Finished songs, no real mixing skills, now what?

oregon1 · Post by **oregon1** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:13 pm

I have some finished songs that I made on Reason 2.5 and have done my best to mix them myself, however, the simple fact is I am not skilled enough to make them sound professional, nor do I care to invest a lot of time, money, and effort in learning this art.

So where do I go from here if I want to make my songs sound
"CD quality" or " professional "

Is there a consensous on how much it usually costs?

docwra · Post by **docwra** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:22 pm

Press the mixdown button

powerpill · Post by **powerpill** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:25 pm

Oregon1 wrote:nor do I care to invest a lot of time and effort in learning this art.

?

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:34 pm

It's getting hard to make the difference between serious talk and pisstake sometimes...

Assuming you're serious, the only way is to spend hundreds of hours practising but you don't quite seem ready for it.

Just curious... Can we listen to the tracks?

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:00 pm

I think mixing(down) skills go hand in hand with being a producer.

at least give it your best try.

if you are using reason alone, you might want to try rewiring reason through a host program, such as logic, cubase, or really any sequencer that utilises an ASIO driver, because this will afford you more headroom for your mixdown

and if you dont understand what I am talking about please google "rewire", "ASIO" and "sequencer"

cheers

breakbait · Post by **breakbait** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:14 pm

Oregon1 wrote:Is there a consensous on how much it usually costs?

It's usually around £17 but of course this is dependent on the amount of snares and hi-hats in the tune itself.

Just send a msg to you're favourite producer be it Skream, Mala etc and ask for a quote.

oregon1 · Post by **oregon1** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:30 pm

Is this a helpfull forum?

I hear what everyone is saying. I guess what I'm saying is I really enjoy the creative aspect of producing music, and want to focus my time and energy on that aspect. I don't really want to get involved in mastering beyond the basics. Say what you want, but mixing and mastering is a science and an art that takes a long time, and money, to develop.

I have crappy speakers to mix with, and basic mixing knowledge, but that should not mean that my songs sound quality should suffer.

So beyond actually sitting down at my computer and making tunes, I really, honestly, don't know what comes next in the processes if I lack the proper equipment and skills to make my songs sound better than just exported out of reason and into itunes.

Sub Shifter · Post by **Sub Shifter** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:34 pm

You carnt pollish a turd you need to be mixing as your going along

breakbait · Post by **breakbait** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:36 pm

Sorry I couldn't help myself. As already said it (normally) takes years or practise to get a professional sound. That comment about not wanting to put in any time or effort didn't help you. Just search the internet and read up about mixing and eqing and compression and all that malarky. This will help get you started and then it's just a question of practise.

oregon1 · Post by **oregon1** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:41 pm

My internet connection at home sucks, so I am trying to upload some songs onto myspace, but havn't been able to yet. Anyway I'll provide a link when I can.

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:48 pm

FYI: mixingdown and mastering are 2 completely different things

in order to get a properly mastered tune, you must first have a proper mixdown

if you are in the UK I would reccomend Transition Studios for mastering

oregon1 · Post by **oregon1** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:49 pm

So to simplify, there is no other way, other than doing it all yourself?

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:50 pm

Oregon1 wrote:Is this a helpfull forum?

I hear what everyone is saying. I guess what I'm saying is I really enjoy the creative aspect of producing music, and want to focus my time and energy on that aspect. I don't really want to get involved in mastering beyond the basics. Say what you want, but mixing and mastering is a science and an art that takes a long time, and money, to develop.

Mastering to a professional level does seem to be a bit of a dark art, and takes years of experience and some fairly expensive gear (specifically, a shit hot monitoring chain) but I've heard plenty of tunes that sound good enough to release that haven't really been mastered (or maybe have had a bit of light limiting stuck on or something), and that doesn't seem so hard.

