MPC ONE Tutorial - A Step by Step Guide to Great Sounding Mixes!!

in this video i want to show you my mixing workflow on the mpc and standalone mode that applies to the mpc one mpc x the mpc live live 2 of course and the mpc touch so i'm going to go through all the steps from aurora mix which is all over the place to a polished finished track we're going to talk about eq compression sense returns submixes and a lot more so all in all this step-by-step video is about how to utilize the functions of the mpc in order to get a great sounding mix let's do it [Music] what's up this is my cello if you're interested in be making videos tutorials and more consider subscribing also if you're interested in my music or a free drum kit check out the description let's dive in all right before we start mixing let's get the theory out of the way i added the timeline with all the chapters so you can jump to a certain part but the theory part is also very important so let's start by defining what makes a good mix a good mix should be tall white and deep so tall means it should if possible fill the whole frequency spectrum from the low end all the way to the highs of course there are always exceptions but most of the time good mixes are spread across the whole frequency spectrum for example if you want a huge low end the mid range and the highs are going to be smaller and also the other way around so you can't have everything keep that in mind because every element takes up a certain amount of headroom and there's only so much headroom until it hits zero and the low end for example has a lot of energy and takes up a lot of space so it's a little bit like solving a puzzle and you have to decide what elements are the most important elements of your beat or track and then prioritize them in the mix and ask yourself with every element or with every new element that you're adding to the to a beat if this element is really contributing to the um to the vibe of the beat or is it just another thing just to fill something up if you're making beats for a singer or rapper just keep in mind to leave enough space for them because most of the time the voice is one of the most important elements of the of the song let's get to the next point which is with a lot of people are listening to music and stereo so a good mix should also have its elements spread across the stereo field so horizontally kick drum and bass are usually in the middle and it's good to make everything under 150 or 100 hertz or so in mono also the rest of the drums work well in the center because if the drums are panned too extreme to the to the sides um the beat could lose uh its groove but there are also very groovy mixes with um kick and snare in the middle and a percussion loop on the side or something like that so just try out things keys or pads work well if you pan them to the sides or if you put some kind of stereo whitening effect on them lead vocals stay in the middle most of the times background vocals work well if they are panned so these are some basics but you can also experiment the same goes for a lead synthesizer for example that's doing a solo solo so this should be in the middle as well because it's important in this section of the song this is the most important part so it should not be moved to to the side or something like that but you can also you know play with some panning all right also keep in mind if you make a mix wider it will open up and maybe feel more free but it can also lose its punch so so always keep in mind if you do something there will be consequences so we are still in the with um chapter here it's it's very um important that the mix works in mono as well because the listener is not always located perfectly between two speakers worst cases that they will be far closer to one speaker meaning they will lose a big portion of the stereo signal that's why it really makes sense to check your mix and mono from time to time i usually mix a big portion of my beats in mono and then do the the finishing touches in stereo if you mix in stereo you can just move one instrument to the side to make space for a different one but afterwards if you're listening to this mix in mono it could be that those instruments frequencies are masking each other that means if two elements live in the same frequency range and one of them is louder our brain just fades out the quieter element and it disappears in addition phasing issues can appear for example when you have two identical waveforms for example sine wave and place them exactly on top of each other they will amplify but if you shift them 180 degrees the face of one sine wave is going up and the other one is going down so they will cancel each other out that means there is going to be silence so this can be a problem for example if you're using the house effect so like a stereo delay um and then make the mix and mono it could be that those elements that had the harsh effect earlier are gone so if you want to know more about this subject the the face cancellation uh just um i put a video in in the description so my point is if you switch to mono from time to time or mix the whole thing in mono you will hear when those issues occur and you can deal with them so if you mix in mono you only have two dimensions so you lose the width dimension you're forced to make frequencies work using an eq to carve out a dedicated space for each element and also moving sounds in the third dimension as well that brings us to depth which is our third dimensions i i hope i pronounce it correctly i hate this word depth if i listen to my beats from a couple of years ago i often notice they sound flat and two-dimensional because back then i didn't pay any attention to depth just imagine a room and ask yourself which sounds should appear up front and which should move to the back if you found out your most important element or elements then you can also prioritize them using the depth using this dimension so just bring it up front for example vocals bring them up front and move the