Mixing/Mastering help

[Mmichaelis]

Hello there,

First post here as I'm a new member of about 3 months!

So, I would say that my strength is that I am very creative and can write music rather easily, but my weakness is that I am a horrible engineer. I do all my recording in my home studio and know the basics of good recording in that setting, but I know nothing about mixing and mastering. In the past I've hired engineers to mix and master my work. I find them most of the time on Soundbetter. But as I submit to more Taxi listings, that gets really pricey. Some of these Soundbetter engineers charge up to $300 for one instrumental song with no vocals. Since the majority of stuff I do is instrumental songs for libraries, it is going to take quite some time for me to break even. So my question is twofold:

1) are there some Taxi members that I could hire to do these songs that are far cheaper than the Soundbetter route, until I eventually learn how to mix/master on my own?
2) while I am cutting my chops on learning, what resources do you recommend? I use Logic Pro.

Thanks a ton!

Matt Michaelis

[ttully]

Hi Matt,

The answer is.... you have got to do it yourself!
It is really not very difficult.... BASICALLY you just need an EQ, a compressor and a limiter on your master buss.
I also MIX EVERY SINGLE TRACK with those mastering plugins active.
I also rarely even change the settings I currently use.

I know that is not the correct way to do it.....but it is the FAST way.
And I have never had a library or TV show tell me it was not a good sounding track.

My 3 cents worth,
Tim

[gregorym]

Matt,

I understand your problem. I have the same problem. I'm sure you can find help on this forum, but like ttully said, you probably want to learn how to do this yourself. Think this way, if you take the time to learn this valuable skill, you can apply it at anytime and you won't have to wait on anybody else.

Tackling these skills is a life long commitment, I think. I started mixing 4 or 5 years ago, so I really don't know much about it. But if I had to point you in the right direction, I'd say Mike Senior's book on mixing is a great place to start. Of course, just reading the book is ok. Try the things he says:

- treat the room for listening
- get some kind of flat response speakers and headphones
- learn to correct pitch and timing issues before mixing
- strive to hear all the instruments in the mix. Mike calls this balance and he considers this the be very important from what I read.
- sweeten to taste with verb/delay/etc.

Some great channels to watch on youtube about audio engineering:
- mixdown online
- Produce Like a Pro

Mike Senior has a site that goes along with the book. His site lets you download projects and work on the skills. There are some great people to help study mixing on Mike's forum, a lot like this forum.

I hope that helps.
Greg

[lesmac]

Hi Matt,

The answer is.... you have got to do it yourself!
It is really not very difficult.... BASICALLY you just need an EQ, a compressor and a limiter on your master buss.
I also MIX EVERY SINGLE TRACK with those mastering plugins active.
I also rarely even change the settings I currently use.

I know that is not the correct way to do it.....but it is the FAST way.
And I have never had a library or TV show tell me it was not a good sounding track.

My 3 cents worth,
Tim

I don't think there is a CORRECT way but I think I have stumbled across the WRONG way to do it!

I have been struggling over the past 3 or 4 days to bounce stems that sound like a stereo wave that I "mastered" using Waves Abbey Road Mastering plugin. Using the limiter and EQ in mid side modes I was able to get the track punching and some nice definition between all elements. The mix was half way there but the mastering really added the gloss.

Trying to replicate that sound back in the mix so that stems have the same punch and clarity is not achievable for me now. This exercise has made me realise I need to change my whole mixing template and work flow. I want a mixed track that sounds great and the only thing mastering could add would be a few dB of gain. I also want a mix template that allows me to render tracks and stems without too much hassle.

There'll be some changes made!

I will use more rendering as I go in my mixes to give me a bit more computer power and flexibility. I'm using Pro Tools 11 so plugins that aren't audio suite compatible won't be in the template. I will use plugins that I love but I'll know their limits eg: can't be side chained and/or must be bounced in real time. I have realised the best compressors to use on busses and the 2 bus are ones with side chain and possibly wet /dry function. Some time based fx plugins are going to be "closer" to the track eg: either on the track itself or a group bus. I probably won't use complete global reverbs and delays any more.

