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Old 06-27-2019, 08:18 PM
jim1960 jim1960 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larsis View Post
So now I have two mics, that is the basic and I want to add piezzo or inside mic from my Anthem system to the mix. My question is: Do you have any tips or ides, how to mix it together? I mean microphones are solved, 2 mics, to L and R, clear stereo, but what about the piezo? Do it L 50 and R50 or? Or do it also L and R, but with lower volume?

And how these guys (or their mixing masters probably) mix songs with so many tracks and sound sources? I'm really curious, how this works.
There are no great secrets to unveil here. Mixing is the art of making tracks sound good.

Anytime you have multiple sources of the same thing in play, it's a good idea to get them phase aligned. It's not a requirement but you'll be starting from a better place if you do.

Next up for me would usually be compression. Depending on what I'm hearing, I might compress the tracks individually, I might use parallel compression, or I might do some combination. My goal would be to lessen the dynamic range enough to that the lower volume parts could be easily heard without having to blast the louder parts. A lot of people tend to over compress when they're first learning so it's a good idea to purposely over compress and hear how it makes a difference in the way a piece sounds. To my ears, over compressing sounds like someone has thrown a blanket over the music.

Equalization would come next. If compression is about personal tastes, eq is even more so. But if you're trying to get close to a particular sound, load that sound up as a reference track and check the eq curve it creates. That can help put you on the path you're trying to find.

Depending on the piece being played, I may strengthen or diminish the attack by using a plugin to address transients.

At the end I'd apply reverb. I almost always use an aux track for reverb, and like so much else, it's really about personal tastes. I'll usually put an eq on the reverb and roll off the bottom and top.

That's a very basic outline of how I approach most things. It doesn't really change if I'm mixing two, three, or four (which I've never done but it wouldn't change regardless) tracks of the same music. Depending on what a piece needs I may eq first and use compression second. Sometimes I'll use more than one compressor in different stages. The point is, there are really no constants that I can give you and say "This is what everyone who's good at this does." The more you do it, and the more you listen to your work critically and listen for your mistakes, the better you'll get. Developing a good ear takes time. Be patient, expect to be bad at it for a while, and don't beat yourself up. I've been doing this for years and I'm still learning stuff.
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