Mixdown advice pleeeease.

[EDN]

Right I did a rough mixdown of the track "stumble on" which I posted in the works in progress thread.
I am now at the point where I'm ready to mix it properly.
What would be a good way to go about it?
The way I'm thinking is remove all the eq from the tracks, render them all out as audio files, put them into my DAW (ableton) again and re-eq.
Do you think I should remove all the panning from them as well and re-do that also?

[paravrais]

I wouldn't rebounce everything to be honest. Seems like a lot of hassle with no benefit. Just solo track one, tweak until it sounds tight then hold control and solo track two and tweak that until they sound tight together then do the same with track 3 until you have the whole track playing together and nicely mixed. That's how I do final mixdowns anyway...

[EDN]

Yeah, thats what I was trying before, and I really couldn't get a much better result than I got previously.
I might just start my eq'ing and panning and such from scratch with some fresh ears.

[paravrais]

To be honest man the version on your soundcloud has a certain charm about it. The mix is kinda muddy but then I dunno if that matters so much? If you make it too clean it might ruin it. Maybe you should try what you said but keep a backup of the original project and rendered wavs too so you can go back to it's current state if you need to.

[mrdii]

Don't know if it's just me but I have FL8. It came with a really good dance song which starts when you open it (or mine does anyway) which has been fully mixed/mastered. I just saved all of it's eq's and stuff to my presets and use them as well as my own tweaking. And yeah, make sure you save a back up before any tweaking.

[EDN]

@paravais: Yeah what I have actually done to the mixdown now is make the eq-ing a lot less, trying to get a nice blend more than a properly accurate result. I'm also trying to place stuff as if it was in an actual orchestra a bit more. I think the problem is, having come from a dance music background where everything is super precise and clean and going into the realm of real sounding instruments is a bit of a shock for me so I have been over processing things.
I will give you a shout when I have the new version up and atom.

@Mrdii: Yeah man thats a pretty sweet idea for just getting stuff rough and ready, however I would say; don't rely on that and if it doesn't sound how you want it don't be afraid to go from scratch, experience is the key.
Unfortunately ableton doesn't come with any "orchestral music+prog drumming" templates I can work with really . The problem is that I don't really have anything to relate my song to, because I am having extreme difficulty finding an orchestral track with prog metal/jazz drums on it.

[MikkiFunk]

I wouldn't re-bounce everything, thats a little extreme. Perhaps just save the track to a new name and folder like 'Fresh Mix'. Then go about picking at things.

Its generally better to mix/ EQ/ compress certain tracks while listening to them in context with the rest of the mix. For example, don't solo something while you're eq'ing it, just boost the gain on the EQ and sweep the frequencies till you get close to the frequencies you want to cut or boost, you should still be able to hear what effect its having without having to solo it. Have a low Q setting whilst you're sweeping the EQ so it affects a wider band of frequencies, then bring the Q Factor up once you get close to the desired frequency to really 'zero in' on the frequency or band of frequencies you're looking for.

Its also worth noting that if you're EQ'ing for character such as 'weight' or 'brightness', you should keep the gain on the boost fairly low and subtle, and have the Q factor fairly low, so that it affects a wider band of frequencies, and therefore improves more the overall area of that sound. For instance if I wanted to bring out some nice weight in a kick, I might boost 'around' 50 Hz by +1-2 dB, and have the Q Factor low so the boost looks like a slight 'hump'.

Now, if you wanted to cut some problem frequencies on a sound, its generally better to have a high Q Factor, as this really enables you to be precise and 'surgical' with the frequencies you're trying to eliminate. Obviously the exact Q Factor amount is completely dependant on how wide or narrow the band of frequencies you're trying to cut is.

Obviously its better to use a high Q Factor as we don't want to eliminate too many frequencies that make up the sound. For example, you might want to cut some 200-300 Hz 'mud' out on a kick, or even on your master output, so you would start by finding the most prominent 'problem' frequency in that area. Once you have this frequency, cut it by -1 to -2 dB, first using a high Q Factor, then play around lowering the Q so it widens the cut more. You'll find that as you lower it a lot you'll start losing the low mids and body of the sound, so be careful. Obviously how much of the body gets cut will also be affected by how many decibels you cut by.

As has already been mentioned, don't over process things. Even when doing things like character EQ, you want these adjustments to be flattering in a subtle way. If you're ending up EQ'ing something so that it sounds almost like a different sound or sample, then change it to something that is more like what you're trying to achieve. If this is something you've recorded like live drums, or guitar, I'd say its always better to get something sounding the way you want it when its at the recording stage, rather than just saying 'we'll fix that at the mixing stage with loads of EQ'.

[EDN]

Aha, I forgot about the sweeping a peak over to find the relevant frequencies tactic!
Cheers dude, sound advice.

[MikkiFunk]

No worries mate, always happy to help!

In fact I'd say its the starting point of learning how to EQ, so don't forget it again

[Paul6532]

some people eq the whole project so its flat as possible and then from there add an overall eq to suit the song
Soundcloud

[macc]

Sweeping peaks to find where to cut is - in my very humble opinion - a grossly overrated and largely misguided practice.

If you're intending to cut, sweep a cut. The right spot, and q, becomes apparent very quickly. If you're intending to boost, sweep a boost. The right spot also becomes apparent very quickly.

Thing is, sweeping a boost to find where to cut almost invariably leads to different choices to sweeping cuts. And when you're cutting.... better to try it with a cut, no? How do you know where it sounds best to cut when you're boosting? Plus it doesn't murder your ears

The exception is where you have a very well-defined thing that you want to pick out to cut (a 'note', a ringy sound or whatever, with a definable pitch). But it takes experience and maturity to hang on to that 'image' or note in your mind as you are sweeping around trying to find it. With time and practice you can get very close to the desired freq before you even touch the gain knob, which makes things faster.

This is probably the single most important thing I have learned in my time with equalisers.

Of course, OMMV. And often does, apparently... so what do I know

[macc]

some people eq the whole project so its flat as possible and then from there add an overall eq to suit the song

[Echoi]

some people eq the whole project so its flat as possible and then from there add an overall eq to suit the song