"guitarhacker"...

Out of everything you explained in your latest post, the clincher, the show-stopper, the undisputed truth, the answer-to-just-about-everything-concerning-mixing, is expertly contained, in all its glorious simplicity and blue-sky clarity, within the following quote, which I reproduce here in its all-revealing entirety:

"My latest song has 6 rhythm guitars. A mixture of acoustic and electric. Only 2 of them are at any decent level where they can be heard. The others are 10dB or so down from 0dB in the mix. Barely audible.If I had run all 6 just short of clipping, can you imagine the cacophony of guitar noise that would have been? (Yes, I can, and your song would have been titled, "Guitar-zilla"!) Same thing is true of the vocals. There were 5 tracks but you can only hear predominately one lead. If you listen carefully, you can hear the others in the background is a few places. There are other tracks that ride with faders pulled all the way down until that track is needed for a few seconds, and then back to the bottom. The B3 organ is one of those."

That's it!!! With those words you've enabled me to cut off and cast away a troublesome misconception about mixing that was obviously the biggest obstacle to achieving the "balance" that was at the heart of my frustration with the song's tracks. You don't need hear every dang thing in the mix, all of the time.

To be fair, another forum member, “Islansoul,” said as much when he advised, “Ask yourself what are the most important parts of the song? What parts really need to stand out in the mix, and what parts do you feel that the listen could get by with out really hearing up front and in the spotlight.” So, on that point, obviously there is solid agreement…

However, there is one nagging question I have: if, in the sound design of your song, you decided to minimize the volume of certain tracks that you deemed subordinate to the total mix, such as the six acoustic/electric rhythm guitars and the five vocals, why, then, did you include them in the first place? frown

By the way, "guitarhacker," I'm working on another composition to which I applied your instructions about "normalizing," and it worked like gangbusters, partner! I mean, I was blown a-way by how smoothly it rounded out "peaks" and prevented "valleys" from sinking too far down in the mix. I think of it as "sound-shaping."

This forum – “Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production” – has turned out to be one of the most truly educational classrooms I’ve ever attended, minus the squeaky chalkboard, the wads of old chewing gum stuck to the bottoms of the desks, and the sour-puss teacher! smile

As "Ralph Kramden" (Jackie Gleason) used to say to his wife, "Alice" (Audrey Meadows), in the old television series, "The Honeymooners", "guitarhacker," you're the GREATEST!!!

From da' boddum of my heart,

LOREN (a.k.a. "bluage")

Last edited by bluage; 02/22/17 01:16 PM.
"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".