I noticed that I prefer many of the adjustments you say aren't the best. So I assume a person's preferences depends upon the wear-and-tear on a person's ear drums, especially someone like me who is 76 years old.
@@OfficialStevenCravis It does make me wonder about the mixes I do of my music, that maybe what sounds good to me doesn't sound so good to my family and friends who are the recipients of my labors.
@@choimdachoim9491it could also say something about your monitoring whether it be inaccurate headphones or monitors playing in a troublesome room environment ect
plugins like masteringthemix reference or metric AB allow you to load some songs to compare against your mix, some time using that will help tell you where stuff should be sitting. I pick a similar genre commercial/professional song to A/B against and a few others that i refer to regardless of genre since i know the songs well. You can do this without plugins as well but its just convienient because the plugins level match and provide some more visual information
Parametric EQ helps me a lot. Usually I do low and high shelf and bust whatever I feel needs boosting. I recommend parametric EQ to everyone. It really helps find exactly where to boost and cut. Off course it won't replace your years but it helps a lot.
A good perspective over the main clues to mixing. Your narration is very clear, though, but harsh. A bit more of 3-500hz, less of 1K-4K might soften it without clarity loss.
I used to play with a graphic equalizer in a wave editor years ago, setting up a notch boost and moving it along the frequency spectrum to know what it'll sound like if something stands out, and I did the same with a notch cut filter, if some frequency was completely missing. Same with gating and limiting. I'm no professional mixing engineer just a hobbyist interested in sound and audio. But when I do hear something off in an audio clip I can usually tell in what frequency range it may be. It gets harder if several issues are there in multiple frequency ranges. Also, when you boost or cut a range, the rest will do the opposite if you keep the average volume constant, just something to think about. This is important to keep the dynamic range you're working with within tolerable limits as too much can lead to more distortion, ringing/harmonics and noise.
What a well structured overview. What makes this stand out is that you describe both the positive and negative aspects of each sound tweak. Could you do a bit more on visualisation and analytic tools for determining what makes a good sound mix overall. For example not all sound mixing engineers have perfect hearing. I've known cases where the chief sound engineer had a notch around 3kHz. He over boosted that region of the mix for his hearing deficit. Every time the keyboardist hit that note, the whole audience would wince. It happened at Jimmy Barnes' final concert , Sydney Stadium Darling Harbour, about 30 years ago.
After years of mixing i took the advice of pros, bus everything and mix from there first, dont go looking for problems let them reveal themselves, stay away from soloing channels or dont do it for very long onky to find specific problems
I play long time with loudness correction and I must say that in my audio it has 99% fundamental impact on listening and fatigue. . I think it cannot be solved during mixing but every listener need do that work on it in own place, with own gear and conditions. .
Imo: 20-60, 60-120, 120-180 for lows.180-600 for lmds, 600-2k for *core* mids, 2-6k for upper mids. And highs as in the vid. Each of the three mids can be split in half, mud - box, paper - nasal, scratchy - piercing as a way of labelling the split areas. Tho those timbres can be caused by any nearby region too, just common there
2:36 I have to admit, I don't understand the analysis of the graph there. I can see that hearing is most sensitive around 4 kHz, and less sensitive at high and low extremes, but what are the 20, 40 and 60 lines? Ages of test subjects, maybe?
You can't just put limiter and turn gain up on master as much as you want, you still need a professional mixer to outstand the competitors. Reads like an old man joke. To me, there are always going to be awful and great mixes, and the hardware, its design has improved so much through years, even though I didn't live in 90s for example, but I know for sure that oversaturated music market with garbage music doesn't mean that music industry standards are low and everybody is clueless deaf amateur - false assumption about music production/not funny joke.
Should I worry about my hearing? I could not perceive the differences between comparisons. Well, mostly because I am not audio engineer nor I listen to high quality music that often haha.
Outstanding, a great exercise for ear training! But I think most musicians/ engineers may disagree on the cut-off points for bass, mid, etc. Everyone can hear 60Hz, and most can hear 30Hz. The Low E on bass is 40 cycles, plainly a tone and very audible, so I would argue, sub-bass is 30 Hz and below, above this would be "bass", then merge to "upper bass".
Compensate phaseshifting when you do eq by using linear feature or something like that. You probably create new harmonics to your sound eq'ing aggressively.
I don’t know which engineers you referring to nor where you studied, because this things (don’t get me wrong, this is FUNDAMENTAL and important) are the minimum requirements to enter any professional studio or university entry test.
