How to Make a Clear Mix

welcome to sage audio today we're talking about how to make a clear mix but first if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at sageaudio.com to receive a free mastered sample of it use inverse eq matching inverse eq matching is one of my favorite tricks when mixing since it lets me quickly separate two clashing signals what i do is match the two signals that i want to separate highlight all of the bands that were created that match the signals and then invert their gain now everything that made them nearly identical has been reversed causing a greater difference between the two frequency responses let's take a listen [Music] i should let go [Music] slightly pan kick and base if you very subtly pan your kick and base you create a little space for each with the bass a few ticks to the left and the kick a few to the right the energy isn't as centered and the two instruments aren't competing with one another to the same extent try not to go over five ticks when using this technique or your mix may end up sounding like an old stereo beetle's record let's take a listen [Music] use downward expansion on lows downward expansion or gating has more applications than cutting out background noise it can be used to greatly increase dynamics and reduce muddiness if used on the base frequencies you can attenuate unwanted lows whenever the base falls below the threshold and control the timing with the attack and release this ensures that the base is most powerful when loud enough it doesn't linger causing a boomy or muddy low end let's take a listen [Music] exciters create high order harmonics that can brighten up an instrument or mix one good plugin for this is fresh air by slate digital a free plugin that simultaneously amplifies high frequencies and excites them this plugin can be pretty aggressive though so use it sparingly other exciters like the waves are all exciter will work similarly and create a clear signal let's take a listen [Music] use high-pass filters when needed although somewhat basic high-pass filters can really help add clarity to a mix especially when used amongst multiple instruments for example an acoustic guitar should often have a low pass filter set around 100 hertz reducing booming frequencies mic rumble and more unwanted aspects of the signal the same could be said about lead vocals and many other instruments so don't forget to use this simple but incredibly effective filter let's take a listen [Music] try new york style parallel compression one creative way to add some clarity to your mix is with new york style parallel compression with which you heavily compress an auxiliary send then equalize that heavily compressed signal before you blend it back in with the eq amplify a high shelf filter to take the details of the high end and boost them the setup will both add detail and body to your mix or instrument and add clarity with the high shelf filter let's take a listen [Music] tapping with my finger on the window [Music] add air to instruments another easy but often overlooked way to add some clarity to a mix is to process your instruments with an air band this brightens clarifies and adds a delicate quality to your vocals acoustic guitars or any instrument with high frequencies or high order harmonics the mac eq offers a great air band for this purpose which extends to 40 kilohertz let's take a listen [Music] [Music] i should high frequency upward compression if you want to bring out the detail of the high frequencies maybe on your drum or guitar bus create an auxiliary sound on which you place an eq and an upward compressor with the eq set a high pass filter to exclude the lows then use the upward compressor to increase the detail of only the high frequency signal in turn adding a lot of clarity to your instrument or bus let's take a listen [Music] utilize over sampling if you want a clear mix you need to preserve your high frequencies this is why you should use over sampling to avoid aliasing and the phase cancellation that aliasing will cause if a plug-in offers it use some over sampling especially when you're saturating or heavily compressing high frequencies this way aliasing distortion is minimal and your high frequencies don't get a somewhat comb filtering effect let's take a listen [Music] you keep pushing me if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at sageaudio.com to receive a free mastered sample of it also subscribe to stay up to date on all of our latest videos thank you so much for watching

Channel: Sage Audio

Views: 111,611

Keywords: Audio Engineering

Id: G2OW03JnETE

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021