Academy Mau https://heroic acader AlL Article How To Mix Music (Part 7): Finalizing your mix (Side- Chaining, Leveling and Delay & Reverb) Tim yan Doorne December 38,2019Ever mixed a track where all music elements sound great individually, but when listening to them all together things just seem not to fit with each other? I've been there many times myself. Luckily, there are a number of things you can do to create room for each element, and make your mix sound harmonious and beautiful as a whole. In this episode I explain step by step how you can use a few different techniques to make all elements sound great fogether in your mixes. Also, if you stick around, I will show you how to prepare your mix perfectly for mastering, How To Mix Music is our essential guide to becoming a music mixing professional. With this, series I help explain and teach music mixing to you ~ musicians, producers, and aspiring mixing engineers. I share our years of experience and insight on music production, mixing and mastering. Covering the necessary preparations, tools, underlying physics and insider tips and tricks to achieve the perfect mix and master. nal-fundamental: cove profe setting yourself up to become a great engineer. We discussed monitoring, DAWs and plugins, composition, and stem preparing,‘The second episode (hitps://heroic academy/essential-guide-becoming-music-mixing. professional-part-2-signal-flow-plugins/) covers organizing your mixer, setting up your signal flow, and understanding the essential plugins (EQ, compressor, reverb, and delay). ‘The third episode (https.//heroic. academy /how-to-mix-music-mixine-euide-part-3/), covers how to improve your stereo image and make your mix sound wider, Also, we covered how to use the essential plugins to mix kicks and snares, the backbone of a song. The fourth episode (https://heroic,academy/how-to-mix-music-part-4-mixing-drums-mixing- bass/) covers how to mix drums and how to mix bass. We covered how to mix bass sounds, claps, percussions, toms, crashes and hi hats. ‘The fifth episode (https://heroic,academy/how-to-mix-music-part-5-mixing-instruments- synths!) covers mixing instruments and synths. We covered how to mix saw synths, lead synths, pluck synths, atmospheric synths, pianos, guitars, strings and horns. ‘The sixth episode (htps./heroic academy /how-to-mix-music-part-G-mixing-vacals-sound: effects/) covers mixing vocals and sound effects. We covered stereo placement, equalizing, compression and de-essing This episode we will gather all the knowledge of these previous episodes and explain how to ‘make your mix sound great as a whole. We cover side-chaining, levelling, delay and reverb.Contents [Show] Mixing the whole Ifyou’ ve followed this mixing series with us, you now know all the basics how to make the elements of your song sound good individually. It is time to discuss how to make these all sound good together in the mix. ‘There are 3 main objectives when finalizing your mix 1. All musical elements need to be clearly audible at every moment of the song, 2. The most important elements need to be the loudest. 3. The mix needs to sound good as a whole. When these 3 main objectives are achieved, the song is mixed properly as a whole. Piece of cake, right? After that, the final step of the mixing process is to prepare your mix for mastering, In order for you to achieve these 3 main objectives in all your mixes, we have to get a clear understanding of the following subjects:* Side-chaining * Levelling + Reverb * Delay How side-chaining works & how to use it Side-chaining works as follows. Say, you have 2 channels in your mixer, channel A (kick-ass kick) and channel B (gorgeous synth), You grab a plugin that reacts upon volume — like a compressor (remember (http://heroic- audio.com/essential-guide-becoming-musi iixing-professional-part-2-signal-flow-plugins/)? only when the volume goes over the threshold the compressor reacts) — and place it on channel B. Regularly, this compressor on channel B reacts upon the volume of the gorgeous synth which is playing on channel B, and thereupon changes the sound of the gorgeous synth With side-chaining however, we can let the plugin react upon the sound signal of a different channel.In other words, we can make the compressor on channel B react upon the volume of the kick- ass kick of channel A. This means that every time kick-ass kick of channel A is apparent, the gorgeous synth of channel B gets compressed based upon the volume of the kick-ass kick This is side-chaining. And in this case with the use of a compressor, it’s known as side-chain compression. How to use side-chain compression to enhance your drums and rhythm You know that head-banging flow in songs where the kick or snare just punches through the song and creates this rhythm? This is most