As soon as I started to mix music at a lower volume, I started to get WELL balanced mixes. Can't hear your guitars properly or your synths? LOWER your f*****g mix and it'll sound louder. Yes you heard it right.
The Fletcher-Munson curves always rear it's ugly head when things are too loud! It's always good to periodically check how things sound as you increase volume, but top mixers are not mixing at loud volumes--generally recommended to mix around normal speaking volumes, and maybe even a bit lower in headphones!
@@ChernobylAudio666 Yeah well these days I mix at ''low'' volume and sometimes I check how it sounds at very low volumes haha And THEN at the ''end'' I'll listen on speakers at normal/loud volume.
Leveling the volume in a mix was the first thing I learned at Hofa College. Besides that I also learned how important panning is when it comes to the panorama of a good mix. Nice video man, keep it up :)
An absolute statement,Scott....mixing and music production is all about COMPROMISE. There is only so many seats in the front of the bus(frequencies)...lol. You have to listen to the entire thing beating you in the face to get the overall feel. The drummer can't whine about the high tom disappearing on that one roll. You cant judge your mix like that, because everyone wants the front of the line...and cant. Good advice brother 👍
One quick tip I just learned is to use a separate gain plugin and automate that instead. That way you can still move the sliders without affecting the automation. At least for me in logic this works great.
The more I do this, the more I realize what I DON'T know. I'll never know everything and I'll always find new ways to do something. This is what makes mixing music one of those life-long learning processes. For some people that is really cool and interesting, and for others, that's a source of stress, haha. Try not to be disheartened, when you embrace that aspect of mixing, you become more comfortable with it and you make progress!
Hi man! Had a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and unfortunately I'm just one guy and can't do everything 😂I personally miss doing the livestreams and stuff as well, I hope I can get back to this soon
The approach is the same, I'd say that you'll only be listening to reference tracks that are finished and mastered, but analyzing the levels, balance, how things work together, even how much compression is there, panning, the low-end relationship, all aspects can be analyzed. The PDF I wrote "How to Actually Analyze and Use a Reference" track for the workshop is 10 pages and goes into detail about it.
This has been one of my biggest struggles to overcome. But is a huge impact once you start to get it. To speed up my automation workflow I purchased a daw controller with a physical fader. Then when I’m content with what I’m hearing I go back and clean up the automations. It’s not necessary to have the fader but it’s a quality of life option that works for me. Another great video. Thanks Scott.
I've thought about getting a physical fader controller as well. After working on the Neve a few times, the fader is somehow more intuitive (and faster) for writing in volume automation... plus it's a lot of fun, haha
@@ChernobylAudio666 It does make it faster and is more intuitive. When writing in with a mouse what I thought -2 db on the let’s say rhythm guitars was good but in reality it was more like -4. The fader just got me there quicker.
i thing starting from the drums either the over heads or kick and snare is deffo the best when building your foundation the guitar tone really doesnt matter if the drums sound weak
i do the same things, the only thing what is different is when i´ve a double kick part is that i reduce only the lows of the kick, so the volume of the overall kick is the same only the whooom is gone and the kick can shoot out like a shootgun ;) great video man
My anchor actually are the guitars 😂 I have them set to my preferable level and then I start bringing in the overheads, snare, Toms, room… then I fill it with the bass as some sort of cement. Then pushing my kick in… vocals go in last. I use the mute button a lot for listening to elements that need to really work well together (kick, bass guitars or guitars, cymbals, snare… etc.
How do you like to reference? I know some people get really granular with metric a/b while others just pull up iTunes. I really like metric a/b but I have to work on not getting too carried away with comparison.
A/Bing a mix is just the tip of the iceberg. What's the relationship between instruments? What's the loudest? Why? What kind effects are being used? How much compression? Why are they being used? How do they change the dynamics of the song? I wrote a 10 page PDF about analyzing and using reference mixings that you get with the Mixing Metal Workshop. It's a banger!
I found the stems from def Leppard rock of ages the other day and thought it would be fun to mix the actual recordings.. man that song mixed itself, statick mix, SSL on the mix bus and sounded better than everything I ever mixed so far
When the sounds are recorded right, it goes a long way. Tight performance that is well played will always outweigh studio magic. That said, Pyromania was recorded by Mutt Lange who is famously METICULOUS. Just search "The Mutt Lange Method" and enjoy that rabbit hole, haha.
Biggest mistake ever is not buying enough plugins! Cool video!
Buy more! Hurry up! hahaha
You need to buy ALL the plugins! Otherwise failure is inevitable.
As soon as I started to mix music at a lower volume, I started to get WELL balanced mixes. Can't hear your guitars properly or your synths? LOWER your f*****g mix and it'll sound louder. Yes you heard it right.
The Fletcher-Munson curves always rear it's ugly head when things are too loud! It's always good to periodically check how things sound as you increase volume, but top mixers are not mixing at loud volumes--generally recommended to mix around normal speaking volumes, and maybe even a bit lower in headphones!
@@ChernobylAudio666 Yeah well these days I mix at ''low'' volume and sometimes I check how it sounds at very low volumes haha And THEN at the ''end'' I'll listen on speakers at normal/loud volume.
