Transcripts
1. Course Intro: be making basis. Hey, was going on. I'm Joseph Evans. Also go by. Every J just wanted to welcome you to this course on. Mixing is very important for me that you get the training that you need to make sure that your beats are on point. Because I really, for a long time struggle with mixing my beats so much so that I had to go to a professional recording school full sail to learn some tips. And I've been, you know, getting tips from other producers and different things to this point now that I'm confident enough that my music is on point and I wanted to put all of that information in one course how to make sure beast in light of protein. All right, so this course is broken down into a couple of different sections. The first section is the pre mixing section where we're gonna be dealing with how to make sure that your beat is on point so that, you know, is going to be easier to mix it. You know, a lot of times ah, lot of producers. When it first, starting with mixing, they fail to realize that the sound selection that you choose or the drum selections that you shoes and even organizational aspects of things can affect how easy it is to mix your music. Okay, so that's what we're gonna be covered in the first section. The next section is actually getting into level Lean and queuing is where we're gonna balance out everything and we're gonna talk about frequencies and how to properly e que your tracks. We have several different types of EQ Ewing's attractive and additives e Q and will be going over that another section we're going covering is compression. OK, I'm not going to just be saying, you know, covering basics on it. I'm gonna be showing you what a compression is, what it does. What are the different settings? How to manipulate the settings of a compressor? Um, several different other compression techniques, like parallel compression side chaining, all those different type of you know, things that you need to make sure that your music sounds boosted to make sure certain instruments poke out on the track. The next section After that, we're gonna be basically covering, you know, some tips and tricks. Okay, How to add reverb how to add you know, pan your music automation, and then finally gonna, like, go ahead and bouncing down your track, listening to it on different speakers, different things like that, just to really make sure it's polished. Okay? And And lastly, I'm gonna give you a few tips on how that you can master your your music, Okay? For fairly, fairly low amount or master right there in the program. Okay, well, this is mainly dealing with the mix. Okay, So the main thing I want you to understand is that is going to take time to get your mix is better. You know, this is something I do every day. I have to mix my music every day to even get better, even myself. You know, I'm saying so you have to put in the work. It's not like a something that you can, you know, push a complete a button or two and all setting how this great mixer there's some type of template that you use, and also you got great mixes. The truth of the matter is that the reason why templates don't necessarily work is because every track is different and I would go into this later on when it comes to frequencies. All different sounds have different types of frequencies and everything. That's why you know, it's important to understand the fundamentals of mixing into in order to make you know, good mixes. But without further do man, let's go ahead and jump in the course. I want you to know that you can also hit me up if you have questions. This is more so, like of a beginner to intermediate level course. So there might be certain things that we don't cover. If there is something that you would like to know or, you know further, we could be expound on, Feel free to hit me up. I might even, you know, do another lecture to to explain it and help beef the course up even more. So, yeah, let's go in and jump into it. One last thing, though. There's a project that you're gonna have to some project value going to download. So I have a beat that you're gonna see be mixing in the course download. Make sure you download that beat and follow the instructions. I'm gonna pretty much be walking you through step by step. Some things you can do to the beat and there's gonna be a contest actually see to see who mixes to beat the best. And I'm looking forward to hearing your results on that as well. Anyway, let's go ahead and jump right into the course. Thanks for watching piece.
2. Welcome to Module 2: be making basis. Welcome to Module two of this mixing course where we're gonna be talking about how to get the proper levels and e que all of your tracks. All right, so basically, without further and do, let's jump into the course information. If you have questions, ask again. This is all you know, a series of different modules. So make sure that you take each one step by step because all of the different modules are gonna build to give you a full understanding of how to mix your beats in logic protein. I'll see you in elections to come peace.
