English
Français
Deutsch
Español
Italiano
中国
日本
한국의
Português
ما
Pусский
العربية
हिंदीFree Premium Access
Access our entire library of Premium Hub Articles, Project Files and the first 10% of each Tutorial-Video from the Online Tutorial Library.
Create your FREE Account now!
Categories
Related Articles
- How to Remix: Part 7: Mastering And Delivery
- by Mo Volans
- Almost every major music single release gets the remix treatment. In the Final Part of this "How to Remix" series, Mo Volans explains the mastering and delivery process for the final remix.
- How to Remix: Part 6: Final Tweaks And Adjustments
- by Mo Volans
- Almost every major music single release gets the remix treatment. In Part 6 of this "How to Remix" series, Mo Volans takes you through adding the final tweaks and polish to your remix.
- How to Remix: Part 5: Arrangement and Structure
- by Mo Volans
- Almost every major music single release gets the remix treatment. In Part 5 of this "How to Remix" series, Mo Volans takes you through creating the arrangement and structure with breakdowns and more.
- How to Remix: Part 4: Extra Editing and Spatial Effects
- by Mo Volans
- Almost every major music single release gets the remix treatment. In Part 4 of this "How to Remix" series, Mo Volans takes you through extra editing and adding spatial effects.
- How to Remix: Part 3: Adding Instrumentation to the Mix
- by Mo Volans
- Almost every major music single release gets the remix treatment. In Part 3 of this MPV Premium "How to Remix" series, Mo Volans takes you through adding your own instrumentation to the mix.
Related Tutorial-Videos
- Media Composer 6 105
- Creating Titles
- Master the tools of title creation in this 32-video Media Composer 6 tutorial by Avid Certified trainer Jeff Greenberg...
- Motion 5 401
- Creating 3D Text Fly Bys!
- Watch and learn how to create a complex 3D text flyby effect in this 26-video series taught by motion graphics expert, Iain Anderson...
- Music Theory 104
- Song Form
- Understanding song form is essential to songwriting. Learn all how to enhance the power of your songs with macProVideo's music theory expert, Gregg Fine...
- Music Theory 103
- Rhythm
- In this 3rd tutorial in our series on Music Theory, Master Arranger and Composer Gregg Fine explores the nature of Rhythm and why it’s the driving force in music and composition...
- Music Theory 102
- Harmony
- Chords infuse music with color and emotion. Learn the theory and magic behind creating chords in this Harmony tutorial by Master Composer and Arranger Gregg Fine.
- Music Theory 101
- Melody
- Ever wonder why certain melodies stick with you forever while others trigger an intense emotional response? Why does this happen? Well, it’s not accidental! In this tutorial you’ll learn the theory and the art of melody writing...
- Cubase 6 106
- FX, EQ, Automation and Mixing
- Learn to mix your tunes in Cubase 6 using FX, EQ and Automation in this production masterpiece by Matthew Loel T. Hepworth...
- Pro Tools 402
- Mixing Pop in Pro Tools
- Have you heard Sarah McLachlan's music? Then you've heard Chris Potter's skills—he's Sarah McLachlan's Engineer!
- Motion 5 108
- Creating Content For Final Cut Pro X
- One of the most important new features of Motion 5 is the ability to create content for Final Cut Pro X. Think of Motion as your very own "FX incubator" where everything you create can be saved as a custom plugin for FCP X. No more shopping around for those 3rd-party FX. In this tutorial Michael Wohl will teach you how to “roll your own”...
- Reason 6 106
- FX, EQ, Automation and Mixing
- The instruments are smoking. The rack is exploding. Now it’s time to pull it all together and make musical sense of all this Reason 6 mayhem! In this tutorial, Hollin Jones get’s you into the mixer and exploring the FX, EQ and automation...
- Pro Tools 403
- Rich Tozzoli's Mixing Toolbox
- Every mixer has his own audio toolbox full of secret weapons! Join Rich Tozzoli who has worked with Al DiMeola, Ace Frehley, Hall & Oates, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Billy Squier as he opens his Mixing Toolbox and reveals some of his favorite Pro Tools mixing tips...
- Reason 6 401
- Reason's Mixing Toolbox
- Learn how operate the amazing new console and mixing tools included in Reason 6. Watch as Mo Volans remixes a track right before your eyes and ears...
- Rich Tozzoli
- Producing and Mixing Guitars
- OK, so you’ve recorded your guitar tracks... Now what? Well, that’s exactly where this tutorial begins! Learn how to make your tracks really glisten with this amazing guitar production tutorial from Grammy-nominated and Surround Music Award-winning producer, mixer and sound designer, Rich Tozzoli.
