lambofgodrules
Newbie
Joined: 17 Mar 2007
Posts: 2
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| Brand new to mixing and mastering, would like direction |
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To be perfectly honest, I haven't much mixing and mastering until I obtained a pair of Behringer B2031A's recently. I'm just looking for some guideling rather that "turning me loose into the Grand Canyon" I think you get the implication. 
I want to know how to make that great sounding cd BEFORE I experiment with off sound ideas, ya know? I forgot a couple other important piece of info,
I don't mic my guitars or bass here's why;
I use the afformentioned speakers.
I'm running an Aardvark Q10 on Windows XP with recording set to 24/88.2
ALL cables I'm running are Monster cables magnetically shielded.
I use my effects pedal for direct recording, It's a Line 6 PODXT Live, (it has a special studio direct feature as well as different cab presets, and mic placement/presets.)
I record with a B.C.Rich Beast NJ Series, with stock bridge remove and replaced with Seymour Duncan Invader
Guitar 2-An ESP LTD AX-400 no stock changes
Bass is an Ibanez Ergodyne EDB 600 no stock changes either
Recording Software is Cakewalk Sonar 4 Producer Edition
My real mic for Vocals is a Nady Starpower SP-1
And I don't play drums or have drum mics, but I'm running a software based drum program called PC Drummer.
Anyways, I'm looking for basically a guideline numerically and systemically by which the process should be executed for my sound. Which I would describe as Heavy Metal with Ambience and maybe a little Experimental. I could provide links for example of my sound, and sound I'm going for.....
an example would be as follows
STEP 1; record all things needed for song,
STEP 2; pan instruments out correctly and add in any extra sounds(i.e.ocean waves, etc.) thus mixing.
STEP 3; Compress audio data (vocals, drums, guitar)-which in itself I need help with
STEP 4; run parametric Eq to cut out bad frequencies (another I know very little about)
STEP 5; dither whole project down to correct cd usage and test on systems such as cars, home stereos,etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!! 
I also would like to add that I know compression it used to sweetin up low sounding areas, or bring down ear popping areas, I'm just looking for a good compression setting for heavy metal distortion. As well as a lighter compression setting for the clean ambient stuff.
As far as the Parametric Eq goes, I've done some research on this site and found a basic textbook guideline for which I was looking for, I'm just asking if anyone knows any magic frequencies for my genre..... |
Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:51 pm |
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ben m
Joined: 15 Sep 2002
Posts: 337
Location: UK |
Hi LOGR,
unfortunately there are no 'rules' or 'systems' to work by when it comes to mixing and mastering, there are some rules of thumb in certain areas but that's about it.
It would be useful if you could point us in the direction of the overall sound you are after - as you know there are several different sub genres of metal with their own sonic fingerprints!
Post back with some links and i'm sure we'll be able to help you out! |
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Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:14 pm |
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lambofgodrules
Newbie
Joined: 17 Mar 2007
Posts: 2
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I'm trying to go for something similar to the mixing and mastering style of this, www.myspace.com/tesseract
or possibly these guys too, www.myspace.com/signofone
but this is what i have so far, www.myspace.com/theronstevens
a combination of what I what would describe as a mixture of Lamb of God in some areas, Meshuggah timing in some areas, Tool ambience, and an OLD Staind style of stuff.....I want to add that spaciousness and clear cut difference of great melody with grinding distortion, growls, lovely vocals, intense drums, GOD I LOVE METAL!!!!!! anyways I digress....
Yeah, I'm just still really new to this stuff, and I don't really know where to start......
I've read several articles pertaining to parametric equalizers and they've said the most frequent method of finding bad frequencies for something is to narrow the bandwidth and greatly exaggerate the bad frequency. Now where I go from here I don't know.....do I take notes of the problem frequencies, and then reduce them? 
But then again I also read Bob Katz said mixing and mastering is not trying to make each instrument sound good on it's own  , but with all the others as a whole, so how could I incorporate that mentality into the parametric eq?
And how do you know when too much compression is bad?
What is the actual difference between mixing and mastering? The lines appear to be VERY GREY!!!!
You can see there's alot of questions I have, but rather than ask them all, I want to perform a good mix/master to learn for myself I just would like some advice from veterans for a recommended course of action...... |
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Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:45 am |
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ben m
Joined: 15 Sep 2002
Posts: 337
Location: UK |
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Hi LOGR,
to try to answer some of the questions raised in your post.
The most common way to find bad frequencies is as you mentioned; you would then reduce that frequency until it sounds better - you may also need to widen the bandwidth depending on the frequency.
However don't go looking for 'bad' frequencies with every channel/track, they should make themselves obvious to you!
What Bob Katz said is absolutely true - often sounds that sound great in isolation sound poor in the mix - everything in a mix needs to fill a 'hole' to ensure the overall sound is even and pleasant to the ear.
Your ears need to learn the sound of compression, only then will you be able to tell when you have applied too much - there is no guideline to how much compressions to apply, on some sources you may only want 1-2dB of compression, on other sources you might be looking at 9-10dB of reduction - it totally depends on what you are using the compressor for.
It is quite easy to differentiate between mixing and mastering.
Mixing is the process of bringing together several different sounds (i.e bass guitar, drums, vocals, keys etc) and blending them together (including the use of panning, EQ, dynamic processors, effects processors etc etc) into a stereo track (it may not be stereo if you are mixing for DVD/surround etc)
Mastering is the process of treating the finished mix which will usually be a stereo file. Usually mastering will incorporate processes such as EQ, compression and limiting.
To kill two birds with one stone, take a listen to the track 'TRACK REMOVED' here:
TRACK REMOVED
This is an example of too much compression being used at the mastering stage - this is a friends band so i'm sure he won't mind me using this as an example! - you can hear the music almost 'pumping' and 'breathing', especially at the start of the track. This is usually an undesirable effect and would usually indicate that too much compression has been applied and/or the wrong attack and release times have been used.
Had a quick listen to one of the examples you posted - in this style of music it is quite common tohave quite 'scooped' guitar sounds. By 'scooped' I mean that there is usually a dip in the mid freqs which gives the impression of more treble and bass. Heavily distorted guitar rarely benefits from compression as the signal is already compressed.
The bass guitars are often scooped somewhat and compressed.
Drums are usually live drums but quite often the kick (and sometimes snare) are replaced using something like Drumagog to give a 'perfect' sound.
I'm sure more people will chip in on this one.
Last edited by ben m on Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:11 pm |
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Audiodef
Newbie
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 6
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Here's a good beginner's tip guide:
http://www.bluebearsound.com/articles/mixing101.htm
Other than that, let you ears do the seeing, and experiment with what sounds right for the target playback mode (club, car, home stereo), or experiment to find out what's best for your music for an all-around good mix. Also do some research on your equipment and software so you know what it's ins and outs are and what it's capable of. |
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Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:39 pm |
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