How to Mix If You're Not a Mix Engineer
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- Опубліковано 24 тра 2024
- Learn how to mix a song even if you're not a professional mix engineer. Discover the basics of mix organization, learn about polarity and phase issues, dive into processing techniques like EQ and compression, learn about mix bus processing, and more. By the end of this video, you’ll have a strong foundation to help you get a professional sound in your mixing session, along with a ton of great resources to learn more about mixing music.
How to organize your mix: • How to Start Mixing th...
Discover iZotope RX audio repair plug-in: www.izotope.com/en/products/r...
Get FREE Michael Brower audio cleanup presets for iZotope RX: www.izotope.com/en/learn/down...
Learn more about Melodyne essential and Nectar vocal mixing plug-in: www.izotope.com/en/products/n...
Learn more about phase and polarity in mixing: www.izotope.com/en/learn/5-wa...
How to mix drums: • Essential Steps of Mix...
Explore iZotope Neutron mixing plug-in: www.izotope.com/en/products/n...
How to use drum samples: • Essential Metal Mixing...
Reference tracks explained: • Reference Tracks: 10 T...
Learn about De-squeak in RX: • Solving Guitar Problem...
Unmask your vocals with Nectar: • Mixing Vocals: 10 Hidd...
Automate your mix: • Mix Automation | Are Y...
Learn about mastering: www.izotope.com/en/lp/are-you...
0:00 - Intro
2:07 - 1. Organize your session
4:09 - 2. Repair your tracks
6:32 - 3. Polarity and phase
11:29 - 4. Remove dead air
13:55 - 5. Rough balance and panning
17:22 - 6. Processing tips for drums, bass, vocals, guitars, and keys
26:11 - 7. Mix bus processing
29:15 - 8. Don't forget automation
30:21 - 9. Prepare for mastering
31:18 - 10. Keep learning
#iZotope #mixing #musicproducer
SYNCID: MB01DOHGDI36D4I
I would learn to mix, but hold on, I'm achieving analog warmth.
And we need at least 10 SSl bus compressor plug-ins, 8 Pultecs, 9 Neve eqs, and 5 tape emulators. Plus saturation plug-ins. $2500 later, still don't know how to mix.
@@WisdomHouseCreative get it i just don't know where exactly I should be .. only referencing to the best songs in your genre .. unless you take the real certified courses from an institute or college
😂😂😂
Analog warmth is a construct of the Government-Record Label complex aimed at making us toil over perceived natural harmonics and saturation, while Taylor Swift sells three trillion albums using only a DAW and ChatGPT, which she and the NSA invented after 9/11. Also, her albums were recorded somewhere in Area 51. The truth is out there.
@@noteimporta2880 Studying production and sound engineering at University is really not something I would advise, waste of money, here in the UK at least.
If you're not a mix engineer, a mix to put it sort of simply, is 90% volume balance. The overall balance of sounds against each other (volume, panning), the volume of frequencies within a track (EQ) against other sounds and the volume of certain parts of a track like the transient, body and tail (compression) against other sounds. The other 10% is FX (delay, reverb, etc). Theres a whole world within those things to learn, but if you remember that simple concept it makes mixing a bit less intimidating.
Happy mixing everyone! Go create some good vibes :)
Uhhh yes but all those things...over time. That's the challenge. The biggest challenge is the most amateur mixing engineer is also usually dealing with the worrst recordings. And therefore the volume balance changes from second to second, often separately within each frequency group
Yess sir 💯
This is probably the single best condensed explanation of what "mixing" means I've ever read. I couldn't wrap my head around it for the longest time until the day I realized that most of whatever happens after recording already counts as mixing by default. Mastering is the quirkier, less intuitive phase for beginners, but it's arguably much simpler to execute
UA-cam should implement a bookmark feature, this is gold!
@@weebto A proper mix IS your master mix.
Mastering is holdover from when the cutting engineer had to alter your master to fit in the grooves (really).
Today's 'mastering' is a relatively new phenomenon to pretty much repair bad mixes.
That brings us back to.... a proper mix IS your master.
Done.
Bill P.