Thanks for another great video. Once I cracked the automation code my mixes got better. And automation is free in every DAW!
buy more plugins you don't need to worry about a balance or automation
Stop telling my secrets!
@ChernobylAudio666 oops sorry my bad
Leveling the volume in a mix was the first thing I learned at Hofa College. Besides that I also learned how important panning is when it comes to the panorama of a good mix. Nice video man, keep it up :)
An absolute statement,Scott....mixing and music production is all about COMPROMISE. There is only so many seats in the front of the bus(frequencies)...lol. You have to listen to the entire thing beating you in the face to get the overall feel. The drummer can't whine about the high tom disappearing on that one roll. You cant judge your mix like that, because everyone wants the front of the line...and cant. Good advice brother 👍
One quick tip I just learned is to use a separate gain plugin and automate that instead. That way you can still move the sliders without affecting the automation. At least for me in logic this works great.
Scott is the Mr. Miyagi of metal, here to teach you balance.
Wax on, wax off!
Damn, it's fascinating and also disheartening starting out mixing ur own songs.
Not even knowing what one doesn't know is the hardest part ;D
The more I do this, the more I realize what I DON'T know. I'll never know everything and I'll always find new ways to do something. This is what makes mixing music one of those life-long learning processes. For some people that is really cool and interesting, and for others, that's a source of stress, haha. Try not to be disheartened, when you embrace that aspect of mixing, you become more comfortable with it and you make progress!
Such good information!!
is there an automation funcion like this in reaper?
Yes, should be automation lane or something like that where you can do the exact same stuff!
Love all your share YT Video...
Why u not share metal band stems like before so we can training and u can do content competition
Hi man! Had a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and unfortunately I'm just one guy and can't do everything 😂I personally miss doing the livestreams and stuff as well, I hope I can get back to this soon
@@ChernobylAudio666 All the best bro....keep metal n successfully
Hi there!
What should be the approach with ref tracks that are mastered. Should I try to make my mix sound like an already mastered song?
The approach is the same, I'd say that you'll only be listening to reference tracks that are finished and mastered, but analyzing the levels, balance, how things work together, even how much compression is there, panning, the low-end relationship, all aspects can be analyzed. The PDF I wrote "How to Actually Analyze and Use a Reference" track for the workshop is 10 pages and goes into detail about it.
@@ChernobylAudio666 many thx
This has been one of my biggest struggles to overcome. But is a huge impact once you start to get it. To speed up my automation workflow I purchased a daw controller with a physical fader. Then when I’m content with what I’m hearing I go back and clean up the automations. It’s not necessary to have the fader but it’s a quality of life option that works for me. Another great video. Thanks Scott.
I've thought about getting a physical fader controller as well. After working on the Neve a few times, the fader is somehow more intuitive (and faster) for writing in volume automation... plus it's a lot of fun, haha
@@ChernobylAudio666
It does make it faster and is more intuitive. When writing in with a mouse what I thought -2 db on the let’s say rhythm guitars was good but in reality it was more like -4. The fader just got me there quicker.
i thing starting from the drums either the over heads or kick and snare is deffo the best when building your foundation the guitar tone really doesnt matter if the drums sound weak
Thank you so much for your helpful videos! It’s gotten me so much closer to the guitar tone I have in my head! 🤘
and automation can fix so many issues in the mix my mixes sounded trash and overwhelming until i started using automation
i do the same things, the only thing what is different is when i´ve a double kick part is that i reduce only the lows of the kick, so the volume of the overall kick is the same only the whooom is gone and the kick can shoot out like a shootgun ;) great video man
My anchor actually are the guitars 😂
I have them set to my preferable level and then I start bringing in the overheads, snare, Toms, room… then I fill it with the bass as some sort of cement. Then pushing my kick in… vocals go in last.
I use the mute button a lot for listening to elements that need to really work well together (kick, bass guitars or guitars, cymbals, snare… etc.
Interesting! Got any mixes you can share? Would love to hear whare you're working on!
Good info Scott! And that track sounds damn good! Thanks brother.
How do you like to reference? I know some people get really granular with metric a/b while others just pull up iTunes. I really like metric a/b but I have to work on not getting too carried away with comparison.
A/Bing a mix is just the tip of the iceberg. What's the relationship between instruments? What's the loudest? Why? What kind effects are being used? How much compression? Why are they being used? How do they change the dynamics of the song? I wrote a 10 page PDF about analyzing and using reference mixings that you get with the Mixing Metal Workshop. It's a banger!
⚖️
Thank you 🙏 This is awesome!
I found the stems from def Leppard rock of ages the other day and thought it would be fun to mix the actual recordings.. man that song mixed itself, statick mix, SSL on the mix bus and sounded better than everything I ever mixed so far
When the sounds are recorded right, it goes a long way. Tight performance that is well played will always outweigh studio magic. That said, Pyromania was recorded by Mutt Lange who is famously METICULOUS. Just search "The Mutt Lange Method" and enjoy that rabbit hole, haha.
@@ChernobylAudio666 oh damn man haha sounds like a journey, thanks
Your videos are always so helpful. Keep up the great work
Thank you, man!
Great channel!
Thanks!