of the time created (or enhanced) with side-chain compression, This “Tennis Court” remix by Flume is a good example of side-chain compression. Every time the kick and snare appear, the volume of the other elements is decreased, creating this head- banging rhythm and allowing the snare to come through clearly.Lorde - Tennis Court (Flume Remix) Iryou are mixing a song with drums, you most likely want the kick and pethaps the snare to cut through the mix clearly, Also, you might want these to create this kind of “head banging flow to the song, Here is how you set this up... You want all non-drum elements (instruments, synths, vocals, effects, ete.) to be side-chain compressed by the kick and the snare. Like we discussed in gpisode 2 (hitns://heroic academy/essential-guide-becoming.music mixing.professional-part-2-signal-flow-plugins/) you can set the output of all non-drum channels in your mixer to go to a side-chain bus.On this bus you add 2 compressors that have a side-chain functionality: one for the kick and one for the snare, Select the side-chain function on the compressor and select the kick. Set a hard knee and a ratio between 2:1 and 4:1. Use a short attack time so that the compressor reacts fast when the kick appears With the release you determine the time it takes for the sound to rise back to it’s regular volume after the kick sound has ended, You can play around with this to create different rhythm flows. The shorter the release time, the cleaner the sound, By moving the threshold down, the compressor attenuates the non-drums heavier. We often set the threshold to attenuate somewhere between 2dB and 12dB. This depends entirely on the song and your personal preference.Listen to what sounds best!Side-note: In this example I use the Fabfilter Pro C2, By selecting the side chain — ext mode you can set up the side-chaining, ‘To side-chain the non-drums by the snare, follow the exact same steps, but instead of selecting the kick as side-chain source, select the snare. Ghost Triggers: Altematively, “ghost triggers” can be used as side-chain sources, instead of triggering the compressor with the audio of, say, the kick itself. These triggers are lined up with the kick, so side-chain compression will still occur when the kick hits. They’re put on their own channel in the mixer, which is then muted or set to have no output. I's beneficial to use these triggers instead of the kick itself for clarity and contro! of the side-chaining, ‘The kick drum has an initial transient and a tail. If the kick drum itself is used as the side-chain source, the compressor will react to the whole length of the kick. Compression will continue if signal of the kick’s tail i still above the threshold. This is a problem, since we would like to have total control of the compression using the attack and release knobs. To solve this issue, ghost triggers are generally super short (only a few milliseconds). The side-chain compressor will react as normal to the transient, but without the tail we now have total control of how long that compression lasts with the release knob. We can eitherfine-tune the compression to clearly let the kick’s transient cut through the mix, or we can crank up the release like in Flume’s “Tennis Court” remix. How to level the volumes of all elements in your song When you're done mixing all separate elements, making them all sound great and (if applicable) setting up the side-chaining... it’s time to make sure all elements are in balance with each other, The most important elements of the song should be the loudest. These are often the kick, snare, vocal, and lead melody. Pro Tip: A great way to make sure you get the core of your levelling right, is by turning your listening volume all the way down until you can barely hear the music. If you can still hear the ‘most important elements (kick, snare, vocal, lead melody), you've levelled the core of your mix correctly. If you can't, recalibrate, Ifyou're mixing your own track, it’s generally a good idea to separate the production stage and the mix stage. When you're ready to start mixing, save your project as a new file, bring all channels down to — infinity dB, and start bringing them up one by one. It’s best to start with important elements like the kick and bass, and then mix the rest of your channels to the level of those.This will give you a fresh take at the balance of everything, and you will still have your previous mix saved in the other file if you want to go back and check anything. At the end of the day, the goal is to make sure that all elements are clearly audible at every moment in your song, which can get lost in the production stage of a track, If an element sounds too loud, you can simply bring its volume down, But what if you can’t clearly hear an element? That