04-06-2017, 03:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-06-2017, 03:21 AM by molonlabe23.)
cronoise, your limiter is hitting to hard. I know all to well its hard to match volume from a professional master but one thing that can help you get a little more volume without distortion is to do some gain staging and set everything up at -18dbfs. With your faders at unity gain. The lower you have to drop your faders to compensate for volume the more resolution you lose on the fader. A great plugin for this is HoRnet, which will do automatic gain staging for you. At $5.00 it's a real bargain.
Another thing that will help is to get rid of low and high frequency build up on tracks that don't need it. I'm not someone who high passes everything because others do it it, listen to each track and use a EQ with a analyzer and decide whether or not it actually adds to something to song or takes away from it by making a cut. EQ decisions should be made with your ears and not because some well known producers says he makes X or Y cuts a certain instrument. Getting rid of frequency build up will give you more headroom to work with.
One thing you might want to try to help with the verb sound others have commented on is to put a EQ before it with a high pass up to 350 or 400HZ and low pass about 6k and a small dip around 2k. This will tighten up the verb and it won't be washing around those low and high frequencies causing mudd and smearing.
Lastly try using more automation to help the tracks breath. I have a friend who is a multi platinum and diamond engineer and you would be amazed if you saw his plugin chain, there are not a lot. Only if something has uneven levels will he use a compressor or if there was some masking or a uneven frequency would he use eq and he mixes entirely in the box. What you will see in his mixes is all his faders making hundreds of movements up and down breathing life in the mix. I used to hate doing automation (still do actually), it's so stinking tedious, but he helped me overcome that laziness. My teacher David Franz at Berklee school of Music also pushed me with this.
I will share something with you that John shared with me when I asked him for some advice on a article I was writing towards beginner mixers (I'm not insinuating you are beginner mixer, it good advice for all of us no matter what level):
"You might suggest that beginning mixers start with just the faders and pans and make the tracks work the best they can with no processing at all: once they’ve exhausted those options, then reach for plugins. They should also use the right plugin for the job: if something is too loud, use a gain stage; if something is unbalanced spectrally, use an EQ; and only if a source’s levels are uneven over time should they apply dynamics processing"
Granted he mixed Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees, but that advice can still apply to any genre.
I hope I have given you some useful feedback. I'm far from the engineer I want to be and David once told us in class that the best way to learn is to teach someone else. So take the things that you are solid with, even if you are not a master at it. If you grasp the fundamentals of a certain area take that knowledge and share it with someone else like I am doing with you and try to critique in a positive way that helps others grow and it will help you grow as well by teaching yourself to be a critical listener.
Cheers,
Another thing that will help is to get rid of low and high frequency build up on tracks that don't need it. I'm not someone who high passes everything because others do it it, listen to each track and use a EQ with a analyzer and decide whether or not it actually adds to something to song or takes away from it by making a cut. EQ decisions should be made with your ears and not because some well known producers says he makes X or Y cuts a certain instrument. Getting rid of frequency build up will give you more headroom to work with.
One thing you might want to try to help with the verb sound others have commented on is to put a EQ before it with a high pass up to 350 or 400HZ and low pass about 6k and a small dip around 2k. This will tighten up the verb and it won't be washing around those low and high frequencies causing mudd and smearing.
Lastly try using more automation to help the tracks breath. I have a friend who is a multi platinum and diamond engineer and you would be amazed if you saw his plugin chain, there are not a lot. Only if something has uneven levels will he use a compressor or if there was some masking or a uneven frequency would he use eq and he mixes entirely in the box. What you will see in his mixes is all his faders making hundreds of movements up and down breathing life in the mix. I used to hate doing automation (still do actually), it's so stinking tedious, but he helped me overcome that laziness. My teacher David Franz at Berklee school of Music also pushed me with this.
I will share something with you that John shared with me when I asked him for some advice on a article I was writing towards beginner mixers (I'm not insinuating you are beginner mixer, it good advice for all of us no matter what level):
"You might suggest that beginning mixers start with just the faders and pans and make the tracks work the best they can with no processing at all: once they’ve exhausted those options, then reach for plugins. They should also use the right plugin for the job: if something is too loud, use a gain stage; if something is unbalanced spectrally, use an EQ; and only if a source’s levels are uneven over time should they apply dynamics processing"
Granted he mixed Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees, but that advice can still apply to any genre.
I hope I have given you some useful feedback. I'm far from the engineer I want to be and David once told us in class that the best way to learn is to teach someone else. So take the things that you are solid with, even if you are not a master at it. If you grasp the fundamentals of a certain area take that knowledge and share it with someone else like I am doing with you and try to critique in a positive way that helps others grow and it will help you grow as well by teaching yourself to be a critical listener.
Cheers,