Mixing Discussion

[Bambi]

Very helpful, thank you

 

[BazzBass]

a lot of great advice and insight, thanks for sharing

the main point I got was

YOU NEVER HAVE TO FIX THE BASS TRACK

BECAUSE WE BASSISTS ARE SOOOO GOOD

 

[-mjk-]

Like I said, I would be editing it over the next few days, lol.

 

[Mark Richards]

These are the production notes for a song created in 2019 completely within the DP-24 portastudio environment. Thought perhaps they might be of interest.

 

[Bambi]

Very beautiful document. Respecting the audio, did you play/sing/program everything by yourself? There is a lot of work there

 

[mixerizer]

Awesome writeup mjk- I got my very first industry job at a digital mastering studio back in the 80s and in addition to learning how to make coffee, type up tape case labels and take midnight lunch orders, I was lucky to learn what a well mixed premaster sounds like. As time progressed, those discrete phases and skills (Tracking, mixing, mastering) merged into our generalized “home recording” process - at whatever price point - and the crafts of mixing and mastering lost distinction.

 

[Mark Richards]

Very beautiful document. Respecting the audio, did you play/sing/program everything by yourself? There is a lot of work there

Thanks for your kind words, Bambi. And yes, a lot of work, but being retired now, time is an unlimited resource for me.

I was just re-reading mj's post on the art of mixing. I'd never actually analyzed my own internal process, but reflecting on what mj wrote, I recognize much of my own approach to mixing.

 

[-mjk-]

Awesome writeup mjk- I got my very first industry job at a digital mastering studio back in the 80s and in addition to learning how to make coffee, type up tape case labels and take midnight lunch orders, I was lucky to learn what a well mixed premaster sounds like. As time progressed, those discrete phases and skills (Tracking, mixing, mastering) merged into our generalized “home recording” process - at whatever price point - and the crafts of mixing and mastering lost distinction.

Fantastic! You got some great experience working in that environment. No doubt your "home recordings" are pristine.

 

[Bambi]

Great, @Mark Richards. Well done

 

[mixerizer]

Fantastic! You got some great experience working in that environment. No doubt your "home recordings" are pristine.

That’s awesome of you to say, it was a great way to get started mixing, but I’m still working on pristine however, I was super lucky to add the DM-4800 recently, and now that I’m really starting to get it, I will admit the possibility that what I mix is at least more listenable now

And @Mark Richards , I really enjoyed reading your notes thru and like others, definitely saw use for other information on automatic session management tools and documents (like w plugging in a USB cable, it seems like I never get the sample rate right the first try)

 

[-mjk-]

Thanks @MickiKaufman. Earlier, you said

I was lucky to learn what a well mixed premaster sounds like. As time progressed, those discrete phases and skills (Tracking, mixing, mastering) merged into our generalized “home recording” process - at whatever price point - and the crafts of mixing and mastering lost distinction.

and I should have expanded on that. Hearing the professional level mixes trained your ear and that gives you an amazing advantage. As for getting the console, that will make your music sound a lot more "musical" which is a subjective topic.

The DM-4800 is going to unlock your inner mixing engineer that's been hamstrung with a mouse.

 

[mixerizer]

you are 100% right!

It’s made a huge difference incorporating the DM mixer(s) - and it’s the latest step in exploring how best to use older tech in various “sweet spots” left behind by modern DAW based flows and equipment.

This step has been huge - mixing “physically” without undue screen staring and tunneling, growing muscle memory around where various actual controls and meters are and having persistence about what they do, in order to stop trying to remember where some feature is, and simply use it without losing focus on the musical idea.

Since you have a strong MIDI footprint in your studio, you and others can probably relate to another big advantage of modern mixing tech - networking for audio and MIDI signal routing and assignment. I’ve been really impressed by how much easier it is now to manage an interconnected set of MIDI and audio sources and destinations along with recording and playback. In the old days, it was rapunzels of cables, mergers and splitters, spreading in every direction, or a giant trunk of cables into a delicate and frustratingly close patch bay rear panel. Using Dante or AVB along with good optical, AES and TDIF conversion in and out of the DM, along with RTP MIDI, I’m getting a good ergonomic, efficient studio layout with minimal cabling and flexible management, and a musical relationship w the mixing space, versus a troubleshooting or checklist-based mindset.

