BIG DILEMMAS, QUADRILEMMAS: MIXING QUESTIONS HELP NEEDED!

K

Koshpa

Member
Mar 29, 2008
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Hi! After a while I'm posting here again. Since our debut album is almost recorded I'm preparing myself for the mixing part of production, and I'm hoping for some help of my fellow forummates:headbang:

In the first part of this post I'll try to describe on how we recorded every instrument and what equipment was used.

RECORDING EQUIPMENT:
PC with 2xTerratec EWS88MT soundcards+24 channel Studiomaster mixing desk.
All tracks recorded at 44,1 kHz 24-bit

DRUM Recording:
Drums: Sonor 1007, Kick 22", Toms 10, 12, 14", Snare 14" with original drumheads :puke:
Cymbals: Ride & hihat - Planet Z, Crash Cymbals - Paiste 101 and 201 :ill:
mics:

KICK: Shure SM58 some 2.5" (6cm) from the beater and DAP audio kick mic DM-20 ( DM-20 ) some 12" (30cm) from the beater.

SNARE: 2x Shure SM57, top and bottom
TOMS: 3x DAP Audio DM-25 ( DM-25 )
OVERHEADS: DAP CM-10 Condenser mic ( CM-10

HIHAT & RIDE: DAP PL-07 ( PL-07 )

Pictures of drum setup:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Koshpa83/IMG_9035.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Koshpa83/IMG_9041.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Koshpa83/IMG_9156.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Koshpa83/IMG_9158.jpg
RAW Audio recording of the drums:
http://www.box.net/shared/6wxpww6w4o

GUITAR RECORDING:
We use standard C tuning and 0.56-0.12 strings

Peavey 6505+Peavey slanted box with Sheffield 12" speakers
Gibson Les Paul Custom with EMG 81 pickup
2x Shure SM57 (one almost at the center of the speaker and one between center and edge of the speaker) both almost touching the speaker grill
We overdubbed the rhythm guitars with first take using our normal rehearsal sound with gain at 1 o'clock (6 on the amp with high gain setting) and through Sheffield speaker
Second take was with less gain 12 o'clock (5 on the amp with normal gain setting) through Celestion G12-T75 speaker
So there are 8 different rhythm tracks (4 on each side L/R)

BASS GUITAR:
Schecter Scorpio Diamons Series with EMG Pickups and Elixir strings
Hartke HA5500 500w bass amp + Ashdown ABM 410T Cabinet
2x SM 57 on different position on the speaker
1x Hartke amp recording out
1x Behringer reamp box

4 different bass tracks

VOCALS:
Shure SM58 (without the grill) and SHURE SM 57, both through pop filter.

2 different tracks


We're targeting Black Dahlia's MIASMA sound or something similar

NOW HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS:

DRUMS:
1. What plugins should I use? I presume, compressor, EQ and reverb. But what specific plugin and settings should I use? Waves or something similar? Should I add some reverb on the toms, snare and kick? What kind of reverb? Plate, hall...
2. Would you recommend parallel compression or triggering? We also recorded clean samples of our drukmit. Should I trigger with 1 sample that has contstant velocity and then blend it to the original track? Or use dynamic samples (.gog files)?
3. Regarding OH's? How much should I low cut if I only want cymbals in my OH's? Since the cymbals are poor how can I improve their sound?
What about OH compression? What kind of panorama should I set up? hard L/R maybe?

GUITARS:

The center mic signals are more bright and ones on the outer edge are more muddy. Should I use compression (or even multiband compression) on those muddier tracks for more definition? I don't know if that's prefferable since there is a lot of distortion
What kind of EQ setting should I use?
What panorama settings should I use on specific rhythm channel since there are 4 rhythm tracks per channel?


BASS GUITAR:
There are 4 different bass tracks. Should I use compression on all of the them? Bass is played with fingers not with a pick.
Should I add some kind of distortion on some/all of them? What kind of distortion and on what channel(s)?
What do you think on AMPEG SVX plugin?

VOCALS:
What kind of compression settings should I use? What EQ settings are good in overall for SM58/57? What type of reverb should I use and what settings are prefferable?
Should I use distortion on one or both channels since vocals are just growls and screams?

What about backing vocals? Should I use panorama on them?


ANY KIND OF HELP would be great. I'll keep you updated. :kickass:
THANX in advance
 
 
Dude, without trying to sound like a dick ...

if you don't even understand the basics of how a mix is performed maybe you should just hire someone to do it for you, someone who knows what they're doing and also that you can sit in and watch them work. You're basically asking for people to explain the entire mixing process. I wouldn't advise trying to mix your own cd if you don't even know if you should compress something (or how) or if drums should have verb, how to EQ everything, etc ....

Pay a professional to do it, hang out at their studio while they do it and take lots of notes. Then start practicing on some bullshit demo tunes you have lying around.
 
Skinny Viking said:
Dude, without trying to sound like a dick ...

if you don't even understand the basics of how a mix is performed maybe you should just hire someone to do it for you, someone who knows what they're doing and also that you can sit in and watch them work. You're basically asking for people to explain the entire mixing process. I wouldn't advise trying to mix your own cd if you don't even know if you should compress something (or how) or if drums should have verb, how to EQ everything, etc ....