Greetings from aleppo Syria , just rebuilt my studio after the devastating Earthquakes 🥃🤦
guys you're a true blessing to my career , thank you so much !
the best mixxing tutorial for not mixers with not ironed shirts i ever seeen
Oh snap heehee ... You see the same thing. Just got through commenting.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:01 🎧 Mixing is complex, involving many tracks and potential issues.
00:30 🎶 Quality ingredients like good recordings are essential for a great mix.
01:10 🎛️ Organizing the mix session is crucial for efficiency.
02:54 🧹 Listen for pops, clicks, and other issues before diving into mixing.
05:06 🎤 Repair work includes handling plosives, clicks, and mouth sounds.
06:33 🎵 Tune vocals and instruments as needed for pitch correction.
07:55 🥁 Address phase and polarity issues for a better drum sound.
08:52 🌀 Experiment with polarity inversion to enhance your mix.
10:10 🥁 Fix time-of-arrival phase differences for coherent drum sound.
11:00 🎶 Explore sample replacement or enhancement for drums.
11:59 🎧 Trim unnecessary audio parts and use fades for cleaner tracks.
13:17 🔇 Use noise gates to reduce background noise in recordings.
14:12 🎚️ Start building the foundation of the mix with fader adjustments.
16:05 🧩 Use stereo bus compression to glue the mix together.
17:00 🎤 Work on individual track processing, starting with drums.
18:48 🎸 Consider high-pass filtering to reduce muddiness in tracks.
19:38 🥁 Neutron's Track Assistant can help set up processing chains.
21:00 🎙️ Process vocals with tools like EQ, compression, and de-essing.
22:50 🔊 Adjust vocal levels to ensure they sit well in the mix.
23:14 🌟 Reference tracks can provide guidance for vocal loudness and placement.
23:40 🎸 Acoustic and electric guitars benefit from compression and chorus effects, respectively.
24:07 🎛️ Be cautious not to over-process guitars to preserve their original tone.
25:03 🎶 Experiment with panning guitars to create a balanced mix.
25:53 🎹 Pay attention to potential clashes between keys and vocals and use tools like auto unmasking.
26:20 🌟 Set up auxiliary tracks (auxes) for time-based effects like reverb and delay.
27:40 🔊 Experiment with parallel processing on auxes to enhance mix elements, but do it carefully.
29:03 🎚️ Use volume automation to highlight specific elements in the mix.
30:58 🔄 When preparing for mastering, maintain the same format, bit depth, and sample rate as your mix files.
31:45 🎨 Practice listening, experimenting, and being patient in your mixing journey.
thanks this is super helpful!
thanks
I see @ManchesterMusic in the thumbnail, I click 🤘🏼
Thanks dude 🎉
Ive been making metal for two years now and I have picked up on many of these things without ever being taught, but this video taught me the reasons for some of the things and a ton of small tips and changes I could be making. Knowing the reasons for things allows me to mske my own educated decisions whilst I am mixing if something doesn't sound quite right.
Thank you for the video!
Welcome back - you are the best that iZotope has doing these videos. I can watch from beginning to end without going to 2X speed or skipping ahead. Your attitude and presentation is perfect - no fluff or histrionics. Thank you.
Totally agree!!
Appreciate it guys.
I’ve been doing my own GarageBand projects for about a year now, and I know enough to know that I don’t know anything about being an audio engineer, but videos like this that help outline a workflow are always extremely helpful.
Invest in Logic it’s only 200 bucks
@@tuxievous420 ah but the computer for it is $1200
@@jarfullofgravityany computer is up there. Best bet is Logic it has everything you need
@@tuxievous420 can you pls chill? I have other things that require more immediate financial attention this year. Never said I’m never going to upgrade. I just don’t have $1200 laying around for a hobby this weekend. Gotta have a little insight before you leap to gatekeeping.
