Beginner/New to Sound Mixing and Mastering needs help/guidance!

H

HeySoulSister

New member
Hey there, for the past month i just pickup on how to do simple recording/mixing techniques but sometimes i get frustrated for not getting the right kind of recording. I know it takes practice to get better. But hopefully i can find someone or a group of people who doing this for a living or been in this kind of work to give me some tips or even a crash course on basics stuff of DO's and DON'T.

Been viewing quite a number of videos on how to eq simple tracks like acoustic guitars and vocals. I know there are 1001 ways of mixing but i dont quite get it on how to use it although i know what is it for. Maybe some kind soul give me some tips or even show me some steps to take note of while doing it. The purpose of me picking up as i want to make covers/originals that i have to at least youtube quality as a starting point then move on as i go along.

Here are some few recordings/mixings a track.

Pumped Up Kicks (Instrumental)
http://soundcloud.com/arfiansaban/pumped-up-kicks

Mr Know It All (Acoustic Guitars Part)
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Raw Recording Tracks/Mr Know It All (Mixed).mp3?w=7f5424db

Here are my list of gears. Not that great by at least its a start.

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
AT2020 condenser Mic
Imac / Laptop
Reaper DAW
Cubase DAW
AKG headphones
 
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C# bass note is too strong in some part.
You can EQ it or reduce the gain on that note
For me, I will do reduce gain if not too many part.
In Reaper, you can open volume envelope, Cubase not sure.
You can do the compressor way too.

For me, I will go a general 30Hz high pass filer.
Individual track, I will do a high and low pass filter in way I feel it will stop the cuts where it affect quite to bit.
Not all them, cos it depending on the track itself.
It is quite useful to mix a bigger track count.
Sometime I do a high low around 19Khz overall.
EQing around other frequency take time, effort.
The more you do, the better you are.

The best people who give tip is your clients going to comment on your work.
 
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the reverb on the percussive instruments is a bit too much.. you should pan the instruments accordingly to give space between the instruments, i didnt check but it sounds mono.. and its also a good idea to double track guitar parts.. the acoustic guitar that was playing just bass notes may not be a good idea and adding reverb to it wont help things.. if u wanted it to be like a 'bass' guitar u should have compressed it abit more and maybe add parallel compression and eq it like a bass guitar.. beware of the 150hz - 250hz area..and remember the HPF and LPF are ur best friends.. you should also ride the faders to emphasize certain parts of the song.. thats what mixing is all about..

my advice to u is when you are eq'ing a track, always eq in reference with the whole mix and try not to solo the track then eq.. and its always a good idea to apply complimentary eq when u have a couple of guitar tracks.. sweeping frequencies helps all the time too..

only add compression when you have an objective and always listen...
bypass the signal processors once u are done to check if what you are doing is helping the track or making it worst..

the more u practice the better u get but also be mindful of the enviroment that u are working in as well..
and always use near field monitors to mix and good quality headphones to check..

when in doubt, follow a reference song.

cheers
 
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I'm not good with words when it comes to talking about mixing/mastering. I'm just going to show you the result on how I'd do it if it were me so I took a half hour break to download>render>upload this.

https://www.box.com/s/f226552b9c31b3b4bc09

my say on your recording/mix :

acoustic percussion is too much/piercing. reduce the levels.

acoustic bass definitely needs riding to level evenly.

i think i'm okay with the main guitar melody.

my say on my master :

tried to bring out more main guitar. some hi frequencies are lost due to trying to EQ the harshness of the percussion. this one your fault.hah.
tried to suppress the percussion
tried to level the bass. but some parts are just out of control. I can ride the fader of the lows on my end but can't be bothered since this is just a demonstration.
on my preference since there's only one layer of main guitar , I made it more "wide big mono" . therefore pushing the "bass guitar" a little more center.
as you can also hear, I'm going for the in-yo-face pop guitar as compared to the mellow feel in the original mix.

enjoy gd luck
 
hope you meant that generally, cos that's a pretty direct self explanatory description if it's coming from your ears and what's in between them through your teeth'n'lips.

I've worked with way worse than this. wouldn't call it shit or close.
 
that's where marketing comes in and packaged as godiva chocolate. as long as shit sells and consumers are eating and liking it. who cares. heh
 
no worries..wont take it personally, but still unsure when u use the term 'purist' whether u mean it as a compliment or just being bias..
 
I am unsure how you would take it man, purist is "a person who adheres strictly and often excessively to a tradition". I suppose the standard of your audio engineering art is really high to talk like that so it could be a compliment.. Though if the results don't walk the talk could mean otherwise. Was just stating something what everyone says.. cos that is the industry standard I guess?
 
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