Compare my mix BEFORE & AFTER · Mastering.com Members Club

Compare my mix BEFORE & AFTER

Hey everyone

Iv been part of the program for just under a month. Loving it.

So I have gone back and re-mixed a tune from my upcoming album using the methods discussed in the latest Fix-The-Mix challenge. Here are some of my findings during the process.

Volume Mix Only - Turned everything down to negative infinity and then brought each fader up to unity gain and "normalised" the gain sit at between -10 & -20db until the whole mix was audible , starting with the drums and then bass ect until I could hear the instruments.

I then automated the volume for different parts of each track so the written parts flowed dynamically.

Only at this stage did I start placing EQ where needed (every track needed EQ lol), and placed a clipper on nearly EVERYTHING (buses and sends too) to control transients ect. It was at this stage that i seriously started noticing clarity of each instrument. Especially in the horn section.

Then I started playing with an Extreme Dynamic Processor called "the Monster" (which btw
@Jake Kodweis
is definitely not free 😂) on the drum sum stack but only used it at about 25% as this plugin is aptly named! Got some lovely colouration on the drums but boosted the Db of the entire drum sum stack, still I have it under control at around -12db to -10db.

I begin Spatial processing, send the drums to a bus where I put a long verb on at around 1.9ms. I dont think Jake demonstrated the "Bucket Method" with long and short verbs on drums because the drums he had in his session were "roomy" enough with the OH's and Room mic, hence why I only used a long verb. I do the same with the other instruments and at this stage everything is sounding great and the excitement is starting to build.

At this stage, all of my tracks are still between -10 and -20db, and the Master Out track is showing a total of around -6.6 consistently. Except for literally one small section which gets bumped up to -4.8 but then comes right back down to under -6db again for the rest of the tune. So my first query is how important (if at all) is it that we tame that one second part in the song that gets bumped by 2db. Please note I have gone back into the mix and tried clipping, limiting, and volume automating that part on ALL tracks to find the culprit and still cant seem to get it to not bump the DB up.

Now heres the weird part, I bounce out the final mix and the first thing I do is check the DB on the stereo out of the new bounced mix, which reads at around -2.8db 🤯 Where did that extra 4db come from? Which hurts my brain because the amount of gain reduction on the guitar amp sims I did was substantial and all instruments were all measured at between -10 and -20 with a total db reading on the stereo out of -6.6 before I bounced it out. Am I missing something?! Or am I just a cooked aussie. Maybe both 😅

9. Theres definitely a clear distinction that the new mix has WAY better separation between instruments compared to the old. The transients feel a lot more under control than the old mix. However the drums sound very raw still. Way happier with the horns compared to the old mix, and way happier that the funky guitar parts sit better in the mix. There are NO compressors in this mix at all other than a multiband on the bass.

I only started mixing in 2020 so I know i still have much to learn, but I'd love any feedback (positive or constructive or negative if you really want) on what your ears are telling you with the two comparisons (mine are super fatigued tbh). Iv attached a copy of the Frequency analysis from each track for a comparison as well as the tracks.

Thanks for reading if you got this far. Much from from Australia and a happy New Year to all.

Carrick

Ps - Gain Stage Mix is the new one.

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