Why You Overthink and Second Guess Your Mix
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- ☛ Learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes with my FREE Mixing Cheatsheet: www.mixcheatsh...
Someone posted a comment on one of my recent videos, and I HAD to come on and talk about it... because it reveals a huge mental battle that 99% of new engineers & mixers struggle with.
Find out how you can win this battle and get better mixes, much faster.
☛ We help audio engineers master the craft, go pro, and make an impact in the industry. Learn more about the Pro Production System at utm.guru/uffXI
Boom! New slogan: "Mix with your ears, not your fears." - Hardcore Music Studio 2022
😆 Yes!!
"There is no wrong way to make a sound. What's the worst that can happen? No one is gonna die."
- CLA
The single EQ actually sounds much better to me. Partially because the SSL 8k boost under the hood is very gentle and is really boosting frequencies much lower than 8k as well, whereas the others are just 8k and up so it brings up too much sibilance and not enough presence on the vocal, whereas the single SSL EQ brings out both the presence and the sibilance together in a much more balanced way. Which really just brings it back to your point - regardless if you were using one EQ or three EQ's, by listening in to what each one is doing and making the right moves based off your ears, you'll get the results you want.
Great analysis!
It's crazy. I just had a project where I had to boost the snare by 23.3 db at 7k for it to be bright enough. Stop looking, start listening.
fr i'm working on a sample in a hiphop beat that needed 20-25db of reduction at somewhere around the low mids i can't remember exactly
@@V0ID_beats yeah I sometimes need too boost 15/20 db at 8k on kicks to make them work
I eventually noticed that doing a lot of small adjustments results in a lot of psychosomatic trickery. I used to fall into this trap all of the time, making fine EQ adjustments and tricking myself into thinking it made a difference. Loading up the session later to realize that I may as well have done nothing at all. Testing confirmed my suspicions, especially with EQ, my small changes beyond LPFing or rolling off the highs were basically inaudible.
I had this problem and others you've talked about in your videos. You completely changed the way I mix and I've seen big improvements, so thank you very much Jordan.
Although on the topic of blaming the industry and overprocessed sound, I don't necessarily agree. It is true, it can be an excuse (in my case "production" or arrangement or whatever it's called be different people, and automation), but still, not having that "radio ready" sound can be a legitimate choice imo. Having everything exactly to the grid, mixing 5/6/10+ snare or kick sample to get a sound that barely resembles a snare or a kick, 10+ layers of vocals with high/low/octaved screams and harmonies, the glitchy bits and all that stuff is something I really don't like, stuff that a band can't do live without backing tracks. Every band has the same sounding mixes with instruments that don't really sound like they actually do, all of that for excitement or power, but we didn't need that 15+ years ago (old grumpy vibes).
The best bad brains record technically sound bad compared to stuff of today, but that "shitty" mix moves me exponentially more than anything theses days, has more energy, agressivity, power and fits with the songs; that's just one of many exemple.
That's not a dig on you, your mixes don't fall really in that category, there's a certain rawness and grounded sound. All this just to say being competitive with what's released isn't the best or proper way, in the end it all depends on what the client wants and what fits the style but I'm sure a lot of bands and styles would sound a lot better if they went for a more "simple" sound like before (I swear I'm not that old)
But again thank you for helping me getting rid of bad habits I've learned on youtube and other places, and making me a better mixer
Just a question: why to blame having many layers of vocals? If the song calls for them they should be done in my opinion. I don't think it resonates much with the fact most songs out today are over compressed, over autotuned, over edited and overuse samples
my new wallpaper.white letters on black background..with caps "MIX WITH YOUR EARS, NOT WITH YOUR FEARS" . thank you mate.great channel
Love it!!
This resonates with me. When I bought my first computer, I got a copy of Reason 3 and a cheap MIDI controller and wrote so many songs and most of them sound great. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew nothing about compressors/EQs but I used them based on how they sounded. Now, years later, after years of YT tutorials, I found that my mixing became worse/more visual because of overthinking everything or trying to apply some new technique. Now I want to unlearn those tutorials and relearn listening.
If you’re wondering why this happens, I would guess it’s because aspiring mixers are hesitant to trust their ears. And honestly, why shouldn’t they be?
We live in a world where we expect scientific solutions to almost everything. “What are the steps to take?”, “How do you measure that?” are a couple of the questions people seem to be trained to ask these days.
The problem is mixers are hired for their taste, for their musical choices. They use scientific tools to express their taste in a musical and artistic way. Therefore, if you can’t trust your ears and develop your own taste, I would guess it would be hard to get very far.
Not that my mixes are at or near top level, but my mixing advanced in days more than it had in previous years when I got over my fear of big moves in plugins.
Good point also keep in mind multiple eqs also add phase shifting. Example one channel with 1 eq vs another channel with 3 eqs
I blame Graham
Lol😂😂😂
I really appreciate how you discuss the psychology of mixing in addition to the technical stuff 🤘🤘
I recently went back to some older mixes, comparing the same song with a newer mix after taking to heart a lot of Jordan's advice about EQ / Compression. I wouldn't call them pro quality (yet!) but it's rather stunning the difference. Most of what I've done since those early mixes involves EQ boosting with SSL channel and applying stronger compression in certain areas. On the face of it, not drastic. And not many new plugins in the chain either. The person who posted this comment shouldn't feel bad at all. It's so easy to take the technology and start looking at the fancy waveforms and such, and listen to terms like "natural" or whatever others, and think that's what it should be. Thanks Jordan for cutting through a lot of the noise out there and getting to the things that really make a difference.
This is one of the best advices for mixing and for doing music, we have to learn to do things using our gut instead of our mind. Our mind serves a good purpose but many times creates more problems than it solves.
your best video so far. I LOVE the anger. without offence we achieve nothing in life but for defence. win.
"Mix with your ears, not your fears" -- Tee Shirt idea? Great stuff again Jordan -- thanks brother!
The thing I like about this video... you are encouraging originality! People are too scared to enhance or add personality, make it, own it.
Heh, watched a few guys over the years "tweak it into rubble"....less disastrous these days.
Was a disaster when recording to analog tape for one guy I remember turned all the band's tracks to mud just
"one more tweak here" two more tweaks to balance what the first tweak did...and so on.
Had to junk the tapes and all the tracking.
Save and save often and keep meaningful file names of your forward progress. Don't mix tired, take breaks and Always review last night's mix with fresh ears 😁.
Great content and wisdom in your videos.
Love it .👏 Look forward to seeing more.
So this past year I got a job where I'm doing way more live FOH mixing. The cool thing that happened with my studio mixes as a result is they got better. You hit the nail on the head when you said to stop second guessing and do what sounds good. Making big decisions at the beginning of the mix leads to needing less work later in my experience. Also we have to remember a lot of these guys that only make small moves are getting tracks that were already processed on the way in, so it's absolutely not a fair comparison to what most people get in a home studio situation, which I'd imagine is most people that watch these videos.
no shit! you did it! YOU HAVE TO MIX WITH YOUR EARS, NOT YOUR FEARS .. in the 50s, 60s,...etc, 90s this would have no sense. But in the last 20 years or so... THIS IS A SLOGAN TO KEEP!!!
especially when mixing with our eyes became more important than mixing with our ears, and feelings.
nice one man
Saying we’re kind of like mental athletes for some reason made me feel so proud to be an audio engineer.
Really great tips on eq,
In just adding towards your comments of people feeling like their mixes aren’t competitive-something I didn’t realize for awhile is the differences in loudness between a mix and a master. Anytime you compare your mixes to a song on iTunes/Spotify (with normalization off), it’s typically gonna be way louder than a mix down, and I always felt like my mixes were awful when compared.
