Ableton Forum

If your looking for a great free Spectrum analyser try http://www.voxengo.com/downloads/#VoxengoSPANVST

I don't know much about Spectrum Analysis (I've the impression there is lots to know) but Voxengon are top notch and i find this plug helpfull useable and Freeeeee .

Sort out your eq over 10k for the sparkle and anywhere between 2.5k and 5k for the bite, but don't bite peoples heads off.

I also wouldn't kill the bass and kick below 90hrz (for Bassy music). It's an art to get everything sitting right down there and playing on lots of different speakers in different rooms will tell you how successfull you've been, take note of the differences.

Try A/B comparisons of your mixes with recording of the sparkling biting vinyl, have your reference playing away in lives browser, if its warped even better it'll play in time. Pull down all track faders or group faders With the reference running in the browser bring each element of the track up from bottom as if your doing a subtle dj mix, then kill the reference. With care you should be able to replicate the mix balance of the reference if they contain similar elements. Don't know if anyone else does it this way I stumbled upon it last night when I was stuck and the results were great and quick.

good Luck

wilsonrx wrote:Good luck with the mixdown! One thing I always find when mixing is that the frequency range of 400Hz to 1kHz is always the most crowded. This area is what gives basslines a midrange tone (rather than being a sub bass 'hum'), lead sounds get a lot of their richness from here and vocals get their depth here too. A few EQ cuts here and there can create a lot of space, and some sounds can still work even when you have cut frequencies out of them.

If EQing can't solve a problem, then the solution can often be down to how a track is arranged. If EQ and panning can't seperate sounds then see if you can stop playing them at the same time. Or maybe a synth interferes with your bass - try only playing the synth when there is no bass.

wilson, do you mean I should "shave" down individual instrument tracks EQ-wise, right up to the point before which they are about to sacrifice some textural quality, so as to develop a standalone-sharpness within the mix? i.e. I reserve areas of EQ for specific instrument, and try not to let other instruments bleed into their space too much?

The way to use a frequency analyzer is something like this (this is from me playing around not from anyone educating me!):

Say you have to channels that are "muddying" each other. Play both independently (solo'd) through the analyzer. Write down roughly what frequencies each one occupies ( e.g. 300Hz - 2kHz ). Also use your ears: keep in your mind what you think the channel should sound like. Does it need all that bass? Are there too many high range frequencies?

Now look at the frequencies you have written down. Where do they conflict? If you're lucky you might get a situation where they only slightly overlap. Say one goes from 300-800Hz and the second is 650Hz - 3kHz. Apply a slight EQ cut to the first one at 700-800Hz and a cut to the second at about 700-800Hz. There is a lot of experimentation here - your ears have to be your guide. I can only explain this in numbers while writing it down!

Right, so if you are lucky you might now be done with those two channels and you can move on to the others....

However, no one is ever that lucky. I remember I once had this amazingly rich and deep Pad sound that was just gorgeous but was swamping another synth sound. The freq analyzer said the pad had a massive frequency range from something like 300Hz - 3kHz, while the other synth sat smack in the middle at about 800Hz-2kHz. The only way round it was too apply a cut to the Pad at around 900Hz-1.4kHz and a slight boost to the other synth in the same place. This allowed the second synth to kind of peek "through" the Pad.

I think I am waffling now.

[quote]wilson, do you mean I should "shave" down individual instrument tracks EQ-wise, right up to the point before which they are about to sacrifice some textural quality, so as to develop a standalone-sharpness within the mix? i.e. I reserve areas of EQ for specific instrument, and try not to let other instruments bleed into their space too much?[/quote]

Exactly.

Bah! Mastering? No problem! Can I work that fecking Quote thingy? No!

wilsonrx wrote: 1) Panning: Keep all bass, bassdrum and snare drums panned centre. Spread the other sounds out across the stereo field: some just a bit left, others further left and some more as far left as they can go & do the same going right. Try to imagine the sounds are being played by a 'band' and all the band members are sitting spread out in front of you.

While in the premixdown stage I have always limited my melodic instrument panning to a range comfortably closer (but not necessarily that close) to centre - but sounding appropriate for a master mixdown. Too far left or right, such that it sounds odd or unbalanced I don't go. Should I ditch this personal "rule"? i.e. can extreme panning in premixdown then sound right in a final mixdown?


... what I mean to say is, are extreme pan levels useable territory? I have always shy'ed away from going more than 50% offcentre.

minidisc use 1:5 compression don't they ?

anonymouse wrote:Too far left or right, such that it sounds odd or unbalanced I don't go. Should I ditch this personal "rule"? i.e. can extreme panning in premixdown then sound right in a final mixdown?
... what I mean to say is, are extreme pan levels useable territory? I have always shy'ed away from going more than 50% offcentre.

The off-center panning is probably sounding weird because you're using headphones. If you mix on speakers you'll probably end up doing a much wider mix.

wilsonrx wrote:

wilson, do you mean I should "shave" down individual instrument tracks EQ-wise, right up to the point before which they are about to sacrifice some textural quality, so as to develop a standalone-sharpness within the mix?

Exactly.

The "fundamental" frequency is where the meat of the sound lives the "harmonic" frequency is what allows you to tell if it's a string or a piano in simplistic terms. You can roll off frequencies below the fundamental without hurting the sound, as was stated you might have to cut frequencies in other ranges to make room for instruments that are being masked.

The "mud" range is in the 300 to 500 hz range - do a cut in your kick drum in that range up to -3 to -6 dbs and the whole track will open up.

There's an old saying- 'You can't polish a turd'.
I've spent hours trying to compress, eq etc. a bad sound into a good one until I've realised the only solution is to ditch the sound and source a better one.

In my experience having a good choice of sounds to begin with can save many headaches when it comes to mixing and mastering.

I used to spend 5 minutes looking for a kik, now it's not uncommon for me to spen 35, but it will save me an hour an 35 when mixing,

Cheers

Chris J wrote:minidisc use 1:5 compression don't they ?

Record and Playback Uncompressed Linear PCM Audio and you can just drop the wav directly onto your desktop via USB (the 1GB minidisc is recognised as a USB mass storage device, no drivers required)

there have been very useful responses in this thread.
I'm going to put the advice to work and see how much it improves things.
Thanks a lot.

Which Spetrum Analyzer????

Can anyone reccomend please??

For those using RME... Digicheck... which is pro-quality, hardly any CPU, and
free to RME users. I didn't realise how handy it was for ages until I
downloaded it and set it to the Totalizer setting.

-Ben

Im not an expert or something, but I got lots of help from reading the Izotope mastering manual. Recomended for everyone! HERE

Im celebrating 200 posts since dec 2002
Hurra Hurra!!


C