Little advice on mixing

Mixing Advice from Roger Nichols
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Roger Nichols: Across The Board
Published in SOS August 2006
Technique : Recording/Mixing

Roger Nichols
This month's column leans toward the new 'audio
recording enthusiast' who is trying to figure out how it all
works. I have been there, although it was back when
stereo was a new gimmick.
After you unpack the boxes, connect all the gear, look at
the covers of the manuals (nobody has ever actually read
a manual, right?) and try to start recording and mixing,
how do you figure it all out? Like learning to play a guitar,
learning to paint, or tuning the fuel injection on a Ferrari,
first you need to be pointed in the right direction, and then
you need experience.
There are hundreds of books to point you in the right
direction. There at least 10 books covering each major
DAW, including Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase/Nuendo,
Digital Performer, Adobe Audition and Logic. There are at
least that many writings about recording and mixing in
general, and a few books try to teach mastering. For
some people, however, reading the books doesn't help
much more than sleeping with the book under your pillow.
Along with reading, you need to have some practical
experience.
As far as equipment goes, you can learn about recording
and mixing with what you already have. It doesn't take
much of a computer these days to get the ball rolling. If
you can't afford the software, there are dozens of free
multitrack recording programs available, as well as demo versions of most of the high-end
programs. You can actually start mixing before you start recording. There are multitrack
versions of songs from Nine Inch Nails and other groups on-line for download. There are
some books that include multitrack material to mix from Waves, and Charles Dye's Mix It Like
A Record DVD.

The biggest hump to overcome when mixing is that everything sounds better when it is
louder. Everything! You can have the crappiest mix on earth, but if you play it loud enough, it
will sound great. The worse the mix, the louder you have to play it.
You see this all the time in the studio when the mix is almost done and the band shows up for
playback. The guitar player comes over and wants the guitar up just a little. Then the bass
player sneaks over and turns up the bass. The drummer is not far behind, complaining about
the lack of punch in the drums, and up crawls the drum group. After everyone finishes, the
mix is right back where it started, but louder. The band is happy, approves the mix and
leaves. The engineer turns down the master fader to get the overall level back to normal, and
prints the mix.

If you can change the level of an instrument in the mix by a tenth or two-tenths of a dB and
you can hear the change that you made, the mix is getting pretty good. If you can change
some other instrument by that amount and not really hear any difference, then chances are
that the instrument you are playing with is not where it should be. The problem may be down
to level, or EQ, or compression, or reverb, but it is not quite ready for prime time. I will discuss
all four and point out things to watch for.
Multitrack iTunes?
Major record labels are gearing up for download of your favorite multitrack material. The record labels
are actually releasing these multitracks to copyright the content. A copyright is not valid in the US unless
the material is distributed publicly. The multitracks in the vaults are, therefore, not copyright material.
The melody and the lyrics carry a copyright, but that is for the writers and publishers. The record
company has a copyright (P) on the physical CD, cassette, or vinyl album that is shipped, but that only
covers the final two-track mixes as they occur on the finished product. No protection is offered toward
the multitrack recordings. Interesting. So, if they offer the multitracks for download, and leave off the
lead vocal or melody line, they don't have to pay anyone anything. Artist gets nothing, producer gets
nothing, songwriter gets nothing... Hmmm. Anyway, there is going to be lots of material to test your
mixing skills, for a few dollars more.
UK laws are slightly different, though I doubt that record companies ever send copies of the multitracks
for registration with UKCS. UK law is better than the US in that all you need to do is produce the work
for it to be copyright; the root of the US record company stance is that you cannot copyright chord
progressions or tempo, so without the melody and lyrics, there is nothing unique about the work. An
example would be Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer', written by Mark Knopfler. When you heard it, you
thought it was Steely Dan's 'FM' track. The bass line, the rhythm, the tracks seem to be uncannily
similar to 'FM', but the melody and words are different, so no case.
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Think of any instrument as two separate components: the low end of the instrument and the
high end of the instrument. As an example, let's take an acoustic guitar. The highs are
important because they give the attack of the note or the raking of the strings that extra
presence to cut through the track. The low end creates the body of the sound, the warmth of
the instrument in the track. If the balance between these two halves is not right, then you will
never get it to sit in the track correctly. There will always be places where it seems too loud or
too soft.
Start with the attack of the notes, or the raking of the strings in the case of a rhythm acoustic
part. Change the level of the acoustic guitar until the high end sounds right in the existing mix.
Get the level to where you can hear a level change of two-tenths of a dB. Now stop. Start with
a parametric EQ set to a low Q of around 2, giving a very wide, smooth curve, and the
frequency set for around 250Hz. Move the gain of the EQ up or down to get the low part of
the guitar into the right relationship in the mix. Try to think of the low end of the guitar as a
separate instrument. Get it to sound good in the mix. When you get the low end of the guitar
in a place where you can hear a two-tenths of a dB change in the level, you are doing great.
Now you are going to do one more thing. It is usually the low end of all the instruments adding
up that makes the mix sound muddy. My rule is, if you can't hear it, you don't need it. Turn on
the lowest band of the EQ and make it a high-pass filter, or use the high-pass filter if it
operates independently. Start with the frequency all the way down. Leave all of the tracks
playing, with the acoustic guitar in the mix. Start raising the frequency of the high-pass filter
slowly until you can hear a change in the sound of the low end of the acoustic guitar. Look at
the frequency on the high-pass filter. Now reduce the frequency by about 15 percent. That
means if the frequency reads 200Hz, then move it down 30Hz to about 170Hz. If you do this
to each of the mid-range instruments, it will clean up the muddiness problem in your mix.

