Another very useful tip (in my opinion) in order to check how much un-necessary low end or un-necessary high end, your song has, is to : 1. Place a high cut filter on your master/stereo buss and bring it down gradually upto roughly about 400 hz. You can now hear pretty much all the low end in isolation and adjust to taste. 2. Now remove the high cut filter and place a low cut filter and start bringing it up to roughly 4.5 KHz. You can now hear all the shimmer your song has and adjust (eq) this to taste, before removing the high cut filter from your stereo buss. By using the above technique, you will be surprised how much un-ncessary low end or un-necessary high end gets masked due to opposing frequencies. Keep using this technique, till your ears are trained to hear frequencies in isolation, without actually isolating them temporarily. This technique is wildely used in "mastering" applications, where different frequency bands are "soloed" in order to check their overall strength/energy within the mix.
Some genuinely good mixing tips in this video. However, I would like to point out that Point Blank should tell it mixing students some of the basic things, right from the outset : 1. Always label your tracks. Seeing "audio 1", "audio 2", "aux 1", "aux 2" is bad mixing management. 2. Always buss your channel strips for summing. I saw some of the tracks going straight to "Stereo Output". Nothing wrong with that, in particular, but it will speed up and improve your mixing workflow, if you properly sum and buss your stems. This will also help to process your summed stems, more efficiently, like using a Solid Buss Compressor on only overall drums stem and also perhaps narrow some of the wider elements using a single imaging plug-in and vice versa. 3. Depending in your Mac's CPU and Ram power, it is usually best to "bounce in place" all software instrument tracks and work with audio only when mixing. I usually create 2 identical projects (one for midi editing only which contains software instruments and other midi data and duplicate this project to work only with audio files for mixing purposes). This way whenever, I need to edit midi, I can go back to the "Midi Project" and create new audio files to be imported in the "Audio project" for later mixing. You can do both in a single project (and hide midi tracks), but this will make the project size too big. 4. Set all audio channels input to read "No Input". I saw audio channels showing "input 1&2". Why would you need audio input when mixing. Even if you are not connected to an audio input source, or even if you have disabled "audio input monitoring", it makes for a prudent approach to avoid any floor noise or hum to appear in your tracks (which becomes louder when your start to master your track), incase you did leave an audio input source "on" before mixing. 5. Its always best to mix with "Pre Fader Metering" enabled. This way you will never clip internally. This is especially useful, when you "bounce in place" your software instrument tracks into audio tracks for mixing. Don't worry about post fader level on your stereo buss, because, it will never Clip, if your individual channel strips are not clipping during "Pre Fader Metering". 6. One of the best ways to create a good stereo image is to keep drums narrow, though not completely mono. I have seen many tracks loose stereo imaging simply due to very wide drums imaging.
+David Jones As we always say, the sync issue on RUclips's end due to the video trimming that gets done after the video is over. We always have to do this with live videos and sometimes it results in sync issues. The fade out, well that's just for fun ;-)
FOCUS BRO THIS VIDEO IS ALL ABOUT AUDIO MIXING YOUR CONCENTRATION IS OUT OF THE TOPIC THESE ARE AUDIO PRODUCERS AND THEY ARE GIVING US FREE TIPS ON MIXING LEARN TO APPRECIATE BRUH,IF YOU WANT VIDEMIXING THIS AINT YOUR SITE
Automation is so crucial, especially in edm. I've seen a fair bit of guys who don't use a single bit of automation in their songs. For something so easy to do, it's crazy to not utilize it. There's so much you can do with automation to breathe so much more life, movement and dynamic effectiveness into your songs. Even just changing the panning and levels of certain tracks can make a song sound so much better. Also, just playing around with filter and envelope automation on things like synth basses, plucks and strings is so much fun - not to mention it can make for a great creativity catalyst.
Fantastic lecture. Two things I'd add as big mistakes of my own is a) mixing with any form of bass boost on the monitor amp and b) mixing immediately after recording meaning tired ears. The point you made about tape based systems allowing for a break is very true, I've never manged to get as good mix from a DAW as with a multitracker and desk, though thanks to videos like this I'm learning. Until relatively recently I'd never mix my own productions, so this is good learning curve stuff :)
You guys continue to take my production to the next level! Thanks for always sharing this information! keep it coming! and yes thank you for staring into my soul at the end ... hahaha CHEERS!
You can for example automate compressor settings on busses and even individual channels. I tend to make different compressor settings for different parts of the song and automate the transitions. It usually feels more natural to me then just automating faders. Plus it gives me full control over the all the dynamics, not just volume. Same goes for like equalizer settings to have more control over where elements sit in the mix for each part of the song.
