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And one after the compressor for tonal adjustments. One at the very top of the chain to roll off any sub lows. Generally speaking I use two EQs for my mastering/mixbus chain. Recap - Get a good rough balance on all tracks during the loudest part of the song making sure your loudest hits (usually strong elements like kick/snare/vocals/bass) are peaking around -8dB to -6dB. If you have unfortunately already mixed yourself into a corner, don’t panic! Just know that some rebalancing/compression adjustments might be necessary. Give yourself plenty of headroom to begin your mix so you don’t “mix yourself into a corner” later.
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This could cause issues with other busses and compressors so it’s always best to do this at the start of a mix. Select all tracks at the same time to maintain relative balance. If your main output is already peaking or close to it: Don’t just pull down the fader on the master output!! Pull down the faders to all the tracks feeding the master output. Headroom is the difference between the loudest part of your mix and peaking at digital 0 (aka 0dBFS) To set a good level for headroom, first loop the loudest part of your track and make sure your peak level meter hits between -8dB and -6dB. I use the following concepts and tools for every production/mix I do. I just want to give you some practical advice about mastering so that you understand what mastering actually does, and use that understanding to make better music! It’s not magic. I will not talk about the loudness wars either. I am not going to go into the history of mastering here. That being said, you do need to understand and even experiment with the mastering process to really improve your own mixes and productions. Having a trusted second set of ears can be invaluable to your music. They master music every day and they are not as close to your music as you are. No distracting project lanes and plugins, just listen.I want to start with a disclaimer that a good mastering engineer is worth their weight in gold. That moment when you start doing things for the sake of it, adding candy here and there without any real purpose, is the same moment you need to stop.Ĭome back to the printed mix the next day and listen with a fresh perspective. The easiest way to do this in Logic Pro X is to use Summing Track Stacks.
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Try bussing all instrument groups early on in the process to simplify your thinking and to enable you to work holistically when mixing, as opposed to diving into too much detail too early. Simplicity is something I feel is highly undervalued in audio today. Personally, I like to make my life as simple as possible.
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Still struggling to wrap your head around mixing and mastering? Enrol in our FREE Mix and Master Starter Guide. Here is an article I wrote to help you understand stereo and the way our brain decodes that information. Having said that, it really helps to understand the psychoacoustic nature of stereophonic sound. Panning is one of your most important tools in the mix process.Īgain, think carefully about your sound stage and pan your tracks in a way that best compliments the mix as a whole. This is the natural next step after fader work. Use them only to resolve issues that arise in the balancing process. Resist the urge to dive straight into plugins. Once you’ve got your gain staging down, simply listen to what’s there, work the faders, and focus solely on the act of balance. NOT for the benefit of the individual track. Your goal is to make sure you position the elements in the stage for the benefit of the mix as a whole. The sound stage is a 3 dimensional space. One of my favourite pieces of advice is to watch the stage! The very quality of the mix is predicated on how well balanced the elements are in the sound stage. Here is an article I wrote before about Gain Staging in Logic Pro X 2. Understanding how signals flow in the DAW can drastically affect the behaviour of your plugins and how you use them. Overly literal audio engineers will tell you how it isn’t needed in digital, which is true until you use an compressor or any analogue-modelling plugin!īut the benefits go beyond those of a technical nature, it’s also a matter of workflow. If you know me, you know I am hot (pun excused) on the issue of gain staging. I have broken down the process into a handful of simple steps that you can apply to any genre of music. This article is designed to give you a simple worflow for mixing tracks in Logic Pro X.