When mixing, musicians will play certain sections softly and others with more force to put more emotions into a performance. This is what we call the dynamic range. Dynamic range is a tricky part of mixing since you have to decide whether to reduce or expand it at the same time maintain natural dynamics.
Before anything else, you should consider the genre and the listener. In mixing pop music, strive for polish. The vocal is almost always front-and-center, the kick and bass always powerful, and supporting elements need to be as tight as possible.
Read more about this here: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/5-mix-tips-you-need-to-improve-dynamic-range.html
Archives for October 2019
12 Noise Gate Tips That’ll Make Your Mixes Sound Natural and Clean
A noise gate either keeps the sound out or lets it through. It is a tool for cleaning up recordings that have background noise that you don’t want. It is such a great tool for cleaning up your mix. However, if you don’t know how to use them, it can cause disarray in your songs.
Not every track needs to be gated. hence, you should be able to tell when one does. Also, the threshold of a noise gate is a lot like the threshold of a compressor. It decides how loud the track needs to be for the gate to turn on.
Read more about this here:https://www.musicianonamission.com/noise-gate/
What is Stem Mastering?
Let’s talk about stem mastering, its benefits, and drawbacks, as well as knowing when it is more appropriate than the conventional mastering practices. Back in the day, mastering was the process of transferring a recording from analog tape to a master disc, which was then used for duplication and distribution.
Rather than sending a stereo bounce to work with, a client could alternately deliver “stems” which the mastering engineer can use to create the final master. However, with the level of control, and inability to make a true commitment to a final mix, some may technically argue that stem mastering is “still mixing”.
Read more about this here: https://theproaudiofiles.com/stem-mastering/