If you nail the MIDRANGE, you nail the MIX
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- čas přidán 14. 11. 2022
- Focus your time and energy on the midrange - and get mixes that translate outside of the studio EVERY TIME.
☛ Learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes with my FREE Mixing Cheatsheet: mixcheatsheet.com
Watch This Next: 17 Noob Mixing Mistakes to Avoid • 17 Noob Mixing MISTAKE...
Music I’ve Worked On: open.spotify.com/playlist/6I7...
Website: hardcoremusicstudio.com
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MY FAVORITE GEAR:
Computer / Interface:
Mac M1 Studio Max sweetwater.sjv.io/anOMOo
Avid Carbon sweetwater.sjv.io/ZQ6M6g
Apogee Duet 3 sweetwater.sjv.io/y2qXqb
Monitors / Headphones:
Avantone CLA-10a sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyMyZ
Audio Technica ATH-M50 sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMON
Microphones:
Shure SM57 sweetwater.sjv.io/daOMy7
AKG D112 sweetwater.sjv.io/Kj0MBy
Sennheiser e604 sweetwater.sjv.io/DKyvWa
Shure SM7b sweetwater.sjv.io/5g5vk3
AKG C451b sweetwater.sjv.io/jre9Rv
Shure SM81 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LnD
Audio Technica AT4050 sweetwater.sjv.io/JzKMqr
Preamps/Outboard:
API 3124 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LRD
EL8 Distressor sweetwater.sjv.io/XYmMd4
Favorite Plugins:
BSA Clipper blacksaltaudio.com/clipper
Escalator blacksaltaudio.com/escalator
Low Control blacksaltaudio.com/low-control
Waves SSL Bundle waves.alzt.net/dMd4q
Waves CLA Compressors waves.alzt.net/0va0P
Waves Platinum waves.alzt.net/jxz2M
Slate Trigger 2 sweetwater.sjv.io/MmAM53
SoundToys Rack sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyd
Auto-tune Pro sweetwater.sjv.io/OreMYr
Vocalign Project sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyA
Cranesong Phoenix II sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMrz
Instruments / Amps:
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare sweetwater.sjv.io/1r9vDR
Gibson Les Paul sweetwater.sjv.io/B0nvz1
Evertune Guitars sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyM6P
Fender Jazz Bass sweetwater.sjv.io/nLX5R6
Sansamp Bass Driver DI sweetwater.sjv.io/OreM9Q
EVH 5150 sweetwater.sjv.io/4PGvr9
Mesa 2x12 cab sweetwater.sjv.io/75avGA - Hudba
My trick is making music no one listens too therefore I don’t have to worry about the mix translating outside of my room. 👍
Finally solid bulletproof advice, thanks
zo real and trve
Hehe. Exactly my strategy.😂
😂
This hits on a personal level.
That's why I completely eliminate all frequencies below 200 hz and above 202 hz on the master, so you only hear 201 hz the whole time. That's where the magic is.
No you would be hearing 200, 201, and 202 lol
@@maserati4285 and 200.5, 101.5, 200.25... frequency is a continuous scale
bro what
@@calebrobinson3105 there's such thing as 201.5 Hz. You can have pi Hz. It's a continuous scale, not just whole numbers
Bro out here playing 5d chess while the rest of us play checkers
The most strange thing is that in Photography the midtones - midrange again is the magic and everything... :) I do Landscape photography and i am music composer,i have found alot in common in those 2 different arts.
could you describe that more, the importance of midtones in photography ?
@@yoe91 Yes...i do landscape photography since 7-8 years...i tried so many many different post processing tips,and i can tell you that having powerful and good contrast in the midtones only,makes you photos look simply outstanding !Crushing the contrast in general is not the best thing,but working only in the midtones is the key,thats my opinion.
I like to mix in such low volume to make everything sound big and huge and powerful and deliver the message.
In photography and video color grading, I take the overall size of my video to a small window and color grade to where if I can see everything very small, the details shine greatly in a big window size.
@@dennisbrown5654 that's actually very intelligent
YES! i found a lot of similarities in those two
This is one of the most practical and helpful mix videos I've ever seen. Makes SO MUCH sense. I just did a remix, filtering out the highs and lows and reworked it until it sounded respectable within the incomplete freq. range. (150 - 8000) I then added back the bottom and top, did 30 seconds worth of fine-tuning, and was impressed at the jump in professionalism. My recordings have always lacked the warmth and richness of recordings I respect. This could be my breakthrough. Many thanks! (Halifax NS Canada)
Hi Scott,
Did you had any success with this method. I tried this method recently. Hope results are satisfactory. what about your experience? Please share some.