move the melody to the back a little so you can place sounds to the front by making them louder more transient rich and brighter so to push the sound backwards you can reduce the volume soften the attack or roll off some of those high frequencies also using a reverb or a delay can obviously help you shift the sound back in the mix the larger the space around the sound the further away all right i hope you're still awake we are almost done with the theory just a few more important points if you're new to mixing it's really helpful to listen to tracks which are on the same genre as yours of course professionally mixed tracks just as a reference for example how loud is the snare compared to the kick how bright or dark is the mix you know just to tune your ears also it's very important to know your room so you should listen to professional mixes in the same space or in the same place as you mix your own music so you know how it should sound i mix my music with headphones and there it's the same important to know your headphones to listen to a lot of music on them so i think it's really important to learn how to listen and analyze how's the good low end supposed to sound in my room on my system on my headphones and then you can decide what you have to do in order to get there with your own music as you can see it's getting dark already so i'm talking a lot but i think it's important and you can also just jump into the mixing part um using the timeline i'm sure if you internalize those things it can be a good road map or a good compass while you are mixing of course the theory is nothing without the practice and the experience of course mixing itself is is a great practice but also if you're not mixing you can train your ears by just listening to great mixes great sounding mixes on your headphones or on good speakers and just analyzing uh those mixes and just listening really carefully just analyze uh certain parts you know how does the low end sound did they pan their hi-hats um where is the main melody located does it move around the stereo field maybe where are the the vocals what kind of reverb are they using which is the lowest element is the kick sitting on top of the bass or is the bass sitting on top of the kick um all those all those questions can bring like a more analytical um view on the whole thing okay before you start mixing ask yourself what are the most important elements of the track and what feeling do i have if i listen to the track or to the beat and then try to figure out what elements give you that feeling or a certain feeling and then later in the mix you can highlight certain elements because you like the feeling that they give you so for example a violin that plays a very uh tragic and sad melody can be moved a little to the back maybe with some reverb that underlines the the the tragic sad ex atmosphere or something like that you know just get away from all those technical stuff and get into the to the emotion to the to the vibe to the feeling i think dr dre once said that a good indicator of of a good mix for him is him just moving his body so even if the mix is not technical perfect if it gives you a certain feeling and the feeling is maybe highlighted by some mixing decisions you're you're done the mix is finished okay one more technical thing always mix the crowdiest part of your song so most of the time is the hook because then you really have to make sure those elements work [Music] together okay now let's dive in it's really getting dark all right so let's see if we have named everything correctly um one sequence the first sequence is the intro then hook part one part two part three but all that matters right now is uh the sequence two which is the hook where all the elements are are in um so we got track one which which were all the drums on one track i exploded this track so it's muted now and all the drums are um on separate tracks so kick hats clap shaker open head and on track two we got the flute then a bass then a violin yeah violin a violin um and on track 11 we have some effects and elites so i'm going to play you the song or the hook [Music] it's a very old uh track or beat of mine it's like two years old or something and the mix is a total catastrophe so i i took all the effects off and you know so it's important to have your programs named so we got bass and also the tracks we got bass violin drums effects and lead and if you go to track mix you can see all those programs are named as well so that's a big help to just keep the overview as long as we are here in track mix let's go to master and let's just look at the overall level [Music] so let's bring down the all the levels of the programs so let's go back to programs um and now let's just bring down all the levels maybe 10 dbs one i don't know what this is okay let's go to the master again [Music] way better [Music] so now we have enough headroom make sure the volume stays the same before and after you insert an effect so always a b before and after the effect because we want we don't want to clip it again we want to we want to keep the headroom because in the end and the mastering um we can just bring it up to zero okay now let's um okay now let's see what else we got on this track mix page so we got programs that's really that's clear and then we got returns we got four of them um and you can send you can insert effects so return one you can insert an effect or four effects and then after that you can send a certain portion of the signal of a program or sound into this or into all all of the returns so for example let's set up the first return track it really makes sense to put a reverb like a small room reverb on return one for example so let's um search for a reverb go to air and air reverb this is cool and let's just um make it a basic small um mix all the way up 200 and then here where it says early reflections you can let's um select something like a like a room okay so so we set up this uh basic reverb small reverb and we can tweak it later setting up this