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Now that you've spent hours and days and weeks and months
recording your musical masterpieces (and you've also read my article
"Tips for a Great Recording Session"), you have arrived at my favorite
time in the studio The Mixdown.
But don't think your job is
done yet! The mixdown is just as important as recording. As an artist,
you have to approach the mixdown from an artist's point of view and
stay on the ‘creative' side of the fence where it's still possible to
shape and mold your songs throughout the mixdown process.
Remember the old "Yin-Yang" principle which states, "whenever you turn
something up, something else disappears. Furthermore whenever you turn
something down, something else gets louder". This applies to EQ, levels
and almost anywhere you have two or more tracks.
The Beginning Of The End
STOP!! Don't even think about starting your mixdown on the same day
you finish tracking. Take a day off, have a break and then come back
refreshed with a new perspective.
Now back to business...
First of all, let's "zero the board". This is simply the action of
bringing all the faders to the bottom (-∞) and centering all the pan
knobs and effects sends.
I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "but our mix sounded good when we were tracking!".
OK, but did the mix actually sound good or were you just accustomed to
hearing it that way? That's why zero-ing the board is important. It
flushes your memory and allows you to start from scratch. It might even
be better to mix a song that you finished recording a while back.
1. Get Kicked.
This
is where I prefer to start. Other people like to start with the vocals
and build around them. But I'm more rhythm based and prefer to start
with the kick drum.
One tricky part of any mix is getting a good
gain-stage structure where you don't clip the master faders at the end
of your mixing session when all your instrument faders are raised. We
must be careful to keep watching the master bus clipping lights to make
sure they never get into the red. Here is why the kick is a good place
to start.
Play your songs and watch the master bus VU meters. This
is probably the only time you will "mix with your eyes". As you're
watching the master VU meter, slowly raise the kick fader until the
master meter reads about -7dB. If you are a four piece band, then you
can leave the kick there and move on. But if you have a really dense
tune, then you may have to lower the kick to -8dB or so (to leave room
for all the other instruments as they come up).
Now you are set to
mix. The kick should be the only channel that you set levels by
watching. Every other channel mixed into the song will be with your
ears relative to the kick.
2. Moving On
From
now on, it's pretty much a free-for-all. Some people like to move on to
the bass next, in order to find the balance for the low-end of the
song. Other people like to keep working on the drum kit "as a whole"
before moving to other instruments. I prefer to move onto the drum kit
over-head mics.
They say that a great drum kit sound can be
captured using only two over-head mics, and a kick mic. And it's true.
Some of my tunes only use three mics on the final mixed versions, even
though we had used up to ten mics for the recording of the kit.
If
you placed your over-head mics properly (i.e.: so the snare sounds
centered in the stereo image, and not skewed to the left or right
speaker) then you will have a better stereo image of the drum kit when
the mix is finished. Otherwise you might have to do some fancy panning
or EQ to get a balanced image with the drum kit.
You can now bring
in the rest of the kit underneath the over heads to fill out the sound.
I prefer to leave EQ and effects to the very end of the mix, after all
of the instruments are playing. Try to place your toms in the same
panning position as the overhead mics recorded them. If your floor tom
in the overheads is to the right at 3 o'clock then pan your individual
floor tom fader to the same position.
And don't forget to check your phase between your mics pointing down and your mics pointing up.
3. Big Bottom
Now
I like to add in the bass. Nothing too important here if you have good
source audio. I'm also a huge side-chaining fan. I LOVE to side-chain
the bass with the kick so the low end frequencies wouldn't fight for
space in the mix. It just makes things sound "tighter". Sometimes you
may have to eq the lowest of the lows out of the kick in order to make
a little more room for the bass to sit in the mix.
4. Pads and More
Here
is where I add the "pad" type of sounds. These are sounds that usually
have longer sustains and hold the chords of the song. Sounds like
strings, sustained electric guitar chords, synth pads, and maybe even
some rhythm acoustic guitars are great foundation instruments.
I
like to lay these instruments on top of the drums and bass tracks we
have already mixed. You can get very creative with the panning of these
sounds and create a wide stereo field. This will help make your mix
interesting by allowing your lead instruments and vocals sit in the
center of your stereo image, attracting attention to themselves.
5. The Vox
Let's
finally add the vocals. I usually start off with the lead vocal, and
then place all the harmony and background vocals underneath the lead.
Sometimes, you can end up putting the vocal a little too high in the
mix, and a great way to check this is to turn your monitors way down
and listen to the mix at an almost inaudible level. This way of
listening to your mix will surprise you, but you have to be confident
and trust your ears. If something sounds disproportionately loud at
this quiet level, then it is too loud. If you must, then you can
compress the vocals too, but that really depends on the song's style.
Maybe a few fader rides are a better choice then some static
compression.
6. The Rest
You can start
adding effects and other fancy shmancy things to your tune. Get funky
with automating some pan knobs, fade-in some pads etc.. Here is a good
time to get creative.
It's also a very good time to actively listen
and re-adjust your mix. Is the kick too loud? Should I put some higher
frequencies on the bass? Should I compress the backing vocals more? Is
the coffee finally ready?
When you feel you have a good mix, burn
it to CD and listen to it EVERYWHERE! In the car, in the bath, at home,
on the TV set, at your friend's place etc., and make a lot of notes.
And at the end, if all your notes cancel out, then you are finished!
©2005 Richard Dolmat (Digital Sound Magic)
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About The Author
Richard Dolmat is owner, engineer and producer for the Vancouver based recording studio Digital Sound Magic. Visit his site at: http://www.digitalsoundmagic.com
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