mixing techniques

[chahende]

I have been recording and mixing with a decent setup for a year or so, and have worked on several projects getting great feedback from most who hear the product. I just have problems here and there i would like to tweek to make everything gravy.

I am having a problem with the vocals sounding great on soft backing parts but not as present when the heavy guitars kick in. Not really sure of what to do other than volume automation to bring em out. Is this what others are doing?

I am also having a problem with the drums. although I do get a great sound by itself, they are always sounding weak when I get the rest of the mix sounding as loud as I want through the monitors. I usually use the new york compression trick on em to get that punch, but somehow they end up sounding a little weak when everything else kicks in heavy. Am I using my compression wrong?

Just would like any feedback I can get, hopefully some good.

[Shan]

Here are some links that may help you out. Lots of info here.

HDL column on Mixing

Mixing Links

Multi-buss compression and Parallel processing

Vocal links

More info

Hope that helps.

Shane

[Emiel]

No answer to your question...but what IS the NY compression trick?

Thanx.

[Shan]

No answer to your question...but what IS the NY compression trick?

Thanx.

Click on the link above called "Multi-buss compression and Parallel processing."

Shane

[chahende]

thanks, I will check out those links.

[chahende]

thanks, I will check out those links.

[chahende]

basically you bus the drums and maybe even the bass to a separate track, compress the crap out of it, add some high end and low end and tuck it back under the original drums. it really fattens up those drums without squashing the original signal.

[Naagzh]

I usually use the new york compression trick on em to get that punch, but somehow they end up sounding a little weak when everything else kicks in heavy.

Although it doesn't work every time, I've had success using a "Kick and Snare Submix". Basically, create a mono aux and send the kick and snare to it. Compress generously, and sneak that track in under your original kick and snare tracks. Treat this "kick snare submix" as one of your drum tracks (allow it to get to both your compressed and uncompressed drum submixes). Hopefully, this will provide the additional punch you need to get through the guitars on the loud parts, but be careful, because if there's alot of hi-hat bleed on the snare track, it will only become more pronounced.

I believe most of the pros are using Soundreplacer or something like it in order to blend a sampled kick and/or snare and/or toms with the original drum tracks.

[chahende]

Ive tried just the kick and snare as well, and varied amounts of compression. The problem is that the drums sound great on their own, but get lost when everything else comes in. I am using a compresson on the master fader.

yeah, I think that they are using samples mostly as well. there is just too much hihat/cymbol bleed on my snare to compress as hard as I would like to. I probably need to play around a little more with eq to get it to stick out more. I also have alot of spill on the toms. I recorded them with mics on top, but was wondering if the micing from the bottom would help control (for my next project of course).