MIXING

[Safa]

hello fellas, i need some tips on mixing my tracks, what effects to use, tutorials and everything else you guys can help me out...thnks

[Psychocell]

hello fellas, i need some tips on mixing my tracks, what effects to use, tutorials and everything else you guys can help me out...thnks

503118[/snapback]

 

I guess mixing and building your own song is entirely up to the individual.

Thats why every song is different

If you asking what are the normal procedures/tasks in building a psytrance track, just listen a song that you like and work with that.

[alleycat]

delay reverb timestretch pitchshift quantize compress expand limit filter chorus flanger phaser lofi distort shape EQ spatialize pan volume width master-EQ more filter more delay more filter more reverb more compress

 

In other words GO CRAZY, wait til the dust clears, then sort out the bodies...

[Otto Matta]

I don't know, there's more to it than that. Yeah, the mix is really an individual taste sort of thing, but there are some basics. These can be found in lots of places, so do a google search, perhaps for your particular software, or for pro mixing forums in general.

 

Here are a few things that have helped me a great deal:

 

1. Bass drum and bassline, as well as drums in general, should be more mono, whereas higher parts like melodies should be more in stereo.

 

2. Bass drums and basslines conflict with each other in a mix, so attach an equalizer to each and make sure they're operating on different frequencies.

 

3. Bass elements are traditionally in the center of the stereo field, but in order to not overwhelm the middle, split your bass elements into two channels then pan them right and left respectively. This will give the illusion of middle.

 

4. Compression helps a lot, with everything. But not too much or you lose sound quality.

 

5. Stereo imaging is also helpful. Remember: Bass and drums = mono, treble = stereo.

 

It's all really about knowing a few of the basic rules and then practicing like hell. You'll eventually find a sound you like.

 

See above this topic for one or two good links to procuction sites. Good luck.

[Colin OOOD]

3. Bass elements are traditionally in the center of the stereo field, but in order to not overwhelm the middle, split your bass elements into two channels then pan them right and left respectively. This will give the illusion of middle.

506896[/snapback]

See, I've never been able to figure out what people mean by this or why they do it. Mathematically each speaker will receive an identical signal from a mono sound whether it's presented to the mix buss as a single mono track or as two identical mono tracks (each the same as the single mono track) panned hard left and right. The only difference I can see is that playing back two mono tracks takes twice the disk/processor bandwidth as playing back one.

 

No-one's ever told me that my bass/kick combo overwhelms the middle of the track... maybe they were just being polite though?

[Xochi]

There is one awsome trick todo, when you start getting good at it... and it is a double drop

 

(Basically a double drop is when you’ve got your two cuts lined up so well that both of them drop at exactly the same time. Essentially it means loads of impact, and I mean loads. When it’s done properly you’ve got two basslines and melodies rolling at exactly the same time.

 

very hard todo in psy-trance, D&B is the area is it mostly used...

 

but I am working on psy-trance stuff at the moment, with the full-on stuff

[Otto Matta]

See, I've never been able to figure out what people mean by this or why they do it.  Mathematically each speaker will receive an identical signal from a mono sound whether it's presented to the mix buss as a single mono track or as two identical mono tracks (each the same as the single mono track) panned hard left and right.  The only difference I can see is that playing back two mono tracks takes twice the disk/processor bandwidth as playing back one.

 

No-one's ever told me that my bass/kick combo overwhelms the middle of the track... maybe they were just being polite though?

507110[/snapback]

It works for me, but maybe it's just wishful thinking; ceremony, as it were. I would certainly trust your opinion over mine, though, regarding production. I'm relatively new to all this myself.

[McKoy]

It works for me, but maybe it's just wishful thinking; ceremony, as it were. I would certainly trust your opinion over mine, though, regarding production. I'm relatively new to all this myself.

507454[/snapback]

I think it's an interesting thing to do only if the sound panned on the left is slighty different from the one panned on the right : it can give a nice "stereo feeling" to your bass but as you said in your first advice bassline should be in mono ..... wich I disagree with as you could guess.

[Otto Matta]

I think it's an interesting thing to do only if the sound panned on the left is slighty different from the one panned on the right : it can give a nice "stereo feeling" to your bass but as you said in your first advice bassline should be in mono   ..... wich I disagree with as you could guess.

507568[/snapback]

Now I'm curious...If I split two a mono channel into two mono channels panned to the left and right, this doesn't make it a stereo track, does it? And if I apply mono to the bass overall using a stereo imager, doesn't that make them still mono? Now I'm confused.

[Colin OOOD]

Now I'm curious...If I split two a mono channel into two mono channels panned to the left and right, this doesn't make it a stereo track, does it?

