Your last mix is a huge step forward, gratulations. Still, it`s not as balanced as it could be, but I totally see you making progress.
As Mikej said it a couple of times in this thread: It`s way, way, way easier to start a mix with volume and panning ONLY and get a good static mix BEFORE making any corrections or other mix decisions. The reason why it's so simple and effective?
- Because you can FOCUS on the most important thing first: Finding the right initial volume and panning for EVERY track of a project. Depending on the source material your mix will already be at 80-90% of what it takes to get a great mix
- Because you will LISTEN to every track without any changes (eq, comp, fx, whatever) and get a feel of what material you have at your disposal
- Because a good static mix GREATLY REDUCES the steps you have to make to get an awesome mix in the end
- Because a good static mix REMOVES a lot of the guesswork in terms of EQ and Comp. Why you ask? Well, if the guitars sound AWESOME in your static mix, WHY should you use an EQ to remove or boost frequencies, almost certainly creating problems that lead to a plethora of additional steps to fix what wasn`t broken to begin with?
- You will learn to know WHEN a problematic track needs to be fixed. If you can't get a track to sit where you want it to sit in the mix with the volume and pan controls, you 100% know that this track needs more work. Therefore, you will FIX ONLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, removing a lot of unessesary and unproductive guesswork from your creative process.
- You will also learn to listen and make changes to each track by always listening to the whole mix. You don't need 10 years of experience to tell if a compressor does it's job if the only decision you have to make is if the track sounds better with or without it in the context of the whole mix. You could even mix with presets most of the time.
Everyone wants to use their shiny plugins right from the get-go because they paid a ton of money for them and/or someone on the internet told them to, but it`s actually ruining most of the mixes I heard on this forum. If you use eq and compression from the start without even taking the time to listen to each track, you have already added a ton of variables to the whole process. Why do you want to introduce dozens of variables to your decision process right at the very start if the simple question "Is this loud enough" for each track will give you 80% of the results needed to get a great mix?
So again: It`s way, way, way easier to only mix with volume and panning and get a good static mix first and then go from there. You only have to care about two parameters. That`s it. No worries, almost no guesswork what to do next, and most of the decisions you make at this point are fun. At which level do you want a solo to sit at? A bit louder than the rhythm guitars? Cool, just move the fader until it sounds good. Do you want the background vocals to be louder than the synths? Cool, again, just move the fader until it sounds good. Hihat too loud? Reduce the volume and pan it to the left or right, depending on the rest of the drumkit. Vocals sometimes too loud, sometimes to quiet? Okay, maybe it's time to use a compressor after you are done with the static mix.
These are all decisions a mixer has to make, and since I'm ignoring all other options for a static mix except volume and panning at this point, I can make very important, valuable decisions without self-doubt. There is no guesswork involved if the only option I have is to make something louder or quieter. It`s an easy decision, but it`s the most important decision for mixing. And it`s a something that doesn`t need 20 years of experience in mixing.
If a problem can`t be fixed with a simple volume raise, like my example with the vocal track, YOU KNOW that you probably have to use eq and/or compression to fix a track. The beauty of this process is that you only introduce ONE new parameter on ONE track into your decision-making process, which makes it much, much, much easier to decide whether or not the change you made with the EQ or compressor makes the TOTAL MIX sound better. If it doesn`t, you know that you have to spend more time on the track. If it does - great, move on.
I can`t stress the simplicity of this mixing process enough. It leads to better mixes, and it actually helps you to effectively use an EQ or Compressor and clearly hear the changes to the mix
As Mikej said it a couple of times in this thread: It`s way, way, way easier to start a mix with volume and panning ONLY and get a good static mix BEFORE making any corrections or other mix decisions. The reason why it's so simple and effective?
- Because you can FOCUS on the most important thing first: Finding the right initial volume and panning for EVERY track of a project. Depending on the source material your mix will already be at 80-90% of what it takes to get a great mix
- Because you will LISTEN to every track without any changes (eq, comp, fx, whatever) and get a feel of what material you have at your disposal
- Because a good static mix GREATLY REDUCES the steps you have to make to get an awesome mix in the end
- Because a good static mix REMOVES a lot of the guesswork in terms of EQ and Comp. Why you ask? Well, if the guitars sound AWESOME in your static mix, WHY should you use an EQ to remove or boost frequencies, almost certainly creating problems that lead to a plethora of additional steps to fix what wasn`t broken to begin with?
- You will learn to know WHEN a problematic track needs to be fixed. If you can't get a track to sit where you want it to sit in the mix with the volume and pan controls, you 100% know that this track needs more work. Therefore, you will FIX ONLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, removing a lot of unessesary and unproductive guesswork from your creative process.
- You will also learn to listen and make changes to each track by always listening to the whole mix. You don't need 10 years of experience to tell if a compressor does it's job if the only decision you have to make is if the track sounds better with or without it in the context of the whole mix. You could even mix with presets most of the time.
Everyone wants to use their shiny plugins right from the get-go because they paid a ton of money for them and/or someone on the internet told them to, but it`s actually ruining most of the mixes I heard on this forum. If you use eq and compression from the start without even taking the time to listen to each track, you have already added a ton of variables to the whole process. Why do you want to introduce dozens of variables to your decision process right at the very start if the simple question "Is this loud enough" for each track will give you 80% of the results needed to get a great mix?
So again: It`s way, way, way easier to only mix with volume and panning and get a good static mix first and then go from there. You only have to care about two parameters. That`s it. No worries, almost no guesswork what to do next, and most of the decisions you make at this point are fun. At which level do you want a solo to sit at? A bit louder than the rhythm guitars? Cool, just move the fader until it sounds good. Do you want the background vocals to be louder than the synths? Cool, again, just move the fader until it sounds good. Hihat too loud? Reduce the volume and pan it to the left or right, depending on the rest of the drumkit. Vocals sometimes too loud, sometimes to quiet? Okay, maybe it's time to use a compressor after you are done with the static mix.
These are all decisions a mixer has to make, and since I'm ignoring all other options for a static mix except volume and panning at this point, I can make very important, valuable decisions without self-doubt. There is no guesswork involved if the only option I have is to make something louder or quieter. It`s an easy decision, but it`s the most important decision for mixing. And it`s a something that doesn`t need 20 years of experience in mixing.
If a problem can`t be fixed with a simple volume raise, like my example with the vocal track, YOU KNOW that you probably have to use eq and/or compression to fix a track. The beauty of this process is that you only introduce ONE new parameter on ONE track into your decision-making process, which makes it much, much, much easier to decide whether or not the change you made with the EQ or compressor makes the TOTAL MIX sound better. If it doesn`t, you know that you have to spend more time on the track. If it does - great, move on.
I can`t stress the simplicity of this mixing process enough. It leads to better mixes, and it actually helps you to effectively use an EQ or Compressor and clearly hear the changes to the mix