Synthetics and balance

[Redoubt9000]

Hey everyone, a bit new to the forum and although I had a different user I decided to just use the one I typically release covers under

This is a fairly vague question, and it may more or less relate to the more newbie category but I'll give it a shot. I seem to have alot of difficulty getting items within a mix to really take on that controlled and well sculpted character that alot of you guys are able to produce. I hope to not go on a tangent asking for a "do-stuff" button that I can press whenever I'm looking to do an awesome mix, but I am hoping to hear about a few of your experiences.

SHORT AND SWEET
I would like to hear more about your own breakthroughs that you've had that got you to the point you're at today and of the dilemmas you're beginning to find yourself in now...
Or if you prefer, just small tips and tricks you would like to share with everyone - this isn't meant to be an end all type of discussion Even smaller revelations help!

Further rant below >_>

Another item I'd like to ask, is what is your mentality when you approach the beginning stages of tracking everything, and getting into the dirty details of the mixing process? I like to use references but I try to take them with a grain of salt, as I end up driving myself crazy trying to tackle a production by emulating another's work when I am not even capable of the same performances, much less having in my possession the same equipment. I guess I can dream


Reading through the forum and becoming an avid fan of some of the guides here - and not to belittle what the users have provided on the forum - I sometimes must remind myself that they simply are what they are, guides. Alot of the informative works from Ermz, Ola, and others I've appreciated from both this forum and others, and also taking a listen to alot of the mixed works of everyone when it comes to individual and mixed elements have brought perspective to mind more than just on occasion. But because I understand that achieving said synthetics isn't as simple as using a filter on an eq, or whether or not I should move on from ITB to more analogue gear, I'm beginning to RUN OUT of questions to ask myself which is beginning to bring on that all too familiar gut feeling of dread when it comes to my focus on audio.


I've always been one to obsessively second guess myself around every corner (Which I guess we all do, the work involved sorta beckons for that)
If it wasn't me hitting a wall by not getting the "punch" or "heavy" from my guitar and simply blaming it on "My guitar isn't a high dollar piece of equipment" so why should I expect a million dollar sound?
I ended up improving by understanding of the fact that the foundation of my mixes were sub-par at best, so why am I expecting a guitar to do the job of another (drum/bass) in the first place? Or when I invested in my first pair of monitors, and one day simply referenced on a pair of clip-on headphones, realizing just how harsh my mixes compare - it ended up changing my perceptions of what I really wanted to hear. It certainly is a progressive experience.

Thanks for reading! I hope to become a more active member within the community

 

[outbreak525]

Bumpin it.

 

[Tommy Evans]

What I've learned (and keep re-learning) is that less is more. Ive found that my mixes used to be too "sterile" and lifeless because I micromanaged every sound and tone. Basically I sucked the juice and personality out of all my mixes because of my microscopic mixing techniques. So less really is more.

Another thing, take breaks while mixing. There is nothing better for your mix than for you to walk away from it every couple of hours.

And if you're tracking AND mixing, do them separately. Days seperately.

 

[Redoubt9000]

Bumpin it.

And it's much appreciated

And if you're tracking AND mixing, do them separately. Days seperately.

Something that I've never seriously considered in the past, more often than not I find myself simply recording a quick few riffs and simplistic basslines as best as I can so that I can immediately get to practicing on the mix.

I often feel that because of my source sound, I'm often compelled to further process my instruments to the point they sound pretty gimped. I can't seem to capture any real scope or space within the entire mix so it ends up sounding pretty funneled. I think my other big obstacle is in trying to gain that very controlled, yet uninhibited "power" amongst all pieces. And understanding what eventually contributes to this...

With this mix for example...



Throughout the mix I felt like I could get away with the sound - avoiding the conventional ideas as far as tone/mix/general sound, simply cause it was from a game ost (Despite the originals having a very live, raw sound to them - it simply has a very digi tone to it and I didn't feel like it detracted from the song in the end) The point I mean to make is I didn't feel held back from any preconception of how the mix should ultimately sound, or deadset on how I wanted it to sound. I simply wanted to it sound GOOD.