@@jarfullofgravitylook it’s okay I understand but if you’re looking up a mixing tutorial then you want to dig deep: I’ve mixed down for artists on the radio. What I was saying is is if it’s a hobby then you might want to rethink it. Again, I am not coming at you sideways. All I’m saying is rethink your stead wgu if you are not all in
My new "mix agenda very first thing to do" will be now to watch this video again for every new mix session. Thanks Geoff and iZotope!
good job izotope.
idk why no otha audio companies upload or got semi decent content.
literally 0 of the companies that make audio gear that we use and buy , make tutorials and upload content.
How funny that in this video you’ve explained more about mixing than most of the online video tutorials and tips available on UA-cam! I wish I had this introduction to mixing when I first started, it explains in a very simple way a lot of basic critical things you should consider first! Great video!
the food analogy is perfect! i started using it a few years ago to describe what i was doing to my family who didn't understand. Multitracks: like getting a bag of groceries and a menu to prepare a meal... one assumes that one knows certain skills like knife work, or what 'saute' means, and what order to do things in, in order to get the prefect meal on the table.
What an apt analogy 👏
Great presentation and delivery on the topics. Thank You. Keep up the good work.
This is an amazing introduction to mixing. Great job. I have a lot to learn
Beautifully organized. Really helpful.
This video has it all: I find back every single useful tip I gathered from other sources, and then some more. Thanks a lot: as a bedroom mix engineer, this is going to help a lot!
Glad you find the tips useful 😇
Really enjoyed watching your tutorials,helps me understand alot more.thanks
Man, fantastically in-depth dive here! Subbed right away! thanks so much!👍🏼✨
These videos are incredibly helpful. Thanks Izotope team.
these are such good videos! thank you
the type of help i really need
I love and agree with that first statement. "Mixing is hard".
You’re a wonderful instructor. Your videos are a pleasure to watch. Thx a lot.
I LOVE YOUR ANALOGIES
I already know I will come back to this video once a week 😆 great work
great Video sir, Thank you so much for all the advices and tricks
Quality video. Will recommend to anyone I'd ever need to.
Bravo! Simple! Importand! Thank You
thank u, I learned so many things in this vid !!
Thanks you - highly valuable information, presented welcoming and interesting - I couldn't ask for more. I'm an amateur doing everything myself, and this video is gold for me.
Incredible content!! Love it 💝
Such a good teacher
👌That was so useful.🔥Brought me back in time when I was still in uni learning how those techniques were frequently discovered by accident, like the parallel compression bus. For that matter vinyl scratching too (not important to this topic, but) those are all now an art form of their own, and we have to keep utilising them to make greater art with. 🤩 I'm saving this to take notes from, every time when setting up a mixing session. 🤘😁 Thank you Izotope team🙏
This video helped answer so many questions; thank you! Most of the content on the web never really talks about the lead-up to the mix. They just magically have perfect-sounding audio tracks to start with. There are a lot of processing steps that need to happen first. I still have many questions, but this video helped point me in the right direction. 🙂
..amazing tutorial..respect
Thank you so much for this!
Really useful! Thank you
Already bought neutron 4 and the elements bundle.. this video is exactly what I needed
Love these vids! So informative and educational! Keep them coming 🔥👍
This was a great video. Would love more in depth videos on this as there are still a few elements that were mentioned that I'm not sure how to set up.
insanely GOOD video.
thank U.
Hey Geoff, you just inspired the hella out of me. Your way of explaining things really clicked on my mindset on what i should look out when mixing my stuff. Thank you very much for that, and i hope to see more content featuring you, either here or personal projects.
I just made a little test in one of my upcoming mixes following your tips, and d@mn... it sounds good!
You deserve all the best for the patience and knowledge you've acquired through out your career, and now by sharing your knowledge with us, mere mortals haha. THANK YOU, SIR.
perfect help! Thanks alot. I love you guys, your work is a blessing for many many people!
Thank you so much for the kind words 😇
Here’s I leant a lot in this presentation🙏🙏🏿✨🎩
high value information! great channel! thx a lot!
Good lord was this a good video! Thanks man!