3. Leveling (part 1): be making basis. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Ah, the course here. What we're going to be doing in this lecture is going over how to get the proper levels, which attracts. That's really one of the first things that you want to be do doing is getting the proper levels. You want to balance things out, you know, saying, make sure that certain instruments aren't louder than they need to be, or certain instruments aren't softer than they need to be. All right, so this is how we're gonna do it now we have our art, our track here. What you want? The first thing you want to do is go ahead and select a loop, preferably over the ah course area. Okay. And you know that could Onley happen if you go in here and listen to the music, Okay. And so what you would want to do is you were going here, turn it down. So it's not blaring. Okay? But you just want to listen to the music all the way. Give it one good listing all the way through. Okay. By then, you'll kind of identify like, Okay, this is where the hook is whatever, whatever. And you can get them put a loop, you know, saying over a predominant area where most of the sounds are gonna be. Okay, so anyway, after you do that, what you're gonna want to do, Dean, is, um go ahead and bring everything down. Okay? Bring everything down to zero completely down to zero. And I said, I want to tell you something. One thing I learned is that the drums are the most important aspects of the mix, you know, especially in hip hop. You know, I'm saying the drums have to be knocking, so the first thing you want to do is mix those drums. So I'm gonna bring up the kick first, and then we're gonna bring in other instruments, and I kind of share with you what I'm looking for. Okay, so let's go ahead. And, Joe. Good. Dude, I'm a push play, and I bring this up. All right? So the first thing you want to do, um, also is go to your to your outputs one and two, and, um, go over here to meet a ring and then put a level meter on there. The reason why is because as you're mixing, you want your mixes to be under negative six db okay? Or hitting right at negative 60 b. So as I push this play on this, you don't want your kick to be going like too hot. That's that's gonna be too hot. You want to give head room? So when you, you know, goes to the actual mastering aspect of things, that's what you want to do. Now some tracks. Let's talk about mono and stereo. Some tracks are gonna be mono. Some tracks gonna be stereo. The tracks that will be stereo would say would be a lot of your maybe some of your melody instruments and stuff like that. And sometimes maybe your classes snares even the kit can be stereo set of times. But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and make this, um, mono for the kick. All right, Now, also thing to keep in mind when you're getting the proper levels is that you want that kick to be sitting just, you know, right above everything else, just slightly above everything else. So keep that in mind as you're bringing up these levels and you want the snare And, you know, the kicking a snare to really beast knocking. So, as you see, is really not going too much hired in negative 60 b Also, you don't want that snare to be overpowering the kick either. And as you here, you know, I tried the sound in two different ways. One in mono when a stereo and actually, these both sound better in stereo. Okay? And I'm it, Trust me, I understand. It is People have different philosophies on certain things. I'm just gonna show I'm just really show you how I do it. And I'm telling I get real solid mixes on it. It's all based on the sound, some some tracks. I'll put everything in mono on the drums, some tracks. I'll put everything in stereo is really just based on this on the sounds on this particular track. I'm to keep it in stereo, and I would recommend that you do the same. Now, the high hat we're gonna put in, um, mono, primarily because you want to be on a pan that left or right or whatever. Later on. Now, as you can see, I turned this down a little bit, primarily because I didn't want this to be competing with that kick again when the drums of the main, most important part you want to drums to knock so you don't want any of your other melody instruments or any of your other instruments to do to be competing, Really? The kick. The snare in the high hat should be kind of a little bit louder than everything else. Not so loud where it's noticeable but allowed enough where it's knocking and you feel that you feel the drums in your mix. So let's check it out. Let's keep him going. It it okay. And as you see, I'm moving two days around based on you know where certain Salazar. All right, So, um, that's the drums. Okay. And notice. I mean, once I feel like it was good I left it. I'm gonna go ahead and talk about this a little bit again that the kick drum is kind of knocking above everything else. If you just look at the volume level on the metering, the kick drum should be kind of coming in above everything else. And then most of your tracks should be going at negative 60 beat. If it goes over. That's cool. But mainly you want to get that dump with the kick drum. All right, In the next lecture, where we're gonna do is we're gonna continue to get the right levels. But this is where I'm actually gonna bring in the melody. Thanks for watching.
