In this series i will focus on tips & tricks that can help beginners as well as advanced users improve their audio production workflow. Let me start with a simple but important concept:
Have you ever been in the situation that you are "Finished" with a track, but when you get to your gig and play it back on the soundsystem certain elements are too loud or just disappears in the mix? Theres a huge chance this is because your track is not leveled correctly for the genre you are producing.
What might sound good in your personal studio or in headphones does not usually translate to real world music environments until you have been producing for a while.
Human hearing is impacted by our physical and mental state. Your mix might sound amazing to your ears one day and crappy the next.
Let me share how i secure that the levels of my tracks are sounding within a acceptable range of where i want them to be. The process is known as A/B reference mixing, its as far as i know one of the most used ways to achieving an okey mix in less then perfect spaces or conditions.
First of all, find a track you LOVE in the genre you want to produce. This should be a track you yourself consider a masterpiece. Open up the DAW you are working with, I personally work in Ableton, but the process should be repeatable in any DAW.
Load your reference track into a empty audio channel and make it the top channel in your project, double click the audio file and make sure you set the warp mode drop down menu on re-pitch mode (I drew an arrow towards it on the picture under)
Turn of the audio track you have the reference track in
Now press the key mapping symbol in the top right corner of Ableton, this will let you map the buttons on your keyboard to buttons inside of Ableton.
Press the on/off button on the reference audio track channel and then press number 1, repeat this for every other group and loose channel in your project. When you have mapped all the channels to the same button it should look something like the picture under this, if so you can press the keymapping button in the top right corner again to remove the mapping window.
The last step to be able to use the reference track we have set up is to make sure that the max peak volume on the reference channel is the same as the level on your master channel. If your project for example is peaking at -6db on the master channel, then make sure your reference track is peaking around the same amount in db. The easiest way to check the levels is to jump over to session view (the shortcut for this is the tab button) while you are playing your track. Make sure you check the most intense & loud parts of your track. If you are unsure where your track is at its loudest then just check the entire composition for peaks by letting it play from start to finish while you watch the level meter. Your mix will probably not be balanced throughout the track to start with.
When you get the reference track in level with your project you can simply press the number button 1 (or whatever key you choose to use in the key mapping) to do a a/b comparison on perceived loudness. This should enable you to tell if your elements are to loud or silent compared to where you want them to be. Jump back and forth with pressing the key and adjust one and one element in your project until it sounds like it has the same perceived loudness.
Great article. Reference mixing is THE ONLY WAY to mix if you aren't in an acoustically correct space... Hell, even if you ARE in a baller space, it's important to use references to see what great mixes sound like on THAT particular rig. Great advice!
Thanks man! This advice might be very basic for more experienced producers, but its a skill that is extremely important for newer producers to learn how to use :) I have a few more advanced music production posts that are coming soon, stay tuned!
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Welcome to steemit
Have a good day :) Following ! Hope you Follow too @mohit
Just found out about you. It's great to see more music enthusiasts on the platform. Following you.
Thnx mate! I'm here for the long run! Already following you ;) Tons of more music related posts coming up :)
Wonderful!
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Nice stuff dude!
Thnx man :)
I use the Coleman Audio M3PH to switch between tracks. But comparing properly is essential in the mastering phase. Great article.
Hardware is always nice if you have the money for it ;)
I really don't have much hardware, but this monitor controller is awesome. A monitor controller is the centerpiece in a studio. The best thing about it is that it allows me to quickly switch between inputs and outputs to speakers. Testing the master on different speakers helps a lot. If I can make my track sound good on different speakers, it's more likely to get a good overall master. But Voice meter banana is also good for this purpose. ;)
I always try to check my mix on as many speakers as possible, in the end you have to make a compromise on what systems your sound is "meant" to sound good on. Its very hard to make a track sound both good on a cellphone and a big festival setup. You would probably have way higher rms levels on something meant to be listened to on smaller speakers, in contrast to having more dynamics in something meant for bigger speakers. Personally i work with a rms of around -10 in my tracks as i like to leave my tracks dynamic and they are mainly meant to be enjoyd in the forest on huge soundsystems! :D
Yeah I agree. I think the loudness war is over. Music lost... Time to put back the pieces. :)
Preach it man!
It's definitely time to bring back dynamics in music again ^_^
Superb article. I know far too many friends and colleagues alike who simply will not reference mix but the articulate way in which you've presented this post only solidifies the point! I'll certainly stay tuned to your future output! :)