The Black Crown - Flames

[mikej]

Hi,

Likely not that interesting and nothing revolutionary to most on here really I suppose. I guess no harm in typing it out though. I think I've probably typed this out before, but here goes, in some random fashion...

I took the time to read through your many comments and also your mix notes which has helped me a huge amount. Wish I'd actually read them properly before I attempted those mixes....

I realise that I need to spend a *lot* more time getting a good balance, before reaching for eq's and things. With a good initial balance I find smaller eq moves are more noticeable and have a bigger effect, and doesn't screw up the sound so much. I think I was using big eq moves for balance when I should really have been moving the fader and using smaller eq moves...

I think I was also using compression in a similar way, to force things up in the mix, when I really needed to revisit the balance first.

It is perfectly ok to leave things unprocessed if they work in the mix. This strangely seems to require more confidence than overprocessing things. I did a mix where the vocals (at least) turned out ok.. All I put on the vocal was a very little highshelf eq and a touch of reverb. No compression, or anything else. Sounds daft, but was a bit of a learning moment there.

I find that certain plugins, for me, can really cause problems, such as multiband limiters. Also plugins like waves doubler can cause phase type issues if overused, or used on too many elements in a mix. Neat for certain things, but can equally cause issues and for things to sound a bit off.

So I have picked out a clean basic eq, colored eq, compressor, reverb and limiter that I feel doesn't mess up the sound so much or have a negative effect.

It's important to take a break, especially when things aren't working, as it's fairly easy to mess things up with over compressing and over limiting the final mix (as I did the other day....), or to add too much bass, or too much midrange, etc... I realise If I've been working on something for a bit I might not actually be able to hear obvious issues (like how much my mixes suck), unless I leave it for a few days or so.

It's worth spending time with the example mixes, and other references to get a better sense of the artists direction and tone for the mix.

Mixing rock & metal is really hard. There are few elements, so have to get them all really spot on.

So thats some of my thoughts, but putting it all into practice is a whole other thing. I'm certainly doing well learning what NOT to do again I suppose .

Take care,

Cheers!