All language subtitles for The Basics 003.mp4

hello everybody hope you're doing

marvelously well in this episode we're

going to concentrate on the basics of

starting a mix now this is a good thing

for beginners but it's also an amazing

discussion point for anybody who's even

intermediate or advanced for me the best

way to start a mix so just open it up

and get the balances and the panning

right so let's get go so here we have a

song by band called me in the city the

song is called the owl song this is

actually a song we've used in the

Academy so those of you your Academy

members will know this song well it has

several basic elements it has a live

drum kit which is a kick a snare top a

snare bottom a hi-hat rack Tom a floor

tom and then there is a tambourine but

there's also one snare and one kick

sample as well which you can blend and a

cymbal hit that was added the bass

guitar was only recorded with the DI

however there are multiple duplications

of it for different reasons one you can

distort it one you could use different

EQ settings etc but for our purposes

here we're going to start off with just

the simplest of things there is a stereo

pair of acoustic guitars there is one

electric guitar part in the verses and

one in the choruses there is a piano

print throughout most of the song of

course there is a lead vocal there's

also some multi effects that I printed

from the vocals which are currently

muted and I don't think we'll use

initially then there are some

backgrounds so here is typically what I

get most times often I'll get stuff

which is non-committal and has a ton of

compressors and EQ and amp sims and all

that kind of stuff on it if I get that

then I treat it as an instrument with

all of those plugins on it I don't think

about it from adjusting the plug-in I

say to myself that is the guitar sound

that amps in with that compressor in

that EQ this is happens a lot because

these days a lot of people are printing

with D is in this situation we don't

have that and we're just treating them

as final committed sounds pop on the

headphones as you can see every

is set to zero there's no EQ no

compression not even any panning so

let's listen from the top

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

now obviously the thirst you can hear is

everything is mono there are some stereo

sounds but everything is just coming

straight down there so my first

inclination is always to do get a

balance that sounds usable straight away

and that would be let's bring up the

drums let's first of all get some more

kick and snare going here's our live

kick it's just one mic and here is the

addictive kick against it here's our

snare top add the snare bottom and the

snare sample

I just brought down the snare supple

little bit so it's more of a blend with

the live snare now let's put in our

overheads bring them down just a little

bit for the bounce

hat the first thing I'm going to do is

pan the hat to the right now I

personally always do audience

perspective but if you want to do

drummers perspective because you're a

drummer that's absolutely fine now as

far as the toms are concerned I'm going

to do once again audience perspective so

the rack tom is going to go about 20%

over so it's just to the visually to the

right-hand side of the snare and then

the floor I'm going to go about maybe

60% to the left so listen

[Music]

so that's that's a pretty

straightforward drum sound I think that

the kick and the snare needs some more

definition so it wouldn't be afraid to

like maybe bring up the kick a little

bit both the elements the live one and a

bit of the sample and thus names same

thing for the snare so that is like a

very very quick organic drum sound no

compression no EQ but you'll notice

everything else is cranking so typically

with the tambourine if it's playing at

the same time as the hi-hat I pan at the

other side so if I do decide to go all

in its perspective and pound my hi-hat

more over to the right then I'll pan my

tambourine more over to the left so

we're going to put the tambourine over

to left we're going to bring it down

[Applause]

[Music]

okay now you seeing the mix there it's

all starting to sound a little too

cluttered

so definitely panning but also let's do

some straightforward stuff let's create

a group so depending on what your da W

is there'll be a different method but

this method here it's just to highlight

all of the elements that I want in my

group my drum group and I'm actually

going to put my tambourine in as well

just for the heck of it

so this is all the percussion elements

together and that will allow me to

quickly just reach for it and now

they've created a rough blend and just

turn things up and down and brain is

going to come down now as I was saying

to you before the bass is just the DI

and there's duplicated elements to

create different sounds but we're just

going to deal with just the DI so now

I've got just the bass di and the drums

together seven listen

[Music]

let's slap down the middle so just a

recap kick down the middle snare down

the middle the hi-hat pan 60% to the

right visually if you're looking in from

audience perspective the rack Tom paying

20% to the right again visually from a

audience perspective and then the floor

tom 60% the other side now we have the

hi-hat over here on the right so to

balance it we've put the tambourine on

the opposite side otherwise you're going

to have Tambo and hi-hat competing in

the same area and they have a similar

frequency response that would just sound

like clutter and it's nice to have a

balance of those two high-end

instruments just kind of bouncing off

each other and obviously the overheads

are stereos of their left and right so

the acoustic guitars it looks like and

sounds like obviously they're playing

all the way through the whole song and

mirroring the same part so why don't we

just do this just take one and pound it

to the left and the other one and pound

it to the right and have a listen

[Music]

