a/b your mix with a song help!!

[broken81]

OK now i have read on here you really want a l2 and whatever on your master fader to bring your mix up to levels and what not.

Now how do i go about a/b my mix to song I'm using to compare if i have all these plug ins on my master fader??

do i have to go through and bypass all the plug ins each time i wanna reference??

:Smug: :Smug: :Smug:

Also i seem to really be struggling with the fact of my mixes seem to be distorting when I'm using l2 but my mixes are not even that loud when compared to others??

None of the tracks clip either or even near it....
But when there is 20 tracks going it seems to really push the master fader and i have to pull all the individual faders way way way down to make the master not clip??

 

[broken81]

i say bypass plugins cause if i solo the refrance track it pumps the track through master fader with plugins making it just sound horible!!

 

[s34nsm411]

im not sure about the other stuff, but your mix isnt as loud as others even though it looks just as compressed because the response probably isnt very flat. if you look at the eq response of a pro mix it usually has a hump in the low end and sort of slants slightly downward from there, your mix probably has some spikes that are preventing the rest of the mix from getting loud

eg: white noise at 0db will sound a lot louder than a 500hz sine wave at 0db even though both will look just as compressed/at the same levels in a wave editor

 

[broken81]

well to your response then what do i do to correct this??

 

[s34nsm411]

its all about mixing and takes years of experience to really get right

but anyway try to make your instruments all fall in their own sonic region of the spectrum so that all the sounds are spread out and not cluttered together over the same frequencies. also eq your end mix to make it fit a better response curve before it hits the final limiter

 

[broken81]

ok i get somewhat, Like take bass guitar and cut at 80hz and then on drums boost at 80hz and maybe cut 60 hz on drums and boost 60hz on bass but were do all the rest fall in and any pointers on maybe making guitar fit and vocals and what not???

 

[broken81]

im was talking about kick drum in post above not all drums

 

[AStacy2]

I don't know what program you are mixing in but just make a stereo bus called "Master" and route that to your output. Put a L2 on that stereo bus and route all the bus' you use in tracking to that one instead. Then import the .wav you want to A/B your mix with and route that to your output too and you should be cool, right??


If it distorts when you are using a L2 there could be a lot of things wrong. First of all, don't push your mix that hard. If it's still not as loud as other mixes then try to use some compresssion before the L2 to sort this out.


s34nsm411 had an awesome point when he mentioned that you might have a spike in another region that is inhibiting your mix from being loud. Throw a Waves PAZ Analyzer on the mix and see where the problem is or load the .wav up in Wavelab and look at the spectrum meter and find out where the spike is located and try to track down where it's coming from.

 

[Amadeus79]

broken81

If you tell us what software you use, it will be a lot easier for people to help you.

 

[broken81]

protools

sorry about that

 

[broken81]

:Smug: