Better Mixes (Write Up) : James Bates

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15th October 2014 James Bates

Productions and mix write up

In this write up, im going to explain some of the mixingprocesses I went through, and some of the problems i hadto overcome whilst mixing the live recording, and producingmy two midi productions.

The first thing I did to the live mix was go about clearlylabelling all of the elements of the mix. I have also got into

the habit of getting into a strict colour scheme which i abideby with all of my productions & mixes. This way i can easilylook at a logic session and instantly tell what is what,without having to scan through lots of tracks. This is howmy colour scheme usually goes:Drums; RedBass: yellowReal instruments (pianos guitars strings etc.): GreenSynths/ electronic instruments: Light greenEffects (white noise sweeps general sound effects): PinkLead vocals: Dark orangeBackground vocals: Lighter shade of orange.With regards to drums, I tend to have a lot of drum tracksso i like to arrange them the same way, so I know whereevery drum is quickly in the logic session:

It starts from top to bottom (if all these elements areincluded in the production):kicks808ssnaresclapssnaps

toms


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hatscymbals/ overheadsroom microphones

percussion loops (tambourines shakers etc). Or strangenon distinguishable drum sounds.

This way I know exactly what is on a specific track bylooking at where it is in comparison to the other tracks inthe logic session. I also colour code the mixer, as it alsoimproves workflow speed. The shortcut to open the colourpalate is alt-C.

This is what a typical colour coded logic session would looklike:

Now that everything has been colour coded correctly, I cannow navigate my way around logic much faster, so once allthe prep work like this has been completed, the overallmixing process will be a lot faster and smoother. Especiallyif theres a high track count.

The next thing ill do is assign everything to a bus.Busses can be fitted into your workflow in two ways;


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You can either send part of the audio to a bus such as areverb bus or a parallel compression bus. This can beachieved using the sends underneath the inserts on the

channel strip. This is a great way to work as it means youcan be very efficient when it comes to computer processing.For example; If you want to send all of the vocals to a reverb,instead of putting a reverb plugin on every single track, you canput 1 plugin on a bus and send all of the channels which needreverb to the reverb bus. This saves a lot of processing power.Its also handy for using parallel compression as you can havea parallel snare channel for example; You can send the snare

drum to a bus which you can heavily compress, and then blendthe dry snare in with the heavily compressed snare, to get apunchy in your face snare, without the noticeable artefacts ofthe heavy compression.

Another way to use busses is by actually sending tracks tothem. I usually use 4 main busses which all feed into mymaster fader. I have a drum bus, a bass bus, a music bus, and

a vocal bus. This means i can Eq and compress all the drumsas a whole, this not only saves time when getting a drum soundquickly, it also lets you glue the kit together with generalcompression over all of the microphones. You may have a greatsound from the individual microphones, but when you hearthem as a whole theres a bit too much low mid mud overall. Itsa lot easier to do a nice wide cut at around 400hz over thedrum bus, as a whole as opposed to EQing all of the individual

drum tracks. This same thing can be applied to all of thebusses. I Love to glue all of the music together with a nicesubtle compressor. This is what my busses tend to look like:


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This is a very simple starting point for how i set up the busses. Ihave basic eq and compressors on each bus, with acompressor on the master fader, none of the compressors onthe busses are working very hard, as most of the compressionhappens on the individual tracks. Theres simple subtractive Eqon all of the busses to correct any tame any peaks which areapparent when all the tracks are playing as a whole.

With regards to the master fader i mix through a compressor


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with a 2 -1 ratio and a very slow attack, which lets thetransients through, and a release which is in time with the track.This compressor really helps glue all of the busses together.

I do a little bit of mastering EQ on the master fader once ivecompleted the mix process, this is usually very subtle though. Ialso apply a limiter to the mix after its been mixed. Thisreduces the dynamic range of the mix, and clamps down onany transients which cross the threshold, therefore allowing theoverall of the volume of the mix to be more competitivecompared to professional releases. When working with busses,less is always more and i dont like to do too much of work onbusses, as you shouldnt have to if the individual tracks havebeen mixed well.

I see the busses as a way of sweetening the mix with subtle eqand compression moves to really make the track come to life!

Once ive sorted out which busses the tracks are being sent to,I like to get an overall static mix (a mix without automation). Alarge percentage of work on a mix is simply getting the volumeof everything correct and balanced. Once everything isbalanced the track sounds a lot better!

Due to the rules of this piece of coursework, we are forbiddenfrom using any form of volume automation, so I had to think ofa way around this. instead of using conventional automation, Iused the change gain feature which is built into logic. Thechange gain feature is handy as it enables you to turn aspecific piece of audio up or down. It also does this before anyeq and compression. For example: If theres a vocal and thecompressor is working fine for the most part, but then theres abig peak in the waveform. The compressor will clamp down onthis peak causing the compression to be clearly heard and notat all transparent. With the change gain feature, I can turndown these peaks before they reach the compressor, stoppingthe compressor from reacting this way, and turning down the


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track. Change gain is just as effective as automation and iveused it throughout the live mix in order to turn tracks up ordown in places without having to use automation.

Heres how the change gain feature works:First, you need to separate the audio region in which you wantto adjust the gain. You can do this by cutting it with the scissorstool (Esc - 5) or by highlighting it with the marquee tool (whichis set by default as the Cmd key.)

Once the regions which you wish to change the gain of havebeen separated from the rest of the audio file. You need toselect it, then head to the top of the inspector bar, and click inthe blank box next to the word gain:


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You can then type in how many decibels you wish to turn up ordown the vocal by. This is a way in which i overcome theproblem of being forbidden to use automation. Another more

tedious way in which to overcome this issue is by havingmultiple tracks for parts which you wish to turn down with adifferent volume. This is quite a confusing process visually andis also quite taxing on your computers processor power tounnecessarily have a few tracks for one track, each withplugins on.

Once Ive got an overall balance of all the tracks which im

happy with. Ill take a good listen to the mix and listen foranything sonically which i dont like. I dont usually do anythingby default mixing wise as everything has to be approacheddifferently. No two snare drums sound the same, or no twovocals sound the same. everything has to be eqd differently,!However, one thing i tend to do on every mix is to high passfilter everything.Most instruments in a mix have no useful information in them

below around 100hz or so. I solo each track and high pass filter


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to the point where the sound starts to become thin in thebottom end, I then back it off slightly. The only two tracks whichim more careful with high pass filtering are the bass and thekick drum. I usually high pass the kick up to around 40hz, asbelow that is just useless rumble, same with the bass. This iswhat a typical high pass filter looks like for most of my tracks.(Which arent the bass and the kick):

High pass filtering everything cleans up the mix dramatically.Once everything is free of the useless mud which it doesntneed in a mix theres more space in the bottom end for thebass guitar and the kick to live, as they are the only twoinstruments which live that low in the mix. This means youvenow only got two sounds competing for space in the low end asopposed to the entire mix! The bass and the kick can haveindividual spots in the low end to live however. I usually like to

find a spot in the kick at around 60-100hz to let it poke through,


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and a spot at around 120hz in the bass to let it live. This waythese two arent fighting for space.High pass filtering also gives more headroom in the mix, youmay look at a meter and see that theres a larger than life peakin the kick, this may be because theres a sub frequency whichthe speakers cant produce which is clipping the meter. Thiscan be rectified by high passing the kick, it also means thatwhen its played through a big system there wont be loads ofextreme low end shaking the floor too much, its be tighter andmore controlled.

High pass filtering is one rule of thumb I usually do in everymix. Another thing I find myself doing on most mixes is dealingwith the low mid mud. I hate generalising when it comes tomixing as you cant decide how your going to EQ somethinguntil youve heard it. But generally theres always too muchmud in the low mids! What i tend to do is boost the eq and scanaround the low midrange to hunt this boxy muddy frequency,youll know when youve found it, as itll sound awful. I thenbring this frequency back a few decibels. It really helps make atrack shine! People may hear a vocal and think that it needsmore high end, when in fact thats far from the case Thesound may simply have way too much low mid boxy /muddiness which is masking all of the high end and low end!So when you cut that the highs and lows then come throughmore. With mixing its generally best to find the frequencieswhich you dont like and cut them. As opposed to boosting thefrequencies which you do like. Heres what a typical vocal EQlooks like:


