We\u2019ll be using Live 9.6 Suite native tools mostly (\u201cLess is More\u201d indeed, I wish I realized that earlier) using relatively simple but efficient classic techniques to: 2. Manage Frequency Content Using 4 Different EQ designs<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. Control Dynamics With 3 Compressor Types<\/p>\n 4. Add Depth With Reverbs & Delays<\/p>\n 5. Practice Some Mastering Sequences<\/strong><\/p>\n The idea behind is to provide an overall picture of mixing audio, without going into much details as this subject is really HUGE. I\u2019m sure that you will have a better vision having read the whole set and applying the tech of interest on practice to progress faster and reaching your goals sooner.<\/p>\n To make the reading and navigating bit more comfortable, I will keep every article in the Series split into the following parts: # INTRO# DEEP TECH # STUDIO TIPS # SELECTED FREE TOOLS<\/p>\n As practice makes perfect, let\u2019s recollect what mixing is all about, what does a \u201cgood\/pro mix\u201d means? To simplify I would describe \u201cmixing\u201d as a process of creating a stereo file from a multi-track recording (either recorded in the studio when talking about live music genres, printed\/converted to audio when by a digital artist in his DAW or being a mixture of both methods). As a rule, mix engineer gets a folder containing mono\/stereo audio files where each file corresponds to one instrument. And the task is to transform all that layers into a cohesive whole.<\/p>\n What stands for a \u201cgood\/professional mix\u201d? There are versatile wordings circulating in the Web, but as for me I like the one from Eddie Bazil he used in his \u201cSound Mixing: Tips & Tricks\u201d book, where he formulated the following criteria that \u201cgood = professional mix\u201d should be demonstrating:<\/p>\n 1. CLEANLINESS<\/strong> – no artifacts\/noise\/hiss\/pops From Mastering Engineer point of view (and that\u2019s an important thing to add as without keeping that in mind the formula I\u2019m describing would be incomplete)\u2014 apart from all that mentioned, the result of our mix session should look like a lossless 24-bit wav\/aiff stereo file, peaking at -6 dBFS at the loudest track segment.<\/p>\n If you do basic mastering yourself than you perfectly know that it should be peaking at 0 dBFs max, and demonstrated perceived loudness depending on the genre laying somewhere within -6 to \u201310 dB RMS (LUFS\/LKFS) range. (What you probably did not know is that the peaks we are talking about should be measure with True Peak Meter, and our audio file should demonstrated Crest Factor higher than 6 dB, as only in this case audio file considered appropriately\/ moderately compressed).<\/p>\n GAIN:<\/strong> Typically we refer to transmission gain, which is the increase in the power of the signal, almost always expressed in dB, e.g. increase in the raw signal from your guitar or microphone before it goes into other component.<\/p>\n VOLUME:<\/strong> power level of a signal. When you turn up the \u201cmaster volume\u201d knob on your amp, you\u2019re increasing the amount of power used by the amp to increase the signal.<\/p>\n LEVEL:<\/strong> Magnitude of the sound in reference to some arbitrary reference, more specifically\u200a\u2014\u200a SPL (sound pressure level) also expressed in dB.<\/p>\n LOUDNESS<\/strong> is another monster, even though similar to volume and level) Since human ears are not able to hear each frequency at the same level, perceived loudness is different as we move up and down in frequency. Read about Equal Loudness Contours & Fletcher\u2013Munson curves to get more info.<\/p>\n UNITY GAIN:<\/strong> Fader At \u201c0\u201d , thus not affecting the level of the signal passing through the channel.