Getting Started

 Don't read any of this just watch any 3 minute youtube video on how to be a
producer, job done, honest.
 In the mix, your focus should be jumping constantly from the minutiae to the
big picture and back again.
 The gain going into a plugin is very important many plugins are not
designed to function correctly if they have an overloaded input from the
previous plugin in the chain

1. Some Terms
 About Output Metering Terminology

2. What to Aim For In Your Final Mix From A

Digital Perspective
Track Outputs

 Should peak at -6dB to -8dB when set to 0dB (See Gain Staging in Track
Workflows)

Master Output
 Should peak at -3dB max and this peak will most likely be the kick or the snare

3. What to Aim For In Your Final Mix

From An Analogue Emulation Perspective
 0 on a VU meter is not the same as 0 dBFS on a digital meter in your DAW. It
is the equivalent of +4 dBu which means there is about 18 to 20 dB of
headroom. That is -18 to -20 dBFS in your DAW which is why there is plenty of
room for peaks in analogue mixing
 Analogue peaks are RMS values set to about 300ms, not True Peaks, but with
all that headroom there should not be any issue there
 Try vintage metering for VU and RMS Peaks (for free http://www.tb-
software.com/TBProAudio/mvmeter.html)

 You may also want to try a console emulation Analogue Emulation

Track Outputs
 Should average at around -18 dB (-20 to -16 is fine) with a transient peak
hitting -6 as an absolute maximum. This should mean that you will not run
into any trouble with summing on the mix bus when aiming at 0VU (See Gain

Staging in Track Workflows)

Master Output
 Having adjusted track faders to taste move them all simultaneously up or
down until you get the desired 0 VU on the VU meter on the master bus and
you should hit all your master output targets with room to spare
 Peaking at 0 VU, expect to see -8 to -10 dB on the master output, anything
below -6 is asking for trouble
 For a more in-depth look at analogue and digital gain
staginghttp://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/gain-staging-your-daw-
software

4. Master Output Maximums

 Regardless of whether you are working digitally or emulating analogue your
master bus should not exceed the following maximums
 RMS output -9 max
 You do not have to be concerned with LU or dBTP at the mixing stage but

don't make it hard for the mastering engineer (see What To Aim For
Technically in Mastering)

Tips
General
 Don't be afraid to break the rules
 Musicality will almost always trump technicality
 Mix like mastering does not exist
 Use a reference track but remember it is mastered so the headroom is gone,

turn it down so it is more at the loudness level of the mix ( About

Reference Tracks)
 Your sonic spectrum should look a lot like pink noise rolling off about 3dB per
octave
 Making sure every sound has its space. EQ parts so they have their pocket of
frequency to shine through. If two or more parts are competing (for example,
 the vocal and a warm pad), let the most important part have the space and
then EQ out competing frequencies from the other sound.

 Decide if you want any processing on the master bus Final Mix/Pre-
Mastering Notes
 Don't mix into a limiter but it can be ok to do this about 80% of the way in
to get an idea of how the track will respond to mastering
 If you can't get your desired RMS value of -9 then mix into a limiter on the
master channel with a ceiling -0.1 to -0.3dB (to avoid clipping). Then, pull the
threshold down (around -3 to -5dB) while watching the RMS values

 Reverb and delay can completely transform a lifeless mix Reverb & Delay

 Choose a workflow Song Workflows

 Automate for song structure Mixing For Song Structure

Organisational (or egg sucking)

 Group tracks and busses, name and colour code them well with more
fundamental elements at the top
 Name markers well and trim dead air to visually see the song structure

Nothing hard and fast here, just some

general ideas that tend to work well
General
 The solo button is your enemy. When listening to a track soloed, you don’t
get the impression of how it sits in the mix. It’s fine to solo an instrument to
see if there’s a trouble spot in the performance or in how you’ve processed it,
but you should then quickly take it out of solo and listen in the context of the
full mix. A better option is to bring the fader for that particular track up in your
mix to hear if there are any issues. It doesn’t give a perfect sense of context,
but it’s better than tweaking while just hearing the track by itself.
 Consider some nice tape and/or analog console emulation at the start of
each track. This will colour the sound and will sum together on the master
bus in a musically, harmonically rich way which can improve the overall sound.
 Bounce the tracks down to audio at this pint to avoid unnecessary CPU
overhead of the plugins
 Don't overload tracks with loads of plugins, it is easier to get polish if you
do not have to do loads of EQ and dynamic processing.
 Don't get too ridged one size does not fit all you can EQ then compress or
compress then EQ or do your EQ cuts, compress then do some EQ boosts. It
does not matter so long as it works for the track in question

Workflow
1. Phase issues:
o Phasing will reduce the volume of the track when transferred to mono so
best to de-phase before gainstaging
o Vinyl cutting, MP3 encoding, and terrestrial broadcasting rely heavily on
the mono signal being in good proportion and this is best addressed in
the mix
o Quite tracks can benefit from inverting the phase

o Micing problems can build phase issues into recordings (see Stereo
Imaging)
2. Gain Staging: Start in mono to get the gain right across tracks. With faders on
0dB add or subtract gain to get to the desired peaks
o Listen to the difference in sound between changing the input or the
output signal In some cases the sound is better if you change the gain,
sometimes when you change the input trim. In analogue systems
sometimes a sound is really enhanced if you turn up the input and turn
down the output proportionately
o Mono will reveal phase issues and show where body and punch is lost
o Consider staying in mono and applying spatial effects or wideners
o Consider mono for every part of every track below 100Hz including the
master bus, the cumulative effect will be punchier
o Automate gain in order to leave your faders free for general
adjustments (especially across the board)
o Note: You may need to adjust the gain as you go e.g. EQ boost/cuts,
panning and compressing transients will alter overall volume
o Consider doing some gain automation so that the compressor does not
have to work so hard when you come to use it
 o Gain automation is also useful if you wish to tweak the faders at a later
date and keep the volume changes intact across the whole of the track's
timeline
Generally speaking EQ first, but if your compressor is creating a lot of
colour and character it might be better to compress first and EQ second. It
is important to note that EQ can change the gain output of the signal so if
your EQ is before your compressor then dramatically changing it at a
later date will affect the way the compressor reacts because the
compressor's threshold will be hit at a different point to where you set it
originally, adjust your compressor to compensate
3. EQ: When dealing with bands and EQ think about what frequencies you want
in the track and how it is going to balance with the rest of the tracks and the
song as a whole

o Filter first, then cut, then boost (see EQ) There is often a great
deal of low end in a track that muddies up the mix, HPF any track that
does not need those frequencies to clean up and add clarity and punch
to the low end but beware filter too much and the mix can become thin
o EQing in mono makes it harder to separate tracks out where they are
frequency masking each other
o Where mono is less important, as an alternative use panning and gain to
see how much filtering is actually necessary on a track to avoid low-end
energy build up and mud
o Multiband buses. Optionally, split your track into bands with bus sends
with filtered EQ's on them and process them all differently
4. Dynamics & Effects: Any order, none of them or all of them, whatever

o Transient Shaping (see Transient Shapers) Transient shaping

before compression is generally a good idea since compression is likely
to tame transients
o Compression: To tame transients and peaks. If you automate the gain or
levels go back over any compression applied in case it does not need to

work so hard (see Dynamics: Compression, Limiting & Gates)

o Look at serial compression for a smoother result and Parallel

Compression for colouring sound

o Saturation & Distortion and Parallel Saturation

o Spacial effects: Reverb, delay, chorus, phase & flange (Note try not to
overload the low and high ends with spatial effects, HPF & LPF and just
 use the mids to do the talking). Consider sending your effects to a

parallel bus to EQ them (see Reverb & Delay)

o Oversampling adds clarity
5. Crossovers
o Tighten and smooth by using EQ before compression but you may not
want it tight and smooth
o Nice EQ style boosts can be achieved with multiband upwards
expansion (E.g. Xfer OTT)
o If your track is part of some layering ensure it is sonically different from
the other layer(s) but not so different it is obviously more than one
sounds. If it is too sonically similar it will double the track and just create
loudness
6. Panning then width or mid/side processing. Consider reducing the stereo

width on a number of tracks if you have phase issues in general (see

Stereo Imaging)
7. Manage The Relationship With Other tracks

i. Complementary EQ: Cut first EQ

ii. Sidechain Compression

iii. Tame transients in your track to allow other track elements to come
through such as a kick or snare
8. Levels: Adjust gain first, faders later
9. Limiter on the end of the chain (you may not want one, you don't have to
have one Generally speaking most engineers agree that it is not a great

idea to mix into a limiter) Dynamics: Compression, Limiting & Gates

General Workflow
1. Decide how you want to work e.g.
o Focus on the mixes main element and build everything around it
o Focus on drums and bass to get the low end in the right shape first
o Work from the top down i.e. get a rough fader mix and then do all your
stereo bus processing e.g. Tape, analogue bus, bus compression (This is
especially good if you are working with instruments that have been
 recorded really well in the first instance, including good virtual
instruments)

2. Manage each track Track Workflows

3. Manage groups of tracks in the same way as a track e.g. The drums bus or a
horn section
4. Put everything into mono and center pan them or at the very least ensure that
there are not too many layers of stereo synths and samples muddying up the
mix
5. Consider master bus processing early so that does not affect your sound later
on e.g. mix bus compression, saturation and/or console emulation
6. Choose a drum and bass workflow first
o Why? if you lock down the low end (Kick & Bass) volumes first it is easier
to add in the rest of the elements around it rather than add a loud low
end into an existing mix

o Pan the main elements of the drums ( Stereo Imaging)

o Keep the bass in the centre and mix spacial effects in a parallel bus to
widen the image if necessary to avoid losing energy

7. Drum & Bass Workflow 1 (Generally good for digital kits)

o Mix Kick
o Mix Bass

o Manage low frequency masking Mixing Drums & Bass

o Mix the rest of the drums

8. Drum & Bass Workflow 2 (Generally good for acoustic kits)

o Mix the drums as a whole starting with the overheads and moving to
individual pieces
o Mix Bass

o Deal with the low frequency masking Mixing Drums & Bass
9. Wider pan the percussion and balance rhythmically. Lead sounds like guitars,
synths, pianos etc should be balanced rhythmically across the stereo spectrum
opposite to each other e.g. a shaker and a strummed acoustic guitar
10. Fit the elements of the song around a key element e.g. The Vocal

11. Aux bus the spatial effects Reverb & Delay

12. Deal with pads and atmospherics and hard panned stuff
13. EQ: High pass the master to mix the mids and uppers

14. Automate For Song Structure Mixing For Song Structure

15. Glue it together (Unless you want lots of separation), compression, saturation
and reverb are all great ways to glue a track together

If you are using a calibration tool like Sonarworks for speakers or

headphones on the master, switch it off before you bounce your
track

General
 For punch mono every stereo track and the master below 100Hz for
cumulative effect

Arrangement
 Use fewer tracks in verses than there are in choruses. Adjusting the
denseness of instrumentation can help maintain interest and momentum. Try
to thin out the arrangement on the verses or introduce something new in each
section as the song progresses.
 Pan the verses narrowly and the choruses more widely. You might have the
verse feature an acoustic guitar panned halfway to one side, while a chorus
could have double-tracked guitars panned hard left and hard right to open up

the stereo image. Stereo Imaging.

