Dellex Mixing

15/09/2022

Checklist – Make your songs ready for the mixing.

☑️ Finish your song.

It sounds simple, but it is the most important step. At this point, your song should have a clear structure, a finished arrangement, and your best performance. Don’t think that your mixing engineer will fix everything for you. You also don’t want to tell your mixing engineer that you have decided to re-record drums with all vocals at the middle of the road, because in this case your mixer will have to re-mix almost the entire song and will charge you twice as much. Sounds harsh! Well… Your mixer will spend twice as much time on your song, so why should he or she do it for free?

☑️ Turn off all effects and processing before you bounce verything.

Yes, turn off (bypass is a different thing). A simple bypass isn’t enough, because some plugins still affect the signal and add latency even when they are bypassed. If your processing is crucial for sound design and absolutely unique, then you can bounce two versions: a dry version (without processing) and a wet version (with all your processing), so the mixing engineer could have all the control.

☑️ Bounce everything right.

You should locate the very beginning of your session and the very end of your song in your DAW with locators or markers, then export all tracks. That practice ensures all your tracks begin from (0:00) and remain lined up after importing them into your engineer’s DAW. In addition, a good practice is to include a few empty bars at the very end of your song in case you decide to leave your reverbs and delays on.

☑️ Sample Rate, Bit Depth and Normalization.

Set the same sample rate of your project in the export window. You don’t need to set a higher sample rate, just leave it as in your project and bounce your tracks. I suggest using 32 bit floating point bit depth. You can still use 24 bit, but in that case, you need to check that there is no clipping on your channels! Forget about normalization. You don’t need to normalize your tracks, because It is useless and adds extra headache but no extra quality.

☑️ Make a Demo.

Yes, it is still a good idea to send a demo version to your mixing engineer. Just don’t forget to put a limiter on your master bus to prevent clipping. I also suggest that you remove the demo from your playlist. Why? If you don’t, you will get demo addicted.

14/09/2022

14/09/2022

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14/09/2022

Is it only about Mixing? What happens after you have sent your files to the mixer?

Many people think the mixer will import all files into the project, push that play button and mix your song. Sounds simple! The truth is that it never happens like this… I will write about how it usually goes:

1) All tracks are in the DAW, and the raw balance is set. It is time to check everything. It often happens that the artists or the producer forgot to check individual tracks for clipping, some tracks may have a strange offset and some tracks were printed with all effects. I had a case when the artist has sent a demo and files of different songs. It is crucial to check everything and let the producer or the artist know if something is incorrect.

2) Audio editing. I want to say that 99 of 100 songs will go through audio editing. Especially vocals and live drums. No matter how good is the performance or the recording by itself, there always will be some audio artifacts like pops, mouth clicks, hiss, noise, loud breaths, etc. It is always better to get rid of these things before the actual mixing. Why? Because I don’t want to be distracted while mixing, since I want to be completely focused on the emotional part of the song. Some people may say that these audio artifacts will hide in a busy mix and you won't hear them. This is absolutely wrong. To get that industry sound, we need to compress and saturate everything quite a lot. As the result, these artifacts will become 10 times louder and after mastering they will cut pretty damn well through the mix. You won't be able to ignore them anymore. Therefore, it is important to get rid of them at the early stages.

3) Tune and Quantization. The same applies here for vocals and drums. Sometimes it is just a touch of the Melodyne, sometimes Auto-Tune and sometimes it is a nightmare. I want to say that it is not possible to fix everything, so don’t rely on the Melodyne (or similar tool) too much. A brilliant performance is a brilliant performance and a touch of tune and quantization will add an extra 5 to 15%. A poor performance will stay poor even after the most hardcore editing.

4) Alright, everything is set and almost ready to go. But… As a mixing engineer, I know what I can do with a sound and sometimes I listen to the mix and understand that the snare or the kick drum is just too weak for this song. The same applies for bass, guitars, keys, etc. Usually, I will replace or blend original samples with my own samples to get that desired sound. Sometimes I will record guitars and VSTi instruments to complement the arrangement.

5) At this point, I will create group tracks, color-code and route everything in my mixing template.

Now, it is time to push that play button and mix!

14/09/2022

Auto-Tune.

It doesn't matter either you love it or hate it. Auto-tune effect is a part of the industry and the culture. It is a signature sound for many artists.

What auto-tune plugin do you prefer to use and why?

Leave a comment 💬.

14/09/2022

Demo addiction 🤔

Let’s talk about demo versions and how they can harm our perception…

I will describe a few common scenarios:

1) Music producer or an artist wants to mix his own music. It seems logical because you know your songs to bare bones. Also, there are no deadlines, no pressure and you can spend as much time as you want on the mix. Sound like an absolute win! What happens next is that after months of hardcore mixing and hundreds of checks, you feel like it sounds kinda close, but it is still not there yet. Let's hire a professional mixing engineer to add a final touch, because all the heavy lifting is already done. You send it to the mixer and in a few days you receive a mix that sounds absolutely different from what you did. What the hell! It sounds horrible. What have done to my song? I want to point that the mixer did an excellent job, but instead of compliments, he or she gets complaints. Why? It is because of the demo addiction. We get used to a particular sound pretty quick and if we listen to something for a month or more, then it feels kinda right. The problem is that it feels right only to you, but not to your mixer and not to your audience. Sometimes, it is very hard to get back that neutral perspective, because it may take a week without a single listen to your demo. Probably you will try to force your mixer to make a version which is like your bad demo and as a result you get a not very great sounding mix and potentially that decision will destroy your song. My advice is to leave the mixing for the mixer. It is simple! If you're the artist, then be the artist. If you're the music producer, then be the music producer. If you're not a mixer, you're not a mixer...

