Mixing A Beat (Basic Leveling and Balancing)
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- čas přidán 23. 09. 2016
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I’m sure 99% of us appreciate what you do!
that 99% is why I keep making videos :) thanks!
Just watched this again in January 2022 and I can see your growth in the tools you employ! Yet I'm glad that your mixing approach is still quite the same by setting the levels of the drums first and then the instrumentation: Loudest first then the quieter ones. Plus the whole idea of not allowing the instrumentation to take away from the overall energy you're establishing with optimal RMS (and LUFS now) while leaving room for the vocalist is still critical. This video is still very helpful and relevant almost 6 years later! Thanks!!!
Glad it was still helpful Vance, thanks for the positivity 🙌
Yesss I love balancing individual tracks soloing them, the kick & snare : ) It all about that groove and how we can manage to make it all best fit together !!!!
Got 2 check out this Low End Theory u mentioned --- that menacing-sounding synth at 23:35. Love using this sort of subtly distorted effect on bass lines as well.
One can get so much more oomph from a low-end-based sample if they can get away with using certain VSTs in subtle ways, IMO. I've got a default template in Maschine with my most used VSTs programmed in -- I've been playing around with flangers & notch filters a ton recently, and so, it's all right there ready for me! : ) And when you get quality samples like the ones in this video it's so much easier to take them to that next level sonically!
All the way from the start I could feel it in my heart. All the way from the starrt :D
It was good to see how you go about this. Thanks for sharing Sean! Peace+Love
been a fan since the beginning brotha!!!!...my mixes have gotten insanely better in the past year, and I've been making beats for 8 years now thanks to a few keys you've given me....just stopping by to say thanks again!!!
that's awesome bro, glad to hear it and thanks for sharing!
Yeah this is awesome! Just discovered the channel 8 months or so ago, and I've already noticed huge differences in the way recent projects have sounded. So, I can't even imagine having 8 years of such experience -- congrats on working hard on ur craft, bud, and praise be to the Internet who grants us these resources in the 1st place : D
Great video man.
Thanks for sharing so much secrets with us. God bless.
I'm excited about the effects part. Hopefully is coming soon.
Loving the basic and intermediate videos man thanks so much please keep it up
Would be dope to see an updated making a beat production video.. With some arrangement tips. I saw a few dope things you did in this video that would be beneficial to us. Thanks for sharing this gem with us.
That was great. By the way, would you do a part 2 of this session? Achieving a mix and maybe a mastering of the beat. I have never witnessed a full beat making process (MIXING ). I always have to send the beat to a mixing engineer. If not I'll have doubts about my mixes. I started a year ago.
You're a wealth of knowledge Sean! Came across you this year & been watching all your vids ever since. It's helped me a great deal with
my own projects & everything I'm working on. Appreciate everything you're putting out. You the man bro!
Mad love from Australia.
D
that's awesome man, glad to hear it!
Sean Divine Keep it up man! Hope to collab sometime. Your music is dope!
So many Easter eggs here, I like your idea of bouncing the original mixdown to reference in later stages, I'm definitely trying that
Honest to God the SICKEST beat I have ever heard. Good work, Sean.
thanks Vincent! 🙏
Thank You Very Much Sir!
🙂🙏
Amazing production!
thank you!
Wdup Sean, love the vids. You’ve obviously already done a “pre-mix” during the pre-production stage, hence the consistent looking waveforms. Could you do a video on the process of how you got each of these tracks to sound so great before this stage (from inception)?
will see what I can do!
Thanks for the vids homie!
Thanks bro.... Great video
Thank you.
GREAT VIDEO!
Great video! About the panning, is it panning volume-wise (increasing the volume to one speaker over another) or panning for stereo field placement (where the instrument exists in the stereo depth/field)?
thanks a lot man
that beat is fire
thanks
Whatever mic this guy is using is greattt
it's an sm7b :)
GOD BLESS ALL!!
