HANDBOOK INDEX
Preface 14
Introduction 15
Part A *** INTRODUCTION TO MIXING 17
BRIEF HISTORY OF MIXING 18
Orchestration as primordial mixing 18
Mixing in the first recordings 19
Multitrack and post production processes 20
The digital tape 20
The Digital Magnetic Tape 21
Daw and home studio 21
MIX APPROACH CRITERIA 23
Definitions and functions of mixing 25
Technique and Art of Mixing 26
Listening and Comparing Diversity 28
Natural and artificial sound 28
Imitation and innovation in the mix 31
The limitations of a dedicated mix manual 32
ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL 33
Differences between the two worlds 34
Hardware emulators 34
RUDIMENTS OF ACOUSTICS 36
Noise, sound, vibrational frequency 37
Fundamentals, harmonics, beat 37
Waves, height, polarity, phase, cycle, period 39
Composite waves, polarity reversal 40
Transient and coda of sounds, ADSR 41
Sound propagation 42
Intensity 42
Spatiality 43
Reflections and absorption 43
Reflection vectors 44
Echo 45
Flutter echo 46
Reverberation 46
Presence and proximity 50
Volume 52
Environmental Resonance 52
Low frequencies 52
High frequencies 53
Transients 53
REFERENCE LISTENING 55
Acoustic set-up of the studio 56
Sound Insulation 57
Internal treatment 58
Monitors 66
Big and near-field monitors 66
Closed and reflex 66 loudspeakers
The subwoofer 68
Speaker positioning 70
Sub positioning and phasing with room 75
Volume of the sub and its phasing with the speakers 76
Position of the listening point 76
Corrective equalisation 79
Acoustic perception 80
The deception of volume 81
What happens at high volume 81
What happens at low volume 82
Reference volumes 83
Reference mix at 85 db 83
Working at 70 db 83
Compare at 60 and 110 db 84
Critical listening to the various volumes 84
A different finalisation volume for each musical genre 84
Let's not ruin our hearing 84
Other listening tests 85
Headphone monitoring 85
All listening tests 87
Avoiding Psychoacoustic Adaptation 88
Technical listening and relaxation listening 89
Narrowband monitoring 89
Alternative monitors 91
A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MIX 92
Sound front 93
Monophony 93
Stereophony 93
Surround 94
Hierarchy of elements in the mix 95
Masking 98
Tonal interlocking 99
Dynamic interlocking 106
Respect for dynamics 106
The task of compression 106
Sound field 108
Width of the sound field front 109
Depth of sound front 110
Part B *** OPERATION IN MIX 115
ORGANISE SESSION 116
Number of Bits 117
Sampling frequency 118
export tracks from recording timeline 119
Import tracks on the new timeline 120
Organising Tracks AND GROUPS 120
Organising tracks 120
Organising Groups 122
Small preliminary operations 124
Phase coherence 125
OPERATIONAL SEQUENCE IN THE MIX 127
Mix history 127
Conclusion 130
LISTENING AND LEVELLING TRACKS 131
GAIN STAGING IN MIX 132
A lightning rod for distortion 133
A huge dynamic 134
Audio levels in tracks and groups 135
The Vu meter 136
Managing legacy tracks from Recording 137
Groups and subgroups 137
Input and output levels in plugins 137
Delivery volume at mastering 139
Gain staging in monitoring 139
LEVELING AND PRELIMINARY EDITING 141
Preliminary Leveling 141
Volume imbalances 142
Significant tonal imbalances 144
Imbalances caused by differences in ambient sound 144
Imbalances caused by tonal, dynamic and environmental causes together 144
Preliminary Editing 145
Tuning 145
Timing 148
Cleaning 150
Fading 151
TRANSIENT ALIGNMENT AND PHASING 152
stereo track phasing 152
Phase inversion 153
Optimising Phase Coherence 153
Phasing of a multiple shot 155
Double microphonics displacement 156
Phasing of a percussive multi-microphone set 160
TONE CONTROL 163
Harmonic spectrum and spectrum analyser 164
Tone Processors 165
Equaliser action 165
Equaliser Types 166
Shelve and Peak 171 equalisers
HPF and LPF 173