I have literally spent spent countless hours making all of those mixing & mastering mistakes he spoke about, ESPECIALLY focusing for far too long on one specific part & then listening to the entire mix & it's just totally off even though that bit sounds great by itself. I CANNOT emphasize that one enough! If you have to, go so far as to write a physical note about the time in the song, the part you're working on, & come back to it if it's kicking your ass. Take a break, come back, listen to the WHOLE mix, listen to the part, listen to the mix, rinse & repeat. Just don't get tunnel vision. It took me YEARS to realize that. I did that one SO MUCH when I really started delving into more complex break downs & drops, especially in more experimental genres of music.
And after you become proficient using your preferred plugins, take regular breaks and MIX FAST. You have to outpace your ears acclimating to the unfinished or lopsided mix. Reference often.
really great tips, If you think about it, more often that not, hit songs get our attention not only because of their amazing hooks and melodies but also their crisp, clean sound.
Thinking about the example JC gave regarding volume changes in the chorus throughout the track. Isn't it better to automate setting up a Gain/Limiter plugin that turns up some dBs instead of just automating the volume? So that when you prepare your track for mastering later and you want to bring all your channels down to give some space (those 6 dBs you mentioned) you don't get your volume values overwritten by the the automation you saved earlier. Does it make sense?
Well you could also just mix @ -6db and turn your monitor gain up. If i automate volume i use a separate plugin to automate instead of the faders so i can still use the mixer to make general adjustments on the fly.
Print whatever is automated onto another track. This puts faders and pans back at unity and frees up cpu from plugins. Look up using Mix busses/ Submixing
I am mixing on two sets of speakers, Rockit 5s and Yamaha 5s. When I play a commercial song and listen on both sets of speakers, there is a change in the sound, but they both sound equally good. When I am playing my mixes on them, the difference is major. Good on the Rockits but not on the Yamahas. What can I do to help get my mixes to sound equally good on both sets. Thanks MM
Out of the mistakes mentioned I constantly make the same 2 over and over again. the first being automation.(not with volume levels but with FX using turnado /wow2) for example. They work one minute and not the next. the second is when adding vocals. They ALWAYS sit wrongly in the mix for me, either being drowned out at times or too much presence. I'm curious about waves vocal rider, could that solve my problems?
Well I found it really useful, thanks for taking the time and sharing some of the things to look (listen) out for. Subscribed and looking forward to watching more Point Blank content. I don't know why some many are comments are directed towards someone's hair in the video, but hey each to their own, guess that's You Tube for you.
I have a question, I have noticed in the last decade that the over all volume of music is much higher . Is the studio standard flat db still the preferred use in mastering songs or with the digital age can people just make the music as loud and they can? I believe they call it EDR for extended dynamic range , basically it allows you to go past peak or clip levels without distortion. how does this effect say radio airplay or tv broadcast levels?
Unusually I agree with everything. That bit about looping is right on point. And to boot the important tips that become rules for maintaining a standard so often forgotten in this instant self taught age (which isn't a bad thing, it just has its casualties). Any way. Great job great tips. Good to be reminded sometimes.
Great video, but i have a couple of questions. I see that your master fader is at unity. When I do my mixes, I normally put my master fader all the way up and mix that way because I feel like the overall dynamics of the track is to low when I mix the project with the master fader at unity, I would like to know your thoughts. Also, I heard that you put your drums through a bus and compress the bus. I thought bussing is mainly for effects such as delay and revers and that compressions should should mainly be on its own track unless, you're bussing the track for sidechaining? Please expalin!
+Dj4ngoMusic Hi Dj4ngo, we would strongly recommend you leave your master fader at 0dB. If your master channel clips, when the sound is converted from digital to analogue (when it moves from your software to your speakers), it will not be a true translation of the sound. If you find it's too quiet, use the individual channel faders to make it louder - you can even clip in these channels as long as you're not clipping on the master! You can use compression to increase the attack and punch of a sound for an increase in perceived loudness. There's much more on this on our courses :: ow.ly/SBKJn
very nice basic tips. some of them were really common sense, like no clipping, but i've seen enough ppl who didn't care about that at all to know it has to be pointed out sometimes
Hi guys. This may be a silly question. Regarding automation. I get that pushing the chorus in volume to get more excitement as the song progresses , but then in mastering those volume lifts would be controlled , so would they still make a difference in being raised. I’m guessing with a more dynamic and conservative master, the volume raises would definitely make a huge difference. Thank you for a great Video
Thanks, that was REALLY useful. I'm always very concerned about panning in general, but I probably didn't care enough about having too many wide elements. Also very understandable examples.
a lot of good advice. next time I mix I'm going to focus on setting levels and eqing for space in the mix. automation is the hard part (at least for an amateur with nothing but a mouse and reaper)
great tips indeed. i'd personally add #11: *listen to mono versions of your mix* - and i mean a regular mono mixdown, as well as a left side only and right side only version. and make sure the mix sounds at least acceptable when played back this way. you won't believe how many clubs, djs and people at home have a suboptimal or crappy setup where either only one output (L or R) is sent to the pa/hifi and basically half of the music is missing - or where the L and R channels are both panned to center and signals that are out of phase start cancelling each other out.