#"
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If some notes just stick out or get lost and EQ by itself doesn't help, then maybe you should
use a little compression. Notice the key word: a little compression. Of course the best way to
set a compressor is to listen to the results, make an intelligent judgment, and twist all the
knobs until it sounds right. Or, you can start with an easy rule of thumb that can get you most
of the way there.
Set the ratio to 2:1. Depending on the compressor, use
either the input control or threshold control while the
music is playing, and lower the threshold (or raise the
input gain) until you see the gain-reduction meter jump
into action. Keep adjusting until the gain reduction peaks
at -3dB to -4dB. For now we will just leave the attack and
release values at whatever the defaults were when you
loaded the compressor.
This is now a pretty good starting point for compression. It
is not even going to really sound compressed. You now
have a little more control over the dynamic range of the
instrument without hurting the sound of the instrument. Now readjust the level of the
instrument to get it settled in the track. When you can start hearing small changes in level,
you are in the right place.
Sometimes EQ, sometimes compression, and sometimes a combination of the two may be
necessary to get the desired results. Try the EQ first, as this will maintain the greatest amount
of dynamic range in the instrument. If you can't quite get it, try a little compression.
%!3
We already have a pretty good mix going, but how do you know if it is the best possible mix?
Think of it this way. It is always easier to tell when something is wrong than when something
is right. This is true of instrument levels in a mix. While listening to the mix, one at a time
change the levels of each instrument in varying combinations. Turn the bass up 1dB. Does
the mix sound worse? If the answer is yes, then turn it back down. Turn the bass down 1dB.
Does this sound worse? If the answer is yes, then the original level was right for the bass.
Now try one of the guitars. Then the piano. If an instrument sounded better at a new level
then leave it there and start back through the cycle.
This can be a time-consuming task, and you should take lots of notes so you can get back to
previous settings, but by the time you get through the process and have eliminated everything
that sounds worse, then you have the final mix. Cool, huh?

Reverb is the last thing to add, because it depends on all of the other levels being close to the
final ones. Normally, when you add reverb, your initial impression is that it sounds more threedimensional
and lush. This is true in a way, but it also starts sounding like the whole band is
playing with you in the shower. I don't mean playing with you, I mean playing along with you
on their instruments. I mean... Never mind.
Solo each instrument that has reverb added, along with the reverb. Turn the reverb down until
it no longer sounds like a big reverb, but more like real-world ambience. 'Yup, sounds like the
acoustic guitar was recorded in a nice-sounding room,' should be the goal. There is a place
If you're new to it, mixing a multitrack
project can seem overwhelming.
for special effects if you want, but make sure there is room in the track by backing off on the
other reverbs.
One more reverb trick I always use, both with reverb plug-ins and external reverb hardware, is
to insert a one-band EQ after the reverb return. Set the EQ to high-pass filter and set the
frequency to 250Hz. Reverbs usually generate some of their own low-frequency artifacts that
are not part of the music. Also, low-end reverb just makes the mix rumble. Limiting this
unnecessary sound makes the reverb accentuate the music in the middle of the spectrum,
and the nice splash on the snare and the vocal, without adding mud.

This is by no means a complete course on mixing, or the definitive answer to all of your
troublesome tracks. This is meant to help someone new head in the right direction. Use these
tips and expand on them. See what works for you.
If you do things differently and make great-sounding records, then perfect. I want to know how
you do it. Share your methods with others who are trying to figure it out. I like buying CDs and
listening to new bands. What I do not like is bad-sounding CDs. Put together someone who
knows how to make great-sounding records with a band who know how to write and play
great songs and you've got something!
Published in SOS August 2006