reverb as a return enables you to send a lot of different um sounds or programs of the same beat into the same room or place them into the same room um without having to insert a reverb on every um on every sound um which is very heavy on the cpu and also yeah you can save your insert your insert effect slots um okay and after the reverb it also makes sense to put an eq to cut some highs and some lows so you can do that also here but i don't like this layout very much so i'm just gonna take the next insert and insert an eq and let's just here we are on the high low cut page and let's just cut some highs and also maybe enable enable and maybe cut some lows too so maybe 300 or something like that i'm not sure you can just try around um the reason why i'm cutting the highs and the lows is that if you send a lot of elements um to that reverb it can muddy up the lows and get in the way of the bass and the kick and the same with the highs can it can get in the way of certain high elements in the mix so yeah it makes sense to keep the reverb um tail in the middle um okay so let's go back we set up our first return let's just make the next one [Music] let's just make the next one a basic medium with mix all the way to hundreds and early reflections on small or medium chamber chamber chamber chamber um okay also let's set up an eq to that one rather a high cut and a low cut okay um um okay and of course first it takes time setting the whole uh return tracks up but you can save the project as a template this project for example so you won't have to set up the returns every time all over again okay so for now let's just leave it with the two returns you can for example make the next uh two uh like a delay or something um like a eight delay and a quarter delay or something like that okay next we have submixes let's look at them these are like buses or in ableton live it's called groups um using submixes you can structure all the individual elements of your song into bigger groups so we have eight of them so so for us let's make submix one for the low end so for all your bases if you have several or the kick and the bass so you can decide if you put the kick into the low end sub mix or into the drums sub mix but i like to put the kick and the bass into the same sub mix something's too could be for all the percussive elements and the drums of course you can also make this for the drums so for the hi-hat and snare and maybe submix 3 for for all the percussion and what's left are all the melodic elements of the track which i'm going to route to sub mix 3 so let's do low end drums percussion and melodic or music and of course if you have a vocal uh singer or something then the lead vocals is a is its own sub mix and the background vocals should be its own sub mix okay um so next let's find out how to route the stuff to the submixes that's part of the preparation of the mix so let's go to programs again and now let's just take the drums accept the kick and route the drums to submix one so let's select the drum program go to root and here you can decide if it's going to out 2 1 1 and 2. we don't want to go there so we select with the jog wheel select sub 1 sub 2 because the drums belong to submix 2 but we want to have the kick on submix 1. so let's go to main so let's go to to the drum program and now let's go to padmix okay a little bit okay here we got the drum sounds so we want the kick to go to submix one to the low end so we go to root we are in paired mix and now the destination of the kick is to program but we don't want it to go to the program because program is going to submix two we want to go we want it to go to submix one okay now the kick is coming out of submix one it's now getting louder because the program because i turned the level of the program down so now let's just lower the level of the kick now let's continue with the other elements so next we want to route the melodic elements to submix three so let's go back to track mix let's let's start with the flutes selected and choose submix three then the base is sub mix 1 because it's the low end and this is empty the violin is also sub mix 3 effects let's make it submix four and the lead is also submix three okay so now we have the track structured into three or into four if you count the effects into four groups that we can control so if we want to lower the the base a little bit or the kick or the low end the whole low end then we can just lower the volume of the whole submix that's pretty cool so we prepared everything so now we can start the actual mixing part so i always start with the kick so let's solo the drum program and we got we got only the drums so now let's go into the drum program to padmix so um menu and here we got the pad mixer or for mpc one just double tap track mix so let's solo the kit it's pretty thin so i could just make a lot of sound design and eq and compression to fatten up the kick but i can also layer it with with a bigger kick with a bigger sample more bass maybe that's the easy way or the the quick way the quicker way in this case it would take me some time to treat the kick with some eqs and and and compression so let's just put another sample on top of this sample so i loaded up another kick sample this one [Music] let's also route it to sub 1. very very loud so we got those two kicks let's go to program edit we want every time this kick is triggered we want this to be played at the same time so here on the master page of program edit we got simultaneous play so every time this kick or this pad is triggered pad 9 choose pad 9 as triggered also so you can see let's go to pad mix again and now let's just adjust the levels a little bit let's bring down this [Music] i actually like the sound of this kick so let's bring in the bass as the next element so let's just press play go to track mix or rather go to track mute and mute all the other elements let's mute everything except the bass and the kick so every track so the kick kick drum heads clap shaker violin um flute leads open heads [Music] now we got the base and the kick plane you have to decide which element of of both should be lower because there can be only one lowest instrument so in this case i would go with the kick because the base is played more frequently and the kick is like the base of the whole thing [Music] we can of course also make them both very low and then add the mother ducker for example and then make the bass stuck every time the kick hits but in this case i like the little transient of the base [Music] let's let's go to the base and add some eq to just the base so let's go through the eq um so we got low low mid high mid and high you can adjust the frequency where it's where the eq works here and then we have the q factor the gain and the type of eq so the q factor or the q stands for quality factor that defines the bandwidth of the frequencies that are affected by the eq so the lower the q so for example let's make the low mid q very very low so 0.4 the broader the bandwidth will be so free so let's just we don't have the visual eq it would be a cool update for some time like a visual uh eq but that's also very cool i i i also like this kind of eq because if you don't see the curves then you you use your ears a little more and and that's what counts in my opinion so let's just draw how equalizer looks like you can also if you have a daw or something just play around with the eq in there so you can just memorize how the eq actually looks so here we got let's say 100 hertz and here we got uh 10k so here so this actually and here's zero and and here's uh let's say 12 dbs and here's minus 12 dbs so so the low mid is at frequency 200 so let's make it at hundred if you set the q to 10 and the gain to 12 or 26 or 212 let's set it to 12 just to show it will look something like this 100 12 and a very steep curve so something like this maybe and if you lower the q factor it it will broaden the whole the bandwidth so it will look like this i hope this is somehow clear but you can also google this um there's a lot of good youtube tutorials out there i think a good rule of thumb is boost wide cut narrow a lot of people do that and now let's let's go to let's go to the type it that only affects the high and the low that can be either a shelf eq or a bell eq those high mid and low med eqs are both bell eqs so bell means of course this one or this one so this is the bell if you increase the gain it's going up and if you decrease the gain it's going down and here we can choose if the high and the low should be a bell or shelf is automatically on shelf so let's draw a shelf real quick real quick we got hundred hertz we get 10k we get 12 db minus 12 db and the shelf would look like this if it's at 100 some some something like that it's like an s and up there it will look like this and if you if you increase the q the q factor it will go like this it will be more steep it will go up a little bit and then down i think it's really important that you know how those curves look like and here we got this section high low cut that's also very important so you have to turn it on that they are working so for example this will make a low cut at 100 hertz usually you should make a low cut at around 30 or 20 something like that between 20 and 30. i always do it like 25 hertz and here we got the type of the of the curve it's normally around 12 db so 6 db is very smooth it's a very smooth curve it's a very smooth curve so it's like it's maybe like this if this is the you know maybe here is 100 and here is 25 so yeah it's a very smooth curve then we got 12 which is a little bit more a little steeper then we got 18 even more than 24 even more um so you get what i'm saying um i think it's it's okay to to leave it at 12 or 6 or something like that um all right but you can also mess with that just try something just try out things so this was some theory let's go back to the to the sound we actually want to we actually want to edit so let's take off the eq i think the base right let's just see what we can do okay i actually want to bring more bass into the bass [Music] [Music] if you increase some of the upper frequencies on the base the the transient will be more present yeah because this is a high frequency thing [Music] let's make a low cut just to make sure [Music] yeah at 20. that's cool okay now let's look at the kick go into the drum let's for that we have to go to padmix and we want to [Music] edit this kick the kick we added on top of the original so let's go to eq and let's just see what sounds good [Music] let's put it to 100 [Music] and let's take out some of the mud and maybe 300 hertz [Music] let's cut it around [Music] i think that's decent it's a decent low end you know just stay with the low end as long as it takes so now let's go to trackmix again and now let's go to the sub mixers submix1 let's put another eq and a compressor on submix1 but maybe we can put a channel strip on submix one so insert let's go to dynamics and here we got the channel the air channel strip which includes the a compressor an eq and a gate but we don't need the gate but the compressor and the eq is pretty good it's pretty cool to have in one slot so let's go to the channel strip so here we got we we can decide if if it should be on so eq should be on gate off compression off for now and here we have two pages we are on um we are on the gate compression page but we want to start with eq so let's go to the cube page so here we got the high shelf so this is a shelf we can't change it a mid this is a bell and the low shelf and here we got a high pass filter it's a little smaller than the air power eq but it's also a very decent eq so let's just see what we can change [Music] maybe a little more bass [Music] let's make the q factor very low that means the the bell is very wide and let's also make it cut it around 20 hertz okay so this is this is without and this is with [Music] it's definitely a little louder so let's bring down the output it's also very important to to check your levels before you go into effect