My studio, fuller mixes?

[REDD]

I tend to mix my recordings like my guitar tone with a scooped sound. Coming from the 80's and 90's metal, I always liked that scooped sound but I want to get a more full sound in my recordings without it getting harsh or muddy. Are there certain frequencies to boost or ones to stay away from that anyone can suggest? Thanks.

P.S. I'm talking about overall mix for a song not just for my guitar

 

[JoKeR III]

Sorry for the long reply but I've learned a lot the past couple of months mixing recordings for streaming videos. I'm by no means a professional audio technician, I just enjoy it, so others may have better solutions. These are just things I discovered that work for me and have given us decent results.

Duplicating and panning tracks will help fullness, panning L/R at different percentages helps instruments and vocals to stand out since they have their own place to sit in the soundstage. A lot of issues I ran into early on came from having too many vocals and instruments occupying the Center which led to them competing for space. I ended up having the best success panning almost everything to some degree. Lead vocal, snare and kick drum are pretty much the only things that remain dead center. I duplicate all of the instruments except for drums. Speaking of drums, I found that scooping out a large range of mids (big 'smile') took care of a lot of the 'pulsing' or vocal 'dropouts'. It carved out room in the frequency range for the vocals and instruments so they weren't competing for certain frequencies. On the background vocals, I have a higher low cut/high pass and more upper mids to help them cut through the mix with lower volume.

On a scale of 0-50 Left and Right, I'll pan the bass @10 L/R, which sounds more center but leaves a space for the kick, 2 toms - Rack @15 Left and Floor @15 Right, and overheads, using 2 mics, left and right @20. Acoustic is @25, rhythm electric @35 and lead hard panned L/R, adding a Center track for solos. Background vocals will be single channels panned opposite each other @10-25 but not exactly the same value as another instrument.

As far as EQ, I've discovered the easiest way to add fullness to each instrument/vocal is to use a parametric eq and have at least 4 points in the frequency range to work with. I use 5 and place them @ 60Hz, 200Hz, 800Hz, 3kHz and 8kHz. Leaving the 'curve' flat, take each point individually and, with a fairly narrow Q, use the maximum gain and sweep through the range to find which frequencies improve the tone and which are detrimental. Too narrow of a Q made it difficult to hear exactly what it was doing to the track. It's been interesting how on their own some of the tracks don't end up sounding great but in the mix sound really good.

One last thing that made all the difference to the recording was adding another Parametric EQ, quite a bit of compression as well as a Multiband Compressor, plus a moderate level of reverb to the overall mix at the Master or Output. I use the Parametric EQ and Multiband Compressor to further define the mid range and as a de-esser.

 

[REDD]

Sorry for the long reply but I've learned a lot the past couple of months mixing recordings for streaming videos. I'm by no means a professional audio technician, I just enjoy it, so others may have better solutions. These are just things I discovered that work for me and have given us decent results.

Duplicating and panning tracks will help fullness, panning L/R at different percentages helps instruments and vocals to stand out since they have their own place to sit in the soundstage. A lot of issues I ran into early on came from having too many vocals and instruments occupying the Center which led to them competing for space. I ended up having the best success panning almost everything to some degree. Lead vocal, snare and kick drum are pretty much the only things that remain dead center. I duplicate all of the instruments except for drums. Speaking of drums, I found that scooping out a large range of mids (big 'smile') took care of a lot of the 'pulsing' or vocal 'dropouts'. It carved out room in the frequency range for the vocals and instruments so they weren't competing for certain frequencies. On the background vocals, I have a higher low cut/high pass and more upper mids to help them cut through the mix with lower volume.

On a scale of 0-50 Left and Right, I'll pan the bass @10 L/R, which sounds more center but leaves a space for the kick, 2 toms - Rack @15 Left and Floor @15 Right, and overheads, using 2 mics, left and right @20. Acoustic is @25, rhythm electric @35 and lead hard panned L/R, adding a Center track for solos. Background vocals will be single channels panned opposite each other @10-25 but not exactly the same value as another instrument.

