Welcome to Sage Audio.
Today let’s cover How to Make a Mix Sound Better.
But first, If you have a mix that you need mastered, send it to us to receive a free
mastered sample of it with the link in the description.
Humanize Midi Data
The steps in the video are in order, but use them as you see fit in your mixes.
Sometimes when mixing you have to work with midi data - if it sounds unnatural, it’ll
be difficult to mix no matter what.
If you find your midi sounds programmed in, due to quantization, identical velocities,
and so on, use the Humanize preset in Midi Transform.
First, double click your midi track, then under functions find midi transform, then
humanize.
The default settings should work well.
Let’s listen to midi that’s programmed, then processed with this function.
Use EQ then Saturate to Brighten
If you want to make an instrument brighter, but it lacks high frequencies, to begin with,
use an EQ to boost the highest available frequencies present.
Then, introduce a saturator after the EQ, ideally one that has some high-frequency saturation
function, like PSP’s saturator plugin.
By emphasizing the highs with an EQ, then saturating them, we create harmonics that
fill in the high-frequency range, in turn brightening the signal.
Let’s take a listen.
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Amplify Percussion Fundamental & Harmonics
Before you start to compress, saturate or reverberate your drums, insert equalizers
and amplify their fundamental and important higher frequencies that relate to the fundamental.
For example, on the kick, I boosted the most powerful part or the fundamental, then amplified
some of the clip by boosting a harmonic or overtone.
I like to do this with the snare, toms, claps if they're present, and so on.
Let’s listen to how this makes the sound slightly more powerful and musical, and know
that it sets us up well for future processing on the drums.
Let’s take a listen
Bring Vocal Forward With Compression
This is a known tip, but really important - use a softer knee, 4:1 ratio, 2ms lookahead,
quick attack, 50ms release, and automatic makeup gain to capture the vocal and pull
its quieter details forward.
Using some form of processing like this is crucial to getting a powerful vocal.
Let’s listen to how this processor increases vocal detail.
Special Compression for Kick
Similar to the last chapter, we’re going to use special compression settings but this
time on the kick.
To do this, I’d recommend an 1176 compressor or emulation - with it we’ll increase the
input until compression occurs, and reduce the attack and release speed to the fastest
settings.
This both compresses the kick and adds distinct sounding distortion to the transients due
to the quick attack and release.
Let’s listen to what this emulation does.
Tailor Reverb for Percussion
Reverb on percussion is incredibly helpful, especially if you’re using samples - for
example, the snare sample in this track cuts off early and unnaturally - reverb helps fix
this by making it less noticeable.
For the kick, I can use reverb with a longer decay on the lows to increase sustain.
Let’s listen to these 2 reverbs being added and notice how they increase the length of
the samples in a natural-sounding way.
Use Bus Reverb and Compression
If you haven’t already been doing this, you need to send similar instruments to buses
by changing their output to a collective bus.
For example, all of my drums are going to the same bus, as are my instruments, and my
lead has a bus for reasons we’ll discuss later.
On these buses, collective reverb and compression will help create a cohesive sound and help
you achieve a powerful mix.
Typically I find various room emulations work well for this, especially studio room emulations.
For the compressors, only a couple dB of attenuation is needed.
Let’s take a listen to this being added on the drum and instrument busses.
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Add Power with Upward Processing
If I’ve already added my compression, saturation, and so on, and I find I still am lacking some
power, I’ll start to introduce upward processing like the wave’s MV2 or the Oxford Inflator.
For the drums and instruments, I’m going to add the inflator and increase the effect
while reducing the input.
Let’s listen and notice how this fills out the sound.
Keep Vocal’s Temporal Effects Separate
Instead of adding reverb and delay to the vocal directly, I’m going to use sends so
that each effect is separate and can be processed separately.
For example, the first send is to a stereo delay, which afterwords I added EQ to shape
the delay taps, and then compression.
The compression made the delay more prominent and fuller sounding.
I did the same for a short vocal reverb, and a long vocal reverb, all of which use the
same compression settings to create cohesion.
Let’s listen to these effects, and consider the advantages of keeping them separate from
one another.
Equalize and Saturate all Vocal Signals
The 3 sends that I created in the last chapter, will be routed to the vocal bus - on this
bus I’ll first insert an EQ to shape the entirety of the vocal, by adding some more
of the fundamental, and a little more of 2kHz.
Then I’ll saturate everything collectively as well.
Although it seems unorthodox to saturate your reverb, and delay, combining all of the vocal
channels with some subtle saturation really creates cohesion and keeps the time-based
effects from sounding separate from the main vocal.
Listen take a listen to this EQ and saturation being added.
Don’t Use Gullfoss On Drums
The Gullfoss EQ is a great tool but I’d avoid using it on drums or a drum bus due
to how it affects transients - I do think it sounds great on an instrument bus though.
That said, I’ll add it to the instrument bus.
Last up, I’m going to do something similar to what I did on the vocal bus, and place
one last EQ on the instrumental and the drum bus.
On the drums I’ll amplify the side image’s highs - on the instrumental bus I’ll amplify
around 300Hz on the side image.
This will help increase the stereo width of the mix and make it more interesting.
Let’s take a listen to the Gullfoss EQ, and these M/S EQs being added.
Then let’s listen to a full before and after of the mix with all of the points we discussed
here being added in.
If you have a mix that you need mastered, send it to us to receive a free mastered sample
of it with the link in the description.
Thank you so much for watching.