Category: Mixing

Links and information about home studio mixing

Video – Gain Staging

Proper gain staging, as shown in the video below, has probably made the biggest improvement to the quality of my mixing since I first started. My early mixes (none of which exist anymore) tended to be muddy and I always struggled to make each instrument heard because I kept running out of volume. Once I started following the steps (and the video) below, I started treating mixing as a completely separate step to be started after all composing was complete. Based off what I learned from the video, and my own trial and error, my process is as follows:

  • While composing, I go ahead and adjust volume faders as needed and get a rough mix just so that I can get an idea of how the instruments will blend. I will be resetting all these volume settings later, but I still need a rough mix as I work.
  • Once all the music is done, gain staging begins
  • Set all volume faders to 0db so that they are neither adding nor cutting any volume.
  • Add an EQ to each track
  • Use the EQ to cut unneeded low frequencies from non bass instruments. I have a blog posts about this that might help: Video – High Pass Filter
  • Use EQ to cut unneeded high frequencies from non treble instruments.
  • Sometimes it helps to remove about 3db at 400Hz from all instruments since this is an area where many instruments contribute sound and it can all add up to a muddy sound.
  • Adjust the EQ volume of each track (or a trim volume can be used) so that each track peaks at about -12db (I like to use the free plugin Volume Monitor – rmsPlus for measuring this)
  • Apply whatever compression / effects are needed to make the track sound good
  • Reduce all faders to “off” (their lowest setting) and begin mixing in each track one at a time (parent faders can be used) so that it sounds good in the mix along with everything else. Opinions vary, but I like to start with the featured instrument (perhaps piano) or the most important part like vocals and set it’s volume first. Then all other volumes are set relative to that so that the featured instrument or vocal, remains the loudest part of the mix. If I want this part to be louder, I don’t turn it up, I turn everything else down.
  • After setting the volume faders one at a time for each instrument, this should ideally result in a mix with nothing peaking above -6db.
  • Now with 6db or so of space, a compressor and limiter can be added to the master bus to adjust the final volume of the song, with all tracks playing so that the loudest volume will peak just below 0db. This step is only done if there won’t be a separate mastering step. If later mastering the song, don’t add the compressor or limiter to the song, let the mastering engineer do that.

Here’s a video by Home Tracks that demonstrates the process.

https://youtu.be/qqaR0ZouZqc

Gain Staging Critical Step In Mixing And Mastering – Home Tracks

Interactive Frequency Chart

Pictured below is what looks to me like a very handy chart of the frequency range of orchestral instruments. This is intentionally small because you should click the image to be taken to the interactive version of the chart.

Frequency Chart

Frequency Chart

During the mixing phase, it’s common practice to use high pass and low pass filters to remove unneeded frequency ranges from each instrument (see my blog post “Video – High Pass Filter“). For example, a flute doesn’t need to be contributing low frequencies in the bass range, so use a high pass filter to remove any low flute frequencies that are effectively noise and only serve to interfere with the sound of the bass. The opposite is also true, the bass doesn’t need to be contributing high frequencies near the top end of the flute range, so use a low pass filter on the bass. Doing this for every instrument should result in a cleaner sound because all these little things add up.

As always, use your ears when adjusting a filter, but the above chart provides a handy guide for where to place the threshold of a low or high pass filter for each instrument and also where each instrument sounds strongest.

For an example of someone explaining this chart and putting it into practice see the video below:

https://youtu.be/p39JGgLhJB4

Subtractive EQ Using Instrument Frequency Charts

Video – High Pass Filter

One very easy thing to do to improve the qualify of your mix is to add a high pass filter on non bass instruments.

In the presence of bass guitar, you can likely remove lower frequencies from all other instruments like acoustic guitar and even piano. Sometimes these lower frequencies from other instruments are not audible in isolation but when added together, it can muddy up the things you do want to hear in the lower frequencies like bass guitar and kick drum.

In the end, what matters is how an instrument sounds in the mix. A rhythm guitar with the low end cut a little, might not sound quite as good on it’s own, but blended with the bass guitar in the context of the mix, the song will likely sound better overall.

Here’s a short video demonstrating this from the “5 Minutes To A Better Mix Series” by “TheRecordingRevolution.com”

5 Minutes To A Better Mix: High Pass Filter

Video – Setting Your Compressor

After reading this post: Video – Intro to Compressors, or assuming you already understand the meaning of the different controls on a compressor, the video below from “wado1942” shows a good way of setting the controls one at a time to get the desired result.

The setup before adjusting anything is as follows:

  • set the threshold to maximum value so that initially it has no effect
  • set attack and release to minimum values so the compressor starts and stops as fast as possible (compresses for the minimal amount of time)
  • set the ratio to it’s maximum value to maximize the amount of compression

Having set the above starting values for the compressor controls, begin to adjust them one at a time like this:

  • adjust the threshold to the point where the compressor is rapidly turning on and off. You want the threshold set so that the compressor is working, but not constantly on. The purpose of a compressor is to decrease the volume of the loudest parts (the peaks) of a signal, Not to decrease the volume of the entire signal.
  • adjust the attack and later the release, to get the desired smoothness. Do you want the compressor to suddenly start and stop working or do you want a more gradual effect?
  • adjust the ratio to get the desired amount of compression. I typically aim for about 3db of gain reduction.

Here’s the video that demonstrates the above steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiKVvr_5mnI
A Better Way To Use A Compressor – by wado1942

Video – Intro to Compressors

This YouTube video from “The Pro Audio Files” is the best I’ve seen so far, on how a compressor and it’s settings work. Watch this video and any further discussions on the topic of compression should be far easier to understand. It clearly explains about the attack and release times, the ratio, the threshold and makeup gain. After watching the video below, you might also want to watch:  Video – Setting Your Compressor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2CxMCkvml8

Compression 101: How to Use a Compressor