How do you mix Andy?

[jeronimo]

Do you mix all inside the box? You do use your outboard right?
Do you use unity gain on your faders or do you try to keep your levels down (I allways keep my 0 at -8dbfs)?
Do you try to get the "almos done" tone to "tape" or do you track everything flat and uncompressed and do it all during mix?
Thanks!

 

[Fyhed]

Placing your faders at unity gain will achieve nothing if the recording was especially loud or quiet,there is no fixed placement for the faders.. I just try to keep the level at the stereo buss as near to +4 dBu.

 

[jeronimo]

I didn't mean to say that I'll leave the faders at unity... I try to "imagine" the unity gain at -8dbfs under the "real" unity so I won't overload the stereo bus, by the way, I'm mixing into pro tools, so there is no +4dbu it depends on my calibration... but thanks

 

[Andy Sneap]

Most of the time I mix solely within Pro Tools now. I have a Dangerous 2 buss that I use if I need to get anything in and out. I don't tend to eq much going in, just good mic placement, tuning etc, bit of compression maybe

 

[jeronimo]

Oww... I heard very good stuff about the D2B... I'm thinking about getting the LT version...

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

I'm building my own passive summing 8 channel mixer for raw sounding stuff. I will use a Amek 9098 mic pre for gain make up and mix to a Studer deck. Very agressive sounding.

 

[jeronimo]

So much did you spend on the summing box Kevin? Isn't the 9098 mono?

 

[Andy Sneap]

I like the D2B, I don't use it all the time as I'm jumping from session to session and it's easier to keep everything within the box so to speak. I do use the dithered mixer in PT's though.

 

[jeronimo]

So, you mix THRU the D2B? You get it's stereo bus and send it back to PT/deck/whatever or you BTD?

 

[Andy Sneap]

I BTD, I've had no problems with this, some people say they've heard differences, I haven't, works fine for me

 

[jeronimo]

So... you never tried sending direct outs from PT to do the "summing" on the D2B and then either go back to PT w/ a stereo file or mix to another "deck" (read masterlink, 1/2" or 1/4")???
I did a test myself w/ my old Tascam 2524 sending 4 stereo stems from PT into the mixer and I could hear a difference in the stereo image... I've heard that mixing thru the D2B could make a huge difference...
But you know... I like your mixes anyways... inside the box or not

 

[Andy Sneap]

yeah done all that, I always felt I could hear a difference, especially with things in the centre of the stereo field, there is a difference when you do like you said, record through both and then flip phase, but I've also done blind tests and can't hear the difference. I've also found things sound clearer when I play a mixed file back in waveburner pro, but maybe I'm trippin out, it's like the definition on the kick and snare re appear, wierd.

 

[jeronimo]

Andy, what's the thing on fliping the phase on the files??? I didn't get it...
I bet you're not tripping about the waveburner thing... some people say, all DAW are the same, my guess is this is BS... every DAW should crounch the numbers differently... I guess...

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

I didn't end up building the passive mixer yet, but it will cost only about $50-$60 US with nice Neutrik inputs and a not-so-bad panel. My interface with multi outs died, so I am mixing all within Nuendo now. The 9098 I have is the DMA, which is two channel, no EQ.

I have been reading a lot about internal vs external summing, and I pretty much have come up with the same conclusion as Andy. I like it more for some stuff, but not for everything. And it has to do more with the way you mix, I'm guessing not the sound, since the blind tests fool our ears. And the thing aobut flipping phase. Its making two passes at the song, one digital, one analog, lining them up in a DAW, flipping the phase on one and seeing if they cancel each other perfectly. I hear a difference in things I do in Nuendo vs other software, but they all cancel in scientific tests. Shoo. The guy I did an internship with did a test on ProTools vs SSL, and he ended up liking his ProTools mixes more. I liked the SSL mix. Of note, he did it at Eminem's studio, which is very amazing.