I mean, jeez, some of my favorite records from the 2000s are mastered at -4.5 LUFS! (Motion city soundtrack commit this to memory for example) when a mix is typically well below that. Once I realized that distinction, a lot of these comparisons fell away. When I got a mix of The Adventure by Angels and Airwaves before mastering via Nail the Mix, it shattered my understanding of mixing vs mastering and settled a lot of questions I had about whether my mixes were in a good place or not.
Try to get your hands on actual mixes before they go to mastering as a reference. Really changed my outlook on my workflow (I now separate both steps instead of forcing it all in a mix session and I get competitive masters all in the box, hitting cleanly -7 to -5 LUFS)
Fantastic as always ! I really appreciate your straight forward way of mixing, everything feels way simpler that way. it reminds me of the CLA approach :) I hope many mixers will watch this !
This is great advice! I used to fall into that trap of pulling up another plugin any time I found something I wanted to change on a sound, only to wind up with way to many plugins each doing random small moves which was challenging to navigate if I ever wanted to go back and make adjustments. over time I started focusing more on getting the most out of a couple of plugins and this became a way more manageable workflow and made my mixes sound much better. Instead of constantly putting band-aids on things in my mix I was finally focusing on what each track needed and accomplishing that much more quickly and effectively.
My guess is people watch videos from mixers getting basically perfect, already processed and highly dialed in guitar/drum/vox takes (big studio guys). Of course you don't need to make big changes on an already mostly finished product.... Totally different situation when you are doing the tracking and it's home studio work.
It wasn't until I got your mixing course do I fully understand that.....I wasted so much time before mixing with fear. I actually had a hard time pushing anything past 3db. When I finally began mixing with no fear I began to mix better, faster and have fun doing it too. I literally went from mixing a song in a month to 8hrs. Something I never thought I could do because I had been doing that same routine for years. Thanks for the wisdom man!
So good. Love this. Love the analogies
well said. great video
Thanks Jordan!!! You not only boost one EQ, you also boost my confidence every time. =)
Man.. I love your vids. You put things into words that I struggle explaining.
dude is on fire with these videos
Be aware on the genre that you are mixing, it is very important to decide which frequencies you are boosting and what plugins or preamps to use. Some genres have an absolutely different process.
Sound design really helps to treat mixing more like it and do pretty drastic stuff on tracks
Bro ur the damn ghandi of mixing. Super deep stuff thanks man.
This is why i love your channel
Nobody has made a vid like this well done! 👍
That was best mixing advice video I have ever watch! Hit me in the spot!! Thanks!!
Another superb video ❤
I know this has been a more general discussion, but there was a bit of difference between the single EQ boost and spreading it out over the three separate plugins. Using the latter chain, to me did indeed sound a little "rounder". But in achieving this the clarity was slightly compromised - it sounded muddier. The single EQ approach was better. I wonder if this idea has been kind of "borrowed" from limiting during mastering? Layering limiters and compressors can be nice, but stacking different EQs, seems to be just asking for trouble due to phase issues.
No vi el video completo pero creo todo lo que dices compadre. Saludos.
I forget the video exactly. Pensadados place was Eqing a pop vocal and boosted something like 12db in a plug-in. That was the moment I threw the small boost:cut rule out the window. Use your ears.
Man i struggked with that, i even ruined the mix because of voices in my head..Gee now i cant get the great mix back.Thamks man
Recently, I spent 3 hours mixing a metal track and adding 5 EQs in a single channel, messing everything up. I took a break and listened again and it sounded like shit. So I took the plunge and deleted all the processing and started once again, only limiting myself to using 3 plugins per instrument. The new mix was much better than the old one. I also stopped using parametric EQs to learn to use ears more than eyes. Thanks for the video man.
Yeah that's a good idea to stop using Parametric EQs (I have only these so I learned to crank the boost or the cut and then bring it back a little bit)
1:51 : That's another mantra
Most of the doubt that comes with mixing develops from making bold moves in poor monitoring conditions and getting traumatized when hearing your track outside of the studio. Once you can trust what you’re actually hearing you’ll break damn near every TH-cam tutorial rule in my opinion.