- Live 8 402
- Designing Sounds for Dance Music
- House Music Legend Olav Basoski dives deep into his secret sound design techniques to show you how he makes tracks that top the charts and rock the dance floor.
- Greg Townley
- Sonic Dimension in Mixing
- Greg Townley's mixing credits include films Sideways & Wedding Crashers, and artists Usher & Lil' Kim … Learn how Hollywood's Premiere Audio Engineer creates Sonic Space in his film and music mixes.
- Aug 08, 2010
Mixing: Creating 3D space in your Mix
- by Rounik Sethi in Mixing Music
- Genre: Audio
- Level: Intermediate
- Time to Complete: N/A
- 1 comments — Join Discussion
Preview these Reason Tutorial-Videos
If you have done research into how the Pro's approach Mixing, you've undoubtedly come across information such as to Mix at low levels, listening to your mix in mono and how important it is to give yourself plenty of breaks (easier said than done when on a deadline). Now while these tips are timeless nuggets of mixing wisdom, I'm often left hankering for more juicy hands-on info. Attending a mix session at a good studio with a great engineer is one of the best ways to learn all those mixing secrets you can apply to your own productions. However, even if you can track down and convince your favorite Mixing engineer to share their valuable time with you, it's likely they will be more focused on the job in hand than explaining the what, how's and why's of their process. Getting live time with a mixing engineer inside a studio may not mean getting inside their head...
Greg Townley, whose mixing credits include films Sideways & Wedding Crashers, and artists Usher & Lil' Kim, shares the secrets behind what it takes to create 3D mixes... (what he refers to as Sonic Dimension). This, in my opinion, is something to pay attention to and watch again and again. Often, mixing in 2D can make for very a flat and an uninspiring end result with no depth of field. Adjusting the levels and Pan can only do so much to give your mix any distinction. So the 3rd dimension becomes all important to give it depth and presence... and naturally using reverb, delay and EQ is instrumental in doing so.
Greg helps make this a software agnostic tutorial by explaining the settings for the Reverbs, EQ, Delay and Compression plugins he uses in detail. This makes it easy to translate to other DAWs. Whether you are a Sonar, Cubase, Ableton Live, Logic, Nuendo or Pro Tools LE user you'll be able to translate Greg's techniques to your mixes. The ambient style of music used is not important... although I'm personally a big fan of ambient and finding well mixed ambient is quite tricky(!). These tips can be useful for mixing any style of music from pop to rock to electronica to folk... that's because it's all about space and giving each sound it's own distinct space while simultaneously unifying all within the mix.
I love that Greg sets up his Mixing window and plugins in terms of space and not by instrument. For example, many mix engineers group effects for the mix by type. e.g. Drums and percussion, Bass, guitars, vocals, etc. However, Greg's method splits the arrangement into a sonic space of near, midway and "way, way back". Using this method as a template, I think, makes it much easier to then place your chosen instruments/sounds within the sonic space and explore sound placement in an organic way. Setting up different reverbs: 1 second (front of space), 3.5 seconds (middle of space) and 7 seconds (far away space) is one of the effective secrets to help create 3 dimensions within your mix. Filtering the reverbs and delays, adjusting the feedback to 0% and compressing individual sounds are other techniques discussed (amongst many others!)
Three useful mixing tips:
Tip 1 - Listen carefully to your arrangement. Build a mental/sonic picture of where the instruments and sounds would be in a room. e.g. Percussion at the far back, strings to the near right.
Tip 2 - Split the sonic depth into 3 sections: Near, Middle and Far Away. Use different reverb time settings to help achieve the illusion of distance. It's all about perspective.
Tip 3 - Heavy compression of sounds in the near-field can help them to sit in the forefront. Subtle changes to EQ and Compression can also have a more dramatic effect when listening back to the entire mix.
In my opinion this tutorial is essential viewing! If you want to learn the mixing tips from a Producer who is courted by Hollywood and big name artists... then check out this Greg Townley: Sonic Dimension in Mixing tutorial here. Have fun applying these mixing techniques to your own productions!
If you need further help on this or any other Logic or Mac software issue visit us at www.macprovideo.com/forum/
Preview these Reason Tutorial-Videos
Rounik Sethi
Rounik is the Editor and Lead-Writer on the MPV Hub. As an Apple Certified Trainer for Logic (and a self-confessed Mac fanatic) he's taught teachers, professional musicians and hobbyists how to get the best out of Apple's creative software. He is a Visiting lecturer at Bath Spa University's Teacher training program, facilitating workshops on using iLife and digital media tools in the classroom. If you're looking for Rounik, you'll most likely find him (and his articles) on the macProVideo.com Hub & Forums.
Comments
Reply