The mono is great advice. Not sure how you'd do the split channel without making the recording mono, I probably wouldn't focus on it, just make sure like the important lead is not all in one side....if clubs be that inept, it would probably sound bad on their terrible and uncalibrated system no matter what you've done with it to be fair...i mean what other mistakes are they making, probably mismatched impedance, using an mp3 of about 2 kbps, hard cipping the mix and probably driving substandard speakers to sound like bees in a jar before making a mistake like missing out a whole channel. Mono on the other hand makes sense, because even in a stereo club it all blends together and you'll never be standing in a place to hear a great stereo image half the time, its a good practice for even a hifi living room environment.Just about anything except really specialist material that is only for headphones.
Hi. I have just watched this video and I have a question. I am trying to make an orchestral composition and I was wondering, do you start with mixing stuff while you are composing the composition or wait till you’ve made your composition then start mixing? I am using Ableton live 10 to do this and composer cloud for my sounds. Let me know when you can.
+Dieter Van de Walle Unfortunately it's out of our hands - it's to do with how the audio and video is encoded during the live broadcast. Once it's done it's done and we can't change it!
We can do that yes but we lose all the views and comments. Most of our videos are edited and don't have any issues, sometimes the live ones encounter problems like this but that's part of the their live nature, and we like that : ) The content remains the same
Great video, and of course the ending was hilarious. Like the ending of a "Police Squad" episode. (You can see Declan start to crack up just as the video ends.)
I frikin' love this french genius! So much great insight, perfectly explained - cannot thank you enough!
9 лет назад
I know where my problem is on mixing my productions, I can mix everything to sound pretty professional with I'm working with short kicks aka hp filtering more everything but when it's time to add the low frequencies like at 150-0 It starts to get pretty muddy, any advice?
+Remakes It sounds like you've got too many things clashing in the same "frequency zone". Try not to have too many elements peaking around the same frequencies. Some overlapping is ok, but too much, especially in the low end, and your mix is gonna sound like MUDD! If it happens when you add something with peaks at 150Hz ish, then you must have something else going on in the same area thats "fighting" with whatever you just brought in. I usually low-cut almost everything based on where the "meat" of the bass rolls off. So if my bassline roll off at around 150Hz, then I'll low-cut almost everything else so it goes no lower than maybe 100Hz max. If the bass & kicks still don't sit right with eachother, try raising the low-cut on the kick a little. If theres no room for that, you could try sidechain compression on the bass, triggered by the kick (works well for long note, non stabby b-lines). Maybe you've got pads fighting with other mid-low freqs, eg the kick, which is a good time to use sidechain compression again IMO. Hope this helps m8! BTW an EQ with a freq-analyzer (eg Pro-Q) is perfect for problems like this.
Speaking of this "extended headroom" with 32bit floating point in Logic. He says its okay to go into the red with each track in the mixer, but not to go into the red with the master fader. In ableton, it says pretty much the same thing but if you clip ANY track fader, the master fader will also clip, so I don't understand. Is it clipping or isn't it!? For that reason I never go into the red. I just think its good practice, not to mention headroom is pretty useful IMO.
+ncshuriken you should be able to process the master fader track with comp/eq/limiter to keep it from redlining, even if the signals feeding it are peaking.
Floating point can go almost to infinity. All VST plugins work in floating point so basically all DAWs have this feature, not just Logic. Your single track is not really clipping YET, the DAW keeps your too-loud audio unchanged all the way to the final output. But at this very last step, if it's still too-loud, then REAL clipping happens as it sends the sound to the sound card or final WAV file, because those truly cannot take levels over 0dB.
+Kevin Stoneham Mono can be defined by something that is equal in both speakers. If two sounds that are the same are panned hard-left and -right, you're left with an identical sound in both speakers - i.e. mono.
What frequencies would you recommend rolling off for the high and low end? I've heard people say 35 and lower isn't necessary but you only cut off 30 and lower. Any ideas for what's not going to be picked up by the human ear?
i remember them mentioning that those frequencies add up if you have a lot of tracks sharing them, so it does make a difference even at the extreme ends if you trim it down a little.
use a LOW pass to listen, a really sharp one like 120db. And pull it down until the musical stuff disappears, turning up the volume is likely just rumble. thats where you cut with a shallow HIgh pass, 12db or 6db slope usually.
Yeah good tips but say I have a bass that has been mixed for the drop and then has a solo bit. Would it be best to make a dry/wet type on and off for the mixing then? You would still want the bass to be there
+EFX If you've got 2 different basslines doing different things, just mix each one individually, otherwise the mix of one might interfere with the mix of the other. The way I'd do it is just by having them on seperate tracks to keep things seperate & simple. Then you could group the 2 tracks together and add some final tweaks if needed.
