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Skills Focus: Mixing your track
Skills Focus: Mixing your track
Mixing your track so that it sounds more professional
Finding the Mixer
Finding the Mixer
In the top right corner, you will find buttons that look like this. Click the middle one with the lines to bring up the mixer.
The Keyboard shortcut is X
It brings up the mixer which looks like this. Let's analyse this in more detail:
STEP 1: Analysing the channel strip
STEP 1: Analysing the channel strip
The most important ones to look at are:
Mute/Solo: This allows you to mute (not play the track) or solo (only play the channel)
Volume Fader: This allows you to turn the channel volume up or down to help in the mix
Peak display: This will highlight in red if the volume is too loud on the channel. This would need to be turned down so keep an eye on this.
Pan / Balance knob: Use this to move the sound from left to right. You will want the drums in the CENTRE and Bass in the CENTRE. However, why not try to pan the other instruments either left or right to give some space in the mix?
Audio Effect slots: Use this to add some more effects such as reverb, EQ and compression to your track. Learn more about how to use these here:
EQ Display: This shows you the EQ display. Look below on how to use this effectively.
STEP 2: Using the faders
STEP 2: Using the faders
When you are mixing, you can either do it from the top down or bottom up. What this means is that you can either start with the higher pitched instruments (synths, vocals etc) and work your way down or you can start from the bottom (like the bass drum, bass guitar etc) and work your way up. Whichever way you do it, make sure you spend a good amount of time with the faders and panning to make sure mix sound good.
Here is a good rule of thumb to go by:
Step 1: Prep.
Step 2: Volume Balance.
Step 3: Compression.
Step 4: EQ.
Step 5: Space (Panning, Reverb, and Delay)
Step 6: Volume Automation.
Step 7: Effects.
Step 8: Final Checks.
Therefore, the video below shows how I would approach the volume by using the faders. Check it out and try for yourself.
Using the Faders.movSTEP 3A: Compression
STEP 3A: Compression
Noticed that in the video, there was already some presets used for compression and EQ? That's because in Logic, the presets (such as the String section) have these already saved as a Patch. We don't necessarily need to do anything to these, but if you wanted to play around with them to understand them better then look below:
Example of using the compression.movSTEP 3B: EQ
STEP 3B: EQ
EQ changes the sound to cut out frequencies that we don't really want in certain instruments. Here is an example using the kick drum for Gangsta's Paradise. Here are sone tips:
The Analyser helps you to see what the wavelength is.
The shapes at the top can be turned on or off depending on whether you want the sound to be more bassy (on the left side of the EQ) or more treble (on the right side). Click and drag the bottom numbers up and down to change the shape of the EQ
Example of using EQ.mov
STEP 4: Panning
STEP 4: Panning
Panning enables you to give space in the mix by moving the sound from the centre to the left or right. Use this beginners guide to help you mix your work:
Drums
First Imagine you are sitting at the drum kit. The bass drum is in the middle, The snare is slightly over to the left and hi-hats are on your left. Therefore, as the Recording Engineer, you should pan your work according to where you would see the kit. Use the Circle parameters (see below image for reference) to move where the sound comes out from. In the image below, the drums have been panned to the left but not all the way.
Strings and other instruments
Imagine you are in a room and the strings are playing. Where are the strings playing? Are they in the centre of the room or to the right?
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