Fanu/FatGyver
patreon
A tip I'd give to my younger self #2 (mixing)
🕑 Added 2021-02-27 08:11:38 +0000 UTCThe single most helpful tip I'd give my younger self in terms of mixing, if I could, would be that not all sounds have to play at the same level thru the whole song. My style, esp. in DNB, has often been very "full" – often closer to a "busy a wall of noise" thing rather than minimal. I was always trying to make everything fit, and I never thought of level automation earlier on. Things got a bit busy every now and then.
Make use of level automation to often fit sounds better in your song. An example: let's say in your intro, you have a guitar. It can play pretty loud there as there won't be much "competition" there. Later on you'll add a sax and vocal, and maybe a piano. Things get busier, and it starts to seem a bit "hectic", and all of a sudden it's not as roomy as it was. One thing that can help a lot is simply dipping a sound (or two) that's not in the main role by, say, 2 dB as things get busier. Like that intro guitar can become a lesser operator in the background as the song proceeds, and maybe once again in the outro, it can get a bigger role. Maybe you'll want to lessen its reverb when things get busier, too, so it fits there nice and dry. Or then again, maybe you'll do it the other way around: it's more subtle in the intro, but in chrous, we want more energy, so give it a bit more level, and maybe reverb.
In the music we hear, we may not be aware of this on a conscious level, but it does happen, and a few tactical level tweaks can help a lot of in terms of both energy and how things fit. A "level hierachy" is a good thing there.
A quick master level thought: sometimes when I mix stuff like tech house etc for clients, I may emphasize the master level by 1–1.5 dB in the drop, and automate it back to where it was within 2-8 bars or so – this type of level automation once again deals with energy. You don't even realize it's happening, but it has a nice impact.
(BTW, will do a post about tricks for drops, too, so watch out)
Level automation is your friend! In Ableton Live, I use Utility for this (pic).
PS: There is a video of me using Pro-Q3 for this type of work, frequency-specific – this I do a whole lot in mixing, too.
