Some ppl forget the importance of a well mixed track - a bad mixdown can make a good tune sound weak (but a good mixdown cant polish a turd tho
)
so here is a quick n dirty guide to mixing down your track....
1. Set master fader to 0db, do not change this at all
2. Set all channel faders to silent
3. Starting with the kick and snare, raise the volume to a good audible level
4. Bring in the other drum parts
5. Fade in the bass channel(s) to a good level
6. The next stage is to EQ and or PAN the various instruments to separate the sounds so that they can all be heard and no sounds gel or become too muddy
7. Soloing the bass and kick drum parts, work out where in the frequency range you would like the kick and bass sit in comparison to each other.
8. Sweep the bass EQ with a maximum gain, narrow bandwidth Q/resonance to find the point at which the frequencies overlap - then reduce the gain at this frequency point with a wider q to balance out the frequency range of this instrument. This should help the kick drum to sit better in the mix and it should not blend or become as muddy in comparison to the bass. This sweeping technique can be done as many times as required to find harmonic peaks. Reduce eq gain in these ranges to balance the sound.
9. Bring in the other instruments one at a time to a good volume level. EQ and PAN as before to separate the sounds. Remember to cut rather than boost the EQ for a more natural sound. Boost EQ for a specific type of effect rather than for the mastering stage
10. when all instruments have been roughly mixed, solo all drum / bass parts and consider adding compression to various elements, if you think this is required. Bass will usually require some compression in order to increase and balance the volume of the different notes.
11. Send all drum parts to a single drum bus track. In this way an overall drum track EQ and compressor can be added to help gel the elements and balance the volume and dynamic range
12. Do the same for multiple bass channels (place in a single bus)
13. Compress other channels if necessary.
14. Use PAN and EQ to separate instruments such as guitars, strings and vocals, especially if these instruments share frequency ranges and sound muddy or overly blend together
15. If the overall volume level is too low, select all faders, right click and choose link channels and raise them so the peak is near but not over 0db on the master fader. This will keep all levels proportionate to each other, so you won’t have to re-balance everything
16. Mix down to a high quality .wav stereo, 24 bit, 44,000khz file (minimum).
17. Bring this file into a separate cubase file
18. Reset master fader to 0db as before
19. While not essential but helps... Add a good mastering EQ, multiband compressor and volume limiter/maximizer to balance and increase the overall sound to a polished, commercial level. A tool such as Ozone features all 3 of these tools. Alternatively use individual insert effects like the waves mastering plugins if you have access to stuff like that.
20. Finally render/save to a high quality wav file.
hope this helps
)so here is a quick n dirty guide to mixing down your track....
1. Set master fader to 0db, do not change this at all
2. Set all channel faders to silent
3. Starting with the kick and snare, raise the volume to a good audible level
4. Bring in the other drum parts
5. Fade in the bass channel(s) to a good level
6. The next stage is to EQ and or PAN the various instruments to separate the sounds so that they can all be heard and no sounds gel or become too muddy
7. Soloing the bass and kick drum parts, work out where in the frequency range you would like the kick and bass sit in comparison to each other.
8. Sweep the bass EQ with a maximum gain, narrow bandwidth Q/resonance to find the point at which the frequencies overlap - then reduce the gain at this frequency point with a wider q to balance out the frequency range of this instrument. This should help the kick drum to sit better in the mix and it should not blend or become as muddy in comparison to the bass. This sweeping technique can be done as many times as required to find harmonic peaks. Reduce eq gain in these ranges to balance the sound.
9. Bring in the other instruments one at a time to a good volume level. EQ and PAN as before to separate the sounds. Remember to cut rather than boost the EQ for a more natural sound. Boost EQ for a specific type of effect rather than for the mastering stage
10. when all instruments have been roughly mixed, solo all drum / bass parts and consider adding compression to various elements, if you think this is required. Bass will usually require some compression in order to increase and balance the volume of the different notes.
11. Send all drum parts to a single drum bus track. In this way an overall drum track EQ and compressor can be added to help gel the elements and balance the volume and dynamic range
12. Do the same for multiple bass channels (place in a single bus)
13. Compress other channels if necessary.
14. Use PAN and EQ to separate instruments such as guitars, strings and vocals, especially if these instruments share frequency ranges and sound muddy or overly blend together
15. If the overall volume level is too low, select all faders, right click and choose link channels and raise them so the peak is near but not over 0db on the master fader. This will keep all levels proportionate to each other, so you won’t have to re-balance everything
16. Mix down to a high quality .wav stereo, 24 bit, 44,000khz file (minimum).
17. Bring this file into a separate cubase file
18. Reset master fader to 0db as before
19. While not essential but helps... Add a good mastering EQ, multiband compressor and volume limiter/maximizer to balance and increase the overall sound to a polished, commercial level. A tool such as Ozone features all 3 of these tools. Alternatively use individual insert effects like the waves mastering plugins if you have access to stuff like that.
20. Finally render/save to a high quality wav file.
hope this helps