I remember in attempting to mix the drums I eventually gave up on the project and depended on a preset from SD2. Despite it being a preset and not necessarily mixed for my situation in particular it still worked out well. I immediately afterwards began trying to study the steps taken within the preset (Something I tend to do with presets...) and attempted to mix similar results outside the plug and instead within the DAW. Not that I came very close, but I did end up making progress along the way I felt, at least reinforcing some principles here and there.

However I've one example of my "overprocessing" (and quickly putting together a track so that I can begin mixing...) in that as a result my mix comes out with a pretty straightfoward lifeless sound to it (The mix in my sig ). Something I still need to work on Listening to a few live demonstrations and video of In-the-DAW realtime tracking of mic'd up amps have sorta given me a bit of perspective on the sim vs mic scenario... Simply their tone is just much more lively, unfortunately like some others I've not the space or privacy to mic a real amp. And having heard very awesome mixes with the use of modellers/sims I end up plugging away at the idea I can coax a worthy mix with the tools - I'm unfortunately overlooking key things involved with sonic quality it seems - which again leads me to my next biggest fear that it's simply my instrument's quality (More or less playing on my first guitar, whose only upgrade were pickups a year or so ago along with a complete rewiring of the guts, something in which I had fun doing

Thankfully there are you guys that have put up your DI's and they sorta dashed that notion out, not that the takes weren't stellar in their own right, but I was making just as bad a mix with them as I was had I performed on my guitar >_> In otherwords I seem to be the bad guy causing the majority of the mayhem in the DAW My original suspicion and back to square one, not that everything else doesn't contribute in its own special way - for good or worse...



I'm gonna stop typing for now... otherwise I'll continue on this rant further, my pops is flying back in country and I need to greet em with a chest full of iced beer! and I'm already running late as it is...

 

[jman1986]

What I've learned (and keep re-learning) is that less is more. Ive found that my mixes used to be too "sterile" and lifeless because I micromanaged every sound and tone. Basically I sucked the juice and personality out of all my mixes because of my microscopic mixing techniques. So less really is more.

Another thing, take breaks while mixing. There is nothing better for your mix than for you to walk away from it every couple of hours.

And if you're tracking AND mixing, do them separately. Days seperately.

I agree with you 100% man, I've had mixes that sounded like real garbage in the past. Now i track a song. Then work on other stuff for a few days-week, then i go back to it and i have a better understanding to where i need to go with the mix from that point.

 

[Redoubt9000]

Something I did want to ask the community - when you first began and sorta had a few years under your belt... (although some of you probably predate any of the guides I've run across (or written a few of them yourself)... No disrespect greys are sexy, no homo)

Did any of you find yourself compulsively mixing to a fraction - for example exact values on your eq, compression - or in ITB setups in general. Instead of just freeballing the free willy way?
This is the one thing I feared about reading through several guides, although this affected my workflow long before I ever delved deeply into any recommendable reads. It may seem stupid to some scanning over this, it was only recently that I've bothered to absolutely avoid scrutiny of what I run my processing at* rather than with*. My mixes typically always ended up deballed/gimped as a result. Simply letting things hang and not paying such close attention to how pinpointed my settings were brought new life to the work I was doing. Not grade-A stuff, but it was a step towards a "better (not right...) but def better direction.

Running settings in fives or quarter fractions or whole values XD It's a ridiculous point to be made, but it is something I believe people have tried to tell me in the past to avoid doing. It just never occurred how close to home such advise was. I think I spent more time getting pristine looking settings than actual mixing to improve a sound, even tho I may have fooled myself into thinking I was working towards that end.

 

[kool98769]

I still don't know shit....
but the one thing i've learned, and made use of most recently....


TURN DOWN YOUR MONITORS.

I was mixing at too loud of volumes, and failed to realize I had some serious problems with my low end.
Mix to the point where you want to turn it up. Like, the whole time i'm mixing now, i'm literally begging myself to turn it up the whole time.
I resist the urge, but it turns out so much better when you just turn it down.