You don't need NS10s, just throw a midrange bandpass on the master bus from like 200Hz-5kHz on any set of monitors and you're good to go. Colt did this video a year ago, chances are it's the first related video link in the sidebar right over there -->
It is indeed.
Exactly - they are great for transients and checking compression , but there are far better mix speakers out there these days
*Theoretically that's true, but you'd still need to have real engineering knowledge to know how to artificially boost the midrange for that purpose. Most people will just boost in the way which makes it sound the best, instead of purposely boosting the mid frequencies in the exact problematic way which mainly needs to be compensated for. It's almost a paradox, by the time you have that much knowledge, you don't need thousands of dollars worth of monitors, and if you aren't that skilled, you're not coming close to maximizing their potential, thus wasting lots of money.*
@@FatalBlow113 You don't artificially boost anything. You just cut lows and highs w/ a high and low pass filter. If you don't know what a H/LPF does, you have no business mixing music.
@@PaulEubanks *I see, I was getting nervous thinking how many people will try to boost their mids just to mix them lol, but adding a H/L pass to only leave the mids,, I definitely agree with more.*
I've been trying to tell my producer friends about nailing that 200-2000 range for years now. I saw a country producer mention it on here and he even put a bandpass on his master and adjusted levels accordingly to being able to hear everything just in that range and, I tried it, and wow. I've even started to do sound design that way, and only modulated or boosted/attenuated frequencies in that range and it works spectacularly. For example if you're hearing your song in a department store, you're only going to hear that range I mentioned. He also said that the lows and highs will almost mystically align and balance themselves if you nail that midrange freq range I mentioned.
Dude. My mixes were sounding super hollow for months. This little bit of advice saved my mixes. Spend less time on the lows and highs and "Nail The Midrange" What a difference!
I agree 100%. It has taken me 30 years of mixing on pro equipment to realize just what you are saying. A studio I was working in had a powerful sub woofer system and while mixes sounded huge in the studio clients constantly came back asking for another mix because the mix did not didn't sound like what they heard in the studio. It also caused the high end to be over-powering in the mix just to get over all that low end leaving a huge donut in the mids. Thanks for this video. I hope it helps others get better overall mixes.
Right. Especially with modern music (post 70's) it's all about presence, instruments being right in your face. And as we discover, it isn't at all the soft shimmer of the 10-16K, or even the aggressiveness of the 3-6K that achieve that. It's all about that part above the low mids, and below the aggressive range 3-6K. That's where the thick of the instruments lives.
I’ve discovered this over time, through just constantly messing around I noticed that if I got the mid range right then the mix would sound absolutely banging in the car, on my phone, on Alexa or but more importantly other people would say it sounds banging and I know they are all using various different devices or equipment to listen to what I’m sending them.
This video is highly informative but from a personal perspective it’s helped to re-affirm that I’m on the right path in terms of final output, I’m busting a gut to keep improving my tracks, which have started getting plays at festivals, nightclubs and on radio this year.
For those new to producing and/or mixing, take note of this video as it’s spot on.
Get the mid range right and the rest will fall into place!
This is the piece of advice I was looking for for about 3 years but I haven't started paying more attention to my mids and realizing that most industry tracks are not heavy in the low end at all
“The bigger the monitors, the smaller the mix” - Jono Grant
Never heard that... Great quote
For me it was the same thing, I didn't change speakers, I just had to learn to focus more in the midrange, and yes from then on my mixes translates very well in most speakers.
I've been slowly getting my mixing chops together and you just re-enforced so many points I've been coming across in less than 5 minutes. Thanks! Subscribed!
Dude this blew my mind and helped all of my mixes because like you said, I was always chasing the low ends for boom and boosting high end for more clarity not realizing clarity come from the low-mid and mids, just applied it to my mixes and the changes were drastic and more what i was looking for
Thanks a million for putting this video together, Jordan. I often think about what the consumer (listener) actually needs in an end product, but get riddled with self-doubt wondering if the bass is hitting hard enough, if there is enough 'air' - etc, so it's great to hear an experienced voice reiterating where the focus of a mix should actually be.
This video is the best thing I’ve heard about mixing in awhile you’re right....I had this revaluation a few years ago....the mid range is everything.... and everything you said about your ns10s is the exact same thing that happened to me.... When I got a pair of ns10 I really understood why they’re used to mix on and my mixes changed dramatically..... i also love auratone 5cs for this same reason.... I have both and they changed my life 👍
My first monitors were NS10s. There is no compromise with those guys, if you manage to learn to listen to NS10, that harsh, raspy mess they throw in your face, you are good to go. I am SO happy I got to learn to mix on these as nothing ever felt as hard as getting leveled mix on NS 10s. Even after many years, when i scaled my studio from a small room to a dedicated place and acoustically sorted it out, got nice Adams, then Focals, NS10 were there as a second pair of monitors. Blew them away, then was lucky enough to get another pair fairly recently.
