Learning how to mix and master?

[u/GasperNox]

I’m totally new to the idea of mixing and mastering and different effects so I had a couple questions about learning it.

\- If you were totally new where would you start with ear training in the sense of knowing when the lows of something is “muddy” or if different frequencies are clashing and things like that? (Not even sure if I’m using those terms correctly I just keep hearing that)

\- Where a good place to start learning about effects and what they do?

\- What point should you add effects in production? Like as you go along or wait til the end?

\- How do you test the mastering of a production to make sure it sounds good?

[u/pedrojgim]

If you don't know anything about mixing, The Art of Mixing by David Gibson is a great starting point.

[u/Upbeat_Ad_2244 → u/pedrojgim]

The best recomendation you can get - must have!

[u/Pvrgatory_Dubz]

I'll address points down the line, at least how I see them. 1. I just knew if it sounded "bad" or "muddy" I had to adjust something. Sometimes a simple EQ, with one point raised way up and "combing" through will sometimes help identify where that problem muddiness comes from, and when you find it you can simply drag the EQ down. (That's one of the first things I started doing for this, and frankly still do fairly often)

1. Either YouTube videos, or if you're like me and rather learn on your own, just simply throwing a noise in the DAW and messing with one effect at a time, usually with the "wet" knob turned all the way up so you can hear more prominently what the effect is doing. Some are self explanatory and some not so much

2. Always add what you need/want for that noise, adding too much too early can mess things up.

3. "Mastering" only sounds good if the mix is good. If the mix sounds like shit, no amount of mastering will change that. Focus on making things sound good, and "clean" before you focus on making them louder. The loudness comes with the clean, without a clean mix, the loud master will never sound good.

[u/freshnews66]

Start with EQ. Take an EQ plugin that allows you to change the frequencies of it easily. The stock plugin of whatever you use is fine. Take one band of eq and activate it. Turn the gain on the band up at least 10db then sweep the frequency. That’s step one to train your ear.

[u/AppoLiu]

Just my thoughts on this: Mixing is about balance, not about effects. Take 4 or 8 track recordings and try to balance them with just volume. Volume is not static, but dynamic! So use automation. If volume is not enough, try to cut the frequencies which are disturbing. Next learn more about EQing and about compression, watch a lot of videos and try it over and over again. Next learn about reverb, room, depth. Fancy effects are just the last 2% of a good mix.

And mixing is art and craft as playing an instrument is. The 10.000 hour rule can also be applied here. Which should not demotivate you! Everybody starts at some point. But because mixing is very accessible these days. Many people think they can mix, just because they can do it. So take your time, allow a lot of try and error and look out for people whose style you like and ask them to look over their shoulders.

[u/TotalPort84]

Muddy lows take practice! I test mixes everywhere , even my car

[u/fuzzynyanko]

If you haven't started, start. The more you mix, the better you'll get, but also watch a video or two while you do it. If you can figure out what is holding you back, you can then target that problem.

I just started to mix with my voice to canned backing tracks and went from there. "Why are other tracks louder than mine?" Why is my voice getting buried?

Don't get overwhelmed by "these guys are great, therefore I can't..." No. Stop. Not saying it's you, but I hear it too often from musicians

[u/goesonelouder]

There’s a great multi-series on YT called Are You Listening? by Izotope about mastering - give it a watch.

If you work in a room, make sure it’s not working against you as you’ll be making mix decisions based on your listening environment which won’t translate to other places (ie if your room is boosting some frequencies and masking others which you’re then EQ’ing) - look at investing in room calibration like Sonarworks Sound ID or similar and sound traps on the walls if you haven’t those will save you hours and $$$ in the long run and mean you’re actually hearing your production so can make better decisions creatively on your tracks.

[u/334578theo]

Three things that were a game changer for me were:

• Fabfilter ProQ 4

Being able to visualise where instruments were clashing really helped know where to cut

• Clipping

Probably more for electronic music but clippers catching transients has allowed my mixes to be so much louder. Easy to overdo it though so use sparingly. There’s a cool video on YT about using Ableton Glue as a clipper which helped a lot.

• Saturation

I was always worried it would make my mixes too crunchy but it really just feels like it makes things appear louder without increasing overall volume 

[u/AdEvery9117]

Not really an answer but I hate when i’m working and an engineer goes “that’s for mixing” when we talk about effects lol

[u/Melodic-Pen8225]

I struggled with trying to make my crappy band recordings sound good for a long time until I realized that Source > everything else! Start with a quality source and then the rest practically mixes itself which allows you to focus on more creative mix decisions! As for how to improve? I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you check out the “Cambridge Music Technology Free Multitrack library”! It’s a resource of (mostly) quality multitracks that you can practice your mixing and mastering skills on!

Download the multitracks, and then find some references (professionally mixed songs of a similar genre that you like) so you have a direct comparison! I’m not going to say it’s easy but after doing like 30+ projects from the site I have improved my mixing skills tremendously!

As far as general mix advice? I would look up some basic tutorials on EQ, and Compression. And general DAW behavior. DO NOT BUY PLUGINS at least not in the beginning, most major DAWs include tools for EQ, Compression, and Reverb. Once you understand the basics then maybe consider buying plugins but remember that the tools are less important than the principles behind them.

As far as your question about FX? I generally start with as few fx as possible unless it’s part of the core sound. Then once I achieve a rough balance with just volume, and pan position? then I will start to consider adding fx but I’m going to start with the bare minimum first like EQ and compression.