I've been making & mixing music now for well over a decade and still find choosing and dialling reverbs the part I avoid the most due to it being so nebulous.
I'm working with Ableton on a Macbook Pro.

1. What’s your workflow for dialling in a reverb fast?
2. How do you decide on room vs. plate vs. hall for a given source?
3. Do you EQ or compress the reverb return, and how?
4. Plugin recommendations?
5. Any good tutorials or exercises?

I've seen some pro engineers put 2 limiters on the master and say "the second one is to take the load off the first limiter so it doesn't work that hard". And I was wondering, what do they mean by that? Wouldn't just one limiter suffice?

Also seen people use 2 compressors on the same track one after another and I don't see the reason for that. Can someone explain please?

Hi, im a bit stuck with a problem i was hoping to hear some other perspectives on.

I finished mixing a track to my liking and now that im mastering it im stuck on around -18.6 LUFS and a -1.5 dB headroom.

While im scared of losing some of the dynamic of the track im guessing its better i get to do it manually and to my pleasing rather than letting a streaming platform squish it or leave it quiet?

As far as i know a compressor seems like a decent way to balance this out pretty effectively at this stage but since i have kick and sub-bass sounds that i dont want to be neither "longer" nor "shorter" in its sound, ive had trouble using a compressor wether normal or multiband succesfully on a mastering track.

But im a tad bit shit at compressors so i may very well be missing something there.

Thanks ^^

Novice here - any basic advice (or direction towards relevant sources) appreciated.

I'm aiming to make a song in Ableton and have ripped some of my own vinyl records into Audacity and then Ableton. I've isolated loads of short motifs - be it breakbeat sections that I'll chop up and loop, string sections, orchestra stabs etc. etc. (I've also downloaded a load of other FLAC & WAV breakbeat loops sourced from Soul, Funk & Jazz songs which I believe are also vinyl rips).

I'm just wondering how I should go about mixing these samples. Particularly in the case of drums/breakbeat. Whilst I've reordered particular parts of the break to make them my own pattern, I don't want to chop up every single stroke/note in the break to process it individually as this might stop these milliseconds-apart strokes flowing into each other (each instrument is overlaid over each other anyway so I'm not sure how I'd do that, and I want to avoid using AI).

I'd like to be able to amalgamate different break samples together as well in a way that will feel coherent.

I'm new to mixing, and if possible would like to just go about this with as few non-Ableton stock plug-ins as possible.

Any mixing fundamentals and tips appreciated, thank you in advance.

Sorry if this seems like a novice question but I've been trying to understand how on a lot of my reference tracks, the snare and kick are very loud yet when I turn my kick and snare to the same level, the transients far exceed those on my reference track despite being the same perceived volume. It may be important to mention this is for recorded drums on a heavy rock track. I have tried saturation, clipping, and many forms of compression yet nothing really achieves the loudness I'm looking for while preserving headroom. I still wish to preserve dynamics with the kick and snare just without the spikey transient. Any tips?

So like most of us intermediate Almost Advanced Mixing Hobbyist, I struggle with getting the appropriate depth on very dense mixes. I find that it's hard to get the exact amount of depth without being too washed out or not enough and everything sounds like it's fighting for the front wall of the dimension.

I have found a technique that I feel like is working and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried it or if someone is willing to open up their d a w and try this to give me their honest opinion. I'm just making sure I'm not introducing very low level phase shifting that is problematic. I don't have the greatest monitoring setup at the moment because my room dimension is a perfect square once I bought my new house and I have not modified this room so I'm mixing and headphones lately. Anyway, here is the technique I've been doing

Duplicating a track, delaying the waveform by physically moving it later in time typically around 8 to 15 milliseconds , using a crush / Distortion style plugin like sound toys devil lock, turning the track down by 30 decibels or so to where it's very quiet, and then sending that to a desired Reverb. I can really notice that it's giving a three-dimensional sound. And my hypothesized reason for trying this is because analog gear creates very low level harmonics that are also phase shifting your source in the slightest way that gives it a pleasant three-dimensional sound. This is not exactly a proven statement but I am saying but I am beginning to wonder if the reason why analog sounds so good is because the slightest shifting in phase creates more dimension. Anyway let me know what you think and if anyone else does this and if there is actually already a name for this technique. I find that I can just control the depth with the fader of this duplicated track. The further you turn it down the deeper it gets. You will notice when you mute that track it's it is obvious that it is less dimension

Hi guys, noob here. Cowbell jokes aside, I'm a bitt puzzled when trying to figure out what's going on with the mixing and panning of Blue Oyster Cult's "Dont' fear the reaper". In the intro, it seems that there is only one guitar at the right side, and that (maybe?) just reverb from that guitar is heard on the left side. Or maybe it's two guitars and one of them only plays one note?

