Mixdown ios garageband tips how to#

As part of the mastering process, I’ll sometimes check what I’m doing in mono and when I hit that button, elements of the mix just disappear! So why does this happen? The main reason I’ve encountered is misuse of stereo widening effects. Lots of electronic items use mono speakers as a convenience or for cost reasons, but systems in big spaces will use often use mono to ensure an even sound across a location. Hang on, mono? Didn’t that die in the 1970s? No! Many places and items use mono – stadiums, clubs, shops, TVs, cell phones… the list goes on. 2) Elements disappear when the mix is checked in mono Again, listen to plenty of reference tracks while watching the analyser and start to piece together how the producers and mixers got their track to “look” like that. It may take a bit of time to get used to an analyser and learn what you should be looking for but the rewards can be huge. Another way to improve here is to periodically check your mix through a frequency/spectrum analyser.

Using acoustic products will not only improve bass reproduction but, done properly, you will notice improvements in stereo imaging and reproduction in the highs and mids. Get used to your space and listen to plenty of reference tracks. You can achieve this through use of acoustic products such as diffusers, absorbers, and bass traps, and you can even use well placed blankets and duvets if money is tight. You can have the latest plugins or most expensive hardware but if you’re using them in an untreated room then you’re mixes are always going to struggle.

It is not possible to overstate the importance of this.

Mixdown ios garageband tips how to#

The second point, however, needs a slightly more complex answer… How to avoid itīass frequencies are hard to accurately reproduce in listening environments, and if it was easy to fix then this mistake wouldn’t be a common one! However, the best thing you can do is ensure that you have the most acoustically neutral mixing environment that you can get. Mixing should be a time to balance levels, sculpt tones and get your music sounding good, not loud. To deal with the first point, if you are making music that will be played in clubs, remember that club sound systems will already be designed and calibrated to make sure that any bass frequencies are amply represented. So why do so many mixes have this issue? When speaking to people who have submitted tracks where the bass has been mixed too loud, the answer is either, “We wanted the bass to sound really big in the club” or “We didn’t realise it was so loud”. Not cool if you want your track to be as loud as the vast majority of commercial releases. This can be a problem especially in progressive house mixing.Īt the mastering stage, an overly loud bass can make it very difficult to achieve the holy grail of “LOUDNESS” as the highs and mids won’t get to be that loud before the bass or kick starts clipping or distorting. This is a misguided practice for one main reason – overly loud bass eats up headroom and makes it harder to get a loud master. Without doubt the biggest error I see is the low frequencies being pushed to a needlessly loud level. **Francis works for EchoPlex Mastering in the UK. So let’s look at some useful music mastering tips and common mixing mistakes to avoid. Think of mastering like holding up a big magnifying glass to your tracks… there is nowhere to hide! What follows is a small list of the most common mix errors I see, how you can avoid them to go your best music mixing and give your mastering engineer the best possible chance of creating an awesome final product. Mastering can be the stage where the final layer of magic is applied, but mastering is always the stage where, if you haven't mastered the mix, problems will be ruthlessly exposed. While it’s now true that anyone can create a good mix with almost any gear, it’s still easy to mess up a mix and betray the fact that you didn’t spend thousands at a top studio.įrustratingly, the same errors crop up time and time again, and it’s these that separate the greats from the not-so-greats. Some are great and some really aren’t so great. Need somew mixdown tips? As a mastering engineer, I hear a lot of mixes.