 Automating the volume and stereo width can create tension and release.
Automate the signal down slightly as a rise or transition is occurring. When
the chorus/drop hits thereafter, automate the volume and width immediately
back to default
 Dial in different effects settings on different parts of the arrangemente.g.
different reverbs between a chorus and a verse. Use either mono effects or
effects with a shorter decay time in verses and stereo effects with longer decay
time in choruses. This will help the depth of your mix shift as the song
progresses.
 Create frequency range variations from section to section. Shape the
frequency range on verses to carry less low- and high-end information and
choruses to cover a more full range. This will create harmonic excitement in
 your mix from the contrast as everything seems to become more lush when
the chorus or bridge hits.
 Too much percussion can distract the listener from the fundamental core of
your mix. Consider turn the level down in the verse
 Sculpt and shape when appropriate. It isn’t unusual for an artist to present the
mix engineer with a full complement of dense tracks and instrumentation. A
mix engineer can then make objective and creative decisions about where
to cut, mute, or otherwise edit and alter parts to support the
arrangement.
 Reach for distortion sparingly—or not at all—in verses and bring it in
gradually for a chorus.This creates even more harmonic excitement than you
can with EQ alone. Distortion doesn’t need to be extreme, since just a little bit
can change the sound dramatically. You don't want to overwhelm the sound,
so use distortion to just give it a little kick.

Automation
 Use expressive “macro” automation, where you’re making subtle
adjustments to an entire section to augment the arrangement. Make these
adjustments after compression and other processing, perhaps by automating
a sub mix, bus or trim plug-in after any other plug-ins in the channel strip.
 Use corrective “micro” automation, where you’re making slight detailed
adjustments to even out a performance, reduce breathes, or fix inconsistent
levels. It’s often a good idea to do this ahead of any compression, so the
compressor doesn’t work as hard.
 Sparse parts of your mix can sound louder than in busier sections. Automate
gain to manage this

Drops
 Get rid of a reasonable amount of decibels before the drop, apply sounds that
are easier to discern and have less energy (loose bass and use upper mids)
 Automating a high pass filter can get rid of the energy before a drop
 Don't be too sparse before the drop it can kill it since sparse arrangements
can sound louder than busy arrangements
 The drop can be enhanced by layering

 Enhance with mid/side processing Stereo Imaging

 Enhance with sidechaining, make it pump and add energy with New York

Compression Sidechain Compression

Mix Bus Options
 Don't start mastering... No stereo imagers, mid-side processors, reverb,
modulation, exciters, de-essers or limiters on the master bus
 You do not have to put anything on your mix bus but here are a few things
that you can choose to do to finalise your mix.
 Generally speaking only do small alterations on the mix bus
 Gentle compression and saturation can glue the mix together nicely
 There is a controversy as to whether this should be done at the start of mixing
or as polish at the end. There are benefits to both e.g. Mix bus compression
means that your tracks can be compressed less since all compression is now
serial compression but equally you may turn a track up only for the mix bus
compressor to turn it back down. Experimentation is required.

 Consider Analogue Emulation

EQ
 Generally speaking DON'T. Needing to EQ the master bus is more likely
to be an indicator that there is something wrong with elements in the
mix.
 Small boosts and cuts are the way to go when it comes to mix buss
equalization. Use it only to roll off the subs to remove rumble, or control some
harshness or other problem frequencies.
 1–2 dB is pretty much all you want to boost or cut. If you find yourself making
adjustments of 3 dB or more, you’d be much better advised to go back to the
individual tracks to fix things.

 EQ

Compression

 Either Glue Compression only or mix into a punchy compressor and glue
after it. This will greatly reduce the amount of compression needed on an
individual track
 The relationship between the kick and the bass can be changed with
multiband compression. Compressing below around 150Hz (only) with a long
attack time will bring out the kick and shortening the attack time will bring out
the sustain of the bass
 Without a High Pass Filter the bass may trigger the compressor and you may
need to use a multiband compressor. Otherwise, see the ratio suggestions per

frequency in Multiband Compression

 http://joelambertmastering.com/mixing-advice-from-your-mastering-
engineer-tip-3-masterful-mix-bus-compression-settings/

Saturation
 Even though it is subtle this can be great. Up until the last few decades, pretty
much all the music you heard was recorded to tape. Tape saturation – the
absorption of transients in a very gentle, musical way – is a big part of the
sound of the recordings that we love. A tape emulation plugin can really help
smooth things out and add fullness and a musicality to what may be a too-
squeaky-clean mix. This can be a nice touch that allows you to apply less
processing later down the road.
 Be aware, however, that saturation of any kind – be it tape, tube, transformer,
whatever – can present major problems if it is taken too far. That’s why
applying it to the mix bus is generally better than adding it to individual
tracks: this way, it won't ‘build up’ cumulatively. Nonetheless, it still requires
careful monitoring because too much saturation can blur detail. As with every
other type of mixbus signal processing, use sparingly, and with caution.
 Parallel processing can be the real key to getting the subtleties right here

 Saturation & Distortion

Things Mastering Can Fix But Probably

Shouldn't Have To
 Have a look at how mastering solves these problems and apply the techniques

to mixing see the Mastering Guide board

 The track is a bit flat and lifeless.
o Console emulations can really help bring out the punch, life, energy and

clarity Analogue Emulation

o Try some parallel processing ( Parallel Compression and/or

Parallel Saturation)
 It sounds small and isn’t “loud” enough. Turning it up or mixing down at a
higher level doesn’t solve the problem. Yes, that makes it sound louder but
doesn’t add the required impact or clarity.
o Try some parallel processing
 It sounds dull or muffled. Other recordings are warm and deep yet bright
and open — all at the same time. You try boosting the EQ at high frequencies,
but now your song just sounds harsh and noisy.

o Mid/Side EQ may help

o As may de-essing before bosting the highs
 The instruments and vocals sound thin and lack the same sense of fullness
that your favourite recordings have. You patch in a compressor and adjust
some controls, and now the whole mix sounds squashed. The vocal might
sound louder, but the cymbals have no dynamics. It’s fuller… and lifeless.
o Make sure the tracks have not had the weight and depth filtered out of
them
o Try some parallel processing
 The bass doesn’t have punch. You boost it with some low-end EQ, but now it
just sounds louder and muddier, not punchier.

o Saturation & Distortion can help here

o Multiband Compression
o Try some parallel processing
 The overall song seems narrow, even though you can hear all the
instruments in your mix and they all seem to have their own “place.” Other
recordings that you compare to have width and image that you just can’t
seem to get from panning your individual instruments around.

o Stereo Imaging

o Mid/Side EQ can change the perception of width

 It sounds like several instruments in several spaces, despite having reverb
on the individual tracks. Your other reference material has a sense of cohesive
space that brings all the parts together, a “spaciousness” that works across the
entire mix, but your track is lacking.

o Some glue compression may be required (see About Dynamics:

Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates)
 Much, much,
more https://forum.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7277840

General
 Name the buses so they are easy to find

Warning!
 Logic Pro X: If tracks within a bus have their own sends to other buses
then altering the volume within the summing bus will not alter the
relative volume of the send(s) e.g. a snare in a drum bus has a send to a
reverb bus, altering the volume of the drum bus will alter the volume of the
snare but won't alter the volume of the reverb bus so you will end up with
relatively more snare reverb in the mix the more you turn the drum bus down.
If you have this problem then you need to use a VCA sub mix
(https://youtu.be/zSFBC241UTA). VCA's are just faders so you can't do any
processing on them but they will control the level of anything sent to them
regardless of what their output is

Types of Bus
Mix Buses
 This is a summing bus for groups of instruments (e.g. The drum kit) and often

employs Glue Compression

 You can send all the buses and instruments that are not bused to a single VCA
sub mix bus and do some processing on the entire track, this is to allow your
reference track to be routed to the master bus and not be processed

Sidechain Buses
 Turn the send up to the max
 Turn the level down or set the bus to 'No Output'

Parallel Buses
 Trickier!
 Variable or automated send volumes (Start at 0dB)
 Variable level on the bus
 Involves some signal processing such as saturation

Various Bus Options

 Important Note: You don't need any buses at all, a kick and bass can be
separated by choosing sounds that don't conflict or EQing them if they do
conflict. Even a kick bus to sidechain through the bass is not a minimum
requirement
 Similar frequencies buses such as a bass (kick and bass) bus, low-mids bus,
high-mids bus and treble bus
 Instrument groups buses process similar instruments the same e.g. drums or
vocals
 Key element bus e.g. Vocal to sidechain through other key instruments that
clash with the vocal range like pianos, guitars and big basses with wide
frequency spectrums
 Multiband buses. Split your track into bands with bus sends with filtered EQ's
on them and process them all differently

File Spec
 Providing pre-masters at 32bit is definitely the best choice. 24bit is acceptable,
16bit is not ideal, but possible.
 Sample rate should be 44.1kHz or above (Keep the sample rate the same as
you have been using while working / recording, don’t upsample on export).
 If your pre-master is 32bit, then there is no need for dither on export.
 Wav or Aiff files are the standard, mp3 is not acceptable as it’s degraded
audio.

Give it a couple of days so your ears are fresh

and go to the Mastering Guide board

Reference
 About Equalisers

General
 Filter or shelve first, then cut, then boost
 The most important concept here is to be able to emphasise the characteristic
frequencies of the track you are working on and eliminate frequencies that do
not enhance its sonic features in any particular way.
 Try not to EQ with the solo button on, EQ needs to sit well in the mix
 EQing in mono makes frequency separation between tracks more difficult and
is, therefore a good skill to have
 Rolling off the low and high frequencies creates depth, lows remove loudness
and highs reduce over distance

Common Problems For The Mix As A Whole

 Too much sub-bass between 30-50Hz
 Too much energy in the 40-80Hz range will make the mix sound muddy on
large speakers but OK on smaller speakers
 For punch mono every stereo track and the master below 100Hz for a
cumulative effect
 Insufficient separation between bass and midrange can be solved by going
through your entire mix and remove 2-5dB at 270Hz on every single channel
 If your mix feels “muddy”, try reducing frequencies between 125 Hz and 500
Hz. If certain instruments, such as heavy electric guitars, piano and certain keys
and pads, feel as though they are carrying too much “weight” in the mix, start
with those instruments.
 Mids mask each other: 200Hz to 6kHz is where most things happen and the
instruments may need to be separated out into sonic pockets
 Too much between 500 Hz and 1 kHz can sound “woody” or “boxy” and give a
false sense of power in a mix
 Track is too harsh from overloading the 2-5kHz range
 Too little top end in the 10–16kHz frequency range

Tips
General Things Of Note
 High and low pass filter all instruments that do not need those frequencies
 Highpass filter the sub bass where you do not need it to eliminate rumble.
This will remove bass energy and make it easier to get louder
 Subtractive EQ can make space in a mix
 Filtering can kill off some of the power of an instrument consider adding a
resonant boost ahead of the cut off
 Too much additive EQ can make your mix harsh and brittle
 Frequency Separation through Complementary EQing: If you’re struggling
to get two instruments occupying similar frequencies to sound distinct from
one another make EQ curves that are the exact opposite of one another for
each instrument (focused around key tonal areas)
 If you find a nice boost try doubling and/or halving your frequencies and
boosting those too (Except bass only double the bass if 100Hz is grooving)
 Notch filter out hum at 60Hz and 120Hz
 Cut 2-5dB out of the 270Hz band on every track for bass/mid separation then
start dialing it back in for character on certain tracks
 Boost around 1kHz for presence and loudness
 Our hearing is hard-wired to notice more around the range of speech 1kHz -
4kHz. Things in this range will sound louder even if they are not
 Boost 5-6kHz as a general mid-range frequency area to add presence and
attack
 Cut above 18 kHz to reduce hiss noise
 Cut above 19kHz to increase clarity. It is very difficult to hear this range
anyway
 Boost 18 kHz to add clarity to overall mix
 The high range section is delicate, it should require drastic positive or negative
gain settings only in extreme situations