It makes it a stereo track carrying a mono signal, therefore functionally identical to a mono track.

 

And if I apply mono to the bass overall using a stereo imager, doesn't that make them still mono? Now I'm confused.

507575[/snapback]

If you use a stereo imager to narrow the width to zero then yes, whatever you put through it will come out in mono.

 

In general, what we think of as 'mono' is really pseudo-mono, as the sound is still coming out of both speakers, creating a 'phantom' mono image between them. The stability of this mono image is very much dependant on various factors such as speaker placement and room acoustics. For true mono you need to be listening to only one speaker, which is where eg. Waves S1 and other stereo imagers come in handy as you can narrow the stereo width to zero and rotate it so that it only comes out of one speaker. This is useful as a temporary mixing or mastering aid, to ensure that one's mix or master is mono-compatible and to provide a more accurate indication of the frequency balance within the track. I'm not sure whether Reason offers the same facility - maybe in the new v3 plugins?

[jivamukti]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Jan02/arti...ticalmixing.asp

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun99/articles/mixcomp.htm

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct00/articles/stereomix.htm

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_artic...ingyourmix.html

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_artic...goodmixing.html

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun01/arti...dancemixing.asp

 

http://www.waves.com/content.asp?id=226

 

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/bmix/bmix.asp

 

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/eq/1.asp

 

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/dynamics/1.asp

 

and the rest relevant articles in Computermusic.co.uk's tutorials section:

 

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/features.asp

 

Those should get you started. There are other websites with mixing info too.

[Stalker]

I think it's an interesting thing to do only if the sound panned on the left is slighty different from the one panned on the right : it can give a nice "stereo feeling" to your bass but as you said in your first advice bassline should be in mono   ..... wich I disagree with as you could guess.

507568[/snapback]

 

Hey Mckoy, i noticed you got a thing for Stereo sounds

 

The bass and Kick should be always on Mono for better sound response only, its not about quality

 

Mono and Stereo has the same quality, so basically there is no diference in quality terms to put the Kick and bass on mono, the diference is that the audience/listeners will have the same response of both no matter where they are placed

[McKoy]

Hey Mckoy, i noticed you got a thing for Stereo sounds

511383[/snapback]

And I noticed you got a thing for mono sounds. Mono is history!!!!!

Welcome in the 21st century Stalker !!!!

 

The bass and Kick should be always on Mono for better sound response only, its not about quality

Mono and Stereo has the same quality, so basically there is no diference in quality terms to put the Kick and bass on mono....

511383[/snapback]

I didn't talk about kick, but only about the bassline. And I didn't talk about "quality" either. So what do you mean exactly?

 

.... the diference is that the audience/listeners will have the same response of both no matter where they are placed

511383[/snapback]

I honestly have no knowledge about that matter. But if that's true (and I guess it is), then you probably have the same problem with higher frequency.

And when a musician is in a studio composing a song that is going to be printed on a CD, I think he will care more about the guy who will listen to his album at home with his headphones than the guy who will hear the music in a club or in outdoors party, don't you think?

 

Anyway, I found just for you 2 exemples that proves that a bass not only CAN be in stereo, but also can bring much more life to your track if used wisely.

First part of each sample is the same as the 2nd part but recorded in mono: sample 1 & sample 2

Now hear the difference

[katapult]

Let me add a little bit of history regarding mono bass tracks. Back in the day, the popular medium for music was records. 45s to be specific. As you know, in order to get the music on a record, grooves are cut into the vinyl. The more musical information contained in a song, the deeper and wider the groove needs to be. When a kick or bass track is in stereo, there is a lot more information, in the form of sound waves, that need to be transferred onto the vinyl. If there is too much information, either the cutter will go deep enough to where the information will actually "leak" through to the other side of the record or, when you are playing the record, the needle will simply jump out of the groove.

 

12" (33s) records were created to accomodate for more bass intensive songs. The 12" allows for wider grooves to be played at a slower rpm thus reducing leakage and skipping. To further aliviate the issues, mixing engineers put the low end sounds to mono channels.

 

Now, the questions to ask yourself when you are mixing a track are:

 

1. What medium are you going to release your music on?

If you are going wax, I would highly recommend you sticking with mono channels.

If you are going CD, it isn't as important. Just get it to sound good.

 

2. What listening environment do you think the majority of your listeners to be in when listening to your music?

If you are just burning CDRs for your friends to listen to at home, stereo is just fine.

But if you think your track will be played on large sound systems, stick to mono for the low end tracks as the wave reflections of a bass stereo track in an enclosed area will greatly distort the sound.

 

Katapult