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With this vocal theres only a subtle boost in the high end abovethe sibilance region to get some more air into the vocals. Thelow mid can be split into two areas: (around 180- 300hz, ) Thisis the boomy region which tends to sound really tacky if therestoo much of it. Then theres the muddy boxy region which livessomewhere between 300 and 600hz: It just needs to be foundand usually cut. With cheaper microphones theres a tendencyfor vocals to be harsh in the upper midrange (between 2 and3k)I tend to cut here with an EQ too. This is the area which isextremely harsh and takes your head off if played loud. Thisfrequency range cant be cut too much from a vocal as its alsothe area where the life of a vocal lives and is the exact spotwhere a vocal cuts through the mix most, it usually needstaming as most times! id happily prefer a less upfront vocal asopposed to a vocal which makes you deaf when played loud.As with all things mixing, all vocals need treating differently sothese guidelines are quite general. I then like to boost the veryhigh end, depending on if the vocal needs some more air, thisregion lives above the sibilance region (around 8khz), it canreally bring a vocal to life! This is exactly what I did on the mix


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of the live recording.

The last example was suited to vocals, but I go about EQing allthe elements of a mix are in need of EQ. After everything isEQd and sonically everything has a space in the frequencyspectrum to live. I start with the 2nd most important tool ofmixing; compression.

Compression is usually harder to comprehend than Eq and itsusually harder to hear. Compression is basically automaticvolume control, you set a threshold and as soon as the signalpasses that threshold its turned down, depending on howaggressive the ratio of the compressor is. (a compressor with a20;1 ratio or higher is seen as a limiter) I use compression onvocals in order to reduce the dynamic range of the vocal andget it to the front of the mix.

A singer will vary in volume dramatically, they also may get tooclose or too far from the mic in certain places varying thevolume even more. A simple compressor can keep this in checkby reducing the difference in volume between the loudestpeaks and the quietest sections therefore allowing you to sit thevocal in the mix easier, as nothing will get lost as much or jumpout too much. This means theres less need to automate thevolume as most of the volume control will be dealt with by thecompressor.

With vocals I like to have around a 3:1 ratio, as i dont want thecompression to be too aggressive as the vocal is the main partin the mix. I dont want all of the life sucked out of the vocal withan extremely high ratio. I Like to keep the front end of the signalwhen i compress (the transient) as without them music loosesits punch and attack. So i like to use compressors with a slowattack in order to let the peak through. This means that thecompressor starts turning down after the peak. This keeps thelife by keeping that peak but compresses the rest of the sound.for vocals this is the best way to go as it sounds most natural


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and keeps the vocals from sounding too lifeless whilstcontrolling the dynamics. I dont like to compress vocals toomuch, maybe about 6 decibels of compression at most.

I always apply make up gain after the compression, so i cancompare with and without the compressor without hearingdrastic volume differences. Once the compression has beenapplied youll notice that the vocals will sit a lot better in the mixwith minimal volume automation. This is the compressionsetting i used for the live recording vocal:

Once Ive Eqd and compressed the elements of the mix whichrequire it, the mix is almost there. It just needs some

sweetening in the way of reverbs and delays.

I like to send everything on a bus to a main global reverb, this isusually a small reverb. I then blend this bus in and it glues themix together and gives it a vibe. When mixing reverbs its easyto over do it, but when balancing it in i think to myself: Can ihear it? if the answer is simply, yes then the reverb is tooloud. If its no then its not loud enough. But if you have to

listen and then you can just make out the reverb then itsaround the right volume. Effects like reverb can easily be


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overdone! For the reverb on the live recording I used the plugingold verb its a great sounding reverb. i used quite a smallroom. Heres the reverb which I used for that mix:

After the reverb I used an EQ to filter out the high and lowfrequencies from the reverb so it was less obtrusive andobvious.

After id completed all of these processes, I had a good listenover to everything, made a few subtle compression and eqtweaks here and there, and eventually I was happy with thefinished product. Bare in mind it was a very poor qualityrecording from at a most a poor band.I am however happy with the mix sonically.

This write up goes over some of the problems and processeswhich i had to go through whilst mixing the live recording.

By James Bates Wednesday 15th October 2014


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Better Mixes (Write Up) : James Bates