How to Mix If You're Not a Mix Engineer

Mixing is hard much harder arguably than mastering  now harder because unlike mastering a single   stereo file you're dealing with dozens sometimes  hundreds more tracks it's also harder because it   can involve repair work like waveform edits  to fix timing problems or restoration work to   remove clicks and pops that if left unresolved can  increase in loudness when you move on to creative   processing like compression delay and Reverb  there's also tuning phase polarity challenges   and so much more but here's the thing mixing  doesn't have to be a burden because in this video   we're going to walk you through the ins and outs  of getting a mix off the ground sounding great   and ready for mastering so sit back and get ready  to learn how to mix if you're not a mix engineer a couple of things before we get started it's  important to know that you should be working with   quality ingredients before you ever start mixing  we've talked a lot about the good rule on this   channel and if you're new it goes something  like this good singer good microphone good   mic technique good cable good preamp equals good  result multiply that good rule philosophy across   all aspects of the production and you'll end up  with a good sounding multi-track that you can   make great in the and legendary in mastering  it's hard to get a great mix truly great if   you're starting with bad tracks so these tips  are going to assume that you followed the good   rule or your clients have so once you have  all your good ingredients it's time to start   cooking and one more thing this video is going  to assume that you're mixing something that has   some acoustic instruments involved like a real  guitar and or real drums but if you're mixing   just Loops there's still a ton to learn here  so without further Ado here's tip number one never tried making dinner in someone else's  kitchen it can be impossible to move quickly   because you don't know where things you need are  stored you have to open every drawer and cabinet   to find the right tools the pots the pans  The Cutting Boards basters meat thermometers   Etc not only are you moving slowly and wasting  your time but you're more likely to get frustrated   and be in a bad mood altogether as you prepare  that hypothetical meal mixing in a digital audio   workstation can feel similar if you haven't taken  the time to organize your mix session every track   name reads like something from the Dewey Decimal  System and they're all the same color so unless   you're an expert waveform decoder you have no idea  what's on the other side of that track unless you   play it which you should by the way and more on  that later this is why it's critical to organize   the session in a way that makes you feel like no  matter what dish you're cooking you're in your own   kitchen and you know where everything is so clean  up the names of the tracks group them in order of   instrument or frequency yeah some people do that  and give them colors so at a glance you know what   food group you're mixing some people save time  all together by creating mixing templates and   then dragging their tracks into it when they start  a mix I'd recommend that once your instruments   are named and grouped you should bust them in one  group per instrument category now you can control   the loudness of each instrument group easily  with just one fader whatever your system is   it's important to have a system especially if  you're a beginner this is going to give you a   great sense of structure and Zen when you're  pairing your tracks for mixing to learn more   about this process take a look at the pop-out link  above from our are you listening mixing series a lot of mixed tutorials that you see online  featuring your favorite pro mixer don't   always show you the critical work that goes  into making sure that every track is truly   ready for the mixing stage now we've already  discussed organizing your mix in the previous   tip but did you know that listening through  all the tracks for any pops clicks dropouts   is another important task that needs to happen  before you touch a fader most mixed Engineers   have an assistant that handles this important  step the assistant's job is to provide crucial   quality control so that the mixing stage can run  as smoothly as possible common issues that might   get treated in the repair stage involve plosives  these are p-pops when air hits the capsule from   a sun or spoken word clicks and mouth sounds or  hummingbuzz that infiltrated a guitar amplifier   luckily treating these problems is easy and often  automatic attic with izotope RX in fact there's a   tool called repair assistant which you can use  to automatically scan for these problems and   then remove them there's special settings in the  assistant to tackle instruments vocals and more   you can also choose to fix the problems in the  RX Standalone application or you can park the   assistant or desired module on the track that  you'd like to clean up in your digital audio   workstation I should also mention that customers  of RX can download Michael brower's own repair   presets that he uses for every mix check the  pop-out link to get them it's really important to   treat those problems that I just mentioned before  you start adding tools that boost the signal of   the track because then those pops and clicks  will become even more obvious to The Listener   and distract them from the song other repair work  might involve tuning and Pitch correction the most   popular tuning work is done on the vocals and the  bass two mix elements that are often Off Pitch   for this you can use a tool that comes  free with your purchase of nectar called   melodyne essential this is a great app  for quickly making pitch alterations to   your vocals bass or whatever really that  needs tuning now alternatively you can use   automatic pitch correction in nectar's Pitch  module or crispy tuner from brainworks audio now hopefully you didn't pass out from boredom  reading that title