Notch filtering 175
Conformation of Eq 176 plug-ins
PRELIMINARY EQUALISATION 179
Optimising sound in the analogue era 180
Why use a precise equaliser for Preliminary Eq 183
Preliminary equalisation for melodic instruments 184
Preliminary equalisation for drums 189
THE ESSENTIAL MIX 190
A mix in two moves 190
Introduction to the essential mix 191
Identification of primary elements 192
Unleashing creativity 193
THE COMPLETE MIX 195
Mix equalisation 198
Purpose of mix equalisation 199
The tonal operations that can be performed in mix 199
Masking and stand-out equalisation 199
Static equalisation versus masking 200
Dynamic equalisation versus masking 202
Hierarchy of elements in de-masking 204
Cosmetic equalisation 204
DYNAMIC CONTROL 206
Dynamic Processors 207
Dynamic processes 208
Compressor and Limiter Controls 210
Expander and gate controls 214
Dynamic Tonal Processors 217
Basic dynamic processing techniques 219
Gating 220
Isolating traces 220
Attenuating noise and other disturbances 224
Limiting 225
Definition and usefulness of brickwall limiting 225
Plugin selection 227
Operations 227
Modeling 228
Enhancing transients 230
Attenuating transients and accentuating tail sustain 234
Shortening the sustain 235
Side effects of modelling expansion 236
Transient Modelling with a Transient Shaper 237
Leveling 240
Compression and Expansion: Roles and Risks in Leveling 241
Pre-leveling actions 245
Compressing in parallel 246
Solo levelling with double compression 249
Levelling bass and bass drum 253
Levelling of second floor elements 255
Levelling a group 255
Levelling the entire mix 257
Step-by-step levelling of submerged phrases 258
Levelling Side chain 259
Uncompressing an over-compressed track 262
Increasing the dynamic accents of a performance 263
Mixed techniques 266
Contemporary modelling and levelling 266
Parallel stress compression 266
Smoothing compression 267
De-essing 269
Bass maximisation 272
The physical principle 273
The solution in a specific processor 273
How to operate 275
Conclusion 276
HARMONIC ENRICHMENT 278
Harmonic enrichment with Eq 278
Harmonic saturation 279
Post-recording analogue saturation with preampli 280
Saturation with plugins 281
Traditional Exciter 284
Special enrichers 285
SETTING PROCESSES 287
Echo and Delay 289
Eco 290
Delay 290
How to install an echo-delay processor 290
Delay control parameters 291
Effect of delay on mix 296
Reverberation 297
Dry - Wet 297
The three dimensions of ambient sound 297
Convolutional reverberation 298
Reverb Controls 300
Effect of reverberation on mix 304
Doppler 311
OTHER PROCESSES AND PROCESSORS 313
SPATIAL DIMENSIONS IN THE MIX 315
Acoustic Space and the Spatial Map 316
The dimensions of acoustic space 317
Manageable sound dimensions in the stereo acoustic space 317
ACOUSTIC SPACE MANAGEMENT TOOLS 318
Managing the width of the acoustic field 319
Managing Sound Field Depth 326
Resources for managing sound field width and depth 329
The third dimension of the acoustic field 333
Example of spatial distribution of mix elements 334
The back front 342
FINISHING TOUCHES 344
Take a break 344
Finishing the mix 345
Volume and Faders 346
Equalising stand out 346
Compression highlighting 347
Expansive Emergence 347
Final critical listening 348
DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE MIX 349
An alternative mix 350
EXPORTING THE MIX 354
Uses of the 355 mix
Direct use without mastering 355
Mastering and Archive 355
Stem Mastering 356
Music Bases for Live Use 357
Click sequences for live use 357
Notes for mastering 358
Naming files correctly 358
Sending notes 358
Review of Mix 359
Part C *** TREATMENT OF MIX ELEMENTS 361
SOLO VOICE 363
Initial voice volume management 363
The imbalances ex editing 363
Performative imbalances and vocal leveling 364
Tonal balancing 366
Preliminary equalisation 366