right I'm going to bring down the bass

guitar just a little bit and now I'm

going to group these acoustics together

now whatever I do to one I'll do to the

other so the first thing I'm going to do

is just turn them down

[Music]

alright this ever listen to this let's

pull here

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

so I have two remaining instruments here

that we haven't looked at and that's an

electric guitar and a piano so we could

make a decision we could go well let's

take the electric guitar and put it

maybe more to one side so if the

sentence will go like sixty percent to

the right I've also brought the electric

guitar down I'm going to jump to that

piano and see whether we have to do

something similar but the other way

around

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

now doing volume balance here however

you can use all kinds of different

things in Pro Tools for instance you

have clip gains so we can actually

highlight that and turn the track up

itself literally by grabbing this little

tool here and just turning it up and

that way we could take it back to zero

and it's probably going to be closer and

your da W is probably all kinds of ways

of doing that another thing you could do

is later on is grab a plug-in and use

some gain on that but let's start at the

source getting a decent balance so here

we have we've actually taken the

waveforms using clip gain and turned up

the piano now 7us

[Music]

[Applause]

going back I'm just gonna

[Music]

bring it up the snare there's a little

bit more all three elements

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

now there is a verse guitar as well

which I'm also going to pan in the same

place as the chorus guitar because I

want it to feel like one continuation of

performance it's a very live sounding

song very organic there's no programming

in it so that would make sense but I'm

going to turn it down a little less than

the chorus because there's less going on

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

great so now it's getting to be kind of

a nice rough balance let's have a listen

to the vocals

[Music]

even when I'm late

and oh my my

rama show me

[Music]

great so we have a ton of backgrounds

here and sure what to listen to them in

context as they are at the moment

[Music]

[Applause]

now they're quite well labeled you've

got 8va meaning octave so because those

two are the same we can pan these two

top vocals left and right and then

you've got one and two a fill let's have

a listen so those are the same as well

so we can pan those left and right if we

like and then we have a okay so there's

just one of somebody else's voice the

singers so this listen to all of those

together see what we have so the lower

ones I'm going to Center a little bit

more so what I'm doing is I'm going to

have two highs on the very outside sort

of like a little ear candy I'm gonna

have like the lower one's a little bit

more tucked in and I'm gonna have a

center low one as well so it's going to

be like an enveloping sound because this

is a hook in the song

[Music]

and then we have the gang vocals here

which is really just the two voices

again we can pan those around a little

bit I want this to feel like guys in a

room I want this to feel random rather

than really orchestrated so maybe the

panning now can get a little bit more

irregular so those super lows are

slightly offset them from the center

nice so what we've done now is just sort

of randomized it keeping the lower ones

closer to the center and the higher ones

a little bit more panned out definitely

feels like a bunch of guys in a room

let's have a listen

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

so that mix there is just volume and

panning that's all I have done volume

and panning okay so this listen to the

files without any panning or any volume

automation just as they came

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

obviously you can hear the tambourine is

extremely dominant everything is pretty

mono and the kick and snare in

particular are lost go back to what we

did

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

so where does that teach us it teaches

us really the power of planning and

volume it really as simple as that now

obviously I can apply compression and EQ

what I've done there is began the

journey so the best way for me to hear

the song is to take the elements that I

have and pan them around and balance

them so I can get the best possible mix

just using those two things obviously

mute is another thing as well there

might be a part that's just really

bothering you get it muted now even

arrangement changes these are a great

time to make those decisions but

immediately just those basic moves that

I did allow me to hear the song and

where I could go for me I hear things I

want to improve but there are fairly

logical but because I've got a mix that

is usable now I can make better informed

decisions I'm not going to go in there

and decide that the kick and the snare

sound absolutely dreadful and need like

a new sample and stuff like that

when really it's just a case of like

balancing the volume better so this is

the way I start with every single mix go

in there volume balance and pan and it

will give you an amazing roadmap of how

to get going hopefully that helped as

ever please leave any comments and

questions below give us a bit of an idea

about how you start your mix is it

similar to this do you have a different

methodology please like and subscribe

and if you haven't already please go to

produce like a pro and sign up for the

email list we'll get a whole bunch of

free goodies have a marvelous time

recording and mixing

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]