I'm not sure what your setup looks like, but if you have a bassline created by 1 VST synth (so the b-lines all on one track) but the bassline has 2 sections that sound really different to eachother (in terms of frequency & texture), then what I'd do is seperate both sections to their own tracks. That way you can mix them both independantly. Say your "drop bass" has a lot of modulation & effects (so it has mids-hi's aswell as subs) but your "solo bass" is only clean subs or has mostly only subs. If you boost the mids on the "drop" bass to bring out the FX, you'll also be raising freq's in the clean bass which will cause problems later.
this guy knows his shit. curious to see how automation ends up taking the most time in his mixes! i do automation in composition, but just a little during mixdown.
wowww im slow. i forgot we need to turn down the reference track when we use it while we mix because the reference is mastered -_- i was mixing while using a loud master track as a reference while soloing each instrument matching the master track, and in the end everything was just overlapped. Also i should have been referencing instead of COPYING the mastered track. Thanks for this video
Yes, even frequencies you can't hear affect the rest of the mix. Bottom end is more easily muddied. By doing this cut, you free up more space in the mix to let the true bass frequencies (the ones you want to have some emphasis on) shine through. Also, as the commenter above mentioned, it affects your overall levels.
you didn't mention that if nalog eq brings harmonics it messes with phase also. digital eq doesn't. as you also tyalk about sound systems, the difference can be deadly fr a track if you bias your sound correctly wityh the right parameters you won't need so much eq
and the other thing is the use of notches between kick and bass(and comp). at least find your own technique to make em mix together perfectly, the hardest issue in dance/bass music
Another very useful tip (in my opinion) in order to check how much un-necessary low end or un-necessary high end, your song has, is to :
1. Place a high cut filter on your master/stereo buss and bring it down gradually upto roughly about 400 hz. You can now hear pretty much all the low end in isolation and adjust to taste.
2. Now remove the high cut filter and place a low cut filter and start bringing it up to roughly 4.5 KHz. You can now hear all the shimmer your song has and adjust (eq) this to taste, before removing the high cut filter from your stereo buss.
By using the above technique, you will be surprised how much un-ncessary low end or un-necessary high end gets masked due to opposing frequencies. Keep using this technique, till your ears are trained to hear frequencies in isolation, without actually isolating them temporarily.
This technique is wildely used in "mastering" applications, where different frequency bands are "soloed" in order to check their overall strength/energy within the mix.
i love mixing and mastering but sometimes it makes my head want to explode
+Trizzy Tre me 2 XD
+High Magi you can produce for sure, you better not make your own mixes imo.
+Alper Tunga why?
+Alper Tunga hear loss :O as in totally deaf?
27:50 before you start watching the video start with th ending its super awkward hahaha Really had me in tears guys XD
insidemusician Haha! So good
Point Blank Music School HAHAHA
insidemusician HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA BRUHHHHHHH awkwardness level over 9000
insidemusician That was great haha
El Seano When does JC shake his head?
Some genuinely good mixing tips in this video. However, I would like to point out that Point Blank should tell it mixing students some of the basic things, right from the outset :
1. Always label your tracks. Seeing "audio 1", "audio 2", "aux 1", "aux 2" is bad mixing management.
2. Always buss your channel strips for summing. I saw some of the tracks going straight to "Stereo Output". Nothing wrong with that, in particular, but it will speed up and improve your mixing workflow, if you properly sum and buss your stems. This will also help to process your summed stems, more efficiently, like using a Solid Buss Compressor on only overall drums stem and also perhaps narrow some of the wider elements using a single imaging plug-in and vice versa.
3. Depending in your Mac's CPU and Ram power, it is usually best to "bounce in place" all software instrument tracks and work with audio only when mixing. I usually create 2 identical projects (one for midi editing only which contains software instruments and other midi data and duplicate this project to work only with audio files for mixing purposes). This way whenever, I need to edit midi, I can go back to the "Midi Project" and create new audio files to be imported in the "Audio project" for later mixing. You can do both in a single project (and hide midi tracks), but this will make the project size too big.
4. Set all audio channels input to read "No Input". I saw audio channels showing "input 1&2". Why would you need audio input when mixing. Even if you are not connected to an audio input source, or even if you have disabled "audio input monitoring", it makes for a prudent approach to avoid any floor noise or hum to appear in your tracks (which becomes louder when your start to master your track), incase you did leave an audio input source "on" before mixing.
5. Its always best to mix with "Pre Fader Metering" enabled. This way you will never clip internally. This is especially useful, when you "bounce in place" your software instrument tracks into audio tracks for mixing. Don't worry about post fader level on your stereo buss, because, it will never Clip, if your individual channel strips are not clipping during "Pre Fader Metering".