4. Leveling (part 2): be making basis. All right, so we got the right levels for the most part, with the drums, right? At least initially. Now what we're gonna do is go ahead and get the pride proper levels with the other instruments. Okay, Not a first stage we're gonna bring in is gonna be the base in the sub. So those low in sounds now I want to print bring something in in here are talk about this real quick. When it comes to your low in sounds, you don't want them to be competing with the kick. You want them to sit well with the kick. So what I usually do is I bring those in low low enough where you still hear the kick thumping through, but high enough where you could still hear them in the mix. So you see how this kind of low, but you could still hear it. I'm gonna bring this sub in here is going to give a little bit more. Um, you nobody to this. - And as you're bringing the sounds up, the things that you're paying your wanna pay attention to is making sure that you could steal here Clearly all the drum sounds you like again. The drums are the main part. When the troubles of mixing hip hop or even army or whatever the drums are promised, you are the main aspect of it. Because if the drums air getting faded away within the music, it's not your beats not gonna knock, and it's gonna sound whack. So that's why you want to make sure that those drums or most of the things that you focus on the most So I'm bringing this down some just to make sure that I could still hear the high out I had still here to snare coming in Pretty sought strongly. Still here, the kicks coming in strongly and all these other instruments as well. So All right, cool. So we got that lets card go ahead to start bringing in some of these other instruments. Okay. And just to make sure here, what we could do is you listen to it. Um, I want to listen to it like from the beginning, just to make sure it kind of makes sense thing. All right, As you can hear, the beat, us knocking is pretty dope. Um, and we pretty much have some pretty good levels at least to start off with. One thing I want you to keep in mind is that this is just an initial getting of the levels . You know, I'm saying because as you start doing other things like e queueing as you started doing other things like compression as you started doing other things like adding reverb and other things that nature, you're gonna have to adjust the levels based on that as well. It is this kind of the nature of the game here. But one thing I want to go ahead and also point out here is if you look here, you're going to see that. Um, it's kind of going about that Negative 60 b. I'm going to put a loop right here over the hook or the course and, um, show you something. So was going right here. Just a little bit above what you could do again. You remember our buses? All right, so check this out. Now, I could come over here and turn this down on the buses instead of having to come over here . Oops. 12345 You know, ask on. Be tedious. Is gonna mess up your levels. Comparably, if you just come out, we're here now. Everything is kind of sitting right under that negative 60 b again, you doing the negative 60 b to give some head room? Because when we do, the mastering are basically making the track louder at the end. You know, I'm saying you need that negative 60 db headroom. So to review here, when it comes to getting the right levels, you want to make sure that your you start with your drums first, start with the kick in the snare. Make sure the kick of the snare are working well together. That that's never snapping, but not too loud, too. Where is overwhelming? And that kick is thumping, meaning that you know where you could really hear it. But it's not so so loud. That is overwhelming everything. Then you want to bring in the high hats and order percussion aspects of things. You want to hear those kind of loud in the mix, but not so loud. Where is this knowing? Alright, bring in some other effects. You know, the risers, someone other cool effects. You have the background bringing that crash don't want that crash to be so low in the mix where you can barely hear it. But you want to be pronounced but not so loud, bringing the base or sub instruments enough where you can hear him. But they're not like too much competing with the kick and the snare and everything like that. Especially like if you have eight awaits, one of Hoddle's ate a waste. It is. It just takes a little bit to make that ate away, drowned out your home mix. So you want to make sure that you don't pump those things too high. Same thing with subs. Basis things of that nature, and there's keep on bringing in these other instruments accordingly, all right, but you want your drums basically to sit above your mix over all the rest of the instruments. And if you could use also these the's group tracks or store auxiliary tracks to help you with that, all right, so thanks for watching in the next lectures to come. We're gonna be continuing Teoh build upon this mix
