THA MIXDOWN QUESTIONS THREAD

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dmg triggered me off with a post about multiplative ratio's and avoiding too much ratio squashage on your mixdowns,etc...

and I thought I'd start a thread where questions are asked & hopefully answered concerning mixdowns & pre-mastering at home.

So here goes....

In Cubase (& nuendo) I want to set up a premastering project where I have the original mix on a stereo channel with a stereo bus being fed the signal which is then brought up alongside the original mix.

This bus would have eq & compression.

Now,does Cubase (nUendo) simply mix to the 2 signals together when you do the export-audio mixdown thing or is it better I re-record the output back into the pc?

Also,does anyone here use reverb on their mixdowns at all?

I don't mean in single instruments I mean on top of an entire track????

Baffled
'There's no such thing as selling out just buying in'

Chuck D
Not gonna even attempt to answer most of that , still lacking in the cubase skills department .

as for the Reverb on the bus , yes I do, just a touch though, to tie everything together, and to make it sound a little more natural.

having only really covered sound reinforcment and recording "guitar" band kinda stuff, when I was at college, Iv propably got a bit of a strange view on engineering lol.
Dont use reverb on an entire mix. Youd have to have a very good reason for doing this and not using different, appropriate verbs on different elements of the mix. I cant really think of one...

About your other question, let Cubase take care of things, it will compensate for any processing delays appropriately.

Just do an Export Audio Mixdown on the main stereo out.
thanks for that.have always thought that using reverb on an entire mix was a bad idea Xyxthumbs
'There's no such thing as selling out just buying in'

Chuck D
alpha omega Wrote:thanks for that.have always thought that using reverb on an entire mix was a bad idea Xyxthumbs

there are a *few* times under *very* specific circumstances that an me might use it during mastering, but extremely unlikley on most electronic music.

during th emixing of the track, no you shouldnt use it at all...
there are these so-called "mastering suites" that suggest doing so (Izotope Ozone 3 for example - then again this plug-in is not very good at all)

I think commonly it's a tool for less experienced producers to easily provide some ear-candy. It DOES sound interesting, if you only add a slight touch (Ozone 3 has only small rooms, so it's basically down to ER reverberation).

I used it on earlier mixdowns, don't do it anymore. Still I'm not sure if it's such a bad idea (we're not talking about 25% huge cathedral here of course Wink)
No suprises me being wrong again lol though thats y I read the forum. Most helpfull indeed.
cycom Wrote:Still I'm not sure if it's such a bad idea (we're not talking about 25% huge cathedral here of course Wink)

im dead sure it is Smile

As ive said, there are a very small number of instances that an ME would want to do this. The question is about mixdown, not mastering.

There is absolutely zero reason you should do this rather than apply appropriate reverb to individual tracks/groups during mix.
scopeula Xyxthumbs
[Image: protabl3.gif]
Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
ok, well... then... not Stormzap1
http://www.subvertcentral.com/forum/view...wn&t=10562


Blue
cheers dodz, forgotten about that gem...
dodz Wrote:http://www.subvertcentral.com/forum/view...wn&t=10562


Blue

Drums
Hmnnn,tried the mixing down in cubase & great results in terms of ease & recall abilities but not 100% sure of the sound :/

very clinical & 'pop' sound if u ask me......quite sterile aswell.

But that works well for the pop lp I'm currently working on but not for much else Icon_sad
'There's no such thing as selling out just buying in'

Chuck D
put a distortion-plugin on the master buss! Teef

no, seriously: it's the digital domain - that's why so many people still prefer mixing outboards or even buy expensive passive mixers/mergers.

I think you always need some trickery to get analogue-like warmth from a software. I don't use Cubase, but isn't it supposed to have some built-in tape-saturation?
cycom Wrote:put a distortion-plugin on the master buss! Teef

no, seriously: it's the digital domain - that's why so many people still prefer mixing outboards or even buy expensive passive mixers/mergers.

I think you always need some trickery to get analogue-like warmth from a software. I don't use Cubase, but isn't it supposed to have some built-in tape-saturation?

magneto, which is ok, but its basic, was over it years ago Wink
scope Wrote:magneto, which is ok, but its basic, was over it years ago Wink

Baffled Magneto? I thought there was a better one implemented. Then again, I only own a very old version of Magneto.

Btw, are there other recommendable tape/soft-sat plugins besides Voxengo TapeBuss + Antares Tube?
not in VST....
Roll Grumble Hahaha
You could look at Tri-Tone Digital's ColorTone or the Pro version.

Their plugs are fantastic. Its not a Tape Sim tho.
sounds interesting though, thanks Xyxthumbs
I dunno - I guess my approach is somewhere in between using individual reverb for specific tracks and applying to the whole mix. I don't like using lots of different reverbs on different tracks (unless it's for a specific effect).

What I generally do is stick one or two reverbs on auxiliary channels - maybe one short and one long decay and adjust the sends on each track to those reverbs. In other words, I set up a 'reverb mix' via the aux sends - I'm in no way advocating sticking reverb over the master bus!

To me it gives a much more 'coherent' (not talking about phase coherence) environment for the mix to sit in but still allowing control of reverb on individual tracks (which goes a long way to 'where' the mix element sits as far as 'depth' is concerned) It's also often lighter on DSP
Wink

The downside to this approach is losing control over the balance between early reflections and diffuse reverb on individual tracks. If this is of particular importance to a given track then reverb via channel insert is probably a better bet (or maybe set up yet another aux! )
I think the question was refering to an additional ER-reverb over the complete mixdown (when mastering).

Alpha Omega Wrote:Also,does anyone here use reverb on their mixdowns at all?

I don't mean in single instruments I mean on top of an entire track????

But as Ben already said:

Scope Wrote:Dont use reverb on an entire mix.

... so that is that Teef

The way you do your reverb via aux-sends is quite the norm I think. Wink
cycom Wrote:i think the question was refering to an additional er-reverb over the complete mixdown (when mastering).

alpha omega Wrote:also,does anyone here use reverb on their mixdowns at all?

i don't mean in single instruments i mean on top of an entire track????

but as ben already said:

scope Wrote:dont use reverb on an entire mix.

... so that is that Teef

the way you do your reverb via aux-sends is quite the norm i think. Wink

phew, cool - gotcha. understand.

Xyxthumbs cheers
I know nothing.
yeh toby,

the original question was whether to apply verb to the 2-buss.

always on individual elements via aux sends; I tend to have 3 or 4 verbs and one or 2 delays in a typical mix these days. verb wise ill likely have a drum plate, a vocal plate, a medium space, a large space.
Almost everything in the mix will get a tiny tiny (near dry) amount of the large space, for cohesion.
A couple of elements will likely have a reasonable amount of the large space to push them back.. some elements will have be sent to a couple of diff verbs. Layering verbs in this way creates space that simply cant be created from sending sounds to a single verb.

Never forget the value of appropriate use of early reflections and pre-delay either...

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