13-01-2014, 01:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 13-01-2014, 01:36 AM by Pedaling Prince.)
I am self-taught both in video/film editing and audio engineering, having been experimenting with audio and video since my teen years back in the 1980s.
My guiding principle in mixing I call the "principle of least treatment."
Having heard the crystal clean sound of CDs from the earliest days of consumer digital sound in the 80s, comparing it to the overprocessed, overcompressed mess many commercial mixes are today, I have come to believe that current mixing techniques rely too heavily on processing, particularly in the use/abuse of compression in mastering.
In general, I go as gently as possible on all processing, using only the minimum EQ, automation and compression necessary to get everything to blend smoothly, and under no circumstances do I EVER apply processing or compression of ANY kind at the mastering stage; my goal is to preserve 100% of the dynamics of the original recording.
I joined this forum in order to get all of YOUR thoughts on what I've done with these multitracks. Criticism is welcome so long as its polite and constructive.
Most of the time I stick with the sounds and instruments provided by these tracks without adding, removing or editing anything, the idea being to try to preserve the original intent of the artist. However, in this case I decided to make one major change. There was one synth track here that was obviously meant to be evocative of ocean waves; I decided to see what would happen if I dropped that track and used REAL ocean waves in its place (I tend to prefer real sounds over synthesized ones). I wasn't sure what to expect, but I felt it came out better than I was hoping...
Any thoughts on that?
My guiding principle in mixing I call the "principle of least treatment."
Having heard the crystal clean sound of CDs from the earliest days of consumer digital sound in the 80s, comparing it to the overprocessed, overcompressed mess many commercial mixes are today, I have come to believe that current mixing techniques rely too heavily on processing, particularly in the use/abuse of compression in mastering.
In general, I go as gently as possible on all processing, using only the minimum EQ, automation and compression necessary to get everything to blend smoothly, and under no circumstances do I EVER apply processing or compression of ANY kind at the mastering stage; my goal is to preserve 100% of the dynamics of the original recording.
I joined this forum in order to get all of YOUR thoughts on what I've done with these multitracks. Criticism is welcome so long as its polite and constructive.
Most of the time I stick with the sounds and instruments provided by these tracks without adding, removing or editing anything, the idea being to try to preserve the original intent of the artist. However, in this case I decided to make one major change. There was one synth track here that was obviously meant to be evocative of ocean waves; I decided to see what would happen if I dropped that track and used REAL ocean waves in its place (I tend to prefer real sounds over synthesized ones). I wasn't sure what to expect, but I felt it came out better than I was hoping...
Any thoughts on that?