I have worked on recording, mixing and mastering home/friend projects for the last 15 years with varying degrees of success. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate all of your no BS advice and pro tips. Sometimes the work can be very overwhelming and the results discouraging - your channel has provided a lot of new found hope. Thanks!!!
Tried mixing in the midrange - and it really worked! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!
Man, your videos have been so helpful to me with my engineering journey! I get so hyped up to get home from my (non-musical) day job and put these lessons into practice in my little home studio. Thank you!
one of the more succinct and to-the-point helpful mixing vids I've seen to date 👍
Probably the most important mixing video ive ever watched - thank you
I needed to hear this info! Superb. This is probably why I feel like my mixes don't always translate exactly how I thought, I definitely focus on the extreme highs and lows way too much. Cheers! Also as an ex-intern of CLA I'm kinda pissed he didn't share tips like this :)
This is a great tutorial. Totally agree. This is a timely reminder for projects I am currently working on.
Great advice. You inspired me a few months ago to eq assertively instead of strictly deductively, and to focus more on the mid range. Proof is in the pudding dude, my mixes translate SO much better now. Thanks for the content, it’s been a lifesaver.
So stoked to hear that!
Thank you for the advice! I remember the first song I ever made and mixed I wanted building shaking bass on, but now matter how much I kept boosting and boosting my extreme low end on the bass and the master, it seemed to get weaker and weaker; I couldn't understand it, lol!
However, this mid range idea seems to make a ton of sense, and I can't wait to try it! I'm definitely focusing on that shit for my next mix.
Thanks a lot for this channel. Your advice has helped my mixes quite a bit. Inspired by you I grabbed the Brainworx SSL 4000 E to replace an old visual EQ I was not loving and I must say I am a big fan of its sound (the constant crashing in Logic not so much.) Have a great day!
You give me not only the knowledge but also the energy. I love you❤
This info is gold mad has helped me produce better mixes, kudos!
Most epic video Tutorial EVER about mixing!
I feel like this is exactly what I need a to hear. Thank you.
I go from 150 Hz to 8 khz ...
I learned that from you sir...the low mid glues everything together
You and graham Cochran are my guys that I have learned from...thank you sir have a great Christmas
For less Mid mixes, focus on the mids 👍
Thanks for the suggestion!!!
This is great, such a useful video. Thank you!
Thank you for the class!
Making crazy music that sounds older than your year of production has been super fun for me. Making the master sound vintage is fun to me
Always a great reminder. Thank you:]
I concur, I mixes my last album predominately with Slate VSX and my Yamaha HS5's (I have a small treated room) and my mixes have been much better. When I first got the yamahas I almost sent them back they were so harsh (I have some Focals and M Audios BX8A deluxes too) but once I finally started listening/mixing my finals on the Yamahas I could hear EVERYTHING in the mix! Thanks for your guidance and knowledge!
Amazing advice thanks man
great video thank you for doing this
NS10s are great tools for mixing, checking the mids, Vocals, balances and transients, but for Mastering, being able to monitor what is going on on the entire spectrum is crucial, and impossible with these. Loved them when i had them though, they taught me how to listen midrange frequencies and compression. Love your videos man!
Lots of mastering engineers will do a big chunk of the work on a single auratone.
23 years been doing mixing and mastering and lately I started finding people talking about this (it works)
love the B-roll of the mix engineer resetting all the faders in exasperation
I'm liking these videos where the point is to think less, rather than more. It's so hard to get things to a point where I'm happy because I'm constantly tinkering.
Really nice tip!
fantastic advice! I totally agree about the importance of the mid-range. My only difference is that I use Avantone Active Cubes in lieu of the NS10s.
i am not so big a producer now but the first thing I discovered by myself was to use low-end smartphones like my Samsung A11 to test every mix track throughout my mixing process. of course I have a pair of studio headphones and monitors and use them. but studio headphones and studio monitors are like a Kickstarter and not actual sales in investment terms, so they can mislead. watching this just made me realize that I could actually have a bright future in this music production business although am not only struggling with reverb but also fear it. it is one effect that is easy to overuse. thanks for this video, man.
I'm glad I'm not the only reverbophobe. It might also be personal preference for dry mixes.
This is absolutely the way to go!
This might actually be the most helpful video when it comes to mixing.
This is the most important thing I’ve learned today 🔥
This makes perfect sense. Thanks
Thanks for the great tips! I would have loved some examples though.