card but trust me this is a   really important part of mixing that beginner mix  Engineers don't know about or forget all the time   if you ignore polarity and or phase issues this  usually leads to a dull Hollow drum sound and   a dull Hollow mix overall let's first Define  polarity and phase in a mixing context phase   typically refers to time of arrival differences  so let's say you have a multi-miced drum kit with   separate mics on the toms kick snare overheads Etc  when you bring all those recorded sources together   in the digital audio workstation you'll notice  that at a waveform level even though everything   was recorded properly and the sounds are all  there the waveforms look out of sync some Peaks   are ahead and some are behind maybe they're all  over the place this is because the sounds from the   drums reached the microphones at different times  because the mics were positioned in different   locations across the source the drum kit what  I've just described is a Time time of arrival   phase problem when this occurs You'll Play back  what you've got in your DAW and you'll probably   notice that the drums don't sound rich and deep  they lack the emotional expressiveness of the   drummer's performance now don't worry we'll talk  about solving that issue in a moment let's quickly   Define polarity polarity refers to the direction  of the waveform either positive or negative   in mixing you'll want to get into the habit of  polarity switching or summing polarity switching   or summing refers to reversing the polarity of  the waveform so that the positive part of the   waveform becomes negative and the negative part  of the waveform you guessed it becomes positive   experimenting with inverting polarity especially  on drums can result in more low end definition   and reinforcement of the drum elements because the  way the drums were originally recorded included a   polarity relationship that's now counterproduct  actively affecting the drum sound and your mix   overall this can happen when you've double  miked a source like a snare drum or even a   guitar di plus amplifier to fix polarity problems  go into your DAW and experiment with the polarity   relationships of double mic sources or really any  multimite sources to do this choose one source to   be the anchor let's say the top mic snare track  and the bottom mic snare track is going to be the   non-anchor solo the top and bottom snare mics  and use the polarity invert switch in relay or   Neutron on the bottom Mike's snare track what you  should listen for is audible low end reinforcement   in other words more low end power hitting than if  you hadn't flipped the polarity if the sound gets   thicker and more powerful you've adjusted the  polarity of the bottom snare mic for the better   and improve the overall drum sound you can do the  same with the snare and overheads just solo that   anchor snare again and solo the overhead drum  tracks and press the polarity switch to invert   the waveform on the overheads to see if more low  end reinforcement is achieved now back to time of   arrival differences and how to fix them to fix  time of arrival phase differences you got some   options many people use the close might snare as  their timing anchor in this situation it acts as   the timing source of Truth so you'll want to drag  all the other drum tracks that are ahead or before   it so that the Peaks line up with the snare Peaks  from that close mic you can do this by looking at   the waveform for visual spill of that snare and  then lining everything up correctly so that the   Peaks are synced up to see this polarity summing  and phase lining work in action check out the   pop-out link above to watch Enrique Gonzalez  Mueller perform this on a real mix and our   free mixing series are you listening so once  your drums are lined up and face coherent you   can now take the time to replace and or enhance  drum kit elements with samples how you go about   doing this is totally up to you some plugins have  samples that can be triggered by the audio Source   you're trying to replace and some Engineers prefer  converting their audio tracks to MIDI and using a   tool like Native Instruments battery there's even  tools like easy or Superior drummer that act as   digital audio workstations for drums do a little  bit of research and homework to find the right   sample replacement enhancement process that works  for you and the mixes you find yourself working on now that your drums Keys vocals and the rest  are labeled and colored and grouped and bust   appropriately it's important to take the extra  step of removing any dead air from the tracks   that don't have sound constantly running from the  start to the finish of the song for example if the   toms were close-miked they can be edited so as to  only appear in your Daw when the hits are audible   now you might be thinking isn't there an important  spill on those Tom tracks and by spill I mean the   sound of the rest of the kit bleeding into the  close mic to Tom the answer is depending on how   they were miked The Spill could contribute to a  sound or a vibe that you're after if you wanted   to leave the spill in and not edit them as I'm  recommending right now perhaps it sounds thicker   and warmer with the spill retained or it could  contribute to unwanted noise buildup whatever   you do is up to you and if it sounds good it  is good feel free to trim other waveforms that   don't have Sonic information constantly running  throughout the song guitar solos percussion   sequences background vocals and ad-libs are  all great candidates for this kind of pruning   once you do this it's important then  to use the fade Tools in your Daw so   you don't get clicks and pops when  the audio on the waveform runs out   figure out the easiest way to do this in your  Daw often it's just by making a selection and   then pressing something like command or control  and then F to add Fades at the beginning and   ends of the waveform to go a step further in  controlling noise you could add a noise gate   