As far as EQ, I've discovered the easiest way to add fullness to each instrument/vocal is to use a parametric eq and have at least 4 points in the frequency range to work with. I use 5 and place them @ 60Hz, 200Hz, 800Hz, 3kHz and 8kHz. Leaving the 'curve' flat, take each point individually and, with a fairly narrow Q, use the maximum gain and sweep through the range to find which frequencies improve the tone and which are detrimental. Too narrow of a Q made it difficult to hear exactly what it was doing to the track. It's been interesting how on their own some of the tracks don't end up sounding great but in the mix sound really good.

One last thing that made all the difference to the recording was adding another Parametric EQ, quite a bit of compression as well as a Multiband Compressor, plus a moderate level of reverb to the overall mix at the Master or Output. I use the Parametric EQ and Multiband Compressor to further define the mid range and as a de-esser.

Thank you very much, I'll give this a try. I already do similar panning techniques and you are right about that for sure. Thanks for taking the time for this.

 

[zedeloc]

Mixing is all about sonic relationships.

The bass tone can really fill out the guitar tone. In mixing there are a lot of compromises. And what one instrument lacks can be made up by another instrument. High passing a guitar allows the bass/kick/toms to have room. But each of these low centric instruments "fill out" the guitars low end.

Making all the instrument's synergistic and fit together like auditory puzzle pieces with eq will allow for clarity and fullness. Some Instruments will step on each other's toes, and need to have space made for them in the other tracks. To elevate the effect, do a large part of mixing in mono to expose conflicts you wouldn't find in stereo. If it sounds good in mono, you know it'll sound great panned. The opposite (stereo to mono) doesn't work as well.

Make your kick punchy and your bass deep, or your bass punchy and your kick deep. One will compliment the other this way rather than muddy.

For the bass and scooped guitar relationship, the bass could add some mids back to the guitar tone. This will make the bass clearer too.. also a bit of distortion and compression on the bass can help it sit in the mix. You can also experiment by adding a little bit of mid back into your guitar tone

Err on the side of less gain. It'll be clearer and more defined. And when you double track and pan, it'll become bigger anyway.

Try to get your tones right at the source rather than fix it in the mix. But don't be afraid of making drastic tweaks with your DAW's eq. Use your ears more than your vision. I've made some ridiculous looking boosts and cuts, but it was the right move to solve the problem.

Lastly, find a song you absolutely love the sound of, your ideal for your sound. Use this as a reference. A/b it with your song while mixing (be careful to volume match. louder always sounds better, even if it isnt). This will expose what is missing or too apparent in your mix.

That's a few tips. Hopefully you find some of those helpful. Feel free to ask about specifics if you wish.

 

[REDD]

Mixing is all about sonic relationships.

The bass tone can really fill out the guitar tone. In mixing there are a lot of compromises. And what one instrument lacks can be made up by another instrument. High passing a guitar allows the bass/kick/toms to have room. But each of these low centric instruments "fill out" the guitars low end.

Making all the instrument's synergistic and fit together like auditory puzzle pieces with eq will allow for clarity and fullness. Some Instruments will step on each other's toes, and need to have space made for them in the other tracks. To elevate the effect, do a large part of mixing in mono to expose conflicts you wouldn't find in stereo. If it sounds good in mono, you know it'll sound great panned. The opposite (stereo to mono) doesn't work as well.

Make your kick punchy and your bass deep, or your bass punchy and your kick deep. One will compliment the other this way rather than muddy.

For the bass and scooped guitar relationship, the bass could add some mids back to the guitar tone. This will make the bass clearer too.. also a bit of distortion and compression on the bass can help it sit in the mix. You can also experiment by adding a little bit of mid back into your guitar tone

Err on the side of less gain. It'll be clearer and more defined. And when you double track and pan, it'll become bigger anyway.

Try to get your tones right at the source rather than fix it in the mix. But don't be afraid of making drastic tweaks with your DAW's eq. Use your ears more than your vision. I've made some ridiculous looking boosts and cuts, but it was the right move to solve the problem.

Lastly, find a song you absolutely love the sound of, your ideal for your sound. Use this as a reference. A/b it with your song while mixing (be careful to volume match. louder always sounds better, even if it isnt). This will expose what is missing or too apparent in your mix.

That's a few tips. Hopefully you find some of those helpful. Feel free to ask about specifics if you wish.

Thank you, very good pointers there. I'll try that mono idea for sure along with the others, great tips!

 

[fractalz]

+1 on listening to reference mixes