Please help me better my mixing skills

K

karel.will

Freshman
Jan 13, 2011
35
0
0
Bruges, Belgium
Hi,

The last couple of years I have been learning a lot as a System Tech. I've gotten very skillfull with Smaart, and I'm very happy with that.
But, as a result I guess, my mixing skills haven't really improved as much.
I'm great at producing a clean, stable nice mix, and I get complimented on that on a regular basis, but I want to step it up a little.
I was working with (one of) the best mixing guy in Belgium (Mr. Marc Luyckx), and he showed me a few tricks he has up his sleeves. That was a big eye-opener.

So here comes my question:

What (online) video's should I track down, what DVD's should I buy, what books+CD's should I read and listen to?
If you guys could point me to some stuff you found very interesting and stimulating, that would be very nice.

I guess what I'm looking for is to sit down with a great mixing engineer, and have him explain all the little tricks and tips he has to improve the sound of a band.

I'm not looking for product tutorials, as I already know how everything works, I just need to learn how to use the tools and toys and in a more creative way.

Thank you very much in advance!

Karel "Charly" Will
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Hi Langston,

I've read that thread, a long time ago :-) , and even though it's a good refresher, I'm looking for more detailed things like examples of the use of compressor settings to make the bass and the kick play nice, or specific sounds you can create with the use of the right reverb on the snare bottom mic...

I'm looking for video's where someone takes apart a whole mix, and explains why they do what they do...

But thanks anyway!

Karel.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

If you really want to learn to mix, you cannot do it by rote.

Take a hearing physiology and psychoacoustics class, and learn how the ear works, and learn what humans actually hear and why.

Learn how the compressors work, and why we use them. Same with gates, reverbs, etc.

Learn what the knobs on the EQ do to audio (good and bad) and how to use both of those attributes to your advantage.

Learn more about the instruments you are trying to amplify. Learn their true spectral content (not just their frequency ranges, but what part of those ranges actually carry important information). Learn to give the instruments and voices their own sections of the audio spectrum. For instance: It's easy to "make the bass and kick play nice" because they don't need to occupy the same space.

No, it's not easy, and certainly tougher to learn on-the-job. That's why I suggest taking classes or spending as much down time as possible studying acoustical theory. This knowledge made mixing much easier for me, and allowed me to be more creative when given the opportunity.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Hey Karel,
How about improving your Listening skills?
There's courses Like Moultons "Golden Ears" ($$$) or F.Alton Everest "Critical listening skills..." (Amazon)
or Harmon have a listening trainer "How to listen..."
there's also some ear training stuff out on the net.

As for mixing chops

"Practical recording techniques" by Bruce & Jenny Bartlett
"Mixing & Mastering audio recordings" by Bill gibson
although it's recording a lot of the techniques can translate to live.

oh yeah and practice, practice, practice :)

hope this helps,

ferrit
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Hi Ferrit,

We met on the MLA introduction in Belgium some time ago. I was one of the Flashlight freelancing guys... :-)

As I'm a quit good Systems Tech, I think I have a decent trained ear, but perhaps I need to learn to listen to different things besides frequencies...

And I'll definately check out your tips.

Thanks!

Karel.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Hey karel,
great to hear from you, yep there's more than just frequencies, listening to how compression can alter the timbre of your instruments, rather than just automatic levelling, for instance, the subtle art of "sonic enhancement"
Another skill is subtractive mixing, learning to reveal things in a mix, and of couse seperation, were called mix engineers but actually we try to seperate instruments so you can hear them.

Check out Dave rat's stuff "roadies in the midst" blog

also finally found this site, checkout resone at the bottom of the page http://www.ohl.to/about-audio/audio-softwares
(other good stuff too)

cheers,
ferrit
 
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Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Dave Rat of Rat Sound doe some interesting YouTube videos of some of his mixing techniques. He frequents large format consoles and uses a good mixture of VCA's and Sub Groups in his mixing style. Find him on YouTube or Facebook.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Hi Kip,

I'm well aware of Mr. Rat, him being a facebook friend of mine.
As a matter of fact, being a sound engineer and NOT being aware of him seems rather impossible to me... :-)

Thanks anyway!

Karel.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

The only way to learn how to become a better engineer is to get out there and do it. Don't be afraid to fuck up and make something sound like shit, cause I bet you won't do it again. ;)

Twiddle, tweak, try something crazy and see what the result is. I've figured out 90% of my tricks by trail and error, not reading what someone else does.