Pay a professional to do it, hang out at their studio while they do it and take lots of notes. Then start practicing on some bullshit demo tunes you have lying around.
Click to expand...

word. I`ll mix it for you :heh:
 
Koshpa said:
DRUMS:
1. What plugins should I use? I presume, compressor, EQ and reverb. But what specific plugin and settings should I use? Waves or something similar? Should I add some reverb on the toms, snare and kick? What kind of reverb? Plate, hall...
2. Would you recommend parallel compression or triggering? We also recorded clean samples of our drukmit. Should I trigger with 1 sample that has contstant velocity and then blend it to the original track? Or use dynamic samples (.gog files)?
3. Regarding OH's? How much should I low cut if I only want cymbals in my OH's? Since the cymbals are poor how can I improve their sound?
What about OH compression? What kind of panorama should I set up? hard L/R maybe?

GUITARS:

The center mic signals are more bright and ones on the outer edge are more muddy. Should I use compression (or even multiband compression) on those muddier tracks for more definition? I don't know if that's prefferable since there is a lot of distortion
What kind of EQ setting should I use?
What panorama settings should I use on specific rhythm channel since there are 4 rhythm tracks per channel?


BASS GUITAR:
There are 4 different bass tracks. Should I use compression on all of the them? Bass is played with fingers not with a pick.
Should I add some kind of distortion on some/all of them? What kind of distortion and on what channel(s)?
What do you think on AMPEG SVX plugin?

VOCALS:
What kind of compression settings should I use? What EQ settings are good in overall for SM58/57? What type of reverb should I use and what settings are prefferable?
Should I use distortion on one or both channels since vocals are just growls and screams?

What about backing vocals? Should I use panorama on them?


ANY KIND OF HELP would be great. I'll keep you updated. :kickass:
THANX in advance
Click to expand...

1) drum plugins... you'll need compression, eq and reverb. I tend to compress everything. Play with setting and see my description of how to compress drums in the thread near this one posted by ADRSean.

I'll eq when needed. I add reverb to snare and toms, never to kick and rarely to overheads.

2) I would recomend triggering the kick drum with one static sample using apptrigga or drumagog. I also like parralel compression although I don't use it that often. try it and see.

3) I usually cut the overheads off at about 500 hz, but I'll go all the way up to 700 or higher sometimes. Play with the eq on crappy cymbals, but there isn't much you can do.

4) Guitars.... high and low pass at 80 hz and about 16khz, eq where needed. Multiband compression is nice. Pan them either 4 on each side, 100 percent, or 2 channels 100 percent and 2 80 percent on each side.

5) bass... listen to all the tracks... is there something you like about certain ones? combine them by eqing out the bits you like on one and don't like on the other, ie you like the high end on one but it has mushy bass, pull out all the bass and find one with bass you like, then pull out the highs on that so the nice highs from the other one can take their place.

6) Vocals... I like delay rather than reverb on vocals, personal preference thing. I also like the sm57 with a popshield better on vocals than the sm58 with its head basket on.

Hope that was of some use :)

Joe
 
Yeah man, I hate to sound like a dick also. I myself am doing my first huge production right now, but that wasn't until I studied shit so well I had a bais understanding of each thing you said. I posted about getting a bit of help with drums, but with all your questions it seems like you are WAY in over your head.

I'll mix it if you like for cheap btw. :)
 
ADRSean said:
Yeah man, I hate to sound like a dick also. I myself am doing my first huge production right now, but that wasn't until I studied shit so well I had a bais understanding of each thing you said. I posted about getting a bit of help with drums, but with all your questions it seems like you are WAY in over your head.

I'll mix it if you like for cheap btw. :)
Click to expand...

But not as cheap as I'll do it for ;)

BIDDING WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!:heh:
 
haha. You prob got more experiance then me so take it. I'm in a tight Michigan economy, i'll do it for 100 bucks flat whole album ha
 
Yeah, it's pretty hard to help you in such a situation, because you are basically wanting magic settings that work with everytime etc. I am sorry, but it takes a lot of time and practice to learn all of these things.

There's a lot of good info right on this very forum, have a read at those and learn how to apply that information to your situation.

Just keep trying!
 
Guys there are few demos behind me, but it was a while since I've done some mixing, and my old computer went blank so all of my presets are missing. That's somehow frustrating so I thought you'll post some answers to get me started more easily. Oh well...
 
Well the questions you are asking are pretty much case to case basis. For instance, using things like EQ'ing, compression, reverb is great on some albums, wrong on others. I am sure you'll need a compression plug sometime, but to tell you how to do it, is impossible without hearing it up till that point. If you get what I mean.
 
Yes the Kit was brand new at time of recording, and yes you're right it would be best to change the drummer, if we had someone new :ill:
 
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Koshpa83/IMG_9158.jpg

The monitors are too close to the wall. Try keeping them at least 7 feet away. Basically, make sure there's a fair amount of distance from anything for the sake of preventing comb filtering. The screen and the desk seems to be a problem, unless it's parallax error that I'm facing right now. And yes, they should be placed 30 degrees inwards. like this: \ \ / /
 
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