Author: urmadmin

Common Mixing Mistakes (Volume 1) 

Mixing is a rather tricky business…

The thing is, if you’ve been at it for a while, it’s fairly easy to forget that there’s actually a pretty steep learning curve to overcome when you first start out. Remember, certain things which may seem “blatantly obvious” or “common sense” to you at this point probably took you years to realise/come across as a newcomer!

The truth is, a lot of the “eureka” moments we have throughout our mixing careers are the result of making mistakes until somebody points them out to us and then learning from said mistakes. This series of Blogs aims to point out some of these “not-so-obvious” common mistakes which even experienced engineers tend to make in the studio and hopefully help you course-correct as early-on as possible.

Here are a couple of common mistakes to watch out for the next time you sit down to mix:

Mistake #1 – Monitoring Too Loud

Don’t get fooled by the hype!

Believe it or not, the levels you monitor at while mixing can have a huge influence on the various balancing decisions you make during the process. If done carelessly, something that seems as mundane and simple as setting your listening volume can potentially result in a handful of issues further down the line.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider turning it down:

A – Loud Sounds Better… NOT!

There’s a valid reason why people on the audio forums and YouTube comment section get so worked up about before/after volume matching in plugin demos: OUR EARS PERCEIVE LOUDER AS BETTER.

For this exact reason we can easily get tricked into thinking the mix we’ve been working on with the speakers cranked sounds killer, when in reality we’ve probably missed the mark completely…

Don’t just take my word for it, multiple grammy award-winning engineer Chris Lord Alge is well known for avidly preaching the same advice:

“Monitoring is everything, cranking it up vs. listening to it low will give a different result to your mix. The important thing is to find the lowest volume that you feel you can balance the song at and stick with that.”

Check out the full SonicScoop interview here – https://vimeo.com/39245580

SonicScoop’s Power Sessions: Chris Lord-Alge – Part 3 “The Anthemic CLA Mix” from SonicScoop on Vimeo.

B – Ear Fatigue:

Another detrimental (and eventually serious) side-effect of listening at higher volumes for prolonged periods of time is ear fatigue. If left unchecked, this practice can lead to several issues in both the short, and the long run:

• The short run: In my own experience, a specific balance I’ve made after listening at higher volumes for a long time will almost always need a substantial revision the next day when listened back with fresh ears.

• It’s also fairly likely that I’ve removed too much of the high-mids around 2-3kHz in the process. My ears slowly become more sensitive to this frequency range throughout the day.

• The long run: Our ears are very sensitive things, bombarding them with mid-heavy walls of distorted guitars and blast beats for hours on end, day after day can really take it’s toll over the years.

For these reasons I usually try and hold back for as long as possible before testing if my mixes are bangin’ at louder volumes. Sticking to this level of restraint can produce instant results in the form of allowing for longer mixing hours without any noticeable fatigue.

Give it a go!

Monitoring Too Loud Conclusion:

If you want a successful and long-lasting career in audio production then the answer is simple: YOU NEED TO PRESERVE YOUR HEARING! This isn’t something you can afford to brush to the side and worry about when you’re older. By then it’ll probably be too late.

Mistake #2 – Mixing To Your Monitoring/Room

Think your mixes sound great? Think again…

I was recently clearing out some unused gear from my studio and picking out pieces to potentially sell off on eBay. One thing I came across was a pair of Sony MDR-7506 headphones which I formerly used for monitoring while playing drums live.

In order to determine if the headphones were still in good working condition I decided to plug them in and listen with some of my go-to reference mixes. My first reaction upon hitting play was something along of the lines of: “Wow, these headphones sound much brighter than I remember! There must be something wrong with them…”

As to not write them off as broken straight away, I tried listening to them through Sonarworks’ Headphone Calibration software. To my surprise, they sounded incredible and very well balanced as a result.

Check out the average frequency response of the Sony MDR-7506’s as determined by Sonarworks in the graph below:

The Verdict?

Does this mean that they are bad headphones? Not necessarily. It simply means that they might be better suited to some tasks than others.

The prominent high-end boost and low-mid scoop of the Sony’s actually make a lot of sense in a live performance or studio tracking situation (similar to how I was using them in the past). These EQ moves can really improve the sound of raw instruments from the get-go. They help provide a vaguely “ready mixed” monitoring solution for the performer.

However, if the Sony’s were to be used as a primary mixing solution in the studio  without any calibration, our mixes would exhibit a bunch of pretty serious issues on other systems:

• The huge boosts between 4-10kHz would cause us to compensate and mix very treble-light, resulting in dark mixes with reduced clarity.

• The steep high-frequency roll-off beyond 10kHz may lead us into thinking our guitars and cymbals are fizz-free, when in reality they aren’t.

• The large boost in the 2-4kHz presence region may cause us to “over-scoop” the harshness out of our overheads and distorted guitars, or think our drum shells and vocals are more present than they are in reality.

• The low-end roll-off starting at 60Hz will lead us to mix sub-heavy, resulting in a boomy mix and problems during the mastering stage.

This list could go on longer, but I think you get the point…

Long story short: The severity of these boosts and cuts will vary greatly depending on the brand and price-point, but most headphones will suffer from similar issues to a certain extent. If you’re ever going to be mixing through headphones, I’d highly recommend doing some research on their shortcomings before doing so.

What about mixing on monitors?

Although a little more complex, the same principles also apply to mixing on monitors, with the added variable of the studio environment. Unless your room has been acoustically treated with panels, traps, diffusers and possibly some calibration software, then you can expect that you’re mixes will sound drastically different when taken out of it

Note: I won’t go into room acoustic treatment in this Blog, as it’s a very detailed topic which deserves a write-up of it’s own. Stay tuned for a URM room treatment guide at some point in the future!

