The Science Of Art: Another Six Quick Mix Tips

To business:

  1. If you need more than 3-4dB of gain reduction on your master bus limiter to get up to a decent rough mix/mastering level, you’ve probably fucked up the balance of your mix (oops). Even if you're mastering 'for real though', the limiter shouldn't really need more than this even if you're trying to break people's ears - mastering compressors/saturation should take a lot of this load.
  2. Don’t be scared to automate up certain tracks (drum bus, bass, guitars etc) a dB or two on the chorus. Sounds like a lot of work? That's because you're lazy and useless and a bad person. Hell, you can even just do it on the master, a db or so, if you want. I mean, after all, you've gain staged everything so well, you have enough headroom to do that, yeah?
  3. If you want heavily compressed vox and a loud mix you’re probably going to need a hell of a lot of de-essing. That’s OK. Check my previous mix tip on how to do that properly here.
  4. Turn off your monitor occasionally when listening to the mix. If you have a control surface that lets you tweak levels etc while the screen is off, even better. Close your eyes at the very least.
  5. Don't worry about only putting reverb on sends. Insert it, insert it good, if that’s what sounds best.
  6. Feel free to cut the breath sounds and de-ess more on backing vox. I generally never remove breath sounds on lead vox, although but it’s OK to turn them down if they distract from the song/lyric - but backing vox breaths can make things sound messy. Often the backing vox will sound a bit too 'over done' in terms of de-essing when heard in isolation (but they'll never be heard like that so....) - or I might even cut the sibilant part out completely if it hits at exactly the same time as the lead vox. Don't worry about what it looks like, whatever sounds best, yeah?
  7. Bonus Tip: Get out the studio/garage/bedroom for a bit before the muse leaves you because you’re a lonely super nerd with no friends. I have no experience of this, but I know some guys who tell me it's a valid point.

With love,

Ed 🎚🎛❤️

The Science Of Art: Six More Mix Tips

Six more. Anything you want me to expand on, let me know, I'll do a post about it:

  1. Throw a limiter after an EQ if you’re doing a big boost to keep your levels from going crazy. Just make sure the limiter’s threshold is set correctly so that it’s actually doing something. I like to do this with the PSP VintageWarmer - it's a very coloured limiter and it's very easy to overcook it. But like, just don't do that, you know? With the VW, I simply adjust the 'ceiling' knob and leave everything at default. Just see if you like it when a limiter is 'soaking up' the boost you just did with the EQ, and keeping the levels under control.
  2. Write down the specific areas to correct before revisiting a mix to do revisions - whether they're your own mix notes or a client's. Correct them, bounce the mix, send it to the client, and move on - otherwise you’ll be tweaking forever. If you need to do more, repeat the process, like a robot. Don't get caught in a loop. If the mix realy sucks, do it again.
  3. 'Mix references' are *usually* bollocks. It’s a different song by different people (that's also been mastered), so don’t get caught up trying to copy stuff. Chances are it'll just confuse you and it’s better to just really know your monitoring environment. Use them sparingly; for mastering, they can help you match a healthy overall loudness level, and if you go to a new studio (whether that's Abbey Road or your mate's garage), then a familiar song can help you understand the monitoring environment. But that's about it.
  4. Limit your options. Have a few go-to staple plugins that you trust and know backwards. Too many options will just eat productivity. I mainly use plugins from PSP, SSL, Slate and a few of the stock Logic effects (love the Channel EQ). I'll have 2-4 different options for each effect type - EQ, reverb, compressors, etc. With my go-to options, I can probably sort 90% of mixes, regardless of the genre. As you gain more experience, you might try out a new plugin and if you like it, you can add it to your staple plugin list - perhaps discarding one of the older ones. The same goes with (software) instruments, really. Scientists have concluded that you can be stuck dicking around with NI Komplete for up to 45 years.
  5. Gain stage everything correctly. Plugins or outboard, doesn’t matter. Make sure the level going in and out of each plugin is under control. This is huge. Just do it.
  6. Don’t be scared to chain a couple of compressors on the same channel. Two plugins doing 3dB of compression is probably going to sound more transparent (if that's what you're after) than one doing 6dB. I'll often use a bunch. Same goes for limiting. Mix the colours. Don't tell anyone.
  7. Bonus Tip: It takes fucking ages to learn how to mix/be a "Mix Engineer", before you really know your arse from your elbow. This is time you will need to take away from some other activity: writing songs, rehearsing, practicing, playing/organising shows, doing band admin/social media stuff, spending time with loved ones (jk) - and if you don't have much of a life, you could be off pretending that you have one on social media. DO YOU REALLY WANNA DO THAT THO. Do you want to make that 'sacrifice' and is this the best use of your time - or is it just ego so that you can say that 'you did it'? Budget comes into it too, of course, but if you're going to spend your money somewhere, you'd be MUCH better offer getting someone that knows what they're doing to mix your tracks, and then mastering them yourself. If they mix them properly, you'll likely only need to slap a limiter on them to get the level up. Don't believe the mastering hype. It's not black magic.

That's all. Party on 🤘🏻🤘🏼🤘🏾🤘🏿

Ed 🎚🎛❤️

The Science Of Art: Six Quick Mix Tips

Boom, no time to mess around, here we go: 

  1. Songs with ‘fat bass’ often actually have way more mid range than bass. If it sounds big and ‘buzzy’, it’s all about the mid-range. It's all about the mid-range in general - bass and treble are for kids.
  2. High pass filter everything that doesn’t need to have any lows in it. Just do it. I bet it sounds better.
  3. Don’t forget to low pass tracks to cut off unneeded top end sizzle. Cutting top end off (drum) room mics is often pretty sexy.
  4. Turn everything down. In the digital world, red is (almost always) just bad. Make sure all of your tracks are recorded @ 24-bit and with a ton of headroom. All channels shouldn’t be clipping when faders are at 0, especially the master fader. Get your tracks PEAKING at -6 to -8dBFS and everything will sound grand.
  5. Work hard to learn to interpret what people REALLY mean. Sometimes ‘this needs more bass’ actually means ‘there’s too much treble’. ‘Turn down the harsh top end’ can mean the 3-4KHz area, not 10KHz+
  6. Chorus (the effect) isn’t just for Spandau Ballet lovers (like me). Use them with a low LFO rate to get super wide stereo sounds. I recommend Soundtoys' Little MicroShift, an Eventide H3000, a Yamaha SPX90, or simply the stock Logic chorus plugin (Super Wide preset). I'm sure whatever you have in your DAW will work fine. Mono -> Stereo, slow LFO speed, bosh, sorted.

There. Enjoy.

Ed 🎚 🎛  ❤️

The Science Of Art: Tip #0003 - Narrow EQ Cuts Will Save Your Life & Make You Rich

Tip 3.) Cut down on nasty/harsh ringing in the 3-4KHz area - it can/will make your tracks sound sharp and amateurish. Learn to work with an EQ band set to a super narrow Q (Q = EQ bandwidth) to hulk smash horrible frequencies; it works great on drums (video ex.1: drum room mics), guitars (video ex: 2) and especially lead vocals (video ex. 3).

Obviously you could automate on/off on certain sections, or adjust the gain/amount of cut on certain sections (e.g. the singer sounds fine until they start belting it out). The EQ curve might ‘look wrong’ but it often sounds fantastic, especially if you have a frequency hunter EQ like PSP Neon (used in the below example) or FabFilter’s Pro-Q; experiment with Linear Phase EQs, too. I’ll dip out 20dB on a lead vocal, no problem - I'm fearless, like a tiger. Try it. Don’t be scared homie. 🎚 🎛 ❤️