Thnx a lot for making this video
personally i make most of my decisions only by listening - i press play and close the d.a.w. instead im looking at a text:"what is wrong in this part on the track?"(to remove unwanted) or i look at another text that says "what is good in this part of the track" and tease out the good stuff.
also asking myself a question,"how would i like x to sound\feel like"?,before pressing play,when i press play i know immediately if its in sync or not with what i want.
i wish u would do a video on that as it helped me mixing tremendously
Thanks a lot for this! The problem is many of us are using our ears, making cool EQ moves, but then being punished for it later in the chain, or on the mix bus. This is because resolving those EQ moves and incorporating them into the mix is a different problem. I am still getting over this and I must say this channel has been helping so much. We need to remember that EQ boosts add gain to our signal and this is why the strip has a fader on it that can slide down to compensate for the drastic boosts that do sound so great. What would really help me is a follow-up to this that goes over compensating for the added gain, processing after the boosts, recommended volumes for bussing these hot signals, and how hot those busses should be in the mix bus. This will pave a yellow brick road for slamming EQ's all over the place.
Watch his videos on compression or even better, join his Hardcore Mixing course.
The answer to all of your concerns is to use your ears my friend. That will tell you where your faders should be. If it's too loud, turn it down. If it's not loud enough, turn it up. If you make a boost and the overall volume of that track is now too present or overpowering, turn it down. Or boost the frequency less. Until it sounds good. It seems like you are doing exactly what he is encouraging us not to do in this very video! It can be hard to make the transition to mixing with your ears instead of concepts, but it's mandatory, or your mixes will continue to suffer and you will continue to feel confused or defeated.
@@Fire-Toolz Hard boosts make it harder to balance a mix. Anyone can turn a knob and listen for it to sound good. The magic is in how the signal is incorporated into your music. I've gone back and forth between daring boosts and not doing them based on the difficulty factor.
Dude you're the best!🤘thank you for youre direct approach no fodder all knowledge.
Loving this guy
I can see where the commenter is coming from and relate. When you don't have well trained ears you know that you can't fully trust them and that even if the mix sounds good to you a pro would immediately spot a dozen of issues you didn't even notice. That's where defensive mixing state of mind comes from.
☛ Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: hardcoremusicstudio.com/mixcheatsheet
I have a hard question. Does tweeters really need to be pointing at my ears? I heard they need to be like 37 inches from the floor when I did that it sounded a lot better but they are pointing a lot higher and I cant angle them they are too high
Most of us are using EZDrummer or other tools.Your kick and snare sound different.Why?They are natural.I would like to see how you mix MIDI Drums.Why?When you will do the same moves it will be too much.But direction is good.But it is not the same.I would like to have your samples.Kick and Snare.Than I could do the same moves.Your kick in my oopinion is better than any kick in EZD.Don't know why but yours will sound different and better in heavy music.
Ya, can't say I have this issue. I'm boosting vox well over 10db's sometimes in a certain frequencies like 1.5k. My recent mix I boosted 60hz and 8k at like 15db on my kick. Sometimes you gotta get crazy with the boosts.
What effects are you using for effects on the vocal. It sounds so cool.
nice video! You get straight to the point.
I also had to learn the hard way lol
Mixing live shows helps a lot in speeding up your mixes decision, even if you are more into the studio side, imho
And classic books are still very helpful in forging the proper mindset about recording, mixing and producing music)
"YOU HAVE TO MIX BY YOUR EARS AND NOT YOUR FEARS" Go to register this , and after, do a bunch of T shirts
Can you make video about mixing into limiter??