Dope beat
thank you :)
Sean Divine your are dope!
thanks :)
The way you're checking your level meter, is the equivalence of me throwing a Logic Level meter on the Output, right? Because I saw you bring up an entire app I wasn't familiar with (TotalMix). Also, I feel like if I had the kick at -12 db and then added all of those other instruments, I'd be a lot closer to peaking... how are maintaining that ideal volume without having to bring everything down?
correct. I wouldn't worry too much about minor clipping (if you don't hear distortion). Otherwise, use a good transparent brickwall limiter like FF Pro L2 or Ozone 8 and set the ceiling to just below 0 (-.01)
At 6:25 you basically say "First leveling, then effects". I could be wrong, but don't effects have the potential to mess with leveling?
Sean is the shit
AWESOME CLIP Sean!!! definitely subbed. Sean this is bothering me!! I'm doing everything looking at tutorials how do i get clear clean mixes. my low end is annoying :( please help with a tutorial can i perhaps send something so you can perhaps tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Hey Winston. I have a couple 808 / low end tutorials in the mixing and mastering playlist. Those may help and I'll try to get more of this up for you soon!
OK SEAN LOL I WATCHED LIKE A MILL TIMES :( IDK WHAT IM DOING WRONG? CAN I EMAIL YOU?
Curious about when you start talking about levels around the 7-8 minute mark: How is it that you're getting a different level readout than what your other program is running? You're saying that realistically, your kick is around -12dbfs (?), but Logic is showing that kick peak at -2. What's going on there? I typically keep pre fader metering on most of the time in my sessions to make sure my signal isn't running too hot (I'll usually have all my tracks peaking around -15 to -10dbfs individually).
Just curious because your session sounds great and I'm wondering if I'm doing things backwards.
Hey Daniel, one thing I've found is that the metering from various plugins and DAWs can differ slightly... I try to get comfortable with one form of metering (I prefer RMS) and then I refer to that for everything so I know how to compare it and what I'm going for
Thanks for the reply!
When you’re mixing drums and instrumentation (including the bass) what lufs/rms level should I shoot for? With drums I usually shoot for around -10.5 but with instrumentation (like the keys, leads, synths all bussed to one channel) should it be peaking at -15 or something like that?
the answer although it's likely not what you're looking for, is you want to go for feel when blending, not following numerical values. When it comes to master levels, there are some general values I reference but not for individual instruments / mixing process
I wait another part of tutorials! thanks, Sean.
very helpful. I have a question though: after you get this leveling done & begin adding effects, don't certain effects like adding compression make tracks sound louder? so are you continually adjusting the volume of each track as you go? thanks.
yes, you will have to come back and make some adjustments. the point of doing this first though is to get familiar with the tracks in the session and get the essential balance together. that will make it much easier to make objective decisions about what's needed for the effects, compression, eq etc.
ok, so it sounds like a much more intentional approach & process which is what i need to focus on. i am trying to practice & follow these steps in several of your videos to get my music sounding better, but i keep losing it somewhere & it starts to sound worse than when i started. pretty much everything you identify for beginners is what i'm wrestling with, so it's just going to take some time & repetition. frustrating in the meantime when you want things to sound a certain way tho.
it definitely takes time and practice. you're doing the right thing though. start with leveling and balancing first and I think you'll find it will make the later steps a lot easier. compression will take arguably the longest to get the hang of and makes a huge difference so I would focus there also.
i want to ask your opinion on if you feel that it is important to export all your tracks to audios files when mixing or say if you produced the song yourself and you have the project is it ok to mix right inside the project?
it's personal preference. If I produced the track I will mix it in the same session at times... if the CPU is heavy with a lot of tracks or we're adding vocals in the same session, I will export and mix separately
Hey Sean, if I am mixing both instrumental and vocal at a time, should I mix instrumental first and go to vocal or should I mix at the same time. Or should I mix instrumental in different project, export master track and mix with vocal?
I personally prefer to mix the instrumental first (drums especially)!
Sean Divine Thanks.
Do you always convert your midi files to audio files for mixing I never understood that but I have always noticed in your videos the files are all audio. Is that better for processing
Most of time, yes. The main reasons being to conserve CPU and also commiting to a sound in the production stage.
what level should we be aiming for (RMS) on bass?
Depending on your mastering process, I would try to stay around -10db RMS to leave a bit of headroom.
Is it true that you cant have your plug ins clipping going in. And do the volume have to be -18 db for plug ins to work properly?
it's not generally good practice to have the signal clipping going into a plugin. That said, I've never heard of -18dB... that seems excessive and every plugin reacts to level differently.
