Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio: For the Small Recording Studio Series, #2
    56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio: For the Small Recording Studio Series, #2
    56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio: For the Small Recording Studio Series, #2
    Ebook120 pages1 hour

    56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio: For the Small Recording Studio Series, #2

    By Amos Clarke

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    56 Down-And-Dirty Practical Mixing Techniques To Take Your Recordings To The Next Level
     
    ABOUT THIS BOOK

    Flip to any page, read the technique, and apply it!
    It's really that simple. This is not a book that trawls relentlessly through the world history of mixing before providing any useful advice. It simply gets straight into the business of giving you real tried and proven mixing tips that actually work. And there's plenty to keep you busy. The book covers processing such as compression, equalization, panning, parallel compression, transient manipulation, harmonic distortion, delay-based effects and much more. The real value is how combinations of processing work to create magic in your mixes.  
     
    CLEAR EXPLANATIONS FOR EACH TIP:

    What It Is, Why It Works, And How To Do It.

    The book is formatted consistently so that each tip has a clear explanation of what it will achieve, why it works and how to do it.  

    You can get straight to it and start applying the techniques immediately into your own mixing projects. The focus of the book has been to keep it practical and informative. This is a 'how-to' manual that is clear, concise and an easy read. The book also includes a short glossary at the rear. 

    ADD PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL TECHNIQUES TO YOUR MIXING ARSENAL

    These mixing tips have been developed by the author based on over 10 years working professionally in production, recording and mixing. 
    They are a collection of his most loved and utilised techniques, based on his own research, knob-twiddling, and discussions with other engineers. These are guaranteed to be effective in adding professional-level expertise to your work-flow. 

    HAVE A MIXING BREAK-THROUGH

    This book contains mixing techniques that could create the mixing break-through you've been looking for!  
    Do you need solid, punchy drums, a lead vocal that sits solidly and clearly in the mix, more definition and clarity to your entire mix? All these and more are ready and waiting.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAmos Clarke
    Release dateSep 15, 2015
    ISBN9781508793236
    56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio: For the Small Recording Studio Series, #2

    Read more from Amos Clarke

    Related to 56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Music For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Andrew Scheps

      Sep 21, 2017

      Andrew Scheps
      10 min read

    • Article

      EQ & DYNAMICS 101

      Nov 23, 2021

      EQ & DYNAMICS 101
      8 min read

    • Article

      Fix Your Mix

      Dec 30, 2020

      Mixing is traditionally the role of some elusive deity-like genius. A super-hero with supersonic powers. If they can spare the time, and if you can afford them, they appear with a thunderclap before you in a small crater, and blinded by the ethereal

      26 min read

    • Article

      Mixing Synth Pop Synths

      Mar 18, 2020

      Mixing Synth Pop Synths
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mix Master

      Mar 12, 2018

      Mix Master
      11 min read

    • Article

      HOUSE & TECHNO MASTERCLASS

      Jul 10, 2019

      From inner-city USA to the sunny terraces of Ibiza via the fields of rural England, house and techno culture has been the lifeblood of underground dance music since wannabe musicians began bashing away on old step sequencers and discarded drum machin

      9 min read

    • Article

      Mix Masters

      Aug 28, 2019

      Mix Masters
      9 min read

    • Article

      the 6 WAYS TO TURN INTO SONGS

      Sep 19, 2019

      the 6 WAYS TO TURN INTO SONGS
      3 min read

    • Article

      Better Workflow In Logic Pro

      Oct 5, 2017

      Better Workflow In Logic Pro
      14 min read

    • Article

      How-To Record Modern Pop Vocals

      Aug 30, 2018

      Column: Peter Holz It was Christmas, 2015, and I got a call asking if I could cut a vocal with singer Elliphant for an upcoming Peking Duk song. As I have no actual life and never take holidays, I was there with jingle bells on. This wasn’t just an i

      7 min read

    • Article

      How to Record Pop Vocals, Pt III — Mixing

      Dec 20, 2018

      Here we are, at the final stage of the vocal process — mixing. Previously, we’ve gone over recording and editing the perfect vocal take, but before we move on, let’s add some doubles and harmonies to the pie. A ‘standard’ approach would be to have yo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Feature 100 Pro Tips

      Apr 2, 2020

      Feature 100 Pro Tips
      29 min read

    • Article

      The Principles Of Songwriting

      Sep 19, 2019

      The Principles Of Songwriting
      9 min read

    • Article

      Using Audio Effects In Ableton Live

      May 21, 2020

      Audio effects are a key part of Ableton Live, no matter what you’re doing with it, and Live 10 especially boasts some fantastic in-built options. Eventually you’re bound to reach for some third-party plug-ins to flesh out your library – no DAW does i