and after the effect so it should be the same level of loudness so [Music] let's turn on the compressor compression um now that brings us to the compressor but maybe for that let's use the air compression the air compressor the big one because we will come back to this channel strip later but for explaining the compression let's go with the air compressor because it shows a little bit more so the compressor is used to control the dynamic range of of of sound or of a song so the span between the softest and the loudest sounds and it can also help glue things together so in this case i want to glue the base and the kick a little bit more together as you can hear it's all already working too much um we want to yeah bring the the bass and the kick more closer together maybe i can't really describe it but you will hear it i used to think you should be able to hear big changes after adding a compressor but if you hear a little a slight change to the better then it's then the compress then the compressor did a good job so how to start with the compressor um first we want to set the threshold so the compressor will be triggered but not too much so this is too much you can see here the yellow the yellow thing the yellow meter is the gain reduction so the compressor is reducing the sound and by by this that much so that's too much so if we so if we tweak the threshold okay [Music] this is too much obviously [Music] we want just bring down the output a little bit so always adjust the output we just want to trigger the compressor ever so slightly [Music] you see here i think that could be enough for us [Music] adjust the output okay and now and now let's set the ratio if you want the compressor to work a lot if you if you set it to 100 it's it's almost like a limiter so it will it will not let through the sounds that peak that go over a certain frequency so for us i think a ratio of three something like that is okay we just want to [Music] work so we just want a little a subtle uh effect so and the output is clear so how how loud is the sound coming out of the compressor um because the compressor just lowers the sound okay now the mix determines how much percent of the signal will be affected by the compressor so how much of the signal which is the base and the kick together yeah because it's the because this effect is sitting on the group on the sub mix on the low end sub mix on sub mix one how much of this signal will be affected by this compressor so if we for example want a parallel compression then you can just set the the mix to 50 maybe so 50 of the signal will be affected by the compressor and 50 will be left alone but that kind of percentage doesn't work with those uh settings so you would need more extreme settings to get an effect out of the parallel compression so we are just gonna leave the mix at 100 and here we got the knee the knee determines how the compressor um changes the signal or something like that soft knee hard knee just google it but it's not so important i'm just going to leave it alone at 50. what's more important is the attack and the release so the attack determines how fast the compressor starts working after the after it's triggered so after the signal comes in and triggers the compressor how fast after that the compressor starts working so if you set the attack to all the way to a very fast attack um the compressor will start working very fast so you will be able to control a sound very good so if you want so for example the transient of a kick will be reduced with a very fast attack so if you want the transient of a kick to be more hard and more um more punchy then go with the slow attack because then the compressor waits and lets the transient through and then it starts working so it will compress everything after the transient so just let's just hear how a fast compression sounds like so attack very fast to hear the effect better let's just set the trash threshold to a more extreme setting [Music] you can see the kick [Music] it's not punchy at all so let's compare it to a longer attack longest attack setting [Music] so it gets punchier it gets punchier the longer the attack setting is on the compressor you can also see it in the reduction see it reacts it reacts very quick and i make the tag longer it's not reacting that quick and the release determines how long until the compressor stops working so for example fast attack long release this is the ultimate control because you will control the the sound from the beginning until the end you can see this yellow meter is not going back because the release is so slow and you can see very slow this is how slow the release is so so it will yeah now the compressor stops working so if we set a very fast release [Music] you can hear the sound as the sound is clipping because the control is not there anymore the release is so so fast that the sound will be just compressed for a short uh for for a really short time and then the compressor stops working so you can see jumps back very fast so fast and and then and for more punch and and your kick drums make the attack very long and the release very short because that's just the best setting for a punchy kick drum if you want more control and if you want to control uh like individual transients that peak out if you want to smooth out things then you just make it make it some less extreme settings you know [Music] so for us let's find the the right attack and release settings and then bring back the threshold to our normal thing [Music] okay i think that's all right let's bring back the threshold to 14. [Music] i sometimes do a blind test after i add a an effect especially a compressor because you can't always hear a compressor and you tend to say okay with the compressor it should sound better but sometimes it sounds worse so after i set the the effect um the settings i sometimes do a blind a b test so i just host the levels let's just adjust the levels a little bit [Music] okay now i'm going to hit play or press play and then i'm going to close my