It’s good for incoming audio signals to hit as close to 0VUdb (average volume) without clipping your peak meters on your channel. Once you’ve got a good initial level for each sound...then you can do your actual leveling. And It’s is good to hit around -18 “rms” on the master channel (which you can measure in all mastering spectral analyzers). Leveling is a fusion of visual monitoring, using your ears, and orchestration- knowing where you want your instruments to be in the stereo field
Hi Sean, awesome videos as always, also i would like to have this beat ? Please give me some contacts
link in description, it's no longer available :/
What do you think about mixing tracks that are bounced in place opposed to exported tracks?
I use bounce in place often, great feature if used properly!
Sean Divine word. I find it much quicker for my workflow. Thanks for the dope content you put out! I'm definitely a student
Question for you.. what is the BEST way to check your sub frequencies if you don't have access to a Sub?
@SeanDivine Listen in car?
Yes, the car is usually the best option!
Also you should do a Synth or Keys tutorial on how to get them to sit different ways in the mix. I have tried and tried to get them to sit how I imagine in my head and can't get it! I know a lot of it's trial and error but it's frustrating
Do one in mono mixing the beat and vocal
czcams.com/video/YHblVcGlgCc/video.html
so the master was clipping and you said you weren't really worried about it but would you just turn all the tracks down and then master? or let it clip and turn it down with a limiter?
it depends on if I'm mastering in this session - either way, it's good practice to have some headroom to work with for the mastering process
should i pan in balance mode or stereo mode? and when to do it
Up to you! Do what sounds best for the song 👍
So never EQ first ? Always level and balance ? Speaking in terms of producing a track from start to finish.
It's okay to do some deductive EQ first, although I usually try to stick with basic leveling and balancing before anything else.
At the start of the video all your faders are at 0dB and then you pull them down. Did you not do any leveling while building the beat?
I did some initial leveling but nothing major
Where can we find this track it sounded fucking dope!
divinetracks.com/downloads/far-east-movement/
Thank you!
Why are you using a separate metering app outside of Logic? Why not use the MultiMeter inside of Logic to meter your levels?
Jason Huertas personal preference. I use level meter in lpx more often now
Thanks Sean! Appreciate the quick response.
I dont see what my mixes problem is your kick is hitting at -10 rms mine is only around -20 rms without any effects. How could i fix that even my mixes balanced and leveled right its still super low. Its really frustrating
start with good samples! that will help
Sean Divine i use stock samples and bought samples.
Thats allright for samples to be -20,its a greate level.. All my tracks hovering around -20 rms(drums -20, -18. Thing like synth or guitars can hover around -25). Here is what you can do. Mute all your tracks but kick. Then start to move kick fader up and watch at your master fader meter. Signal levev of your kick track will stay at -20(if it pre-fader metering ) but master fader signal level will raise up. Then more you move kick fader up then more signal you feed into the master fader. Read about pre-fader and post-fader metering. Read about gain staging.
A-LAB TV yeh thanks. Ik about gain staging its 1 of the most important things to do. But even if i do get a good mix and master it's still not as loud as i want it and its hitting -12 rms
I think I understand. You mean its not as dense as you want? Bc loudness and density are different things. I hope my hint will be usefull.
where can i get the total mix fx at.
it's for RME audio interfaces and comes included
Thats more like emd bro but thank u 💯💯
agreed, thanks for the heads up :)
You should have way more subscribers. You always cover what true beginners are looking for
glad to hear it man! the channel is growing and much more videos to come :)
have you done a video on how to mesh R&B vocals into a premixed instrumental yet. Giving on tips on how to get the vocals to sit well into a premixed instruental? cause thats what im really looking for as well.
I have a couple R&B tutorials in the mixing and mastering playlist that should help. Will try to get more up soon!
I don’t understand why it’s ok for your level to clip.
I laugh every time you mention people that freak out over clipping!!
I laugh when they do, pretty common in the comments for my videos :)
I've noticed an immediate difference in my music. Especially on my drums. I have overprocessed drums in the past just trying to make them louder cause I would turn my drum track down fearful of that OH SHIT RED. I really trust my ears but sometimes reason gets the best of me. Like seriously... thank you.