might be more tricky, How to level the volumes of all elements in your song? Follow this model:If you discover elements in your mix that don’t really matter, but are just “kinda there in the background”... remove them. ‘Seems logical right? But you wouldn't believe how many mixes I've worked on with redundant elements in them, like melodies or sound effects that were so soft you couldn't really hear them. When I asked the producers of the songs what the purpose was of these specific elements, they couldn’t really say, When I removed them, they didn’t even notice. I personally love this quote: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry All unnecessary elements in your mix will only clutter it, and detract focus from the elements that are important to the song. Increase its volume. ‘A good mix means that you can clearly hear every single element in your song,Ifyou can’t clearly hear the element, first try to bring it up in volume. Logically, when it is louder you should be able to hear it better, However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, increasing the volume of an element you can’t clearly hear unfortunately doesn’t solve the problem, nor makes it sound nicer overall, ‘This means that the clement is being masked. ‘What to do when one element masks another When the element is not clearly audible in your mix, this means that it has the same stereo placement and frequency range as another element. There are 3 great ways to fix this: 1. Place the elements differently in the stereo image. By panning cither the masking element or the unclear element differently in the stereo image, you might be able to create more room for the other element to be apparent. 2, Equalize the masking element differentlyUse a bell filter to decrease the volume of the masking element at the frequencies where the unclear element is most present. 3, Use side-chain compression on the masking element by the unclear element.‘This means that every time the unclear element is apparent, the masking element is decreased in volume and therefore making the unclear element more clearly audible. Set a compressor on the masking element with a hard knee, a 3:1 ratio and the attack and release as short as possible. There is no need to increase the output gain (or make-up gain). Select a side-chain function on your compressor and make sure the compressor only reacts to the signal of the unclear element. This way, the compressor attenuates the masking element every time the unclear element is apparent. Listen how much gain reduction sounds best. We often find that somewhere between 14B and 6dB gain reduction sounds best to bring out the unclear element in a natural way.What if none of these tricks work?If none of these 3 steps work, it’s time to rethink your production, Should both these elements be playing at the same time? On the same frequencies? It may help a lot to listen to similar professional tracks that you like, and use these as reference tracks Often you find that cach element has a well thought through purpose and a distinet place in the mixing space. Also, focus on the way their mix is balanced, to the way you have balanced your mix. Listen closely to the volume of the kick, the snare, the hi hats, the vocal, the bassline and compare that to your mix. When you have achieved the 3 main objectives when finalizing your mix. 1. All musical elements are clearly audible at every moment of the song. 2. The most important elements are the loudest. 3. The mix sounds good as a whole. you can focus on optimizing the sense of space with reverb and delay. How to set up your reverbs‘When everything is nicely designed in your mixing space, itis time to design the reverbs. We set up reverbs on busses, remember uusic-mixing-professional-part-2-sigual-flow-plugins/)? We've talked about a few different types of reverb to set up in your mix: * Drum reverb * Snare reverb * Main reverb Drum Reverb Drum reverb is reverb specifically designed for the drums in your mix. Drum reverb can often sound great on percussion, toms, hi hats and claps. We rarely use reverb on kicks. On your “Drum Reverb” bus, set up an equalizer and a reverb plugin, in that order. First, however, start with the settings of the reverb plugin. Set the plugin on 100% wet and 0% dry to make sure that the reverb bus only contains the reverb and not again the original sound, Many reverb plugins have preset spaces that are perfect for drum rooms. Examples are: drum room, small room, snare room and studio.For a drum reverb we aim for a small space that can give the drums just a little more body and a sense of depth. Make sure to set a short attack, mid-short decay and a short reverb length. Reverbs create the atmosphere of the mix and are often very stereo. It is therefore important to remove the unnecessary low frequencies of reverbs in order to prevent the entire mix from. sounding muddy.Set up a high-pass filter (low-cut filter) between 1S0Hz and 300Hz to remove these unnecessary frequencies. Listen to what sounds best. Snare ReverbFor snares you can design a specifically dedicated reverb, You want the snare to sound big and, impactful, yet not very spacy and echoey. Here is how you do it... Set up an equalizer, a reverb plugin, and a gate. Start with designing the reverb, Set it on 100% wet, 0% dry. Choose a big sounding reverb such as a hall reverb or a church reverb, Or design your own reverb from scratch by using a long reverb length, a short attack and a long decay.