<\/p>\n Signal levels and scales in digital and analog domains may get you nuts in no time but to simplify lets\u2019 take + 0 VU (0 dBU) in analog correlating to -18 dBFS on a digital scale (EBU digital) and here we are talking about peaks level (that\u2019s why Live Samplers\/Synths are -12 dB by default I assume + you may offent see +18 dB on analog gear master faders). Why do we need to know that? It\u2019s not only about the \u201cgood old analogue days\u201d, but our audio chain today still contain the analogue section\u200a\u2014\u200athat it our D\/A converters at the output of our sound cards\u200a\u2014\u200aso knowing your levels is important not to fry them out and avoid both analog and digital clipping). Another practical aspect of understanding that \u2014ability to calibrate our monitors and set our listening levels properly.<\/strong><\/p>\n So I\u2019d recommend you to set all your tracks to peak within -18 dBFS \/ -12 dBFS range, keeping your Bus\/Group\/Sends\/Master faders at Unity Gain, before you begin the session. Having settled that\u200a\u2014\u200aproceed to rough volume balancing at the loudest part of the track keeping the max peak levels on Master Bus not higher than -6 dB. If you\u2019re mixing in a non-treated room, use both your ears (hopefully accompanied by a pair of decent near-fields and monitoring headphones) and Spectrum Analyzer that Live has on board, keeping that -3 dB pink noise reference curve at hand (surf the Web for more details). Mix at low levels (for the geeks\u2014 it should be in the vicinity of 78\u201383 dB SPL C-scale) for no-geeks\u200a\u2014\u200ait should be as quiet as possible, like normal conversation levels.<\/p>\n As a starting point I would take the loudest genre-specific element (e.g. Kick for Techno\/House-like tracks or Bassline in case with D\u2019n\u2019B and the like), adding the second loudest element on top of that, and paying special attention to the vocals if they are present, building up the levels the rest of the instruments around according to the concept of the track.<\/p>\n ABLETON PAN LAW:<\/strong> Live uses constant power panning with sinusoidal gain curves. Output is 0 dB at the center position and signals panned fully left or right will be increased by +3 dB (+4.5 dB, +6 dB Pan Laws also exist). Live\u2019s pan control is wrongly named\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s a stereo balance control actually (acting as Pan Pot on mono tracks).<\/p>\n MONO FILES IN LIVE:<\/strong> When you place mono file on a track in Live, you see ONE level meter identical for both L\/R channels, with our knob acting as PAN CONTROL as we pan ONE single channel between L\/R channels.<\/p>\n STEREO FILES IN LIVE:<\/strong> When you place stereo file on a track in Live, you see TWO different level meters in the channel strip with our knob acting as Balance control in this case , balancing the levels of the two channels which remain panned hard left and hard right.<\/p>\n PHANTOM CENTER:<\/strong> a phenomenon when sound is perceived as coming from the the point located in between the left and right speakers. For that the audio levels should be identical in both channels and the listener should be located in sweet spot, where sweet spot is a focal point between two speakers, where an individual is fully capable of hearing the stereo mix the way it was intended to be heard by the mix engineer.<\/p>\n STEREO FILES vs L+R FILES:<\/strong> while STEREO could be characterized as a 2-channel file having some some L\/R content identical and some different, L+R file means that L\/R content is identical that actually gives as a mono file just played via 2-channel \/ 2-speaker system. While L+R is playing a mono source in two speakers, it that will be perceived as 3dB louder than if it were played in just one speaker (in case with +3 dB PAN LAW). DONT FORGET that STEREO MIX contains multiple layers, while STEREO INSTRUMENT FILE while is a single layer.<\/p>\n JOINT STEREO, SIMPLE STEREO, INTENSITY STEREO are audio-coding\/conversion related terms and do not relate to our mixing needs at this point.