Totally agree that drums and vocals are the tracks to focus on the most - and as you say work on first, fitting everything else into the soundscape around them.
This is gamechanging advice 1) drums 2) bass 3) vocals and molding the rest of the arrangement around them will make your life easier and gets you to the fun stuff much quicker. I’d like to add on a bit: I used to start my fader balances by leaving the vocal as the last element I brought in mainly bc I didn’t understand signal density and my dry/uncompressed vocal tracks were always impossible to intuitively place in the mix during the initial fader balance. If I went with intuition the vocalist would be 10 feet in front of the rest of the arrangement by the time everything else was processed, and when I tried compensating on later mixes there was never any assurance that I was even in the ballpark. Starting off with a “compressed” (ie relatively dynamically consistent) vocal makes mixing so much easier; whether it’s by gain riding, leveling compression, smart plugs like vocal rider or Nectar, imo it makes all the difference in the world. This may seem like common sense to some but hopefully someone finds that helpful. Remember: every song is different and referencing genre/talking with the artist should help inform your gameplan to tackle dynamics. Sometimes a soft touch is all that’s needed, but taking some time while you’re editing to address vocal (and maybe just as importantly - bass) consistency will allow you to blow yourself away with how far you can get with just faders and panning. Happy mixing 😊
Solid advice Adam! I always track vocals with a little bit of compression on the way in (usually my Audioscape Opto la2a clone) which means the vocal performance isn’t too dynamic for when I start setting levels, helps a lot! Uncompressed vocals are way to hard to sit in a mix constantly. Totally agree, every mix is case by case and there is never one formula for getting the best/right results :)
I am so thankful for your videos, each one seems to be helping me in an area that I am new-ish to production in. As a primarily stock Logic and Izotope user your channel has become so valuable to me! Thanks again.
It took me many years of mixing hundreads of songs to figure it out myself, this cleaning up the midrange (sometimes the upper bass) that's cluttering up the vocal sound. It's still difficult sometimes to do it 100% right. I constantly find myself listening to my mixes done a couple of weeks ago and have a moment of 'ahh I could have done this and that a bit to make it sound a bit cleaner/better etc.' Really frustrating.
![ไข้ขึ้นเลย! เมื่อแฝดโดนจัดเต็มวัคซีนครบ2เดือน🤒 [cc] แดนแพทตี้ SS2 | EP.54 |](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/z2VHItnyyvY/mqdefault.jpg)
Totally agree that drums and vocals are the tracks to focus on the most - and as you say work on first, fitting everything else into the soundscape around them.
Yep! Usually when you nail those two elements, everything else falls into place around them easily!
This is gamechanging advice 1) drums 2) bass 3) vocals and molding the rest of the arrangement around them will make your life easier and gets you to the fun stuff much quicker.
I’d like to add on a bit: I used to start my fader balances by leaving the vocal as the last element I brought in mainly bc I didn’t understand signal density and my dry/uncompressed vocal tracks were always impossible to intuitively place in the mix during the initial fader balance. If I went with intuition the vocalist would be 10 feet in front of the rest of the arrangement by the time everything else was processed, and when I tried compensating on later mixes there was never any assurance that I was even in the ballpark.
Starting off with a “compressed” (ie relatively dynamically consistent) vocal makes mixing so much easier; whether it’s by gain riding, leveling compression, smart plugs like vocal rider or Nectar, imo it makes all the difference in the world. This may seem like common sense to some but hopefully someone finds that helpful.
Remember: every song is different and referencing genre/talking with the artist should help inform your gameplan to tackle dynamics. Sometimes a soft touch is all that’s needed, but taking some time while you’re editing to address vocal (and maybe just as importantly - bass) consistency will allow you to blow yourself away with how far you can get with just faders and panning. Happy mixing 😊
Solid advice Adam! I always track vocals with a little bit of compression on the way in (usually my Audioscape Opto la2a clone) which means the vocal performance isn’t too dynamic for when I start setting levels, helps a lot! Uncompressed vocals are way to hard to sit in a mix constantly.
Totally agree, every mix is case by case and there is never one formula for getting the best/right results :)
Great tips. Thanks
Excellent!!!
I am so thankful for your videos, each one seems to be helping me in an area that I am new-ish to production in. As a primarily stock Logic and Izotope user your channel has become so valuable to me! Thanks again.
Thanks mate! So good to hear you’re finding it useful! Any suggestions on stuff you’d like to see me cover in a video?
Without/with or before/after: very subtle but clearly bearable improvement… Thanks!
It’s always about how the little things add up to the bigger picture in the end!
Great advice. Thank you
No worries! Glad to help :)
Excellent tips
Thanks mate!
Great as always! Next video please: how to mix vocals like you 😂
Haha thanks man, I’ll keep that in mind for future video ideas!
Thank You for this knowledge sir! ♥
More powers to you!
- your fan from Philippines
My pleasure! Thanks for checking it out!
It took me many years of mixing hundreads of songs to figure it out myself, this cleaning up the midrange (sometimes the upper bass) that's cluttering up the vocal sound. It's still difficult sometimes to do it 100% right. I constantly find myself listening to my mixes done a couple of weeks ago and have a moment of 'ahh I could have done this and that a bit to make it sound a bit cleaner/better etc.' Really frustrating.
Yes; to sound great not everything has to sound big.
Song is fire
Agreed! Definitely check him out on Spotify. I’ll add a link to the song in the description too!