A Noise Gate sounds like it is it's a device that  silences audio signals below a specified threshold   effectively reducing or eliminating background  noise or hum in audio recordings a lot of people   use Gates on drums especially the snare and kick  you'll find really capable gates in izotopes   Neutron along with really helpful presets  that say the name of the instrument profile   they're best suited to gate now once again I can  almost hear the pros saying but bleed is good   decide for yourself with some experiments  and remember if it sounds good it is good so now you can start to approach building the  foundation of the mix with what's sometimes   known as a fader mix I can't overstate how  crucial this phase of the mix is getting   this part right will mean way less work in later  stages of mixing a fader mix is mostly just that   let all the tracks play and then scrub around  your volume faders in the Daw bring them up   or down depending on what you hear and what  you like but what if you don't know where to   start ultimately it depends on what you're  mixing but here's some things to consider   vocals are usually going to be louder than  everything else by how much is up to you   second to that is drums with snare usually being  as loud as the vocal in some genres overheads   can sit behind the drums same with percussion  elements like shakers and tambourines if you're   confident you can start panning percussion left or  right in the stereo field same with drum elements   you can also create What's called the drummer's  perspective by placing the kick in the middle the   rack Toms in the center and center right the floor  tom on the bottom right and the hi-hat on the left   even though we're calling it a fader mix panning  is usually included in this foundational step   after that bring the Bass track or tracks in  until you feel you've got a nice Groove going   with the drums and by the way it's completely  okay to mute certain tracks as you build your   fader mix so for example muting the vocals  to find that bass and drum Groove is totally   acceptable and just so you know the bass  can be right up the middle panning-wise   then if you have them bring the guitars in they  can be panned left or right and or Center and   usually sit a touch louder than the base but not  so loud that they obscure the base keyboards pads   and or synths can come in now you've also got a  lot of creative opportunities with their paying as   they're not critical instruments like vocals kick  and snare which usually need to be in the center   for power and attention stop working on the fader  mix when you feel like what you're hearing sounds   like a strong demo of the song Maybe it doesn't  have the clarity effects and polish of a finished   product but the foundation is there and you  should start to hear the Final Mix coming together   I should mention that izotope has tools to help  you with this fader level process if you're   looking for a head start balance assistant  in izotope Neutron can jump start the fader   mix process and visual mixer can help you pan  things in the stereo field visually a little bit   like an air traffic controller guiding all the  sounds around in the air check the links in the   description to see how to get up and running with  both of those tools I should also say that if you   want to get a little outside inspiration for how  and where to level and pan your mix elements it's   always a great idea to have a reference track to  switch to just keep in mind that reference tracks   are usually finished polished mixes that are ahead  of where you are in the fader mix stage so just   focus on the level of things in the reference mix  and their position in the stereo field to learn   more about reference mixes and how to use them in  your own work check the pop-out link above [Music]   fader mix is strong it's time to start turning  that collection of good tracks into something   great so we're going to talk about compression  EQ time-based effects and more but before   we get started talking about individual track  processing I want to talk about mix bus processing   many mixers use low ratio compression with about  three to four DB of gain reduction on the mix bus   to glue their mix together often with VCA style  compressor people usually place a compressor   on that mix bus once they've finished all their  individual track processing something I want you   to consider is placing a compressor there before  you start mixing individual tracks compression of   this nature could have impacts on individual  tracks and the processing that you've worked   really hard on so rather than doing all that  individual processing work on your tracks adding   a stereo bus processor like a compressor at the  end and then going back to the tracks often one   by one to adjust based on the effect of that  glue compressor you could add one early on in   the mixing stage and continue individual track  processing from there now onto individual track   processing just like we discussed in the fader  mix session try to work on clusters of similar   instruments at a time obviously their genre and  style of music is going to dictate which and how   much of an EQ compressor saturation tool you'll  use so I'll try to make some broad recommendations   that will be helpful for you for individual  track processing I'd highly recommend placing   an instance of neutron on the track and running  the track assistant this is a great way to get   started because Neutron will listen to the track  identify the source and then build you a custom   chain which you can further tweak to taste I'd  recommend beginning with the drums that's the   foundation really of any mix contrast is always a  good idea in a mix so experiment with distortion   on your overheads but keep your individual drum  elements a little cleaner you can add Rumble to   Toms and kick with tools like the EQ and neutron  low end focus and ozone or BX substance from brain   works you can add snap to snare with the punch  compressor in