‘This will sound really muddy and spacey, but don’t worry we will fix that with the equalizer and gate Remove all unnecessary low frequencies with a high-pass filter in the equalizer. This is often somewhere between 100Hz and 400Hz.You also have the freedom to play around with boosting and cutting frequencies to change the sound here. For instance, boost the high frequencies to get a crisper reverb, or boost the mid frequencies to get a more roomy reverb. This will remove the muddy sound of the snare reverb. Now it is ¢ to shape the reverb to fit more tightly with the snare, Last in this signal flow is the gate, We use the sound of the original snare to trigger this gate. How? Yup, side-chaining! We use the sound of the snare as a trigger to determine the length and shape of the reverb ina more drastic way than is possible when designing the reverb in the plugin. Set the side-chaining input of the gate to be the snare, Set the attack and hold as short as possible (often Oms). Set the release somewhere between 200ms and 1000ms. Bring the threshold all the way up to OdB, and then slowly bring it down until you can hear the reverb clearly,Play with the release time to make the reverb longer or shorter and find the best sound. Main Reverb Set up an equalizer and a reverb plugin. For the main reverb it sounds often best to use a big space. Option examples that many reverb plugins provide are: Hall reverbs or Church reverbs. Set the reverb on 100% wet, 0% dry. It often sounds best to set a reverb length of around 2 to 6 seconds, and set a long decay time.Use a high-pass filter on the equalizer to remove any unnecessary low frequencies. It often sounds good to set this up somewhere between 200Hz and S00Hz. In order to have crisp elements with high frequencies in your mix, it works great to save space for them by removing high frequencies from the main reverb. a low-pass filter at around 10kHz to achieve this.Side-note: Remember that if you use side-chain compression in your mix for the kick or snare, you route the output of your reverb busses to the side-chain bus. This way the the kick or snare cut through the reverb nicely. How to set up cool delay effects ‘You can use a delay as a cool effect on sounds, We've talked about this more in depth carlis flow-plugins/) Since delays are such creative effects, you can try many different things. Use ping-pong delays to create interesting stereo effects, or try slap-back delays to get interesting echo effects. Since delays often tend to go wide in the stereo field, itis important that these don’t clutter the ‘mix or make it sound muddy. Make therefore sure to always set up an equalizer on your delay buses. Set a high-pass filter to remove all unnecessary frequencies. The settings for this very much depend on the sound of the elements and the rest of the mix. This concludes our How To Mix Music series!If you have followed this series from beginning to end, you now understand the main tools and techniques of mixing. Next? We'll go more in-depth on specific techniques, mixing and mastering tips, and all the advanced stuff to bring your music to the next level. ‘Would love to hear any thought you might have on the article (or the free download) in a comment below © ALSO ON HEROIC ACADEMY Spotify Marketing Winning at YouTube Strategy The Power of years agp 8 comm: 4 years ago 9 commen Want to grow your Spotify YouTube Musie Promotion plays? Ths sour step-by- Channels are incredibly sep Spotify marketing fective in helping your Featured Comment ‘Tim van Doorme Mod 4 year ago The Indie Musician's Guide To Digital ayeats aga +1 comm This sa comprehensive suide on how to ehoose the Fight distribution to push “Thanks so much for reading, would lave to hear your thoughts on the article! Also happy to answer any questions you might have :) How To Innova (And Change! ayearsago +7 crm Tan era where ever can do anything, onl truly change the wo48Comments Heroic Academy —@ Disqus’ Privacy Policy @ Login O Recommend & Sortby Best Join the discussion... Loc wert onsiex vr wrritpisaus John Graham - 3 years sto ‘This series was the