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Editor Boy on How to Massacre Your Mix


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EQ and Compression are two processes where I live by the maxim "Less Is More," although there are times when "Don't Touch That Dial" is more appropriate.

 

I have a particular dislike for ambiguous "Tone" controls, that tell you little or nothing about which Frequency bands they're Boosting or Cutting, nor by how much?

 

Since this thread is posted in two forums that I consider valuable and under-used, I will copy and paste this response in the other thread as well. Cheers, Kuru

 

More than one way to skin a cat, and more than one cat that needs skinning.

 

First, a disclaimer. In a one-on-one battle to the death you could pit Al Bundy with the finest sword against Bruce Lee with a tree branch that fell nearby. While Bruce has a better chance at winning due to superior technique, it is possible that Al will get in a lucky strike and take Bruce out. I say this because I am going to mention specific operating systems, DAWS, etc. because that is what I have and use. I am probably more of an Al Bundy. Everybody is different, we use what we have and there is no reason one cannot win the fight. In the end, we will grow and our results will show improvement. In the above example, there is an ending. In the real world, a mix may be a death of sorts but we can rise again and do better.

 

There is an exception to every rule and a rule to every exception. While I agree with the OP that mixing one track at a time is fraught with peril, it's not a bad way to learn what your plugin does. In this case, sometimes more is more. Solo the track, try everything the plugin allows and listen to it. Maybe it does something you really like, then you can leave it where it is and test it in the mix. Maybe it does something that makes you think it might be better on another track. Try that and see, then test it in the mix. Maybe it just isn't something you like at all and never will. I've made a set of custom plugin folders so I can organize them by function. There is one titled "?", that's where I would put that plugin for now and move on with the project. At some point, either that plugin turns out ot be useful (sometimes bad is good) or it gets tossed out forever.

 

Disclaimer, no affiliation with Native Instruments or metapop.com. I do have some NI plugins, I paid for them. I haven't used all of them yet, I do like some of them. Enough said.

I HIGHLY recommend joining www.metapop.com and entering the remix competitions. You will be remixing (and or producing) other people's music (which speaks to the OP and the mention of some things already being taken beyond the pale), you may or may not like the songs, the style, the recordings themselves or you may only like parts of them and dislike others. It's a mixed bag. I strongly recommend tackling some pieces that you don't care for, do what you can to make them sound their best to your ears. I've done almost 20 remixes there, at first I just played around at mixing and then I started setting goals with regards to learning my DAW - Waveform - and my plugins (all sorts of things).

 

Push your limits, perform experiments that are doomed to failure, mangle, mash and destroy content. Do stupid stuff and then make it worse. When you post your results, be sure to solicit (and provide for others) feedback. I've been amazed that things I did to be disturbing and or annoying have been singled out for praise often and other times when I thought I was serving the song I was given great advice on improving my results.

 

Multiple subjective viewpoints can help grow one's own attempts to be objective. Perspective is valuable.

 

I performed experiments with pitch shifting - Mac OS includes a nifty set of AU plugins which I only discovered because Waveform installed them for me. The New Pitch plugin is a hoot. Super simple interface, simply enter the amount of cents plus or minus that you want to shift the pitch, up to + or - 2000. You can enter 1/100 of a cent if you want (you'll never hear it, even stacked with the original track).

 

I played with creating loops, stretching and shrinking audio (and then pitch shifting it back to original pitch), delay, reverb, compression, etc.

And then the lightbulb lit up. Parallel processing! Automation tracks!!!!

 

I started copying and pasting the original track, making several duplicate tracks of the original tracks that the competition provided.

I chose a plugin, set the mix (if there was one) to full effects and started automating my effects tracks.

There are often places in a song where a bit more compression or EQ or reverb would enhance the composition. Maybe it doesn't need to be anywhere else in the mix. I can automate that. It can be subtle, it can be blatant, it can fade smoothly in or out or it can abruptly appear and disappear.

 

That doesn't mean all songs need it. It doesn't mean everybody should do it all the time (I don't). But it is a powerful tool for mixing and a rabbit hole I am glad I plunge down into.

It's been 21 months but here is a mix I submitted that ended up with 66 tracks of parallel processing. I would probably mix it differently now, all of these competitions have deadlines - which is another great lesson to learn.

Done is done, move on!!!!!

 

https://metapop.com/opossum-apocalypse/tracks/yours-opossum-apocalypse-remix/81308

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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