Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re covering how to mix better. To get the most from your music,
watch the entirety of each chapter for a complete understanding of the topic.
Know Where Clipping is Occurring
If you’re using a more modern DAW the processing is 64-bit, meaning you have a lot more headroom
than you think. Notice that when the signal hits unity on a channel’s meter, it turns
yellow not red - this is the DAWs way of saying that you’re not creating clipping distortion.
The same could be said about 64-bit plugins - although some
analog emulations purposely cause saturation at higher input and output levels. In short,
the only place you’ll find hard clipping distortion is at your stereo output.
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Know Some Key Free Plugins
Free plugins are often great at single simple tasks, which means they can come in handy
when mixing. For example, Fresh Air by Slate Digital is perfect for making an instrument or
bus brighter and airy - or FET by Accenitize is a fantastic transistor emulation for distortion.
I use both of these on a regular basis when mixing, so I’d reccomend them.
Prioritize Saturation
Saturation is an incredibly powerful effect - it compresses, adds harmonics, and subtly equalizes
depending on the harmonics that form. It’s my go to effect when mixing, and works incredibly well
at covering a lot of bases when your CPU can’t handle that many more processors.
Some saturators also subtly change the frequency response
regardless of the harmonics used, so they can really accomplish a lot.
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Inverse EQ Kick and Bass
Kick and bass can overlap but shouldn’t do so excessively - since they’re both so powerful,
too much overlap will make a mix unbalanced. I like to use an inverse
EQ on the bass - I’ll match the EQ on the bass to the kick, then invert the bands.
Since the bass covers more of the frequency spectrum, it helps to shape this one
around the kick instead of vice versa.
Use Crosstalk or Binaural Panning
Stereo imaging is important, especially when you start adding lots of instrumentation
that needs a unique space - to do this try using a crosstalk plugin
that’ll create realistic stereo expansion. I also enjoy the sound of Logic Pro X’s
binaural panning tool - which lets me more accurately place the instrument.
Definitely don’t use this on the kick, bass,
or other instrument you can’t afford to lose when converting a stereo mix to mono playback.
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Use Instrument Specific Reverb
Certain reverb times, sizes, and other configurations are better suited for specific
instruments. For example, you can blend a vocal into a mix with medium length reverb on the mids,
or make an acoustic guitar sound full and have a shimmering effect with a shorter reverb,
moderate pre-delay, and modulation.
Reverbs usually include presets named after what they work well for,
so this will give you a good indication what settings can accomplish what effect.
After Adding Effects, Re-level
When introducing effects, I don’t always compensate for gain changes for one reason
or another - that said, I re-level the individual channels and busses
after the processing has been added. Even if you do compensate for gain changes
within the plugins, the frequencies of the signals have likely changed.
Subsequently the phase relationships between the tracks will be different,
the perceived loudnesses will be different and so on,
so it helps to reassess all levels via your channel faders before finishing a mix.
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Try an Intelligent EQ on the Mixbus
Intelligent EQs play a very important role when mixing - they shift the frequency response
depending on what signals are present to minimize the effects of masking and create a balanced mix.
Although this may just seem like cheating at first,
the effect these types of plugins create can’t be replicated.
Since the bands, dips, and boosts all depend on the incoming signal, in order to mimic this
with traditional mixing, we’d need to automate our EQ settings for each instrument,
depending on the notes being played, what other instruments are present, and so on,
for our entire song - which would take so so long and probably not be as accurate as this plugin.
It’s a lot more reasonable to use an EQ like this one,
utilize very subtle settings and balance the mix.
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with the link in the description. Thank you so much for watching.