answer to my mixing problems! I just want to say that spent the last week going ‘through all seven of the “How to Mix Music” articles and downloaded the free “cheat sheet along with this series, I've been mixing musie in my home studio fortwo years and could never ‘understand why my mixes were muddy, lacked clarity, presence, and punch compared to professional ‘mixes. Your guide really cut tothe chase and gave specific examples ofthe stating settings for my mixing ‘tools in a common sense way. The main “breakthrough” for me was your explanation ofthe "Mixing ‘Space” and the placement of musical elements and recorded instruments in that space. It really cleared ‘things up for me and I've just completed a remix of one of my tracks that is an order of magnitude better ‘than anything Ive ever done, Thank you so much for making this information available! AALS + Reply = that come Joey Tuholski > John Geabum + year ag2 Really glad it was helpful, John A |S = Reply = [Nate yeas ago ‘Thats it 'm buying the mastering bible you son of a gun. I typically don't like spending money on books, or even like reading for that matter but this is some straight forward, useful information. Thanks Tim! aA Ys Reply =‘Tim van Doorme Mod Nate + 4yearsag9 Haba you're weleome Nate. Hope youl enjoy the book! ALY = Reply « (Chris Schwartze > Nste-ayesrs ego Haba, you made my day. ALS + Reply = José Antoni +4 year ago Thanks Tim! I've been waiting for this article with open arms! I bought your Mastering ebook three ‘months ago but I needed to complete the Mix section with your free articles. I've read lot of books but nothing as simple and effective as your articles, You ust get tothe heart of the matter. 1Tve been missing in this article the average (or peak) volume levels between the diferent instruments of the mix (how much db the kick must have over the rest ofthe mix, how much db the drums must have ‘over the rest of mix, how much db the bass must have over the rest of the mix.) [Tknow each song is different from another but there are standard tips to know that. The new producers ‘main problem is, once you've ended the mix, iFkick is loud enough, ithe bass is too loud, ifthe synths are too low,.. usually that’s got tin comparison with commercial track. Ive learned to get it with peak/rms plugins but I stil recognise that comparison is the best tool Another questions: you suggest us to use at eat 3 kinds of reverbs (main, drums, snare. Ifyou use other erative reverbs do you setup as Sens or put onthe same channel than the instrument? The main question for delays 3) ‘Thanks again, and sorry for my english! BAL Y= Reply = ‘Tim van Doorne oi A Jon Antoni yea ago “Thanks for the kinds words José. Also great input on improving the article. ‘To answer your question on creative reverb and delay, this really depends on what you want todo. Ifyou want an original sound to "disappear" in a reverb or delay effec, you want to install this on ‘the channel of the instrument itself so that you can play with they dry/wet effect. Ifyou would do ‘this on a bus you would always have the original (dry) channel playing as well Hope this helps a litle.ALY © Reply © Angelo Siex + 4years ago thank you very much Tim, Iv skimmed through the article and picked up very powerful tips for mixing, 2A) Ys Reply = “Tim van Doorne io # Angel See 4 years agp Appreciate it Angelo :) ALY Reply « ‘Monsoon City + yea ago ‘This series is hands-down the most concise and clear explanation of mixing electronie musi I've ever been presented with. I can't wait to start patting these tips to use. Been making music for about 7 years now and am still not happy with my mixes, hopefully the advice in this series is all I needed get me going down the right path. Thanks for making this series! 1A |v + Reply « Joey Tuholski > Monsoon City 3 years ago ‘So glad to hear it! ALS + Reply Ostarine Music. 9 years ago {Tm very interested in the mastering bible where you state that you don't use a final limit instead rely om the DAWs. Could you do a tutorial on how to do this in ableton as faras final master levels before export and export settings with no limiter? Or maybe explain a little more? PALS = Reply = Joey Tuholski > Osarine Mic 3 years apo Hey Ostarine. The Mastering Bible is freaking awesome. The book is great, but the videos where ‘Tim walks you through everything is a must have. Saying this as a customer. have re-watched his videos multiple times. Just mastered my own track yesterday and it's an amazing feeling to have something so quality, done myself Anyway, short answer is you don't need to throw a limiter on the premaster. Once you export the premaster (Ido tin Logie), the DAW automatically limits atthe 0 db ceiling. Should be the same in Ableton, but can't say from experience,ALY « Reply « Sean Ferres: 4 yeas ago Great stuff as always, super useful info :) Would love to hear your thoughts in the next article about achieving mono compatibility so that my tracks sound consistent and powerful when played in a club as wel in stereo BAY + Reply ‘These were amazing to read and very insightful. Definitely going to buy the mastering bible after practicing more with these techniques! 