2) Some artists and music producers think that every song they do should be an absolute masterpiece at every aspect. Time doesn’t matter, so let’s spend a year on the song production. Why a year? Usually it looks like this… You push play in your DAW and listen to your 8 bars loop, after 5 minutes you decide to add +1db to your kick drum, then after 10 minutes you decide to add -0.5db to your kick drum, another 15 minutes and it feels right to add +1db high shelf to your hi-Hat. Maybe it is time to extend the track, so let’s duplicate that 8 bar loop a few times. You listen again for about 10 minutes and… you get the idea) As the result, you are trapped within your demo and you will never finish it. You got so used to the sound that you cannot produce new decent ideas. If this is about you, then I strongly suggest that you learn how to work efficiently and how to finish your songs. This is the only way to improve. As you move forward, you become better and suddenly your previous song is not your absolute best masterpiece, because the new one is way better!

3) You have finished your new track, and it feels really good. Indeed, such a great feeling when you did a great job and your new song has the potential to be your next hit-record! What happens next is that you keep listen to the demo over and over again just to be sure that it is still as dope as it was a few days ago. Later on, you decide to add or record a couple of new things to make your masterpiece even better. You spend a few days and the only thing you add is one extra crash sound. Meanwhile, that demo addiction keeps building inside you after each repetition, but you still want to add a bit of sheen to your song. You already get that logic... I understand that feeling, because sometimes it is really hard to stop, but you need to learn when to stop. There always will be something to improve, no matter how good is your song, but it doesn't mean that it needs that. If it feels right, then it is right. Boom, it is done! Move to the next one.

Do you have a demo addiction?

leave a comment 💬.

14/09/2022

My go-to plugins for the Mastering.

1. P42 Climax by Pulsar Modular.

My favorite saturation plugin for the master bus. It is an absolute beast of saturation! It just makes everything sound better. If you are not familiar with this tool, I recommend checking their website.

2. Pro-MD by FabFilter

My go-to Multiband. Fast to set and extremely versatile multi-band with all features you may need. I want to say that all products from FabFilter are amazing!

3. Pulsar Massive by Pulsar Audio

Pulsar Massive is an emulation of the Manley Massive Passive EQ. It is fat and broad. This is how I can describe the sound.

4. TDR Limiter 6 by Tokyo Dawn

Pro mastering toolkit with six modules makes it my favorite dynamic processor. I will briefly mention this tool can reshape your sound and curve in some real groove into your song. In addition, you can just add a little touch to your mix and you still feel it.

5. Limitless by DMG Audio

This is a two-stage multi-band/full-band limiter with a build-in clipper module. I don’t know any other limiter that offers so many settings to dive in. It seems too complex, but once you know it, you won't come back to any other limiter.

What plugins do you prefer on the master bus?

Leave a comment 💬.

14/09/2022

The truth about Mastering. It is time to accept it…

1. Mastering is very complex.

Mastering is much more complex than you may think. Unfortunately, there are tons of scams like online mastering software, bulletproofed plugin chains and “Easy Mastering Tutorials”. People who try these tools and tips always wonder why their music still sounds weak and amateurishly… Therefore, mastering engineers still have their jobs.

2. True Peaks is BS.

Another mystery… Plugins manufactures, streaming services and youtubers claim you should watch for True Peaks, because otherwise your songs will sound like crap. Wait… What? If you check big artist’s tracks from Coldplay, RHCP, Drake, Adele, Rihanna, etc., you will see 1bd, 2db and even 3db of “True Peaks Clipping”. Why? I don’t think mastering engineers are newbies and don’t understand what they are doing. It is actually the opposite! They know about True Peaks and they don’t care, because True Peaks show potential value, but not a real one. Almost 99% of your audience will listen to music on consumer audio systems. These systems will add distortion and clipping, no matter what. So why we should sacrifice 1 or 2 db on the master bus for the sake of True Peaks value? Don't do it. Your simple peak meter is your best friend and -0.3db headroom on is more than enough.

3. Loudness war is over and loudness has won.

That’s it! You may refer to streaming service guides for mastering like -14 LUFS from Spotify, but this is BS. Once again, if you check big artist’s tracks from Coldplay, RHCP, Drake, Adele, Rihanna, etc., you will see -5 to -8 LUFS. Even with Spotify loudness normalization on, all tracks mastered at -14 LUFS sound less powerful than tracks mastered at a higher level. Why? Perceived loudness is not only about LUFS measurements, it is much more complex. Also, our ears are used to a very dense and compressed sound. It doesn’t mean that you should slam your limiters on the master bus and beat all the s**t out of your songs. No. It means that loud and dense sound is an industry standard and people have accepted that. If you want to sound similar, then you should take it into account.

4. It is not perfect.

No matter how good is mastered your song, it is not possible to make it sound perfect everywhere. One goal on the mastering stage is to optimize your song for the vast majority of audio equipment and enviroment. I mean earbuds, headphones, venues, clubs, cars, speakers, smartphones and more… Also, consider that all manufactures produce equipment with absolutely different audio characteristics. How is that possible to make one version of a song that sound gold everywhere? It is not possible… Although mastering engineers and mixing engineers follow some of the best practices to make it sound good and balanced on the variety of audio systems, nothing is perfect in this world.

5. Mastering won’t fix a poorly mixed song.

That’s the easy one to accept. Mastering is the final stage of the music production. At this point, it is not possible to fix arrangement, performance, sound design, and, of course, poorly mixed tracks. Don’t expect magic from the mastering engineer if you didn’t treat well your song at early stages.