Seperating sounds?

[JackAstro]

How do you mix tracks so that the instruments don't step on each other. How do you make it easy for the listener to hear each part?

[eskimo]

I've had good luck turning it down, and drying it out.
Effects kill separation, especially c**p like delay and verb.
-edit- flatten your eq too.. it's all too easy to +1 yourself into mush.

..on the other hand, recording a song like 20 different times and learning how your studio monitors sound compared to.. your car, your PC, your ipod, stereo downstairs, your mom's car.. also helps a bit.


-Your milage may vary. I haven't recorded anything good in years because I'm deaf.

How many parts are you talking about?

[JackAstro]

...learning how your studio monitors sound compared to.. your car, your PC, your ipod, stereo downstairs, your mom's car.. also helps a bit.

...

How many parts are you talking about?

Fortunately, it always sounds worst on my mixing speakers.

A typical mix would be drums plus 4 parts. But the Evolver takes up a lot of space.

[eskimo]

No, not many parts at all.. do you have an example?

[JSRockit]

You may be making you sounds too big...perhaps your monitors aren't accurate enough? I used to make everything too big (BD or Bassline)...and then there'd be no room for anything else.

You have to use subtractive EQ to make things fit together... if they are fighting each other...

http://www.tweakheadz.com/EQ_and_the_Li ... Audio.html

You can use an EQ with a very high Q setting...this will give you a very precise band...then raise the EQ up by 12-24db... sweep it across the range of the individual tracks and if you hear something disgusting and distorted...remove it. And keep doing this until all unwanted noise is gone. If you do this right, it should not really change the sound much...but it'll make it sit better in the mix. Also, on non-bass sounds, use a low-pass filter to remove unnecessary bass.

[wiss]

I just read an article on this....a lot of it comes down to how you play, how you mix the drums and bass, and what you're trying to separate in the 1st place.

[hageir]

-Your milage may vary. I haven't recorded anything good in years because I'm deaf.

seriously?
are you deaf?
that's terrible

Also, on non-bass sounds, use a low-pass filter to remove unnecessary bass.

high-pass

[eskimo]

seriously?
are you deaf?
that's terrible

sorry, half deaf. left ear blew out 100% a few years ago.. The right one is ok, but it makes anything ANYTHING that has something to do with listening a problem. My soundfield is really distorted in how my brain processes and separates sounds.
It makes mixing really difficult.

F-it.. no one was paying me for my services anyway!

[Stab Frenzy]

I've had good luck turning it down, and drying it out.
Effects kill separation, especially c**p like delay and verb.
-edit- flatten your eq too.. it's all too easy to +1 yourself into mush.

No. EQ is exactly what you use to get everything to sit nicely, but most EQ works best used subtractively, like JS said. Anyway, to get things sitting nicely try these things:

First of all work out your panning. Anything that's under 500Hz or so (bass and kick mostly) is best left panned to the centre so that they can have the power of both channels to drive them, anything else you can put wherever you want. If you've got a guitar with a lot of sound at 2k and an organ with a lot at 2k and you pan one all the way left and the other all the way right they won't get in each others way so much. Working out your panning before you adjust EQ and levels is a great way to do things, because if you get the levels and EQ right and then do your panning it'll throw things out a bit.

Next do a basic level balance between all instruments. You might find the bass and the kick are getting in each others way. Decide which one you want to have doing the really low stuff and which you want tighter sounding and then use EQ to put a little notch down in each for the other one to sit in. It doesn't have to be a lot, maybe 2-5dB, but it makes a big difference.

For example you might be doing a track with a big dubby bassline and a tight kick so you might use a low shelf EQ on the kick to drop everything below 125Hz, then cut a notch out of the bass at around 400Hz for the kick to sit in. Obviously the frequencies you use will depend on the sounds of the bass and the kick, but you get the idea.

You basically do this with every instrument until the mix is finished. Remember it's usually best to cut, not boost, but a little boost of 2-3dB probably won't hurt.

Remember to cut a little bit out of everything for your vocals to sit in so you can make them intelligible without having to make them really loud. Then again, you might not want to do that cause it's sometimes good to have the vocals fighting with guitars, depends on the style of music.

You can also use sidechained compression to get things to sit in nicely with each other, which also helps a track groove along. Maybe do some reading on that, it's a bit much for me to get into now.

It might help you understand mixing better if you get a track you've been working on and do a mix where every instrument gets its own frequency all to itself, filtering everything else out with high and low pass filters. You'd be surprised how good a mix like this can sound, even though everything sounds bad soloed.

Doing a few mixes like this a playing around with the frequencies will help you understand what sounds from each instrument fit into the different parts of the frequency spectrum, and it'll help you mixes heaps.

[JSRockit]

Also, on non-bass sounds, use a low-pass filter to remove unnecessary bass.

high-pass

No, low-cut.

[hageir]

seriously?
are you deaf?
that's terrible

sorry, half deaf. left ear blew out 100% a few years ago.. The right one is ok, but it makes anything ANYTHING that has something to do with listening a problem. My soundfield is really distorted in how my brain processes and separates sounds.
It makes mixing really difficult.

F-it.. no one was paying me for my services anyway!

wow
that's weird, what happened?

I bet you can create some new amazing otherworldy mixes, man!
*dibbs on eskimo to mix my album*!!!!
h**l yes!

Also, on non-bass sounds, use a low-pass filter to remove unnecessary bass.

high-pass

No, low-cut.

oh snap!
1-0 hah

[prinsen]

...

Stab, your sound production tips are always interesting reads. Thank you very much for taking the time!

[eskimo]

I bet you can create some new amazing otherworldy mixes, man!
*dibbs on eskimo to mix my album*!!!!
h**l yes!

Not so fast.. you listened to my stuff??
Once I started recording nice and following the rules, everything got boring.. I listened to a whole crapload of stuff I recorded back in 93. That s**t was CRAZY.
Also, completely muddy, and bass that would make your speakers melt.
Now the whole one ear thing causes boring mixes that sound like sludge. -But no benefits of crazy speaker melting , pipe bombs and naked chicks.

[Stab Frenzy]

...

Stab, your sound production tips are always interesting reads. Thank you very much for taking the time!

No probs, I like sharing knowledge.

I forgot to mention that the arrangement also has a whole lot to do with how different elements fit together in the mix. A well written song that doesn't have everything playing all at once is a whole lot easier to mix, for example if you had a guitar part that only played in the verses and an organ part that was only in the choruses they could sit in the same part of the frequency spectrum fine.

It's something worth thinking about in the rhythm part of a song when you're writing it, a nice sparse bassline leaves you a lot of room to fill up with other instruments without things getting in the way.