Balancing the mix - PG Music Forums

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Hi guys & girls,

A recording studio buddy of mine taught me a simple little trick to get individual levels balanced correctly. Instead of turning the volume up, you start by turning it way down until it's inaudible, then you slowly turn it up a bit. Whilst it's really soft you listen carefully for which instruments you can here and which you can't hear. You can then gain perspective of which instruments are over powering the mix- often drums, keyboards etc. Make your adjustments whilst the masters are still right down until you can hear everything you need to and then turn them up for tweaking. Wallaaa.. you have a good mix.

Thanks for the tip Trev......makes sense to me for the most part.

Oh yes, this is an old and very essential mixing technique. It's the first thing I test on a mix that is supposed to be 'done'.

Trev, welcome to the forum. Your recording studio buddy will no doubt also add that listening fatigue is an enemy of anyone who mixes for long periods. Keeping the levels low helps avoid that, too.

Wallaaa = voilà?

That's the way I mix as well. Good topic. As far as listening fatigue, at some point during the mixing process, I simply step away from the project for a couple of days and during those days, I am not mixing anything else. Then I revisit the mix I've been working on and tweak some more. Seems to work okay for me.

Welcome, Trev!

Cheers,
Mike

Welcome to the forum, Trev!

Thanks for sharing that tip

A good tip. Another way I was advised to use was to go outside the room in which the mix is playing and listen to it through the closed door. Same effect I Imagine but it relies on having the space and an agreeable other significant half.

Always mix at low "conversational" levels.

"Conversational" means that you can easily talk over the mix as it plays -- and easily hear each other talk.

Not only to avoid the dreaded Ear Fatigue syndrome, which makes every change sound alike after too much listening, but when you listen at these low levels, you will be able to hear those tiny little foibles that high SPLs will mask.

Because anything and everything sounds pretty okay when it is LOUD.

--Mac

Firstly, I want to supply a link to a archived Behringer 9024 Ultradyne, and technical info about the unit I own since the early 90's and discontinued for many years. But the "technical info", included in this 40-page report is something that you may find interesting to print out as a PDF Mix reference.
I liked this low cost rack unit because it had an automatic mix-adjustment feature (multi-channel compression, that brought everything in the mix alive and "up-front". It worked pretty well and made tedious mixing work easy for this real novice. I hope you enjoy reading the Behringer report in general: http://www.behringerdownload.de/DSP9024/DSP9024_ENG_Rev_E.pdf

Of course, also important is that the sounds being processed should be top notch, which the real-tracks/drums/etc., certainly are. I plan on first processing the new sample tracks and seeing if the results make the sound of the backing tracks more improved by bringing them to the fore.

I still have my Karma, Triton, Motifs, guitars and midi guitars along with these keyboard + effects units, and they record well. And now with Real Track, etc., I'm going to drag it out and see if I can't bring the pro accompanyment, which I love, more to the front of the "live" mix. The unit was also used for broadcast, so I can't wait to see how it affects the already great real tracks/drums and accompanyment. Get my "real track boys" up front and swingin.

Quote:

Firstly, I want to supply a link to a archived Behringer 9024 Ultradyne, and technical info about the unit I own since the early 90's and discontinued for many years. But the "technical info", included in this 40-page report is something that you may find interesting to print out as a PDF Mix reference.

Gdaddy, thanks for the info.What piece of equipment in the market today does what the Berringer 9024 Ultradyne did?
I'm trying to record the pastor's service to a cd and I need something like this, I think , to get a clean well modulated recording without clipping etc..
I looked and found several for sale but don't know anything about who's selling. Thanks Wyndham

Congrats that you found some 9024's on the market. Since they're "obsolete", you should be able to get a 9024 in good condition for around $180. Don't know why they didn't continue it or replace it with something reasonably priced to help finish your work.

Of course there's this: Finalizer Express is the fast and efficient way to turn your mix into a Professional Master! Based upon TC Electronics Multi-Award winning Finalizer Mastering Technology, it delivers the finishing touches of clarity, warmth, and punch to your mixes, putting the world of professional mastering within your reach....I saw it at Zsounds for about $1000. It has good features if you have that kind of money. The alternative is to find a good used 9024 for "a few bucks".

This device was stopped by litigation as it was in reality a copy of an American designed unit.

Famous case, turns out Behringer was proven to be at fault because they copied the entire circuit board exactly -- including a glaring mistake in the layout which was proof of the direct copying.

Don't know how much value such would be for using on spoken word recordings like sermons, though. Since the Ultradyne is based on 6 multiband compressors, try using a Multiband Compressor plugin with careful adjustment.

--Mac

Mac:

That's news to me, even tho Behringer's reputation is for just that...knockoffs...and this was a very good one, evidently!! It was mentioned to me by an Irish fellow who ran the Korg.com site, and I ran out and purchased one. I couldn't believe the results I got finalizing for the CD's I completed. I just used the "automatic" function and accepted the results.
My greatest pleasure was hearing what this zombie did to my tracks, making them upfront and all-right! I know small studios that bought multiple units, and they raved and the results for that special "Behringer Price".
I'd like to see documentation of the suit...it would be interesting to me cause I fell for it in a big way, as did others more savvy than G-Daddy! I've not yet done it but I am going to use it to see what it can do to the already great realtracks, which, by the way I play thru one of my Behringer Bass Amps...I just can't get enuff of those bass players on "stand-ups"...sounds like they're "in bed with me". Wish they were at least sitting on the edge of it giving me some lessons in swinging-like-crazy!! Wonderful stuff, as is Behringer to my mind because they still bring lots of happiness to us po folks who don't have much moola! Even in this ongoing recession, the high-end market can make it with the pro studios, altho I bet it's gotten pretty damn competitive for them too. As I said above, a quick perusal of the major retailers for this kind of unit is a vast wasteland, and I think it has been for years. Thanks again, for the news that helped build Behringer's "reputation" as an out-and-out thief. Liked to know the penalty they ended up with, along with stopping production on a very nice, cheapo, unit!?

Balancing the mix...now here's the way the pro's do it courtesy of Vox products, a Satriani link (there's more on the Vox site).

I really dig this kind of "balanced" mix with those drums right up there loud and clear! Just my humble opinion!

http://www.voxamps.com/downloads/audio/exclusives/joe-satriani/BBW2%20mix1.mp3

Reminds me of my Behringer final mixdown....hardy, har, har!!!