I use a equalizer (actually two) and a sidechain-plugin for my mixing, and my volume-knob. But I still have problems sometimes to get the different sounds separated... I don't want my sounds to become something like a sound-mash. The different sounds should stay out for themselves, don't merg together.

To be honest, its hard for me to descripe that in english, but I hope you understand what I'm talking about.

My basic question isn't how to use eqs and sidechain-plugins, it's what other ways of separating sounds are there? What different kind of plugins do exist to make different sounds stand-out from the others?

 

yeah, this is a huge topic and can take entire forums worth of discussion...but there are a few guidelines that u can follow that will make a significant different in the clarity of your mixes. I'll try and give you some easy tips that you can apply that will make a difference

- Use a high pass (low cut) filter on pretty much everything in your mix except the kick and the bass (sometime you can even low cut these as well if you feel they have too much sub). Usually, instruments and synths that are not basses or a kick can be low cut up to 200Hz and even more if you need to. So, even if you see that an instrument, or percussion, or synth doesn't sound like it has an bass frequencies, low cut it anyway, because it will almost always have something there that you can't hear but that will contribute to making your mix sound muddy and mushy.

-Start with an eq and start cutting frequencies that you feel the instrument doesn't need. Get it to sound like it does in your head. Sometimes this includes cutting the very high frequencies above 16,000Hz. A build up of these high frequencies also causes the mix to sound like a mash. Put an eq on the instrument that you want, put a bell curve with a high Q, like 20-30 and sweep around the frequency spectrum and look for really loud, or annoying or harsh frequencies and cut them out until they don't poke out so much

-After cutting bad frequencies, use a compressor if you need to to even out the peaks or volume of the sound.

-After cutting and compressing, use another eq to boost anything if you need to. For example, if you want to add more air to the vocal you can do that after cutting and compressing. Or if your bass needs a bit more 100Hz then boost 1-2dB to make it more prominent.

-When mixing, start with your kick drum (or your most important instrument, usually it is the kick drum), then mix everything else around it. The bass should be 3-6dB lower in volume than your kick. The start mixing in your percussion and then other instruments like synths and things like that.

-Make sure your low frequencies such as your kick and bass are in mono so they don't interfere with other stereo instruments.

-Get your bass and kick to work together..first set the volumes like i stated above, then sidechain the bass if you need to. use a spectrum analyzer and see where the peak if the kick is, and cut the bass 2-3dB at that frequency with a Q of 3-4. then sidechain it if you need to.

If I think of any more tips I will add them later on. Hope this helps

 

Thanks fuad, helped a lot so far.

I already use EQs like you descriped it, same signal flow as well (first cutting, than boosting). But I'm not so familiar with the compressor, can you think of any good tutorials? I searched for Fruity Compressor Tutorials, but these aren't that good, or I dont found the good ones yet. I also have Mix Control Pro, great plugin but no tutorials

 

You don't need anything other than an EQ and a spectrum analyzer to clean up your mix, any EQ and any spectrum analyzer will get the job done. so don't worry about other plugins and things like that. Just learn how to listen to frequencies and what to cut and remember to low cut everything that's not supposed to have bass in it.. Also, watch for the 300-500Hz range too, that can build up quickly and will make your mix sound like it's inside a box.

 

i run the final mix thru AAMS with the default settings
(dont change anything in the tabs- eq, sub, treb etc)
this will level the mix very nice and make it bright and clear

then i go tweak to both my and the clients approval using T-Racks 3

 

AAMS, where you calculate bits and bytes