Mixing, afaict, isn't such a big thing. Lots of people seem to do it pretty much as they write - whenever you introduce a new sound, make sure it's about the right volume, sounds good in the context and doesn't clash too horribly with any other sounds. If it does clash, try cutting out a bit with EQ or making one of the sounds higher or lower. Or using a slightly different sound - I've spent ages before tweaking a drum part with EQ and compression to make it sound less crap only to realize it'd sound a whole lot better a whole lot more easily if I changed the patterns a bit and used a different kick drum. It's not rocket science. Figure out roughly what to do with a parametric EQ (I find it helpful to use it as a bandpass to figure out what the parts of the sound at different frequencies are like, and then use it to cut or boost the ones that you want.)

So beyond actually sitting down at my computer and making tunes, I really, honestly, don't know what comes next in the processes if I lack the proper equipment and skills to make my songs sound better than just exported out of reason and into itunes.

The obvious answer is to get the equipment and develop the skills. :shrug: You don't need to spend thousands or anything, a couple of hundred quid for a pair of monitors.

heimlich · Post by **heimlich** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:53 pm

OK, so you can take your tracks to a studio that will do the mixes for you. You will be paying hourly rates to the engineer. Depending on who they are and what studio they are working out of you could expect to spend as little as $50 an hour up to over $150 an hour. You should also look for a studio that has an engineer that is familiar with the music you are writing. Having an engineer that mixes country rock music isn't really the best person to mix down a dubstep album (unless you are doing some backwoods, banjo and washboard floor shakers

). Be prepared and have everything bounced down to multiple tracks to save time and money. Along with this you should also be prepared to fix things in the mix. Then once you have your album mixed down to two tracks you send this off to a mastering engineer. Get your wallet out and prepare to spend some more money on this. I had an industrial album mastered by a guy in New York a few years ago. The cost was $750 for mastering. I don't even want to think of how much I would have spent if the mixing was done by an engineer other than my friends and myself.

In the end, you need to figure out how serious you want to be about this. I am in no way assuming that you aren't but you have mentioned you don't want to put the time, effort, nor money into this. If this is just a hobby, then continue on with writing the tracks.

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:57 pm

Oregon1 wrote:So to simplify, there is no other way, other than doing it all yourself?

You can get other people to do mixdowns for you I think (a lot of Goldie's stuff was 'engineered' by people like Ed Rush and Optical, wasn't it?), but unless you've got mates to do it for you, it'd cost a lot (a lot more than buying reasonable speakers if you're planning to do more than a few tunes) it'd involve giving up a fair bit of creative control, and there's a limit to what a mixing engineer can or would be willing to do with what you give them.

I really don't see the point myself. If you've got the skills to make something that someone else could mix and make good, then you've probably got the skills to make it good yourself.

__________ · Post by **__________** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:03 pm

a lot of people get mastering confused with mixing down. you're saying you need to learn to master and mix your music...you don't. you need to learn how to mix it, and if its going on dubplate, you let a mastering engineer worry about mastering it.

if you can't be bothered to 'learn' how to mix down then your tunes will always be wack. you could pay someone else to mix your tunes but this would be expensive and you wouldn't learn anything. just keep practicing i say

mastering is something completely different though, don't even concern yourself with it!

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:04 pm

also..

practice makes perfect

trial & error is much more helpful than looking to the internet production forums for answers

i'm just sayin'

docwra · Post by **docwra** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:08 pm

At least he's honest and doesn't go on like some bell bend pertending he knows how to use a compressor and is oh so professional bullshit etc etc

oregon1 · Post by **oregon1** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:12 pm

A proper mixdown is going to be subject to my skills, programs, and the quality of my monitors, which is what I'm trying to get around.

So again, is it just do my best then seek out a studio if I want. Or can I do a mixdown to the best of my ability, then pass it off where someone else can do a 'proper mixdown' and master?

Also, once I mix it myself, what file format do i bring to a studio?

I understand these may be stupid questions, so please ignore my ignorance.

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:13 pm

docwra wrote:At least he's honest and doesn't go on like some bell bend pertending he knows how to use a compressor and is oh so professional bullshit etc etc

true...

but at the same time it's as if he's saying "I wanna drive but cant be bothered with learning the rules of the road"

being able to get a decent mixdown should be a priority

Finished songs, no real mixing skills, now what?

Finished songs, no real mixing skills, now what?

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