Mixing To Your Monitoring/Room Conclusion:

If you’re unable to spend the time and/or money on optimising your monitoring, make sure you’re at least referencing your material on multiple systems. Don’t rely solely on a single representation.

INVEST IN YOUR MONITORING!

You’ll be surprised to see the difference it makes when you’re not having to constantly fight against your equipment to produce a good mix.

FINAL WORDS:

This concludes  Volume 1 of my  “Common Mixing Mistakes” series of Blogs. I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to let me know in the comment section below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any further questions regarding anything I’ve talked about here.

Stay tuned for Volume 2 of “Common Mixing Mistakes” and more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!

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Want mix tips from URM Academy? Read them here!

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!

Analysis As a Learning Tool (Part 1)

As audio engineers we’re always looking to improve our craft and take our mixes to the next level. Two of the key methods to speeding up this learning process are:

• Understanding the subtleties of the gear we’re using.

         AND

• Knowing how to perform accurate analysis and comparisons.

Here are some of the primary tools which you can use in order analyze and compare between sounds or gear, while possibly gaining further insight into the techniques of the pros in the process:

Spectrum Analyzers:

A spectrum analyzer is basically a utility tool which displays a graphic representation of the frequency content present within an audio signal at any given moment.

This type of visual aid can be an invaluable tool for quickly locating issues with certain frequencies, analyzing pre-processed tracks, or providing a solid point of reference in less than optimal listening circumstances.

NOTE: Although I’m a big spectrum analyzer user myself and often need some visual aid in order to fix certain problems quickly, it’s important not to rely too heavily on visuals while mixing, as this can become a problem in and of itself.

Remember: EARS BEFORE EYES!

A prime example of a successful engineer who uses spectrum analyzers effectively and creatively in their recording and mixing process is Nolly from Periphery:

Adam “Nolly” Getgood – Drum Samples Analysis:

I’m a huge fan of Nolly’s productions, but more specifically, his drum sounds. Achieving clear, punchy, dynamic and natural sounding drums in a dense progressive metal mix without the use of sample replacement is no easy feat, yet Nolly seems to pull it off every time.

NOTE: Check out the new Devin Townsend Project album “Transcendence” for an example of Nolly’s amazing drum production skills.

How does he do It?

One of the clear reasons behind Nolly’s awesome drum mixing talent, is the fact that despite not being a drummer himself, he obviously has a great fundamental understanding of how drums and drummers work. I’d be willing to bet that this understanding of drums is partly owed to the large amount of time he’s spent analyzing various famous drum sounds, and the effort he’s put into attempting to replicate them in his own mixes.

How do I know this?

At some point last year I watched the Periphery CreativeLive course, which offered some great insight into Nolly’s drum mixing techniques (I’d highly recommend purchasing the course, as I learnt a lot from watching it).

One of the things he mentioned which really caught my attention, was how he had spent time analyzing a bunch of his favorite processed kick drum samples in a spectrum analyzer, and noticed that they had certain characteristic similarities between them.

One of the characteristics he mentioned in particular, was how the fundamental low and high-end information in each of these processed samples appeared to peak around the same level on the graph. At the time of hearing this I was intrigued, so I decided to test out his theory for myself using various professionally processed samples I’ve collected throughout the years.

Here are some of the results of my tests:

NOTE: Each kick sample in these examples was processed by a different A-List Mixing Engineer.

1st Famous Metal Engineer Kick:

2nd Famous Metal Engineer Kick:

3rd Famous Metal Engineer Kick:

4 – And finally, here’s what one of the kick samples from Andy Sneap’s Metal Machine EzDrummer pack looks like on the same graph:

A Few Key Observations Based on the Examples Above:

• Notice how the fundamental low and upper mid-range bumps in all of the kick drums shown above are peaking around the same volume within each sample, despite the fact that they were each mixed by a different engineer…

• Another obvious thing which these samples have in common are the various scoops in the mids.

Just to give you some extra perspective, here’s what a professionally recorded and completely unprocessed kick drum looks like on a spectrum analyzer:

Unprocessed Kick Sample:

Some Observations On The Unprocessed Kick Sample Compared to one of the A-List Engineer Processed Samples:

• Notice how the low-end of the unprocessed kick is quite broad and undefined, while the low-end in the processed sample is more focused and tight.

• Notice the 8-10dB (ish) difference in volume between the low-end bump around 80Hz and upper mid-range slap/click of the kick between 3-8kHz in the unprocessed sample, but how the equivalent areas are both peaking around the zero mark in the processed sample.

• Notice the large mid frequency peaks between 400-900Hz in the unprocessed sample, but how the mid range in the processed sample is a lot smoother throughout the same range.

• Notice the difference in level between the sub low-end content in each kick and how some filtering or reduction has probably been applied to the subs in the processed sample.

• Notice how 10kHz+ high-end content of the unprocessed kick is much lower in volume than that of the processed kick, indicating that a high-shelf was probably used to give it a lift.

Drum Sample Analysis Conclusion:

As you can see from the list of observations above, we’ve managed to pinpoint some of the key areas of kick drum processing which we might want to pay attention to, with nothing more than a simple spectrum analysis comparison.

FINAL NOTE: This doesn’t mean that you should stop using your ears and start mixing by sight in a “paint by numbers” fashion, as every kick drum is different and it most likely won’t work out very well.

Hopefully this brief demonstration has given you a new appreciation of the spectrum analyzer, and given you some ideas into how you can use it as a learning tool.

FINAL WORDS:

This concludes  Part 1 of my  “Analysis As a Learning Tool ” series of Blogs. I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to let me know in the comment section below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any further questions regarding anything I’ve talked about here.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of “Analysis As a Learning Tool” and more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!

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Want mix tips from URM Academy? Read them here!

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!