Learning Mixing

[steevio]

i've just finished a mastering session for some friends of mine this afternoon,

they are both young guys but have had around 5 or 6 years experience, and there was virtually nothing for me to do. they are both such talented guys, their mixdowns were almost perfect, both of them work totally digitally, and the only thing lacking was a bit of warmth, so i just ran their tracks through my tube EQ with the EQ actually switched out, so it was just giving it some tube warmth, also their dynamics were spot on, so i didnt even compress their mixes.

i think this is the thing, if you're a good musician mixing should be the easy part. i'm sure it was just about the first thing i learned to get right.

i think theres a culture now of 'dont worry the mastering engineer will sort it'
maybe thats where alot of people go wrong.

[pafufta816]

if i were to pay dubplates and mastering to do my mastering i'd be paying for specific tasks that i do not possess the ability or equipment to do. i would want some channels routed through a tube amp to add warmth (my setup is 99% digital, it lacks some warmth for sure), and an objective set of ears with a good monitor system to adjust the volume of the channels. when i finish producing a track, i am so fatigued and familiar with the sonic qualities of the song that i cannot "hear" it anymore on an objective level. i need a second pair of ears.

what i don't want is some snot nosed kid in his 20's, who just got out of a 2 year community college program, to crank the sh!t out of a compressor in logic and ruin my dynamics. i would probably ask the m.e. i am paying to not compress anything. is mastering necessary, no, but should i want to do a cd or vinyl release i think it would be worth it.

[coldfuture]

theres a simple way to get round this, check the average RMS value of the loudest part of the track you are A/Bing against, in say Soundforge, and then check the same in your track, and whatever the difference is, reduce the reference track by that amount by normalising in the wave editor and listen again.

this is a cheat, which kind of brings the reference track more in line with yours if it wasnt mastered. its not an exact science but it can help get a better idea of where youre at.

this will make it obvious if your bass is too loud or whatever.

Wow dood. I am total nitwit for never thinking of doing this before!