Wow, I got every exercise wrong. I picked the wrong range and the wrong direction(boost/reduce). I have literally no idea what I'm supposed to be hearing
If you got the wrong range AND the wrong direction, that's kinda getting it right - instead of hearing one range too low, you heard it as the others (or the most prominent one) too high, which is sorta the same thing! I feel like these examples aren't great, they all sound fine depending on what you're looking for and how it's meant to sit in the mix. Like I dunno if I'd want much more high end on that guitar with those string squeaks happening. I think you're better following the suggestion about practicing, mess with the ranges yourself on a variety of sounds and listen to how they're affected and how it shapes the result. It's definitely a "learn by doing" thing
I missed the point of duplicating the bass with the piano sound. Also, I found the exercise of “guessing” what boost or cut had been made to the audio examples to be pointless without having some sort of reference example.
The piano example was showing where the fundamental note of instruments lies in the frequency range. So if you're trying to work out those notes and you're having trouble, isolating that range lets you hear it more quickly. He was just showing how he finds the notes by dragging them until they match the EQed track
Ufff... Your sub leaks in low mids and then if bass on change it hiss. Main tones and over tones for vocals and instruments and influence of 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Not sure you even understand basic filters. In this time and age ISO 226 2003 or later. So don't worry in next 40~50 years with that tempo you will get there.
I think mix-level EQ is too much of a blunt instrument for the final mix. It's good when adjusting for the imperfect natural responce of my speakers, but for actual music production, EQ ought to be applied per instrument. That said, to me, imperfect equalisation is a much smaller problem (can also be part of the "art" aspect) than the general overuse of compression throughout the industry. Destroying the dynamics like that can make even the most amazing song sound awful 😒
I am surprised by how much I heard on my pseudo-retro-hifi three way DIY speakers consisting of vintage Tesla drivers, but with a modern passive crossover design. EDIT: I compared them with BX-5 professional studio monitors. BX-5 had much stronger (attack, responsiveness) on bass and more articulated high frequencies, but the mid-range on them was not as good.
False. It just takes practice/dedication to do mixing in headphones, just as mixing on "external" speakers. Yes, the perception of both is different; yes, you should test the sound everywhere, cuz you sell it for speakers users as well as for headphones users. Ear fatigue usually comes a lot faster in headphones, cuz you try to get low frequencies audible enough right at your damn eardrums and because it takes a lot of energy to hear them as humans, it cause the damage. The fact that people don't adjust master volume and overwork their ears, underestimating energy-power usage ratio plays its role. Basically, turn volume really low when mixing in headphones, but listen to pro mixes beforehand and you will be god level at that scary "eq'ing with headphones". I have my pair with 15-20k frequency range, it's enough to do everything.
@@same.differenteverybody uses references, actually, every profession in the industry has its inspirations or thefts if done bluntly. "I've listened to this song and I really liked the piano, can you do the exact piano sound, like in that record?". It's just ignorant original commentor, no offense tho.
I noticed that I prefer many of the adjustments you say aren't the best. So I assume a person's preferences depends upon the wear-and-tear on a person's ear drums, especially someone like me who is 76 years old.
Great point.
@@OfficialStevenCravis It does make me wonder about the mixes I do of my music, that maybe what sounds good to me doesn't sound so good to my family and friends who are the recipients of my labors.
@@choimdachoim9491it could also say something about your monitoring whether it be inaccurate headphones or monitors playing in a troublesome room environment ect
@@Styrant True. It could be so many things that I don't know what to do except keep doing what I'm doing and keep studying.
plugins like masteringthemix reference or metric AB allow you to load some songs to compare against your mix, some time using that will help tell you where stuff should be sitting. I pick a similar genre commercial/professional song to A/B against and a few others that i refer to regardless of genre since i know the songs well. You can do this without plugins as well but its just convienient because the plugins level match and provide some more visual information
the descriptors for each frequency make fantastic references!!!
Parametric EQ helps me a lot. Usually I do low and high shelf and bust whatever I feel needs boosting. I recommend parametric EQ to everyone. It really helps find exactly where to boost and cut. Off course it won't replace your years but it helps a lot.
This was the best 13 minutes of mixing knowledge I have ever heard. Subscribed to learn more! Bravo
10:25 how are we supposed to tell if there is no A/B test? We dont know the original samples dude
A great introduction to EQ’ing every beginner should watch!
A good perspective over the main clues to mixing. Your narration is very clear, though, but harsh. A bit more of 3-500hz, less of 1K-4K might soften it without clarity loss.