Mid & Side Processing Tips

 For a drop create more space in the mix for the kick and bass by cutting the
lows and mids of the mid channel and raising the mids and treble of the sides
on synths or guitars
 If it's not supposed to be punchy (e.g. a pad) kill 1-3dB at around 750Hz-1kHz
in the mid channel. There will be more space for the punchier parts
 Widening can increase harshness put in a high shelf to attenuate at 10-
12kHz to the side signal to soften
Common problems
 Track does not sound as wide as the reference track and general lack of
panning
 Phase issues in mono
 As a general rule don't let the bass get too wide
 Room not set up properly (having said that some successful commercial

releases have been mixed on headphones) Metering & Monitoring

 Mid/Side Processing can help to manage the stereo field, most of these cards

contain their own M/S tips, for general information see About Mid/Side
Processing

Tips
 On any particular instrument recorded in stereo, a high frequency EQ boost on
just the side channel makes the ‘wider’ elements sound brighter. A Baxandall
filter or a high shelf filter work best. This helps to add clarity to a reverb,
without muddying up the signal too much. e.g. If a track has multiple guitar
parts, route them through a bus, using Mid/Side processing on the guitar bus.
Automate the Mid/Side tool to boost the volume of the side channel during a
chorus, or other section of the track
 Sometimes the widest sounding mixes don’t come from panning everything,
they come from panning just a couple of interesting elements while
maintaining a strong, balanced center. This also tends to correlate very well in
mono. Try just making just one element of your mix wide and spacious, like
doubled-guitars, a stereo piano track or overheads, and make everything else
work around center with careful level setting and judicious EQ. You’ll be
surprised how powerful this can be!
 Every once in awhile, listen to your mix in mono to ensure you aren’t
losing too much in the translation
 Give each instrument its own sonic space. Each sound must have its own
panned position and width
 Our ears tend to focus on the signals in a mix that are panned center or
panned extreme left or right.
 Generally the backbeat and lead vocal are the focal points of the mix,
because of this, the kick, snare, bass and lead vocal are usually panned center
 Add stereo width to the higher frequencies
 Binaural processing: The closer a sound is to the listener the more detail and
frequency range will be heard
 Choose whose point of view you are panning for, an audience or a
performer. Personally, I love it when you feel like your in the drummer's seat in
a stadium with the kit arranged in the stereo spectrum as the drummer would
view and hear it (ever noticed how 'Born To be Wild' has the bright percussive
elements arranged where you would reach up and hold the high wide handle
bars of a Harley chopper)
 Balance sonically: If there are two instruments in your mix that occupy a
similar frequency range, try panning them opposite of one another. You don’t
have to pan them to the extreme. For instance, a guitar panned slightly to the
left will complement a keyboard panned slightly to the right
 Balance Rhythmically: Make sure that the elements you pan don’t make one
side too rhythmically busy, balance them e.g. strumming on one side and hit
hats on the other using similar patterns
 Alternatively Imbalance or move from balance to imbalance and back, it can
make things more interesting
 For a fuller sounding mix, when using an instrument, particularly one that’s
quite transient and tonal (anything plucked or strummed), recording that
instrument’s part twice and panning one recording ‘extreme left’, and the
other ‘extreme right’.
 When duplicating a part to pan hard L & R, use filters, or slight changes in
delay to impart slightly different character to each channel. Keep it subtle
though.
 Some panning/balancing scenarios https://www.propellerheads.se/blog/tools-
for-mixing-levels-panning
 But don't forget it wasn't always like this, you may want some older style
character e.g. https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/guest-
post-how-they-heard-it-blue-note-records-and-the-transition-from-mono-to-
stereo/

Phasing
 Quick and dirty: Gradually narrow the stereo width to kill phasing
 Phase issues occur at different amounts withing the frequency bands. Multi-
band stereo imagers take longer but can leave more of the stereo field intact
when you are done
 When duplicating a part to pan hard L & R, if it introduces phasing, adjust the
transient to hit ms's apart, a couple of millimetres in the timeline should do it
 Too much unison on a synth will result in phasing in mono

General
 Understanding compressors and expanders will help with understanding

transient shapers which work more transparently than transient shapers

About Dynamics: Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates
 Can aid loudness especially if you use one to kill the transients in the side
parts of the mix and leave the mids in
 Automating the attack parameter of a transient shaper to increase in a
chorus would help percussion cut through and keep the rhythmic drive going
 Transient peaks can drive your master limiter crazy so use a transient shaper
to reduce the attack and if they are still too high use a limiter or saturation on
individual drum tracks
 Create dramatic rhythms out of subtle sound sources

Mid/Side Processing Tips

 Aid punch and loudness by using a transient shaper to kill transients in the
sides

COMPRESSION

Reference
 About Dynamics: Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates

General
 Can be used to make sounds louder but primarily to reduce or expand the
dynamic range. Reducing the dynamic range and taming the peaks allows the
average level of the audio to be increased without distorting the peaks
 Don't just use it because it is there, making quiet sounds louder can upset a
mix as a whole Remember a lot of older mixes sound great with very limited
compression options, it's retaining the dynamics of the performance that does
that

Other Characteristics
 Compressors can be musical and impart tonal characteristics (particularly FET
and Vari-Mu compressors)

 Compressors can reinforce the rhythm and groove of a mix try Rhythmic
Compression
 Compressors can help reveal elements of the mix that can get lost through

frequency masking (e.g. Kick & bass) through Sidechain Compression

 Compressors can enliven a mix with punch and tone through Parallel
Compression
 Glue compression makes a number of elements more coherent e.g. a drum
bus or horn section fed into a mix bus, glue can, therefore, be applied to the
master bus to make the whole song more coherent but this might be more of

a mastering concern Glue Compression

Tips
 Understand what too much compression sounds like and avoid it squash
the hell out of a track and study it if necessary
 Some engineers add 2:1 and dial in teh threshold on pretty much everything
even if there is no gain reduction happening as it adds character
 Getting your threshold right
o If the threshold is set too high you get more of the tonal characteristics
of the compressor. Set it too low, and you run the risk of squashing too
much dynamic movement.
o To find this sweet spot note down the attack, release, and ratio you’ve
happy with.
 o Dial in a medium attack, a medium release, and a higher ratio.
o Adjust the threshold and it’ll be easier to hear where the ceiling point is
o When happy with the threshold put the other settings back to where
they were
 Getting your auto-release right
o Auto-release is great if there are differing sustain levels in what you are
compressing but it can be relative to your actual release setting so don't
just switch it on and hope, get the release value close enough to where
you want to be before switching it on
 Filter rumble out before compressing. Low frequencies like kick and bass
have more energy, if they are in charge of the compression the track will
pump (not always desirable) and the highs may suffer. Consider multiband
compression
 Sometimes, using two more gentle compressors in series is a more
transparent way of levelling out an audio track. Rather than one harsh pass of
compression that could sound squashed
 Mix Dialling in around 50 - 80% dry, 50 - 30% wet gives you a much
smoother, more polished sound without eliminating the musicality of peaks

and dynamic range (this is parallel or New York compression Sidechain

Compression)
 If using multiband compression, start with one band and add more bands if
needed
 Low threshold vs increased input gain On a single track it appears to matter
less but across a whole mix increasing input gain retains more of the original
levels of the individual elements whereas low thresholds bring out the quieter
elements in the mix
 When compressing similar frequencies together in a bus start at 4:1 with a
medium attack and release with a 1-2 dB attenuation, although lower
frequencies will have slower attack and release values to avoid distortion
 You will need to compress more for sound that will be heard in a noisy
environment like a car

Mid & Side Processing Tips

 For drums try using a punchy compression on the mids to bring out the kick
and snare and a smoother compression on the sides. (If you are using a
detection filter or multiband compression generally allow the bass through
and detect the snap of the snare on the mids and the sizzle of the overheads
on the sides)
Common Issues
 Compression can distort a signal, avoid adding more distortion by being
careful with our attack and release times
 Too much limiting can reduce the impact and punch of the dynamics (at
best) or make a track sound spongey and lifeless (at worst)
 Midrange can be overemphasised
 Crushed transients with an attack time that’s too quick
 Release problems
o Drums can be less bright
o Audible sustain can be increased
o Pulse and rhythm can be reduced

General
 Parallel Compression
 Sidechaining is the last part of the separation chain. Use complimentary
EQ, filters, levels and panning to separate the frequencies out
first thensidechaining to duck an instrument out
 Sidechaining isn't just about ducking it can be about enhancing e.g. Pumping
with LFO and reverb sidechains
 Sidechaining can be frequency specific using dynamic EQ's, filters and
multiband compressors
 You don't necessarily have to sidechain through the whole stereo spectrum.
Consider sidechaining the focused elements like kick, bass and snare through
the mids and leave the sides intact
 Duck ringing instruments out (e.g. Guitar) in favour of the punch of the key
element (e.g. Vocal) and allow the sustain of the ringing instrument to come
back in. This can be used on pads for atmospheric build ups
 You can sidechain rhythmic parts through a gate to just trigger the ducking
you want. Tame an unruly bass line by gating with the kick as an input
 Duck your effects busses to avoid smothering the main elements and
muddying the mix
 Some history https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/sidechain-compression-part-
1/
Typical Uses
 Pushing the bass out of the way to hear the kick
 Sidechain the vocal through bright guitars to give the vocal room

Side Chain Compression

 There is a controversy about whether to switch auto gain on or off
 Since gates are just compressors with a ratio of ∞:1 they work with
sidechaining
 Not sidechain compression but sidechain gate. Using a gate lets you add
sounds in from the trigger e.g. extra reverb on a snare

Subtlety
 Gently ducking the main instrumental elements of the mix out using the full
drums as a input can bring out the groove of a track

Pumping
 Sidechain everything to the kick drum (at least) even if it's only compressing
1dB, it creates a danceable movement
 Sidechain the kick through the bass and other tracks if you wish so that every
time the kick hits, they ducks out of the way.
 Start with a fast attack (0.1ms) and release time (40ms) and adjust them from
there then adjust the threshold and ratio to reduce by a few dB's every time
the kick hits
 Adjust the threshold and ratio of the compressor to see how the sound
changes. As a general guide, when the needle is hitting less than or equal to -
4db, the effect is subtle and shouldn’t be noticed by the listener. When the
needle is hitting -10 to -15dB you’ll hear the real dance pumping effect
 Ratio alters gain reductions so manages the amount of ‘pump’. Use higher
settings (8:1+) where you want the pumping to be more noticeable. The most
important parameter, though, is the compressor’s release time, which
you’ll want to increase in order to achieve the right graduation to the
pumping effect
 Starting with the bass, bring the kick and snare through with lots of
attenuation (25-30dB) use a high pass filter to isolate the transient (usually
above 1kHz) so that the transient pokes through when it hits then copy this to
every other track
 For multiband compressors if you bring the low-end band 1 of a kick
through band 1 of the bass with a very low threshold (or very high ratio) it
 effectively gates the bass and with a reasonable release time the bass really
pumps along with the track.
 Pump your reverb by sidechaining it and setting the pre-delay to a suitable
duration synced with the tempo of the song e.g. 1/8 note (or use milliseconds
if you don't have intervals, you may need to convert beat intervals to

milliseconds see Math Links & Tools)

 As an alternative to pumping with sidechain compression try send to a bus
with an LFO on it to pump the sound along

De-essing
Triggering compression with a filtered version of the audio
1. Send the audio to a bus
2. Filter the bus to a specific frequency e.g. Just using high frequencies with an
EQ
3. Boost the frequency and sidechain that into the compressor on the original
audio
4. This will duck that frequency out when it goes over the threshold

Parallel Compression
Note
 Remember Limiters are compressors too, some nice aggressive clipping, eq and
excitement/soft saturation can be a powerful creative tool in the mix
 Automating parallel compression in and out to beef up the sound can work well for
song structure

New York Compression

NY Compression adds energy and body. It is parallel compression and can be achieved with
aux buses or a mix knob if your compressor has one
1. Create bus sends from the drums, with a greater amount sent from the kick and snare,
and a smaller amount of overheads.
 Place a Compressor across the bus. Configure a heavy-handed compressor using the
Studio FET model, using an 8:1 ratio and the threshold low enough to deliver plenty of
gain reduction. Wack the makeup gain right up if you want to. Subtlety isn’t important
here as you will blend this signal into the mix by a small amount.
 Set the Attack to its fastest setting so that the Compressor grabs the transients, and
then gradually increase the Release time so that the compressor audibly ‘pumps’
 Note: For other types of parallel compression you might want the attack very
slow to allow the transients through and the release very fast in order to make
the track 'pop'
 If you want a little more drive add some Soft distortion combined with a touch of
additional limiting on the output. Aim for the limiter just to catch the occasional
transient that slips through the net
 Add an Equaliser on the output of the Compressor, giving the compressed version of
the drums more colour. Using a shelving boost at either end of the kit (e.g. 80Hz and
8kHz) plus a wide bell across the middle of the spectrum (e.g. 200Hz to 2kHz dipping
at -10dB)
 Blend the compressed and equalised version of the kit in with the dry source. Apply
subtly.

