I'm gonna list some common problems that happen while mixing a song. Write how you'd tackle those, and which tools you would use. I'm curious how much different techniques there could be for doing the same thing. I'll begin.

Sub from the kick and bass are clashing with each other : Trackspacer on the bass, kick as the sidechain

Stem with a lot of background noise : Silence removing tool from Studio One, or manual edit. Gate if it doesn't work, RX if you hear it too much when the source material is playing.

Bass is not cutting through smaller speakers : Waves Maxxbass for a transparent sound, Kush REDDI or Fuse VPRE-376 for a fat sound, parallel distortion for a sharper tone.

Piano low mid is too wide : EQ attenuation on the side channel

Guitar is mono but needs to be wide : Doubler if it's in the background, Revoice if it's in the front.

Kick is missing sub : EQ, sharp Q for extra punch

Only one element of a drum loop is missing some attack : Fuse DrumsSSX or Oeksound Spiff

 

- shift your hi-hats a little to the right, so not everything hits on the one
- also for cymbals , just a few milimeters
- the mix should already sound pretty good before going to the master bus
- try to avoid pulling EQ bands up in general

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 17, 2021

Overheads recorded cymbals, sometimes you will not need more. just pull cymabls fader down.
Waves Rbass for fundamental tone kick enhancement.
Waves Abbey ADT ideal for guitar doubling.
Kick is missing sub is a complex problem, not only stems issue, sometimes maybe your playback system. A general way is Using Resonance Low cut filter to cuf off freq below 40hz, mostly sound good everywhere. It helps you with getting tight and punchy kick. I recomend InfEQ or AirEQ.

In my world, if I want mix sounds good at any speakers, just focus on higher frequencies - get over 50Hz better or just reserve a mastering session. Many consumer speakers always ignoring sub freqs.

NEVER ADD ANY FX to MixBUSS BEFORE Mixing FINISHED.

I don't think avoid pull EQ bands up is a good idea. I am satisified with FG-A @ 12.5 kHZ +6dB super fantastic airy sound.

 

its very interesting what you say about the cymbals fader,
life is tough at the moment ..........and i somehow stumbled over Foo Fighters Best of You .....
It was a casaul Radio Song for me all these years and since last week i cant get it out of my head :/ and it really speaks to me i cant explain it
Anyhow....so i listened to this song on Youtube with my now ''Beatmaker'' ears and noticed how quite the cymbals were, just panned to the right and turned down so the harmonies of Daves voice stand out somehow....i dunno....just something i wanted to say

 

This is a tough topic. When you know / have decided on what vibe you're aiming for, and if the project calls for it, I would suggest the exact opposite. Setting up your mixbuss before starting to mix, will allow you to 1) not "overmix" and do tons of stuff that could be unnecessary in order to compensate for lack of fullness, and 2) avoid having your mix sound different than what you wanted, because of the changes mixbuss processing will introduce.

I'm not saying I'm 100% against working with a clean mixbuss, but 9/10 times I work by mixing in the loaded mixbuss.

 

these are some things that i've learnt from my journey through being sh*tty mixer guy to *meeeeh* mixer guy:


-start with faders only, get the image idea with panning, ride the fader (automation), use de-esser or multiband compressor for extreme dynamic things. This is the first step.

-know what you want from song. Each individual elements have some purpose in context. If there is 2 basses in song probably one for sub and one for low-mid, who knows?. Try to avoid boosting always sub on bass. Also there is no rule such as kick has to be bang low end for real. Try to achieve mid and high range first then try to made sit to low end. There are a lot of instruments in 100+ hz range more than 100-.

-Get rid off from using too long attack time on compressor. Compressor is not a transient shaper at all. Use transient shaper instead of using compressor every single time.

-Do not try to make all instruments loud almost same level. If you have 3 guitars, make one of them your star and put it on front, let the other pairs support it as whole. If your star dies on second verse, pick a new one at the second phase with automation.

-Listen the rough and note your ideas. I think the most important mistake is turning knobs randomly. Have an opinion first about song.