Same happens in the chorus: is there another guitar at the left or not? Are there two guitars panned or is it one on one side?

Also, percussion-wise, I seem to hear guiros and/or castanets? Or maybe it's a vibraslap?

Note: wrote "r-eaper" in the title to bypass the Reaper (software) auto-block.

Hey, I'm an artist/mixing engineer working out of my college dorm, and I'm looking to upgrade my headphones to a more "professional" pair.

Currently I'm using the Focusrite SH-450, the one that comes bundled with the Scarlett 2i2 Gen 4 interface and microphone, and it's served me well so far (my mixes seem to translate well), but it's not the most durable, and I believe that there's better options for producing/mixing.

I searched a bit and found the K240's for $99 (well within my price range), alongside very mixed reviews and a frequency response graph that did not look appealing in the slightest.

So I thought I'd check and see what y'all think of this as an alternative to the Focusrite SH-450 headphones.

Also, out of curiosity, what's the general consensus on the SH-450 as proper mixing headphones?

I'm sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this discussion. I'm a huge sucker for great video game soundtracks. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has one of the greatest video game soundtracks to come out in recent years. But why is the mixing and mastering on this soundtrack so atrocious? The best example is the boss theme Une Vie À T'aimer, which has nasty clipping throughout. (The part from 4:12 is a good example.) It's also weird, because the in-game mix has less clipping than the release for some reason? [Here's a recording of the boss fight.] Heck, even the live Performance at The Game Awards sounds much better than the original version. Personally, I think it's because Lorien Testard doesn't have much experience in professional audio production, and the video game director Guillaume Broche was "willing to trust the talent he saw rather than the experience that he didn't." There's nothing wrong with letting newcomers shine, but I wish Lorien Testard had brought in more experienced help, because I think he has great talent.

Here is Bury the Light, another video game soundtrack song also sung by the same vocalist, Victor Borba, in a similar genre, but mixed by Adam "Nolly" Getgood from Periphery. The difference between the two is night and day.

It's such a shame because this soundtrack has some of the best compositions in modern video game history. The bad mixing and mastering really detracted from the experience. I don't think there was ever a soundtrack this great that was mixed and mastered this badly.

Edit: Someone in the comments pointed out that the in-game mix has less clipping than the release, and it does. Here's a recording of the boss fight.

I never learned music theory but I've still been writing songs for about 16 years now by just playing around, trying stuff out, seeing what works and what doesn't.

But with mixing, it feels like there is so much to consider, to do wrong, so many things you could do but don't even know about, that it feels like a chore to me.

Does anybody maybe have some tips on how to make mixing just another fun part of creating a song?

Hey guys,

I'm currently mixing an album and have found a great studio nearby. It's also the only affordable option in my rural area, and the room has high-end monitors and plenty of acoustic treatment.

There's one issue, though, and I'd love some advice from anyone who's experienced something similar.

Because of the room's rectangular shape, I'm finding that I can only properly hear the low end (let's say 100 Hz and below) when I push my chair back from the desk and sit further into the middle of the room. At my normal mixing position, near the desk and speakers, the sub-bass sounds noticeably reduced - I'm mixing bass music, so getting the low end right is important to the genre..

I've spoken to the studio owner, but moving the speakers isn't an option. For now, I've improvised a sort of mini workstation further back in the room, balancing my mouse on a couple of boxes, but it's uncomfortable and not really practical for working on an entire album.

Would it be reasonable to do most of the mixing at my normal desk position, then move back to check the sub-bass and make low-end adjustments? Is it also perhaps a possibility because of the treatment that the middle is overly bassy and isnt actually flat and i just prefer that?