Hey, this was very insightful. A lot of videos don't show the ins and outs of bus routing, and other stuff you mentioned. Thanks, this gonna help me out a lot
This is super helpful, thank you 🎧
Fantastic thank you so much 🙌
thanks guys for the easy installation
Great video, i have always used fruity delay 3 as a kind of stereo andd reverb widener. now i am experimenting with a convolver for enhanced reverb manipulation for recordings that have quite a bit of harsh resonances. just the right amount of reverb can preserve particular distorted sounds that you might want to keep in a mix without compromising the mix. last i decided to use the techinque of adding a compressor to the master bus, that advice is paramount for all kinds of audio engineers!
So for me, one thing that stood out in this video was the POLARITY SWITCH!! , because I was manually tring to get the kick, in phase with the 808 by fading them and aligning just in that perfect point where a max number of 3 sines would overlap at the same poles. But switching them?! is piece I needed & I've just tried, while watching this video, and I can confirm you get different resonance on the 808, switched and distorsion applied. Would definitely try on layering drums with hats for a more acoustic ...blah blah blah you get what I mean. Thank you so much dude! The sleeping assistant there, got me unprepared hahaha^^
I actually have seen this guy in a previous izotope video a while back, i learned a whole lot. Thanks guy!!!
You’re welcome :)
Very good video, I use Reason for drums hence no phase or bleed issues 😀
Great informative commentar, thank you. This notice is for myself for later watch.
My new album is produced / mixed and engineered using every plug it. Took me almost 3 months of trial and error to even find a balance. Ty so much for all yall work
bravo....great video
As an amateur electronic music producer who does everything myself, and likely doesn't do it right, these tips are very helpful! My mixing generally boils down to moving reducing the faders of the sounds by factors of 3, which I should probably stop doing because I'm mixing too mathematically rather than properly using my ears. As for effects I tend to just compress everything and do the bare minimum of EQing, again, something I should improve on and actually listen to what I make properly.
And try to get into EQing, e.g. for Drums I read a lot about what their natural frequency ranges tend to be, where to emphasize or to reduce volume, and which frequencies are to completely get rid of.
When it comes to Instruments I tend to also cut off as much frequencies as possible and only keep the ones that fit my mix (main+transient).
Same when it comes to volume: You can reduce your volume in your mixer but still give it more punch. If you have therefore put effort into the steps above your volume control is just a matter of seconds.
This video audio is an example it self.
I made a hit song, and using this trick is making 3x better sounding, the vocal is now clear and very uplifting!
This is the best video on UA-cam.
Great Video Guys 🫶
You told everything about mixing what needs to know, this Video is superdupa. Again you did it. Thank you
Thank you for the feedback 😇
@iZotope, Inc. with your quality of presentation you can help a lot of companies with bad tutorial material... I think you know what about I am talking...
@iZotope, Inc. Posted this above but thought that might get lost so I've re posted here.... hope that's cool.
I'm a newbie to the PC DAW (been using stand alone recorders since the late 80's though) andci LOVED this video. Is there any chance to do a follow up using mostly DI? I live in a town house community and can't make noise. So I DI everything aside from vocals and acoustic guitar. I've heard others do this with FANTASTIC results. And maybe more does and don't's when recording mono or stereo. For example vocals. Mono up the middle or do a second take and pan hard left and right. Both sound the same in regards to being perceived as being at 12 o'clock.... or straight up the middle. I duplicate my rhythm guitars (play them separately to give that wide feeling) and pan around 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock.... to give room for other instruments. It still sounds like it's coming from the middle but I feel using the panning space just seems smart (even though the other instruments would be in a different frequency range, and probably not interfere with each other).... it just sounds really spacious to me. Any tips on mixing mostly DI would be a real help as I'm finding this a very steep learning curve.... cheers.
Many thanks!
Tego mi trzeba było...miks czy mastering to narazie dla mnie "czarna magia" ale dzięki waszym filmikom moja wiedza powiększa sie, dziękuję, pozdrowienia z Polski 👍
Thank you for watching, Aruus! Glad we can make mixing a little easier. 🙏
Ucz się ucz, bo nauka to potęgi klucz
I sometimes shift the vocals slightly out of phase intentionally to drive it into the reverb realm for just one bar or even half especially in punk or hardcore that normally has one maybe two vocal tracks tops and the amount of instruments reflect the amount of tracks more often than not too so thickness at key moments is very handy and avoids printing effects. Old punks do these kind of things still in the studio believe it or not. Lol 👽✌️
Thank you. Some times my timing is off, and mixers have fixed them--- kudos to engineers.
