Fellow Reason users---mix down/EQing questions

[XZit]

Hello fellow producers. I hope I have this topic in the right area here on this wonderful forum.

First I was just curious is there an active solid forum (or peeps on here) that utilize propellerheads reason?? I realize propellerheads took down their forum, and yes I know there is social media/facebook, yet forums are awesome for in depth discussion over a topic, and have search functions etc.


So onto my questions:
I have some questions regarding EQing, and mix-down of tracks made in Reason. Currently I'm using Reason 7 if that matters--I plan on upgrading to 8 as soon as I can, but no rush for me.

Basically I'm curious on what you fellow Reason users do for mix-downing/mastering your tracks. Whats your process(es)?
This is accounting that the studio monitors are decent, and the room is somewhat sound treated.

I find that Reason has so many different functions, including ways one could approach EQing, and mix-down of a track.
The very basic process I'm currently using (but very open to new suggestions and input btw) is--> I'm make a beat using Redrum, I assign each drum sound/channel to an mclass equalizer, then to a mclass compressor. I send the compressors output into a mixer (exclusively for the drums from the Redrum).
If I want to add some FX on the drum sound/sample, I'll put the effects in after the equalizer and feed the FX output to the compressor. This way I'm always doing final compression of the drum sound/the sample with or without FX applied, I can also easily bypass the FX if need be. I always do compression at the end, compressing any sort of mixed/altered/FX applied sound.

I don't do any EQ tweaking on the 14 channel mixer (i.e. adjusting bass/treble knobs) as I do all my EQing using the mclass equalizer for each drum channel. Occasionally I might do a very minor adjustment with the bass or treble eq knobs, typically I would do this only if the sound is really lacking in low or high end. Its like a super-fine tuning of the sound, esspecially considering I already have EQed the sound with the mclass equalizer.

After all of this I'll use the spectrum EQ analyzer and EQ the entirety of the redrum loop/beat. This insures a good "co-mingling" equalization of all the samples/drum sounds together. I'll usually trim the super low end, and maybe a little off the top (HPF and LPF). Sometimes I'll add a little boost (or cut) here and there using envelope mode, or HF/LF boost, or w/e.

As far as volume I try to keep the volume level knobs on the redrum channels all the same, so I adjust the individual drum sounds volume using the 14 channel mixer. If the drum sound/sample is weak/low in volume I'll add some velocity/volume on redrum as well for that sample. Very rarely I've increased the volume on the samples channel, but I'd prefer to tweak the input/output gain knobs on the mclass compressor for that sample. Sometimes just tweaking with the mclass equalizer can give a boost right where I need it for that sound to.


For other instruments; basslines, leads, pads, etc. etc. I usually do all my EQing using the spectrum EQ analyzer. I'll still add compression, or FX adding, just do most of the EQing via the spectrum EQ analyzer. I do this as well for recorded audio/when I record my hardware synths into Reason.



My main question is--what do you guys for mix-down of the full track at the end process?
I want all my tracks to be about the same volume level/normalized, I don't want to push to much low end, or have the high end be to snappy and tingy.
Do you guys use a mastering combi suite to process all of the audio of the entire track? Some other method? How do you have all your tracks 'normalized' and 'standardized' regarding volume? Obviously some tracks/beats may have more low end, or high end etc, I just want to have a nice standard protocol procedure for how I can mixdown every one of my tracks to get a nice overall sound of the entire track.
Currently I've just been doing the process I listed above for the instrument, and then I use the master compressor on the main mix board to clean up the track a little bit.

Please note I'm not talking about 'mastering' here--However I do believe Reason to be a very capable program, and a track could well be "mastered" within Reason exclusively. Yet I feel if one wants to take a track to a 'pro level' I would still consider going to an audio engineer/recording studio to master the track "professionally".
As far as my needs; I'm just producing casual beats/loops and trying to get my music online for people to enjoy/maybe make some residual income$.



Thanks for any and all responses! HUGE thanks to anyone that read my post and put some thought into their response. Greatly appreciated!!

[fragments]

I don't use Reason, but it doesn't really matter much, the general principles of mixing a tune are the same.

It sounds like you are doing a lot of EQing by sight and EQing a lot of things in isolation. Use your ears to make final decisions and personally I try not to bother doing much EQing until I've got the majority of my sounds created and playing together. Otherwise, for the most part, one has no idea what to cut or boost.

As far as gain staging--you are going to end up with a really flat, boring mix if all the instruments are at the same level. Its ok for a mix to have some dynamics! Dynamic music has more energy. I usually decide on which instruments/features of the track are going to be the focus and let those have the most head room, then mix everything around that. In dance music often the kick (drums in general) and the bass are going to be a main feature.

There really isn't much a standard procedure, you just have to take each mix as it comes. Of course certain genres of music present their own typical issues. Don't make it too complicated, don't try to force yourself into a single way of thinking about mixing. Besides some basics like cutting the lows out of things that don't need it, there isn't much that I *always* do as far as mixes go.

From composing/arranging a track, to sound design, to mixing I always keep in mind that a song has three dimensions: time, frequency and volume--at any given time you can only have so much volume at any given frequency. The restraints of these three dimensions are what you are always working against.

Also, forget about mastering for now. Once you've got a good mix, you'll be able to get a decent amount of volume with a limiter w/o even introducing much if any gain reduction.

[XZit]

Thanks for the reply! Greatly appreciated.
Regarding volume/dynamics I realize that there will be varrying dynamics of the instruments etc, but occasionally I'll finish a tune and it's overall loudness/volume will be considerably more (or less) then some other track I've made.
It's like say you buy a cd and every track has a considerable volume difference. Now yes I know that no two tracks will be the same dynamic or volume wise, there will be tracks that are hard hitting, stomping, and then tracks that are light-airey and mellow. I'm just curious of ways to not have to much of an extreme?

Also, anyone know of a forum or online resource regarding tips/tricks/hints for more of the technical side reason (instrument & sound design/combi creation, patching, etc-more technical stuff)?

Thx everyone!

[fragments]

Ah. Ok. Yea...you just want things even across songs on an EP/LP...I misread what you said. I thought you meant you wanted to get all the instrument tracks inside a single song to the same level as well as across tracks on an album .

[XZit]

Ah. Ok. Yea...you just want things even across songs on an EP/LP...I misread what you said. I thought you meant you wanted to get all the instrument tracks inside a single song to the same level as well as across tracks on an album .

Yep. I'd just like to have things even across songs on an EP/LP/Album etc.
I just don't want large volume differences between tracks. Some tracks may be louder or quiter naturally, but I don't want drastic differences.
So any tips from anyone on achieving this?