10-07-2014, 11:51 PM
By a lump, I mean a little short term buildup where too many instruments are occupying the same frequency... very small balance problems that occur here and there. Some multi-tracks have real challenges with lumps and this is definitely one of them.
most mix engineers I've met suggest getting the tracks balanced the best you can before you reference unless you get stuck on something really tricky, like an unfamiliar instrument, or a lead vocal that "just doesn't sound right." my personal approach after the normal tedious track cleanup and multing is to attack the mix with all the faders on, tweaking until I get something vaguely musical and looking for tracks where I can't get a static fader setting... then I delete all of the effects, pull all the faders down and get the best balance I can. And then I reference and find out I did the whole thing all wrong and start over again. And again. and again... and again...
most mix engineers I've met suggest getting the tracks balanced the best you can before you reference unless you get stuck on something really tricky, like an unfamiliar instrument, or a lead vocal that "just doesn't sound right." my personal approach after the normal tedious track cleanup and multing is to attack the mix with all the faders on, tweaking until I get something vaguely musical and looking for tracks where I can't get a static fader setting... then I delete all of the effects, pull all the faders down and get the best balance I can. And then I reference and find out I did the whole thing all wrong and start over again. And again. and again... and again...
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!