Little too for logic users - name the tracks then highlight all the regions and pre ALT-SHIFT-N
That will name all your regions to the track name 👊
Very useful to me 👍🏻🎼
cause you are the man.!!
this was very informative.
I have been [re]mixing a song, one of the first songs I did for the album. 4 days. This video is a check list of all the pain and toil I have endured for 4 days.
You reaffirmed, basically what I just learned today! At the end now, I'm not even sure I want to release this new version; sometimes, songs are better left alone. Also, sometimes it is better to take one night to mix, instead of a week.
Yes......
this is one task that can test the limits of the human brain and there is no substitute for some rest and recovery time after a hard workout. dunno about you but this is one of the very few exercises in my life where i CANNOT avoid or prevent my mind or ears from playing tricks on me. ever get it just right after hours of fine tuning and then realize a week or a month better that it sounds worse than before you started?
@@420gzuz Absolutely and it drives me crazy. I just re-did the first song on our up=coming album. I literally just put an arpeggiator behind the voice and I thought it was done. Now, that song has more production, but I learned something; instead of leveling the guitar and the synth even levels the whole song, I am taking out instruments when I only want the guitar heard, and only synth when I want that heard. Some of my songs just sounded like a bunch of noise.
Probably one of the best beginner mixer videos.
Amazing clarity of thought!! Thanks for such videos!! One thing I wanted to point out as a budding Mix Engineer - Trusting your ears; and that has training your ears as a precursor. After, years of learning mixing (as a hobby for now to turn it into profession) it was just decision I had to make for myself- Trust my ears. I had to tell myself (after sufficient second guessing and self evaluation) that, if I understand music and sounds therein, I have a good sense of notes and rythm, there's no reason I should not trust my ears.
So as you asked, my tip for mixing is to 'make a good listening environment in your room, learn your room and your speakrs and trust your ears'. Then what you said will be totally valid- what sounds good, it IS good. 😊
A good example of this I found recently was having been a mix engineer for my personal projects first and foremost for years, I struggled to commit to a sound on my latest album and instead freaked out and hired a friend who's an accomplished mix engineer to help out.
In doing so I realized a lot of what I did I actually loved more than what he was offering initially, that allowed us to talk about it and helped me articulate what about what I was doing actually worked for me and I learned a lot about why I chose what I chose in the first place.
Might sound silly to "learn why you did what you did" when you should know why you're making decisions in the first place, but this may be a cool learning exercise if you have the time (and money unless you have some generous friends haha).
The exercise being, work on a mix very intentionally until you're happy with it, then bring it to one or 2 other mixers and see what they would do, and if there's anything you can glean from their decisions. For me the goal here wasn't to steal mix tricks or "steal their mix" to map onto my song, because EVERY SONG IS DIFFERENT, that will just never work. That's the single biggest thing I've learned in recent years and it's actually freeing. You don't have to be perfect every single time even tho there are some consistent rules.
This process taught me a few broader things to look into and keep an ear out for when starting a new mix, cause it's SO EASY to get stuck in the weeds. It's all about finding that balance between getting wayyyy too detail oriented and focused on meticulous process that "feels" like progress but is just distracting like spending 4 years on a snare sound, vs broad strokes and focusing on bigger picture things like how a snare interacts with the mix bus compressor and sits in relation to your guitar and vocal.
If you gota tweak something nerdy, do it quick, and then step back or better yet step away for 10 min and see how it all sits. If you produce your own music like I do, then it's impossible not to tweak sounds to some degree in the production phase before you even get to mixing. I'm still working on committing stuff in that step so that when mixing comes around I can focus on molding those sounds together instead of feeling like "this is mixing so now i have to CHANGE EVERYTHING BECAUSE MIXING". No.
