesting artists and make the multitracks available to everyone to mix. Look in Gearslutz.com for Weathervane and Shaking Though and you'll find them. 

 

This just can't be emphasized enough.

Hi, guys this is one of  my recent mixes that I want you guys to hear. It is not final and needs some more work, some tracks are muted but you'll get the idea. please feel free to give your input,.any advice will be highly appreciated .. thanks again :)


http://www.soundclick.com/mixtest

Art,

after a quick listen I think the "sounds" used cause some of the problems, esp. the piano at the start.  Struck me as being gm.

If I was given this project I'd probably try the SSL bus comp for a little glue, maybe a little reverb.  Also on my computer speakers it sounded a little unbalanced, as if there was more bass coming out of the rt speaker.

But overall I think it sounded pretty good.  Nice writing and good playing and plenty of separation.  One thing I wonder is how busy the final mix is if you've muted some tracks.  Anything else might clutter up the fast song.

@

This studio was brought up the other day by Mike ( I think or hope I am correct on that) and as you look at the equipment to the right of the mixing desk brought in by the studio musicians perhaps you begin to see in even a almost professional studio (well maybe okay type professional) recording session that you have nothing similiar to set up unless perhaps you win a big lotto, like the one that was just won by those three lucky people who probably don't even listen to that music anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exQRfHbSwn0

Such is life at the low end of the rungs of the ladder if not down on the curb sinking into the grating on the street catching the sewer run-offs.