6. One of the best ways to create a good stereo image is to keep drums narrow, though not completely mono. I have seen many tracks loose stereo imaging simply due to very wide drums imaging.
What kind of response is that?...
+daddymacsac A very unprofessional one. Especially considering he had some good points.
That EQ tip at around 15 min is pure gold... Thanks!
Mixing mistakes everyone makes....
1. Forgetting to sync audio and video
2. Forgetting to fade out at end
:-)
+DestinationMan Get your shit together john
+David Jones As we always say, the sync issue on RUclips's end due to the video trimming that gets done after the video is over. We always have to do this with live videos and sometimes it results in sync issues.
The fade out, well that's just for fun ;-)
+Point Blank Music School I was only joking. I thought the ending was funny :-) Good work guys! Cheers. David
FOCUS BRO THIS VIDEO IS ALL ABOUT AUDIO MIXING YOUR CONCENTRATION IS OUT OF THE TOPIC THESE ARE AUDIO PRODUCERS AND THEY ARE GIVING US FREE TIPS ON MIXING LEARN TO APPRECIATE BRUH,IF YOU WANT VIDEMIXING THIS AINT YOUR SITE
Damn, savagery in the comment above, but he's real a'f. I feel it! (it was funny, tho)
Great Video Guys! And I appreciate that stare into my soul at the end lol
Chrisp80 👀
Automation is so crucial, especially in edm. I've seen a fair bit of guys who don't use a single bit of automation in their songs. For something so easy to do, it's crazy to not utilize it. There's so much you can do with automation to breathe so much more life, movement and dynamic effectiveness into your songs. Even just changing the panning and levels of certain tracks can make a song sound so much better.
Also, just playing around with filter and envelope automation on things like synth basses, plucks and strings is so much fun - not to mention it can make for a great creativity catalyst.
Fantastic lecture. Two things I'd add as big mistakes of my own is a) mixing with any form of bass boost on the monitor amp and b) mixing immediately after recording meaning tired ears. The point you made about tape based systems allowing for a break is very true, I've never manged to get as good mix from a DAW as with a multitracker and desk, though thanks to videos like this I'm learning. Until relatively recently I'd never mix my own productions, so this is good learning curve stuff :)
I watch this video every few months, and each time I take away something new from it, and go away feeling inspired to work on my music. Thank you.
You guys continue to take my production to the next level! Thanks for always sharing this information! keep it coming! and yes thank you for staring into my soul at the end ... hahaha CHEERS!
Brett Washington Anytime
You can for example automate compressor settings on busses and even individual channels. I tend to make different compressor settings for different parts of the song and automate the transitions. It usually feels more natural to me then just automating faders. Plus it gives me full control over the all the dynamics, not just volume. Same goes for like equalizer settings to have more control over where elements sit in the mix for each part of the song.
I have literally spent spent countless hours making all of those mixing & mastering mistakes he spoke about, ESPECIALLY focusing for far too long on one specific part & then listening to the entire mix & it's just totally off even though that bit sounds great by itself. I CANNOT emphasize that one enough! If you have to, go so far as to write a physical note about the time in the song, the part you're working on, & come back to it if it's kicking your ass. Take a break, come back, listen to the WHOLE mix, listen to the part, listen to the mix, rinse & repeat. Just don't get tunnel vision. It took me YEARS to realize that. I did that one SO MUCH when I really started delving into more complex break downs & drops, especially in more experimental genres of music.
And after you become proficient using your preferred plugins, take regular breaks and MIX FAST. You have to outpace your ears acclimating to the unfinished or lopsided mix. Reference often.
Excellent ad usual JC and the PB crew. Love the track "Let Me"😃
really great tips, If you think about it, more often that not, hit songs get our attention not only because of their amazing hooks and melodies but also their crisp, clean sound.
I'm sound and music student.
I wanna say this video is really great , some of the note and details i never heard in in my university.
Thank you
Hey, I downloaded Logic Pro X a few weeks ago and I still don't understand what Flanger and Chorus mean. Can somebody help me?
27:50 Dude, you are beauuuuutiful!
12:06 you say to not EQ solo.... would you recommend doing it with the group they're in.... so like EQing with just the leads... or the whole song??
This guy is AWESOME! Great info, great delivery. Friendly and down to earth.
Thinking about the example JC gave regarding volume changes in the chorus throughout the track. Isn't it better to automate setting up a Gain/Limiter plugin that turns up some dBs instead of just automating the volume? So that when you prepare your track for mastering later and you want to bring all your channels down to give some space (those 6 dBs you mentioned) you don't get your volume values overwritten by the the automation you saved earlier. Does it make sense?
Well you could also just mix @ -6db and turn your monitor gain up. If i automate volume i use a separate plugin to automate instead of the faders so i can still use the mixer to make general adjustments on the fly.