And slow it down by 10 to 20 percent 😊
I used to play with a graphic equalizer in a wave editor years ago, setting up a notch boost and moving it along the frequency spectrum to know what it'll sound like if something stands out, and I did the same with a notch cut filter, if some frequency was completely missing. Same with gating and limiting. I'm no professional mixing engineer just a hobbyist interested in sound and audio. But when I do hear something off in an audio clip I can usually tell in what frequency range it may be.
It gets harder if several issues are there in multiple frequency ranges. Also, when you boost or cut a range, the rest will do the opposite if you keep the average volume constant, just something to think about. This is important to keep the dynamic range you're working with within tolerable limits as too much can lead to more distortion, ringing/harmonics and noise.
Ww222ww2²😊😊
What a well structured overview.
What makes this stand out is that you describe both the positive and negative aspects of each sound tweak.
Could you do a bit more on visualisation and analytic tools for determining what makes a good sound mix overall.
For example not all sound mixing engineers have perfect hearing. I've known cases where the chief sound engineer had a notch around 3kHz. He over boosted that region of the mix for his hearing deficit. Every time the keyboardist hit that note, the whole audience would wince. It happened at Jimmy Barnes' final concert , Sydney Stadium Darling Harbour, about 30 years ago.
I dunno man. I thought the guitar in example 2 sounded very bright
Im not new to mixing and I can say that this video is one of the BEST explanations i've ever seen ! :D
it's a long interesting journey
Thankyou so much, this was awesome knowledge made easy to understand. Subscribed.
Only one I got wrong was the first. I thought it was a high mid-9k.
I'm gettin better at this in live sound more so than anything.
Thanks for this!
Very nice video.
Very informative - I flunked the test....
If it sound good it is good
Hey man good stuff. Thanks for this.
Great video, thank you and keep up the excelente job!
Great video! Subscribed
After years of mixing i took the advice of pros, bus everything and mix from there first, dont go looking for problems let them reveal themselves, stay away from soloing channels or dont do it for very long onky to find specific problems
Amazing job! You totally nailed it!
I play long time with loudness correction and I must say that in my audio it has 99% fundamental impact on listening and fatigue. . I think it cannot be solved during mixing but every listener need do that work on it in own place, with own gear and conditions. .
Love this!
Cool.
Subbed! Nice to hear the examples here to explain the ranges more clearly
Imo: 20-60, 60-120, 120-180 for lows.180-600 for lmds, 600-2k for *core* mids, 2-6k for upper mids. And highs as in the vid. Each of the three mids can be split in half, mud - box, paper - nasal, scratchy - piercing as a way of labelling the split areas. Tho those timbres can be caused by any nearby region too, just common there
youre the best man!
Great job thanks 👍
2:36 I have to admit, I don't understand the analysis of the graph there. I can see that hearing is most sensitive around 4 kHz, and less sensitive at high and low extremes, but what are the 20, 40 and 60 lines? Ages of test subjects, maybe?
The vertical (Y) axis represents the volume level of the tone tested. The X axis is showing the frequency of the tone tested.
They're equal loudness contours. More here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
You earned a subscriber. Thank you!
Modern music industry: forget all this, make sure to make it clip so much it seems louder
You can't just put limiter and turn gain up on master as much as you want, you still need a professional mixer to outstand the competitors.
Reads like an old man joke. To me, there are always going to be awful and great mixes, and the hardware, its design has improved so much through years, even though I didn't live in 90s for example, but I know for sure that oversaturated music market with garbage music doesn't mean that music industry standards are low and everybody is clueless deaf amateur - false assumption about music production/not funny joke.
Should I worry about my hearing? I could not perceive the differences between comparisons. Well, mostly because I am not audio engineer nor I listen to high quality music that often haha.
Wow.... I guessed the exact opposite on every one of the questions at the end.
great information useful .
timecode 2:55 who is song name and artist plz and thanks.
sounds cool
Outstanding, a great exercise for ear training! But I think most musicians/ engineers may disagree on the cut-off points for bass, mid, etc. Everyone can hear 60Hz, and most can hear 30Hz. The Low E on bass is 40 cycles, plainly a tone and very audible, so I would argue, sub-bass is 30 Hz and below, above this would be "bass", then merge to "upper bass".
