Sometimes when mixing a song, some tracks need much more help than you can get just from EQ, compression and reverb. In this post I go through some that I find incredibly useful, and frequently use.
Sonarworks Reference
Let’s face it, a lot of us have to mix in acoustically untreated rooms. Many also have to mix quietly, whether at home late at night or out travelling. This very often means that our ears are often fooled by room nodes, reflections, or in the case of headphones – a hyped or uneven frequency response. This causes us to make wrong decisions, as we cannot hear properly.
Room treatment doesn’t have to be expensive, but doing it may not be an option for everybody, depending on the situation.
This is why the Sonarworks headphone plugin is a life saver.
For those not already in the know, in a nutshell what it does is flattening out the frequency response of your particular type of headphone, allowing you to really hear what’s actually going on in the mix. It comes with hundreds of profiles for pretty much every known brand/type of headphones out there.
This means you can make better EQ decisions in particular.
You can also buy headphones direct from Sonarworks including a perfectly calibrated profile for that actual pair.
I have been using Reference since November 2017, and I can honestly say it really works. And if you’re mixing in an untreated room, it really is a no-brainer for that price (99 Euros currently).
A couple of things you should remember if you get it though…
It’s vital that you just don’t jump straight in and start mixing with it on.
Load up some reference tracks in your DAW first and spend a few hours just listening with it on, and get used to the sound. It will sound a bit dull, and most often a lot less bright than you’re used to.
After you’ve done that and you start mixing through it, you should start to notice a dramatic improvement in the overall balance of your mixes. I sure did.
Also, you should still use it in combination of your speakers. Getting the levels and to some degree panning can be tricky to get right on headphones, due to the extreme stereo spread that headphones by nature have.
A recommendation here is to check levels with your speakers at very low volumes, and you should be fine. After that, your usual mix checks obviously (car, hifi, laptops, phones and stuff like that).
I wholeheartedly recommend this plugin.
Link to website (affiliate link):
https://sonorworksus.refersion.com/c/0f7237
SoundRadix Auto-Align
A huge source of frustration for many of us who do mixing is when you have sources with more than one microphone recording them, or in the case of guitars and basses a mic and a DI track. What always will happen is timing and phase issues. The worst culprit obviously being a multi-miced drum kit.
For sorting out issues like that, the SoundRadix Auto-Align plugin is a fantastic time saver and can really help you not go mental and pull your hair out. A nice bonus is it can automatically BOTH timing and phase/polarity.
So how does it work?
Trying to explain it fairly simple, you first set one track as the master track (or reference might be a better word) that the remaining tracks are aligned to. Set that as a send, and on the other tracks set the receive channel to same number as the send on the master/reference track. Play back each track seperately and you get a visual on when it’s done processing.
I’ve got a video where you can see how I prefer to do it here:
Excuse the accent 😉
There are several other video tutorials on the plugin to be found on YouTube that are very good.
One thing to be aware of: on a drum kit, bottom heads on drums already aligned to, say, the overheads, must be aligned to top head of that drum.
A normal example is the snare. On the snare, which has been aligned to the overheads on receive channel 1, you must create a send on channel 2 on the plug in on the snare top track (again…receive on channel 1, send on 2). Plugin on snare bottom track set to receive on channel 2. That way you don’t end up with the top and bottom snare mics with the same polarity.
Maybe not a plugin that you absolutely have to have, but personally I’ve found it very useful.
https://www.soundradix.com/products/auto-align/
Melodyne Editor/Studio
An obvious one you’d say, and you’d be right. But for a very good reason.
In my opinion it’s a must have plugin for everyone who does mix work for other people (often known as clients). Unless you’re Glenn Fricker though, but let’s not go further with that one. 😉
Along with Antares AutoTune it’s known for being capable of transparent vocal tuning (as well as really obvious tuning), but Melodyne is capable of soooo much more than just tuning pitch on a vocal.
And if you have a DAW that has the ARA extension, some of the functions are ridiculously easy to use, just by right clicking on your mouse. Now that’s a time saver!
A few really useful features off the top of my head is:
-
audio to midi conversion, fantastic for triggering VSTis and drum samples
-
transparent editing of note length and timing
-
creating believable harmonies (not just on vocals!)
-
formant tuning
-
volume automation
A cool little trick I actually have done with it is take a DI’d guitar track and remove bum notes (accidental extra strings and such) and then reamp it, ending up with a perfect guitar solo.
Btw, essential tip: ALWAYS record a DI of every guitar track in addition to the miced up amp. Seriously.
Melodyne isn’t cheap, but it frequently is a life saver in the studio.
And, happy clients means more work. 🙂
https://shop.celemony.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CelemonyShop
TDR NOVA
Every now and then you’ll have a track in a mix that will cause you a bit of trouble with some frequencies poking out at certain times in a mix, not necessarily throughout the whole track. Traditional eq techniques might get you close to solving it, but not entirely. At least not without sacrificing something.
A common problem is certain vocal tracks, especially when the singer starts belting a bit. Sometimes I’ve come across singers who basically have 2 different voices, depending on whether they’re singing loud or soft. Eqing that can be a challenge and a half. Some guitar and drum tracks can be a quite frustrating as well.
In those cases, a dynamic equalizer can be incredibly useful. The NOVA by Tokyo Dawn is a very good dynamic eq, and best of all – it’s free!
In many ways it works like a multiband compressor in the way that it compresses a frequency range when it crosses a certain threshold, but the great thing about dynamic eqs is they can be a lot more precise in targeting specific frequencies. You can set a much narrower band, which again can help your processing be a lot more transparent. Another added benefit is you don’t have any crossover points like you do with most multiband compressors.
When set right, frequencies will be knocked down only when they get unruly, which you just can’t do with a traditional equalizer.
Here’s a good video on how to use it:
Try it out!
https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/
Eiosis e2 Deesser
Sibilance. The curse we all have to deal with it. On some singers worse than others, and often exaggerated if coupled with certain microphones – very often the cheaper condensers who tend to be painfully bright.
Deessing is probably the thing I personally have struggled the most with for years. And to be honest, some of the deessing plugins can be complicated or just a pain to set up right.
For me the Eiosis e2 has been absolutety brilliant. Completely idiot proof, sounds great, and it’s incredibly easy getting good results quick. You can often get where you need just by tweaking the intensity and amount knobs, and it has extra controls and modes if you need to get really surgical with it.
Tip: works great on multiple things other than vocals as well. Cymbals, acoustic guitars and a whole bunch of other stuff.
You can get it either through the Slate Everything Bundle, which I use, or buy it separately directly from Eiosis.
https://www.eiosis.com/e2deesser
Highly recommended!
—
Hope you found this helpful!
Please note: Auto-Align, Melodyne Editor/Studio and Eiosis e2 all require an iLok. I know this can be an issue for some people out there. Just a little heads up. 😉
– Kenneth