What are some things I can do to open up a mix and make each instrument identifiable? My mixes sound very congested and like a blob of noise.
Instrument seperation and opening up a mix
- Thread starter Cacoph0ny
- Start date
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
Dom Ostarig
Member
- Dec 17, 2007
- 249
- 0
- 16
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
Dom Ostarig
Member
- Dec 17, 2007
- 249
- 0
- 16
Oh sorry....you're right.... i was referring to "My mixes sound very congested and like a blob of noise" << i wanted mean that's probably because there are louder signals.
RiF
Member
Cut (EQ) everything that does not need to be there. Do this excessively! Make a plan of things you want to hear in each frequency range. Like kick and bass, then guitars, leave room for some vocals in the midrange, then guitar sizzle, keyboards, cymbals and don't forget the snare. Cut everything away that does not belong the planned frequency range, use steep filters CUT DEEP and do not dip a little bit. This needs some practice, but if you do it right you will notice a huge improvement of your bass and low midrange clarity. As a side effect, your mix will get louder and tighter which leaves room for some serious master bus compression and limiting to compress the hell out of your mix, as everybody does nowadays...
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
1. parallel compression to the drums and guitars (IF they are dual tracked, and not quad tracked).
2. Use a limiter with 1db 'max' gain reduction on the guitars.
3. high-pass EVERYTHING to taste. and while mastering, hi-pass at 40hz.
Cheers!
2. Use a limiter with 1db 'max' gain reduction on the guitars.
3. high-pass EVERYTHING to taste. and while mastering, hi-pass at 40hz.
Cheers!
C_F_H_13
Protools Guru
+1 to everything that's been written.
I'd like to add that you can do alot in the tracking phase to help with clarity. Whenever you get a sound up, check it against what's already tracked. Sometimes the most insane guitar tone will actually sound like shit cause it's rubbing against a ton of stuff in the drums, or vice versa.
The big things I've found in my own stuff, is that I constantly have guitars that just eat my snare up. What I've been doing lately is taking my quad tracks and panning them all mono. Then I drop em till I can hear the snare pretty well. Grab an EQ on each channel and start cutting all over the place till I get the snap to pop out a bit more without raising the volume. ONce I think I got something useful, I pan the guitars back out, and everything seems to fit so much better.
I do the same thing with Bass against kicks/toms, Vox and guitars....
I'd like to add that you can do alot in the tracking phase to help with clarity. Whenever you get a sound up, check it against what's already tracked. Sometimes the most insane guitar tone will actually sound like shit cause it's rubbing against a ton of stuff in the drums, or vice versa.
The big things I've found in my own stuff, is that I constantly have guitars that just eat my snare up. What I've been doing lately is taking my quad tracks and panning them all mono. Then I drop em till I can hear the snare pretty well. Grab an EQ on each channel and start cutting all over the place till I get the snap to pop out a bit more without raising the volume. ONce I think I got something useful, I pan the guitars back out, and everything seems to fit so much better.
I do the same thing with Bass against kicks/toms, Vox and guitars....
use subtractive EQ as much as possible. If you feel you need a brighter snare track, you might find yourself getting better results by cutting the low mid area. I find cutting around the low mids sounds the same as boosting the high mids..but your also making room for other instruments also. It really goes a long way.