Combining With Reverb

 Reverb & Parallel Compression

Make your compressor groove

 To track the drums it is most likely best to have your compressor track the
peaks rather than the RMS

Approach 1
 The trick here is not to care about pumping initially. You want it to pump
so that you can hear that it is grooving in time to your music
 Set a quick release, a high ratio, and a low threshold (not too low—you should
still see some bounce-back on the meters)
 Fine tune the attack until the transients are how you want them
 Work on getting the release to a place where you like how the signal returns
to its original state.
 Reduce the ratio to get rid of the overt pumping so it sits well in the mix

Approach 2
 Match the release time on a compressor to the tempo of your

song (see Math Links & Tools).

 Having the release synchronize with, say, a driving 8th note rhythm on a bass
or guitar can add life to the performance.
 You can do this by ear by setting the compressor on your track with a very low
threshold, then adjust the release time until the signal sounds natural (i.e. not
pumping)

Approach 3 (If Approach 2 does not work)

 Relying on the beats to millisecond does not always work, as some
compressors aren't compressing to the millisecond they say they are
 Run a 500 Hz tone into the compressor along with a level-matched, one-
sample-long MPC click (which is playing every beat in the bar or the main
accented groove beats)
 Set your release time so that the compressor pumps the sine tone in the
groove of your MPC.
 Stick it on your drums; it should now make the groove breathe and pump
more in rhythm. For more cohesion, you can also stick the same compressor
on the bass or any other groove-essential parts.

Warning!
 Be careful you can do more 'damage' with a multi-band tool than a single band tool.
 Whatever you do retain the overall tonal balance of the mix (which should look very
much like a pink noise curve)

General

 General Mastering Dynamics Info

 Remember Dynamic EQ is a close relative of multiband compression and can be

more targeted
 Multi-band processing is usually thought of as a problem-solving tool, something to
reach for only when the mix needs work that can’t be fixed with simple EQ and
compression.
 Multiband compression should be more subtle and more inconspicuousthan
traditional single band compression. You should be looking at a maximum of 2-3 dB
of gain reduction in a band
 The multiband compressor is usually placed just before a full-band compressor
(if one is being used)
 Like most mastering equalisers most multi-band compressors use linear-phase
crossovers to split the signal bands, which is important to ensure the phase
relationship between the bands remains constant, so that when the bands are
summed at the output of the processor, no phasing occurs at the crossover points;
although this can have the disadvantage of introducing pre-ringing in some

cases. Also note that Dynamic EQ is less likely to cause phase shift problems
 Use one extra band at a time adding one more at a time as needed

Use cases
 Changing the relationship between kick and bass * Compressing below around
150Hz (only) with a long attack time will bring out the kick and shortening the attack
time will bring out the sustain of the bass
 Mud removal compressing 100/150Hz to 500Hz significantly more than the 2/2.5:1 of
the other bands
 High shelf EQ makes some elements too bright. High band compression will control
those issues
 De-essing by focusing the compression on the sibilant region of the vocal. This is
more effective than simple EQ, as the mix will remain unprocessed when no sibilance
is present. A spectrogram will be very useful in identifying the location of ess problems

Advantages
 You can set different attack times for different ranges of frequencies. A low-frequency
signal, such as the fundamental of a bass instrument, may take tens of milliseconds to
complete one cycle, whereas a high-frequency signal like the top end of a hi-hat
sound might only take 3-4 milliseconds. With multiband processing, you can tailor the
compression to control each range of frequencies. Ideally, then you won’t hear the
compressor eat up too much bass energy, or not even touch the hi-hat.
 You can adjust and control the amount of energy coming out of the compressor for
each band. For example, if your kick isn’t providing enough weight, rather than
applying a low-end EQ boost, which can bring up a lot of energy in the mix, eating up
your headroom, try using a multi-band expander at the bottom end, bringing the kick
up a dB or so each time it hits. This way, you should still have plenty of headroom to
get a really big, loud-sounding mix without squashing the life out of it.

Suggestions
Ratio
 Typically, the higher the band the less gain reduction you should aim for. Set ratios of
between 3.5:1 and 3:1 for the low band(s), 2.5:1 for the mid, and between 2:1 and 1.5:1
in the upper band(s)
 Bass, kick: Try 3.0 to 5.0 values. Depending on the sound you’re shooting for, you can
even go all the way to 10.
 Vocals: Try 2.0 to 3.0

Attack times
 Mids are likely to have a far longer attack time than subs or highs to allow the
dynamics of the track to breath

Knee
 Think about what is happening in any one band perhaps the higher mids are
dominated by vocals and would benefit from a soft knee or the mid-range needs a
harder knee due to a percussive snare

Multi-Band Compression And EQ

 To try to get a nice glossy high-end, especially on dance tracks, compress only the
high-end of the mix, then boost the same region with an EQ. This produces a more
constant energy in the top-end.
REVERB PARALELA COMPRESSAO

Feed the Parallel Compression Through A Reverb

Bus
If you have a parallel compression bus and a parallel reverb bus on a signal (drums are
good here) feed the compression bus wholly through the reverb along with the dry signal
from the audio source for a big, bold, bright parallel room sound

Abuse Your Compressor And Transient Shaper

I like the additional resonance and room sounds that can be created by abusing
compressors and using extream transient shaper settings. Send your signal to a aux bus to
mix in parallel to taste. The sound and space is coloured in a different way to the way
reverb colours the sound
1. If the signal is very dry and has no room sound already then a touch of reverb at the
start of the chain doesn't hurt

2. Expand the sustain on the Transient Shaper ( Transient Shapers) as much as you
like, the more the better and kill off the transients (careful how much you kill otherwise
you will get the sustained part of the room sound to pump in and out without any
transients which can be a bit of a weird effect)

3. If you look at the common issues listed in Dynamics: Compression, Limiting &
Gates these can be used to great effect in generating resonant room sounds
o Crush the transients
o Expand the sustain
o Emphesise the mid-range
o Create distortion
4. Brightening or expanding the mid-range or air of the signal with EQ and/or
saturation/exciter can really add to the resonant effect

BATERIA
General
Starting Point
 Some engineers will start with the overhead mics and move to the drum room
to get a picture of the entire drum kit, and then work with the individual
pieces from that point, starting with the snare and then allotting time for
managing the low frequency battle between kick and bass
 Some engineers start with the spot mics mixing kick, snare then bass
 For digital drum kits sparseness can be the key but parallel processing can be
really useful to create weight or spaces such as emulating a room that the 'kit'

is in with reverb ( The Overheads & Ambient Mics)

Tips
 Too much percussion can distract the listener from the fundamental core of
your mix. Consider turning the level down in the verse
 Adjust the tuning of drums that hit at the same time by a semi-tone or two in
order to separate them out
 The snap of the snare that sounds crisp on its own will compete with the
sibilance of the lead vocal around 3–5 kHz. Leave your vocal track up while
working on your drums
 Never underestimate what summing between instruments can add or remove
from the drums as a whole. e.g. Cut too much bass out of your snare and the
guts can fall out of the kit during a drum roll
 Use surgical EQ on the drum bus to identify trouble spots then adjust the
individual tracks

EQ
 Cut 400-600 Hz to reduce unnatural “boxy” sound on drums
 Boost 5-6 kHz for attack
 Cut 10-11 kHz to darken

 EQ

Compression
 Generally you will be looking at low ratios and slow attack times at allow the
transients through and not squash the life out of the drums
 It is likely when compressing the entire kit that the kick, having the most
energy, will trigger the gain reduction, avoid this with a high pass filter or
multiband compression
 You may need to glue the drums together with compression
 A low ratio (1.4:1) and low threshold on the compressor glues the sound of a
drum kit together.
 Faster releases on drums and other percussion instruments help tame the
transients (the initial burst of sound) but maintain the decay of the original
sound, but be careful to not crush the transients with an attack time that’s too
quick.
 A hard knee is likely to be preferable
 Don’t be afraid to experiment with extreme compression but when not set
properly, this can completely smother the sound of your drums and your
whole mix can end up sounding flat. It is often best mixed in in parallel
 Dialling in a little upward compression will add weight e.g. -1.7:1 Ratio with
15ms Attack and 0ms Release to inflate the beat’s depth and body.
 Try using a punchy compression on the mids to bring out the kick and snare
and a smoother compression on the sides for the overheads
 If your compressor has a dry/wet mix the consider dialling in some heavier
compression (e.g. ratio of 4:1, a fast attack and medium release alongside
around 10dB of gain reduction) in parallel (<50%) then add a gentle leveller
in serial after it (100% mix), this will create bigger but controlled drums

 Dynamics: Compression, Limiting & Gates

Limiting
 For punch put an analog style limiter on the drum bus, they react slower to
loud peaks and give a hard edge to the transients. Start with a fast attack and
a slower release and explore

Transient shapers
 Shaper emphasis on drums
 Subtle snappy emphasis or de-emphasis on individual drums

 Transient Shapers

Effects
 Reverb & Delay

Stereo Image
 Achieve focus with panning: Putting a snare dead center can immediately
make it sound punchier, panning it slightly to one side might cause the
listener to focus slightly more on the lead vocal or kick drum, and so on
 It is important to pan the snare and all the closed mics to match the
overheads
 Automate changes in the ambient drum sounds. Bringing up your overhead
and room mics in choruses will widen the stereo image of your drums and
make the overall kit sound larger. Or, bringing those ambient mics down in
choruses will leave more room for guitars and other harmonic instruments
when they appear

General

 Remember to use VCA sub-mixes to avoid problems outlines in the card About
Aux Buses

Approach 1: Send all the drums to a bus to make them cohesive

 This can mean using and mixing three buses that have all the drums going into them
i. A stereo clean drum bus
ii. A stereo parallel bus
iii. A stereo summing bus for the previous two
 Compress modestly 2:1 initially with a threshold to give just a few dB's of gain
reduction
 Use saturation, clipping and limiting for warmth and to control peaks

 Glue Compression and saturation will both work to glue the drums together
 Consider adding the bass to the drum bus to glue the whole backline together

Approach 2: Send everything to a bus except the kick

 Compress the drum bus and sidechain the kick into it to make it pop through
 Consider doing the same thing with the snare though the overheads and percussion
to get it to pop through

Approach 3: Silent Drum Bus (or Ghost Trigger)

 Create a white noise hits silent track that mimics the main rhythmic elements of the
drums to trigger the sidechain compression on the synths and basses even when the
drums are not playing