Print whatever is automated onto another track. This puts faders and pans back at unity and frees up cpu from plugins. Look up using Mix busses/ Submixing
I am mixing on two sets of speakers, Rockit 5s and Yamaha 5s. When I play a commercial song and listen on both sets of speakers, there is a change in the sound, but they both sound equally good. When I am playing my mixes on them, the difference is major. Good on the Rockits but not on the Yamahas. What can I do to help get my mixes to sound equally good on both sets. Thanks MM
Out of the mistakes mentioned I constantly make the same 2 over and over again.
the first being automation.(not with volume levels but with FX using turnado /wow2) for example. They work one minute and not the next.
the second is when adding vocals. They ALWAYS sit wrongly in the mix for me, either being drowned out at times or too much presence.
I'm curious about waves vocal rider, could that solve my problems?
Well I found it really useful, thanks for taking the time and sharing some of the things to look (listen) out for. Subscribed and looking forward to watching more Point Blank content.
I don't know why some many are comments are directed towards someone's hair in the video, but hey each to their own, guess that's You Tube for you.
What is the song at 2:20 ?
It sounds really nice!
I have a question, I have noticed in the last decade that the over all volume of music is much higher . Is the studio standard flat db still the preferred use in mastering songs or with the digital age can people just make the music as loud and they can?
I believe they call it EDR for extended dynamic range , basically it allows you to go past peak or clip levels without distortion.
how does this effect say radio airplay or tv broadcast levels?
Can you make a tutorial on how to sync video and audio on youtube, please? And then may be watch it
Unusually I agree with everything. That bit about looping is right on point. And to boot the important tips that become rules for maintaining a standard so often forgotten in this instant self taught age (which isn't a bad thing, it just has its casualties). Any way. Great job great tips. Good to be reminded sometimes.
+Noel Watson And that ending makes it.!!!
Great video, but i have a couple of questions.
I see that your master fader is at unity. When I do my mixes, I normally put my master fader all the way up and mix that way because I feel like the overall dynamics of the track is to low when I mix the project with the master fader at unity, I would like to know your thoughts.
Also, I heard that you put your drums through a bus and compress the bus. I thought bussing is mainly for effects such as delay and revers and that compressions should should mainly be on its own track unless, you're bussing the track for sidechaining?
Please expalin!
+Dj4ngoMusic Hi Dj4ngo, we would strongly recommend you leave your master fader at 0dB. If your master channel clips, when the sound is converted from digital to analogue (when it moves from your software to your speakers), it will not be a true translation of the sound. If you find it's too quiet, use the individual channel faders to make it louder - you can even clip in these channels as long as you're not clipping on the master! You can use compression to increase the attack and punch of a sound for an increase in perceived loudness. There's much more on this on our courses :: ow.ly/SBKJn
this advice about EQ-ing is actually very valuable, thank you...
very nice basic tips. some of them were really common sense, like no clipping, but i've seen enough ppl who didn't care about that at all to know it has to be pointed out sometimes
Hi guys. This may be a silly question. Regarding automation. I get that pushing the chorus in volume to get more excitement as the song progresses , but then in mastering those volume lifts would be controlled , so would they still make a difference in being raised. I’m guessing with a more dynamic and conservative master, the volume raises would definitely make a huge difference. Thank you for a great Video
Thanks, that was REALLY useful. I'm always very concerned about panning in general, but I probably didn't care enough about having too many wide elements. Also very understandable examples.
says to not have much bass but his voice is blowing up my sub haha
a lot of good advice. next time I mix I'm going to focus on setting levels and eqing for space in the mix. automation is the hard part (at least for an amateur with nothing but a mouse and reaper)
Do you HAVE TO put a compressor on the master bus?
What do I do if my interface is clipping but the daw isn't?
great tips indeed.
i'd personally add #11: *listen to mono versions of your mix* - and i mean a regular mono mixdown, as well as a left side only and right side only version. and make sure the mix sounds at least acceptable when played back this way.
you won't believe how many clubs, djs and people at home have a suboptimal or crappy setup where either only one output (L or R) is sent to the pa/hifi and basically half of the music is missing - or where the L and R channels are both panned to center and signals that are out of phase start cancelling each other out.
oh jeez, what a nightmare. :D
The mono is great advice. Not sure how you'd do the split channel without making the recording mono, I probably wouldn't focus on it, just make sure like the important lead is not all in one side....if clubs be that inept, it would probably sound bad on their terrible and uncalibrated system no matter what you've done with it to be fair...i mean what other mistakes are they making, probably mismatched impedance, using an mp3 of about 2 kbps, hard cipping the mix and probably driving substandard speakers to sound like bees in a jar before making a mistake like missing out a whole channel.
Mono on the other hand makes sense, because even in a stereo club it all blends together and you'll never be standing in a place to hear a great stereo image half the time, its a good practice for even a hifi living room environment.Just about anything except really specialist material that is only for headphones.
