For example you have a track where on intro are drums, then came melody then after 10 seconds strong bass.
Drums are loud on the beginning and later with bass are very quiet.

You have 8 tracks with midi volume faders.
How it look like to mixing the levels?

You manually turn down the volume on drums then record volume midi automations in daw and adjusting everything live? Like 10 seconds later turn up the drums volume and turn down the bass? Then you fixing recorded automations in daw or something?
Or when you set the level of drums you didn't touch them anymore? And fixing them to sound good with bass is different process?
How it looks?

What is summing?
I am greenie Sorry

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2023

Congrats to anyone manages to answer a question asking for everything there is to know about mixing music

 

Im kinda confused by that post.
So you have Stems to mix?
Or do you still working on a track and dont really know how to mix it?

 

Need a sample really to listen! to see what you really mean.

 

Like You are in DAW and have mix of the interactive instruments in midi and audio samples.
You first need to render all the separated tracks into stems to mix them?
Which level set all of them before render? For example -3dB in the loudest peak?

 

conventional approach is to find a loudest part and start from there, with rough volume balancing,
such loudest part should still have enough headroom without your Master buss clipping - if not, you need to turn everything down proportionally,
art of mixing is art of finding the balance, if you look for some numbers, nobody can help you,

volume automation is quite important yes, it makes song sound more lively, depending on genre and style, some elements may not be automated much as they keep similar volume across whole song (often individual drums within a drum kit, quite often whole drums and bass stays rather even), often song parts as a whole can be automated too, to get more excitement and contrast to depict what listener should hear,

depending on what source material you're dealing with, sometimes source tracks may sound too uneven, too dynamic - sometimes different bass notes are of different volume, sometimes individual drum hits are inconsistent - as a mixer it's up to you to decide what to do with it - compression is what helps you with those very short-term volume inconsistencies, but volume automation also can often be viable;

often you need to "fix" bad decisions on individual sounds, elements clashing with each other, EQ is basically sort of frequency volume processing, or highlight some elements using EQ again,

mixing and mastering in result are basically supposed to balance out dynamic range of every individual element within whole song across whole frequency spectrum to sound not only nice as a whole, but also maintain nice dynamics and catchy punchiness without forcing listener to reach for a volume control on their listening device - that's also a big trickery because it's a constant fight against other already released music done in some way which can't be ignored,

adjusting everything live is basically how live concerts and gigs happen, live sound engineer is doing things on the fly, often clueless what the band will play next second,
mixing engineers have the luxury of re-listening and re-adjusting things as many times as they want (until client's deadline, literally), but the principles are somewhat same, because human ears by nature compensate and get used to what they hear, and more importantly they get tired quickly, so mixing process itself should be rather quick, and/or with breaks

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2023

Sorry I don't have sample. It came up into my head when I was listening to some music.
But maybe I find something or make to demonstrate.

 

Just send it to me so I can mix it.

 

All of the above. The truth is there is not "one" way of going about it. It "looks" diferent depending on who you're asking, what else is in the mix, personal preferences, the plugins/gear you're using, the way you route things, all that stuff.

Summing is combining one or more signals together, simple as that. Now, some people use the word summing to refer to analog summing in real analog and virtual form, which has it's own little quirks (and controversies).

Not necessarily. some reasons to do that would be to save resources, have a cleaner workspace, or to commit yourself to mixing and stop changing stuff on the instruments themselves.

 

Ok.
What about summing on hardware mixer?
For example Mackie desk.
Is combining few signals is a recording them into one track?
Recorder is built-in mixer or you need some source like recording on PC or portable recorder?
Why You do that? To give it colour?

 

analog summing adds imperfections (color, saturation) of the console hardware design, and in analog audio domain 1+1 is literally not 2, hence why summing will sound different (but often not in any meaningful way, compared to digital summing in your DAW)

 

How much for an hour, baby?

PS. I like your white tits
Is Your mix is as clean ass they?

 

Not necessarily recording, just the act of combinig them. Buses are a good example, or auxes, you combine sinals there but you're not necessairly recording that, although you could.

If you want to record that analog summing from the mixer, some mixers do come with a built in recording function, others come with USB I/O so you'll need a computer to record that, others have no option to record so you'll have to connect an output of the mixer into an audio interface.

What tzzsmk said. Also sometimes it's just functional, like if you needed to record 8 analog signals (think mics) into a 2 input interface, you may need to use an external mixer if available, send the stereo output of that into the interface and record everything pre-mixed. Not the best solution but sometimes there's no choice.

Baxter boob colour revealed.

 

Am i on the right website?

 

Mixing isnt for everyone my friend......

 

Yes! You are on the audioSEX.pro - Professional Sex using Audio website

 

So in overall.
Mixing is like art of living.
Is in accordance with the laws of nature.
There is always balance in the nature.
Temperature can't be too hot or too cold because all the living creatures will be dead.
You need to find balance in your life to make the nice and happy life.
You can't eat too much because you will be too fat and you will be too heavy to walk.
You can't eat too small because you will be too skinny and don't have energy to walk.
Sometimes You need go for compromise. Like go to work instead of masturbating all day because your pee pee is hurt and need rest. Using of it is limited.
Similar is with the art of mixing. You need to find balance and learn when to go for the compromise in some situations between limitations, this what you wanna achieve and this what you be able to do.

 

hmm I guess I wouldn't say it that way,
when you fuck things up in life you can die, if you make shitty mix, nothing terrible happens usually,

I'd say, mixing is like any other form of art - although many people see it as technical, constrained with some rules, it's actually a creative process - it's not a production/arrangement where you decide what to play or how many choruses you wanna repeat, but good mix does contribute to artist's expression,
artists reaching to mixers has been a concept of added artistic value - sure you can mix on your own, in such case you never know if your mix is better than if someone else mixed your stuff, because in the end variety in both of those results is variety in pieces of art

 

It depends. When You make shitty mix for someone and take a lot of cash for it. Better run

 

Just read this book

And become a monk of sound

Zen and the Art of Mixing: Mixerman: 9781423491507: Books - Amazon.ca