Dynamic-tonal sanding 373
Dynamic levelling 375
Double and triple compression 376
Parallel compression 383
On-face voice compression 386
Tonal retouches in mix 387
Mix equalisation 387
Enhancement 389
Harmonic Saturation 389
A dynamic contextual dimension 390
De-Essing 391
Setting 395
Delay and Chorus 402
The volume control for lead vocals in mix 404
The final controls of volume 408
Final management of voice volume 414
BASS AND DOUBLE BASS 415
Preliminary equalisation 415
Mix equalisation 416
A good fit with the 416 bass
The control of dynamics in the bass 421
Dyn 422
BATTERY 424
Gate 424
Considerations for using the Gate 425
Gate 426 controls
The use of the 430 Battery Gate
Manual Gating of Toms Tracks 434
The Gate for Bass Drum 435
The gate for snare drum 437
The gate for plates taken with close mics 438
The gate in purist music 440
Preliminary Equalisation 441
Bass drum 443
Parallel compression 443
Double track 443
Preliminary equalisation for bass drum 447
Mix equalisation for bass drum 450
Dynamic control 457
Modelling 465
Dynamic balance between bass drum and bass guitar 470
Sound field 473
Snare drum 475
Double track 475
Preliminary equalisation 478
Equalisation of mix 481
Dynamic 485 control
Modelling 489
Sound Field 494
Hi Hat 496
Preliminary equalisation 496
Equalisation of Mix 497
TomTom and Gable 499
Double track for each drum 499
Preliminary equalisation 500
Equalisation of 501 mixes
Dynamic Control 506
Sound field 512
Over Heads 513
Resumption of the environment 515
Stressed Drums 515
PIANO 518
The function of traces 520
Mixing criteria with piano tracks 521
Preliminary equalisation of the plan 523
Mix of piano tracks 523
Parallel compression 524
Piano sound characteristics and mix eq 524
GUITARS 526
The Queen of Pop 526
Phase Control 526
Different colours in tracks 528
Preliminary equalisation 529
Cutting with the HPF 529
Eliminating resonances 530
Penny stroke adjustment 532
Preliminary Limiting 534
The modelling compression 534
Levelling compression 534
The guitar in the mix in general 535
Basses 535
The acoustic mud 536
The bottom 536
The medium 536
The light band 536
The mordant 536
The Argentine strip 537
The electric guitar in the 538 mix
Selection and simulation of amplifiers and cabinets 538
Layer compression 539
Panning Management 542
Natural panning 542
Generation of artificial panning 543
Adjusting Electric Guitars 545
Electric solos 545
Heavy Electric Rhythms 546
Distorted guitars sustained 547
Fast and 'hard' rhythms 547
ORCHESTRAL SECTIONS 548
Soloists 548
Preliminary Interventions 549
Posthumous interventions 549
Instruments in Section 550
Part D *** PILLS SUGGESTIONS 553
554 COMPRESSION
Make friends with side-chaning 554
PHASES AND TRANSIENTS 555
Check for phase problems 555
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 556
Put Reverb 556 on a diet
ENHANCING 557
How to break through the wall of sound in the mix 557
EQUALISATION 558
Economising with the use of Eq 558
MISSAGE 562
Listening volume too high 562
Does louder sound better? No! 562
Ear weariness 563
Don't trust your monitoring too much 563
Mix with the finalisation filters inserted 564
Enlarge stereophony of dual tracks 565
Automation before compression 566
Beginner's mistakes in the mix 567
Advice for the 571 mix beginner
Voices in the mix 572
Stereo Expansion 573
Room acoustics 573
Parallel compression 574
Voice equalisation tips 574
Voice Frequency Guide 575
The bass in the 576 mix
Dynamic processing 578
Warming up the sound 579
Side chain between bass and kick to fine-tune bass 580
Guide to bass frequency bands 580
Drums in the 581 mix
Guitars and then guitars 584
MONITORING 585
Listen with the ears of the audience 585
Do not abuse the 'Only' button 586
CONCEPTUAL PILLS FROM THE GREAT EXPERTS 587
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