What do you mean? If you are talking about adding saturation, I do.

 

It depends on what you want to achieve and the origin of your material: I happened to record a band and in the mix I only compressed a couple of things, some eq and reverb and the song was ready ... I was lucky that the band knew what they wanted to do and that in addition to the fact that the recordings were good, the expressiveness they gave to each part was very good

 

I recently got a book as a gift, something like mixing with only 5 plugins... I'll read it, but I don't see that happening.

 

This. It's a moto I picked up from someone. It might have been Steve Albini since I love the way he works and his music production philosophy.

It's more like "record it well and you're going to have less problems with mixing. Don't rely on fixing it in the mix". Something like that. Well, every step of the way matters. Cheers!

 

Last edited: Apr 15, 2021

It totally depends on the instrumentation and how many of them. Sometimes, yes. ...For example vibraphone and acoustic piano with many instruments can cause the perception of cancellation...so this removes that simplicity....this can go for many instruments - add into that a percussion section, drums, bass, horns and you probably won't get away with only one EQ, no compression and gain levelling, no matter how well recorded, played and how high the quality.
Life would be easy if every instrument had its own frequency that no other instruments did, but it doesn't work that way.
- So I ask people like No Avenger and other serious engineers if it comes down to that.
Even the best engineers in the world probably look back and think they'd do something differently now as sure as musicians do.
Man, I'd love to only have to do nothing other than volume balance until final mix...it is a rare thing for that to occur.

 

Context = Context

If there is a problem that needs to be fixed, fix it. If 10 plugins are needed to fix the problem, then 10 plugins are needed. Cool.
But if there is no problem, why fix something that isn't broken?

The most important thing is to fix the problem as early as possible. Preferably, before it occurs.
If something sounds worse after the fix than before, then you have just created new problems. Ergo: You have made a bad compromise.

 

Last edited: Apr 15, 2021

IT ALLL DEPENDS ON THE SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

How to you listen to the music ?
Do you have an acoustic optimised room or/and Compensated headphones ?

 

Read a lot - try a lot - collect listening experiences.
After years, you decide on some plugins that you can handle and that do their job.

I use allways a: Program Equalizer, Equalizer, Delay, Reverb, Stereo Imaging Processor, Stereo Bus Compressor, Limiter

 

So uh back on the topic of more processing = worse mixing, one thing that's also important to mention if it hasn't been already (might be a bit obvious too) is to properly gain stage the effects in the chain if it's necessary to use a lot of effects. Effects sometimes add gain without you knowing and what you may think might be color and warmth may just be the signal clipping within the chain and that's generally not a desired effect.

 

Today was a good example of me overmixing.

I was struggling with this boomy bass guitar, trying to get it perfect in the 100-200 range using dynamic eq and mb compression.

Every time I made adjustments I'd export and check the mix on different gear. After 10 exports or so, I was fighting with those last 0.5db's to get it right. Thinking I had it perfect, I realized I had set the fx on bypass since the previous export and was imagining those adjustments I was doing lol. That's when I saved and shutdown the PC ;)

 

That totally sounds like a thing I'd do

 

Dry signal = unprocessed signal. (effects off, nothing changed)
Wet signal = processed signal. (effects on, you changed the sound)

 

from my experience, virtual instruments are rather good sounding already,
but the more you have them in the project, the more they start to clash and overwhelm the mix making it almost always worse,
so actually I'd say - the more (virtual) instruments, the more processing is needed to get good results

 

This is definitely a controversial method, but i have found over the years that a simple sample delay can work wonders when it comes to making the first small tweaks for separation between the vst instruments. Many small problems can be fixed or reduced just by adding a delay to the insert. It's often the first tool I reach for once my tracks are roughly level balanced.

 

Last edited: Apr 17, 2021

Basically, yes. I like to delay the signals with distance information, because in my mind that already gives a better picture than working with milliseconds or samples. I use Voxengo Audio Delay for this, but any other delay with distance information works just as well. Used correctly, this approach makes many things easier for me right from the start.

It can be used to fix phase problems or to separate transient information. It helps with depth staggering and can help with frequency (un)masking. It can also be used to help rhythm a bit, but this is where you definitely should have an ear for it.
So yes, it is often the first plugin on my channel inserts before my EQ.