Approach 4: Go Crazy With Multiple buses

Make it as complicated as you like and watch as every change in your busses has
multiple knock-on effects for the rest of the mix
For example, you might only have one kick and snare sample and no overheads or ambient
mics so you could add:
 Kick-in and out busses with a summing bus to bring them back together
 Snare top and bottom busses with a summing bus to bring them both together
 Overheads bus derived from the whole kit with the bottom end taken out
 An ambient room mic derived from the whole kit with its distance from the kit
managed with delay pre-delay
 More than one ambient mic in case you need to stick a kit element in another room
for a different sound

Sidechain Drum Busses

 Kick bus to side chain through bass (Optionally the summing bus for the kick-in and
kick-out parallel busses but more likely just the kick-in)
 All drums bus without the kick drum (Compress the all drums bus and sidechain the
kick through it)
 Snare bus to side chain through percussion and overheads (Optionally the summing
bus for the parallel top-snare and bottom-snare but more likely just the snare-top)
 Kick & snare aggregate to sidechain through the bass and synths OR a silent bus (or
ghost trigger) that matches the rhythmic hits that you want to cut through your bass
and synths e.g. using white noise for the hits. This type track, unlike the kick &
snare aggregate, is very important if you want your bass and synths to sound the
same when the drums are not playing as when they are playing because they can
silently follow the same rhythm whilst still ducking the tracks they are
sidechained through

Parallel Drum Buses

 All drums bus to process the lot
 Overhead stereo bus or two overhead mic busses (this is also all the drums with the
low end generally removed)
 Room mic bus or buses (this is also all drums)
 Percussion bus
 Optional kick-in and kick-out buses for a single kick sample
 Optional summing bus for the kick-in and kick-out busses
 Optional top-snare and bottom-snare buses for a single snare sample
 Optional summing bus for the top-snare and bottom-snare

General
 De-Ess the overheads
 Brighten overheads with tape distortion
 If you need a bigger ambience then bussing the overheads and room mics to
some extra reverb works well

Emulating Ambient Mics

 Not every virtual drum kit has overheads and ambient mics so you may need
to make them with buses
 Overheads generally have the low end removed and primarily pick up top end
of the transient kick, top of the snare and the cymbals and hit hats
 Make an aux stereo bus for the overhead mics and send the individual tracks
to them
 Add reverb, starting with a medium space, short decay and spread emulating
a close ambient mic
OR
 Make two busses to emulate the usual two mics and manage their left & right
placement with panning
 Consider adding an ambient room mic. It can be the same settings as the
single stereo overhead (remember that all the mics are supposed to located in
the same room) but increase the decay and spread to capture the late
reflections. Adjust the pre-delay to emulate the distance from the kit

Rooms

 Upward compression is a great way to bring up the real room sound

About Dynamics: Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates
 Some reverb chained with an exciter will emphasise the room sound bringing
out the ring of the snare and the brightness of the cymbals and hi hats
 On ambient mics, compression can really help bring out the room sound.
Limiting compression can give a sense that the drums were recorded in a
much larger room than they actually were. If you are going to do this consider
putting EQ after the compressor in the chain

 Try compression and transient shaping to emulate a room Reverb &

Parallel Compression

EQ
 M/S: A slight volume boost to the side channel on drum overheads can
enhance the room sound, or a slight boost to the mid channel might enhance
the snare drum and rack toms.
 Drastically cut the low end with a high pass filter (about 125Hz down) and
shelve off the low-mids (below 500 Hz)
 Alternatively kill two birds with one stone and add a 12dB HPF at around
500Hz will remove boxy sounds from snares and aid brightness
 Consider keeping the resonance and ring of the snare and in some cases
the transient of the kick when removing frequencies as it will brighten it
 If you need the drums in your recording to sound much wider, try using a
mid/side EQ on the drum overheads to add lift in the high end on the side
channel and more precise cuts and boosts centred around the kick and snare,
e.g. adding some mid-range boost to the mid channel can add punch to a
snare drum without muddying up your reverb, which is often more noticeable

in the side channel ( Stereo Imaging)

 Cut 200-300 Hz to reduce low and unwanted resonances on cymbals
 Boost 7.5-9 kHz to add attack on percussion
 Boost 10-11 kHz to increase sharpness
 Cut 10-11 kHz to darken
 Cut 14-15 kHz to reduce sharpness, unnecessary ess and sustain on cymbals
 The sizzle of cymbals can be found around 15kHz

Transient Shaper
 Enhance the presence of hi-hats and overheads by adding more attack
(particularly to the high end if in multiband mode) helps these elements cut
right through a mix momentarily

Compression

 Wide range of choices here from the discreet to the extream ( About
Dynamics: Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates)
 Overheads may require some glue compression to make the kit feel
coherently joined together as one instrument
 If there is too much snare in the overheads side chain the snare closed mic
through it to duck the snare sound out
 Subtle compression on the overheads maintains cymbals
 Room mics can handle a lot of sonic colouring and can help the rhythm pump
along
 An extreme compression ratio of 20:1 or higher optionally with a bunch of
sustain from a transient shaper on the room mics can give you that Led Zeplin
huge pumping drum sound

Side Chain Compression

 Consider sidechain the snare through the overhead bus
De-Essing
 With Surgical EQ techniques to find the band and bell to reduce the gain
OR
 Use a compressor that just targets the band where essing occurs so that the
gain reduction only happens on that part of the track

General
 Think about whether you want to mono the whole kick
 Tune the kick to the root note of the track or the main bass note
 In dance music it is likely that the kick's bass will create the most amount of
energy in a song and the highest peak to trigger the limiter at mastering

Realism
 In a real drum recording setup, the kick would be double miked. One
microphone is set inside the drum to pick up the attack of the beater against
the head (and the transient highs) and another is set outside to pick up the
bass
 Either use two samples a 'Kick in' and a 'Kick out' and tweak them or use the
same kick sending to two auxiliary busses, process each bus and if necessary
then sum them back together

Sub Bass
 Mono the sub bass and EQ it even if you don't mono the whole kick
 Center panning is strongly suggested but not essential
 Don't let the subs trigger compression or you will muddy the mix

General EQ
 Use surgical EQ to find the low fundamental and the high beater click to
bring them out if they need bringing out
 Bring out the sound of the beater around 2kHz on the Kick In mic
 Bring out the low end power around 80Hz on the Kick Out mic
 Carve away ultra-low frequencies (below 30 Hz) and muddy low-mids (200-
250Hz). These frequencies add a lot of level to the signal but aren’t as
important to the sound and feeling of the kick drum. With those frequencies
carefully managed, you can now turn the kick up more and find that big sound
you’re looking for.
 A Vintage Low Shelf curve (Pultec EQ) is a great way to add some low end
boost as it also simultaneously cuts some of the more ‘boxy’ frequencies that
can make a kick drum sound weak.
 Boost around 50Hz for weight
 For a harder kick and more punch on small speakers bring out the 100-120Hz
band
 Duck the 70-100Hz band to make space for a big fat bass
 200Hz–500Hz can cause a “tubby” sound
 600Hz–1 kHz is responsible for “boxiness”
 2kHz–4kHz can make the kick attack sound “pointy” or “clicky”
 Clarity can be gained around 6kHz

Mid/Side EQ Processing
 Boosting the low-mid band can increase the energy around the fundamental
of the kick
 Cutting the mids at around 2.5 kHz can reduce some of the click of the kick
beater.
 Add some high mid at around 2.5 kHz will lift the synth pads and make the
overall signal a bit wider and more majestic but will not affect the kick click at
all, even though it’s around the same frequency.

Layering
 Break your kick into frequencies if you like and process each frequency
differently
 EQ each layer to just use the frequencies that contribute to the overall sound
 If you need to tune each layer transpose them all up 2 octaves to make it
easier to hear, tune them together and drop them back down 2 octaves
 If you don't need to process each layer separately bounce them all down to a
single audio file. This also makes it easier to tune as a whole.
 Create a fat solid bottom end for your kick by supporting it with a tuned sine
wave

Compression

 It may be best to keep the compression descreet ( About Dynamics:

Compressors, Expanders, Limiters & Gates)
 Use a slow attack to avoid squashing the initial hit
 Use a fast release so the tail pumps back in quickly
 A gentle ratio can help tame the initial click you often hear on a recorded kick
drum. This will let you increase the overall volume, allowing for a louder,
smoother, and more even kick in the mix.
 Use a hard knee for more aggressive compression

Transient Shaper
 For a ‘boomier’ kick, increase the amount of sustain. The body and ring of the
kick will become fuller and more apparent.
 For a tighter kick, reduce the sustain and add some attack.

Effects
 Saturation will broaden the frequency range
 Add punch with tube distortion
 Use a bandpass filter to find the fundamental of the kick and mix it in to beef
it up

Side Chain Compression

 It is likely you will want to sidechain the kick drum through other tracks (if not
all of them)

SNARE
Realism
 In a real drum recording session, two microphones are used on the snare, one
on the snare top to capture the low-mid attack, and another on the snare
bottom to capture the crisp sustain
 The snare top is where most of the snare's key ingredients are
 They will need processing separately and possibly additionally bussed back
together to be processed as one
 More realistic snare rolls can be achieved by using the same sample over
again several times panned slightly left and right and each EQ'd to give a
slightly different character

EQ
 High pass filter the subs out below 100Hz
 Low pass filter above 10kHz
 Boost between 90Hz-140Hz to fatten up a snare
 Boost 150 - 300Hz with a broad Q for weight and warmth
 BUT some snares have a fantastic round tone around 200–250Hz, while other
snare drums can sound very muddy in this range.
 Cut around 300-700Hz to remove boxiness and ringing (use surgical EQ to
find the problem frequencies)
 Cut 800Hz to remove tinny, cheap sound from snare drums
 Boost 2-4kHz to increase attack and clarity (Watch out for harshness)
 Presence can be found around 5-6kHz
 A shelf boosting 8kHz and above will add air
 BUT The snap of the snare that sounds crisp on its own will compete with the
sibilance of the lead vocal around 3–5 kHz
 Find the pitch of the snare using a slim Q surgical EQ boost to find the
fundamental and match it to the piano roll on your EQ (if you have one)

Compression
 The snare will stand up to more aggressive or sonically colouring compression

than kick (see About Dynamics: Compressors, Expanders, Limiters &

Gates)
 Tame the initial transient with some gentle compression to achieve a
smoother sound
 Use a hard knee for more aggressive compression
 A hyper-compressed snare can be much more lifeless and squashed

Gating
 Consider gating the snare to focus on the hit or reducing the sustain with a
transient shaper to get more clarity and snap
 Mix in the room sound to the gated snare to gain the snare ring echoing in
the room without it being obtrusive

Stereo Image
 Panning a snare dead center can immediately make it sound punchier, while
panning it slightly to one side might cause the listener to focus slightly more
on the lead vocal or kick drum

Side Chain Compression

 Consider sidechaining the snare through the percussion and/or overheads

 Sidechain Compression

Ehancements
 Add a layer of pink noise and side chain it to match the decay of the snare so
it follows its levels. This will expand the frequency range of the snare whilst
retaining the character of the original
(https://youtu.be/b4ONZKNW61o?t=1m41s)
 Duplicate your snare reverse it and just keep the tail to create a lead in for the
transient

KICK AND SNARE

 The relationship between the snare and kick in a song creates the back-and-forth
interplay that becomes the foundation for the feel of your tracks, so it’s important to
get the tone of both just right.
 Using parallel compression on just the kick and snare of a kit can really build body

(see Dynamics: Compression, Limiting & Gates)

 Don't tune the kick and the snare to the same note try something else e.g. the fifth.
 If they hit at the same time make sure they are at least a semitone or tone apart
 There may be too much kick bleed for the beater into the snare mic, unless you want
to use this creatively sidechain compress or EQ the kick through the snare to duck the
unwanted bleed out

TOMS

General
 Toms vary wildly depending on their original tone and character
 An effective tuning for toms is the root, third and fifth of the scale
 Listen to the drum kit as a whole and hear what needs to be emphasised or de-
emphasized
 Consider increasing the attack with a transient shaper
 Toms should sound alive and part of the kit but not jump out of the speakers
 Resonant sustain will compete with the kick and bass so make a decision about
how much of it you want. Solo'd toms sound great with their booming bottom end
sustain intact, automation may be necessary to manage this
 If you want to fatten toms try some parallel saturation
EQ
 High pass filter the subs out
 Filter or shelve as high as the low mids if necessary
 Boosting around 100Hz will add weight
 Cut around 500Hz
 Boost around 3.5kHz for clarity

HI HAT

General
 A lot of things that are true of working with the overheads are also true for hi hats (

The Overheads & Ambient Mics)

EQ
 To get hi-hats to sit cleanly in the mix in a busy arrangement without being harsh,
begin with the following default EQ settings: a low-cut below 300-500Hz, 2-5dB notch
cuts at 270Hz and 2.5kHz, a shelf boost of 1.5-3.5dB at 7kHz, and a high-cut above
15kHz. This will accentuate the lower-mids and the high-end, allowing the hats to slot
nicely into most modern electronic mixes.

Compression
 Slow optical compression can be very good on hi hats

PERCUSSION

General
 Too much percussion can distract the listener from the fundamental core of
your mix. Consider turn the level down in the verse
 Percussion tends to be panned closer to the extreme left and right than the
center unless it is an integral part of the genre

 You may have to de-ess some types of percussion (see The Overheads &
Ambient Mics)
EQ
 High pass filter the subs out
 Since percussion instruments all vary in tone and often take up smaller areas
of the frequency spectrum, you can usually apply more drastic EQ adjustments
to make the percussion fit into the right space or cut through the mix when
needed

Compression
 Much higher ratios with quicker attack and release times are required—ratios
between 5:1–8:1 often do the trick. When a percussion sound is too short,
smoothing out the transient peaks allows us to hear the decay and character
of the sound a little more clearly. You might use a release time as low as 20ms.

Side Chain Compression

 Consider having a percussion bus and sidechain the snare through

KICK AND BASS

Kick drum and bass relationships, are a bedrock of

any groove

 Compressors can reinforce the rhythm and groove of a mix try Rhythmic
Compression

Glueing Acoustic Drums And Electric Bass

Together
 Send all the drums and bass to a single bus
 Send the bus to two returns
 On one return put a multiband compressor and process each band in turn (subs, bass
& Low mids, upper mids, treble) and balance their levels when your done. (When
compressing similar frequencies together in a bus start at a ratio of 4:1 with a medium
attack and release with a 1-2 dB attenuation, although lower frequencies will have
slower attack and release values to avoid distortion)
 Mix the processed and unprocessed signals (effectively lightweight multiband parallel

compression see Parallel Compression)

Mixing Kick, Bass & Snare
 For punchy kicks and snares that slice through cleanly without being too loud or
harsh, start by adding a sidechain-enabled compressor to your bass (using kick and
snare as the trigger). Set very fast Attack and Release times, and reduce the Threshold
until you achieve 25-30dB of attenuation (ie, ‘a lot’). Now apply a high-pass filter to
the sidechain signal and raise the cutoff (thus isolating the transient) until the
kick/snare ‘crack’ cuts through without audibly affecting the bass level (usually above
1kHz). Now copy this setting to every musical channel in your mix

Mid/Side Sidechaining Tip

 Sidechain focused elements like kick, bass and snare through the mids of the whole
mix and leave the sides intact

Mixing Kick & Bass

General
 Choose the right kick sample(s) and match a suitable bass sound, or vice versa
 Here is a quick look at sidechaining a kick through an 808
bass https://youtu.be/72frLTI8GKs?t=5m18s
 Tune the kick to fit with your root note or bass line
 Consider mono for the bass and the kick to add focus
 Consider bussing the kick and the bass together and squash them together with
compression
 Don't forget your toms: Tom's resonant sustain can take up bass frequencies and
compete with the kick and bass. Removing this will create more space to work with the
kick and bass

Musicality
 By writing in the keys of E and F your low fundamental subs are guaranteed to shake
the room
 If the kick is holding down the sub sonics the bass can be written in a higher key (A-C)

Approaches
When EQ’ing the combination of bass and kick, a conscious decision needs to be made
about which one gets to win the low-end battle. Is the bass rounding out the bottom end
with a rich tone and some serious low notes, while the kick drum is more snappy and clicky?
Or, does the kick drum need the attention for a deep, sustained sound?
1. Harder Bassline & deeper kick
2. Harder Kick without much low-frequency decay and a deep fat bass

Relative Volume
 To balance the volumes solo the kick and then turn up the master gain to make it hit
at -3dB. Bring in the bass so that you hit 0dB (Why? If the kick is doubled it should
 gain about 3dB). This should balance the volume of the kick and bass. Turn the master
gain back down to where it was

Dealing With Crossovers

 Whichever instrument you decide will drive the low-end, wrap the other instrument
around it with its EQ. For example, if the kick is emphasised at 80Hz, make sure the
bass is not also emphasised at 80Hz but give it some emphasis at 40Hz and 120Hz.
 Compress the bassline to let its decay fill the space behind the kick and giving a strong
bass frequency foundation
 Some chorus can spread the bass nicely around the kick drum

Dealing With Clashes

 If the kick is less punchy when played with the bass it may be phasing. Inverting the
phase of one of them may fix this
 If your kick has a lot of sub bass frequencies (30Hz – 60Hz) then make sure that your
bass does not compete with it. Cut those frequencies from the bass with a high pass
filter or use a low end shelf to turn them down
 Don't have them hit at the same time is an easy fix for clashing sounds
 If they do hit at the same time consider having a bass track and bass clashing track
that you process differently
 Similarly consider managing the kick sound when the bass is not playing
 If you want the kick to cut through add to the attack with a transient shaper and
enhance the harmonics of the bass to avoid loosing too much of it to the kick
 Stop the transients clashing by applying a bit of push or pull to one or the other. 1-
5ms will do it
 Use complimentary EQ to separate the frequencies then side chain dynamic EQ and
then compression. Compression can go as far as gating
 Bring out the 100-120 Hz band and duck the 70-100Hz band for the big fat bass
 Duck the bass dynamically at the kicks fundamental up 3-4dB
 Consider breaking the bass up into low/mid/top frequencies and just ducking the low
part to let the kick come through or use multiband sidechaining
 Consider slowing the bass attack to allow the kicks punchy attack to come through
and use the bass more like a tail
 Use layered bass and a time delay on the sub layer to bring it in after the attack of
the kick
 Once separated bus the kick and bass together and apply some saturation to glue
them or any other effect for that matter, chorus, flange, distortion

Pumping

 Use sidechaining techniques ( Sidechain Compression) to pump your kick along.

BASS

General
 Bass is both a heavily rhythmic and harmonic instrument. While every kick
drum hit is largely the same tone, the fundamental note on a bass changes for
every note the bass player strikes—which makes nailing the low-end on bass a
lot like trying to hit a moving target. If the bass part has a lot of movement,
you may have to make further adjustments using automation.
 Think about whether you want to mono the whole bass part, layer the bass
and have more width the further up the frequency range you go.
 In general don't let your bass get too wide. There is nothing inherently
wrong with stereo bass but you are in danger of creating phase issues and
then your bass will lose volume when you collapse into mono (but you can use
the stereo widening to mono trick below)
 Continually bypass and un-bypass your settings to make sure you’re really
able to hear the changes you make.
 Continually switch between mono and stereo in the mix to make sure phase
issues are not creeping in
 The fundamental frequency of a bass note is in the sustain the 'nose' or front
part of the note is primarily mid frequencies (or higher if you slap)
 Shorter bass notes are perceived as quieter, lengthening bass notes will make
the track sound bigger (compression can bring up quieter sustain into a
stronger bass sound)
 In order to properly set the amount of low bass in your mix or in your
instrument sound, you must listen to it loud and soft as well. Too much energy
in the 40-80Hz range will make the mix sound muddy on large speakers
played loud and still sound good on small speakers played at a medium
volume and your overall mix apparent volume will seem quite and weak

The Bass Aspect Of Whole Mix

 When monitoring consider filtering on the master bus to get a proper
understanding of what is happening with your bass rather than trying to block
out the frequencies we tend to be drawn to naturally
 Use a mono filter starting at 250Hz and below to tighten up all the bass in the
track

Layering
 Keep to a maximum of two or three layers
 Give each sound within the bassline a role: subs / bass & low mids / upper
mids / etc
 Duplicate the bassline to create a sub bass line, either the bass sound in a sub
octave or a dedicated sub patch
 If the basslines moves around a lot between octaves adjust the sub to remain
in a single octave
 High Pass Filter the main bassline to remove the sub bass
 Low Pass Filter the sub bass line to separate it from the bass line
 The further up the frequency range you go the more you might want to add
some width using side EQ
 Bus the layers together for processing together but consider leaving the sub-
layer out e.g. glue compress your layers together (but don't let the subs
trigger the compression as explained below)

 After that delays and reverbs can be added to the higher frequencies
Track Workflows

Sub Bass
 Mono the sub bass and EQ it even if the rest of the bass is not mono
 Center panning is strongly suggested but not essential
 Don't let the subs trigger compression
 Add weight by layering a sine wave sub bass line or sub bass generator below
your bass line, apply a high pass filter (24 or 48dB) to ensure it does not
muddy your low end (This technique is not restricted to bass, equally it can
beef up a vocal)
 Avoid effects like reverb and delay on your subs but EQ and saturation are fine
 Applying quick decaying pitch modulation adds a kick type punch and
lengthening it creates bass bombs that can really boom the greater the
amount
 Low Pass Filtered sawtooth bass can sound great in isolation but can fail
against a harmonically rich kick
 Long sub pitch bends need not to conflict with other musical elements
 Filtered square waves need not to clash with other bass layers.

Harmonics
 Distorting your bass track will help the transients cut through a dense mix

 Use Parallel Saturation to send to a bus with tube distortion on it in order

to bring out new harmonics (Try Neutrons Exciter, Trash 2 or MWaveFolder)
 Add tube-style harmonic distortions to thicken up the low end of a bass
 Add tape-style distortions to introduce harmonic distortion that will be more
noticeable in the mid to higher ends. Tape-style distortion brightens up the 2–
5kHz area.
 Dialing in a whole bunch of tape distortion below 200Hz really bolsters out
the mid range

 Saturation & Distortion

 Gentle differences in the mid range with reverb are often more effective at
creating space and depth

EQ
 Boosting around 100Hz will add body, and thickness but too much is boomy
 If your bass sounds really good due to a nice boost somewhere, try boosting
the harmonic multiples of that frequency. If the fundamental frequency is 100
Hz, adding broad boosts to 200 Hz, 300 Hz and higher in the right multiples
enhances the natural sound of the bass without excessively boosting one big
frequency.
 There can be muddiness around 120 Hz
 A broad subtle bell boost from 150-500Hz can create the low-mid glue to
create fullness (conversely you might want to cut this to make room for other
instruments)
 A narrow cut around 200-250Hz helps make bass less cloudy
 Boost 400-600 Hz to add presence and clarity to bass
 Boost between 500Hz-800Hz to add bite the the bass guitar
 Boost 1.4-1.5 kHz for intelligibility
 Boost 2.8-3 kHz to add clarity to bass
 Boost is between 2–5kHz, to help a bass poke through a dense mix. This 2–
5kHz area is where the upper harmonics that more easily identify the bass
tone and pitch are located.
 Try side eqing the bass with a HPF and LPF and the mids pushed up to allow
the bass harmonics the width to create a warm wrap around effect
 Automating a high pass filter to gradually reveal the bass before its drops can
be nice