Hi. I have just watched this video and I have a question. I am trying to make an orchestral composition and I was wondering, do you start with mixing stuff while you are composing the composition or wait till you’ve made your composition then start mixing? I am using Ableton live 10 to do this and composer cloud for my sounds. Let me know when you can.
What do you guys think about subpac for mixing the low end? Is it a studio tool or more a gadget?
Excellent video even for complete novices, very easy to understand the different mechanics .
The awkward last 30 seconds of this video lol
Great knowledge + advice! Any idea who this guy is and where I could find him? Much appreciated.
@pointblank Would you use mixchecker in your mixing and would you use it on the entire mix or soloed to start then at the end
That's a nice trancy track there! Reminds me of the old days... So nice.
Could I submit a sample for feedback on where I could improve?
Mistake 1: not syncing your audio with your video ...
+Dieter Van de Walle Unfortunately it's out of our hands - it's to do with how the audio and video is encoded during the live broadcast. Once it's done it's done and we can't change it!
you can edit it in post production...
how? it is live!! how do you edit something live and already uploaded.
easy, you edit it and then RE-UPLOAD it :)
We can do that yes but we lose all the views and comments. Most of our videos are edited and don't have any issues, sometimes the live ones encounter problems like this but that's part of the their live nature, and we like that : ) The content remains the same
Where can we buy that trance tune? Good video by the way.
Jay-Z has really changed over the last few years...
Thanks for the laugh
Great video, and of course the ending was hilarious. Like the ending of a "Police Squad" episode. (You can see Declan start to crack up just as the video ends.)
mmoncur The ultimate professional 😌
Have a tip about clipping volume.
Kick and bassline at -7db , all the rest at -19db :)
I frikin' love this french genius! So much great insight, perfectly explained - cannot thank you enough!
I know where my problem is on mixing my productions, I can mix everything to sound pretty professional with I'm working with short kicks aka hp filtering more everything but when it's time to add the low frequencies like at 150-0 It starts to get pretty muddy, any advice?
+Remakes It sounds like you've got too many things clashing in the same "frequency zone". Try not to have too many elements peaking around the same frequencies. Some overlapping is ok, but too much, especially in the low end, and your mix is gonna sound like MUDD! If it happens when you add something with peaks at 150Hz ish, then you must have something else going on in the same area thats "fighting" with whatever you just brought in. I usually low-cut almost everything based on where the "meat" of the bass rolls off. So if my bassline roll off at around 150Hz, then I'll low-cut almost everything else so it goes no lower than maybe 100Hz max. If the bass & kicks still don't sit right with eachother, try raising the low-cut on the kick a little. If theres no room for that, you could try sidechain compression on the bass, triggered by the kick (works well for long note, non stabby b-lines). Maybe you've got pads fighting with other mid-low freqs, eg the kick, which is a good time to use sidechain compression again IMO.
Hope this helps m8! BTW an EQ with a freq-analyzer (eg Pro-Q) is perfect for problems like this.
eq-comp-sidechain
Very informative. i was just browsing and came across your vid. i will be checking in frequently. Thank you!
Great information, as always expected from JC Concato! Thumbs up.
best episode yet !!! good job both of you guys !!!!!!
Live from East London? Is that in South Africa or the UK?
Good stuff. Take breaks, talk about philosophy, art. Make a good meaningful track.
+Justin Beck Glad you liked it!
my kinda dance music mon. Just wait.
Very helpful video, all makes perfect sense! thankyou guys for posting everything.much obliged.
Speaking of this "extended headroom" with 32bit floating point in Logic. He says its okay to go into the red with each track in the mixer, but not to go into the red with the master fader. In ableton, it says pretty much the same thing but if you clip ANY track fader, the master fader will also clip, so I don't understand. Is it clipping or isn't it!? For that reason I never go into the red. I just think its good practice, not to mention headroom is pretty useful IMO.
+ncshuriken you should be able to process the master fader track with comp/eq/limiter to keep it from redlining, even if the signals feeding it are peaking.
Floating point can go almost to infinity. All VST plugins work in floating point so basically all DAWs have this feature, not just Logic. Your single track is not really clipping YET, the DAW keeps your too-loud audio unchanged all the way to the final output. But at this very last step, if it's still too-loud, then REAL clipping happens as it sends the sound to the sound card or final WAV file, because those truly cannot take levels over 0dB.
Does anyone knows wich chords it's play at 0:00?
would love to see a FFL on cubase 8 pro
Im a metal musician and I got a lot out of this. Thank You for Posting
After looking past the quirkiness of this video, particularly with regard to audio sync, I will say that the content here is very interesting.
Great tip at 14:00.
amazing. And this applies to every kind of music.
Great tips that should be common sense, but easily forgotten deep in the mix! Thanks
Can anyone explain why when you pan equally left and right there then sounds like there is no width at all?