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ableton Wavetable

      Aug 25, 2020

      Ableton Wavetable
      10 min read

    • Article

      Mastering Pro Tips

      Sep 7, 2017

      Mastering Pro Tips
      3 min read

    • Article

      Composing Pro Tips

      Jan 16, 2020

      Mercury Music Prize-nominated songwriter, composer and producer Ed Harcourt revealed his perspective on music making to us this year, when we visited his unique Wolf Cabin studio. Top Tip “I’ve learned new things from writing with other people, and s

      4 min read

    • Article

      Mixdown Secrets In 13 Steps To The Perfect Mix Song Templates For Your Daw

      Jun 15, 2022

      Model 24 combines a live mixer with multitrack audio recorder and USB interface. The Model 24 already cuts a fine figure as a mixer with 16 microphone inputs, a one-button compressor on most channels and a built-in effect device. The recorder allows

      3 min read

    • Article

      Feature: Mixing Guide The Top Tools & Tricks

      Oct 7, 2020

      We’ll fix it in the mix.“ – Of all the rock‘n‘roll lies, this is certainly the best known. With equalizers, compressors and the like, you can iron out some recording problems, but you certainly can‘t make a hit out of a bad track. Fortunately, there

      9 min read

    • Article

      Practical Tip from Mastering Experts: Robert Babicz and Dominik de León

      Mar 3, 2021

      As a veteran of the Acid Techno scene, Robert Babicz aka Rob Acid certainly needs no introduction. In Bergisch Gladbach, the versatile artist, producer, sound designer, performer and photographer runs a renowned Mastering Studio with its very own sou

      10 min read

    • Article

      Trap

      Apr 21, 2020

      Trap
      8 min read

    • Article

      Create Classic Studio Sounds

      Oct 3, 2019

      Create Classic Studio Sounds
      17 min read

    • Article

      How to Record Pop Vocals, Pt II — Editing

      Oct 25, 2018

      Column: Peter Holz Last issue, we went over what it took to get the best vocal takes for Peking Duk’s multi-platinum singles. In this part, we deal with the raw materials you’re left with once everybody else has walked out the studio door. During the

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for 56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio

    5/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      56 Mix Tips for the Small Recording Studio - Amos Clarke

      01 Fat Tracks

      Duplicate existing tracks, add FX and mix back in with the original for fatness, fullness, and character

      ––––––––

      This technique works great on just about everything, but I use it mostly on main vocals, bass, kick and snare. It’s a great way to add a fullness character to your track while emphasising particular frequency zones. It is a very similar effect to parallel compression because the processing involves fairly heavy compression or limiting and blending back into your mix. The technique requires you to duplicate an existing track, add treatment, and then mix it back in with your original track. Treatment primarily involves compression and equalisation. Adding the treatment on a duplicated track (instead of on the original track) has the advantage of making it easier to control the blend of the effect during mixing by a simple fader adjustment, rather than having to open the plugin to change settings.

      ––––––––

      Do It: Example using electric bass track

      1. While retaining the original track, duplicate the entire bass track and apply the following treatment on the duplicated track. Do not make any adjustments to the original track other than general EQ or compression that you may have done anyway.

      2. Apply a gentle sloped high pass filter at around 500 Hz (or to taste) and a low pass filter at around 5 kHz to control the high frequencies and harshness that can result.

      3. Apply heavy limiting with around 10 dB of gain reduction.

      4. Mix this back into the original bass track to get a nice mid-range growl with some high-end clarity. You can also add saturation (distortion) for more bite.

      *

      02 Big Long Kick

      Get a big, full-bodied kick drum sound - a variation on the ‘fat track’ technique

      ––––––––

      The kick drum forms an important part of the rhythm section in most songs. In dense rock mixes for example (dense being when there are many heavily compressed elements playing simultaneously), the key to getting any percussive element to stand out without simply raising the level is to enhance the initial transient and the sustain. The transient is the initial peak at the front of the waveform and enhancing this creates an emphasis that allows the element (such as a kick or snare drum) to ‘poke’ out in the mix. The reason for adding sustain to percussive elements is because these short bursts of audio (e.g. a kick drum) can lose definition in a dense mix due to frequency masking. Increasing the sustain is based on the principle that the longer the duration of an element, the easier it is to hear it. When we combine transient and sustain processing, we have a very effective technique to make percussive sounds stand out in any mix.

      ––––––––

      Do It:  

      1. Create a duplicate track of the original kick drum track and apply the following processing to the duplicated track. Do not apply any of the processing to your original track for this effect.

      2. On the duplicated track, firstly apply gating to remove as much other drum bleed as possible so that you have, if possible, only the kick drum audible.

      3. Now apply heavy compression or limiting of around 10 dB gain reduction. Use a fast or slow attack depending on whether you want to retain the initial transient.

      4. Add some mild saturation (distortion) to add bite – go easy on the level as a little goes a long way.

      5. Lastly, add a mono reverb to provide further sustain. It’s important to keep the reverb mono to avoid placing extreme low frequencies into the left and right sides of your mix (which happens if you use a stereo reverb). If necessary, apply a little high pass filtering to the reverb to remove any low frequencies that may be too

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1