Original
Message
Date: 20-May-06 @ 09:28 AM -
I know I suck at mixing
Rags .aka. Welder
Posts: 649
Link?: Link
File?: No file
I had taken a break from making music for around a months time, and just realised how much work it takes to make things sound right. Every time I do this, it takes around a week to pick up again with the routine to sequence and mix, and I mean to do it properly. Also I got some new tools (like smartelectronix's nyquist eq) that sounds great, but still, one needs time to adjust to its capabilities, and so it is pretty disheartening to come back to music, only to delete 6 complete bullshit projects from the hard disk after a week.
But the point is that I've learnt something like a new technique in the process. Well, at least it was new to me.
For a start, there is a 180+ BPM track with lots of synths and drum patterns going on, that has almost no reverb/delay added, and the levels seem right, still it sounds pretty overcrowded. Part of the problem is the high tempo, but also are the rich textures of thesounds I've chosen. And while I did my best with eq-ing out the unwanted and / or unneeded frequencies per channel, it is more balanced now, but still overcrowded.
Now what I realised, that in this situation it is very hard to EQ down unwanted things any further, because almost all channels must be adjusted a little bit, and adjusting one single channel a little bit while everything is turned on produces very subtle results that are imposible to hear (to my lousy ears :-). So the only way to go forward is to listen to each channel in isolation and try to figure out what frequency bands are still unnecesary. And of course, an isolated channel sounds perfectly all right on its own...
Now everybody talks about one should never mix/eq with a "mastering" compressor/limiter inserted into the master. But eventually that could come really handy when trying to figure out what's wrong with one single channel. So I fired up digitalfishphones's endorphin, cranked up the compression and limiting, and looked at each individual channel. And with these "irrealistic settings" it was clear that there is still some deep rumbling and resonant peak to remove from almost every channel.
Now I'm sure this is absolutely no holy grail of mixing
, but well, if you know better, tell me!