<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably you\u2019ve heard that first mixing consoles had NO panning knobs at all\u200a\u2014\u200a just the switches that could be set to 3 positions only\u200a\u2014\u200aHard Left-Dead Center-Hard Right. That\u2019s where the term LCR panning is coming from. There are different opinions on that technique, some like it some don\u2019t, but in my opinion it\u2019s a great place to start. Therefore I do recommend checking LCR approach to create a basic balance of our track key elements, and then you may break the rule and placing the secondary instruments in between. Keep an eye open on L\/R channel levels to keep the overall picture balanced.<\/p>\n Also, when making your panning decisions I\u2019d suggest to follow \u201cThe Upside Triangle\u201d approach where the low frequency content is placed in mono (let\u2019s say up to 130 Hz as a starting point) and gradually widens as it climbs up the spectrum.<\/p>\n NOTE: Remember to keep the majority of your instruments in mono\u200a\u2014\u200ain the real-world the majority of sounds sources are mono.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more\u200a\u2014\u200ait accentuates the contrast between the widespread instruments and those pin-pointed to specific locations in the stereofield. Instruments benefiting from \u201cstereo exposure| are pretty often genre-dependent, so it makes sense to keep key elements of our track wide, keeping the secondaries mono. Don\u2019t get overwhelmed with that though\u2014 as Stereo Delay \/ Reverb applied to mono source makes it stereo) so\u200a\u2014\u200ano worries) you will have enough of stereo.<\/p>\n Mid\/Side Technique is a another worthy technique to use both at individual channels and Master Bus.<\/p>\n The concept behind\u200a\u2014\u200ais to decode the audio content in stereo into Mid \/ Side Matrix (Mid = a mono component identical for both L\/R channels, Side = a sum of audio content different in L \/ R channels where Mid + Side = Original Stereo File.<\/p>\n For those who hear it for the first time it doesn\u2019t sound easy) But be strong)\u2026<\/p>\n What else\u2026 You don\u2019t have to keep your panning decisions static\u200a\u2014\u200alots of tools could be used to liven up it up adding movement, from pan-modulating LFO\u2019s to dedicated 3rd party Auto Panners, Auto Filters, Frequency Shifters, etc.<\/p>\n Last but not least\u200a\u2014\u200aDO regularly check your mix in mono just to make sure that there is no dramatic phase cancellations happening when you fold it down.<\/p>\n 1. Always start you mixing session placing a Limiter on your master bus! The sole purpose of that – safety reasons, to protect your gear and ears against occasional volume spikes.<\/p>\n 2. Starting from version 9.5 Live provides both Peak & RMS levels on the channel strips (just keep the channel wide enough to make it visible). Still there is a perfect company to it\u200a\u2014\u200aSonalksis Free G Meter. I use it on groups\/busses, and to check\/compensate for Gain increase\/loss during processing.<\/p>\n 3. Key-map Arrangement View Locators according to the structural parts of the track\u200a\u2014\u200ait will do a great job helping you navigate smoothly. In general invest time in learning Shortcuts<\/a> and Architecture of Live, it start paying you out in no time.<\/p>\n 4. Try to keep both channels populated symmetrically e.g. panning high percussion loop hard L \u2014and panning your hihat loop hard R. Kick, Bass, Snare and Lead Vocal are panned dead center as a rule. Panning dry instruments 100% to one side and delay tails 100% to the other is another simple technique worthy experimenting with.<\/p>\n 5. Use \u201cResampling\u201d to capture the results of every Session you do for future referencing along with storing your Project at every production stage e.g. \u201cTracking 1.0\u201d, \u201cArrangement 2.5\u201d, \u201cMixing 5.0\u201d, it will save tons of time at later stages.<\/p>\n 6. Don\u2019t install each and every piece of 3rd party software you stumble across. Do it when it\u2019s a life or death thing. Learn Live\u2019s native plugins in and out, they are more than worthy (especially after 9.6 fantastic updates) + Free Packs and unique M4L devices pop up at ableton.com<\/a> regularly. Less incoming software will help you concentrate, your system will be more stable, and will run faster.