Yeah the single. Also using your cheatsheet method of boosting the freqs, i found is a good starting point but i had to correct them for my playback system, but man to be there already with a couple moves and then just tweak is awesome. I use only my slate plugins the 500 series ones so it’s all just listening and my mixes sound so much better. 🤘🤘
Boost the eq to the max then back off that changed my mixes over night and production and editing is super important
I think it’s all about fears from masking
🤘🤘🤘♥️🙌 thank u sir! Ur channel is 💎
Can you, please, make a video about gain staging?
That song sounds great who's the band? Also I think from the context of the comment it might have been better to show the snare boost in that song to see the effect it had on the vocal. I'm not sure a snare makes that big of a difference seeming it only hits once in a while but jmo.
What does VRM stand for on your vocal chain? Also could we see the sends you set up?
multiple EQ stages will just bog your system down with additional processing which can actually be used somewhere else.
so soooo good! Truth bombs 🙂
Many mixers doubt themselves when its their monitoring system that doesnt give a good picture.
With all the information beginner mixers have at their disposal, it's easy to create imaginary boundaries and convince yourself that you're doing something wrong. It can take a long time to realize that there isn't a right or wrong way to do anything.
If it sounds good it is good. Can't get any simpler than that
The one ssl eq sounds better than the 3 eq's by far.
Unfortunately, as German amp designer Peter Diezel and his colleague Peter Stapfer said on one of their gear demo videos, “the ear always lies”, too. I just uploaded a video where I was quite content with the mix while uploading. Today, all of a sudden, no matter on which device I listen to it, I think the snare is too quiet. It didn’t feel too quiet to me while I was mixing, nor while I was editing the video for it. Countless times I listened to that mix, without perceiving the snare as too quiet. Now I cannot shake the feeling of it being too quiet, even if nobody else seems to be perceiving it that way yet.
Every eq cause phase alteration, so 3 eq IMO are not the best "natural" choise😂😂 also nosense for boosting the same freq😂 in sequense @Hardcore Music Studio you are really a gentleman with this reply 😬😬.
Its Clear thet 1 eq for doing the same boost sound more punchy and focused instead o 3 eq 🤣. Of course if you want the sound Little bit more "phaisy" you can use how many eq as you need 😁
What would be cool is interviewing the guy who left the comment and walking him through his concerns and fears.
The boost in db will be different in each recording. If you have a dark vocal it will be good,but if you already have a sharp vocal en than boost it, it will be totally nonsense to boost 9db. There are no rules is what i would say!
The other things is, music in general has become too clinical sounding for the very reasons you have shared here: microscopic level lab-like dissection of frequencies, etc. Back in the day they had to make big sweeps and scoops. For that the reason the old music sounds way more contiguous and "glued" together. The new tech is great, but more and more I try to stick to using them the way I would have had to if I was mixing in 1995 :D
Hmm maybe,it's"wrong" but when i mix i walk out of the room (home studio) and listen ,and then adjust (if it's needed
Btw i am just a amateur producer
I prefer single eq on ssl is much pleasant
You hear a lot of this kind of stuff getting thrown around when you are getting into recording, and I don't blame people for thinking this way... it's usually an innocent mistake on their part because they don't know any better when they hear these ideas getting tossed out into the void. A lot of these "rules" held me back for a long time... "don't boost, cut instead", "don't make big changes only go about 3db either way"... I just threw that all in the trash after a while because it was making things sound lackluster and wasn't fixing any of the issues I was running into.
Muddy kick drums/toms, dull snares... sometimes a gentle 3db tweak isn't going to do what you need it to. Need more high end? Turn it up! No one is going to die. And keep it simple. For your own sake. Workflow is important, and the faster you can dial in an EQ setting, the less fatigued your ears will be. There is no reason to be doing the same 3db EQ boost/cut over multiplied over several channels. It's just adding extra steps to achieve more or less the same result. Respect your client's time, and your own.
I hesitate but only when it is not completely clear that it sound good. When it does sound good I don't care if it's 3 dB or 15.
Can somebody please tell me the name of this band/song?
