Mixdown tutorial

[Patch]

Shiyit - Summer's just started here in the UK! We've had 3 hot days running down here in the South West! Woo-Hoo!!!

(It's so hot - I swear I saw the Devil sittin' in the livin' room... )

Name THAT film...

[nebulae]

but I guess this means summer is over already.

I guess that mans you need to finish a song and post it, mofo!

[pixelbox]

Regarding your second point, I usually have submix tracks. I tend to have Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synths-Mid, and Synths-High, and Vox as subchannels. I then route all the appropriate tracks into those channels and then I can do various submixes as I mix.

For organization (since we don't have folder tracks yet), I tend to make the track width for all drums slightly narrow, and the submix channel right after the drums a little fatter. Helps when I get 50 tracks going and I need to scroll around looking for the track that needs adjustment.

ALERT! NOOB QUESTION:

Submix? What is that? Do you mean you route the sends to a return track or do you route those tracks to the in of a new track? Sounds like a great idea, but I'm too inexperienced to get it.

[funky shit]

He said you could export it as a .wav and then master it on various types of software.. i was fine untill he mentioned reason

[deklin]

this rocks!!!

anyone know where to find more like it?

future music mag usually include tutorials like that every month on the DVD, although im not sure what it is this month

[nebulae]

He said you could export it as a .wav and then master it on various types of software.. i was fine untill he mentioned reason

He gave an underwhelmingly british snicker when he said Reason. Meaning he wasn't being serious.

[funky shit]

didnt hear it

[nebulae]

Regarding your second point, I usually have submix tracks. I tend to have Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synths-Mid, and Synths-High, and Vox as subchannels. I then route all the appropriate tracks into those channels and then I can do various submixes as I mix.

For organization (since we don't have folder tracks yet), I tend to make the track width for all drums slightly narrow, and the submix channel right after the drums a little fatter. Helps when I get 50 tracks going and I need to scroll around looking for the track that needs adjustment.

ALERT! NOOB QUESTION:

Submix? What is that? Do you mean you route the sends to a return track or do you route those tracks to the in of a new track? Sounds like a great idea, but I'm too inexperienced to get it.

Live let's you route the output of a track into another track. So suppose you have 5 tracks:
1. Kick
2. Snare
3. Hats
4. Crash
5. Toms

You can create Track 6: DRUMS. Send the output of Tracks 1-5 to Track 6. Click in IN for monitoring Track 6 (but warning, make sure Track 6 has No Inputs, or you could have external noise coming from your soundcard if you have a synth/mic/guitar attached to your sound card inputs). Track 6 Output should be to Master. Then the fader for 6 is a submix of tracks 1-5. You can then do one general reverb send from Track 6, which is a nice and natural thing to do, or you can still do individual sends to make the snare more wet...especially when you're in that 80s Def Leopard mode and want really big drums. Anyways, just one of many many applications.

What I mentioned above, from an aesthetics and an organizational perspective is that I make Tracks 1-5 narrower in session view, and I keep Track 6: DRUMS at normal or even wider if I need to be able to see it better. Visually, this helps a lot when I start going over 30 or 40 tracks.

[PurpleHaze]

on the topic of mixing i need to ask this. I was looking at a video of a studio session and the guys were recording some vocals and i saw they had



open and it seemed the vocals went through it so it basically acted the same way the outboard gear would act. Do you guys think this could replace the traditional all hardware outboard and peple start using the plugin counterparts?

[pixelbox]

Regarding your second point, I usually have submix tracks. I tend to have Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synths-Mid, and Synths-High, and Vox as subchannels. I then route all the appropriate tracks into those channels and then I can do various submixes as I mix.

For organization (since we don't have folder tracks yet), I tend to make the track width for all drums slightly narrow, and the submix channel right after the drums a little fatter. Helps when I get 50 tracks going and I need to scroll around looking for the track that needs adjustment.

ALERT! NOOB QUESTION:

Submix? What is that? Do you mean you route the sends to a return track or do you route those tracks to the in of a new track? Sounds like a great idea, but I'm too inexperienced to get it.

Live let's you route the output of a track into another track. So suppose you have 5 tracks:
1. Kick
2. Snare
3. Hats
4. Crash
5. Toms

You can create Track 6: DRUMS. Send the output of Tracks 1-5 to Track 6. Click in IN for monitoring Track 6 (but warning, make sure Track 6 has No Inputs, or you could have external noise coming from your soundcard if you have a synth/mic/guitar attached to your sound card inputs). Track 6 Output should be to Master. Then the fader for 6 is a submix of tracks 1-5. You can then do one general reverb send from Track 6, which is a nice and natural thing to do, or you can still do individual sends to make the snare more wet...especially when you're in that 80s Def Leopard mode and want really big drums. Anyways, just one of many many applications.

What I mentioned above, from an aesthetics and an organizational perspective is that I make Tracks 1-5 narrower in session view, and I keep Track 6: DRUMS at normal or even wider if I need to be able to see it better. Visually, this helps a lot when I start going over 30 or 40 tracks.

This is awesome! It's like ping-pong recording w/o the recording! SCHWEET!

[nebulae]

oDo you guys think this could replace the traditional all hardware outboard and peple start using the plugin counterparts?

Highly doubtful. There will always be people who want hardware and external mixers. There's a certain "character" to SSL boards, as there are all sorts of boards and eqs, compressors, etc etc. In fact, as you get more and more people doing DAWs and mixing on computers, this is ultimately the only differentiating factor for pro studios anymore - the fact that they have assloads of hardware that us little guys can't afford.

I like the direction of a lot of software emulating these expensive boards...but in the end, it's just emulation and it may/may not be exact, just like Guitar Rig/Pod may/may not replace tons of amps and mics.

My basic guideline is my ears. I don't use any plug simply because of the brand name...I use a plug if it serves its purpose. Live's EQ8 is often my go-to EQ...ever so often, I'll look to something "better", whatever that means.

[nebulae]

This is awesome! It's like ping-pong recording w/o the recording! SCHWEET!

Well, you can also very easily record if you want to...a neat trick is to record your drum track into stereo, then crush the shit out of it with compression, and then slowly mix it back in with your drum submix for that phat crunchy drum sound.

[PurpleHaze]

oDo you guys think this could replace the traditional all hardware outboard and peple start using the plugin counterparts?

Highly doubtful. There will always be people who want hardware and external mixers. There's a certain "character" to SSL boards, as there are all sorts of boards and eqs, compressors, etc etc. In fact, as you get more and more people doing DAWs and mixing on computers, this is ultimately the only differentiating factor for pro studios anymore - the fact that they have assloads of hardware that us little guys can't afford.

I like the direction of a lot of software emulating these expensive boards...but in the end, it's just emulation and it may/may not be exact, just like Guitar Rig/Pod may/may not replace tons of amps and mics.

My basic guideline is my ears. I don't use any plug simply because of the brand name...I use a plug if it serves its purpose. Live's EQ8 is often my go-to EQ...ever so often, I'll look to something "better", whatever that means.

I know it wont completely replace them but there is a certain sound when you recording without outboard and when you reording with, i am suggesting that without the outboard and using the replications it could still have that well recorded sound.

[nebulae]

Totally agree...I haven't used any outboard gear in about 10 years.

[PurpleHaze]

yeh i am now just wondering, what plugins will i use and how am i going to use them so that the vocals go through them before being recorded.