1A |v « Reply « Joey Tuholski > Matt Jess 4 yee ag Awesome Matt. I's worth it ALY + Reply «| Arman sa nonth ago Panning to add clarity to a mix? Himmm when you listen in mono that clarity needs to be there too ALY = Reply «| ‘Great material! Where can Tfind these mentioned PDEs? ALY = Reply» joshua chisanga + ayearego ‘Am speceh less ALY = Reply + [Neel Erickson os josh chisanga year ago Rock on, glad you're finding the article helpful! ALY = Reply = Joshua chisanga -yearago ‘As a babe in mixing, just fe! like a massive door has been opened for me.A) Y= Reply «| [Neel Erickson os josh hisanga*ayearago Awesome, happy to help Joshua!! ALY + Reply Nosoai ayearago Isit needed to compress instruments from a plugin ? For instance, I use Nexus for my guitar, strings and. leads, Do I need to compress them ? Second question : what does the stereo separation knob ? A) Y= Reply «| Neel Hrickson dict Nosed + ayearagy ‘Thanks for the question Nosodi! “The answer depends on the sound and what the ret of your mix requires, to be honest. Some preset sounds are great as-is; theyll ft within your mix nicely without the need for aggressive EQ ‘or compression, However, there are also plenty of presets that absolutely need outside processing ‘such as compression. Your best bets to use your ears and compare your sounds against a reference track -if your leads/guitars/strings have aggressive attacks and not enough of a tail end in comparison to to your reference, then you may still ned some compression, ALS + Reply = Ravinderjit Singh «2 yea ago Hio sir, ve a question. In these episodes, you often say that place this sound in "stereo field”, what your mean by that? Are you saying to pani left/right or use stereo imager plugin? ‘Thanx in advance! This series helping me alot. 2s AY = Reply « Neel Erickson ios 4 Ravindeit Singh «a years ago Good question, and glad these have helped yo ‘When we refer to the "stereo field", we're refering to the overall horizontal perception of the ‘sound. From this perspective, we can deseribe sounds by how narrow wide they are, and wheretheylie onthe horizontal xi et/rght/cente) Pacing element propersin the stereo ld imoles a combination ofboth panning and imaging you can achieve the narrowness wideness of sound witha stereo imager plugin and you can property postion i with panning In short, we're saying to consider both 3) ALY «Reply « ‘Wayne De Villers «a yen ago ‘When it comes to the side chain busses, I see we are running two sidechain busses. One forthe kick and, ‘one forthe snare, but then the way I sei, I would run most ofthe elements or stems through the Kick sidechain buss. what do you use the snare sdeheian buss oft. Mainly running the reverb snare buss through the sidechain reverb buss? ALY = Reply = Neel riekson tou A Wayne De Viliers 3 years agp In allot of modern productions, the kick and snare are responsible for the backbone of the beat, so it’s good practice to make sure they're both clearly audible and punch through the track. The amount of sidechain compression you do from the snare is going to vary based on the type of ‘music you're creating and how much of a focus you want the snare itself to be ALY + Reply = ‘Wayne De Villers «3 ears ago Hi Tim. Thanks forthe great guides. My first question would be: When you are inthe production stage of the song, are you really only creating the song, arranging it, but not really sing any fx, compressors and s0 on, When you move into the mixing stage is this the best place to start adding fx to keep the process less complicated? ALY = Reply = [Neel Erickson od Wayne De ies «3 ours ago Hey Wayne, the answer to your question is largely preference, Personally, I've found suceess in adding major FX and tonal processing (anything that will significant alter the tonality and character of the sound, such asa heavy chorus) inthe production phase, but then saving any fine ‘tuning and mixing-specife processing (such as fine compression) for the dedicated mixing stage. However, plenty of successful producers approach it differently (I know a few who do most oftheir mixing as they produce as well, and that works for them); tryt both ways and see which you prefer!soy es wepyy + ‘ryan Pegues + ayearsago Hey Tim, this series was incredible useful. Have you put together a PDF (for the downloads) as of yet?? 1 hhave subscribed multiple times and have a few produets from you guys, but Tam unable vo download