I'd really appreciate any advice! Cheers

Hi,

I tried producing a country track this time, but I don't think the mix feels quite right (or maybe it's my sound selection?).

I'm going for that modern Nashville country sound. I'm finding it hard to mix because the guitars take up a lot of space and cover a wide frequency range, but with only the guitars, it sounds thin. So the track ends up feeling a bit heavy and squashed.

https://voca.ro/1aNv9DLz1gBO

Hey!!!

I’m trying to get similar results to this drum break I absolutely love and so far I have come up short with every test I’ve done. Wondering if anyone in here can help get some of the qualities I’m hearing. https://open.spotify.com/track/3hilNpBLALtQVAHwhYSLs8?si=PDybsch1Sk2qVFpXKt-tCQ&utm_source=copy-link

The drums come in around 16 seconds. It’s a classic (or maybe not so classic) Kevin Parker drum sound. I have mini meters setup to analyze the stereo width, spectrum and audio file and so far what I’ve gathered is it’s very “compressed” and controlled sounding but the peaks are clipped or limited to bits. It’s also not mono whatsoever.

So far my tests have been 4 mics. Kick, snare top, shell and overhead and mainly hearing the shell and kick in the reference. What I’ve tried so far is shell mic into a Dbx165a and set the knobs in a way that sounds pretty good. But it’s very much lacking the attack and body/release in the reference. Specifically on the kick drum, to me it sounds like some parallel stuff going on with the kick drum and then the shell has the 165a on it and then slightly panned to the right. The other thing that’s confusing is I’m hearing some reverb on the snare, to me it sounds like a plate verb, and maybe on the track itself before the 165a and so therefore mono but panned to the right and then the kick is more in the middle giving that width.

This is by no means a “professional” drum sound but it’s baked with character. I know I’m not going to get 1/1 recreation but I want to nail the little nuances I’m hearing in the ADSR of the sound.

Any tips/insights are very much appreciated!!!

Moved from recording over YouTube beats a couple of years ago to actually recording full band instrumentation over the last 2/3 years and feel sort of stuck.

I want to release more music but I feel like my mixing is holding me back imo

Could anyone take a listen to this mix and give me any pointers on what to improve?

Recorded everything myself in terms of instruments and vocals, drums are programmed.

At what point could I call this release ready? Is the balance okay? Am I lacking low end?

Appreciate any feedback, thank you :)

Hey, I'm not an audio engineer, but an amateur musician and DJ. I ran some of the files from my library through a spectral analyzer software (Fakin' The Funk, Spek) to see if the files dowloaded are indeed of the quality they declare to be. The results were unclear to me.

Out of personal preference, I store mostly .aiff files (lossless with tag-capabiltiy). In some files I noticed a slight cut in volume above 20.5 kHz, sometimes around 20.9 kHz.

What I deducted myself is that while these files probably are not 320 mp3 depicted as lossless, the mastering engineer decided to apply a low pass filter at a certain value that is known to be inaudible to humans. Would you agree with that conclusion?

Are there justified reasons to apply such a filter on a master file? The music in quesion is bass heavy electronic music - may this be a reason ... to make space for low end energy?

Interested to hear from you and learn something new.

Edit: Thank you everyone for the many comments. Very educational to me.

Hi, I am pretty new to mixing but am working on learning some of the basics. One thing that I would like to learn about is the consistency of volume throughout a mix. I downloaded Youlean 2 to monitor the lufs levels.

I'm wondering if there is somewhat of a standard as far as the range of lufs levels a track may go through. Of course, some parts of a song may intentionally play with dynamic, having quiet and loud parts, but observing lufs levels is new to me. I'm looking for a number as far as a range that a track might go through that is not too jarring, but also not too void of dynamic, between quiet and loud parts.

I'd really appreciate any insight into this!

Is it okay to use chorus on a snare, clap, or hi hat? I have been getting into stereo width and i know not to do it on low end instruments. I have recently been using a 3.00 ms fast rate and a very very low mix like under 10 percent and then i use a stereo spreader. Any wisdom from y'all would help thanks!