5. Equalization: be making basis. All right. You also in this lecture, we're gonna talk about e queuing. Okay? Really? What you're hewing is and why it's important. How is gonna affect your track. Okay, now all queuing stands for his equalization. Okay? When When it comes to eat queuing. What that means is you're going to equalize or balance out the various frequencies of different instruments. So if you look right here, different instruments sit at different frequencies within the frequency range. Okay. And humans here from anywhere from 20 k our 2020 hertz, which is the super low in Basie sounds all the way to 20,000 you know? Okay. Okay. Hurts. Okay, so these are super high end sounds. All right? Are high pitched sounds and this is the human hearing range. Okay, So different instruments sit on the frequency range, okay? And so when it comes to be queuing, what you're gonna be doing is balancing out those frequencies. So just like we balanced out the actual levels or dynamic levels, the decibels Okay, the loudness. We're also going to balance out the frequencies because, you know, saying, say, if you have, you know, some low in sounds like your subs, your bases, and then you have your kick. Those frequencies can kind of 10 to clash or collide together. And so there's certain techniques that you could You do when it comes to equalization to make sure they work well together. Same thing with some of these other instruments. Um, okay, depending on how you balance out the frequencies means that they'll work better. Okay, Some of the uses of e queuing we're gonna be to make certain instruments a little bit more clear. Okay, in the mix. All right. So there might be certain might have the proper levels, but that my see still some instruments that are hiding in the mix, and you're used queuing to to basically Brighton those up or make those stand out. All right, Now, there's two different types of e cueing. The first type is additive what they call additive, which is where you're going to add, uh, you know, frequencies. Okay. Or boost the frequencies. All right. And in the second, which is actually the most prevalent way to seek you is going to be exciting, called some attractive. Okay. And this is where you're gonna take away certain frequencies. Okay, You hear about people doing low pass filters, high pass filters and different things like that is where to? Taking away certain frequencies, maybe certain low in or high end frequency used to create. Ah, certain a factor Sound. Okay, um, and I'm gonna tell you right now that a lot of things that are done in, um, mixing goes by this rule, which is less is more, which means that you're not necessarily adding the whole lot. Sometimes you're taking away. So I wanted to basically explain frequencies how they worked and what they are and e queuing in this lecture so that when we actually get into the actually e que in of everything, you kind of understand where I'm coming from again. Different instruments have different frequencies, so you have, like, kick in yourselves and your eight awaits and even some lower in, um, you know, saying melody instruments will be sitting, like maybe 500 hurts in below, and then you have some mid range frequencies, you know, saying some of your snares. Okay, you see definitively snares, or you're gonna hit right here. Some of your lead instruments are gonna hit right here. Some of your you know, since instruments going to hit right here, maybe 500 hertz, maybe two K. Okay. And then you're gonna have high hats, which is probably going to sit around like that five K room, your high hats, your percussions. You know, I'm saying crashes, different things of that nature. Even some of your pads might sit round like two K did five K. But the main thing is not necessarily all about memorizing. Okay, if I boost it right here at this frequency, whatever is all about what you hear and, you know, saying using your ears to make that judgment call which your mix and we're gonna get into that in the lectures to come. Thanks for watching.
6. Subtractive Eq (part 1): be making basis. All right, So what we're gonna do now is start on the e queuing of the drums. Now, we already talked about different frequencies and everything. The main thing that I want to drive home in this lecture is that we're gonna be using subtracted e que image work. Meaning we're going to take it away frequencies. Um, basically, that could be conflicting with other frequencies. And I'm gonna show you what I mean here. So, for instance, with this kick drum, right? All right. Um, most of the frequencies, the kicks runs main frequencies will be coming in around here on the lower end of the spectrum. So what we need to do is cut some of the higher in respect of the frequencies right here that are gonna be bleeding through the track and into other instruments. Okay, Because we don't need those those Ah, those high end frequencies. There's gonna be muddling up the track so that what we would do is, of course, we will listen to this. So I'm gonna go ahead and push play so we can listen to this right? I have I should have everything sold out here. Yeah, drums. All right. And then you click Slick. Select this right here. And then you're gonna come down here to the top value and pull it down. You could just it like this to get it Exactly how you want it. Um, but we just kind of cut some of these higher frequencies out of the mix here. So you know what? This is going to do a straight room, say, for instance, you have, like, a high hat, you know, Saying is going to be up here. You don't want these? Ah, silent frequencies coming. Do because it's gonna, you know, basically bleed through to your track. So that's one of things that you will want to do when you're creating, when you're mixing your beats and then you is keep on going down the list. So, for instance, for this snare, this is a snare right select analyzer. And if we read of reason, you're like, Okay, how do I add a re? You know, Aneke, you again. You just go to your audio fax and scroll down to e que channel e que stereo bone. That's how you do it. But basically like, for instance, with snare you're going to see most of the frequencies coming through here. So what I would do is cut some of the low frequencies out so it gives more room for, like, the kick in some other low instruments. So let's let's listen.