+Kevin Stoneham Mono can be defined by something that is equal in both speakers. If two sounds that are the same are panned hard-left and -right, you're left with an identical sound in both speakers - i.e. mono.
I´d thought he said "Today we have Jay-Z"... got kind of excited haha :)
lol
What frequencies would you recommend rolling off for the high and low end? I've heard people say 35 and lower isn't necessary but you only cut off 30 and lower. Any ideas for what's not going to be picked up by the human ear?
i remember them mentioning that those frequencies add up if you have a lot of tracks sharing them, so it does make a difference even at the extreme ends if you trim it down a little.
use a LOW pass to listen, a really sharp one like 120db. And pull it down until the musical stuff disappears, turning up the volume is likely just rumble. thats where you cut with a shallow HIgh pass, 12db or 6db slope usually.
Yeah good tips but say I have a bass that has been mixed for the drop and then has a solo bit. Would it be best to make a dry/wet type on and off for the mixing then? You would still want the bass to be there
+EFX If you've got 2 different basslines doing different things, just mix each one individually, otherwise the mix of one might interfere with the mix of the other. The way I'd do it is just by having them on seperate tracks to keep things seperate & simple. Then you could group the 2 tracks together and add some final tweaks if needed.
+ncshuriken And so on the solo bass would u keep it un-mixed or in other words as it is?
I'm not sure what your setup looks like, but if you have a bassline created by 1 VST synth (so the b-lines all on one track) but the bassline has 2 sections that sound really different to eachother (in terms of frequency & texture), then what I'd do is seperate both sections to their own tracks. That way you can mix them both independantly.
Say your "drop bass" has a lot of modulation & effects (so it has mids-hi's aswell as subs) but your "solo bass" is only clean subs or has mostly only subs. If you boost the mids on the "drop" bass to bring out the FX, you'll also be raising freq's in the clean bass which will cause problems later.
ncshuriken
Yeh k thnx
so whats a good monitor sub to compliment 6" studio monitors?
It is live!
Who is the fabulous engineer? Would love to know more about him. Great video all in all!
JC is a great person! Thank you guys for sharing all that useful informations!!
Fantastic sync.
you have a video about miking mistakes and the SOUND AND VIDEO AREN'T in sync. c'mon! this could be very useful.
this guy knows his shit. curious to see how automation ends up taking the most time in his mixes! i do automation in composition, but just a little during mixdown.
If you listen to this on headphones, sound goes and comes. I wonder if they ran it through a compressor at wrong settings...very annoying.
Seemed like really nice lads, cheers for the advice, definitely need to take breaks!
wowww im slow. i forgot we need to turn down the reference track when we use it while we mix because the reference is mastered -_- i was mixing while using a loud master track as a reference while soloing each instrument matching the master track, and in the end everything was just overlapped. Also i should have been referencing instead of COPYING the mastered track. Thanks for this video
This is a great one, thanks guys for all your work.
Whats the name of the first song at 2:20? Sounds cool.
grimlund sandstorm darude
EEEh. Thats NOT Darudes Sandstorm. If it is it´s a remix or something that doesn´t even is close to the original.
Of course it isn't, that's the troll answer.
You can be involved in mixing for YEARS and still make mistakes. You gotta be disciplined.
really beautiful...both guys are cool...very smart tutorials....all the best....really great video...rec engineer is very to the point,,,,thanks
Love the fundamentals, great video.
Do you always cut everything below 30 Hz on every track no matter what it is?
thomas kelleher yes because it really just fills up your headroom and cant be heard on most (or even all??) systems
Yes, even frequencies you can't hear affect the rest of the mix. Bottom end is more easily muddied. By doing this cut, you free up more space in the mix to let the true bass frequencies (the ones you want to have some emphasis on) shine through. Also, as the commenter above mentioned, it affects your overall levels.
I would love to hear the French dude do a cooking show, awesome voice, he would make the food sound good. Great vid, the end was funny lol
how can we send something to you if we want to?
What's the track playing at 21.56?
you didn't mention that if nalog eq brings harmonics it messes with phase also. digital eq doesn't. as you also tyalk about sound systems, the difference can be deadly fr a track if you bias your sound correctly wityh the right parameters you won't need so much eq
and the other thing is the use of notches between kick and bass(and comp). at least find your own technique to make em mix together perfectly, the hardest issue in dance/bass music
Wauw great tips! Can't wait when I have the money for the full cource
Regards, Dimitri van Wijck
Excellent. Very educational and presented well.
This guy is great, really enjoyed the video
Watching all of these now - really great vids guys thank you.
I was so confused. This is my first video and when you said Jesse (it was his name, right??) I heard Jay Z and was like wtf??? My bad
J-C ! He is french haha
BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY
great video, thanks
is this audio out of sync?
what spectrum analyser is this?
Whats the name of that trance song?