<\/p>\n 7. Some simple stereo-widening techniques to try:<\/p>\n HAAS: use Simple Delay with \u201cTime\u201d Selected, 100% Wet. Set Delay for L channel at 1 ms and for R channel up to 30 ms to your liking. Check in mono.<\/p>\n M\/S WIDENER: EQ 8 in M\/S mode, sculpt some low end content with HPF from Side signal boosting some Lo\/Hi Mid content for a couple of dBs with a shelf will change the correlation between Mid\/Side signal changing the stereofield. Increasing Side level makes our signal wider, and vise versa.<\/p>\n FREQUENCY SHIFTER: Set it 100% wet, activate \u201cWide\u201d, keep LFO at 0, Mode: Ring and slowly tweak Frequency knob 2\u20135 Hz in every direction.<\/p>\n Voxengo SPAN<\/a>. Considered The Best Free Spectrum Analyzer in the Web. These are some guidelines to start with, do hope they will be of use.<\/p>\n Walk And Ye Shall Reach.<\/strong><\/p>\n Written by: Andrey Romanenko (Kiev, Ukraine)<\/p>\n 2016 @ Copyright. All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Theory basics, selected studio practices and a few pro-grade Utilities to grab for free Hey-day, Music Makers! Having received some feasible feedback to my previous articles dedicated to some \u201cniche\u201d aspects of mixing, I decided to launch a Series of articles devoted to mixing as a whole, sharing some of the techniques I selected (having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips","category-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n1. Properly Set Up Mix Levels & Get The Most Out Of Stereofield<\/strong><\/p>\n# INTRO<\/h4>\n
![\"intro\"](\"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/intro.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n2. CLARITY<\/strong> – no mushiness
\n3. SEPARATION<\/strong> – no micbleeding, no frequency clashes
\n4. PROPER LEVELS<\/strong> – no dramatic level fluctuations through the track + it should not be far too quiet or loud
\n5. PROPER BALANCE<\/strong> – frequency- and stereofield-wise
\n6. PASSING \u201cGENRE TEST\u201d<\/strong> – the track should fit the actual genre demands, even if there should be no strict rules (still better keep it for the future as we must learn the rules first, and only after that we may start breaking \u2018em)
\n7. PASSING \u201c ENVIRONMENT TEST\u201d<\/strong> – translate properly on versatile systems\u200a\u2014\u200afrom inexpensive in-ear headphones and mono smartphones to multi-kWt PA systems<\/p>\n# TECH: SETTING THE LEVELS RIGHT<\/h4>\n
TERMS:<\/h5>\n
![\"meter-types\"](\"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/meter-types.jpeg\")
<\/center><\/p>\n#TECH: STEREOFIELD MANAGEMENT<\/h4>\n
TERMS:<\/h5>\n
![\"MS-Stereo\"](\"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/MS-Stereo.jpg\")
\nSTEREO (Mid+Side)<\/center><\/p>\n![\"MONO\"](\"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/MONO.jpg\")
\nMONO (Stereo without Side)<\/center><\/p>\n![\"mid-side-stereo\"](\"https:\/\/abletunes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mid-side-stereo.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\n# STUDIO TIPS<\/h4>\n
# FREE TOOLS COMPLIMENTING LIVE NATIVE PLUGINS, PACK 1<\/h4>\n
\nVoxengo MSED<\/a>. Great M\/S Processing Tool
\nStereo Tool<\/a> from Flux. The Most Sophisticated Stereo Field Analyzer out there
\nSonalksis FREE G<\/a>. Great peak\/RMS meter with different ballistics options
\nAudiocation Loudness Meter<\/a> (ACR-128) \u200a\u2014 \u200aLU\/LUFS Meter with sophisticated scaling options (Free Mono\/Stereo Phase Meters are also available)
\nBitter<\/a> from StillWell Audio and X-ISM<\/a> from SSL. True InterSample Peak Meters to choose from (I prefer X-ISM as more informative and handy, but more CPU heavy)
\nBackdrop<\/a> (Mac). Turns your screen “ON\/OFF”, for those using ears less than they should staring into Spectrum Analyzers far too often)<\/p>\n