7. Subtractive Eq (part 2): be making basis. All right, so in this lecture, basically where we're gonna be doing is continuing in on e queuing these drums basically What? I'm gonna be doing this. You going here with Isa Attractive e queuing. You should have the tracks already pulled up and I want you to pity must be doing the same thing as we're going. So after the lecture, go through and do the same thing that I'm doing. So what I'm doing is I'm coming over here to the ah, you know, audio effects section here, pulling up the queuing parameters, and I'm gonna select analyzer and we're gonna listen in to the track. We're also going to visually, you see that the ah particular instruments you're looking at you're going to see where, where, where we're at with in the spectrum, the the dominant part of the mute make frequencies air coming through and cut some of those other frequencies. So, for instance, with this high hat cut, like probably from one k down. Okay, maybe two k, because what's happening? Like again? You know, there's some frequencies in here, even though you don't necessary here. Them they're gonna be competing with some of the other frequencies, so we can't want to cut those. Oh, are subtracted Are so track does. This is the ah effects channel. All this is doing is pretty much is cleaning it up. Move this. Ah, loop right here. So we can catch that riser. And last is the crash. Now, if you listen closely, you kind of hear that things are a little bit, I mean, just a little bit more clear. And that's just but primarily because we cut those other frequencies, that would be, you know, competing with different instruments. So let's lists. All right. And, ladies and gentlemen, that is the first step of the queuing process. Okay, of course, there's gonna be other steps where we might boost certain frequencies and everything. But in the next lecture, where we're gonna be doing is doing the same thing with the actual, um, base and in and the melody. Okay,
8. Subtractive Eq (part 3): be making basis. All right, ladies and gentlemen, basis of what we're going to be doing is continuing the process of, you know, subtracting some of those negative frequencies. Okay, we're gonna work with the base, and then we're gonna work with the melody instruments. All right, So I'm gonna pull head and pull on the bass O r unclipped the base, and it's really the same process. Now, one thing you want to keep in mind is this. That's when you're really going to use it. Years. If you cut too much of the frequencies and, you know, maybe some of the high end frequencies that that needed to give that that instrument some off. You don't want to cut all of those frequencies. Just just tell off some of them, you know, mean same thing with this sub and keep on going down the list. All right, So what we're gonna do now is this. Undo the melody and less like start working on that. Now, see, on this instrument, we want to kind of still keep some of that low in. So still, taking it, like all the way in like this might want to tell it off like this. So it kind of has a graduate. Gradual. Tell off on that. Okay, Same thing over here. Okay. - Okay . And one key tip I want to really drive home on here is not to just Onley look at, um look at your meters, okay? Or look at this particular frequency race spectrum right here. Pay attention to the actual sound you're mixing with your ears. That's the only thing I really want to drive home on. This is You want to mix with your ears? Yes, we're Look, using this as a gauge, but mixed with your ears. So if you're taking out to many of the lows, too many of the highs pull that back. Some now for these bales is pretty much gonna be around the same thing. So what you could do is a quick tip is go to copy right here. And then when you come over here to this, this e que you could just push paste and is gonna automatically come up all right? And so pretty much right here. We were pretty much done with the preliminary subtracted e chewing process. And another thing, when it comes to be queuing or anything that should do into your track Additional. Want to go ahead and balance everything out? OK, so for instance, if you eat, cure certain track are certain instrument You wanna just sometimes you might just the volume level of that track. So that's one of things you want to listen for as you're mixing the track. Okay. All right. So in the next lecture, what we're gonna do is go over something called Additive E queuing. That's where we're going to be boosting Sirkin frequencies primarily. So that you can kind of hear the instruments better in the track. Okay. Thanks for watching.
