Original subtitles

hi this is Justin from sonic scoop

coming at you from Joe Lambert mastering

today when I talk to you about one of

the foundations of mixing setting

balances

setting balances should be easy right I

mean this is basically the most

fundamental task in mixing you are

adjusting levels making sure nothing's

too quiet nothing's too loud that all

the pieces fit together nicely

unfortunately setting balances can

sometimes make people want to pull their

hair out it's easy to lose perspective

and I want to talk to a few ways to make

sure you can keep perspective and make

sure that you're going to be really

effective in setting balances throughout

your mix session

all right so item number one prepare

first then mix this is huge

not enough people do it you don't want

to be comping vocals doing edits while

you're mixing generally you're going to

get the most mileage if you are able to

fully engage with one task and right now

the task is mixing it's not comping

vocals it's not editing it's not ideally

making too many arrangement decisions at

this point it really is supposed to be

just focusing on balances and then the

effects and window dressing so make sure

you're prepared first make sure your

edits are done before you're getting

your mind into mix mode this also

includes things like setting up your

effects sends and returns it might be

helpful for you to make your own effects

template where you're sending out to

anywhere between one to three reverbs

one two three delays maybe you have some

busses set up for specific instrument

groups that might have compressors or

uqs on them but the idea is if you can

do a lot of this routing in advance as

well you'll be able to just focus on the

creative aesthetic and technical aspect

of mixing getting all that out of the

way so that's not true trick if you can

force yourself to do that first you're

going to be in a much better position

and then there's question number two

where do I start there's a couple of

different ways to approach where you

should start in setting balances there

are two main schools of thought here one

is throw up all the faders and just

start working and there are some mix

engineers or do very well with this

technique this works better if you're on

an analog mixing board than if you're in

the computer

I think but a lot of other mixing

engineers take a different strategy and

this is a strategy I'd strongly

recommend especially when you're in the

first decade or so of your mixing career

and that is to start with your most

important elements now often enough

people just go into drums or just go

into the kick drum

but the question should be is that your

most important element and on some mix

as the answer is going to be yes the

drums are such a central element along

with the vocals you want to establish a

big you know honking drum tone first and

then you're putting other things around

that big primary piece of the puzzle

with a kick in the snare sounding really

nice and then fitting other things

around and making sure nothing is

detracting from the beat but that's not

the case with all mixes and I know some

engineers who have great success also

starting with the lead vocal and some

engineers will switch back and forth

between these two methods I mean if the

most important elements in your mix or

the lead vocal and the gorgeous acoustic

guitar sound those are the sounds to

establish first and then fit in

everything around those sounds so I hope

that makes sense

start with your most important element

don't just think automatically that's

the drums it may be but it could also be

a vocal acoustic guitar or bass really

anything that said yeah most commonly

for most engineers it's going to be

drums it's going to be vocals see how

far you can get add in one element after

another not using EQ adjustments not

using panning adjustments and just

trying to set levels that really forces

you to prioritize you should be getting

yourself hopefully 70 75 80 85 percent

of the way there just at this stage

that's your foundation and everything

else is window dressing and stage

lighting and and all that's really

important as well for a nicely polished

finish aesthetic work but don't get

ahead of yourself focus on your balances

first before you start breaking out all

these other tools from the toolbox quick

tip number three setting balances is

really about honing in on the

right level chances are you're not going

to get there the first time so whenever

you're in doubt about the level for a

particular fate or particular element

try this

bring your fader up until that sound is

too loud you're going to know when it's

too loud your instincts will tell you

and then tuck it back from there till

just where you've crossed that rare

threshold where you feel like okay now

it's reasonable good from there pull

down your fader until you're in a place

where it's clearly too quiet all right

it's just not working right just too low

all right now scoot it back up until

you've just gotten into a place where it

sounds pretty much reasonable all right

so now that you have a quiet level and a

hot level establish that are kind of

reasonable and work you know that where

you want to be is somewhere between

those two if it's a very narrow gap good

you're probably in a place where you

don't need to do too much additional

processing on that element if you've got

a really big gap between what sounds too

quiet and what sounds too loud maybe

there's too much dynamics in that

element and you'll want to maybe dig in

on some individual track compression or

think about your buss compressor

settings and seeing if they're at an

appropriate place quick tip number four

this one bears repeating if you're going

to mix through a buss compressor put it

on early and mix into that buss

compressor it can be really fun to mix

them do a buss compressor not just

because compressors can sound pretty

cool on the bus and they can but also

because instead of feeling like you have

to turn everything down you kind of get

to push things up a little bit more and

you can be a little bit more loose and

instinctual with some of your fader

settings and you can do kind of more

exaggerated fader rides with your bus

compressor kind of reeling you in a

little bit at the end alright and the

last quick tip for today give yourself

Headroom in the mix if you find yourself

in a position where you've put in your

most important element and now you're

putting in other sounds louder than them

and now you're trying to make your most

important

louder again and now you're trying to

make everything louder and louder and

now you're clipping the master fader and

everything is a mess and you can't get

anything loud enough and you can't hear

anything well if you're doing that you

probably didn't listen to the first few

tips and didn't abide by them but if you

find yourself in that position just turn

everything down bring the element that

you want louder up and now you're back

in a place where you have Headroom again

you can do this in Pro Tools by turning

on your all group using your trim tool

and turning down everything at once and

then take that element that you can't

get loud enough and just bring that one

element up another great step that can

work is to listen to the mix when you're

not at the controls we do some of our

best mixing when we're not mixing so

force yourself to lie down on the couch

in the back of the room or put your

current working mix on your phone and

put some earphones on and listen to it

taking a walk around the block you will

immediately hear obvious things obvious

choices you should make obvious balanced

decisions when you're really listening

for once and not just fiddling ideally

you can bring that kind of perspective

into your practice so that you can get

into that mode at the console or at the

mouse whatever you happen to be using

but even if you're able to do that quite

well can really help to get away from

the mix stop fiddling knobs sit on the

couch walk around all the sudden you'll

find yourself listening in a new way new

perspective and you'll know immediately

what you should do I guarantee it

alright if you enjoyed these quick tips

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been Justin Coletti for Sonics group at

Joe Lambert mastering thanks for hanging

out with me see you next time