I haven't set it up just yet and it will be a work in progress but it is the first time I have looked at and reverse engineered mastering and stems. So to the OP's question. I agree with what others have said you have to learn it and there are good resources available, it takes some time. The 10 thousand hour rule? Maybe not that many. I like "intensity", "frequency" and "duration" as described to me once by a medical professional when outlining how we acquire skills. "Intensity" is key. It is doing the correct thing. Not practising the same mistakes over and over but performing the correct procedure whether it be performing physical or mental tasks... So intensity in this case is having a workflow and mix template that can produce semi mastered tracks with stems that when added together sound like the whole.

So sorry if this is getting long winded but if 90 percent of your music is going to TV shows then it looks like you have to take stems into consideration when "mastering" and it's probably best and like ttully said quickest to do it all in the mix session.

Hope I dint hijack your thread by getting some of this off my chest.

As an aside: has anyone noticed Ozone adds 2dB of gain in its default state?

[ttully]

Just thought I'd throw out 3 more things.

These are the mastering plugins I use on EVERY MIX.

Waves F6 RTA Floating Band EQ
SSL G-Master Buss Compressor
Waves L2 Limiter

And that is basically it!

Tim

[cassmcentee]

Les brings up the most important part!
Multiple mixes required after signing a deal...
After signing one instrumental to a major library I just finished giving them 13 stems and 33 alternate mixes of it.
Yes! I said Thirty Three!
And that's WITHOUT an upfront sync fee.
I don't see how you could do that without paying somebody else a fortune.
My reason for so many alternative mixes is based on uping the percentages of it getting multiple usage thus multiple income.
Thoughts...

[lesmac]

Just thought I'd throw out 3 more things.

These are the mastering plugins I use on EVERY MIX.

Waves F6 RTA Floating Band EQ
SSL G-Master Buss Compressor
Waves L2 LImiter

And that is basically it!

Tim

I'm stealing that chain Tim!

I have the F6 RTA but haven't used the M/S capabilities. I'm gonna learn that plugin!

I'm wondering if you bounce stems like this:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ting-stems

It looks like a good way to go. I would mute the other tracks rather than delete in order to enable the side chain on the 2 buss compressor though.

Les brings up the most important part!
Multiple mixes required after signing a deal...
After signing one instrumental to a major library I just finished giving them 13 stems and 33 alternate mixes of it.
Yes! I said Thirty Three!
And that's WITHOUT an upfront sync fee.
I don't see how you could do that without paying somebody else a fortune.
My reason for so many alternative mixes is based on uping the percentages of it getting multiple usage thus multiple income.
Thoughts...

Maybe Cass is doing something similar in Cubase.

[ttully]

Hey Lester,

Yes..that article is basically the same thing I do.... I also use ProTools.
BUT..in the article they SOLO what they want to hear on the stem (or alternate mix).... I do the opposite... I just MUTE what I don't want to hear.
It accomplishes the same thing.
One other thing...I always save the original... and all the alternate mixes..because inevitably while muting stuff.... you mess something up..because at least in ProTools
you need to turn the automation off for the channel you want to mute...or it will keep unmuting itself... and you end up forgetting which tracks had automation enabled in the first place.
If you save the original...it is always there to save the day!


Tim

[cassmcentee]

+1 Tim re: saving Alt mixes
and in the case of collaborations, make sure everyone involved has copies of the stems and alts as well.
In that case, when a library/editor needs something different than what you have sent them, a collaborator can jump in and help when you aren't available.

[Mmichaelis]

Hi Matt,

The answer is.... you have got to do it yourself!
It is really not very difficult.... BASICALLY you just need an EQ, a compressor and a limiter on your master buss.
I also MIX EVERY SINGLE TRACK with those mastering plugins active.
I also rarely even change the settings I currently use.

I know that is not the correct way to do it.....but it is the FAST way.
And I have never had a library or TV show tell me it was not a good sounding track.

My 3 cents worth,
Tim

this is really reassuring, I appreciate the practical advice!