Neutron I should also say that some   people discard the overhead and room tracks for  drums altogether and it's up to you to do this or   not and in many cases the client too trust your  ears and yourself another technique people use   on drums and elsewhere in the mix for that matter  is high passing allowing high frequency content   to pass and scooping out the low using an EQ this  is done to Tamp down on muddiness that's caused   by tracks that are needlessly contributing  to the overall low end composition of a mix   make sure you use gentle filters for this with  6 or 12 DB per octave slopes good candidates   for this kind of scooping would be the snare  percussion elements like tambourines and shakers   hi-hats and other high frequency elements in the  Rhythm Section once the drums are in a good place   move on to the bass guitar track or tracks if  you've got a Di and amp bass guitar track set   you could use both or just go with whichever one  sounds best one trick that many mixers use is they   have one base for top end and another base for low  end this means placing an EQ on both bass tracks   and carving out the respective frequency zones  for each now you can experiment with processing   and level control for each depending on what the  mix needs and obviously what sounds good also   it's a great idea to make sure that the kick and  bass can be heard respectively as they can often   overlap in frequency spread neutrons unmasking  module is great for this just make sure you've   got one of the sources as the side chain input  and use the processing to separate the two until   neither is clouding the other next is vocals make  sure you've sorted out all the problems that we   discussed earlier so clicks P pops plosive Etc  provided you have you're in the clear to start   processing the vocal I'd recommend using nectar 3  plus assistant here so after some questions were   answered in the menu it'll listen and then use  compression EQ Reverb Auto leveling de-essing   to make sure that you're set up for a polished Pro  sounding vocal you can tweak it from here to taste   pay special attention to that de-esser in the  chain and make any adjustments if sibilance   so strongly stress consonants s sounds can be  heard make sure to use the output slider on the   far right of nectar to regulate the loudest of the  vocals against the rest of the tracks that you've   mixed and the mix as a whole if you're curious  about how loud the vocal should be I hesitate   to give you loudness targets to hit in decibels  but here's things to keep in mind for a pop mix   the vocal should be the loudest thing for rap and  hip-hop they're usually loud too perhaps less than   a pop mix but still loud one rule of thumb is that  some mixers out there will try to match the vocal   to the same loudness as the snare track especially  in rap and hip-hop take it or leave it for rock   vocals are usually loud but sometimes there's a  little bit of surface tension with them and the   rest of the mix to give the perception that the  band is playing together live in front of you in   the same years seeing over the rest of them back  to lead vocal processing it's common to have the   same combination of processing modules from one  vocal to the next so if you have other prominent   vocals option plus clicking and dragging nectar  from one to another and adjusting the output level   can save you a lot of time for background vocals  and ad-libs it's often a good idea to band high   or low pass them so that they don't clash with  other vocals nectar has some great background and   ad-lib presets to explore by the way now I know  what you're thinking what about Reverb and delay   on vocals or drums for that matter that's coming  up in the next tip so sit tight guitars whether   acoustic or electric usually always benefit from  some compression Neutron's assistant or the other   individual presets in the compressor module will  be helpful here acoustic guitars love the chorus   effect the little goes a long way electric guitars  typically benefit from being softened a little bit   by band pass eq'ing to de-fang them it's also  not uncommon to use a de-esser especially on   fizzy electric guitars now while you're doing your  guitar work it's really important that you don't   over process guitars as guitarists and tracking  engineers work really hard to find and record   great guitar tones overcooking their takes in the  mixing stage can undo their important work so be   mindful of how you handle their sixth string or  12-string guitar sometimes and if you're dealing   with an acoustic guitar that's especially squeaky  when the player changes chords check out D squeak   in izotope RX we'll leave a pop-out link above  on how to use the module in a mix now choosing   which guitars to keep in the mix especially in a  rock session is up to you you'll often find Di and   amped guitars when too many guitars come together  you got to be careful because especially if they   were recorded with High Gain they can often take  over the mix so be diligent with your layering and   eq'ing to get the right combination of power and  control in guitars now hopefully you experimented   with panning in the fader mix tip with respect  to your guitars if you haven't already experiment   with panning them now hard panning clusters  of guitars left or right can sound really   great and keep them out of the way of the vocal  snare and kick experiment with what sounds good   tags and keyboards are typically decorative  elements that fill out a mix and support it   rather than take Center Stage experiment with  their placement and also pay extra attention to   potential clashing between keys and vocals nectar  3 plus has an auto unmasking feature which can   tell a source like piano or pad to duck every time  the vocal is present give it a shot if you find   that your vocals are getting clouded up from pads  or Keys especially right hand piano pads and keys   also benefit from time-based effects like delay  and Reverb which we'll talk more about right