Great info thank you!!!
very helpful video, having the same issues of my mix sounding way worse on other speakers compared to my headphones or speakers at home. will def be putting more attention into the mid ranges now thank you heaps (:
Interesting! I've learned something here that for a long time, I'd wondered about.. and you nailed it. Hearing records from, say, the early 60s with LCR mixing was fascinating, and how they translated well with mono. Isolating, say, chorus vocals, by themselves, they sounded 'thin', but they worked well in the mix. This was obviously done by design for that reason. Fastfoward to now, the same principles still apply, and you've demonstrated that. Great job! 👍
The 50s and 60s producers mixed specifically for "transistor radio" play, concentrating on "mids" predominantly. The 70s(with the leap in high-end stereo systems), producers explored wider range productions to suit but now with small transistor like speakers in prevalent use there's been a return to "old school" mid mixing, "horses for courses"!
I feel relieved, i thought it was just my recording methots that took away the punch. Thaaaank youuuu
so rad cheers brotha
That's exactly what I was doin in the last month. Best tip of the year!
I work 20 years with NS10 and I love it
This is so true I realize this may be a year ago after decades of relying more on equipment and room acoustic treatment. Ever since I realized this I literally mix on anything earbuds headphones. I actually challenged myself to see what sorts of monitors I can mix through and it still comes out way better than my earlier stuff just from focusing a lot more on the mid-range and making sure things are actually BALANCED.
Interesting. Are you trying to make the mix sound as good as you can within those freq bands or just focussing one element (e.g., level, timbre or positioning). I ask because I live in a situation where I can only use headphones to mix or my car sound system.
@@miaroscfala well in my opinion a lot of the bad stuff in the mix falls within that range the "mid-range" . So let's say you fix everything in the mid-range there are a lot of transients happening there, a lot of annoying frequencies possibly, a lot of resonance and reverb piling up in that area. Once you got all that worked out you simply turn the bass up (or down) to where you can level it out with that mid-range and turn the high frequencies up or down the same way. And that'll be a good starting to a good tonal balance imo
It’s definitely an interesting way to mix. There’s an eq setting Streaky talks about called the NS10 Hack that supposedly replicated the freq curve of one. It really focuses your attention on what’s going on as a whole rather than the bass or top like Jordan said.
I love this channel. The instructions are so clear and easy to understand. Keep up the good work
This helped a lot.. thanx man
I agree. I have the Genelec 8341A and a sub. One of the very few complaints I've heard about genelecs is that some feel they are "a bit harsh." Kinda funny for a $6k speaker ;) Which I don't get. I think it's that they are so accurate and have such clarity that people are not used to hearing the midrange. But the difference between speakers like mine and the NS10 is that NS10s are not very fun to listen to! Of course, use whatever works for you. But I gotta have something that's enjoyable for me, otherwise work becomes too much like... work!
This Is The Whole Truth! 💯💯💯💥💥💥
0.57 😂 I Hope you changed car since 😂😂
great advice
I sometimes run an aux cable into my bluetooth JBL flip speaker and make adjustments while monitoring through it. It definitely makes you focus on different stuff. 💯 good advice. Also it took me years to figure out the best place to check my low end was in headphones that I'm very familiar with. Takes the room and all it's modes out of the equation.
I may need to invest in some ns10s and thanks I’ll definitely start to do this in my mix
I have a pair of Yamaha HS5s that I switched from to some bigger speakers. They do definitely make you think of the mid-range, however as someone who loves big bass they just made me boost the lows way too much every time. With big speakers I can actually gauge the weight of my low end appropriately, and what I learned from the HS5s allows me to keep in mind the importance of the mid-range even with speakers that don't force me to focus on that. Now that I can actually hear the bass, I use way less of it, and the priority naturally shifts to the middle range.
This it exactly my way of thinking. Why should I get monitors that hide frequencies!? I believe I need monitors that can reveal all freqs and then I can simply use roll-offs on the master to limit my excitement when mixing.
The things you say about the top end is really specific to the music you work on. TBH
But yeah, in general I do the same thing using Avantones and B&Ws. I start the mix and balance everything on the Mixcubes and from there on I switch back and forth between the speakers during the mix.
What’s really funny is, the B&Ws always seemed to me very mid-rangey and flat. But after incorporating the Avantones in my workflow all of a sudden there was a beautiful sub bass on my B&Ws. I just was not able to hear and distinguish it
Bro u helped out a lot u cant imagine. Thank you so much. Greetings from oversease
Whoever is editing your videos is having a lot of fun
I'll start implementing this in my music for a better mix
Lately, I've been loving 800 hz on bass. I used to boost higher, but I've found that 800 still helps it cut through without giving it too much of that clackiness that competes with the guitars and vocals. I know each song will be different. But boosting 800 on bass seems to work for me every time.