Envelopes
 To create more articulation apply an envelope to the low pass filter cut off
with short attack and decay time with no sustain to open the note out very
briefly
 Bass generally needs fast attack times to lock down the rhythm and not come
in late

Compression
 Generally speaking basses can really benefit from high compression ratios and
slow release times to bring out the sustain and therefore the perceived
loudness of the bass

 Upright Bass
o Subtle to moderate compression with a moderate attack and release
time is best

 Pick or Slap Electric Bass

o Faster attack and release times may be necessary to tame the transients

 Fingerstyle Electric Bass

o Attack and release times can go back to moderate. These ratios often
vary between 3:1 to 6:1 but can go as high as 10:1
 To hold down the lows and also retains the dynamics of the
playingDuplicate a bass guitar track, high pass one of the tracks at around
180-250 Hz and low pass the other in the same place. Hard Compress or limit
the low passed bass track and more lightly compress the high passed bass
track blend the two tracks together.
 Multiband compression will allow you to tighten up the low frequencies
where the fundamental and sustain is without affecting the mids and highs
where the attack is e.g. just squashing below 150Hz
 Consider using an Optical or Vari-Mu Tube compressor on the bass
 If sub bass triggers compression the bass will be muddier as the lowest
frequencies trigger compression first. Try multiband compression
 Having said that you can fatten up a bass by just compressing 150Hz and
below after your EQ
 Compress the bassline to let its decay fill the space behind the kick and giving
a strong bass frequency foundation
 Release is medium-fast 200-400ms but just slow enough to avoid distorting
the signal
 Gain: It’s important to note how much gain reduction is occurring. Subtle gain
reduction would result in the peaks being attenuated by approximately 2-3dB,
whereas moderate reduction would be close to 6db. Make sure to apply
 makeup gain, or auto-gain (auto-gain is, however, controversial with
sidechaining). Without it, the bass will be getting smoother, but also quieter,
which can cause it to get lost in a mix.
 Try using a limiter on your bass with a heavy (6-12dB) gain reduction in a
dense mix. This will maintain a solid low end throughout the mix.

Side Chain Compression

 Mixing Drums & Bass & Sidechain Compression

Effects (these can be especially good in parallel)

1. Saturation
o Enhances the harmonics and so improves audibility on smaller speakers
o Evens out the frequency range requiring less compression
o Distorts easily on the bottom end messing up the transients and
dynamics, so use either multiband processing, filtering EQ's or parallel
saturation with the lows shelved off to bring out the mids and phantom
bass
 Panning and chorus are often better choices for width than reverb, it is easy
to overload reverb with low frequencies (below 500Hz)
 Modulating effects can destabilise the solidity of the bottom end, try to
restrict these effects to the upper harmonics of the bass

Parallel Processing (fun)

 Use linear phase EQ to avoid introducing phasey issues
 Boost bass, cut mids and filter the top

 Crush it with a compressor Parallel Compression

 Saturate

Mid/Side EQ For Stereo Width

 Normally wide stereo bass is a no-no but it can be achieved and cancelled out
in mono with the following
 Duplicate your bass and process it to make it subtlely different from the
original maybe using some saturation for example
 Make sure the bassline has some width e.g. with panning or some chorus
 Set up mid/side equalisation on the duplicate
 High Pass Filter the duplicate bass to remove the sub and low bass
frequencies from the mids e.g. 60-80Hz and below
 High Pass Filter the sides and allow even less low bass frequency through
 Invert the phase on one channel and turn the gain down so that the loudness
is the same with or without the phase/gain alterations
 Now when the whole track is in mono the sides will disappear and the main
central bass will always remain
 NOTE widening can increase harshness consider shelving off 10-12k if the
frequencies end up that high due to layering

PADS

Descrição
 For pads (including vocal oohs and ahhs) compress them more, add loads of
reverb and hard pan double track them unless guitars and keyboards occupy
this space
 To enhance stereo width and mono punch, look for any stereo channel that’s
not meant to be punchy (pads, backing vocals, etc) and use a mid/side EQ to
notch out 1-3dB around 750Hz-1kHz from the mid signal. This will carve space
for the punchy mono elements and vocals in the mono signal and impart
distinct identity for the stereo.
 Unsync the LFOs from the host tempo as it is not a rhythm piece and let it
evolve slowly and differently to the track
 Reveb sandwich: Verb 1, modulation fx and saturation for grit, verb 2
 Envelope: Max out the decay and sustain and match the attack and release so
as one note fades out the other is fading in
 Generally use 5ths for chords often an octave up from the first fifth
 Add an organic sound to the pad even just some crap recorded on your
phone
 Sidechain it out of the way, use a longer release for a pumping rhythm
 Remove effects from the bass bottom end (1-200 hz) of the bass, modulation
will make it less solid. you can keep them on the higher harmonic information

VOCAL
General
 The snap of the snare that sounds crisp on its own will compete with the sibilance of
the lead vocal around 3–5 kHz. Leave your vocal track up while working on your drums
 Subtle distortion on a lead vocal, with heavier distortion on a backing vocal bus that’s
mixed lower in volume can help enhance the fullness of the backup vocal track

 Try Parallel Saturation

 https://splice.com/lessons-of-kshmr/creative-pitch-correction
 Create harmonies and effects https://www.izotope.com/en/community/blog/tips-
tutorials/2017/02/create-backing-vocal-harmonies-with-nectar-2-and-vocalsynth.html

EQ
 Before you EQ a vocal consider multiband compression. Does the vocalist have large
pitch variations? Will EQing some low frequencies out make the voice sound thin
when the vocalist goes up and octave?
 Vocals are very prominent in the 2-4kHz zone so it’s worth considering making cuts to
backing instruments within this range – particularly at around 3kHz. This will allow
your vocals to push to the front of the mix without you having to turn them up.
 In vocals the fullness can be found around 200Hz.
 Too much energy at 200Hz can make things sound boomy and should tweaked with
cautious ears and multiple monitor testing.
 Reduce 800Hz to reduce nasal sound from a vocal and give it more body and
presence
 Boost 2.8-3 kHz to add clarity on vocal parts
 The 3.5kHz-6kHz range adds presence to vocals
 S sounds are found around 7kHz
 Cut 7.5-9 kHz to avoid sibilance on vocals
 Boosting 7-10kHz can add some sparkle
 Boost 14-15 kHz to add brightness on vocals
 Use a shelving EQ boost on the top end to add “air” to the voice.

Lead Vocal
EQ
 High-pass Filter: To remove any unwanted low end signal.

 Surgical EQ ( EQ) : This is an EQ that’s useful in removing unwanted frequencies.

For example, between 400–800 Hz there may be a frequency that could make the
 singer sound like they are singing into a cheap microphone, and between 2–4 kHz
there is usually a frequency that emphasizes a nasal sound

De-essing
 Use Surgical EQ techniques to find the band and bell of where to reduce the gain
 Esses can be very different between individuals—sibilance from one person may peak
highest around 9kHz, others may peak highest around 5kHz.
 To tame the most aggressive parts frequencies of an ess, try using a Dynamic
Proportional Q node which reduce esses without harming the vocal's sense of air or
space.
 For more aggressive de-essing, try using a Dynamic Band Shelf instead
 De-essing using a multi-band compressors is effective, but colors your audio due to
the signal being sent through low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass filters. So use a
compressor that just targets the band where essing occurs so that the gain reduction
only happens there on the track

Compression
 Lots of options here
 Consider multiband to control the low end
 A medium attack and fast release is a good starting point with a ratio between 3:1 and
5:1. You’ll have to adjust your threshold for an uneven performance and deal with
other issues with automation.
 Serial or parallel strategies:
o Use two more gentle compressors in series for a smoother result.
o Try using one compressor with a fast attack to control the peaks of the vocal and
a second vintage type compressor at a slower attack (10-15 ms) to add tone and
warmth
o Try the first one at a low ratio to control it and bring out the noise, and the
second one at a higher ratio to help with just a little gain reduction to catch the
really loud moments
 Use a gentle analog/vintage leveler rather than a brick wall to hit the highest peaks of
a vocal performance at 2–3dB of gain reduction. A soft knee is a lso advisable for
levelling
OR
 Set a limiter with a high ratio to grab the extremely hard notes and then follow it with
a compressor using a gentler ratio (e.g. 3:1) to do the overall processing. This will allow
the compressor to not work as hard on those peaks and sound more natural
OR
 Use RMS Detection and a higher ratio of 4:1

Effects
Saturation
 Top your vocal processing with a light form of tape saturation to add a nice character
to the voice.
Chorus
 Slight chorus 5-8% wet signal will create a bit of movement and interest in the vocal
Reverb/Delay
 Consider usng different reverbs on the vocalists in a duet
 Aux busses
o With no wet/dry controls this is essential
o Keep the middle clear for the vocal with sidechain compression on the reverb bus
with the vocal as the trigger
o A more complex but core controllable solution is to send to a reverb bus then
pan the input hard left not the reveb. Repeat with a hard right bus. This clears out
the middle for the vocal but allows for plenty of reverb
 Alter the high end of the wet signal until the reflections sit just underneath the vocal
sibilance
 When adding reverb to a lead vocal, put a low-pass filter on the wet signal with a
centre frequency below 5 kHz. This helps avoid the sibilance of the wet signal
overloading the vocal and making it sound harsh.
 Use mono reverb on a lead vocal and add a stereo delay in a chorus. This will keep the
lead vocal focused in the center, and the delay (if timed with the tempo of the song)
will act as a wider reverb in the chorus.
 Delay can inflate the presence and impact of a lead vocal
 High and low pass filter the delay and reverb and consider compressing this signal
Parallel effects are really useful, a parallel lo-fi track can add loads of texture e.g.
bitcrushing
General
 Keyboards take up lots of stereo and harmonic space from the extremely low to the
extremely high so decide if the keyboard is a feature instrument or a supporting
instrument
 Sometimes drastic EQ can be needed just to make a piano fit in an ensemble.

EQ
 For piano boosting around 100Hz will add body, and thickness.
 Cut at 100Hz to make it distinct from the bass. Be careful about adding too much
energy here, as you’ll make your track sound boomy.
 Gently boost between 90-150Hz to add warmth to a piano
 Cut 250Hz-350Hz to reduce boom in pianos
 Cut the low mids (250 - 500Hz) in a dense mix
 Boost 1.4-1.5 kHz for intelligibility of piano
 Boosting between 4 - 6kHz will bring out the attack of a piano
 Boost 7.5-9 kHz to add clarity, breath and sharpness
 Boost 10-11 kHz to add sharpness
 Cut 10-11 kHz to darken
 Cut 14-15 kHz to reduce sharpness
 Boost 14-15 kHz to add real ambience to synthesized and sampled patches

Compression
 A ratio between 1:4–2:1 with some parallel compression is usually all that’s needed for
a piano

Stereo Image
 For panning don't take up the whole stereo field. Try to place the piano player where
you would picture them on stage or pan the bass left and the treble right to put the
listener in the position of the performer

Effects
 It's worth thinking about parallel compression & reverb
 Mellow the piano with transient shaping

GUITAR

General
 Double track your guitars and pan them hard left and right for a fuller sound
 Use a Transient Shaper to add pick attack
 Use an exciter for body and presence and to warm up harsh highs
 Multiband gate can eliminate room sounds

EQ
 Cut 100Hz to make the guitar distinct from the bass.
 Cutting 200Hz can give a guitar more clarity, as a result your guitar will sound fatter in
the mix.
 Boosting around 100 to 200Hz will add body, and thickness. Be careful about adding
too much energy here, as you you’ll make your track sound boomy.
 Boost 400-600 Hz can also be effective to boost the low range of the guitar
 Boost 2.8-3 kHz to add attack and punch to guitars
 Boost 5-6 kHz for attack
 Boost 7.5-9 kHz to add clarity, breath and sharpness
 Boost 10-11 kHz to add sharpness
 Cut 10-11 kHz to darken
 Cut 14-15 kHz to reduce sharpness

Saturation
 Dialing in a whole load of tape distortion below 200Hz really bolsters out the mid
range

Acoustic Guitar
 Acoustic guitars can take on different roles in dfferent tracks, either up front in a more
shallow, stripped down mix, or as a support track in a dense mix listen to how the
acoustic guitar fits into the overall mix.
 Before you begin, choose whether the instrument will be a feature or not
 Stereo mic’d acoustic guitars are difficult to blend in a large mix. Try panning these to
the same point to create a much narrower or even mono acoustic track. This allows for
the instrument to take up much less space overall.