Your gut chose these sounds because they felt good, now make them work together in the mix so that the audience gets the best representation of that inital feeling you had, and while this is art so there's no right or wrong technically, I think we're all chasing that initial moment of inspiriation that gets us excited when a song starts working. That's the feeling we want to share with our friends and fans. :)
Ohh lovly video advice thnx lot need more about 5 1 mix
I agree, mixing is the hardest thing in music production.
Eh, sound design is harder tbh.
Getting random people to spend time listening to it is even harder!
Thank you!
18:02 O_O NEVER heard that b4!!! But i'll definitely consider it!
Oj the subject of phasing - you can use it to kill off problems in a DAW.
If you have a wave that's got too much going on below say 120hz (common frequency for kick drums)... Copy it and flip the phase - drop the volume to around -4dB to give you some space for adjusting...
Obviously, if they're 100% antiphase - you're going to get dead silence.
However... On one track, boost a frequency with a broad single paramedic eq... Say 500hZ with an octave above and below that frequency.
When you play both together .... All the anti phased bits that still match, will be totally nullified. The frequency range you boosted won't.
There's many ways to do a similar thing, but I've used it recently to avoid the results filtering or EQ can cause and it's certainly a process that ill use again...
It's almost like a combination of gate and filter... But seems more accurate somehow.
MY HERROOOOOOOO Thankkk youuuu!!!
I couldn't agree more. PRODUCTION (for me) is knowing what I want to hear. MIXING is more technical KNOWING HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR. I've worked in many studios, I'm not an engineer. with the computer at home I'm FAILING TO GET WHAT I WANT TO HEAR
I love your class, bro
Excellent.
Thank You Sir ...🎚🎙🎹🎧🔊
Im here for it
Canadians have got to be the most pleasant people on earth. Well maybe not the French Canadians but...
Incredibly insightful video as usual from one of the best instructors - with, I might add, one of the most calming voices.
Best compliment ever. Thank you! 😄
Very helpful tips but would it possible to have a video tutorial on mixing a dance or Edm tracks. Thanks.
Great!
I'm going to rec my first musics now at home (with just a phone and simple stuff) and maybe if I'm about to do try make a decent audio version this is going to be very very helpful. thanks!
This video is awesome, subbed instantly. I’ve been a musician for almost 2 decades now but just started producing too and I love it!
Excellent
Thanks so much for this informative video! Regarding the dead air matter, I have a current project where I'm using sampled one-shots for the drums. I was in a pickle because although I like the kit, the kick sample seemed to have a lot of white noise. I did try EQing it out but I wasn't particularly successful. But graciously, the creator of the samples also included a long clip of the room noise. It pretty much perfectly matched the noise I was hearing from the kick sample. So I decided--and I don't know if this is normal--to have an audio track that is just that noise on loop, with side-chain compression sourced from the kick. That way, when the kick isn't hitting, I've got the noise, and when the noisy kick hits, the noise track ducks out so it's not double noise. Because to me the issue wasn't so much the noise, but the presence and absence of it. It was only a little bit of noise so it's not bothersome. It's only bothersome when it changes, like if a relatively quiet fan startles you by turning off.
Wrinkled shirt looking good :)
Thank You
video utile e informativo bro
genius bro
I'm a newbie to the PC DAW (been using stand alone recorders since the late 80's though) andci LOVED this video. Is there any chance to do a follow up using mostly DI? I live in a town house community and can't make noise. So I DI everything aside from vocals and acoustic guitar. I've heard others do this with FANTASTIC results. And maybe more does and don't's when recording mono or stereo. For example vocals. Mono up the middle or do a second take and pan hard left and right. Both sound the same in regards to being perceived as being at 12 o'clock.... or straight up the middle. I duplicate my rhythm guitars (play them separately to give that wide feeling) and pan around 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock.... to give room for other instruments. It still sounds like it's coming from the middle but I feel using the panning space just seems smart (even though the other instruments would be in a different frequency range, and probably not interfere with each other).... it just sounds really spacious to me. Any tips on mixing mostly DI would be a real help as I'm finding this a very steep learning curve....cheers.
Thanks. And for electronic music context, please.
Genius