eyes and just tap on the on off button on the bypass button sometime so i forgot so so i'm going to forget if it's on or off and then i i really hear the difference so i'm going to [Music] okay so i think it has a little bit more punch if the compressor is on but the difference is very very um subtle it's not so it's not very good to make this with the touchscreen it would be better if you have a button on off or bypass button i think i'm happy with the low end for now okay now let's go to main and let's just look at the drums kick drum let's look at the pads mix of the drum program and let's just unsolo those two because we don't i'm not sure why we soloed them but okay now let's go to track track mute because we want to bring in the next element that is the clap okay now we're gonna hear how the clap sounds in context with the low end and we're gonna make some changes [Music] i think it could have more punch but i like the sound actually uh so now let's go to to padmix and let's see where the clasp clap is [Music] over here okay now let's go into the eq on this pad on the clap pad eq air power eq that's the only eq i i use actually hardly ever use the other ones so now let's start by making a low cut i don't know what kind of low end rumble is is in this clap but just to make sure let's make a a low cut but let's make it 6 db so very smooth cut [Music] the sound is getting thinner so we don't want that we don't want to hear the low cut [Music] we just want to cut some rumble that we don't actively hear but which could be there and which could get in the way of the kick and the base okay now let's um bring out the core frequency of the of the clap a little bit more first we have to find it so let's just do that by taking the the low mid band and just increasing the gain a little bit and i also want not a very broad q factor but a very pretty narrow creature factor so let's let's go with five maybe and now let's go to the frequency and let's sweep through the frequencies and let's find the the core frequency of the of the clap so we can emphasize that this is the clap right i like that bring it back a little bit [Music] okay so this is before [Music] and this is after [Music] a little bit more body a little bit more weight [Music] i think let's not do anything else let's just add [Music] let's just add a compressor to add more punch um for that we are going to go with a very slow attack or a pretty slow attack let's just see but let's for this one let's use the let's use the the channel strip the compressor from the channels channel strap so we get to use this too um get we don't need the gates we don't need the eq compressor where is it here so here we have gate and compressor we did the eq earlier and here's the compression compressors section so it doesn't have as many parameters as the air compressor so what's missing is the knee which is not so important so just the threshold let's [Music] you can see it's getting compressed it's getting quieter here you can see the compression the reduction we want to make sure to to let through the the initial transient of the clap so a longer attack you see it gets a little bit more punch this is just this is the fastest attack no no punch and then and fast release okay i like that so let's hear it before and after here is [Music] years before it's very subtle but i think it's it's more it's tighter now it's more has a little bit more punch okay so that's enough for the clap [Music] um let's let's add the next one let's go to track mute let's add um let's add the the hats okay the hats definitely need more high end less low end maybe make them a little bit thinner let's just go to padmix again here are the claps the pad is selected let's put let's start with the um let's start with the the eq we can use a different eq for for this one because i think we don't need as many parameters so we don't need we don't need the para eq which has four bands um let's just go let's just go with uh uh with the air killiq i think this could help us just to uh to enhance the the high end okay let's add more high let's cut some lows [Music] okay the lows will be killed if if the kill is on and if it says through it will let through the the lows but we want to kill the lows actually what's offset [Music] okay before and after so let's start with before and after [Music] so it has a little bit more presence now it's not so muddy in the mid-range um okay let's go back that's enough i think for the for the hi-hats okay before we continue let's just listen to the mix in mono as i said before i always mix the first 70 or so in mono or at least i switch it to mono uh here and then just listen to it in mono to make sure it it also works in in just one dimension or in just two dimensions in uh in depth and in tallness so for that let's let's go to track mix go to the master and let's just put modulation air and let's put a stereo with plug-in on the master let's go in and we and here we just have to [Music] lower the width from 100 to zero so let's listen it so let's listen to it um why we do it [Music] as you can hear it it's getting very narrow okay [Music] it sounds okay mono we are in mono now so let's not forget that but let's continue let's go back to track mute and bring in the next element [Music] which is the shaker let's just go to padmix here's the shaker let's just [Music] yeah let's just um add an eq to make it a little bit i like i like it i like how it sounds but let's let's add more presents to it so let's let's just add the para eq make a low cut because we don't need the low frequencies of the shaker [Music] so as you can hear the the hi-hats are high um the the clap is pretty mid high and the shaker should have its own place [Music] so let's make a high cut also to remove some highs of the shaker so the the hi-hat has um enough space up there okay now let's go to the eq and let's just [Music] okay i like that let's go back let's make it louder [Music] also make the hi-hat louder [Music] the most important thing in a mix is