now thank you it's really important to set up a  series of auxes on which you can place effects   like Reverb And Delay once you've set up your  auxes place time-based effects tools on them like   neoverb or the bx2500 delay from brainworks for  Reverb it's common to create several auxes with   reverbs that have different jobs a Reverb for the  vocal will get one Ox make another Ox for Reverb   for the background vocals and another for Reverb  for the drum kit Reverb on drums might sound kind   of weird but many mixers like to place their drums  in a simulated space just to give it a bit of glue   if you're new to programming a Reverb neo-verbs  assistant is great for getting you pointed in   the right direction quickly it'll automatically  listen to the source and make sure that the Reverb   doesn't Cloud it for delay aux setup some mixers  like to set up multiple delays with different   note values a quarter note delay Ox a slapback  delay Ox for vocals and eighth note delay Ox   Etc once the auxes are set up send the  instruments you want to be affected over   to them through a bus now not everything needs to  be sent there but here are some helpful pointers   slap back delay for your vocals is usually a  really good idea sending your main vocal or vocals   to a quarter or eighth note delay is a great idea  too experiment with both try creating an AUX for   your background vocals that has dreamy Reverb  and delay for an Airy quality for ad-libs they're   usually complemented by a nice ping pong delay  effect so set up an AUX that just says ping pong   now for other mix elements like sound effects and  even ad-libs try creating a dreamy experimental   crazy delay that's triggered every so often  throughout the course of the arrangement   time-based effects aren't the only thing you can  set up on your auxes you can also use Distortion   or compression even a little EQ in parallel  on an AUX this involves setting up an AUX   with sometimes over-the-top processing parameters  on your compressor or EQ whatever's parked there   and then having several of your tracks sent to  it to be processed and folded back into the dry   signal this is called parallel processing and it's  another way to enhance mix elements but be careful   with this technique because if your routing is  set up incorrectly or if you send too much signal   back to the source you can end up overcooking  your audio and undoing a lot of important work   you did in the individual processing stage it's  a good rule of thumb to start with the fader at   zero and slowly bring it in until you like what  you hear stop increasing that sun level when you   find that the nature of the sound is getting  too processed and one more really important   rule of thumb for oxes is to make sure that  your reverbs and delays or time-based effects   are set to 100 wet on those boxes so you're  only sending the wet signal back into the mix automation is the key to making a good mix a  great mix and there's several kinds of automation   to program one of them is volume automation use  volume automation to make sure that certain wrap   or sung words guitar solos or special moments can  be heard performing this automation is simple just   open up the automation controls in your DAW  and look for volume or clip depending on your   DAW and then draw little boost of 0.5 to 1 DB of  loudness depending on what needs to be highlighted   with the pencil tool some very bold mixers often  use volume automation on their stereo bus track   to make the choruses pop by 0.5 DB you can also  automate the sends of your auxes in case you need   a splash of distortion delay or Reverb or anything  else to stimulate the ears of your listeners   to learn more about Automation and  how to deploy it you can check out an   episode of are you listening from  season five with Enrique [Music]   to the mix is largely finished creatively  speaking the final steps are no less important   first the mix needs to be delivered to the  client for their approval then any required   revisions can be made and approved and lastly  the mix should be delivered to the mastering   engineer if you plan on mastering the project  yourself you should check out everything you   need to know by watching the mastering  Focus seasons of are you listening when   you're ready to bounce or print your mix  you have to decide what format bit depth   and Sample rate you'll print if you're going  to send your mix to get mastered keep all the   parameters the same as the audio files in your  mix by doing this you're also maintaining the   audio quality of your file and allowing the  mastering engineer the possibility to do bit   depth or sample rate conversion at the final  stage with higher quality conversion tools here's some things to think about as you continue  your journey in mixing records practice listening   train your ears to pick out specific elements  in commercial mixes and you should be able to   identify any issues that need to be addressed  even in someone else's mix experiment with   different techniques mixing is an art there's  no one-size-fits-all approach experiment with   techniques and find what works best for you all  the tricks that are now common like parallel   compression all buttons in on the 1176 compressor  even distorting analog gear for Rich saturation   with a result of experimentation don't just get  and use the tools try to be creative with them   be patient mixing takes time and patience  and practice so take your time don't rush   through the process keep learning it's a  lifelong process stay up to date with the   latest mixing techniques tools Trends in  the industry and stay up to date with this   channel while you're at it thank you so much for  watching and if you have some essential mixing   tips of your own leave them in the comments  for others to learn take care happy mixing [Music] thank you

Channel: iZotope, Inc.

Views: 149,311

Keywords: isotope, izotope

Id: Bfh2E6qNF2o

Length: 32min 58sec (1978 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2023