9. Eqing Tips: be making basis. All right. Also in this lecture, I wanted to give you some quick e queuing tips. Okay, Now, so, so far, we've been doing some attractive e queuing on The thing I really wanted to drive home here is that you want to only put the e que on if it the track needs it off. The particular particular tracker instrument track needs the e Q and some of these instrument tracks, they don't need it. And so you don't have to, you know, take anything away or boost anything more. So, Lord of likely most of these will lead Need ELISA Little talks just to sweeten it up. But don't feel that you have to always do something to the track. This goes with adding, you know, really doesn't just apply. The queuing applies to everything. Onley do something when it is necessary when you feel it's necessary. So, for instance, if the kick or Francis a say a certain instruments not, you know, really coming through in the mix, then that's when you might go ahead and boost a certain frequency certain level of highs or mids Teoh, you know, make it come to now Let's go ahead and go to an example of that. I'm gonna go ahead and push play and listen to the track, and we're gonna see if there's anything that's kind of tucked away that could be brightened up O r anything We're going to some additive e queuing, but you're going to see I'm not gonna be doing It's every single instrument. Let's just check it out. So everything's pretty fine of being, But this instrument right here, I really kind of feel like you could come up, you know, be brightened up a little bit, kind of separated from everything else. So what I'm gonna do here is clicking here and I'm gonna eat you it. Why, Mom, listen to the rest of track because that's what you wouldn't want to do is make sure that is balancing out with everything else. Now you might ask, Well, why did you boost those frequencies compared to some frequencies over here to the far right or the far left? Well, I abused really more some of some of those mid for a three Chrissy's because if you listen to some of the other instrument sounds, you have a lot of high is going on over here. So you don't wanna ADM or highs to those of the frequencies. Also, you want to give room to that to that base in some of those lower in instruments to kind of shine through. So I don't want to boost those frequencies. So Bill boosted some frequencies in the mid. The high range is going to be better than, you know, super high range. So, like, five K to 20 k you want to boost those as much? Now, this one right here, this track, you can't really hear it that willing in the mix as well, not just listen to it again altogether. See how it's kind of, you know, hidden in there. Um, So what we could do is we could play around with some of those frequencies. - All right, so now let's go over here to the snare. I feel like the snare calves could have a little bit more crackle in it. So what would we do? I feel like some of those myths could be boosted some so I can come over here, see how that kind of boosted that made that that snare pop out. It was a little bit letme or let's kind of listen to that snare again. I'm gonna turn the eq you off and listen to it. We'll see how How much has improved it now for me? Personally, I found that less is more as you notice. I'm not really doing extreme boost on it. I found it. Sometimes it can actually mess up the mix rather than help it. So keep that in mind as you're mixing Onda also keeping in mind that a lot of times it does take hours of listening to your music. Or maybe even this releasing these 30 minutes to an hour, you know, mess around with the different, um, you know, features here, but for teaching purposes, I just wanted to kind of give you an overview off why you would boost certain frequencies and why you would cut others and the whole aspect of, um, on Lee, you know, saying, adding, or cutting away from a frequency if it is actually needs it. And you can tell by how the instrument sounds compared to others. If it's tucked away in the mix, etcetera. Thanks for watching. Let's go ahead and go to the next lecture. I'll see you on the other side
Joseph Evans, Make Better Music Now: Follow Me