That’s why I love ssl. no eyes, only ears)
as in many other videos of yours you forget to tell / emphasize the key concept why big eq moves can work. because you do it into compression. when you don't have compression or do it
after compression, big eq moves more likely do more harm than good.
This is not universally true. You're going exactly what he's speaking out against. Your emphasizing a rule about not EQing after compression. If it sounds good to your ears, do it. If it doesn't, don't. I do both depending on when it's needed, according to what I hear.
@@Fire-Toolz I did not state it is universally true, but "more likely". This topic is not simply about EQing, it is about EQing with really big moves, often 10-15dbs, so I'm not emphasizing any rule about "must eq (no matter how big) before compression". Of course, do what sounds good, that's what matters in the end. But this is an important part (EQ into compression) in this example and I find it unfortunate to be silent about it.
how do you feel about always gain-matching after making eq or compression moves? in other words do you handle the level and eq/comp moves separately? would this qualify as a FEAR idea instead of an EAR idea? hahaha serious question :')
I don't bother much with gain matching. I'll naturally adjust the output of a compressor so that it's roughly the same when i a/b to hear it... but all this hype about having things perfectly gain compensated is another bunch of nonsense. It's another example of trying to analyze your way to a mix instead of listen and react.
My mixing skills have objectively regressed as of late for this very reason. I tried to math my mixing lol
I love wiring music but I hate mixing and mastering. It makes me hate my own work after hearing it a thousand times.
I don't understand why anyone would use multiple EQ's on one track. To me , that would make things way too complicated. Of course , I'm no pro though.
What is the largest amount you would ever boost by especially in the low end? I sometimes can't get my floor toms to sound like they should leading me to believe maybe the source track isn't that good, the rest of the kit sounds fine
Bro, use your ears. Also, cutting the low frequencies above the resonant frequency of the Tom helps put it in its place. Man, I’ve cut 30db on a tom before. Don’t worry about the numbers.
The largest amount to boost something is whatever amount sounds the best in that particular song and with that particular instrument. You may want to watch the video again 😊
thanks. I'll push it as hard as it needs to go regardless of what the numbers say. I guess so long as it's metering correctly and sounds good it is good
Personally, I mix with my hands. xD Sorry, couldn't resist...
Amateurs just repeat other people’s philosophies because they can’t hear for themselves. It’s takes a lot of experience.
The thing that people with that mindset miss is that (if you for a moment use your eyes) the highs are approx 6dB lower than the low mids.
Therefore, adding 9dB of gain at 8kHz, is just levelling the highs up to a similar level then adding 3dB extra to make it stand out... 🤷😉
If you had some sick HCMS merch with the "Mix With Your Ears, Not Your Fears" quote on it, I'd definitely buy it lol
Learn mixing to forget mixing.
Actually had a talk with a multi grammy winning producer before and what surprised me what he said was "If this is how you want it to sound then it's good."
Now ofcourse my mix wasn't all over the place but once you start tweaking sh*t like a heart surgeon you are usually already past a great mix.
Key take away here is to git gud.
FEAR FOR EARS! :)
I think part of the problem is nobody ever adjusts gain in these videos so a 9db cut or boost can sound a lot more drastic than it actually is if you balance out the gain.
The SSL has the compressor engaged and is last in the chain on both examples. They are gain matched.
Great video. But can I complain about something here? It's about singing. THIS 4:54. Guys STOP WHINING like a tween when you sing. It started 2 decades ago with Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins and it was different. But not anymore. It's annoying. 99% of guy singers still imitate this. Try a new way. Hey, maybe imitate Jim Morrison or Iggy Pop or Kurt Cobain... someone different. Someone who doesn't feel sorry for himself.
I hope you don't mix other people's music.
@@Fire-Toolz 😂Nope. Only my own soundtracks. You couldn't pay me enough to mix most contemporary boy bands. 🤮
You can tell that Tears for Fears use their ears :D