Main beef ive been having with trying to make the mix sound like a wall of sound has been making all of the elements present. Guitar being one of the things that i'm having a really tough time finding a sweet spot. The "master" right now is between 6-7 LUFS, but it also doesn't come across as loud as other masters in that range.

Feedback appreciated, thank you :)

I am having trouble with bass mixing. I have lately been trying to split my DI recorded bass into 2 tracks(one below 200hz and one above). Compressing at first is fine, but when I try to add another instance of it, the bass starts to click. I thought at first it was because of the attack settings, but so far fiddling with that doesnt change the pops. Any ideas? TIA

As the title says, I’m moving out! I really want to be a courteous neighbor but I also want to be able to “feel” and mix my music accurately.

Any tips you guys have for making an apartment “music studio sound friendly” with minimal noise complaints?

I’m moving out of my parents house for the first time where I used to make music in the attic and I’m really going to miss the isolation up there and being able to blast my music haha.

Would really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

Hopefully, I can explain this properly. I was recently listening to midnight marauders by ATCQ. And I noticed there is a “creamy” texture throughout the majority of this album. One of the most Obvious examples of the texture I’m talking about, is on the track “Stir it up”. There is this percussion element that pops up, panned to the left a bit. The texture of that sound is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s very noticeable just after the intro transitioning into the first verse. Ive noticed this texture quite a bit over the years in some songs but this albums seems to have allot of it. Almost as if Bob Power was intentionally adding it. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

https://voca.ro/1mN1dQirpjEp

I practice mixing with the Cambridge Music stems library, a collection of free high quality stems, absolutely brilliant for a beginner mixer like myself, and I recently gave a go at a song called 'El Marinero' by the band Plan Caliente.

It's clearly a very amateur mix, I found it tricky to make it sound full with the lack of parts in the verses, and not chaotic with the dense choruses.

This has also been my first go at using a mix bus, very nervous about the compression.

Any ideas on where it should be improved and what I should focus on would be very much appreciated!

Name: Concoction Party
Since I made this song all by myself - writing, arranging, recording, mixing, and mastering- I don't want to be biased, so I am requesting some technical or subjective critique. Looking for an experimental, weird EDM vibe (unique).

I worked very hard on this, and I am more experienced in the musical realm of things rather than in mixing (Less confident in mixing). I've been learning and practicing mixing for about a year, and would love feedback.

I mixed this track in mono, but then only checked in stereo after I finished with everything before panning (EQ, Compression, Reverb)

Note: This was mastered by Logic Pro's Mastering Assistant (Brought it up to loudness and made some subtle EQ moves) and me using EQ and Saturation.

Thanks in Advance!

REVISION (from comment feedback)! Listen to this one: https://vocaroo.com/1iMatOT0S0Ho

Old Version: https://vocaroo.com/1aOA1aO44JeL

Im interested in getting ATC SCM12Pros as theyre supposedly rather well performing in smaller rooms, and the rooms i work in are usually treated but small.

I know their bass is supposedly thin, but i want to use them similarly to NS-10s, where the bass isnt really the main concern necessarily.

Any experiences? usage would be mainly mixing modern pop, rnb, hiphop

Also, is the atc p1 amp actually needed for ideal performance, or will they perform about the same on one thats not 3400€ until a later upgrade?

Full disclosure, I'm quite new to mixing and mastering, so apologies if there's an obvious answer.

I've noticing this for at least five years, but never gave it much thought. Lately, I started listening to Spiritbox, and hearing it consistently song after song made hearing it unavoidable. I will say, Courtney LaPlante is a PHENOMENAL vocalist, and I'm amazed at what she can do with her voice. Her vocals sound great. They're clear, articulate, and smooth from a mixing perspective.

But the rest...my God. It just sounds like ass to me. At first, I thought maybe it was just something about the guitar tone, but the longer I listened, I realized it's something with the actual mix. It sounds harsh, and not in a good way. It's got this quasi-industrial nails on a chalkboard quality, and I can't figure out what a producer would have done to make it sound that way.

Suddenly Poppy came on the algorithm, and the effect was nearly identical. Clear vocals, pumping, harsh everything else.

It's obviously not every band, but I've heard numerous examples that have the same quality on radio.

What's going on to make "that sound?" Why would anyone go for that sound?