hi @MikeMikeMike thanks for your feedback. Let me try and help here…
Presets were used because there’s no point re-inventing the wheel. That’s why presets exist. Had I gone into specific compression ratios/attack/release etc then I would have been only helping a mix for this specific track, and whilst you could have followed every move in your own track, who’s to say that they would have been appropriate.
This was a mixdown tutorial, showing how I personally do my own mixdowns, specifically for that track, hoping that some people may find some of the information helpful (examples of this are in the comments above yours). This wasn’t a MixBus 32C tutorial, so the internal plugins were/are irrelevant in this case, and I also spent some time explaining my reasons for using Mixbus (separating the process from the production mindset) at the beginning of the tutorial.
Not everybody has a whisper on their project, but they do have high frequency content where these tips still apply, and the discussion is about the logic and concept, perhaps being more important than the one example given, that can then be applied to other projects and instruments, or at least food for thought. I’m sorry you missed this.
Thank you for the compliment. For me, a mixdown is about those final tweaks to get everything working harmoniously, it has nothing to do with adding reverb or FX to channels, since that is part of the creative production process and a mix engineer would never know what the producer wanted in that field. A good mixdown is absolutely about marginal EQ and compression, while adjusting a few gains here and there, so that everything sits right for the listener.
A good mixdown, needs to start with a good sounding track, like a good master should start with a good mixdown.
First of all: I really really enjoyed the Tutorial. It confirmed some know-how that I learned by myself and it brought me knew know-how! And I totally agree, that mixing is the art of “little steps”, not the art of one-knob-tricks. Mixbus is a really powerfull tool with great EQs, compressors and last but not least a great summming and especially a very nice tape-saturation. I missed that a bit … I dont see any sense using mixbus, when not using these tools, except of your mentioned mental approach of separating producing and mixing. Can U teel us, what u used on the master? There are some plugins going on there (bypassed) – I think at one point you mentioned that you will explain this later on.
No problem, glad you enjoyed it. To be honest, I haven’t explored 32C anywhere near as much as I should have. I do use the saturation and bussing a lot though. I don’t remember the exact chain for that track, but I always have a few limiters and compressors to raise the gains (because I work to -10dB with stems) and then some mid/side EQ tools and LUFS monitors. The original plan was that I was going to follow up this course with a self-mastering one, but it turned out another guest tutor did one of those around the same time, so mine wasn’t needed. Maybe one day though
@domkane Awesome explanation, love the approach of focus and separating these two stages by using different software
I still have a very basic question about levels; which you partly covered at the end; so you export all the stems after your production stage everything around -10/-15db,
and then after the mixing stage you aim at -16db overall? And the peak is max -6 ish preferably?
So basically there’s not much gain on the general level right?
Beginner at work here Thanks for this tutorial series!
