Mixdown Tips

sorgenkind · Post by **sorgenkind** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:51 pm

another great rule if you loose track of your mix is to lower the volume at the limit of auditibility (spelling??).
If you do so you immediately spot the sounds which are too loud, a loud track tends to "stand up" even if the whole mix is at very low level.

Measax · Post by **Measax** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:53 pm

I am just now working on mastering or "mixing down" a few track for the first time...never put this kind of effort out before. I have been reading tons of siht and let me tell you this is by far one of the best piecies I have seen...A lot of the info is the same BUT you make it much more clear cut and to the point and you don't talk about or market some piece of equipment...thanks...you should write for a music mag...

Torque · Post by **Torque** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:18 am

sorgenkind wrote:another great rule if you loose track of your mix is to lower the volume at the limit of auditibility (spelling??).
If you do so you immediately spot the sounds which are too loud, a loud track tends to "stand up" even if the whole mix is at very low level.

Ahh
Yery good

I forgot to put that in the post.
If the track still sounds good at low volume and all the parts are clear you have done a good job of leveling. However it's only really actually good for checking levels. It can't really tell you if you have a good eq on all the parts. For that you will just have to use your ear.

spyromus · Post by **spyromus** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:16 am

Right and here's something for those who don't know physics behind this. Your ear has a compressor in it and when you make your track louder (supposedly trying to hear more details) it automatically lowers the volume of those parts standing out, and you feel that everything is smooth and fine. When you lower the volume, the compressor goes off; the sound spreads across whole dynamic range as-is and is ready for critical review. So there's no need to turn your volume knob to extreme low, just do it enough not to overload your ears. If unsure, go lower...

Gurus, everything is correct? Any amends?

thomasjaldemark · Post by **thomasjaldemark** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:35 am

thanks for the tips, always helpful !

otomatix · Post by **otomatix** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:09 pm

Thanks

I'll try it out on my next mix.

Greets B

spyromus · Post by **spyromus** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:19 am

In my understanding, it depends on the idea. Technically, there are usually three components -- sub, kick and bass. I separate sub from bass and kick simply because I prefer to think about it as a separate sound requiring some special treatment. Sub is lower than the other two but may not exist as any other component. Bass and Kick are fighting for approximately the same freq range.

Is that what you wished to hear (I can feel I didn't say anything new, but it looks like the answer)?

sorgenkind · Post by **sorgenkind** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:43 pm

about the fact that bass and kick may have fighting frequencies or phase cancellation problems...
before i ever tried side chain compression between bass and kick the only way I had to have a proper sounding low end was to make compromise, so no 808 kick with a sine sub bass for example, which was very limiting for me.
Since I am using side chain compression for the bassline it seem to me that I can quite always ignore all that and simply let the sidechain compressor sink the volume of the bassline each time the kick is triggered (brief explanation about the most common use of sidechain compression).
I always check my mixes with a phase meter, and I could really notice few phase problems since the sidechain.

I'd like to know other experiences/point of wiev about that sidechain thing, maybe it's just me on "sidechain trip" and therfore not being really objective...