The Anatomy Of A Mix – Mixing and Mastering A Song
When mixing a song in today’s digital environment, several important factors come into play. The first is the volume levels of the individual instruments in relation to the output bus level in combination with pan settings in the stereo panorama. The second is the application (or not) of compression, limiting and equalization to the individual channels, if called for. The third is the overall panorama created by layering of reverbs and effects. The final step after mixing, is mastering, where it all comes together for the final product.
When mixing, often the channels are separated into groups, and the groups then are sent to the main output bus. In addition there are background signal sends which selectively feed the individual tracks into various reverbs and effects, and these channels are in turn routed either to a group or an output bus. When mixing, it’s important that individual tracks be turned down low enough so that they are not overloading the bus they are feeding into. If more volume is necessary, start with the outermost first — i.e., by adding more volume to the speakers or headphones or amplification unit, then checking the level on the digital analog interface to make sure its control is turned all the way up, then the stereo output bus of the DAW should be set at the top level zero point, then the groups and sends may have fine tuning on their levels, and finally, the individual channels, which, theoretically, should be set very sensitively and have their sliders set to the lowest levels in the chain. A well thought-out structure of channels, groups and sends, monitored on a well calibrated and set up sound system, can elevate a mix to the status of a very powerfully organized balance of sounds.
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Audio Mastering: How To Prepare Your Mix
In our mastering studios, we see a lot of music and a lot of music files coming our way. Many musicians and producers know just how to prepare their mix for CD mastering, but on the other hand, a lot of the files we see coming in are not prepared correctly for the mastering process. The main problems we see are either 1) the file was exported too hot, and there is no headroom to work with, and the sound clips; 2) the producer used a mastering plug-in on the export, and the song is already mastered, to a fashion; and/or 3) the vocals are distorted or are not sounding good.
When a file is exported too hot, the result is that there is no variation between the louder sections and the parts that are supposed to softer. The reason is that in digital music production, there is a ceiling to how loud a track can be, this is referred to as the zero attenuation point and roughly corresponds to the ‘red line’ maximum level on the output slider. If the song is mixed correctly, the output mix will never touch the zero line. But what we often see is the whole output file touching and in fact attempting to push above the zero line. In such a case, all the softer sections of the music are pushed almost as loud as the zero point, and all the louder sections would have crossed the zero point, except that they are “clipped” by the fact that the sound cannot be louder than the zero point. The result is that all the louder peaks are cut off and “clipped” by the zero point whereas the softer parts are pushed almost directly to the zero point. The result is a marked lack of dynamic difference between what are supposed to be louder and softer peaks and valleys in the music, which should have shown more dynamic difference but were thwarted due to the clipping process. And in most cases, the clipping results in distortion and aliasing which were not present in the music when originally produced.
Similarly, if a producer or self-produced musician employs a mastering plug-in on the entire track, this also destroys any sort of variation between the louder peaks and the softer valleys of the sound track file. While usually such a plug-in does not allow the sound to clip past the zero point, nevertheless it compresses the track into a dynamic range which eliminates this so-called headroom from the track, and invariably makes it difficult for us as mastering engineers to do anything creative with the dynamic range that remains. Therefore, if you are going to get your track professionally mastered, it is imperative that you do not use a mastering plug-in when outputting your mix. The plug-in itself may be nice and sound good and provide some form of mastering, but the fact is a mastering engineer can do a lot more with your mix than a mastering plug-in. So, you should choose: mastering plug-in, or mastering engineer? not both.
(…) Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6511920