And I’m mixing on a fully featured digital desk, with built in automation, without direct reliance on the DAW. It’s kind of mindblowing.

 

[-mjk-]

Yeah man, now you're talking! You're using Dante? I've been Dante networking for about 2 years. I have a MIDI hub and virtually everything in my studio is MIDI controllable. So I know exactly what you mean about a good efficient layout and flexible management. Reaper is content agnostic so I can have a MIDI item alongside an audio item in the same track, in separate lanes. Crazy convenient. Having that automation system in the DM was a huge step forward too. I don't write automation envelopes in the DAW. I write automation moves with a 3rd party software tool. I wish I had all this cool stuff in 1985!

Talking about mixing approaches, because YouTube University has "educated" the young masses, they all have the same plugins and all use the same approaches. In my life I have never heard such a homogenized genre of it-all-sounds-the-same ear candy as today's music. If I could destroy one single aspect of modern music production, it would be auto-tune! Anyway, we have the best of both worlds because we can do anything in the DAW combined with anything we can do on a console. It's really quite amazing.

 

[mixerizer]

I’m a little more prosumer (MOTU AVB, and iConnectivity mio MIDI interfaces) but we are doing similar things for sure with networking - definitely finding it a godsend for avoiding so much of the tedium and burden of physical and mental mixing clutter. Patch recall of complex midi and audio routing is super helpful to help you focus on the feel of your mix!

 

[mixerizer]

Ps no auto tune

 

[Bambi]

I just saw this interesting video that reminds me of some advice @-mjk- gave me

 

[-mjk-]

Talking about mixing approaches, because YouTube University has "educated" the young masses, they all have the same plugins and all use the same approaches. In my life I have never heard such a homogenized genre of it-all-sounds-the-same ear candy as today's music.

Now that you've seen it on YouTube, you know it must be true, lol. I guess I should have made a YouTube video to begin with. I don't have so much time to educate people. I have studio work to do.

I saw a "musician" on a live stream the other day and she was pushing her new single that's on YouTube. I took a look. Now I can't get my 3 minutes back....

The song has 4 chords: 6m, 4, 1, 5 (basically every song that's ever been written). The verse is sung (autotuned actually) over those chords. The chorus has no change to the structure, but makes a very subtle change with some instrument that comes in but you can't tell if that's a chorus or not because the way the song was sung, you can't really discern the difference between the verse and the chorus. There really isn't a hook. It's just the same thing over and over.

Even "Sweet Home Alabama" has some hot guitar playing over it and a solid hook and it's only 3 chords.

But, she got thousands of likes and views because she's young, cute, and, well... female, and (of course) there is a video that showcases her looks. If you turn off the video there is absolutely nothing there. There is nothing going on in the song what would possibly make you want to listen to it. Or worse, remember it.

That video cost a considerable amount of money to produce, and it was wasted on a song with 4 chords and no hooks.

You have to start with a good song first. Nothing else matters but the song. Adding parallel compression, dynamic EQ, and a video with a hot girl won't fix a bad song.

Most of those channels are just plug-in reviewers anyway.

 

[Bambi]

I'll write a new song and accompany it with a video of me in underwear, and with a fancy hairstyle, and tell you if it works Is there any thread on the Forum about pre production?

 

[-mjk-]

I'll write a new song and accompany it with a video of me in underwear, and with a fancy hairstyle, and tell you if it works

There is a market for everything!

Is there any thread on the Forum about pre production?

I haven't run across a pre-production thread. Its been mentioned a few times in the various forums, however. You can search and see what you come up with.

 

[Bambi]

Ok, I'll take a look. Thank you