60hz is good too imo, gives it that vibrate-your-pants buzz
Great video
Yep and an EV 635 n/d-b into a Cloudlifter is all about the mids. It cuts the highs and lows out and sound AMAZING in a mix. It is an omni dynamic mic and you can even record without headphones.
What about the rest of the tracks in the mix? You don't want to get rid of the hi's and low mids while tracking vocals. You just don't want to make any corrections/adjustments on those frequencies at least until all the mid range moves are done ,EQ wise. With this process you really won't want to change them when you hear how good everything translates. Watch Colt Capperunes video called the Magic is in the Midrange. If you haven't seen it your mixes are about to get a lot better.
This vid is life changing
I've been mixing music since 1986 and this is spot on! Wish I would have watched this CZcams video in 1986!! But then, mixing experience is a journey. Cheers!
I cannot stress ENOUGH how TRUE AND REAL THIS VIDEO IS. this is the key... Mastering the mid range is what makes you a professional
A sloppy mid range is what pushes weird frequencies and artifacts to the extreme edges of the spectrum which in turn makes your high end piercing and glassy or the low end muddy and wobbly
Very well explained… I had this same issue for a long time.. I was always very focused on low and high and not so much the mid range which obviously is the opposite from the correct lol that all changed when I flipped that
Very well done video. “It’s about the low mids.” That’s really about it for 90% of music. Including EDM. I like to play Justice’s Phantom pt. II track to demonstrate. That electric drop at 0:06 is ALL low mids. I actually balance my car speakers this way because I think it makes most music sound a bit better. Wonder why that is lol
Crazy… Colt Capperune’s been saying this on his channel since the get go! Learned more from that guy that any class I took in mixing.
I did actually find out too, that the mid is the secret in the mix. I felt like my lowend was bad, then i figured out it was the mid the whole time
That's a really good one
In hip-hop, this is the best advice you could ever give. Everyone wants growling 808 and pumping kicks. Nail your midrange, then sidechain your kick to your 808, then your instruments bus's low mids to your 808. Voilà ! As long as sound selection and volume are good, you probably did 90% of the low-end mix.
Same for highs : get them soft from your instruments, dial the hi-hats and create room for the vocals : 90% of the hi-end is done. I'm convinced that as long as the production is good, mixing lows and highs should be kept as simple as possible.
It's why we love so much to have different eq for mixbus/mastering : coloring the highs and lows the way we want, to add the polish that isn't really a mixing step.
thank you
You have no idea how much this has stopped me making a fundamental error on a new mix I am working on. Just reviewed the dry mix where levels and broad sounds are set and I know I was about to go in and start boosting highs and lows. I KNOW I was. Instead I've gone to that mid and upper mid, and whadya know... The much sought after punch and dynamic I've been after on all these attempts with this damned song is appearing!
Exactly the lecture I am finding from years
Yep, the mids are the cake and the lows and highs are just the icing. I prefer cube speakers to NS10s but whatever works for you.
New subscriber here and even subscribed to your email listing now. I'm super stoked to use all of this knowledge as I push forward with drum covers! Great information and channel.
Go gettem Zack
Yamaha NS 10's, yes, their HPH MT5 headphones are the same. At first I hated the mid-range dominance but soon realised that the highs and lows were actually sweeter when you take care of the mid range.
bought my ns10s in 2010 from an aquintantance who is a huge producer in latin music. He was going through hard times and i was TOTALLY against buying his ns10s cuz they sounded like "shyt" to me. got them for 200 bucks...1 of the best moves ive ever done!! they changed my mixes to pro...
ive done some cool latin chart toppers with them😁
This is the best mixing tutorial on CZcams.
So, I do all of my mixing on JBL 305P MKII's. And I was so jealous of these videos and the NS10's that I started mixing with an Auratone filter on my master channel and my mixes immediately translated. I will find an actual NS10 filter next ..thank you HCMS
This tip is GOLD! My Edirol monitors suck, my mixes sound great.
I remember when I was mixing in the studio at school.
I'd do all the mixing on my laptop and connect the headphones jack to the mixing console so I could use the studio monitors.
Every now and then, I'd listen through the laptop speakers to see if the bass and kick drums were audible and sounded good.
Nowadays I just put a high-pass filter on the entire mix to see if the mix will sound good on a cell phone.
Finally a video that is important ! Thank you so much ! So many videos on CZcams is just garbage .
nice. Thanks.