any content from this series. think these cheat sheets would be awesome! Thankyou, Bryan ALY = Reply © ‘Tim van Doorne oi Boyan Pogues 3 years go Happy to hear that Bryan, thanks for sharing! Well take a look at what's going wrong with the PDFs) ALY + Reply = Bryan Pegues Tim van Door yeareago ited ‘Thanks Tim! You're awesome man, keep up the great work my man! ALY Reply = (Chase Vranish -syearsago Is there any way to side-chain the bass, synths, ete. just when the kick or snare hits? Using the ‘compressor plug-in Logie compresses the sounds the entire song and ruins the dynamies. im not sure if there's a compressor that side-chains better, orif'm doing it wrong some how. ALY © Reply = Neel Brickson io! A Chase Vraish «year ago Hey Chase - absolutely! Check to make sure you have ‘sidechain’ enabled on your compressor it sounds like it’s currently just functioning asa standard compressor (and nota sidechain compressor). ALS «Reply = Sanmi a yearseg0 Please Tneed a lot of help. I want huge low end, But I mixes are not loud enough after export. 1 decided to drop everything from 20bz to 600k by 6db, Tve achieved loudness but my low end lacks ‘power. Pls how isthe proper way to do it.Griffin Brown 4 Sanmi+ yea age ‘Thanks for the question Sanmi. Low end takes up the most headroom in your mix, and wil it the final limiter on your master channel the hardest. This causes your limiter to compress hard, and can actually make the mix sound quieter. So you have the right idea lowering your low end, Ijust ‘wouldn't suggest doing this on the master. You should just mix low-end sounds like your bass and kick quieter in the mix, and the limiter wil bring everyting up. Also, alot of what makes a track's low end sound "huge" is having that low end be uncluttered, Low end power comes from having a CLEAR low end, not a loud one. You'll achieve that power by naking space for you kick and bass and making sure the Iwo don't get in each other's way. ALS + Reply Alex 4 years First ofall bought the mastering bible, its amazing! Secondly, in an earlier article you recommended the Sennheiser HD 600s for your mastering, and since I dont have great monitors/treament it seems a great ‘dea, How exactly are you powering your Sennheister HD 600s..? Through the audio interface itself, or do you use an external headphone amplifier. It would mean the world if you can also tell me the products se for the audio interface / amplifier. Im looking to get a similar setup, Thanks :) -Alex ALY Reply + ‘Tim van Doorme oi A Alex 4 yee age | just plug tin my laptop. Loud enough, no stress.) ALY + Reply = Jakub Laca +4 years ago Very goad tips again! Please fix ast picture. Itis not showing on all my devices, all my browsers. Thanks. ALY = Reply + Joey Tuholski- Sku Lava -4yeersago @Chris Schwartze ALS + Reply =Matt > Joey Tubal = 9 years ago Please fx the last picture AM Reply «| Joey Tubolski > Matt yea ago Sorry about that! Working on it We have alot of web dev tasks at the moment :) AY» Reply © Taroko «¢yearsage HV Tim, thanks so much for doing this, All of the information has been really helpful ‘Tam curious to know what you think about parallel compression or NY style compression? And whether ‘or not you do it on a bus / send? ALS» Reply © ‘Tim van Doorne io PTacoho- yeas ago eed Happy to hear that! I personally never really understood why one would add a compressed layer of the same clement(s) to the mix. Ifsomething doesnt sound to my liking, I prefer going back to the core and changing the sound itself. For example, some might add NY/paralel compression to create fatter sounding drums, I would instead either change the samples or adjust them with an EQ and maybe a reverb and a gate. Maybe this technique was more useful inthe old days when everything was hardware and there was limited space on the mixing panel, ALY « Reply « Ostarine Music 4 years ago Great article! So helpful. In the section around "main reverb, Is this reverb on the master channel? A send bus? Is it intended for all of the other elements of the mix such as synths, voeas, ete. Or i the intent oft to put a gloss on the whole track? Could you explain its utility a litte bit more? Thank you forthe clarification, Really appreciate this content. ALY = Reply «| ‘Tim van Doorne os A Ostarine Msi 4years ago ‘The main reverb would bet set up on a bus. explain the setup here: btps:/heroie-academy/esse,..and here: https://heroie.academy/how- ALY + Reply =Tim van Doorne Moi 4yeare ago "P Feature by Here Academy ‘Thanks so much for reading, would love to hear your thoughts on the article! Also happy to answer any questions you might have :) Dsurecive O asd visgusto yoursiteAda Dingunddd AA Do Not Selly Data a . a (hitps://www facebook com/heroicacademy/)(https://twitter,comvheroicacademy)(https:/Awww.instagram,com/h