Evan
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Evan Kirkendall said:
Twiddle, tweak, try something crazy and see what the result is. I've figured out 90% of my tricks by trail and error, not reading what someone else does.



Evan
Click to expand...


This, to me, is what separates the men from the boys as far as engineers go. This is what makes Evan an invaluable asset, because he isn't afraid to take risks and bust tail to get the results he wants. And how he got those tricks, of his own accord, makes him one of a kind.

Press on.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

karel.will said:
I guess what I'm looking for is to sit down with a great mixing engineer, and have him explain all the little tricks and tips he has to improve the sound of a band.
Click to expand...

in my opinion the first thing is to understand as you plan your mix is what the artist thinks about their recordings. do they like the mix and the fx processing? do they want to sound like the record? do they have the means to sound like the record?

if they like the way there records sound then this is your guide.

assuming you have a great band and great microphones well placed and a properly deployed speaker system the most important thing you can do to start to develop a great mix is set the pre/head amps (gain) in a balanced way there are some good engineers who use avid consoles with some videos where they discuss mixing methods and gain structure that is pretty basic but at the same time high level skill.

i think of channel eq like any other effect such as comps and gates, reverbs, delays, pitch, chorus these are the basic tools used effect the sound of the mix.

figure out what the hooks are in the songs. what are the parts of the songs the fans sing or the riffs they like? try to accent those. think about the catchy parts that stand out to the average fan who hears the song on the radio or on cd.

karel.will said:
I just need to learn how to use the tools and toys and in a more creative way.

Thank you very much in advance!

Karel "Charly" Will
Click to expand...

since you seem to have the science already now you need the art of listening and mixing.

there is no top secret setting on any gear that will give you a great mix. but of coarse all good engineers have trick of their trade...

steal bits from other engineers you hear who are providing quality mixes and combine them with your own tricks to make your own method.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

It also never hurts to be the fly on the wall at a studio. I worked as the system tech/FOH mix engineer for the same artist for 7 years and he asked me to bring my ears into his studio projects since I can quickly hear things and give actual frequencies of things that are bothering us... without hunting it down with an RTA plugin. After engineering three records and sitting through two different studio mix engineers I learned a lot about mixing when the acoustic realm is not an issue. Meaning that issues such as feedback, bleed or a venues acoustic properties are no longer in the equation (the things that make studio engineers poor live engineers). Of course being a live engineer, I showed him a few tricks about phasing- more importantly explained it to him!
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

The one thing I did that helped me more than anything is to record my board mixes and listen to them later. Kind of like football players watching a game film. It will tell you what you did well and what you did not so well. After the event you have the stress-free environment and time to really think about what happened and apply some proper analytics to your performance.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Tim Weaver said:
The one thing I did that helped me more than anything is to record my board mixes and listen to them later. Kind of like football players watching a game film. It will tell you what you did well and what you did not so well. After the event you have the stress-free environment and time to really think about what happened and apply some proper analytics to your performance.
Click to expand...

+1

I try to listen to my mixes on the same set of cans as well. Something that I can always reference back to and evaluate my work as I go on. I always use the same headphones for listening to other music as well, to be able to establish a constant between the work I do, and the work that others have done. It's always fun to figure out their tricks in the process, or at least a figure out a way to achieve the same results.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

Work on getting a good solid mix going without any FX, comps, gates first. After the mix is up and going start icing the cake with a little comp on say the vocals, snare, bass, Acoustic guitar. Add a some gating on the toms, kick. Depending on the type of venue effects like verb may or may not not be needed. Set back and listen if anything you added starts to jump out and become annoying you don't need as much or maybe none at. As has been mention good gain structure is first and for most and be sure you listen to the sound sources directly at the source for instance if the tone out of the guitar amp is all 1k and up I'm not sure your going to find a knob to fix that!

Try different mics, turn knobs, have fun.
 
Re: Please help me better my mixing skills

I recorded a "virtual soundcheck" of several shows on the last tour. When I was home between tours, I set up the FOH console and ran played the mix back through some studio monitors. I was able to change plug ins, try out different effects, and hone my mix. It takes access to the gear and a multitrack recording, but if you have that, it is a valuable exercise.
 
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