leveling so you can forget that real easy or real quickly because you just dive into the eq and the compressor and just forget the forget setting the levels right so that's actually the most important thing now let's go to track mix and let's go to sub mix sub mixes and now let's go to sub mix 2 which is our drum submix and let's just mute sub mix 1 okay i like that but let's tighten up the whole um thing the whole mix the whole sub mix um yeah let's add some eq and compression to the group to the drums to the overall drum sub mix but let's bring in the low end for that let's bring the level down of the low end [Music] of the whole low end of submix one and now let's go to submit two and insert [Music] maybe air enhancer no maybe a just a power eq [Music] just to enhance some frequencies [Music] okay [Music] and now let's go to the compressor to just glue all those drum elements together let's use the air compressor again um okay compressing a lot now we don't want that and also the output we just want to glue the sounds together maybe make them a little bit more yeah more warm maybe as you can see the clap is just triggering the thing let's set the attack a little longer to let clap through it's better release faster maybe mix down a little bit so this is before and this is after it's a little bit more in your face that's all right let's go back and now let's unmute the low end again i like that it's pretty punchy i like that so let's bring in some other elements let's bring in some melodic elements maybe um the flute okay the flute is way too loud let's go to track mix and go to programs and let's just turn down the flute what's wrong with the flute next let's apply some eq to the flute because we want to just make a low cut to leave enough space for the low end for the kick and the bass to just live there so let's just add an eq eq filter and eq pair eq so high low cut so enable the low cut and make it 6 db so a very smooth musical low cut and now it's just here listen to it and sweep through the frequencies or go higher and as soon as we can hear that the flute is changing in sound we just back up a little okay way too thin i think i like that let's go back to the eq section and let's just bring out some some of the core frequencies [Music] [Music] keep in mind we also have the violin playing at the same time of the flute and we also have a lead so let's just see that the flute lives and and the in the mid-range i think [Music] decrease some of the muddy frequencies at like 300 200 300 make it very [Music] okay so let's do a before after let's go back and just solo the flute and let's do a before after so this is before [Music] [Music] so it's a little bit more defined a little bit more present okay so i solo this now but in general you you shouldn't solo too much because even if a sound on its own sounds good that doesn't mean it will sound good in the mix um and in the context with the other instruments so sometimes uh the snare has to be very thin but on its own it's too thin maybe but in a mix it makes total sense let's just check the master levels we are good we are we are still very good let's let's um let's go back to programs and now let's bring in the next element track mute and let's bring in the violin okay we have to lower the level a little bit with the violin [Music] and actually let's just try to send the flute into our our return into the the second one maybe the chamber so let's send go to send and here you can just send the flute in there so let's solo the flute just to hear it so now we're sending the whole thing into the return wet [Music] dry this is this is actually return one and if we press again here now we are sending it to return two let's just see how it sounds we and return to [Music] so here we have the the bigger the space maybe the i think the chamber let's actually go to the returns and adjust it a little bit [Music] let's make it a little smaller [Music] okay but i think i liked the i think i like the return one better so let's take let's let's just not send it to return twos but only to one let's go to one [Music] let's deactivate the solo [Music] [Music] yeah send it a little bit to the back so that's pretty good that's also a good way to make space or make room for a singer or a rapper and keep in mind we are still in mono so we we are now reduced we don't have the width um we can't just pan it to the right and get it out of the way so we we have to um just move it to the back a little bit to make space i like that so let's um let's see what the violin is up to [Music] okay let's add here we got two effects but those are um production effects so creative effects if we turn them off oh i like [Music] i don't know why the filter gate is on but let's just deactivate it i i like the div delay let's add an eq because the violin is now at the same frequency range as the flute or they overlap and we don't want that so we just want to move it a little bit higher maybe cut some some of those mid range frequencies let's go to our go to eq let's make the the low cut as always let's make it six because six is just more yes smoother okay [Music] yeah so this is before [Music] it's more defined it has its own space now um but let's still just emphasize some other frequencies [Music] so [Music] okay now let's also add let's also send the violin into some of those reverbs let's go to send [Music] maybe return to [Music] [Music] it's still a mono the whole thing let's add the next element which is the lead or we we forgot the open hi-hat so let's go back to padmix the drum program here we got it let's just make a low cut that's all we need i think [Music] maybe let's send it to a room and while we are added let's just send the clap to a room maybe [Music] at the hat [Music] but maybe the shaker let's send it to to the bigger room [Music] [Music] [Music] i don't like the clap let's take the return [Music] okay um now let's go to track mute and let's bring in the lead [Music] okay this is a little bit all over the place lower the level [Music] actually let's just take out some notes of the lead because it really overlaps with those other melodic elements and we are also producers not only mixers so we we can just take them out and those notes because we have the creative freedom [Music] okay so let's go to the program of delete let's go to grid let's just see what notes we are playing there [Music] take out those two [Music] always those first ones go back to trackmax let's add an eq to delete [Music] [Music] hi cup [Music] so it doesn't get in the way of the of the violin and if you remove the highs it automatically puts this lead in in the background so so it moves it to the back so let's also um send it to a return to a space to our space [Music] here it is [Music] [Music] okay i like that now let's go to master and let's just make it stereo again let's hear it in mono [Music] and i'm going to switch it to stereo [Music] before you could just uh hear a muddy thing and now every element has its own space and you can you can hear each element on its own now let's add an eq to all those musical or all those melody instruments [Music] low cut [Music] so you can just add some final touches to the to the program or to the whole melodic thing [Music] maybe widen the whole thing let's just do that let's add a stereo width [Music] let's just add a add an eq to the master normally do that just make a another low cut at 20 okay so the mixing is done so normally before i get to the master i just refresh my ears listening to some reference tracks i that i really like and that i and that are similar to this one just from from the sound because i spend so much so much time with this mix now i can't be really sure about if i still get the balance the balance is right so it could be that the low end is too too big but i just got used to it hearing it the whole time so that's why i just refreshed the whole thing by listening to some reference tracks professionally mixed and after that i can go back um and and do some eq adjustments maybe if needed a compressor maybe or um maybe some adjustments to the width of the whole thing and maybe some uh maybe some saturation maybe but just to add a little warmth or something okay so now let's listen to some music we're not going to do it together because because of copyright reasons okay now let's listen to my song again [Music] okay we are missing some low end maybe so let's start with the with the shelf with the low eq and just bring it up a little bit in mind on the master um channel every change you make is to the whole uh track so you have to make much smaller changes because yeah you don't want to change the whole sound of the of the beat because you're you're already happy with the mix but just bring in more low end maybe [Music] [Music] a without bit just 0.9 db [Music] and low cut of course but be careful with the low cut on the whole thing it can also change the whole balance of the song so just listen if it sounds a little off then don't make the low cut [Music] okay i like that let's add not to tube drive but maybe lo-fi [Music] too much first i'm going to do the changes just dial in some some something and then i'm going to bring the mix down [Music] so just a little portion of the signal will be affected [Music] collect the sound let's go back let's add the stereo stereo with plugin even if we don't make it wider there's a good oh [Music] here's our mono [Music] [Music] so as you can see i made it a little bit not wider but more narrow narrower it was too wide for me and if it's too wide it can easily lose its punch let's do the blind ib test maybe [Music] let's leave it off it's not that big of a difference so let's just leave it um finally let's add the limiter dynamics and the air limiter that came with the update okay [Music] so we want a ceiling of -2 we want low frequency mono that's what we want that's really important and really good let's just make everything under or everything below 100 hertz mono [Music] because it just the the low frequency shouldn't be too too wide [Music] okay now let's just bring the whole thing up to a certain uh to zero [Music] let's try to make the release very fast [Music] so with limiting you have to really make sure that if it if you push it too hard the gain it will lose its punch so the kick so the kick is normally the first thing that's getting um that's getting limited and it will destroy or it can destroy the signal of the kick really quickly so just set the ceiling maybe -2 the low frequency mono is important and then just of course make sure that before mastering you have enough headroom so -6 at least and then just increase the gain until it until it doesn't sound good anymore [Music] you can see we are not reducing [Music] and if i set the release time to like the middle i can hear it loses a little bit more punch so i'm going to set it to pretty fast [Music] if you're still watching this congratulations you made it till the end if you enjoyed this video i would appreciate a like and some feedback in the comments and if you feel like this was so helpful that you want to buy me a beer you can do that link in the description all right i'm out see you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Marrcello

Views: 4,291

Keywords: mixing a song on mpc one, mpc one workflow, akai mpc one, mpc one tutorial, mpc one, mpc live, mpc x, mpc live tutorial, mpc live 2, akai mpc one standalone, mixing tips, mpc one beat making, mpc, mpc one beat, marrcello, fickus beats, mixing mpc live 2, mixing mpc one, mixing and mastering mpc one

Id: qXnSXX1-Sow

Length: 94min 5sec (5645 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/pkMinhas]

Good tutorial. Personally, I find mixing on the MPC a bit tedious. Once I’m done with the arrangement, I track out my beat to ableton/fl, use the Neutron visual mixer to automatically gainstage the mix and then apply different plugin as per needs of individual tracks.

[u/GSandHH_hunter]

Well done guide. Thanks for sharing.

[u/ExpansionHoarder]

This is what I’ve been waiting on!