This is such a good video. Thank you.
i dont usually leave remarks. i subscribed1
I had no chance getting what was off in examples #1-#3 ;)
How do I brickwall frequencies under 20 ? when I do it on Pro Q , there is still signal getting through
Compensate phaseshifting when you do eq by using linear feature or something like that. You probably create new harmonics to your sound eq'ing aggressively.
7:14 how do you get this in Q 3?
I don’t know which engineers you referring to nor where you studied, because this things (don’t get me wrong, this is FUNDAMENTAL and important) are the minimum requirements to enter any professional studio or university entry test.
I haven't heard a good mix since the early 90s.
oh yes. give me more fomo!
On two of your examples, I perceived a cut as a complimentary boost. Weird
Subbed 💯
thanks
You sound like jazz guitar with Andy...😮
A first class ticket to Nottingham please
Blows my mind when I still hear the occasional album with ZERO sub bass and rolled off on top. It's like they gave up and just limited and compressed.
Wow, I got every exercise wrong. I picked the wrong range and the wrong direction(boost/reduce). I have literally no idea what I'm supposed to be hearing
If you got the wrong range AND the wrong direction, that's kinda getting it right - instead of hearing one range too low, you heard it as the others (or the most prominent one) too high, which is sorta the same thing!
I feel like these examples aren't great, they all sound fine depending on what you're looking for and how it's meant to sit in the mix. Like I dunno if I'd want much more high end on that guitar with those string squeaks happening. I think you're better following the suggestion about practicing, mess with the ranges yourself on a variety of sounds and listen to how they're affected and how it shapes the result. It's definitely a "learn by doing" thing
I missed the point of duplicating the bass with the piano sound. Also, I found the exercise of “guessing” what boost or cut had been made to the audio examples to be pointless without having some sort of reference example.
The piano example was showing where the fundamental note of instruments lies in the frequency range. So if you're trying to work out those notes and you're having trouble, isolating that range lets you hear it more quickly. He was just showing how he finds the notes by dragging them until they match the EQed track
Ufff... Your sub leaks in low mids and then if bass on change it hiss. Main tones and over tones for vocals and instruments and influence of 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Not sure you even understand basic filters. In this time and age ISO 226 2003 or later. So don't worry in next 40~50 years with that tempo you will get there.
bro i do not hear a difference
😂lol you Will get it eventually bro , I’m kinda new as well , been about 3 years for me and I’m still learning
🤣🤣
This was really helpful, Thank You.
I just checked some of your other content, please count me as a new Subscriber.
👍😉
Lol, selling the dream....
Too much mic proximity bass push....and I'm listening on studio monitors......just saying...
Exercise
I think mix-level EQ is too much of a blunt instrument for the final mix. It's good when adjusting for the imperfect natural responce of my speakers, but for actual music production, EQ ought to be applied per instrument.
That said, to me, imperfect equalisation is a much smaller problem (can also be part of the "art" aspect) than the general overuse of compression throughout the industry. Destroying the dynamics like that can make even the most amazing song sound awful 😒
I am surprised by how much I heard on my pseudo-retro-hifi three way DIY speakers consisting of vintage Tesla drivers, but with a modern passive crossover design. EDIT: I compared them with BX-5 professional studio monitors. BX-5 had much stronger (attack, responsiveness) on bass and more articulated high frequencies, but the mid-range on them was not as good.
My ears are george castanza, completely the opposite.
EQ'ing with headphones? Worst idea ever.
A lot of people don’t have a proper studio space. Have to use reference track with headphones for sure
Still a lot better than laptop speakers where the first two ranges on the low-end are practically non-existent.
That depends. If you always use the same headphones and compare the sound with the result on your preferred medium you will know what to listen for.
False.
It just takes practice/dedication to do mixing in headphones, just as mixing on "external" speakers. Yes, the perception of both is different; yes, you should test the sound everywhere, cuz you sell it for speakers users as well as for headphones users.
Ear fatigue usually comes a lot faster in headphones, cuz you try to get low frequencies audible enough right at your damn eardrums and because it takes a lot of energy to hear them as humans, it cause the damage. The fact that people don't adjust master volume and overwork their ears, underestimating energy-power usage ratio plays its role. Basically, turn volume really low when mixing in headphones, but listen to pro mixes beforehand and you will be god level at that scary "eq'ing with headphones".
I have my pair with 15-20k frequency range, it's enough to do everything.
@@same.differenteverybody uses references, actually, every profession in the industry has its inspirations or thefts if done bluntly. "I've listened to this song and I really liked the piano, can you do the exact piano sound, like in that record?".
It's just ignorant original commentor, no offense tho.