EQ
 Mud can be got rid of between 100-250Hz
 The area between 1.5 - 2.5kHz to adjusts the sound of the pick hitting the strings of
an acoustic guitar
 Boosting between 4-6Hz around will add a nice jangle to acoustic guitars.
 Cutting 4–6 kHz range helps an acoustic guitar move slightly away from the vocal
 Boost between 10 to 12kHz to add high-frequency shimmer to acoustic guitars

Compression
 Picked or plucked acoustics need faster attack as they tend to have more individual
transients that are louder than the sustain of the note
 Strummed slower attack for a strummed acoustic to help it “shine” a little more as
they are generally more even dynamically

Transient Shaping
 Can mellow acoustic guitars

Electric Guitars
 This instrument, along with certain vocals, has the widest variation of tone possibilities
of anything you will likely find in a mix
 Exciters can dial in a slight amount of harmonic distortion, then automate the width
control up or down in the choruses as an enhancement
EQ
 Boost around 2 - 4kHz to add attack to electric guitars
 If you have two electric guitars, try boosting one at 3Hz and the other at 4Hz

Compression
 Compression can be much more effective on cleaner electric guitars than on distorted
ones, since distorted guitars will have some inherent compression.
 Use little to no compression unless there are spots in the performance that are
popping out of context.

Stereo Image
 Pan to separate numerous electric guitars in a dense mix.
 Double tracked guitars should be panned hard left and right to widen the stereo
image of the track.

ORCHESTRAL
EQ
 There is a lot of low end rumble from strings so HPF and cut the low mids as
necessary
 To stand out in a rock mix strings will need a boost around 3-4kHz
 To add high-end sizzle to string and brass instruments try boosting around 6-
10kHz

Compression
 For staccato horns start with a fast attack, but make sure the attack doesn’t
smother the ‘hits’. Try parallel compression similar to a drum group
 Not too much compression for an orchestra as it has a great dynamic range
that needs to be preserved

SYNTH

General
 This is probably too huge a topic to cover but here are a few tips

Compression
 Like distorted guitars don't use compression on square waves and buzzy sounds as
they are already compressed. Compression can clip the top off a wave making it more
square so there is no need.
 When compressing plucky synths or anything with a bigger transient attack use slower
attack times to allow them through
 For staccato horns, synth stabs and plucks, start with a fast attack, but make sure the
attack doesn’t smother the ‘hits’. Try parallel compression similar to a drum

group Dynamics: Compression, Limiting & Gates

REVERB AND DELAY

General
 It can be a good idea to leave the mix dry until the end then add in your
spatial effects unless it is essential to the track
 Headphones sound dry, venues sound wet
 Spacial effects are generally best used in parallel. Send to an aux bus and
treat it as a track in its own right, that means at a minimum high and low pass
filter it and quite possibly compress and saturate
 Mixing different types of spaces can work really well if you want to bring out
different characters and frequencies
 Fast tempos respond better to small time on reverb or low feedback on delay
whereas slower music responds better to long reverb times are greater
feedback
 Generally speaking put delay before reverb in serial so that the delay does not
cause problems with the reverb tail

Reverb
General
 Tweak the pre-delay and decay so it is right for the song
 Automate these parameters particularly for song structure, more on the
chorus less on the verse, this is great on drums
 Pre-Delay guidelines
o 0–10 ms for smaller size spaces like an average-sized bedroom
o 10–20 ms for medium-sized spaces
o Over 20 ms for larger spaces like halls and churches
 Decay Guidlines
o Ultra short (minimum setting) reverb with dialled up wet amount to
bring life to drums
o Short to medium reverbs are 'felt' and will not cloud your mix but larger
halls are 'heard' and can muddy the mix
o Longer reverb may require a gate to cut it off if it overlaps the next
transient otherwise definition can be compromised e.g. on the ringing
part of a snare
 Increase the reverb time to add sustain, oomph, and emphasise
 Note: long reverb tines can muddy the melodic information as notes build up,
well timed bypassing and unbypassing will force the reverb to refrigerate with
each note avoiding this build up

EQ
 EQ after the reverb plug-in can be helpful to tame unwanted resonances
 Cutting the fundamental of the dry signal in the reverb will make space for it
 Reverb on low frequencies generally creates a muddy signal. Reverb on sub
bass creates rumble and reduces focus (This is ok in some genres)
 Try not to overload the high frequencies either, gentle differences in the mid
range are often more effective at creating space and depth
 high and low pass filter the reverb bus (Abbey Road cuts below 500Hz and
above 10kHz after the reverb)
 EQing before the reverb plug-in will affect how the reverb unit reacts.
Reverb will react differently with different input signals. If there are
frequencies that we want to cut out doingso before the reverb plug-in can
result in a smoother sound.
 Filtering does not have to be done on the output, try filtering on the input
above 4 kHz for a bit of shimmer

Preserve Transients
 Side chain your reverb bus with the dry signal to avoid squashing the
transients and retain the groove
 For melodic transients sidechain before the reverb, since transient information
is often atonal a ghost trigger may be required
 Increase pre-delay and matching the tempo of the track 1/64 tight, 1/32
bigger)

Stereo Field
 If you loose reverb in mono, one of the best ways to retain it is through phase
rotation (Flux Stereo Tool is free) but you can preserve it by cutting way some
of the side processing or through multiband stereo width reduction
 Adjust stereo width if it is too wide or narrow
 Preserve punch by attenuating the mid frequencies in the side channel of the
reverb

Effects
 Use of saturation or an exciter will enhance the resonant effect of reverb
 Tremelo can be fun on a reverb tail
 Pump the reverb with sidechain compression with a high ratio and long
release time

Convolution
 Load up samples in Space Designer (or similar) as the impulse response and
let convolution do its work

Types Of Reverb
Spring Reverb
 Gritty and clanging
 Good for snares and guitars

Plate Reverb
 Not quite natural sounding but is warm and convincing

Multi Reverbs
 Use a send to a reverb bus then pan the input hard left, repeat with a hard
right bus. This clears out the middle for the vocal but allows for plenty of
reverb
 Parts of a drum kit might require different reverbs e.g. 80's snares, especially if
you trigger the verb using gate. It might be an idea to have a single reverb
that ties them all together to keep the kit coherent
 Vocal duets may benefit from different reverbs

Delay
 Create some rhythmic push and pull by setting the delay time slightly earlier
or later than the tempo of the song (+/- 10 ms)
 Mix in small amounts of wet signal to create some groove
 Delays on close mic'd drums (snare, hi hat) can create a shuffle or a ‘swung’
feel if mixed in at the right level
 https://www.izotope.com/en/community/blog/tips-tutorials/2016/02/mixing-
drums-with-ddly-dynamic-delay/
 Create distance by applying several taps below 100Hz then balancing the dry
signal against the wet (more wet most likely). Progressively roll off the top end
frequencies the further the tap is away from the original sound to emulate top
end sound absorption that occurs when things are heard from a distance
(Thank you Julian)

DISTORÇÃO E SATURAÇÃO

General
 Saturation adds frequencies and harmonics.
 Think about how much you use saturation in the mix, it is cumulative on the mix
bus and you may remove it as an option for mastering if it is over done

 Rather than duplicate the information see the mastering guide on Exciters.

 See Parallel Saturation

A Note On Melda's MEqualiser

 Melda's MEqualizer has harmonic shaping capabilities per node (hidden in a right

click), switchable between linear/minimum phase, analogue/digital (see About

Equalisers). It affects the curve for the rest of the frequency spectrum above the node
relative to the shaping you have done further up the curve, using this you can manage
saturation for the whole frequency spectrum of the track

SATURAÇÃO PARALELA

General
 Parallel anything is just mixing a dry signal with a processed signal (wet signal)
 Parallel saturation effectively lets you dial in extra frequencies or harmonics to a larger
or lesser extend. It is useful for fattening, brightening, warming, other ing words or
simply expanding the audible range of the dry sound

Vocals Example
 Duplicate your vocal track, then heavily distort the second vocal.
 Slowly introduce the distorted vocal in choruses to add a little harmonic excitement.
This will also help the vocal sit further forward in a thick chorus

Drums and Bass Example

 Send drums and bass to a bus
 Apply some saturation
 Apply analogue style delay, distort, compress and widen the stereo e.g. short delay
time ping-pong
 EQ - High Pass the wide bass frequencies out and check that phase issues have been
resolved
 Transient shaper to lift the dynamics
 More EQ to remove mud and brighten
 More Delay to add groove (high and low pass to make sure the bottom and top ends
don't pop out)
 Manage the send amounts to the bus and automate them if necessary to add

character to various parts of the song (see Mixing For Song Structure)

ANALOGICO

General
 Console emulation can improve depth, punch, clarity, crispness, brightness,
punch and even perceived loudness. Just the noise of the channels when
summed in a VCA bus can have a musical impact. Think SSL, EMI TG, API &
Neve.
 Console emulations can save you much additional processing and help avoid
overloading the track with too many plugins. It may reduce the work you do in
your plugin chain which might mean less EQ, compression and saturation
 https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/analogue-warmth

Tricks
 Overdriving the input and backing off the output by the same amount can
bring life, energy, clarity and extra frequency separation to a mix bus

General
 The original signal is copied
 The copy is delayed
 The delayed copy is modulated with an LFO
 The copy is mixed with the original signal
 Interference occurs between the signals as they come from the same source
creating notched resonant filtes. This is a comb filter
 Feedback sends the resultant signal back fo more pocessing

Chorus
 Effectively pitch modulation
 Longer delay times cause comb filtering at lower frequencies
 Chorus is best to wash a sound out and make it more ambient

Flange
 Effectivey harmonic comb filtering
 Sorter delay times cause comb filtering at higher frequencies
 Constant oscillating comb filtering can be fatiguing and are best for adding
interest for a short period of time
Phase
 The main difference is that the signal is not delayed but passed though an all-
pass filter
 Phasers work by connecting serval of these together to make non-harmonic
notch filters
 The amount of notches can be controlled by changing the amount of poles
 The phase shift is around a set frequency rather the than the whole signal
 Sits inbetween flange and chous in stength

MID/SIDE PROCESSING

Understanding Mid/Side Processing

 The mid-channel is created by summing the left and right signals. This means
that it’s essentially the mono version of the mix. The sides aren’t removed
from the mid, they’re simply folded in.
 The side-channel, however, is created by summing one side of the stereo
image with an inverted polarity version of the other side.
 This process is then reversed for the decoding, with the mid and side being
summed to create one of the left/right channels, and the mid and a polarity-
inverted side being summed to create the other.
 For this reason, you’ll often see M/S referred to as Sum + Difference.
 Any changes made to the mid- or side-channel will affect the summing during
the decoding process, to create an altered stereo image. For example, cutting
the low-end of the side-channel will result in pushing those frequencies
towards the middle of the stereo image, and not – as many assume – simply
result in these frequencies being cut, while boosting a frequency band will
widen the stereo image in that range.